University of Virginia Library

Orangeburg.

The First Regiment received orders on the 22nd of May to
proceed to, or near to, Orangeburg and there be encamped.
At 8 o'clock next morning the movement began; but the quartermaster's
department was again our evil genius. It was after
dark when we were landed in the city. We marched through,
stopping in front of the Charleston Hotel to hear a speech from
Governor Pickens, and took the cars for Orangeburg, where the
regiment arrived at daylight. During our stay at Orangeburg the

regiment improved rapidly in drill and knowledge of military
duties. The taking of Confederate service was, however, the chief
topic of interest in its history while at that camp, and indeed when
that question was decided the camp was broken up. Just after
the fall of Sumter, the Governor of Virginia called upon the
executive of South Carolina for military assistance. Virginia
had not then become a member of the Southern Confederacy,
though she had seceded and was threatened with Federal
invasion. Governor Pickens dispatched an aide to Morris Island
with a circular note to each of the colonels of regiments there,
requesting them to call on their respective commands to volunteer
for the service, and informing them that, in case of a favorable
response, they would move at ten o'clock that night. The Second
Regiment (Kershaw's) volunteered something like two hundred
men, and the six months' men (Gregg's) a like number. Next day
these bodies of volunteers left the island, each under command
of its colonel. The balance of these regiments remained on the
island. The six months' men that remained were disbanded
a few days afterward, and the part of the Second Regiment that
remained was subsequently recruited and known as Blanding's
Regiment, while the fragments of regiments which Gregg and
Kershaw carried to Virginia were rapidly filled up to full regiments
by independent companies from different parts of South
Carolina, who went on to join them.

The First Regiment when called upon responded by Mangum's
Company volunteering nearly unanimously; the other companies
volunteered from ten to thirty men each, but coupled with the
condition in each case that the whole company went. No special
effort was made by officers to induce the men to volunteer, for
it was seen that it would disrupt the regiment, and it was
thought more advisable, with a view to subsequently taking
Confederate service, to keep it together. A day or so previously
(16th April) Governor Pickens had sent over copies
of a resolution by the Convention of the State then in session
providing that "with their consent" the troops in State
service should be transferred to the service of the Confederate
States, and had directed the colonels commanding "to report
within five days" whether their regiments would consent to be so
transferred. A few days after the Virginia call, he came out

in the newspapers with a proclamation (which he also directed
to be read at the head of the troops) asserting his right to order
the twelve months' men to march and serve wherever he deemed
proper beyond the borders of the State, and declaring his intention
so to do whenever in his judgment the necessary occasion
arose. He called upon the Attorney-General for his legal opinion
of the Governor's powers in the premises under the act of 1860,
and this opinion sustained the views of the proclamation. The
troops seemed to consider the proclamation as an attempt to
coerce them in a matter in which the Convention, the supreme
power in the land, had required their consent. They saw no
practical difference, they said, in going abroad to serve the general
interests of the Confederacy, though they were called State
troops, and in going abroad entered into Confederate service.
They imagined, too, that the proclamation was dictated by irritation
at the response made to the Governor's call for Virginia
volunteers. And such indignation was felt with the course of the
executive that it required an exertion of authority by officers
in command to prevent its public expression. No report was
made under the Governor's communication of the 16th April,
and the question of taking Confederate service remained in this
condition at the time the regiment left Morris Island. The object
of selecting Orangeburg was because the locality was deemed
favorable to the consideration of the question. It was also
deemed best by the field officers to obtain (which they succeeded
in doing) a general furlough of ten days for the regiment before
presenting the subject. The soldier suddenly called from his
civil pursuits could in this interval make his arrangements for
that more extended service which the necessities of the country
required. The morning of the arrival at Orangeburg this
furlough was announced, and, upon the reassembling of the command,
the matter was fairly opened. In a communication from
the Adjutant-General, dated 23rd May, and read too late to communicate
to the regiment before going on furlough. was enclosed
the following order:

"The Secretary of War has made two requisitions for troops on the Governor,
amounting to 8,000 men. If the regiments were to be retained by the
State as volunteer regiments, then they are subject to orders to march

whenever and wheresoever directed by the Commander-in-Chief. The resolution
of the Convention seemed as intended to require that the Governor
should give the honor in the first instance to the volunteer regiments to be
mustered into the service of the Confederate States, and thus through the
action of that body their service should be changed. The President of the
Confederate States, under a recent Act of Congress, as intimated by the
Secretary of War, adopted the policy of calling only for companies to be
mustered in for the war, and then for the President to appoint the field
officers when such companies were formed into battalions or regiments; but
as eight volunteer regiments were already organized in South Carolina, it
has been determined to give them the honorable opportunity of going into
service as regiments with their field officers.

