He was born the son of George Elliott Hunter and his second wife Tamara Stevens, August 26, 1835 near Louisville, Kentucky. George Hunter and his family moved to Texas in 1837 and was a co-founder of the town of Cincinnati on the Trinity River in what is now Walker County. They built the first frame house, a two story hotel, the lumber being sawed by hand. This "Hunter's Tavern" was a cross point for stage coach and steamboat travelers. James Hunter was aboard the Steamboat “Fanner” in 1853 when it’s boiler exploded near Galveston, mortally wounding his father. James later gave an account of his father dying on the Trinity River aboard a steamer returning to Cincinnati and being placed in water tight box with a barrel of whiskey. As a young man, James had attained a reputation as a fighter and having several skirmishes with Indians in the area.

When Texas Seceded in 1861, Governor Edward Clark designated James T. Hunter to raise a company of volunteer infantry in Montgomery, Grimes and Walker counties. Hunter began his work in early May, and soon met P. P. Porter, a Mexican War veteran, who had also been recruiting in Montgomery County. The two sets of recruits were combined and went into camp at Prairie Plains on May 7, 1861. The future Co. H organized by electing Porter as captain and Hunter as first lieutenant. It was apparently also about this time that the company chose the name "Porter Guards." When called to duty, they traveled by train to Liberty, Texas and from their marched to through muddy swamps to New Orleans where they were loaded onto railcars and sent to Richmond, Virginia. In Richmond, September 30, 1861, the 4th Infantry was given to the Command of Colonel John Bell Hood and Brigaded with the 1st and 5th Texas Infantry to become “Hoods Texas Brigade”. Captain Porter of Company H, soon became the most efficient and popular officer in the regiment but that would end when he was killed at the battle of Gains Mill June 27, 1862. After Gains Mill, Lieutenant Hunter was promoted to Captain of Company H. A position that he would hold until the surrender at Appomattox in 1865.

After the war, J. T. Hunter returned to Walker County. He kept in touch with many of his fellow soldiers and worked to preserve the history of “Company H” all the way up to his death April 5, 1921. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Walker County, Texas.