James Bethel Gresham, (August 23, 1893 – November 3, 1917) was an American soldier, the first Hoosier serviceman and perhaps the first American serviceman to die in World War I, along with Private Merle Hay of Glidden, Iowa and Private Thomas Enright of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In September 1901, his family moved to Evansville, Indiana, where he attended the Centennial School and he later worked in local furniture factories.

Just before daylight on November 3, 1917, Gresham was killed along with Privates Hay and Enright during an early morning raid by the Imperial German Army near Artois, France.

An inscription marked their graves: "Here lie the first soldiers of the illustrious Republic of the United States who fell on French soil for justice and liberty.

As a memorial, as the first American casualty of World War I, a house in Evansville was built in his honor and given to his mother, Alice Dodd.