James Douglas Cureton

A dentist in Winnsboro, he enlisted as 2nd Corporal, Company G, 6th South Carolina Infantry on 11 April 1861 in Summerville. He was elected 3rd Lieutenant on 22 June 1861 and First Lieutenant on 16 April 1862. He was promoted to Captain on 30 May, but was sick in a hospital in Williamsburg for most of June.

He (along with Lieutenant James Brice) was captured at the home of John Hager in Frederick, MD on about 13 September 1862, having been left behind, sick.

He was paroled and sent from Baltimore to Fortress Monroe, VA on 11 October 1863 and exchanged there on the 12th. He was sick with pneumonia from February 1863 on and off to May of 1864 when he was transferred to the Invalid Corps. He was assigned Court Martial duty in June, but in November 1864 was found to be "totally disqualified for service" and retired.

He returned to his dental practice in Winnsboro, SC.

Thanks to Barry Truluck for the pointer to Cureton and the details above from his research in the US Census (1850-1900), Cureton's Compiled Service Records (via Fold3), The Watchman and Southron of 25 June 1862, and family genealogists. An obituary has his birth date as August 6, 1827. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

His sword, along with that of Lieutenant Brice, was saved by John Hager, in whose Frederick, MD house the two officers were recovering in when they were captured. In 1902, the swords were returned to Fairfield, SC to Brice's nieces following their correspondence with Mr. Hager.

See an excellent profile of Cureton - with a post-war picture and an image of his 1862 parole - from Jason Spellman on his blog The Significant Word (2013).

08/06/1830; Sandy Springs, Greenville County, SC

11/11/1904; Pickens, SC; burial in Sunrise Cemetery, Pickens, SC