Private, Company K, Jenkins's Regiment, Palmetto Sharpshooters.

James Jerman Palmer was born iu St. Stevens' Parish, (Charleston District, on the 23d May, 1840, and fell on the plains of Manassas on the 30th of August, 1862. He inherited and received from his parents, Dr. John S. Palmer and Esther-Simmons Palmer, all the advantages that family, wealth, intelligence, and moral training could contribute to a useful and successful career in life. These privileges he did not abuse, but used them to make himself an educated gentleman and a useful citizen. After several years of domestic training and suitable instruction from private tutors, he was transferred from the parental roof and placed under the instruction of J. W. Hudson, in the Mt. Zion Academy at Winnsboro'. Here he was prepared for College, and in 1857 was admitted to the Sophomore Class of Wofford College. Though deficient in some of his studies, his previous training and diligence in study soon overcame these disadvantages, and placed him among the first in his class. He graduated in 1860 with the first grade of scholarship in a class of a high order of intellect, and thought by some to be the best that ever left that institution.

After leaving College he went to the Virginia University for the purpose of preparing himself for the practice of Medicine. He was recalled home when South Carolina seceded, and attended a course of lectures in the Medical College of Charleston. At the close of the winter lectures he paid a visit to his parents, and while there the booming of the distant guns announced that the bombardment of Fort Sumpter had begun. His native State had thrown herself in the breach of a dismembered Union, and he could no longer resist the promptings of his patriotic heart. Hastenirig to the scene of action, he arrived in time to assist the Palmetto Guard in extinguishing the flames of the captured for tress.

At the suggestion of the venerable Edmund RuflSn, who was an honorary member of the Palmetto Guard, volunteers for Virginia were called for, and our lamented young friend was among the first to step forward and offer his services. He served in Kershaw's 2d South Carolina regiment, until April 1862, when, upon the reorganization of the different regiments, his old mess of the Palmetto Guard having dispersed, he was led by his strong attachment for Thomas Duncan, his classmate and bosom friend at Wofford College, to join Company K, Captain Evans, of the Palmetto Sharpshooters, under Colonel Jenkins. He was in all the marches, skirmishes and battles through which Kershaw's regiment passed, and fought his first great battle on the plains of Manassas, July 21st, 1861. The privations, fatigues and sufferings which our army endured in that memorable campaign he bore without a murmur, and sustained himself with unflinching energy and heroic fortitude in that masterly retreat from the Potomac to Richmond.

With the Palmetto Sharpshooters he was associated with a large number of his college friends, and with them shared the privations and dangers of that gallant corps. At the battle of Williamsburg he fought bravely and endured great hardship as a good soldier. Wasted by disease, and exposed to heavy rains, without food or shelter, he declared thatibr the first time he had to abandon his knapsack. His feeble health would have justified him in retiring to a hospital or in asking a furlough, but with indomitable zeal in his country's cause, and with almost matchless fortitude he passed on with his regiment, and we next find him in the bloody battle of the Seven Pines. Here he fought all day, until darkness arrested the progress of Jenkins's Brigade, which had advanced beyond the enemy's last entrenchments. His sabre-bayonet was broken by a ball which passed through his overcoat and coat, leaving a slight bruise on his side and back. So great was his modesty he refused to have his name reported among the list of wounded.

In the memorable battles before Richmond, he displayed the same courage and fortitude which had distinguished his previous career. It was in these battles that so many of his comrades fell, and none more lamented than his bosom friend, Thomas C. Duncan. On the last afternoon of the fight, about 4 o'clock, when every other officer had been either killed or wounded, the command devolved upon Lieutenant Duncan. While gallantly leading his company to the charge, he fell mortally wounded upon the field. James J. Palmer hastened to his friend in the midst of flying shot and shell, caught him in his arms, and receiving from his lips hasty messages of love to parents and friends at home, dosed his eyes in death; and pinning a card to his bosom with a request that his body might be decently buried and marked, hastoned on to pursue the flying foe and avenge the yet uncurdled blood of his slaughtered friend. Returning to the field, he had the body carefully placed on a litter and sent back to Richmond to the care of his brother, the Rev. James A. Duncan.

In one of these battles he had had his rifle struck out of his hand by a fragment of shell, his cartridge-box torn off, and a severe bruise inflicted on his hip which prostrated him to the ground; but he merely stated the fact dryly in a postscript to a letter addressed to his parents. Although urged by his comrades, he persistently refused to be reported among the wounded, as he felt able to continue the fight, and in a few weeks he appears for a second time on the bloody plains of Manassas.

