![]() ![]() ![]() Soon thereafter, SC Governor Francis Pickens appointed him a military aide. With South Carolina leaning toward secession from the Union in 1860, he became Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Rifles of South Carolina, regardless of the fact that he had no military experience. From the time he resigned this position to the outbreak of war in 1861, he traveled the world learning some five languages authored the book "Notes on Spain and the Spaniards in the Summer of 1859, with a Glance at Sardinia" became a South Carolina Statehouse Legislator and a distinguished leading attorney in Charleston. Upon graduation, he accepted an offer from Matthew Fontaine Maury to become an Astronomer at the National Observatory. Contemporaries predicted that he would "become an extraordinary man." Indeed, at the age of 15 years old, he enrolled in the University of North Carolina and would graduate at the front his class in 1847. From his formative years, his mental capacities were described as a "gift from god" and well-advanced of other boys his age. Born James Johnston Pettigrew, he was known throughout his life by family and friends as "Johnston". The son of Ebenezer and Ann Shepard Pettigrew, he began life in Tyrrell County North Carolina at "Bonarva", the family's prosperous plantation on the shore of present day Lake Phelps. ![]()
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