Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 30.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[346]

A Maryland Confederate. [from the Richmond, Va., Dispatch, January 17, 1903.]

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Matchless for hard fighting and bravery. Recollections of Major James Breathed.

By H. H. Matthews, Pikesville, Md., a Member of Breathed's Battery.

So little is generally known of the early life and ancestry of Major James Breathed, the fearless, dashing artillery officer who commanded the celebrated battery which has always been known as Breathed's Battery, since the death of the immortal Pelham, on March 17th, 1863, at Kelly's Ford, Va., I thought the public would perhaps be gratified by a recital of his early life up to and after the Civil war.

Please pardon the length of this letter, as I find it impossible to do him justice in a shorter one.

Major James Breathed, of the Stuart Horse Artillery, Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, C. S. A., was the son of John Breathed and Ann MacGill Williams, of Hagerstown, Md. His ancestors came from England and the north of Ireland, and to Maryland in 1740. John Breathed moved into Virginia, at Janesville, sold his large landed estates in West Virginia and Maryland that he inherited from a bachelor uncle, and purchased Durrganess, originally the old Randolph estate. Major James Breathed was born February 13th, 1838, in Virginia, at Fruit Hall, Morgan county, near Berkeley Springs. At an early age his father and mother moved over near Hagerstown, Md. Young ‘Jim’ Breathed was sent to St. James College, near that place. After being there some time he concluded to study medicine, which he did in the office of Dr. Mac-Gill for two years; then he went to Baltimore and took a course of surgery under the celebrated Dr. Nathan R. Smith. He received his diploma and graduated as an M. D. at the age of twenty-one years. He went to St. Joseph, Mo., shortly afterward, and began the practice of medicine, remaining there until Virginia seceded, on April 17th, 1861. All his relations were strong Southerners.

The late Governor Jackson, Marmaduke, ‘Jeff’ Thompson, and