Francis Hall pursued his preparatory studies in the Albany Academy, New York, and then for a year with Rev. Dr. Samuel Proudfit in Schenectady, and graduated from Union College in 1952. He entered Seminary at Princeton in 1853 and graduated in 1856. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1862, and was pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Luzerne, New York, when he was mustered into the 16th New York Infantry for service as a Chaplain during the Civil War. The battle of Salem Heights was his only engagement of the war, and he was mustered out of service with his regiment on May 22, 1863, less than three weeks after he earned the Medal of Honor. He continued in ministry after the war and his obituary noted, “being a man of independent means, (he) served the church without salary and declined all fees for marriages or other ceremonies. In all, he pastored for forty years.”