James (L.) Dinwiddie was born in Campbell County, Virginia, June 29, 1837, the son of William and Nancy Bryan Dinwiddie. James had no middle name, however, when he was young he chose an initial to differentiate him from family members. He received his education at Samuel Davie’s Institute in Halifax, County, Virginia and later at Hampton-Sidney College in Prince Edward County, Virginia, graduating in 1855. James then taught school in Albemarle County and in 1858, he entered the University of Virginia, graduating in 1861. After completing his course at the university he enlisted in the Confederate Army by joining the “University Volunteers,” which was assigned to the Fifty-ninth Regiment of the Virginia Volunteers. Dinwiddie, now a member of Carrington’s Battery was quickly promoted to Lieutenant soon after his enlistment, and subsequently made Assistant Adjutant-General of the Brigade assigned to the Wise Legion. In December, 1861, the University Volunteers were disbanded with James becoming a member of the Wise Legion outright with whom he went to Roanoke Island. When that position fell to Union forces, Dinwiddie avoided capture by escaping overland to Norfolk, Virginia, then to Charlottesville, where he joined an artillery company as First Lieutenant. His artillery company joined “Stonewall” Jackson’s Army Corps in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. During the West Virginia campaign, Lieutenant Dinwiddie was the personal secretary to General Robert E. Lee. In December, 1863, Lieutenant Dinwiddie was promoted to Captain of Artillery and assigned to ordnance duty at Richmond where he was in charge of contracts and supplies for the Army of Northern Virginia. While at Richmond, Dinwiddie was promoted to Major of Infantry and placed in command of the arsenal battalion of the reserve Corps. Major Dinwiddie was on the field of surrender with General Robert E. Lee’s Army at Appomattox Court House. After the war, Major Dinwiddie remained on the family farm until 1869 when he was elected to the position of principle of Sayre Female Institute of Lexington, Kentucky, where he served for a year. He was then elected professor of mathematics at the Southwestern Presbyterian University at Clarksville, Tennessee, remaining there until 1890. At that time he was offered the presidency of Peace Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina. Peace Institute was one of the South’s oldest and most prestigious schools and Dinwiddie accepted the position, arriving in Raleigh in the summer of 1890. James was the father-in-law of Doctor Benjamin Wesley Kilgore, founder of Pine State Dairy in Raleigh. In 1862, James (L.) Dinwiddie married Bettie Morton Carrington and the couple had ten children. James died July 2, 1907, while visiting with a son in San Francisco.