James Johnson Kirkpatrick

In 1860 he was a 21 year old school teacher living on the Matthew Broom farm at Utica in Hinds County, MS. He enlisted 25 April 1861 at Crystal Springs, MS and mustered as a Private in Company C, 16th Mississippi Infantry on 26 May 1861 in Corinth, MS.

He was with his Company on the Campaign; on Maryland Heights, VA near Harpers Ferry (13-16 September 1862) and at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He wrote

[Early on 17 September 1862] We march down to the ford and cross the river, making no unnecessary delays, and start by nearest route for Sharpsburg. Artillery opened at sunrise. Tired and sleepy, we still march on, and as we come in proximity of the battle ground, the scores of wounded passing to the rear remind us that bloody work is going on. A little further on the left of the pike . . . halt and ‘‘load at will.’’ No sooner done than in again. The enemy’s batteries give us shot and shell in abundances, causing muscular contractions in the spinal column of our line. But all the dodging did not save us. Occasionally, a shell, better aimed than the rest would crack through our line, making corpses and mutilated trunks. A piece gave me a severe bruise in the shoulder ...

He was promoted to 5th Sergeant to date from 17 September 1862 and to First Sergeant on 11 March 1863. He was captured on 21 August 1864 on the Weldon Railroad near Petersburg, VA and was held at Point Lookout, MD. He was sent to Aikens Landing, VA for exchange on 14 March 1865. There is no later military record.

He was in Missouri by 1870 and in 1880 was a farmer at Silver Creek, Randolph County, MO. By 1900 he was farming in Marshall, Saline County, and he had retired there by 1920.

His service from his Compiled Military Service Records,1 online from fold3. He is also in a casualty list in the New Orleans Times-Picayune of 29 October 1862. The quote above from his diary, as published in Robert G. Evans' The Sixteenth Mississippi Infantry: Civil War Letters And Reminiscences (2002). Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, 1880, 1900, and 1920, and General Alumni Catalogue of Washington and Jefferson College (1911, online); his birth also seen in Mississippi. His memorial is on Findagrave, source also of his picture, from a c. 1859 photograph contributed by Mark Phillips.

He married Arzelia Fray (1848-1931) in September 1870 in Randolph County, MO, and they had 2 children.

03/09/1839 in PA

06/16/1924; Marshall, MO; burial in Roanoke City Cemetery, Randolph County, MO