There are a couple of good sources for information about James Harrington Powe (4/11/1835 – 8/1/1898), one of the doctors who graduated from South Carolina Medical College in 1858. Confederate Military History, Vol. V (South Carolina) by Ellison Capers contains a biographical sketch on pp. 803-05. Even better, Powe’s daughter, Harriet Powe Lynch, published Reminiscences and Sketches of Confederate Times in 1909, 11 years after he passed away. Most of the content was written by Powe. This is an interesting though brief (44 page) publication. The following summary comes from these sources as well as from Powe's service records.

James was born in Cheraw to Dr. Thomas E. Powe and Charlotte Harrington. He was appointed to West Point, but for medical reasons left before graduating to attend Charleston Medical College. Harriet said that Powe’s father’s side of the family had many physicians, but that medicine “was not the profession of his choice, for his heart, tender as a woman’s, bled at the sight of the suffering that he was called upon to relieve. When later events altered the course of his life, he gave up active practice, though ever holding himself ready at the call of any poor soul who might need his aid.”

Nonetheless, he practiced medicine in Cheraw after graduation, then was appointed by Gov. Pickens as Second Lieutenant in Company F, 1 SC Infantry (Butler’s Regiment) in February 1861. Served in the battle of Fort Sumter as assistant Quartermaster General of SC on the staff of General R.G.M. Dunnovant until the capture of Ft. Sumter, then returned to his regiment. He often served as a recruiting officer and was frequently away from his unit on account thereof. Appointed Captain of Company D July 10, 1863. Severely wounded while manning a gun at Battery Wagner in the summer of 1863. He described his injuries as a wound to the right shoulder and elbow paralyzing the arm, a wound to the small of the back and right hip, causing him to walk slowly and preventing him from writing. From the effects of these wounds he was partially paralyzed for eight or ten years. Retired by order of the Secretary of War, October 19, 1864.

On March 18, 1862, he married Josephine E. Robbins, and they had 7 children. He farmed at Cheraw for 20 years, and in 1885 he was engaged in the weather bureau service. He was a mason, active in Sunday School, and prepared many articles for instruction of the young. Died at Cheraw August 1, 1898, age 63. Buried at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Cheraw. His headstone bears this inscription: “James Harrington Powe, M.D., 4/11/1835 – 8/1/1898, Cap. Co D 1st Reg SC Regular Inf CSA.”