Henry Seymour Hall

Wounded, He Fought On—Then Lost His Right Arm

Henry Seymour Hall, also recorded as Hiram Seymour Hall, was born on September 26, 1835, in Barkersville, Saratoga County, New York. He grew up in a farming family and pursued an education at Genesee College, an institution later connected with the development of Syracuse University. By the spring of 1861, Hall was approaching the end of his college studies when the outbreak of the American Civil War changed the course of his life.

Rather than remain at college while the nation entered war, Hall helped organize a company of fellow students and volunteers. The group became Company G of the 27th New York Infantry. Hall initially entered the regiment as an enlisted volunteer but was quickly commissioned as an officer, beginning a military career that would eventually carry him from junior company leadership to the brevet rank of Brigadier General of U.S. Volunteers.

The 27th New York joined the Army of the Potomac and participated in the early campaigns in Virginia. Hall experienced the realities of Civil War campaigning while still a young officer: exhausting marches, disease, unreliable supplies, long periods in camp, and sudden transitions into violent combat.

By 1862, the regiment was participating in Major General George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign against Richmond. Union forces advanced up the Virginia Peninsula in an attempt to capture the Confederate capital, but the campaign ultimately brought them into a series of increasingly severe battles.

One of the most important came at Gaines' Mill on June 27, 1862.

The battle formed part of the Seven Days Battles, during which General Robert E. Lee launched repeated attacks against McClellan's Army of the Potomac. At Gaines' Mill, Confederate forces mounted powerful assaults against Union defensive positions north of the Chickahominy River.

Hall entered the fighting with Company G of the 27th New York Infantry. His official Medal of Honor record identifies him as a Second Lieutenant during this action.

During the battle, Hall was wounded.

For many officers, a wound severe enough to justify leaving the line would have meant immediate evacuation to the rear.

Hall remained.

Despite being injured, he continued performing his duty and stayed with his company during the fighting.

That decision became the first of two separate acts later recognized by a single Medal of Honor.

His official citation emphasized precisely this point: although wounded at Gaines' Mill, Hall remained on duty and continued participating in the battle with his company.

The significance of that action lies in the responsibilities of a Civil War officer. A company relied heavily upon its commissioned leaders to maintain formation, communicate orders, encourage soldiers under fire, and prevent confusion from turning into panic.

When officers were wounded or killed, the loss could affect dozens of men around them.

Hall's decision to remain therefore represented more than personal endurance. By continuing his duty after being wounded, he preserved leadership within the company while one of the most intense battles of the Peninsula Campaign unfolded around it.

Hall survived Gaines' Mill and continued serving with the 27th New York.

As his experience grew, so did his responsibilities. He later served as a Captain and participated in additional campaigning with the Army of the Potomac, including actions associated with the Maryland Campaign and subsequent operations in Virginia.

The regiment fought at Crampton's Gap during the approach to Antietam and then participated in the Battle of Antietam itself on September 17, 1862.

Antietam became the bloodiest single day of combat in American history. For Hall and the other survivors of the 27th New York, it added another brutal chapter to a war that had already demonstrated how destructive it would become.

The regiment subsequently participated in the Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville campaigns before reaching the end of its original period of service.

On May 31, 1863, Hall's service with the 27th New York concluded when the regiment's term expired.

His absence from military service was brief.

Only weeks later, on June 16, 1863, Hall returned to the Army as a Captain in Company F of the 121st New York Infantry.

The 121st New York had already developed into a respected combat regiment in the Army of the Potomac's VI Corps. Hall joined it during a period in which Union and Confederate armies were preparing for another intense year of operations.

His second Medal of Honor action occurred on November 7, 1863, at Rappahannock Station, Virginia.

The Confederate army had established a fortified bridgehead on the north side of the Rappahannock River. The position included earthworks and defensive lines intended to protect the crossing and allow Confederate troops to operate on both sides of the river.

Union commanders decided to attack.

The assault became one of the more dramatic Union successes of the late 1863 campaign. Federal infantry advanced against the Confederate works and broke into the position in close combat.

Hall was serving as an acting aide during the engagement.

Once Union soldiers entered the Confederate defenses, formations became disorganized amid the confusion of the assault. Units that had crossed defensive works and fought at close range needed to be reorganized quickly if the attack was to remain effective.

Hall moved into the captured enemy works and helped reform the Union regiments.

His Medal of Honor citation later praised the gallant and prompt assistance he provided in reorganizing the troops inside the Confederate position.

This second action demonstrated a different kind of battlefield courage from Gaines' Mill.

At Gaines' Mill, Hall had been wounded but refused to leave his company.

At Rappahannock Station, he entered the confusion of captured enemy defenses and helped restore order among attacking Union regiments.

The two actions occurred more than a year apart and under very different circumstances, yet both reflected the same characteristic: Hall continued providing leadership when the battlefield situation was at its most dangerous and uncertain.

His military career continued to expand beyond the two actions later recognized by the Medal of Honor.

In 1864, Hall accepted a commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the 43rd United States Colored Troops.

The move placed him in a very different military organization.

United States Colored Troops regiments were composed primarily of African American enlisted soldiers commanded by commissioned officers. Black soldiers served while facing not only the dangers of ordinary combat but also racism, unequal treatment, and the possibility of particularly severe consequences if captured by Confederate forces.

Hall became one of the officers responsible for training and leading these men in active combat.

The 43rd U.S. Colored Troops entered the brutal operations around Petersburg, Virginia, where Union forces attempted to break through the Confederate defenses protecting the city and Richmond.

