James Milton Hall

A 22 year old farmer and teacher in Putnam County, he mustered as Private, Company I, 27th Indiana Infantry on 12 September 1861.

He was wounded by gunshot that entered his chest, "carried away the inner half of the head of his humerus," and exited through his right shoulder in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was treated at the City Hotel hospital in Fredrick, MD, where 3" of his humerus (upper arm bone) was removed on 4 October by Acting Assistant Surgeon J.H. [James Henry] Peabody. He was discharged for wounds there on 17 December 1862.

He lived in Iowa for about ten years, then moved to Nelson, Nebraska in 1873, where he lived and worked the ret of his life. In September 1873 a pension examiner noted that his "use of [the shoulder] joint entirely lost" and he had "no ability to raise arm." He was a teacher, farmer, and justice of the peace in Nelson and was elected County Judge in 1905 and served two terms. He was active in his local Grand Army of the Republic Post (#15, George H. Thomas), and was Post Commander. He died after a fall down his basement stairs at age 84.

His service from Brown1 and the Historical Data Systems database. Wound and hospital details from the Patient List 2 and the MSHWR.3 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1870-1920. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of details from his obituary in the Nelson Gazette of 22 February 1923.

He married Nancy J. Ellis (1840-1874) in August 1864 and they had 2 children; both died young. He married again, Mary Josephine Atkisson (1851-1914) in August 1878 and they had 4 more (all long-lived).

Details of his surgery and a photograph of the upper part of his humerus, from the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, is in Otis' Photographs of Surgical Cases and Specimens (Vol. 3, 1865), online from the Internet Archive.

08/25/1839; Putnamville, IN

02/20/1923; Nelson, NE; burial in Nelson Cemetery, Nelson, NE