James J. Higginson

James Jackson Higginson (June 19, 1836 – November 11, 1911) was an American stockbroker and soldier who was imprisoned at Libby Prison for nine months during the Civil War.

Early life Higginson was born in New York City on June 19, 1836.

His maternal grandparents were Henry Lee and Mary ( Jackson) Lee. His paternal grandparents were George Higginson and Martha Hubbard ( Babcock) Higginson. He was also a cousin of historian Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

He served as a vice president and a director of the Nome-Montana-New Mexico Mining Company, a trustee of the Greenwich Savings Bank, and a director of the Atchinson and Eastern Bridge Company. He was also a founding trustees of the Metropolitan Trust Company in 1881.

Military service During the U.S. Civil War, he entered service for the Union Army as a Second Lieutenant of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry Regiment. He was imprisoned at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia for nine months. A month after his release, he was brevetted a Major of Volunteers on April 9, 1863, but resigned his commission about a month later. Elizabeth Bethune Higginson (1875–1974), who married Charles Cabot Jackson in 1909. James Jackson Higginson Jr. (1884–1930), who married Virginia Lucy Mitchell, a daughter of Clarence B. Mitchell, in 1919. Thomas Lee Higginson (1887–1906), who died young.