On July 30, 1864, Hall and the 43rd USCT participated in the Battle of the Crater.

The battle began after Union troops detonated a massive mine beneath the Confederate line. The explosion destroyed part of the defensive position and created a huge crater, but the Union assault that followed became badly disorganized.

United States Colored Troops were eventually sent into the fighting after the initial assault had already deteriorated.

The situation became catastrophic.

Confederate forces recovered from the surprise and poured fire into Union troops trapped in and around the crater. Fighting became extraordinarily violent, and Black soldiers were exposed to particularly severe danger.

Hall led his men into this environment.

During the battle, he was severely wounded.

This time the injury permanently changed his life.

Hall lost his right arm.

The wound might easily have ended his military career, but his connection to the Army did not end.

While recovering, Hall served for a period as a mustering officer in Washington. Despite the loss of his arm, he eventually returned to the 43rd U.S. Colored Troops.

By April 1865, he was again associated with his regiment as Union forces occupied Richmond after the collapse of Confederate defenses around Petersburg.

The war in Virginia was almost over.

Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, but Hall's service continued after the principal Confederate armies had been defeated.

The 43rd USCT was later sent to Texas as part of the Federal military presence there.

Hall served with the regiment in the Brownsville area and later performed duty at Galveston.

His continued service demonstrated the extraordinary length of his military commitment. He had entered the war as a young college student in 1861, been wounded at Gaines' Mill, fought through additional campaigns, distinguished himself at Rappahannock Station, taken command responsibilities in a United States Colored Troops regiment, lost his right arm at the Crater, and still returned to duty before finally leaving the Army.

Hall was mustered out on February 13, 1866.

His highest recognized wartime status included brevet advancement to Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General of U.S. Volunteers for gallant and meritorious wartime service.

The distinction between substantive and brevet rank is important. Hall's Medal of Honor actions occurred while serving in the junior officer ranks recorded in his citation, but his overall military career ultimately earned recognition at the brevet Brigadier General level.

Formal recognition of the two actions at Gaines' Mill and Rappahannock Station came many years after the Civil War.

The Medal of Honor had been authorized for the United States Army during the war in 1862. At that time, the United States did not possess the extensive hierarchy of valor decorations familiar from later conflicts.

For Civil War soldiers, the Medal of Honor became the principal national decoration used to recognize extraordinary military conduct.

Many recipients were honored during or shortly after the war, while others had their actions formally reviewed decades later.

Hall belonged to this later group.

On August 17, 1891, Henry Seymour Hall was formally presented with the Medal of Honor.

The decoration recognized both of his documented heroic actions.

The first occurred at Gaines' Mill on June 27, 1862, when he remained on duty and continued fighting with his company despite being wounded.

The second occurred at Rappahannock Station on November 7, 1863, when, while acting as aide, he provided gallant and rapid assistance in reforming Union regiments inside the captured Confederate works.

These were not two separate Medals of Honor.

One Medal of Honor recognized both actions.

For the historical database, his verified decoration is represented as Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1891.

The 1891 date represents the year of formal presentation.

The actions themselves remained firmly rooted in 1862 and 1863.

Hall received one Medal of Honor, and no additional star, clasp, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified with the decoration.

His final verified medal record is therefore Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1891 — no device or clasp.

Hall's postwar life carried him west.

After briefly returning to New York, he eventually settled on a farm in Missouri and became involved in local civic and political affairs. Like many former Union officers, his wartime leadership experience became part of a broader postwar life in developing western communities.

He later lived in Nebraska before moving to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1888.

Lawrence became his final permanent home.

By then Hall had spent more than two decades adapting to life with the permanent physical consequences of the wound he had received at the Crater. The loss of his right arm remained a visible reminder of the war, but it did not prevent him from participating in family, civic, and veterans' life.

He married Augusta J. Galentine, and the couple raised a family during the postwar years.

Hall also remained connected to the military history of the Civil War. Veterans increasingly published accounts, attended reunions, joined military societies, and recorded their experiences for younger generations.

For Hall, those memories included some of the Army of the Potomac's most difficult moments.

He remembered Gaines' Mill not simply as a famous battle, but as the place where he was wounded and stayed with his company.

He remembered Rappahannock Station as the place where he moved into captured Confederate defenses and helped restore order among victorious but disorganized Union troops.

He remembered the Crater as the battlefield where he lost his right arm while leading African American soldiers through one of the war's most chaotic and brutal engagements.

His military life therefore cannot be reduced to only the two sentences of his Medal of Honor citation.

Those sentences were the formal basis of the award, but behind them stood nearly five years of service, repeated combat, leadership in multiple regiments, severe wounds, and continued duty after permanent disability.

Henry Seymour Hall died on July 1, 1908, at the age of seventy-two.

He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence, Kansas.

By the time of his death, forty-three years had passed since the Civil War ended.

The young college student who had organized fellow volunteers in 1861 had lived long enough to become one of the aging veterans through whom later generations could still encounter the war directly.

His final verified decoration remained Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army — 1891 — no device or clasp.

Hall's military story ultimately forms a remarkable progression of endurance.

At Gaines' Mill, he was wounded and stayed in the fight.

At Rappahannock Station, he entered the enemy works and helped reorganize the attacking troops.

At Petersburg, he was wounded so severely that he lost his right arm.

And even that did not immediately end his military service.

Nearly three decades later, the United States formally recognized the courage he had displayed earlier in the war with its highest military decoration.

Henry Seymour Hall's legacy is therefore not one moment of bravery, but a pattern repeated across years of combat: wounded, tested, and repeatedly placed in chaos, he continued leading.