James Hiram Best

In 1860 he was a 17 year old farmer living with his parents, 9 siblings, and 36 slaves on their plantation at Snow Hill in Greene County, NC. He enlisted in Goldsboro, NC on 13 May 1862 and mustered as a Private in Company A, 3rd North Carolina Infantry.

He was sent to a hospital in Frederick, MD by 12 September, left behind, and captured there.

He was in US Army General Hospital #1 in Frederick, MD to 19 September and afterward was a prisoner at Fort Delaware to 2 October, then sent to Aikens' Landing, VA for exchange. He was in a Richmond, VA hospital by 7 October, furloughed for 30 days on 21 October, and was formally exchanged to return to duty on 10 November 1862.

He was again ill and in a Richmond hospital from 6 May to 30 July 1863. He was wounded by a gunshot to his arm on 5 May 1864 in the Wilderness, VA, was in hospitals in Richmond and Danville, VA, and was back with his company by December 1864. He was captured again, at Farmville (or Burkeville), VA on 6 April 1865 and held in Newport News, VA, where he took an oath of allegiance to the United States and was released on 27 June 1865.

By 1870 he was newly married and back farming with his father and siblings on their large farm at Snow Hill/Bull Head, NC, but in 1880 he was teaching school and had his own household there. By 1900, going by Hiram, he was a farmer at Bull Head, NC. In 1910 he was a salesman of general merchandise and lived with his son Paul and his family at Nahunta in Wayne County, NC.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. He's also on the Confederates In Frederick List.2 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

02/16/1843 in NC

03/01/1925; burial in Elmwood Cemetery, Fremont, NC