James W. Denton lived in Baldwin County, Georgia, by the early 1860s. He enlisted in the Confederate army on May 14, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company H of the 4^th Georgia Infantry. According to his service records, he was 6 feet tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. In an undated poem, he declared that he was “fight[ing] for my own native land,” and he looked forward to the time “When from the Union and Yankees our Country will be free.”

 

The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the Battle of Gettysburg. Union forces captured him at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, and imprisoned him at Fort Delaware. He remained there until the end of the war. He eventually swore an oath of allegiance to the Union, and he was released on June 16, 1865. He died sometime after the war.

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