Lt. James
B. Metcalfe was born on Thursday, 15 January 1846, in Natchez, the fourth child of Oren and
Zuleika Rosalie (Lyons) Metcalfe. He was baptized in the First Presbyterian
Church of Natchez on Sunday, 29 November of that year.
He
volunteered for service with the Confederacy in the 10th Mississippi Cavalry at
the age of sixteen. He served in the War with Breckinridge's Brigade from May
1862 to April 1863. He joined Breckinridge's escort that April and was detailed
out in September 1864.
At
some point he was captured and made a daring escape at the Battle of Franklin,
swimming the Duck River and rejoining the Confederate forces in Murphreesboro.
He was again captured at the Battle of West Point on 16 April 1865, at the end
of the War. He was released and went home, having attained the rank of
Lieutenant by the age of nineteen.
Strangely, he is not listed on the Union's list of prisoners captured at
West Point..
Source:
Variously ascribed
contributing writers to Fort Tyler history
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