General James Green Martin
(February 14, 1819 - October 4, 1878)
Tintype Photograph is Courtesy Library of Congress
General James Green Martin: Native
North Carolinian, graduated West Point in 1840, and Mexican-American War veteran. He was nicknamed "Old One Wing" because he lost his arm in the Mexican-American War. At the Battle of Churubusco in Mexico, his right arm was shattered by grapeshot and had to be amputated. Although during the Civil War Martin
Suffered from his Mexican-American War wounds (O.R., 1, 40, II, 699), he was present and negotiated the final Confederate surrender in Waynesville, North Carolina, on May 9, 1865.
General James Green Martin was born in Elizabeth City, N.C., on
February 14, 1819, and was the son of Dr. William Martin and Sophia Dange. He entered West Point in July 1836 and
graduated in July 1840, and was commissioned a second lieutenant of the First regiment U.S. Artillery. In 1842, he served on the frontier of Canada in the Aroostock War, or "War of the Maps."
At Newport, Rhode Island, on July 12, 1844, he married Miss Mary Ann Murray
Reed, a great grand-daughter of George Reed (a signer of the Declaration of Independence), and also of Gen. William Thompson
(a brigadier general of the Revolutionary army).
During the three days' assault on Monterey, Mexico, September 21-23, 1846,
Martin was a second lieutenant and commanded his battery with Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson as his second in command. At Cherubusco, August 20, 1847, his right arm was shot off and he relinquished his command
to Jackson (Martin, taking his sleeve in his teeth, vacated the field). He was brevetted major for "gallant and meritorious
conduct" at the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco and presented with a sword of honor by the citizens of Pasquotank County,
on which were engraved the battles in which he had participated. He was transferred to the staff and appointed assistant
quartermaster and stationed at Fortress Monroe, Philadelphia, and also Governor's Island for several years. He transferred via
orders to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, where Mrs. Martin died.
On February 8, 1858, he married Miss Hetty King; she was a sister of
General Rufus King of the U.S. Army, and eldest daughter of Charles King (president of Columbia College, New York) and the
grand-daughter of Rufus King (the first American minister to the court of St. James).
Martin was a member of the Utah expedition with General Albert Sydney Johnston and was at Fort Riley, Kansas Territory, when the Civil War began. He resigned his commission when North Carolina seceded
and served in the Old North State and in Virginia till the close of hostilities. Gen. Martin was present with
Colonel William Holland Thomas at "The Last Shot" of the American Civil War east of the Mississippi. Martin assisted in brokering
the Thomas Legion's surrender to Lt. Col. William C. Bartlett, and Martin also formerly surrendered the Western District
of North Carolina.
Penniless after the close of the war, he read law and commenced its practice
in Asheville in partnership with the former Judge J. L. Bailey. Martin died and was buried at Asheville, October 4, 1878.
Advance to:
Sources:
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Vernon H. Crow, Storm in the Mountains: Thomas' Confederate
Legion of Cherokee Indians and Mountaineers; Walter Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and
Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-1865; Weymouth T. Jordan and Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops,
1861-1865; D. H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil
War, 1861-1865; North Carolina Division of Archives and History; National Archives and Records Administration;
Library of Congress; State Library of North Carolina; North Carolina Museum of History; Western Carolina University; National
Park Service, The American Civil War; National Park Service: Soldiers and Sailors System; Official
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; archives.gov; whitehouse.gov; bioguide.congress.gov; senate.gov.
Recommended Reading: American Civil War Generals
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