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Confederate (CSV)

Lieutenant

James Berrien Finch

(1835 - 1912)

Home State: Georgia

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 50th Georgia Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

Son of planter Charles Finch, in 1860 he was a 24 year old merchant living with planter W.J. King, his family, and 9 slaves in Tallokas, Brooks County, GA. He enrolled in Quitman, GA on 4 March 1862 and mustered as 2nd Lieutenant of Company K, 50th Georgia Infantry.

On the Campaign

He was wounded by a piece of shell to his left eye in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862, resulting in loss of sight in that eye.

The rest of the War

He was admitted to a hospital in Richmond, VA on 26 September then furloughed home to recover. He resigned his commission due to his disability for field service on 27 July 1863.

After the War

By 1870 and to at least 1900 he was a prosperous retail dry goods merchant in Quitman, GA. He retired in 1909.

References & notes

His service basics from Henderson,1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1900, and his bio sketch in William Harden's A History of Savannah and South Georgia (Vol. 2, 1913). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Mary Louise McCall (1845-1931) in November 1865 and they had 6 children.

Birth

06/1835; Madison County, FL

Death

07/10/1912; Quitman, GA; burial in West End Cemetery, Quitman, GA

Notes

1   Henderson, Lilian, compiler, Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865, 6 vols., Hapeville (GA): Longino & Porter, 1959-1964  [AotW citation 2974]

2   US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927  [AotW citation 32612]