Little did he think how soon he was to close his career upon the same memorable field where he had fought his first great battle. His company had been assigned a dangerous and important position upon the field, and while standing in a group of his College friends, a shell exploded in their midst, and at once hurried into eternity this gallant young man, with his noble companions, Theodotus L. Capers and Whiteford Smith. Thus perished the last of that mess, who, from congeniality of feeling, had associated together in camp, and for intelligence, courage, fortitude, and moral worth, were not to be surpassed by any association of young men in the Army of Northern Virginia.

As a son he was obedient, respectful, and affectionate. His father writes:—" He was all a parent could desire of a son. He never caused us a single moment's anxiety as regards his deportment; he was always a dutiful and affeetionate brother." As a student he applied himself with diligence, was seldom or never absent from the recitation room, and always listened with respectful attention to every lecture or explanation given by his instructors. The universal testimony of the Faculty is that he was prompt and punctual in the performance of every duty, obedient to college-laws, and commendable for his gentlemanly deportment. The habits thus formed were carried into camp, and laid the foundation of his character as a true patriot and brave soldier. His willingness and promptness to perform any duty assigned him elicited from his Colonel, afterwards General Jenkins, the remark, "Sir, that young man is a noble fellow; he is always the right man in the right place." His talents qualified him to take a high position in the army, yet he sought not office nor fame; least of all did he desire the ephemeral distinction of a desperado. His motives were higher and purer; his country was invaded, a ruthless and cruel foe threatened to desolate his .home, and he felt it to be his duty to defend that country and that home. He performed therefore, with cheerfulness, every service assigned him, endured hardship and sufferings without a murmur, and shrank from no danger where duty called him. In a letter to one of his sisters he wrote:—

"I go down to join the army under the full conviction that it is ray duty, and that not only my honor, but that of all my relations and connections will be impaired if I keep aloof any longer. I go now with the intention of serving my State to the utmost of my abilities, and entrust my life to the keeping of God. He gave and he can take away whensoever it pleases him. I will not murmur, but it will be hard to be cut off in the prime of life."

To a mind well Balanced he added the refinements of a cultivated taste and cheerful disposition. He was, therefore, a beautiful writer and pleasant correspondent. His extreme modesty and repugnance to display caused him at times to appear diffident, but he was interesting in conversation and loved to mingle with his friends. He may have been select in the choice of his companions, but he was kind and polite to all, and no feature of his character was more prominent than his uniform gentlemanly deportment. It was not that artificial mannerism which, like a holiday garment, may be put on or off as occasion demands, but it was the habit of his life, it was the effusion of a kind heart flowing through every channel of social intercourse and mellowing every element of his nature.

It is not reasonable to expect of one whose mind and heart were so constituted and whose life was so consistent with the great principles of Christianity, that he should base his character solely upon the dogmas of a worldly philosophy, or that he should postpone (lift consideration of eternal salvation to a period of time when the feeble service of a fragment of his life would be but a poor return to Him who had crowned his years with loving-kindness, and offered a life of eternal happiness beyond the grave. Hence, we frequently find him in his correspondence recognizing his dependence on God, returning thanks for His merciful protection, submitting without a murmur to His will, and expressing his conviction of the importance of making early preparation for death. In his last letter to his mother, he says: —

"Men claim to have strong and brave hearts, but many a man's heart has been bitterly wrung since the commencement of this cruel war. And I have heard men who never flinched in battle, declare, since these sanguinary conflicts, that they hope never to be engaged in another. It does seem miraculous how any of us escaped at all unhurt from such a shower of shells, grape-shot and minie balls. We lost some of the best men in our company killed, and many others have been disabled for life.

"Truly I have great cause for gratitude to God for his merciful protection of me through so many dangers, while others have been cut down in youth around me. If I know my own heart 1 am grateful, and since I have seen those so near and dear to me fall in the bloom of youth, I have felt the necessity of preparing against that day when preparation will be impossible; for there is no longer a to-morrow. Two of my messmates have fallen, but they were Christians, and I hope they have'only been removed from a world of trouble to a world of eternal joy."

We, too, hope that you have joined that mess above, and that it may be your blessed privilege to welcome to that "world of eternal joy" those beloved ones on earth who now mourn the loss of that " dutiful son and affectionate brother."

James J Palmer