"Under these circumstances it is ordered that the eight regiments of
volunteers be prepared by their officers to be mustered into service for their
12-months' enrollment. For this purpose the field officers and company
officers with the men of each company will be required to sign a roll agreeing
distinctly to the terms. It will take sixty-four privates as a minimum
to make a company to be mustered in, and when a majority of the present
roll of a company so agree, then that company by this decision will preserve
its present organization as a basis to be filled upon, and if six or more
companies in any regiment so agree, then the organization of that regiment
may be preserved and a system hereafter to be adopted will be ordered to
make up the companies that may thus have a majority, but not sixty-four
as the case may be, in that regiment. And then, upon the same system,
orders will be given to make up the remaining companies after six, always
reserving the right of the company or regiment to elect officers when they
(the officers) do not choose to change their service. If ten companies, with
sixty-four present in each, be found to agree to the terms, then such regiment
is complete.

"When the eight regiments are made up, a portion of them will be
retained by order of the Governor to defend the State of South Carolina;
and if the regiments decline to be mustered into Confederate service, then
still a sufficient number of them, under the present organization, will be
retained for seacoast defense in this State. In any case, however, this
selection will be made. The mustering officer will be ready as soon as the
returns are made on this.

The following form of enlistment was communicated at the
same time:

"We, the undersigned officers and privates of — Company,
— Regiment of So. Ca. Volunteers, do hereby agree to be mustered
unconditionally into the service of the Confederate States of America,
to serve for the period of twelve months from the — day of
April last."

It will be observed that no plan of service is guaranteed in
these papers, and the order of the 19th May distinctly sets forth
that in any event a selection will be made for seacoast service in
South Carolina. In his speech to the regiment while passing
through Charleston, the Governor had told them that the portion
of the regiment that took Confederate service would go to Virginia,
and that which refused would be retained for local defense.
In a speech to Blanding's Regiment, which was made a few days
later and published in the newspapers (before the question was
submitted to the First Regiment), he told them the same thing.
And, in a conversation with the colonel and lieutenant-colonel
of the First he had expressed the same purpose. It was, moreover,
known that Heyward's and Manigault's Regiments (9th
and 10th, under Act of 1860), raised from the seacoast district,
and then being organized, preferred the local service. It may be
added that the Executive's speeches and statements, it was afterwards
learned, succeeded in giving to the other regiments the
same interpretation of the order of the 19th May. An impression
had, however, got abroad in the First Regiment that those not
taking Confederate service would be disbanded, though it was
never doubted that those taking it would go to Virginia.

For several days after the proposition was submitted but little
progress was made. But few men could be obtained and these
were distributed so equally among the companies that no company
could obtain "a majority according to its present roll." The
charms of home were too strong for the call of patriotism. The
enemy had been expelled from South Carolina by South Carolinians
unaided and at one effort; let other States do the same
thing. Virginia has not yet been invaded; let her drive the
Federal from Norfolk as South Carolina had done from Sumter,
and the Government at Washington, seeing that the
South was determined upon independence, will not be reckless
enough to involve the whole continent in war. Thus many of
the men and even officers reasoned; and not yet broken into
the requirements of the military code, and sore from its
unaccustomed restraints, they readily listened to such reasoning.
The regiment was encamped in the country from which
nearly half of it was raised; the friends and relatives of the
men were daily in camp, and, strange to say, this outside

influence was largely exerted against going into Confederate
service. This, too, in the Third Congressional District, the very
hotbed of secession. The people had no conception of the magnitude
of the struggle in which they had embarked. Thus matters
stood. The officers fearing the vacillation of Executive counsels,
with the disbandment of the portion of Gregg's Regiment (nearly
two-thirds) which did not take Confederate service and with the
terms of the order of the 19th May before them, hesitated to
take the only step by which it was evident the question could be
carried. They hesitated to assure the regiment that the question
was not between disbandment and Confederate service, but
between Virginia and the seaboard. At length General Jamison,
Secretary of War for South Carolina, happened unofficially to
visit the camp, and told them that they might safely take this
step, for he was apprised of the views of the Executive. The
assurance was accordingly given and it was found necessary to
pledge the honor of the officers that the issue was as presented.

