James Parks Caldwell

James Parks Caldwell was an American soldier, lawyer and journalist, and one of the seven founders of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.
Early life
James Caldwell was born March 27, 1841 to successful doctor W. W. Caldwell and his wife Isabella in Ohio. At age five he was enrolled into and educational academy where by the age of 13, had learned everything the school had to offer up to and including Latin and advanced mathematics. His father enrolled him into the Miami University in Ohio at the same age. By the time he was 14 a fellow student, and future fraternity brother, Franklin Howard Scobey recommended him to the Delta Kappa Epsilon, or DKE. Due to a schism among members, Caldwell and 5 others separated from DKE, met a seventh and started what is now the Sigma Chi fraternity.
Accounts of Caldwell are recalled by fellow Founder Benjamin Piatt Runkle:
"I roomed with him and cared for him for more than a year. Our holidays were spent in the fields and along streams, one of us carrying a gun, or fishing rod, but Caldwell his copy of Poe or Shakespeare. Few of us escaped the pointed witticisms that flowed from his pen, nor ever lost the nicknames he gave us in his dramas"
Later life
Following his college career Caldwell fought in the Civil war for the Confederacy, the only founder of Sigma Chi to do so. He was 1st Sergeant in Company C of Mississippi Hudson Light Artillery Battery, until he was captured and taken prisoner. Former class and roommate General Benjamin Piatt Runkle managed to convince his superiors to give Caldwell a chance at freedom, the cost being that he must swear allegiance to the North, but Caldwell's unwavering fidelity to principle caused him to refuse and remain prisoner until the end of the war.
He went on to practice law and write as a journalist in Mississippi until his death in 1912. He was buried in Biloxi Cemetery where a monument was erected at his grave site by the Sigma Chi Fraternity.

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