1861 - James Edward Hanger became the first amputee of the Civil War; returned to Virginia where he set his mind to walking again; As a satisfactory prosthetic solution was not available, he made himself an artificial leg, constructed of whittled barrel staves and with a hinge at the knee; the state legislature commissioned him to manufacture the “Hanger Limb” for other wounded Civil War veterans; He founded the J E Hanger Company and patented the artificial leg: patent number: US465698 (1891)