Upon this six skeleton companies were raised, and the organization
of the regiment preserved under the terms of the order.
White's Company had at an earlier date unanimously declined to
take Confederate service, and arrangements had, with consent of
all parties, been effected to exchange it for Rice's Company of
Heyward's Regiment, who desired to go to Virginia.

A report of the facts was made on the 2nd June, with a request
for a mustering officer to be sent up to muster in the regiment as
it stood—to dispatch it at once to Virginia—and to allow the
necessary recruits to follow. The request was declined in an
Executive communication dated 3rd June, and the regiment was
informed that "A skeleton regiment cannot be sent to Virginia;
it must be full and complete." On the 4th June Lieutenant-Colonel
(afterwards General) Barnard E. Bee, having mustered
in Jenkins' (Fifth) Regiment, encamped near us, informed the
colonel commanding the First that he was also instructed to
muster in the First, if it was completed, and at the same time
handed him the following:

"Under instructions from the Governor, Colonel Hagood, commanding
First Regiment South Carolina Volunteers, will make the necessary arrangements

for transferring that portion of his regiment which has refused to
enter the Confederate service to the camp at Ridgeville. This portion will
be under command of Major O'Caim, and will at once be separated on the
regimental records from that portion which has elected to serve the Confederacy.

"The camp equipage will be retained for the use of the regiment, consequently
Major O'Caim will make requisition for camp and garrison equipage
on Colonel Hatch.

Previously, in a letter dated 1st June, the colonel commanding
had been instructed by the Governor: "After mustering into
Confederate service, the remaining companies and detachments
of companies not volunteering will be placed, on the departure
of the regiment, under command of the senior officer remaining,
who will report for orders to the Adjutant-General's Department."

Sufficient progress had not been made for Colonel Bee, under
his instructions, to muster in the regiment; but the order extended
by him was communicated to the command. It was received as
practical confirmation of the assurance given by the officers, and
before night two more skeleton companies were made up, being
eight in all and numbering near 500 men in the aggregate.
Collier's Company declined, as a company, to take Confederate
service, but many individuals of it had combined with a portion
of Kemmerlin's Company. Rice's Company made nine, and
Steadman, of Lexington, and Edward Cantey, of Camden, had
each, with full companies, applied for the tenth place. Steadman
being the first applicant was notified to bring his company
into camp. Recruiting officers were sent out to fill up the skeleton
companies, rolls dispatched to the adjutant-general with the
request to send up a mustering officer on the Monday following,
and the major of the regiment (who had declined Confederate
service) was sent down under Bee's order to make arrangements
for transferring his portion of the men to the seaboard.

On Sunday, Steadman marched his company into camp, over
80 strong, and the recruiting officers returned with recruits enough
to raise the skeleton companies to the same average, but, at the

same time, the major returned with the following communication
from the Governor:

"Sir: I received yours of the 2nd June in which you reported your regiment
ready for mustering into service. I sent the mustering officer with
special instructions to muster in, and, if under the required number, to
receive as a battalion, and, if under a battalion, to receive as companies. I
can delay no longer, as I have already delayed longer than I ought. Colonel
Glover thought if they could go to Orangeburg there would be no difficulty.
Have them mustered in, and the men who decline to muster into service, I
desire to have their arms, and those who muster in, I desire to receive immediately
and make a permanent arrangement for the summer in the manner
best suited to the public service. The five regiments recently mustered in,
together with the other two already there, are all I can spare out of the
State, and I must organize the rest to the best advantage for the State and
the public service as soon as possible. If the companies who muster in fall
below ten, then I can use them to recruit on and fill up to a regiment, if it
is thought necessary hereafter.

