Great-grandfather of Carole Grube
Great-grandfather of Patricia Yarbrough
2nd great-grandfather of Jennifer Yarbrough
2nd great-grandfather of Joanna Yarbrough

Sergeant     Co. K      3rd MI Infantry
Dates of Service:  13 May 1861 - 23 Dec 1863

James Hanna was born on December 12, 1840 in Tecumseh, Lenawee County, Michigan, the son of John (1808-1874) and Elizabeth (Curry, 1818-1865).

John left his home in Ireland, possibly with Irish native and immigrated to America. They were married and eventually moved westward and by 1840 had settled in Tecumseh, Michigan. (That year there was one Joseph Hanna living in Tecumseh.) John eventually moved his family to Grand Rapids in 1843, but by 1850 had resettled them on a farm in Allendale, Ottawa County. By 1860 James was working as a chopper and living at the Ewing boarding house in Blendon, Ottawa County. Apparently by 1860 his father John had moved his family to a farm in Paris, Kent County. (Next door to the Hanna family in Paris worked a farm laborer named Freling Peck who would also join the Third Michigan.)

He stood 5’8” with black eyes, red hair and a light complexion and was 20 years old and residing in Grand Rapids when he enlisted in Company K on May 13, 1861, with the consent of the Justice of the Peace (his younger brother John would join him the following March). He was absent on furlough in March of 1863, and awarded the Kearny Cross for his participation in the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, on May 3, 1863. 

James reenlisted on December 24, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Sparta, Kent County, was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February. He was taken prisoner on May 6, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia, confined first at Libby prison in Richmond, Virginia, and then at Andersonville, Georgia.

According to James on May 6 he was shot in the right arm, the “ball entered at the elbow up the arm struck the should and stopped under the skin had it cut out by a rebel soldier.” 

On May 13 he was taken with others able to walk to Gordonsville. Sat wet and took cold. Arm began to swell. Lynchburg May 16. Left here with others to sick to go further. Arm running matter two pieces of cord come out of hole at elbow one 2 1/2 inches long the other two inches had no care, dirty water to bathe with. Lynchburg June 9 Started for Andersonville Ga where we arrived June 18th. Andersonville Sept. 13th taken to Florence South Carolina. Arrived here Sept. 15th. Florence S.C. Dec. 8th. Paroled today. Dec. 9th on cars for Charleston where we arrived Dec. 10th. Dec. 11th got on board transport at noon. Dec. 15th arrived at Annapolis. Dec. 24th Parole furlough. Started for home, Grand Rapids, Mich. I was sick when I started, was delirious with typhoid fever fr three weeks. I think my extensions of furlough will show when able returned to Annapolis meantime had been transferred to Camp Chase, Ohio. There got another furlough to go home. June 27th 1865 got my discharge by Gen. O. No. 77, War Dept. A.G.O.”

He was transferred as prisoner-of-war to Company A, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and exchanged sometime in late fall of 1864. He was reported as a paroled prisoner and Sergeant at Camp Chase, Ohio, March 10, 1865, although in fact as he himself noted later he was at home in Michigan recovering from his ordeal.

His mother Elizabeth had died at the family home in Paris, Kent County, on February 5, 1865, and four days later the Grand Rapids Eagle reported James was at home in Michigan recuperating. Describing Hanna as “a true soldier,” the paper went on to say 

It affords us pleasure to learn that Sergeant James Hanna, of the old Third Michigan Infantry, who has been sick, right unto death, for some weeks past, has recovered and is again able to be out around. The Sergeant was taken prisoner on the sixth of May last, in the battle of the Wilderness and conveyed to Andersonville, in which Rebel prison he remained most of the time for some seven months, when he, with others was exchanged and allowed to visit his home in this city, for rest and the recovery of his health. Young Hanna, had a brother John Hanna, who was in the same Regiment, and was killed in a skirmish on the 27th of October last [Hatcher’s Run and Boydton Plank road, Virginia]. Another brother, Alexander Hanna, a member of the First Michigan Artillery, lost a leg in the siege of Atlanta, and has just returned on a furlough of thirty days, he not yet having been discharged from the service. Added to all of these afflictions, the young soldier now mourns the death of a loved mother who died on the 6th inst. Who will not drop a tear in sympathy with the afflicted soldier? 

James was discharged at Camp Chase on June 27, 1865.

Following his discharge from the army James returned to western Michigan and lived virtually his entire life in the Grand Rapids vicinity. He resided in Georgetown, Ottawa County until about 1870 when he moved to Grand Rapids where he stayed about 6 years. In 1876 he moved to Paris Township, Kent County until 1890 then back to Grand Rapids where he remained until at least 1913.

James married Michigan native Matilda Jane Carpenter (b. 1850), on September 7, 1871, in Grand Rapids, and they had at least three children: William (b. 1873), Emma (b. 1875), Eva L. (b. 1878), twins Warren and Walter (b. 1882) Daisy Lucella (b. 1885) Clara (b. 1887). (His obituary listed seven children: William, Warren, Walter, Mrs. Charles Fox, Mrs. Frank Molesta, Mrs. Jacob Molesta and Mrs. Daisy Beens. Eva and Clara were both married to Molestas.)

In 1880 James was working as a farmer and living with his wife Matilda and three children in Paris, Kent County. He was living in Paris, in June of 1889 when he attended the reunion at Gettysburg, and still living in Paris in 1890.

By 1894 and 1895 he was living in Grand Rapids’ Eleventh ward, and in 1906 was reportedly residing at 1029 Oakdale Avenue in Grand Rapids, and in fact he lived on Oakdale Avenue in his last years: he was living at 1029 Oakdale in 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1912, and by 1918 at 423 Oakdale. By 1920 James and Jane were living in Grand Rapids; also living with them was his daughter Daisy and her husband Jacob Beens and their son.

James was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, as well as Grand Army of the Republic Custer Post No. 5 in Grand Rapids and he received pension no. 74,821.

He died of “acute indigestion” (angina pectoris) on Thursday evening, April 1, 1920 at his home, 423 Oakdale southeast, in Grand Rapids. Funeral services were held at his home at 2:30 p.m. Monday and he was buried under the auspices of the Grand Rapids Custer Post No. 7, in Oak Hill cemetery: section 10 lot 197. 

In April of 1920 his widow applied for a pension (no. 891429).

 
GRAVESITE: Oak Hill Cemetery, Grand Rapids, MI

Source: Author: Steve Soper. http:// Steve Soper, Third Michigan Infantry Research Project (Grand Rapids, Michigan, , 8 January 2009), http://thirdmichigan.blogspot.com/search?q=hanna