Civil War veteran Jacob Miller survived more than 50 years after being shot in the forehead with a musket.
The history of Civil War soldier Jacob Miller (sometimes spelled “Millar”) is a seemingly miraculous figure, if nothing else. Despite suffering a gunshot wound to the forehead, the Union Army soldier not only survived the battle, but lived to tell the tale for decades afterward.
Now, more than a century later, his photo and Story are still being shared on social media, examples of which can be found on Facebook, Reddit And X.
Amazingly, the story is true.
Snopes found Information about the soldier for “Jacob H. Millar,” published by the National Park Service (NPS), which had originally filed it under “Jacob H./Miller.”
According to NPS records, Miller served as a private with the 6th Regiment, Indiana Infantry in the Union Army. His record also had a film recording number assigned to it, “M540 ROLL 51.” Snopes reached out to NPS for a copy of the recording but did not receive a response by the publication date.
Snopes contacted the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC, for access to Miller’s records. Juliette Araiwho works in the NARA Reference Department, confirmed the NPS records and pointed out that he also volunteered in Company K.
“NARA staff reviewed available records regarding Jacob Miller’s service and the injury he sustained during the Civil War. His service record confirms that he was wounded at Chickamauga and sent either home or to the General Hospital at Jeffersonville, Indiana,” Arai wrote.
Arai added that her staff found multiple copies of a photo in his retirement file (case number SC-34617) that showed a younger man than the one pictured in some social media posts with darker hair. However, the facial features and the wound on his forehead appear to be the same. Snopes found multiple files for men named Jacob Miller who served in the Civil War, but it appears that some specific details have become murky over time. It is also possible that some photos have not been accurately identified. For this reason, we have chosen to only publish the official photo below as archived by NARA.
(Photo courtesy of NARA)
Snopes also found Miller’s gravestone in the cemetery database Find a gravewhich notes that he died in Nebraska in 1917 at the age of 76.
We also found an interview with Miller published in the Illinois newspaper on June 14, 1911 Daily News Joliet entitled “Jacob Miller, a war-torn hero.” (A more readable version of the article is available Here.)
(Screenshot/Newspapers.com)
The article described Miller as “one of the most remarkable heroes to survive the Civil War.” From September 19, 1863, until his death more than five decades later, “Miller lived with an open wound on his forehead.” The article, which also said Miller received $40 a month in pension, continued:
The bullet remained in his head for several years, but fell out little by little, until today. It is believed that none of it remained in the wound. While it was in his head, it caused a temporary stupor, sometimes lasting two weeks. This was usually when he caught a cold and put more pressure on his brain. At other times, delirium would overtake him and he would imagine himself on guard duty again, trudging back and forth on his precinct, a stick on his shoulder as a musket, a pitiful sacrifice for freedom. As these pieces of lead gradually dislodged and fell out, he regained normal health, and now, at the age of 78, is one of the most remarkable, if not the most remarkable, survivor of the Civil War.
The rest of the above article contains Miller’s personal account of the gruesome ordeal. The veteran said he was “left for dead” after being hit by enemy fire. Below is Miller’s interview as published in the paper (which Snopes has lightly edited for grammatical reasons):
When I came to some time later, I found that I was in the rear of the Confederate line. To avoid being captured, I decided to make an attempt to get around their line and get back to my side. I got up, using my rifle as a staff, walked back a little, and then continued parallel to the line of battle. I must have been so covered in blood that the people who met me did not realize that I was an American (at least our major, my former captain, did not recognize me when I met him after we got to our side).
At last I reached the end of the Confederate line and crossed over to our side, while a brigade of Confederates behind me was reaching their line. As I passed, no Union troops were to be found on that part of the field. I came upon an old by-road and followed it as well as I could, for by this time my head had swollen so much that I could not close my eyes…
At last I was so exhausted that I had to lie down on the side of the road. Finally a couple of porters came and put me on their stretcher, carried me to the hospital and laid me on the ground in a tent. A nurse came and put a wet bandage on my wound and around my head and gave me a canteen of water. I do not know what time of day they examined my wound and decided to put me on the operating table until some time after dark. The surgeons examined my wound and decided that it would be better not to operate on me and cause me more pain as they did not think I had long to live. So the nurse took me back to the tent. I slept a little during the night. The next morning (Sunday) the doctors came by to make a list of the wounded and their companies and regiments. They said to send all the wounded that the ambulances would transport to Chattanooga. They informed me that my wound was too severe to be transferred and that the wounded left there could be exchanged later when the army withdrew.
Miller described his determination not to become a prisoner of war. With a crooked gait and a water-filled canteen, he left the hospital tent “unnoticed.” Because of the swelling, Miller could only see when he opened his eye with his finger “to orient myself on the road.” Eventually a medical train picked him up, and Miller woke up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after it had “run out,” “lying on the ground with hundreds of other wounded, almost as densely packed as pigs in a cattle truck.”
Doctors at several hospitals refused to operate on Miller. Miller said he “suffered for nine months” before being sent back to his hometown of Logansport (presumably Indiana), where doctors were able to remove the musket ball – or at least most of it.
“Seventeen years after I was wounded, a piece of buckshot fell out of my wound and thirty-one years later, two pieces of lead came out,” Miller said, adding:
Some people ask how I manage to describe my wound and my return from the battlefield in such detail after so many years. My answer is: my wound and my constant headache remind me of it every day and I don’t get free even if I don’t sleep. The whole scene is engraved in my brain like an engraving of steel.
I have not written this to complain that anyone is responsible for my misfortune and suffering all these years. The government is good to me and pays me a pension of $40.00 per month.
Snopes has investigated other claims related to the Civil War. You can find them in our archive.
