the war.

After his return to his native State, he entered the South Carolina
College, along with many others, who in after years made their State
and themselves immortal by their fiery zeal in the War of Secession.
At the college young James was a great favorite of all who knew him
best, and while not a close student of text-books, he was an extensive
reader, always delighting his friends with wit and humor. The student
life, however, failed to satisfy his adventurous spirit, and wandering
away to the far distant West, seeking adventure or congenial pursuits,
he received a commission of Lieutenant in the United States Army.

The storm cloud of war, so long hovering over the land, was now about
to burst, and Lieutenant James seeing separation and perhaps war
inevitable, resigned his commission, and hastened to offer his sword
to his native State. He commanded a battery at Fort Johnson, on James'
Island, and shared with General Ruffin the honor of firing the first
gun at Fort Sumter, a shot that was to electrify the world and put in
motion two of the grandest and mightiest armies of all times.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIII

Battle of Fredericksburg--The Fifteenth Regiment and Third Battalion
Join Brigade.

A portion of the Federal Army had preceded Lee, reaching the heights
opposite Fredericksburg two days before the arrival of Kershaw's
Brigade and the other parts of the division. The Federals had been met
by a small body of Confederates doing outpost duty there and held at
bay till the coming of Longstreet with his five divisions. General
Lee was not long in determining the route Burnsides had selected
and hurried Jackson on, and placed him some miles to our right, near
Hamilton's Crossing, on the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad.
When Burnsides became aware of the mighty obstacle of Lee's battalions
between him and his goal, the deep, sluggish river separating the
two armies, he realized the trouble that lay in his path. He began
fortifying the ridges running parallel to and near the river, and
built a great chain of forts along "Stafford Heights," opposite
Fredericksburg. In these forts he mounted one hundred and thirty-seven
guns, forty being siege pieces brought down from Washington by
way of the Potomac and Acquia Creek, and lined the entire range of
hills with his heaviest and long-distanced field batteries. These
forts and batteries commanded the river and plain beyond,