Background
SMITH, James Argyle was born on July 1, 1831 in Maury County, Tennessee, United States, United States.
SMITH, James Argyle was born on July 1, 1831 in Maury County, Tennessee, United States, United States.
Private school, United States Military Academy.
His family life is unknown. He graduated forty-fifth in a class of fifty-two from the U.S. Military Academy in 1853 and served in the West as a career officer in the U.S. Army until 1861. He participated in the Sioux Expedition of 1855 and the Utah expedition of 1858.
In December 1859, he was promoted to first lieutenant. He resigned his commission on May 9, 1861, in order to join the Confederate Army. In 1862, he held the rank of major and was assistant adjutant general for General Leonidas Polk, with whom he fought heroically during the battle of Shiloh in the spring.
After being promoted to colonel, he fought at Perry ville during the Kentucky campaign, and at Murfreesboro and Chickamauga. He was promoted to brigadier general on September 30,1863, following the battle of Missionary Ridge. He was painfully wounded during the Atlanta campaign but recovered and later assumed command of Cleburne’s Division after the latter’s death at the battle of Franklin, Tennessee.
He spent the final months of the war in the Carolinas. He surrendered in North Carolina and was paroled at Greensboro in May 1865. From 1865 to 1877, he was a farmer and public school teacher in Jackson, Mississippi, and from 1877 to 1886, he was state superintendent of education in Mississippi.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.