Wife of Brigadier General Micah Jenkins, CSA. Daughter of General David F. Jamison, President of the South Carolina Secession Convention and Elizabeth Ann Carmichael Rumph. Five children: Micah John, 1857, Robert D, 1858, W.E., 1860, Whitmarsh W., unknown, John Murray, 1863.

The following biography is provided for Mrs. Jenkins by her great-great grandson, David J. Rutledge:

Caroline Harper Jamison was born on October 7, 1837, the eldest daughter of General David F. Jamison and his wife Elizabeth Anne Carmichael Rumph . Raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina, her father lavished attention on her . He owned a library of over twelve hundred volumes on subjects ranging from literature to history. Fluent in French and Latin he taught these languages to his daughter. Caroline would later write of her early years : "You ask me how my father appeared to me from a daughter's standpoint. …My father educated me from my tenth year. I was his companion until my marriage in my eighteenth year. My girlhood was spent almost entirely in his library. I cared but little for the outside world so content I was in my dear father's society. As I look back on those years so blessed, my father appears to my mature judgment (as he did then), as the embodiment of all that is lovely in men, a devoted husband, a wise and tender parent, a kind master, always courteous to others, regardful ever of the feelings of inferiors. I have rarely met anyone resembling him. I have loved to recall his perfect devotion to and trust in me.'

Caroline grew into a beautiful and accomplished young lady. In her sixteenth year she met Micah Jenkins, a cadet at the Citadel who was originally from Edisto Island. The handsome young Micah graduated first in his class at the Citadel and had come to ask General Jamison's advice for starting a military school in Yorkville. Jamison at first did not trust young Jenkins and warned him about trifling with his daughter. The match, however, proved successful. Micah and Caroline were engaged and were married at dawn on July 3, 1856.

The young couple moved to Yorkville, South Carolina and established King's Mountain Military Academy. Over the next few years , the academy grew and so did the Jenkins family. Micah Jenkins. Jr. was born in 1857, and Robert Flavel Jenkins in 1858. William Jenkins came in 1859, followed by Whitemarsh Jenkins in 1861.

In 1860, the clouds of War arose and engulfed the South. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union with Caroline's father, David F. Jamison, as President of the South Carolina Secession Convention. Her father helped prepare the fortifications of Charleston Harbor in early 1861. Her husband Micah joined the Confederate Army in May 1861 as a colonel and was promoted the next year to brigadier general, one of the very youngest to serve in that rank during the war.

The war proved difficult for the young family. With Micah gone to war, Caroline had to provide a home and food for four little boys. In September , 1863 another son was born, named John Murray Jenkins.

In next months, Caroline would suffer great loss. Her son Whitemarsh died in November 1863. Her husband , Micah was killed on May 6, 1864. Finally, her dear father died in September 1864 of yellow fever in Charleston. In February 1865, Sherman's army burned the home of her parents in Barnwell, SC to the ground. Nothing was left: all of the palings and fences were burnt, the life stock slaughtered or carried away, and Caroline's own mother ended up living in one of the former slave cabins. All of the bonds and money they had saved were worthless.

Despite all of this, because of her Christian values, she began to make a new life for herself and her four remaining children. She became a tutor of girls in Summerville and Charleston as well as giving her own children a good basic education. The four boys received their higher education at Kings Mountain Military School. Two of her children , Micah john and John Murray went on to graduate from West Point, the United States Military Academy. Caroline also ran boarding houses in Summerville and Charleston. In 1886, her home was destroyed by the Great South Carolina earthquake.

Throughout her life, Caroline provided love and support to her extended family, and there were many children named for her. She is remembered by her family not only for her great beauty and integrity but also her kindness. Once, during the years she supported her young family, she went to her kitchen to make pancakes. When they burned, she collapsed into tears. This is the only time she ever let her children see the burden she was carrying.

In 1902, she visited her son John in New York who was teaching at West Point. On the journey home, she became ill and went to visit her sisters in Washington, DC. There, on February 9, 1902, she died of a stroke. Her body was returned to South Carolina on the train, and she was buried in an unmarked grave next to her husband Micah who had died so many years before. She was sixty four years old and although considered a great beauty in her day, she had never remarried.