Thursday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“I count him braver who overcomes his desire that one who conquers his enemies; the hardest victory of all is over ourselves.”

                                                    Aristotle

A friend loaned me smorgasbord of good reading this past weekend. There is a book published in 1911 about the major battles in the American Civil War...or as some call it The War of Northern Aggression or as Charlestonian and author Mary Chestnut wrote during the this time period “The recent unpleasantness.” He also loaned me a copy of a biography of Stonewall Jackson. This book was published in June of 1863. Stonewall died in May of the same year. The author is not named only “A Virginian”. The book is of a sizable amount of pages though small in size. It is interesting to read because the phrasing and syntax is so different than today. But I have to keep in mind that the war was still underway when it was published and would be for two more years. I am not that far into the book but I understand why the author withheld his name. If he wrote things that were praiseworthy of Jackson it would inflame those in blue and if he was critical it would inflame those in gray. The general population of the Confederate state held Jackson as being almost god-like. Jackson was a very pious man, Presbyterian if my memory serves, but was a very aggressive and brilliant commander on the battlefield. Before joining the Confederates he was a instructor at VMI and he was in his mid 30's. There is little question in any historians mind that the outcome of the war could very easily ended in a different way if Jackson had not died. Another severe blow was the death of CSA General J.E.B. Stuart in the Battle of Yellow Tavern. He was acknowledged by his peers both blue and gray as the greatest cavalry officer that ever lived up to that time. My friend also loaned me a short missive showing the location of the artillery batteries and the name of each individual manning these guns that opened fire on Fort Sumter that initiated the war. It also has a depiction and name of all the ships in Charleston harbor on that day. What a treat, y'all...Thanks to Phil B.

Here is a bio of a famous name in South Carolina:

                                   Wade Hampton III

There have been three Wade Hamptons in the history of the state of South Carolina and the United States. Wade Hampton I was probably the richest man in the South. He owned several plantations in South Carolina and Mississippi and on his deathbed he was told that he owned 3,000 slaves. One of his sections of land stretched from Camden, South Carolina to Lancaster, South Carolina. That is a distance of about 39 miles, ya’ll. He was a participant in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. After his death all of his holding went to his son, Wade Hampton II. He was active in the war of 1812 as was indeed was second in command to Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, then came Wade Hampton III. He inherited all of his fathers holdings also.

He was born in 1818 in Charleston, South Carolina. He was raised in the surrounding of a rich and privileged family and attended South Carolina College, which is now the University of South Carolina (Go Gamecocks!) with a law degree but he never practiced. He instead preferred to manage his great plantations. Wade Hampton III was an outdoorsman and an excellent horseman and frequently went hunting alone. It was reported that he would go hunting bear with only a knife and had killed 80 bears with a knife alone. That is tough for me to believe. It sounds more like a legend invented by Wade Hampton III himself. However there are plenty of black bears in the low country swamps of South Carolina. He dabbled in South Carolina politics and was elected to the South Carolina Assembly and State Senator. He was a conservative when it came to South Carolina seceding from the Union but when they did secede he stayed with his home state. He helped finance a CSA small army known as “Hampton’s Legion”. It consisted of six companies of infantry, four companies of cavalry and one battery of artillery. He financed the entire cost of the weapons for the entire legion. He then enlisted in the South Carolina militia as a private but the Governor of South Carolina insisted that he be given the rank of Colonel in spite of his lack of military experience and his relatively advanced age of 42. He made a natural cavalryman because he was brave, audacious and a superb horseman. He was not recognized for his skills a lot because he was not as flamboyant as some of the others like J.E.B. Stuart although he did achieve the rank of Lieutenant General he being only one of two CSA cavalry officers to achieve it, the other being the immortal Nathan Bedford Forrest. It wasn’t long before Hampton had a chance to prove himself. At the Battle of First Manassas it was Hampton’s Legion that delayed the advance of the Yankees long enough for CSA General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson to arrive on the scene and blunt the infantry attack and turn the battle into a rout of the Army of the Potomac. It was during this battle that Hampton received the first of his five wounds. He led a cavalry charge against a US artillery battery and was creased on the forehead by a bullet. He was promoted to Brigadier General and assigned a brigade in Stonewall Jackson’s division of CSA General R.E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Hampton played a significant role in the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Seven Pines. In this battle Hampton received his second wound. It was a serious foot wound this time but he stayed mounted and had his foot treated while still under fire. He recovered enough to lead his brigade in the last battle of the “Seven Days”. After the Peninsula Campaign Lee reorganized his cavalry units and Hampton was selected to command one of the two cavalry units under CSA General J.E.B. Stuart. During the Battle of Fredericksburg he made several raids on the Union supply line and captured several prisoners and supplies and did not suffer any casualties. He received a commendation from General Lee for this action. Hampton was slightly wounded at the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry battle in history, and then commanded a brigade on J.E.B. Stuart’s wild ride around the Union army at Gettysburg. Stuart lost contact with Lee and did not arrive back at the Confederate camp until July 2. One battle had already been fought. Lee was not pleased. While just on the edge of town Hampton saw a Union cavalryman aiming a rifle at him. As you might expect, Hampton spurred his horse and charged the cavalryman before he could fire. What he did not see, was a Yankee cavalryman approaching from the right and he received a saber gash on the back of his head as a result. The next day he took his division on a raid on Yankee supplies to the east of Gettysburg and ran into a Union cavalry unit and a fight ensued. He received two more saber gashes on his forehead but kept fighting until he receive a shrapnel wound in his hip. He was taken back to Virginia in the same wagon as John Bell Hood. About a month later Hampton was promoted to Major General and was assigned an entire cavalry division. His wounds received at Gettysburg were slow in healing and he did not actually take command until late in the year. Soon thereafter J.E.B. Stuart was killed at the Battle of Yellow Tavern and Hampton took command of his division. He proved his worth at the bloody Battle of Trevilian Station when he beat the hell out of US General Phil Sheridan’s cavalry. In fact, he did not lose another engagement for rest of the war. In February of 1865 he was promoted to Lieutenant General and went to South Carolina to recruit more soldiers. But the war ended two months later and he and CSA General Joseph Johnston surrendered to US forces in Charlotte, North Carolina. He went back home to South Carolina to find his home burned and a large majority of his slaves were gone. His assets had been severely depleted by arming and supplying his “legion”. Needles to say he was very bitter especially when black troops were encamped on the land surrounding his burned out home. It sounds like spite to me. Eventually, he was elected to the United States Senate and tried to defend his home state against any discriminating legislation. In his later years, he was living in a small home in Columbia, South Carolina when it burned to the ground. This brave man of once enormous wealth did not have enough assets to re-build. Against his strong objections his friend and family re-built his house. He died in Columbia in 1902 and is buried in the Trinity Cathedral churchyard. Statues of him were erected in the South Carolina state house and in the United States Capitol.

         Thanks for listening    I can hardy wait until tomorrow