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N. C., and they have four children:
Osborne B.,
Alice Louise,
Alexander and
Wilkins.
Lieutenant James Fitz James Caldwell was born in
Newberry, S. C., September 19, 1837.
His father,
James John Caldwell, was a native of the same county, who filled important offices in his native State, of which he was chancellor from 1846 until his death in 1850.
His grandfather,
Daniel Caldwell, was born in the same county, soon after the settlement in
South Carolina of his parents who had emigrated from
Ireland.
His mother was
Nancy Morgan McMorries, a native of
South Carolina, who died October 16, 1853, in her fifty-second year.
Mr. Caldwell's mother wished to name him for his father, but as a brother who had died had borne the same name, the father objected, and the boy went without a name until in his fourth year, when, hearing his aunt reading
Scott's
Lady of the Lake to his mother, he expressed a desire to be called
James Fitz James.
His parents gratified his childish whim by giving him the name thus chosen.
At the age of six he removed with his parents to
Columbia, and in 1851 his mother, now a widow, moved to
Anderson.
After her death in 1853 he entered South Carolina college, from which he graduated in 1857, and after studying law in
Charleston and being admitted to the bar, he spent two years in study and travel in
Europe, returning to
South Carolina just after the secession of that State.
His first war service was as a private with the Third regiment of
South Carolina State troops.
He was soon made an aide on
Gen. A. C. Garlington's staff of State troops; but on their transfer to the
Confederate service he returned to the ranks and served until after the
first battle of Manassas, when he was discharged on account of sickness.
In April, 1862, he joined Company B, First South Carolina regiment, as a private.
Col. Daniel H. Hamilton, however, took an interest in him at once and gave him duty as an aide and personal companion.
In this capacity he served until after the
battle of Fredericksburg, and then
General McGowan took command of the brigade and appointed him ordnance officer.
General McGowan had selected him as the brigade historian, and
Mr. Caldwell has always thought that his object on transferring him to the ordnance department was that no harm might come to him and that he might be spared to write