James Harvey Stafford

In 1860 he was a 30 year old farmer living with his widowed mother, 5 younger siblings, and 4 slaves (in trust for 2 of her children) on the family farm at McInnis Bridge in the Marion District, SC. He enrolled at Lightwood Knot Springs, SC on 2 May 1862 and mustered as Captain of Company I, First South Carolina Infantry.

He was in command of his company as senior man present at the start of the Maryland Campaign. In 1864 he was charged, along with another incident, with "ingloriously abandon[ing] his post" at Sharpsburg, because after the fight was over, he had taken his company to look for rations.

He was wounded on 10 May 1864 at Spotsylvania, VA and was arrested in October for his "[mis]conduct before the enemy" at Sharpsburg and later at Fort Harrison, VA. He was tried and found not guilty, but resigned his commission, which was accepted on 21 March 1865. He was admitted to the CSA General Hospital in Danville, VA on 5 April with intermittent fever, with no later military record.

In 1870 he was again farming with his mother and siblings in Marion County, SC. In 1880 he was a farmer on his own in Carmichael Township, Marion County, and he'd retired there by 1900 and was living with his sister Laura.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3, with Campaign detail from the Memoirs.2 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1900, also as J. Harvy Stafford. His memorial is on Findagrave.

05/02/1830; Dillon, SC

09/04/1900; burial in Stafford Cemetery, Oakland Crossroads, SC