James Johnston Pettigrew was born at Bonarva on July 4, 1828. Called Johnston Pettigrew, he was the son of Ebenezer Pettigrew, who operated several large plantations in Tyrell and Washington Counties. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1847 and was regarded there as a brilliant student. President James K. Polk soon appointed him assistant professor of astronomy at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. After traveling to Europe in 1849 to study law, he settled in Charleston, S.C., in 1852, where he practiced law, edited a newspaper, served in the state legislature, and became adjutant general of the militia. When South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860, he was elected colonel of the 1st South Carolina Rifles. After the fall of Fort Sumter on April 13, 1861, he enlisted in Hampton’s Legion and then served as colonel of the 22nd North Carolina Infantry. Wounded and captured at Seven Pines during the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia, he was exchanged in August 1862 and assumed command of a brigade, serving in eastern Virginia and North Carolina. He and his brigade joined the Army of Northern Virginia in June 1863 and fought at Gettysburg, where he commanded a division in Pickett’s Charge and led his men to the stone wall, the High Water Mark, on Cemetery Ridge before being wounded in the hand and ordering a withdrawal to Seminary Ridge. On July 14, as the Confederate army retreated across the Potomac River in Virginia, he was mortally wounded in a rear guard engagement at Falling Waters and died on the Virginia side three days later. His remains were interred in the family cemetery there on October 29, 1867. In announcing his death on July 17, 1863, Gen. Robert E. Lee called him a brave soldier and an accomplished officer.