James C. and Gertrude (Meredith) Biddle Family Correspondence

James Cornell Biddle, Jr. (1835-1898), was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of lawyer James Cornell Biddle, Sr., and Sarah Caldwell Keppele Biddle. James, Jr., entered the Faires Classical Institute in 1845 and then graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1853 with a career in civil engineering. Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, he enlisted in the 17th Pennsylvania Volunteers for three-months service. Upon his discharge, James was appointed First Lieutenant in the 27th Pennsylvania Infantry, assigned to General Thomas Williams’ staff. In this role, he was assigned to Fort Hatteras, and by late 1862, he had received promotion to Major and was involved in the first Federal attacks by Admiral David Farragut on Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he was captured for a short period and exchanged.

By September of 1862, James was an aide to General James B. Ricketts’ division. In May 1863, he was assigned as an aide-de-camp to General George G. Meade and would remain on his staff through the end of the war, participating in all the subsequent major campaigns till 1865. On August 1, 1864, he was brevetted Lieutenant Colonel and on April 9, 1865, brevetted Colonel for continuous service with Meade and the Army of the Potomac.

On December 27, 1862, James married his long-time fiancee and cousin Gertrude Gouvernuer Meredith (1839-1905), and they had two daughters Catherine Meredith Biddle (1865-1931) and Sarah Caldwell Biddle (1866-1930). She was the daughter of William M. Meredith, a prominent Philadelphia lawyer who served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Zachary Taylor and later as Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 1861-1867. Her mother Catherine Keppele was the sister of Sarah Caldwell Keppele Biddle. From her letters, Gertrude lives a generally comfortable, upper-class lifestyle that would be expected of someone from her social class. A large portion of the correspondence during the summer of 1862 is written from Atlantic City, New Jersey; this was likely a summer retreat away from the heat and diseases in urban Philadelphia. Gertrude is extremely well informed about the progress of the war, and often shares information she learns from larger newspapers with James. She has a sister Catherine Meredith, who sent her letters from Trenton, New Jersey.

External sources:

“From Yesterday’s Evening Edition,” The Daily Delta (New Orleans, LA), August 22, 1862, p. 1.

Charles J. Cohen, Memoir of Rev. John Wiley Faires, A. M., D. D., Founder and Principal of the Classical Institute, Philadelphia (Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1926). pp. 83-85.

"Col James Cornell Biddle Jr.", Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42348756/james_cornell-biddle, accessed May 28, 2026.

Finding aid for the Meredith Family Papers (Collection 1509), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaid1509meredith.pdf, accessed May 28, 2026.