Colonel James McCullough, Commander, 16th Regiment
Born: February 20, 1824, Greenville District, SCDied: October 1, 1892, Greenville, SC
James McCullough was born February 20, 1824, son of Joseph McCullough, 1792-1853, and Mary Cowen (or Cowan), 1789-1857. He was born at the McCullough home on the Augusta Road, 25 miles south of Greenville, SC, in the lower part of Greenville District. His father, Joseph McCullough, was the son of Robert McCullough of County Antrim, Ireland. His mother Mary was the daughter of David Cowen (or Cowan). It appears that Joseph McCullough built his home about 1812, where his son James McCullough was born in 1824. The well preserved old house is still occupied by his descendants in 1963 on the Augusta Road, 25 miles south of Greenville, SC. Joseph McCullough studied at Cokesbury Institute, after which he farmed the McCullough place, raised fine horses and operated a large merchandise business near the homeplace. He was a Methodist and a Mason.
In the War for Southern Independence, Colonel James McCullough commanded the 16th Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers form April 28, 1862 until February 4, 1865 at which time the 16th was consolidated with other troops. Wallace's "History of South Carolina" (Vol. III, page 180), New York, 1934, describes Col. McCullough's Regiment as follows:
In the spring of 1863, Grant's aggressive tactics in Mississippi had produced a critical situation for the Confederates. By the most brilliant strategy of his career, he prevented Generals J. E. Johnston and Pemberton from uniting, beat separately their much smaller forces, and May 16 shut up the latter with an utterly dispirited army in Vicksburg. May 2nd, the Confederate government ordered General Beauregard at Charleston to send 5,000 South Carolinians, Georgians, and Louisianians to save Pemberton., organized into States Rights gist's Brigade (Colonel James McCullough's and C. H. Stevens' regiments being included) and WHT. Walker's Brigade. These reinforcements nobly assisted Johnston's hopeless attempt to save Pemberton, and continued in the Western Army.
Col. McCullough had been a large slave owner, and his devotion to his colored slaves is expressed in the two slave burying grounds on the old McCullough place. One grave is marked "A Faithful Servant, Beverly McCullough, died March 1878, Age 55 To His Memory by his old Master J. Mc."
Hard by the slave burying ground is the large McCullough family burying ground with some handsomely carved monuments, including those to the builder of the McCullough homestead, Joseph McCullough, and the second owner, Col. James McCullough. Col. McCullough's monument is engraved:
James McCullough, Col. Of 16th Regiment of
South Carolina Volunteers
Born Feb. 20, 1824, Died Oct. 1, 1892
"Well done thou good and faithful servant"
Colonel McCullough's son was the distinguished Greenville lawyer and legislator, Joseph Allen McCullough, 1865 - 1931, who married Maude Elizabeth d"Alvigny, 1865 - 1914. Their sons were the late Col. James d'Alvigny McCullough, 1891-1953, whose widow and son now live at the old McCullough place, and the late Charles Frederic McCullough, 1892-1953, who served the city of Greenville for 16 years, first as alderman and ten years as mayor.
Reprinted from "16th South Carolina Regiment, CSA" by John S. Taylor, 1964.
