author

James R. (James Richards) Carnahan

1840–1905

A Civil War veteran, lawyer, and Indiana public figure, he wrote from firsthand experience and a strong sense of duty. His surviving works center on military service, veterans' memory, and fraternal history.

1 Audiobook

Personal Recollections of Chickamauga A Paper Read before the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States

Personal Recollections of Chickamauga A Paper Read before the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States

by James R. (James Richards) Carnahan

About the author

Born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, in 1840, James Richards Carnahan studied at Wabash College before leaving to serve in the Union Army during the Civil War. He served in Indiana regiments from 1861 to 1865 and finished the war with the rank of captain. After the war, he returned to Wabash and graduated in 1866.

Carnahan went on to build a career in law and public life in Indiana. Sources from the Indiana Historical Society describe him as a prosecutor in Tippecanoe County, a leader in the Grand Army of the Republic, and later a commissioner connected with Chickamauga National Military Park. His writing reflects those interests: he published Civil War recollections, helped document the history of the Eighty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and wrote a substantial history of the Knights of Pythias.

He died in 1905. Although not widely known today, Carnahan's books remain valuable for readers interested in veterans' memory, Indiana history, and the way former soldiers recorded their own era.