{⋆★⋆} BG Chestnut, James Jr.

James Chestnut Jr.

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Born:
January 18, 1815

Birthplace: Camden, South Carolina

Father: James Chestnut Sr. 1773 – 1866
(Buried: Knights Hill Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

Mother: Mary Bowes Cox 1777 – 1864
(Buried: Knights Hill Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

Wife: Mary Boykin Miller 1823 – 1886
(Buried: Knights Hill Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

Married: April 23, 1840

Children: None

Education:

1835: Graduated from the College of New Jersey law school​

Occupation before War:
Before War.jpg


Attorney in Camden, South Carolina​
1840 – 1852: South Carolina State Representative​
1850: Delegate to the Southern Convention​
1852 – 1858: South Carolina State Senator​
1856 – 1858: President of South Carolina State Senate​
1858 – 1860: United States Senator from South Carolina​
1860: On November 10th, after Lincoln wins the Presidential Election, James becomes the first Southern senator to withdraw from the Senate. He will be expelled in absentia from the U.S. Senate in the next year.​
1860: December, attends the South Carolina State Secession Convention as a delegate​

Civil War Career:

1861: Elected to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States.​
Member of the committee which drafted the Confederate States Constitution.​
1861 – 1862: Confederate States Representative from South Carolina​
1861: Aide to General P. G. T. Beauregard during Fort Sumter Siege​
1861: Aide to General P. G. T. Beauregard during Battle of 1st Bull Run​
1862: Member of South Carolina's Executive Council​
1862 – 1864: Chief of Department of Military of South Carolina Colonel​
1864 – 1865: Brigadier General & Aide to President Jefferson Davis​
1864 – 1865: Commander of South Carolina Reserve Troops
After War.jpg
1864: Brigade Commander Battle of Tulifinny, South Carolina​

Occupation after War:

1865 – 1885: Attorney in Camden, South Carolina​
Helped from the Conservative Party of South Carolina​

Died:
February 1, 1885

Place of Death: At his home in Camden, South Carolina

Cause of Death: Not Known

Age at time of Death: 70 years old

Burial Place: Knights Hill Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina
 
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As a member of the Provisional Confederate Congress He sat on the Committee on Naval Affairs and the Committee of Territories.A bio that I'm reading (Who's Who in the Civil War) says it was during the recess of the first and second sessions of Congress that He served as aide-de-camp to Beauregard. Was the first session short enough to allow Him to participate in the Fort Sumter affair?Then to be with Beauregard at Bull Run also?
 
Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, (1823-1886) was the author of A Diary from Dixie, an insightful view of Southern life and leadership during the American Civil War. In 1840 she married James Chesnut, Jr., who later served as a U.S. senator from South Carolina until he resigned to take an important role in the secession movement and the Confederacy.

Mary Miller was the daughter of a prominent South Carolina politician and grew up in an atmosphere of public service. She attended private schools in Camden and Charleston. Her husband was a staff officer, an aide to General P.G.T. Beauregard, and commanding general of the South Carolina reserves.

Chesnut accompanied him on his military missions during the Civil War
and began recording her views and observations on February 15, 1861, and closed her diary on August 2, 1865. After the war she reworked her manuscript many times in anticipation of publication. But A Diary from Dixie was not published until 1905, long after her death. Although not a day-by-day account, A Diary is regarded highly by historians for its perceptive views of Confederate military and political leaders and for its insight into Southern society during the Civil War. An annotated edition with a biographical essay, Mary Chesnut's Civil War, ed. by C. Vann Woodward (1981), was awarded the 1982 Pulitzer Prize in U.S. history.


Dec 22, 1864 Hardeeville, SC, The following disposition of troops will be carried into effect with the least practicable delay:
III. Maj-Gen Wright's Div & Gen Chestnut's command-the latter consisting of SC reserves & the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th SC Militia-will proceed to the 4th Military Sub-District of SC

3/6/65 War Dept says-Gen Chestnut has been ordered to report his command of [SC] Reserves to Gen Johnston.

March 8, 1865 Richmond-S O #55/XXV, A&IGO is hereby revoked, & Gen James Chesnut, will return to SC & enter actively upon the duties prescribed in G O #8, A&IGO. Such of the reserve forces of SC as may be available will be placed under the orders of Gen Johnston, cdg.

March 8, 1865, Richmond to Gen Chestnut, Charlotte: You will place under the orders of Gen Johnston, cdg, such of the reserve forces of SC as are available, & then return to SC & enter actively upon the duties prescribed in G O #8
 
Mary was quite an interesting woman. In her diary, she does not hesitate to speak her mind about the personalities and inner-most workings of the Confederate government. I suspect she was equally outspoken in person. It's a wonderful book to read, especially the Woodward edition, which is more complete. I'm proud to say that she's my 1st cousin six times removed on the Miller side of my family.
 
The Man Who Started the Civil War: James Chesnut, Honor, and Emotion in the American South by Anna Koivusalo

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In the predawn hours of April 12, 1861, James Chesnut Jr. piloted a small skiff across the Charleston Harbor and delivered the fateful order to open fire on Fort Sumter―the first shots of the Civil War. In The Man Who Started the Civil War, Anna Koivusalo offers the first comprehensive biography of Chesnut and through him a history of honor and emotion in elite white southern culture. Koivusalo reveals the dynamic, and at times fragile, nature of these concepts as they were tested and transformed from the era of slavery through Reconstruction.

Best remembered as the husband of Mary Boykin Chesnut, author of A Diary from Dixie, James Chesnut served in the South Carolina legislature and as a US senator before becoming a leading figure in the South's secession from the Union. Koivusalo recounts how honor and emotion shaped Chesnut's life events and the decisions that culminated in the cataclysm of civil war. Challenging the traditional view of honor as a code, Koivusalo illuminates honor's vital but fickle role as a source for summoning, channeling, and expressing emotion in the nineteenth-century South.



Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
The Man Who Started the Civil War: James Chesnut, Honor, and Emotion in the American South by Anna Koivusalo

View attachment 463030

In the predawn hours of April 12, 1861, James Chesnut Jr. piloted a small skiff across the Charleston Harbor and delivered the fateful order to open fire on Fort Sumter―the first shots of the Civil War. In The Man Who Started the Civil War, Anna Koivusalo offers the first comprehensive biography of Chesnut and through him a history of honor and emotion in elite white southern culture. Koivusalo reveals the dynamic, and at times fragile, nature of these concepts as they were tested and transformed from the era of slavery through Reconstruction.

Best remembered as the husband of Mary Boykin Chesnut, author of A Diary from Dixie, James Chesnut served in the South Carolina legislature and as a US senator before becoming a leading figure in the South's secession from the Union. Koivusalo recounts how honor and emotion shaped Chesnut's life events and the decisions that culminated in the cataclysm of civil war. Challenging the traditional view of honor as a code, Koivusalo illuminates honor's vital but fickle role as a source for summoning, channeling, and expressing emotion in the nineteenth-century South.



Cheers,
USS ALASKA
I want to recommend this book. I have been lucky to be able to attend on the author PhD Anna Koivusalo classes at Helsinki University. Both courses were about ACW - other was named ”King Cotton” and the other was ”Gone with the Wind”. Both courses were excellent. She really has a passion for ACW and her book has been throughly peer reviewed, if I get it right it is actually her PhD work.
 
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