Friday, August 10, 2012

James M. Fitts, student 1862-1863

James Monroe Fitts. Jr. enlisted at the age of 16 in Co. F of the 12th Virginia Infantry as a private on April 18, 1861. He was discharged for being underage on May 17, 1862. He was then sent in 1862 to R-MC, his father James M. Fitt's alma mater (A.B. 1838, A.M. 1841). The college closed in February 1863 for the duration of the war, and on February 20, 1863, Fitts enlisted in Co. A of the 3rd VA Cavalry (the Boydton Cavalry) as a private. He is listed as AWOL in the summer of 1863 but his horse had been killed in action near Aldie, VA in June 1863, so he was likely procuring another mount. He had returned by September 1863. Fitts lost another horse in October, 1863 in battle at Raccoon's Ford, VA. He was hospitalized in Charlottesville, VA in December 1864 with impetigo, was in a hospital in Richmond in February, and listed as deserted on March 16, 1865.

He was a farmer in Mecklenburg County, VA in 1870. By 1880, he had returned to Warren County, NC where he was still farming. He died January 24, 1910 and is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Warrenton, NC.

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