
James "Jim" Vance (May 1832-8 January 1888) was a Confederate guerrilla who served in the Logan Wildcats (Company D, 36th Virginia Infantry Regiment) during the American Civil War and as a feudist during the Hatfield-McCoy feud.
Biography[]

Jim Vance's body
James Vance was born in Tazewell County, Virginia in 1832, the illegitimate son of John Ferrell and Elizabteh Susanna Vance. He was raised in Logan County in present-day West Virginia, and he served in the 34th Virginia Cavalry Battalion during the American Civil War and became a sergeant in 1863. He fought in western Virginia, East Tennessee, and in the Shenandoah Valley before forming the "Logan Wildcats" (Company D, 36th Virginia Infantry Regiment). In January 1865, he and other Wildcats murdered the former Union Army soldier Asa Harmon McCoy after spotting him wearing his uniform at the saloon, sparking the Hatfield-McCoy feud. In 1870, he became constable of Magnolia, Morgan County, West Virginia, and, in 1875, Asa Harmon McCoy's son Jacob married Jim Vance's daughter Elizabeth Vance. In June 1875, James Vance bought a 1,000-acre tract in Pike County, Kentucky, and Perry Cline made him a deputy sheriff in 1875, making him a sworn law officer in both Kentucky and West Virginia. By 1880, he returned to Magnolia, and he sold his tract as the Hatfield-McCoy feud escalated. In 1883, he became a justice of the peace, and he fought alongside his nephew Devil Anse Hatfield during the feud with the McCoy family and Cline. In January 1888, he was murdered by a gang from Kentucky led by Frank Phillips after Nancy McCoy betrayed his secret location; Cap Hatfield was injured in that same shootout.