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James Gray is former native of the city of Tampa, in the southern most
state of Florida in the United States. He is a member of the
international heritage organization Sons of Confederate Veterans,
the American Civil War Round Table of Queensland, Australia, a
former member the Florida Historical Society, the Florida
Archaeological Society, the Tampa Historical Society,
 the
Florida Marine Divers, the West State Archaeological Society, the
Florida Historical Society and former founder and director of the
Florida Historical Research Foundation. He is also a direct
descendant of southern Confederate officers and enlisted men who
fought and suffered throughout the great “War of Northern
Aggression”; better known as the American Civil War.
James was born on
September 11, 1939 in Tampa, Florida and has been an active Florida
researcher for over 30 years discovering, mapping, documenting and
recording numerous lost military sites within the state of Florida,
including the preserved remains of the only known Seminole Indian
War - Civil War military bridge built in 1835 still in existence;
buried in the muddy bottom of the Santa Fe River. The State of
Florida Division of Archives and History once acclaimed James as the
foremost authority on such sites in Florida and he has worked
closely with various historical societies throughout the State of
Florida, in addition to personnel of the University of South
Florida, the University of Florida, archaeologists of the Florida
Division of Archives and History in Florida and researchers of
historical societies across Florida.
Mr. Gray has
authored a number of historical research books and manuscripts and
has had published articles on sites and activities throughout his
native state over the years; a few of his books which were the
Florida Historical Index, Florida Forts, Forts
of Florida, Florida Indian Artifact Identification
Manual, Historical Site Mapping,
Florida’s Petrified Remains of Prehistoric Floridians,
As They Once Stood; A Pictorial History of Florida Frontier
Fortifications,
Historical Sites Unlimited, Florida Treasure Leads, the
Florida Topographical Map Index, Deep South
Southern Cooking; Food From the Confederacy, Northern Slave
States; Traders and Owners and others. His
book The Florida Historical
Index, an indexed listing of every historically important
site and landmark on the original Plat Maps of Florida, was highly
recognized in the Florida Historical Quarterly Magazine; which
acclaimed it an excellent research tool and required reading. He has
had historical articles and stories published in historical
magazines, treasure magazines, re-enactors publications, on-line
publications, heritage magazines and newspapers both in the U.S. and
Australia.
In addition to his
research and writing, James has been instrumental through his
efforts of professionally researching and documenting lost
historical sites, in increasing the historical collections of the
State of Florida, the Tampa Bay Museum, the University of South
Florida Collection, the Seminole Indian War Preservation Society and
numerous other displays. He has been an outspoken speaker at all
groups which he as been associated with and with historical
societies and gatherings throughout Florida and in Australia. Each
year James is involved with Brisbane’s “History Alive” where he sets
up for public viewing numerous educational original Civil War
artifact displays and answers questions for throngs of inquisitive
viewers. He continues to conduct displays and talks on the Florida
Seminole Indian Wars and the American Civil War for public and
private groups when requested.
To preserve his 30
years of research a website was created which includes some 569 rare
maps and over 543 individual research files consisting of thousands
and thousands of pages of material on fortifications and other
sites, where researchers can save time researching the rare maps and
manuscripts on line. Much information is provided for free
downloading. He has also donated copies of all his 30 years of
research materials and writings to the University of South Florida
in Tampa, Florida, the University of Florida in Gainesville,
Florida, the Florida Division of Archives and History in
Tallahassee, Florida and to the University of Queensland in
Australia; where it is readily available to the public at large and
can be used free of charge. His vast research collection is
presently being used by Florida State and university archaeologists
to locate, excavate, document and preserve still more lost history
in Florida.
James Gray was the son of
former Tampa Police Vice-Detective James F. Gray who died in
1970. Being adopted he traced his bloodline back and eventually
found his Confederate ancestors. His great grandfather was
Samuel Cameron and great Uncle was William Cameron, Co. K, 37th.
Inf. Res. of Davidson County, North Carolina who enlisted at
Camp Holmes, near Raleigh, N.C., on 10/02/1864 and was taken as
a POW at the Battle of Petersburg, Va., on 4/02/1865; being sent
to Point Lookout Maryland’s “Piney Point Prison Camp” where he
was held until 6/26/1865. A prison with a death rate as high as
30%, compared to Andersonville’s 10%. Mr. Gray had a number of
other relatives which defended the south including Daniel P.
Cameron, Co. E, 56th. NC Infantry [imprisoned at New Berne, NC]
and William D. Cameron, Co. B, 20th NC Infantry [imprisoned at
Fort Delaware, DE]. His ancestors in the Confederacy included an
additional private, a Captain, a Lieutenant an Ordnance Sergeant
and Lauchlin Alexander Blue, on his grandmother Blue's side;
“none” of which ever owned an African slave.
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