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Captain James A. Griffin, of
Pickens, S. C., was born on the farm where he now resides, May 25, 1839.
His father was
Elihu H. Griffin, a farmer of prominence, who died October 2, 1874.
His mother was
Ann Ambler, daughter of
James Ambler, and sister of
Maj. James H. Ambler, of
Pickens county.
He is of Scotch-Irish descent on both sides, both the Ambler and Griffin families having emigrated from
Ireland to
Virginia, and thence to
South Carolina.
Mr. Griffin was third in a family of seven children, five sons and two daughters, of whom three sons served in the Confederate army.
The eldest, Robert Young
Hayne, was captain of Company H, in the Fourth South Carolina regiment, commanded by
Col. J. B. E. Sloan, and was killed in the battle of
Seven Pines.
The youngest, Elihu H., served with Company B, of the Thirty-seventh Virginia cavalry, was wounded at
Lynchburg, Va., and after the war became a merchant at
Pickens Court House.
He died as the result of an accident in a cotton gin shortly after the close of the war.
Capt. James A. Griffin was reared on the old Griffin plantation, where he now resides.
His father owned a large distillery, and in it he was employed between the ages of twelve and twenty-one, and then he became a farmer.
On April 14, 1861, he became second sergeant in Company H, Fourth South Carolina regiment, went with this command to
Virginia in June, 1861, and participated in the battles of
First Manassas,
Williamsburg,
Seven Pines,
Gaines' Mill, Frayser's Farm, and
Malvern Hill.
Upon the reorganization in 1862 he was elected second lieutenant of Company B, Thirty-seventh Virginia cavalry, commanded by
Lieut.-Col. Ambrose C. Dunn.
He served with this command until the close of the war, and was in command of his company from the fall of 1863 to the end, taking part in the cavalry fights at
Knoxville,
Bean's Station,
Winchester,
Old Town,
Strasburg,
Liberty Mills and
Gordonsville, besides scores of skirmishes.
He was once slightly wounded and had two horses killed under him and one wounded. He had one very narrow escape from capture, at
Liberty Mills, Va., in January, 1864.
It was after nightfall and the snow on the ground made it just light enough to see a short distance, when he and two companions rode right into a cavalry regiment, without knowing whether it was a Federal or Confederate command.
Lieutenant Griffin 
