When the war broke out, James Samuel Noble somehow convinced his family he was old enough—at age 13, he joined his older brother, Dallas, in enlisting in May 1861. Of course, no one could see that he would end up on the John Edward Plank farm just two years later.

The Nobles were farmers who had lived previously in Alabama, where Dallas was born, and Louisiana, where James was born. The boys were grandsons of Captain Stephen Noble who may have gotten his title either in the militia or in the War of 1812. In 1850 while living in Louisiana, the family held three enslaved women and three men. A decade later in Arkansas, they had two men and one woman.

Despite his unusual youth, James prospered in the military and was eventually promoted to sergeant. On July 2, he and Dallas were part of Longstreet’s famous assault on the Union left. The 3rd Arkansas saw some of the hardest fighting of the day—they met Union troops on the Rose farm and in the Rose woods; they battled down to the famous stone wall at the Wheatfield and extended their line down close to Devil’s Den before eventually being pushed back.

In the struggle, both Dallas and James were wounded. James’s wound proved more serious—he suffered a fractured femur. The brothers likely both went back to the John Edward Plank farm. On July 7, James died from complications related to his wound. Dallas survived the battle and the war. He returned to Arkansas and settled in Hot Spring where he lived until his death in 1921. He married Phoebe Ann Stephens and fathered eight children.

Not only did James not make it home alive, his body never made it to his family. James’s remains stayed at the Plank farm until 3 August 1872 when he and 98 others were disinterred and shipped to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. James remains one of the youngest, if not the youngest, combat death at The Battle of Gettysburg.