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J.K. Law
(1841 - 1912)
Home State: South Carolina
Education: South Carolina Military Academy (The Citadel), Class of 1863
Branch of Service: Staff
Unit: Law's Brigade
Before Sharpsburg
Son of wealthy planter and lawyer E.A. Law, he entered the Citadel in 1859, and in the summer of 1860 was living with his parents, 7 siblings, and 28 slaves on their plantation at Darlington Court House, SC. In the Summer of 1862, while still at Cadet at the Citadel, he volunteered as an aide to his brother Evander.
On the Campaign
He was with the Colonel in Maryland and was wounded in his left ankle in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He graduated from the Citadel with his class and, disabled for field service, was appointed an enrolling officer in South Carolina in October 1863, and probably served as such to the end of the war.
After the War
He moved to Solano County, CA, in 1869. He was a school teacher there and in Mariposa County. He was later a lawyer and district attorney in Merced.
References & notes
His service in Maryland and other details from Colonel Law's report and Krick.1 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a group photograph of General Evander M Law and others, probably taken in 1864, now at the Valentine Museum in Richmond, VA.
He married Mary Lavinia James (1845-1918) in December 1866 and they had 2 children, but both died very young.
Birth
01/19/1841; Darlington District, SC
Death
12/14/1913; Merced, CA; burial in Merced Cemetery, Merced, CA
1 Krick, Robert E.L., Staff Officers in Gray; A Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, p. 198 [AotW citation 32250]