Virginia Military Institute

James graduated from the Virginia Military Institute with second honors on July 4, 1866.^[2] During his college career, he served in the Confederate Army, acting as a color guard and third corporal in the Battle of New Market and fighting in the intermediate lines during the evacuation of Richmond in 1865.^[3]

Alpha Tau Omega

On September 11, 1865 after the conclusion of the Civil War, Alpha Tau Omega was founded by the three founders, Otis Alan Glazebrook, Alfred Marshall and Erskin Mayo Ross. In the Fall of that same year, the returning cadets were temporarily lodged in private residences and the hotels of Lexington, Virginia. Otis Alan Glazebrook and James were billeted in the same room of a private home. On opening day of classes, October 16, 1865, Glazebrook "approached" James to invite him into the Fraternity. James immediately accepted membership, and that evening Glazebrook and Alfred Marshall read to James the oaths which made him the first initiate of the Alpha Tau Omega and a charter member of the Alpha Chapter of ATΩ.^[4] Close inspection of his picture in his cadet uniform reveals that he is wearing his ATΩ badge on his chest.

Otis Alan Glazebrook, the valedictorian of the class of 1866 and the primary founder of ATΩ, made the following statement regarding James. "James was the profoundest scholar I ever knew."^[4]

In 1929 James visited the University of Oklahoma chapter to witness an initiation. It was his first in-person interaction with the fraternity in over 6 decades. In describing the visit James said, "The fraternity has always been so precious to me, but now I Iove it more than ever."^[4]

Kentucky Military Institute

After graduating from Virginia Military Institute, James served as a professor at the Kentucky Military Institute between 1866 and 1867.^[1]

Texas Military Institute

James and his entire family moved to Bastrop, Texas, in 1867, where James was president of the Texas Military Institute in 1868. He was the superintendent, business manager, and professor of philosophy and mathematics. His father, Henry James, and brothers, Charles Albert James and Fleming Wills James, assisted him along with his friend and fellow VMI alumnus Hardaway Hunt Dinwiddie. He later moved his school to Austin, Texas conducting it there from 1870 through 1879. ^[5]

His brother, Charles, died of tuberculosis in 1875 at the age of 34. He contracted the disease in a northern prison camp during the Civil War and one of the reasons he came to Texas was for his health.^[6]

After 1875, he was a member of the board of visitors of the United States Naval Academy.^[1]

Texas A&M University

In November 1879, James was appointed as the 2nd President of Texas A&M University, a position he would hold until his resignation on April 1, 1883.^[5] He was joined in the move by his friend and fellow Virginia Military Institute alumnus and Alpha Tau Omega member, Hardaway Hunt Dinwiddie.^[4]

James predecessor, Thomas S. Gathright, and his entire staff had been dismissed due to a scandalous rift between the faculty members. The board convened in Bryan in November of 1979 to conduct hearings with regard to the issues at the college. The proceedings are well documented in the Galveston Daily News.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

The scandal of the previous staff provided James' with considerable challenges. The enrollment had begun to fall, and by 1881 the number of cadets had fallen to 90 students. James focused on the Corps of Cadets, doing his utmost to ensure that they were well provided for and the improvement of the facilities.^[5]

By Spring of 1882, the enrollment had surged to 250 and James had new problems... "we [A&M] will be full to overflowing."^[12] However, this success was short lived. In November of 1882 through early 1883, a dozen cadets and a faculty member died of influenza, measles, dysentery and/or other related disorders. Rumors began to surface statewide that the deaths were due to the poor location of the college. The enrollment challenges of the college were further presses with the opening of the University of Texas in early 1883.^[5]

In 1881, concerned with the conditions at the college, a special Texas legislative committee visited the campus,^[5] In their report, it was noted, "It should be remembered, that its [the college's] retrograde tendency is due, in great measure, to the serious misunderstanding with the faculty and not the cadets." It implies that the primary reason for any negative changes or failures in the college's development during that time was due to issues or conflicts within the previous faculty. The committee further dispelled charges that the military training under the Morrill Act was given "too much prominence," responding resoundingly that "the military feature is of no disadvantage." The Corps and college were on the right track.^[13]

During his tenure, James strongly advocated for the military training aspect of A&M's curriculum, aligning with his past as a VMI cadet, a Confederate soldier, and the Morrill Act's requirements for military education in land-grant colleges. The following is a quote from James regarding his beliefs about military training in an academic setting.^[5]

The military system of school government... tends to develop in the student a high sense of personal honor and moral responsibility, and to give him those habits of regularity, promptness, self-reliance, and respect for proper authority, which go far to make the good citizen and the successful man of business. It thus becomes a potent factor in the formation of true character.^[5]

In March 1883, James stepped down from the office of college president to join his brother Fleming in a banking venture in Colorado, Texas. He resigned due to frustration from the ongoing struggle to enhance the campus with limited resources and the political challenge of portraying the college positively in Austin and across state media. After leaving College Station, he continued to support the college. He regularly communicated with state officials about the college's status and kept in touch with faculty and friends on campus.^[5]

Southern Student's Hand-Book of Selections for Reading and Oratory

In the mid-1870s, James conceived the idea of a school reader and speaker consisting solely of works by Southern authors and orators. This led to the publication of "The Southern Student's Hand-Book of Selections for Reading and Oratory" by A. S. Barnes and Company in 1879, with a revised edition following less than a year later.^[1][14]

Banking, mortgage and real estate

On April 1, 1883, James left Texas A&M to join his brother Fleming in a banking venture in Colorado, Texas. He married Clara White (Brigham) Trowbridge, who had two daughters from a previous marriage, on February 6, 1883. By 1884, he was in Wichita Falls as president of the Panhandle National Bank. Around 1906, he began focusing on mortgages and real estate, living in Roff, Oklahoma, from 1900 to 1929.^[1]