James Jameson, from Culpeper County, Virginia, was born circa 1820 and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1842. Prior to the Civil War he worked as a teacher, lawyer and farmer. He married Mary Mildred Bowen of Fauquier Co., Virginia in May 1845. They had four children: Alwyn, Harriet (Hallie, to whom the letters are addressed), Ella, and Henry. In 1861 he was elected Captain of Company I, 11th Virginia Infantry Regiment, and was wounded in action at Dranesville in December 1861. He resigned from his unit in April 1863 and was hospitalized as late as September 1863. Jameson was arrested by Federal troops at Culpeper Court House, Virginia on March 26, 1864, as "formerly a Captain in the C. S. A." and was sent to prison at Point Lookout, Maryland. Although he was ultimately exchanged, he did not survive the trip home. He became ill from the effects of his wound and imprisonment while traveling on a flag-of-truce boat to Richmond, and died September 30, 1864--approximately a month after writing the final letter to his daughter. He is buried at his wife's family home, "Belle Coil," Fauquier Co., Virginia.