James Riley Blanton

A 14 year old farm boy in Union County, he mustered as Private, Company M, Palmetto Sharpshooters in May 1862. He was wounded at Gaines' Mill, VA in July 1862.

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

He was discharged for disability from wounds.

By 1880 he was a laborer in Braytonville, Union County and he served a term as County Auditor. In 1900 he was a farmer in Cherokee County and had briefly been in charge of the chain gang there.

His service from the Rolls 1 and his Compiled Service Records via the Historical Data Systems database. Personal details from his obituary in The Gaffney Ledger of 10 September 1901, family genealogists, and the US Census of 1880 & 1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Sarah Emily Cabaniss (c. 1840-1916) in January 1862, they had a son James David Blanton (1862-1944) who was born in his mother's hometown in North Carolina. Emily seems to have left him and taken their son before he returned from the war. He married again, to the widow Susan D. Sparks Kirby (1834-1905) in about 1865, and they had 6 daughters together. She'd also had 6 children with her first husband.

He was one of two James Blantons in Company M; the other died of wounds received at Frazier's Farm, VA in 1862 at about age 35.

08/14/1847; Union, SC

09/09/1901; Gaffney, SC; burial in Corinth Baptist Church Cemetery Gaffney, SC