AUTHOR: Jarrod Parker
James Parker, the son of John and Balinda Parker, was born between 1827 and 1833 in Laurens County, South Carolina. He moved with his family to Buncombe County, North Carolina between 1845 and 1850. They settled in the Lower Hominy Valley, near Asheville, in the area where the Biltmore Mall is today. James married Margaret Elizabeth Murray in 1853, and together they had 11 children.
In 1862, James, along with his three brothers Thomas, William and Joseph, joined the Confederate Army. All four were assigned to the 60th North Carolina Infantry, Company E. The 60th North Carolina was assigned to the Army of Tennessee. In late October or early November of 1862, John Parker visited his sons in camp near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. John contracted Typhoid Fever and managed to make it home before he died, either in December or January. Thomas and William were killed at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on January 1st, 1863, when the 60th NC attempted to take a Federal battery on the right of the Confederate line. Thomas and William are believed to be laid to rest in one of the Confederate burial trenches on the battlefield.
General Johnston took men including the 60th NC, from the Army of Tennessee to attempt to relieve Vicksburg. On July 16th, 1863, James was wounded near Bolton, Mississippi and had his right arm amputated. He returned home and was officially discharged in February of 1865. Joseph was captured at Ruff’s Mill near Atlanta on July 4th, 1864 and was sent to Camp Douglass in Chicago. He survived and returned home after the war.
Elizabeth died in 1881, and in 1897, James married Harriet Warren, and they had two children. James Parker died April 30th, 1911 and is buried in the Sardis Methodist Church cemetery in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Joseph passed away three years later on September 17th, 1914, and was laid to rest in Sardis also.