Jacob Sanford was born around 1840 in Fulton County, Illinois, to Ebenezer and Sarah Sanford. His father was a farmer who owned $1,400 of real estate by 1850. The family lived in Lee, Illinois, until the 1850s, when they moved to Prairie City, Illinois. His father probably died in the 1850s. By the early 1860s, he was working as a farmer.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on October 7, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 55^th Illinois Infantry on October 31. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, the Vicksburg campaign, the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign. He eventually earned a promotion to corporal and then to commissary sergeant. He mustered out on August 14, 1865.

 

He returned to Prairie City after the war, and he married Jennie M. Brown on August 6, 1867. They adopted a daughter named Bertie in the 1870s. He worked as a farmer and a butcher, and by 1870, he owned $410 of personal property. He applied for a federal pension in February 1890 and eventually secured one. In September 1893, he received the Medal of Honor for “gallantry in the charge of the volunteer storming party…in action at Vicksburg, Mississippi.”

 

His wife probably died in the late 1800s, and he married Jennie M. Brown on August 6, 1897. Their daughter Frances was born around 1898. By 1900, he was working as a day laborer. He died of heart disease on September 3, 1901, in Prairie City.

 

Image: Jacob Sanford (courtesy Wikicommons)

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