James Malilee Reeves

In 1860 he was a 24 year old farm laborer living next door to his parents at Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish, LA. He enlisted on 22 July 1861 at Camp Moore, LA as a Private in Company K, 10th Louisiana Infantry. He was appointed 3rd Corporal on 1 December 1861 and to 4th Sergeant on 5 February 1862.

He was wounded in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was killed in action at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863. His Lieutenant wrote home about it a month later:

Our company stood on the field (to) the last and fought with the Yankees at 30 yards distance. They (his men) did not leave until I told them to go...Poor Jim Reeves was killed at my left and I went to get his rifle to give to F.(Frederick) Sark whose gun would not fire and at that moment I was wounded and when I looked around to give Sark the gun I seen, poor fellow, he was killed also. Those are the fortunes of a poor soldier.

His service from his Compiled Military Service Records 1 and Booth,2 who has him in the 8th Louisiana, in error. His picture and the quote above, from a letter First Lieutenant Edward A. Seton wrote home on 17 June 1863, are from researcher and author Michael Dan Jones, shared on his blog. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Tabitha "Tabisy" Harmon (1839-) and they had a son David George Reeves (1858-1931); Tabitha died in childbirth sometime after 1860.

c. 1836 in MS

05/03/1863; Chancellorsville, VA; burial in University of Virginia Confederate Cemetery, Charlottesville, VA