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Federal (USV)

Captain

James Putnam Kimball

(1836 - 1913)

Home State: New York

Education: Georg-August-Universität (Gottingen), Class of 1857

Command Billet: AAG

Branch of Service: Staff

Unit: 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Corps

Before Antietam

He had been a student at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard (1854), then the University of Frederick Wilhelm in Berlin, finally graduating in 1857 from the University of George Augusta, Gottingen, with Masters and Ph.D degrees in mining and metallurgy. He was then was on geological surveys in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. By about 1861 he was a professor at the New York State Agricultural College at Ovid (merged with Cornell), where Marsena Patrick was President. After the outbreak of War, he took a commission as Captain and Adjutant General (AAG) on General Patrick's staff to date from 14 April 1862.

On the Campaign

He was on General Patrick's staff as acting Adjutant General (AAG) on the Maryland Campaign. He was later honored by brevet for action there.

The rest of the War

He continued as AAG until he resigned for reasons of ill-health on 9 December 1863. He was brevetted Major on 23 March 1865 for his actions at Gainesville, Groveton, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg.

After the War

He continued his career as mining engineer and metallurgist, based in New York City. He was President of the Everett Iron Company in the 1880s. He was appointed Director of the United States Mint in July 1885 and served to October 1889. In about 1902 he relocated to Red Lodge, Montana where he had helped develop coal fields.

References & notes

Service information from Heitman1. Life details from a sketch in Evans' Illustrated History of the United States Mint (1892). His gravesite is on Findagrave. He is sometimes confused with the US Army Surgeon of similar name - James Peleg (later Patterson) Kimball (1840-1902).

More on the Web

His doctoral thesis (1857) is online from Google Books.

Birth

04/26/1836; Salem, MA

Death

10/23/1913; Cody, WY; burial in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA

Notes

1   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 598  [AotW citation 14684]