James C. Gorham, born in Callaway County, Missouri in 1834, organized a Missouri State Guard artillery battery in November 1861 and served with the unit at the Battle of Pea Ridge the following March. After the Confederate defeat at Pea Ridge, Gorham accompanied the rest of the Army of the West across the Mississippi River to Memphis, Tennessee. The battery participated in the siege of Corinth, Mississippi, and then transferred back across the Mississippi as part of Brigadier General Mosby M. Parsons’ command. Gorham and the members of his battery mustered into Confederate service in September 1862, but for some unknown reason, Major General Thomas Hindman replaced Gorham as its commander.

Following the Confederate surrender, Gorham went to Mexico, but soon returned to the United States and opened a wholesale grocery business.

He died in Dallas, Texas, in 1909.

Carte-de-Visite by N. A. Robertson, Glasgow, Mo.

Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 11460