During the Civil War, planter James B. Griffin (1825-1881) initially served with Hampton’s Legion, a unit of the Confederate Army composed of infantry, artillery, and cavalry and organized by Wade Hampton in 1861. While with the unit, Griffin participated in the Peninsula Campaign from March through July 1862. After the unit’s dissolution later that year, he joined the South Carolina Home Guard, where he remained until the end of the war. Griffin had been a wealthy, slave owner and cotton producer in Edgefield, South Carolina, but during Reconstruction, he moved his family to Texas.
Source:
McArthur, Judith N., Orville Vernon Burton, and James B. Griffin. A Gentleman and an Officer: A Military and Social History of James B. Griffin’s Civil War . New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
From the guide to the Griffin (James B. ) Family Papers 96-387, 99-106., 1856-1908, 1962-1966, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