Matters were thus entirely reversed. The men whose spirit had
induced them to volunteer for honorable and active service
abroad were condemned to an inglorious summer campaign on
the coast, and those whose want of spirit had induced them to
prefer the miasma and the mosquitoes of the coast, with the certainty
of encountering no enemy, were to be rewarded with a
return to their homes. These last were highly jubilant. The men
who had signed the Confederate rolls were greatly exasperated.
The officers had solemnly pledged their honor that the issue was a
different one, and self-respect compelled them, as far as they
were concerned, to release the men from the obligation of enlisting
under the new Executive programme. The recent recruits
brought in utterly scouted the idea of entering a regiment condemned
to the coast. And when on Monday Captain Dunovant,
the mustering officer, came, not a man would muster in.

On this report being made, orders were received to retain the
whole regiment in service for State defense. A few days afterward
this again was countermanded; and on the 15th June the
regiment was "relieved from duty until further orders."

In the interval between the departure of the mustering officer

and the order for the relief of the regiment, the colonel commanding
visited Governor Pickens with a scheme to raise an
independent regiment for Virginia service. His Excellency
seemed utterly dismayed at the result of his communication of
the 6th June, and evinced every disposition to remedy the evil
by acquiescence in the scheme. The Confederate Secretary at
War telegraphed his assent from Richmond; but the men failed
utterly to respond. They had lost confidence in the authorities;
the delights of home loomed up in magnified proportions; the
last spark of volunteer enthusiasm was extinguished; and they
seemed bent on disbandment at whatever discredit to themselves
or consequence to the country. Desiring to disembarrass the
question of every difficulty, the field officers issued a card to the
regiment, pledging themselves to resign if one-half of each
of eighty names as six companies would again sign the roll for
Confederate service; and not a single name was given in. A
few spirited company officers then proposed that the officers
of the regiment band themselves into a company, and, taking the
beautiful banner with which the ladies of Barnwell had presented
us when the regiment was supposed to be going to Virginia, carry
out the purpose of the fair donors.[4] This, too, failed. It was a
pitch of self-devotion to which volunteer human nature could
not attain.

The issue of Confederate service was presented to the other
regiments who were already mustered in, in the same way that
it was to the First. Similar indisposition to accept was in each
of them, more or less, encountered. But the question was presented
to them ten days earlier in consequence of the furlough
which its field officers had perhaps unfortunately obtained for
the First, and consequently they got off for Virginia before their
own or any other recusants were disbanded. It may be too
that they were more adroitly managed by the officers in command.
When the subject of re-enlistment for the war came up,
twelve months afterwards, the First regiment redeemed itself by
raising and enlisting eleven companies quietly and without effort
before the first enlistment of the men had expired. The writer
is not accurately informed, but believes this was the only one of

the South Carolina regiments, and he is inclined to think the
only regiment in the Confederate army, which thus by voluntary
re-enlistment renewed its service at that time to that extent. The
pressure of the Confederate Conscription Act[5] directly or indirectly
gave continued existence to these original organizations.
Volunteering is by far the best method of raising suddenly large
armies for a popular war. The enthusiasm of the people is thus
utilized before it has evanesced; but once enlisted (and that for
the war) the word should be expunged from the soldier's vocabulary.
It was observed, too, under similar circumstances of so large
a number of offices to be filled, when an appointing power had not
the time or ability to make itself acquainted with the merits of
applicants, that the election of officers by the men in the first
instance resulted in as good, if not a better, selection than when
the government appointed. Any subsequent promotions by election
after the troops are in service, and men and officers have the
opportunity of exhibiting their fitness for position, is an unmitigated
evil. It was in the modified form in which it existed in the
regulations of the Confederate army, the lowest grade only being
elective, a drawback upon discipline, which none can realize who
has not experienced a similar state of affairs. Blanding's and
Rion's (Sixth) Regiment struggled on manfully after the First
was relieved from duty, and after a month's longer work were
mustered into Confederate service. No sooner was this done than
they were ordered to Virginia; and this, notwithstanding the
Governor's letter of the 6th June to the First Regiment.