James McDonald King

A unmarried 24 year old lawyer, he organized the Americus Volunteer Rifles for war service in April 1861 and enrolled with them in Americus, Sumter County as Company K, 9th Georgia Infantry on 11 June 1861. He was elected Captain the same day. He was briefly detached to Division Headquarters in March 1862.

He led his Company in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

In October 1862 he requested a transfer to the Judge Advocate General's Department (as a Captain of Cavalry) due to his ill health; it was not approved.

While senior officer standing and thereby in command of the regiment at Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863, he was wounded by a gunshot to his back near his spine. He was initially treated at a field hospital on the Plank Farm and was captured there on the 5th. He was sent to the DeCamp US Army hospital on David's Island, NY about 21 July, and was transferred on 20 September to the prison on Johnson's Island, Sandusky, OH. He died there of his wounds on 4 November 1863 and was buried on the island.

Service information from his Compiled Service Records,1 via fold3, as James M.D. King, and Richard Michael Allen's The 9th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861-1865: A Biographical Roster (2018). The April 1861 detail thanks to Neal Griffin on his 9th Georgia Facebook page. His gravesite, as J.U.D. King, is on Findagrave. He also has a cenotaph in Oak Grove Cemetery in Americus, GA.

1838; Sumter County, GA

11/04/1863; Johnson's Island, OH; burial in Johnson's Island, Sandusky, OH