Rives, James H., 1830-1875

James H. Rives was a Confederate soldier and the Mississippi governor’s private secretary during the Civil War.

Born in 1830 in Georgia, Rives moved to Noxubee County, Mississippi, as a young man and became a practicing attorney. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Rives volunteered for military service, and was commissioned as an officer in a militia company named the Noxubee Rifles. He received a commission in the Confederate army when the company was incorporated into the Eleventh Mississippi Infantry Regiment as Company F.

By late 1862, Rives had left the regiment and accepted an appointment as private secretary to Mississippi governor John J. Pettus. He served in that role for most of 1863. After the war, Rives returned to Noxubee County and practiced law. He married Leona Cotton in 1868 and had at least one daughter. Rives was active in Noxubee County politics in the late 1860s and early 1870s, and was called before the U.S. Congress to testify to about race relations in Mississippi in 1871. He died in 1875.

(Vicksburg Whig, Vicksburg, MS, February 13, 1861; Ancestry.com, Mississippi, U.S., Compiled Marriage Index, 1776-1935; “Copy of a letter from Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; December 1, 1862,” Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi, mdah_757-943-04-02; Wikipedia; Record of Wills [Noxubee County, Mississippi], 1834-1926; Testimony Taken By The Joint Select Committee To Inquire Into The Condition Of Affairs In The Late Insurrectionary States, 548)

James H. Rives belonged to the following social groups: