James J. Purman
Medal of Honor awardee at Gettysburg
James J. Purman (March 21, 1841 – May 10, 1915) was an American soldier who fought with the Union Army in the American Civil War. Purman received his country's highest award for bravery during combat, the Medal of Honor, for actions taken on July 2, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Early years
Purman was born in 1841 near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania to a farming family. He began a job typesetting at the local newspaper and attended Waynesburg College while simultaneously teaching at a local school.
Civil War service
Due to a series of Union defeats in 1862, Purman decided to drop out of school to organize a volunteer Army unit. Purman, along with four other men, started a volunteer cavalry corps out of Greene County, Pennsylvania. The first volunteer to enlist was James Pipes, who would go on to serve with Purman and later earn the Medal of Honor himself for their shared actions.
When the Union Army stopped accepting volunteer cavalry units, Purman's company changed their name to the Greene County Rifles. They were mustered into the army under the 140th Pennsylvania Infantry, and soon thereafter were drawn into the action at the Battle of Gettysburg. On the first day of battle, July 1, Purman and Pipes were retreating under fire when they heard a fallen soldier calling for help and circled back to retrieve him.
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This entry incorporates text from “James J. Purman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.