James Jackson Purman

James Jackson Purman was born on March 21, 1841, in Greene County, Pennsylvania, near Waynesburg. He grew up in a farming family and showed an early interest in education. Before the Civil War, he worked as a typesetter for a local newspaper and enrolled at Waynesburg College. To help support his studies, he also taught school. By 1862, he was approaching his senior year, but the expanding Civil War changed the direction of his life. Rather than remain at college while the conflict continued, Purman suspended his studies and helped organize a volunteer military company in Greene County. The men were eventually incorporated into the 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry as Company A. Purman was elected First Lieutenant, establishing the rank he would hold throughout his verified military service. His position placed him among the company officers responsible for discipline, organization, and leadership in combat. The 140th Pennsylvania joined the Army of the Potomac and eventually became part of the II Corps. By the summer of 1863, the regiment was moving north with the Union army as General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania. The two armies converged around Gettysburg, where a three-day battle beginning on July 1 became the largest and one of the most consequential engagements of the American Civil War. On July 2, 1863, Purman and the 140th Pennsylvania entered the fierce fighting around the Wheatfield. This part of the Gettysburg battlefield changed hands repeatedly as Union and Confederate forces launched attacks and counterattacks across fields, woods, and rocky ground. The intensity of the fighting made the area one of the bloodiest sections of the battlefield. During the withdrawal of Union troops, Purman encountered a wounded fellow soldier who was unable to escape on his own. Confederate troops were extremely close, and remaining behind to help the wounded man meant sacrificing precious time during a dangerous retreat. Purman nevertheless chose not to abandon him. Together with another soldier, Purman attempted to move the wounded comrade toward what appeared to be a safer location. The decision exposed him directly to Confederate fire. While assisting the injured soldier, Purman was struck near the left ankle by an enemy bullet. The wound was severe enough to prevent him from continuing the retreat. His Medal of Honor citation later centered specifically on this act. It recognized that he voluntarily assisted a wounded comrade while the enemy was in close proximity and, in doing so, received the fire that caused the wound ultimately resulting in the loss of his left leg. The decoration therefore honored an intentional act of battlefield self-sacrifice rather than simply his presence during the Battle of Gettysburg. Purman remained stranded between the opposing lines after being wounded. Unable to walk, he spent the night on the battlefield surrounded by the sounds and consequences of one of the war’s most violent engagements. The following day, while fighting continued, he was wounded again when a bullet passed through his right leg. Dehydrated, seriously injured, and still exposed between the armies, Purman eventually received an extraordinary act of compassion from an opposing Confederate officer. The Confederate provided him with water, helped tend to his condition, and assisted him toward a safer position. The episode became one of the most remembered parts of Purman’s personal account of Gettysburg because it demonstrated that individual humanity could still exist even in the middle of a brutal civil conflict. A Union stretcher party later recovered Purman and carried him to a field hospital. His left leg had been so badly damaged that surgeons were forced to amputate it below the knee. The wound effectively ended his ability to continue normal field service. The soldier he had risked his own safety to help did not survive, but Purman’s willingness to remain behind and attempt the rescue became the action that later secured his place among the recipients of the Medal of Honor. Purman spent many months recovering from his wounds. His injuries permanently changed his life, and in May 1864 he was discharged from the United States Army because of disability. He left military service with the rank of First Lieutenant, which remained his highest verified rank. His departure from the Army did not end his personal development. Purman returned to Waynesburg College and completed the education he had interrupted when he entered military service. He graduated in 1864, turning quickly from the life of a wounded veteran back toward education and professional work. After graduation, Purman became principal of the Baptist Academy, an institution that later developed into Monongahela College. His work in education represented the first of several professions he pursued after the war. Despite the permanent effects of his Gettysburg wounds, he continued building a remarkably active civilian career. Purman subsequently studied law and was admitted to the Greene County Bar. His transition from soldier to educator and then lawyer reflected both considerable intellectual ambition and determination to overcome the physical limitations created by his wartime injuries. He later married and eventually moved to Washington, D.C., where another phase of his professional life began. In Washington, Purman pursued medical studies and became known as a physician. His interest in medicine had particular resonance for a man whose own life had been shaped permanently by battlefield wounds, surgery, and rehabilitation. He also became active in veterans’ affairs and served as medical director within the Grand Army of the Republic, the influential organization formed by Union veterans after the Civil War. Purman also held a position with the United States Pension Office. This work placed him within a federal system that dealt directly with veterans and their families, many of whom were seeking support because of wounds, disabilities, or losses suffered during military service. His own experience as a severely wounded veteran gave him a personal understanding of the long-term consequences of war. Although his action at Gettysburg occurred in 1863, national recognition did not come immediately. More than thirty-three years passed before the United States formally honored him for the rescue attempt that had cost him his leg. On October 30, 1896, James Jackson Purman was presented with the Medal of Honor. Because the decoration was issued after the Army introduced its 1896 Medal of Honor design period, the correct historical database representation is Medal of Honor 1896–1903 Army — 1896. His heroic action, however, remained firmly tied to July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg. The Medal of Honor had originally been authorized for the United States Army during the Civil War in 1862. During the decades after the conflict, numerous wartime actions continued to be reviewed, and some veterans received recognition many years after the battles in which their heroism occurred. Purman became part of this later group of Civil War recipients. His Medal of Honor recognized one specific act: voluntarily placing himself in danger to help a wounded comrade while Confederate soldiers were close enough to fire upon him. The wound he received during that rescue attempt resulted in the amputation of his left leg and permanently linked his personal sacrifice to the Battle of Gettysburg. Purman received one Medal of Honor. No additional star, clasp, bar, oak leaf cluster, or other device has been verified with the decoration. His final medal record therefore remains Medal of Honor 1896–1903 Army — 1896 — no device or clasp. One of the most remarkable elements of Purman’s later life was his continued connection with the Confederate officer who had shown him compassion while he lay wounded at Gettysburg. Years later, Purman helped bring that former enemy soldier to Washington and introduced him to President Theodore Roosevelt. For Purman, the episode became an enduring example of how compassion could cross the battle lines of a civil war. His life after Gettysburg was therefore not defined solely by disability. He completed his college degree, worked in education, entered the legal profession, pursued medicine, served fellow veterans, and held federal employment. The loss of his leg remained a permanent physical consequence of the battle, but it did not prevent him from building a long professional and public-service career. James Jackson Purman died on May 10, 1915, in Washington, D.C., at the age of seventy-four. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, among thousands of other men and women whose lives had been connected with the military history of the United States. Purman’s legacy combines courage, sacrifice, education, law, medicine, and veterans’ service. He entered the Civil War as a young college student who had chosen to interrupt his education in order to serve. As First Lieutenant of Company A, 140th Pennsylvania Infantry, he fought at Gettysburg and voluntarily remained in danger to help a wounded comrade. That choice brought devastating wounds and the loss of his left leg, but it also became the defining act of his military career. More than three decades later, the United States formally recognized his courage with his single verified decoration: Medal of Honor 1896–1903 Army — 1896 — no device or clasp. James Jackson Purman’s story remains one of personal sacrifice under fire followed by a long life of education, professional achievement, public service, and continued commitment to the veterans whose experiences he understood firsthand.