Brig. Gen. James Chesnut, Jr

James Chesnut, Jr. of Camden, South Carolina, was a planter, lawyer, United States Senator, a signatory of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, and a Confederate Army general. His wife was Mary Boykin Chesnut; she became notable for her diary of the Civil War years, first published in 1905 nearly 20 years after her death. In 1982 a version edited by the historian C. Vann Woodward and published as Mary Chesnut's Civil War Diary (1981) won the Pulitzer Prize for history.

Chesnut participated in the South Carolina secession convention in December 1860 and was subsequently elected to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America. He was a member of the committee which drafted the Constitution of the Confederacy.

In the spring of 1861, he served as an aide-de-camp to General P.G.T. Beauregard and was sent by the general to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston. After the commander of the fort, Major Robert Anderson of the U.S. Army declined to surrender, Chesnut gave orders to the nearby Fort Johnson to open fire on Fort Sumter. In consequence the first shots of the Civil War were fired, on April 12, 1861. In the summer of 1861 Chesnut also took part in the First Battle of Manassas as an aide-de-camp to Beauregard.

In 1862 Chesnut served as a member of the South Carolina's Executive Council and the Chief of the Department of the Military of South Carolina. Later in the war he served the Confederate Army as a colonel and an aide to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In 1864 he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of South Carolina reserve forces until the end of the war. After the war, he returned to the practice of law in Camden and formed the Conservative Party of South Carolina.

Source: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Chesnut,_Jr. Wikipedia]

U.S. Senator, Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. After graduating from the law department of the College of New Jersey, in 1837, he was admitted to the bar and commenced to practice law in Camden, South Carolina. He was a member of the South Carolina State House of Representatives, (1842-54) and served in the South Carolina State Senate, (1854-58). In 1858, he was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Josiah J. Evans, serving until 1860, when he resigned in support of the Southern States Secession from the Union. He then was a delegate to the Confederate Provisional Congress, in 1861 and served as a member of the South Carolina's Executive Council and the Chief of the Department of the Military of South Carolina, in 1862. During the Civil war, he served as a Colonel in the Confederate Army, took part in several battles and was an aide to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In 1864, he was promoted Brigadier General and was in command of the South Carolina reserve forces until the end of the war. After the war, he mainly practiced law until his death at age 70. (bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46568383" target="_blank John "J-Cat" Griffith)] Maintained by: Find A Grave Record added: Feb 28, 2000

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