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J.A. Graham
(1841 - 1909)
Home State: North Carolina
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
In 1860 he was a 19 year old student living with his prosperous lawyer and farmer father in Hillsborough in Orange County, NC. He enlisted as a Private in Company G, 27th North Carolina Infantry on 20 April 1861, was Corporal to 8 May when he was promoted to Sergeant, and was appointed First (Orderly) Sergeant on 19 July. He was elected 3rd (or Junior 2nd) Lieutenant on 17 August 1861. He was Regimental Adjutant from 13 January to 1 June 1862.
On the Campaign
He was assigned to the Brigade Provost Marshal for at least the early part of the Maryland Campaign to help round up stragglers on the march, but was with his company at Harpers Ferry by 15 September and was in action at Antietam on the 17th, being in command of the company as senior man present after Lt. J.Y. Whitted was wounded. He later wrote
I escaped without a single scratch. The balls seemed to hit all around me as thick as hail, but fortunately they missed me.
The rest of the War
He was detailed as Brigade Ordnance Officer in November 1862 and was promoted to (senior) 2nd Lieutenant in December, his commission to date from July 1861. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 25 April (or 6 May) 1863, was slightly wounded in the right knee at Bristoe Station, VA in October, and was acting Brigade Inspector by January 1864. He was wounded by a gunshot to his right thigh (or left knee) in the Wilderness, VA on 5 May 1864, was afterward home on furlough for at least 90 days, then returned to his company. He was promoted again, to Captain on 2 November 1864, and he and his company were surrendered and paroled at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.
After the War
He was a lawyer in Alamance County, NC to 1888, when he became a Pension Examiner and moved to Washington, DC. He was boarding in a house at 1414 N Street, NW there in 1900.
References & notes
His service from Moore1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Provost Marshal assignment and his picture found in Clark3. Personal details from his Papers4, family genealogists, and the US Census of 1860-1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He married Elizabeth Cheshire Webb (1845-1915) in July 1869 and they had 3 sons and a daughter.
His father was William Alexander Graham (1804-1875), a lawyer, US Senator (1840-43), Governor of North Carolina (45-49), US Secretary of the Navy (50-52), Winfield Scott's running mate as VP in 1852, NC State Senator (54-66), Confederate Senator (64-65).
More on the Web
His papers are at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill [finding aid], and were collected and published in one volume by the University as The James A. Graham Papers, 1861-1884 in 1928. Thanks to Steve Peck for the poke to look further into that material.
Birth
07/07/1841; Hillsborough, NC
Death
03/20/1909; Charlotte, NC; burial in St Matthews Episcopal Cemetery, Hillsborough, NC
1 Moore, John Wheeler (compiler), and State of North Carolina, Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, 4 volumes, Raleigh: Ashe & Gatling, State Printers and Publishers, 1882, Vol. 2, pg. 422 [AotW citation 9988]
2 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 31465]
3 Clark, Walter, editor, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War, 1861-1865, 5 vols., Raleigh and Goldsboro (NC): E. M. Uzzell, Nash Brothers, printers, 1901, Vol. 2, pg. 425 [AotW citation 9989]
4 Graham, James Augustus, and H.M. Wagstaff, editor, The James A. Graham Papers, 1861-1884, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1928, pp. 93-94, 129-132, 156-157, etc [AotW citation 31466]