May 22 

 

          On this day in 1863, Private James Jefferson Kelly (1844-1919) of the 56th North Carolina Infantry had his left arm shattered by a bullet at the 2nd Battle of Gum Swamp in eastern North Carolina. An apprentice house carpenter from Morrisville, Kelly was conscripted into the regiment on July 15, 1862. On May 22, Kelly and his regiment were sent to man breastworks about halfway between Kinston and New Bern where the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad line intersected with Dover Road. The 500 Confederates were attacked from multiple directions by a much larger Union force. During the chaos of fighting, 144 men from the regiment were captured before they could retreat. Kelly was shot during the chaotic withdrawal, a minié ball splintering the humerus in his left arm just above the elbow. He was helped back to a field hospital, where his arm was amputated that evening–one of 60,000 soldiers to undergo that procedure during the war. His war service was over, but young and strong Kelly survived to manage a farm in Chatham County, marry in 1870 and raise seven children. 

 

 

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Photo: Carte de visite of a Union soldier who underwent a left arm amputation like Kelly. (Image located at Military Images Digital)

 

Sources:

James J. Kelly, Compiled Military Service Record; 1860 U.S. Census: Wake County, NC; Wiley J. Williams, “Gum Swamp, 1st and 2nd Battles of,” ncpedia.org