16th Infantry

Private James Turpin

Company A (the “Jackson Volunteers”), 16th Regiment N.C. Troops (6th Regiment N.C. Volunteers)

James Turpin (born ca. 1839) resided in Jackson County and enlisted at Webster on April 27, 1861, in the “Jackson Volunteers,” subsequently Company A, 16th Regiment N.C. Troops. James was seemingly present throughout his first year of service, and enjoyed a furlough home in early 1862.

At the Battle of Mechanicsville, June 26, 1862, the 16th North Carolina sustained “murderous” artillery and small arms fire (some of which was friendly fire) and lost forty men killed or mortally wounded in action and eighty-one men wounded. One of the slain was James, who was described on a company muster roll compiled shortly after his death, as a “brave soldier.”

One of James’s comrades recalled that at Mechanicsville “Company A had eight brothers, representing four different families. These eight brothers were messing together in pairs. When the battle was over and the roll was called only four of these brothers answered, and each of the survivors had lost a brother killed on the field of battle.” James’s surviving brother was Henry A. Turpin, whose image is posted below this one.

On January 15, 1864, J.H. Turpin, the father of James, filed a claim with the Confederate government for any back pay and bounty money due his son. In January 1865 the claim was reported still pending and apparently was never settled.

Image: N.C. Office of Archives and History.

Source Note:
Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions, 1:756; Manarin et. al., North Carolina Troops 6:2, 20; Mast, “North Carolina Casualties”; service record files of James Turpin, 16th Regiment N.C. Troops, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from the State of North Carolina (M270), RG109, NA.