James M. Billings was born around 1817 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He married Jerusha C. Cutting in Weston, Massachusetts, on April 4, 1837, and their daughter Henrietta was born around 1840. He worked as a farm laborer and stable keeper, and in 1860, he owned $100 of personal property. He enlisted in the Union army on October 7, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company E of the 26th Massachusetts Infantry on October 18, 1861. According to his military service records, he was 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with auburn hair and blue eyes. He army stationed the men in Mississippi and Alabama. Billings fell ill around December 1862, and according to one witness, he “graduly fayled & was sinking lower and lower.” He died of “febris typhus” in New Orleans on February 3, 1863.