Joseph H. Bacon was a resident of Barre, Massachusetts on July 17, 1862 when he enlisted as a Private in Co. E of the 34th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. He was a 21 year old Farmer at time of enlistment, wounded April 2, 1865 near Petersburg, Virginia and mustered out July 5, 1865.

He was born November 4, 1844 in Barre, Massachusetts to Willard and Fanny (Lamb) Bacon. In the 1860 U.S. census in Barre, Massachusetts, he is a 16 year old farm laborer living in the household of John T. Ellsworth. After the Civil War, he returned to Barre and his former job as a farm laborer for John Ellsworth. Between 1870 and 1880, he moved to Mansfield and was working in the handle shop owned by Lathrop H. Hooker. Joseph Bacon married one of his daughters, Jennie L. Hooker on September 22, 1880 in Mansfield. They adopted a daughter, Lina E. Bacon, born about July 1882 and may have had one more child that died before 1910.

On April 14, 1873, he applied for an invalid pension, No. 182,914 that was granted under Certificate No. 125,823. His widow applied for a pension on May 15, 1915.

Joseph H. Bacon died on April 14, 1915 and is buried at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Mansfield.