AUTHOR: Marc Francis Roddin
James was a teenage farmer when the Civil War broke out, and he enlisted into the North Carolina 27th Infantry (H Company) in Pitt County, where he lived. He served as a private in E Company for about ten months in 1861 and 1862, which included the Battle of New Berne. After his tour of tour of duty was completed and he was discharged from the military, his father, Lockett, enlisted.
James married Nancy Wetherington about a year after his father died from war-related sickness, and they raised three children. They had one boy and two girls.
