Henry H. Meacham

Before becoming an author, Henry H. Meacham was a carriage-maker in Russell, Massachusetts. When the Civil War began, he tried more than once to enlist and was finally accepted on July 17, 1863, into the 32nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. His later memoir says he served through the hard campaigning of 1864 until a shell outside Petersburg on June 22, 1864, shattered his right arm, which was then amputated.

Meacham is remembered for The Empty Sleeve: or, The Life and Hardships of Henry H. Meacham, in the Union Army, a short autobiographical pamphlet published around 1869. He sold the book for his support, presenting his story in plain, personal language and describing both combat and the difficult life that followed his injury.

Later accounts of Meacham's life note that he struggled financially after the war and that his pamphlet was meant to help support both himself and his wife. Today, his writing is valued not just as a soldier's memoir, but as a rare firsthand account of disability, recovery, and survival after the Civil War.