A History of Greater Dallas and Vicinity: Volume 2 Page: 267 of 485

                                
240            GREATER DALLAS AND VICINITY
PROFESSOR  JAMES P. CoLE.-Distinguished      for many years in
the military, public and educational affairs of North Carolina and Texas,
and for thirteen years conductor of Cole's Classical and Military School
of Dallas, Professor James Reid Cole has been retired from active life for
a number of years, the attitude of the people of his home city being one
of peculiarly strong admiration and affection. He was born in North
Carolina in November, 1839, being the son of William Carter Cole, who
was a Virginian, most of his life a resident of the old North state, a soldier
of the war of 1812, a planter, a minister of the Gospel, and a man of fine,
hardy and broad character. The old-world ancestors of the Cole family
came to the Old Dominion about 1660, being of English stock.
Professor Cole passed his life up to early manhood in North Carolina,
his education being conducted iu private schools, at the Caldwell Institute,
under Professor Holbrook, of Harvard College, and at the Trinity College
of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. He remained four years in the
latter institution, at the conclusion of the course being honored with the
degrees A. B., and, in 1866, with that of A. M. Before the secession of
the entire South, the governor of North Carolina, in anticipation of the
war, called for troops to guard certain forts on the coast of that state,
and in response to this call the young collegiate joined the Guilford Grays,
spending two months on the coast and then returning to graduate and receive
his diploma. Still later he enlisted in the Second North Carolina
Cavalry, and served in the Confederate army during the entire period of
the Civil war, being attached to several commands and, by his gallant and
meritorious services, winning steady promotion to a colonelcy. He participated
in the battle of Newburn, during the campaign against General
Burnside in eastern North Carolina, and was with Stonewall Jackson in
the valley of Virginia, being at Fredericksburg under that great commander,
and he carried his own brother (Lieutenant Colonel C. C. Cole)
dead from the field of Chancellorsville, where the great Confederate coinmander
fell. He was stationed at various points around Richmond, and
was with his regiment at Fort Macon, North Carolina. During considerable
periods of the Civil war he was detailed to organize regiments, his
services attracting the favorable notice of the higher officers in the Confederate
army. He was also placed in charge of Confederate goods and
supplies amounting to a million and a half of dollars. It should be noted,
further, that prior to the surrender at Greensboro he had been selected by
General Beauregard to head a scouting party of twenty picked men to
cross the mountains in western North Carolina and learn the strength of
the approaching northern army under General Stoneman, performing this
duty with such dispatch and efficiency as to win the compliments of his
commander. While his regiment was operating around Richmond, Professor
Cole witnessed several gatherings of the Confederate congress; in fact,
during all his life he has been especially fortunate in beihg associated with
distinguished men of the south, and his reminiscences of men and events,
of historic import, are of great interest and value.
After the close of the war Professor Cole returned to his home in