James Monroe Ingalls James Monroe Ingalls ( January 25 , 1837 – May 1 , 1927 ) was an American soldier and an authority on ballistics . His tabulations on ballistics were the authoritative source for over 100 years . Biography . Ingalls was born January 25 , 1837 in Sutton Township , Caledonia County , Vermont . He was the youngest of 9 children of James Ingalls ( circa 1792 - 1866 ) and Mary Cass ( circa 1797 - 1883 ) . His parents are buried in Forest Hill Cemetery , Madison , Dane County , Wisconsin . He had a sister , Jane Margaret Ingalls ( 1821 – 1920 ) , who married Estes Wilson . Jane Ingalls Wilson was one of the first female physicians in Wisconsin . Ingalls spent his childhood in Clinton , Massachusetts . He worked as an errand boy at Lancaster Mills and graduated from Clinton High School in 1856 . James Monroe Ingalls moved to Madison , Wisconsin with his parents about 1856 . He became a professor of mathematics in the Evansville Seminary , Wisconsin , 1860 - 1863 . He enlisted in the regular army , January 2 , 1864 during the Civil War , and was assigned to the 16th Infantry ; was promoted corporal and served as commissary and quartermaster - sergeant until May 21 , 1865 . He was promoted 2d and 1st lieutenant May 3 , 1865 , accepting the promotions May 21 , 1865 . On April 17 , 1869 , he was transferred to the 2d Infantry ; on January 1 , 1871 , to the 1st artillery ; was Commandant of Cadets and Professor of Military Science and Tactics and Mathematics at West Virginia University 1877 - 78 . He was a very popular professor . He was promoted captain of artillery July 1 , 1880 ; major June 1 , 1897 , and lieutenant - colonel October 5 , 1900 . He served in Tennessee , Alabama , and Georgia , and other points in the south 1864 - 71 , and was then sent to the artillery school , Fort Monroe , graduating in the class of 1872 . He was next stationed successively at Plattsburgh Barracks , and Forts Jefferson and Barrancas , and in July 1880 , was assigned to the command of Battery A , Governor ' s Island , New York Harbor , and thence transferred to San Francisco Harbor , where he served until ordered to Battery G at Fort Munroe 1882 . He suggested and organized the department of ballistics at the artillery school , Fort Monroe , and was made the first instructor December 19 , 1882 , which position he held until the school suspended operations in the spring of 1898 on account of the war with Spain . He was also senior instructor in practical artillery exercises , class of 1884 ; in engineering , class of 1888 ; in electricity and defensive torpedoes , classes of 1884 , 1886 , 1888 , and 1890 ; and in signaling , 1884 - 88 . Lieutenant Colonel Ingalls retired from the Army in 1901 ; in 1904 , he was made colonel retired . James Monroe Ingalls died May 1 , 1927 in Providence , Rhode Island . Author A . J . Bastarache has called Colonel Ingalls the " Father of Ballistics " for his pioneering research that contributed to America ' s military successes through the 20th century . Ingalls married Elizabeth Niles , daughter of John S . Niles and Elizabeth Lilly , in July 1860 , in Dane County , Wisconsin . She was born in 1841 in Leon , Cattaraugus County , New York and died July 28 , 1875 of typhoid fever at Fort Barrancas , Escambia County , Florida , and is buried in the national cemetery there . James and Elizabeth had two children : Arthur Niles Ingalls ( 1861 – 1875 ) who also died of typhoid fever and is buried with his mother , and Hilda Eliza Ingalls b . September 1868 , McPhersonburg , Virginia , married 1889 to Joel Randall Burrow , who later became the Secretary of State of the State of Kansas . Hilda died November 4 , 1908 and is buried at Fairview Cemetery , Smith Center , Kansas . James Monroe Ingalls married a second time on July 17 , 1877 , New London , Connecticut , to Harriet Elizabeth Thurston , daughter of Benjamin Babcock Thurston , who had been Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island . They had one child , Fanny Thurston Ingalls , who never married . Ingalls died May 1 , 1927 in Providence , Rhode Island , and is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery , New London , Connecticut . He was the author of :