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Confederate (CSV)

Lieutenant

James Wesley Orr

(1841 - 1931)

Home State: Virginia

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 37th Virginia Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

He had been a farmer and had begun a study of the law before the War. He enlisted and mustered as Private, Company E, 37th Virginia Infantry in Rose Hill, VA on 22 May 1861. He was wounded at Kernstown, VA on 23 March 1862 and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant at the reorganization of 22 April.

On the Campaign

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

The rest of the War

His arm was amputated. He was on recruiting duty in Lee and Scott Counties, VA, and was detailed as a Conscription Officer for Lee County in February 1865.

After the War

He was a farmer, Sheriff (1865-68), Clerk of County Courts (1871-81), practiced the law (1882-), and was a County Court Judge (1891-99) in Lee County, VA.

He published a pamphlet Recollections of the War Between the States, 1861-1865 in 1909.

References & notes

His service from Rankin1 via the Historical Data Systems database. His Sharpsburg wound detail from a casualty list in the Abingdon Virginian of 3 October 1862 online from the Library of Congress. Career details from a sketch in the Richmond Times of 12 June 1901 on the occasion of the state constitutional convention. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Martha "Pattie" Vermillion (1840-1907) in 1865 and they had 5 children.

Birth

06/19/1841; Lee County, VA

Death

05/08/1931; in VA; burial in Orr Cemetery (Horton Rd), Jonesville, VA

Notes

1   Rankin, Thomas M., 37th Virginia Infantry, Lynchburg: H.E. Howard, Inc., 1987  [AotW citation 21794]