James Lucius Cross, was born October 27, 1834 in Frederick County, VA. In 1859, he married Betty Miller. Cross entered Virginia Military Institute on August 7, 1852 and graduated ninth in his class on July 4, 1856. According to William George Dodd, in his History of West Florida Seminary, Major Cross was hired by the Seminary's Principal Philip H. Montague in the 1860-1861 academic year as a teacher of mathematics and tactics at the Seminary's boys' school. Major Cross replaced Professor James H. Lane, who resigned his position because of a grievance concerning the supervising and teaching of the younger boys.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he was one of a few people with military experience available to prepare the Florida troops for war. He enlisted in July 12, 1861 at Jacksonville, FL. In July 1862, he was appointed Major in the Provisional Army of the Confederacy. In March 1863, he was ordered to report to Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill at Goldsborough, NC and remained on his staff until early 1864. He then served in Mississippi and Florida and North Carolina and was paroled in May 1865 at Greensboro, NC as Major and Assistant Adjutant General.
He returned to Tallahassee and taught math and tactics for the West Florida Seminary before moving to New Orleans, LA around 1869. Cross taught at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University) from 1878-1879. He died July 15, 1893 in Glade Springs, VA.
A picture of Major Cross can be found in David W. Hartman and David Coles' Biographical Rosters of Florida's Confederate and Union Soldiers, 1861-1865, Volume I, and at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, VA.
From the guide to the Major James Lucius Cross Correspondence, 1861-1865, 1861-1862, (Repository Unknown)
