Hiram France

A 24 year old laborer and shoemaker's son in Blairstown, NJ, he mustered into service as Private, Company C, 5th Pennsylvania Reserves on 21 June 1861. He was wounded in the right hand by buckshot at Mechanicsville, VA on 24 June 1862 and by a gunshot through the same hand at Malvern Hill on 1 July. He was treated in hospitals in Harlem and Hampton Roads before returning to duty at Centreville, VA on 30 August 1862.

He was wounded by gunshot to the right arm in action at Turner's Gap on South Mountain, MD, on 14 September 1862.

He was treated at a field hospital near the battlefield and his arm was amputated at the shoulder. He was admitted to a US Army hospital in Frederick, MD on 18 September 1862 - and later said he met and spoke with Abraham Lincoln there when the President visited Frederick in October. He was discharged for wounds on 12 November 1862.

He was a laborer and farmer in Warren County, NJ, as well as longtime Hardwick Township Justice of the Peace, a County pension officer, town committeeman (Chairman from about 1903 to at least 1911), and on the Board of Education. He began to receive a federal veteran's pension in 1903 and it passed to his wife on his death in 1918 at age 81.

His service from Bates1 and Sypher.2 Maryland wound and hospital details from the Patient List.3 Personal details from Documents and The Journal of the New Jersey Legislature and from family genealogists. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Catherine "Kate" Acelia Rutan (1854-1891) in 1871 and they had 4 children.

07/09/1836; Warren County, NJ

07/01/1918; Hardwick Center (Township), NJ; burial in Cedar Ridge Cemetery, Blairstown, NJ