cipline, drill, provisioning, marching and fighting of armies; from it we may draw great light on the building, manning and fighting of navies, especially with regard to land-batteries; from it we may inform ourselves largely and minutely on the principles of finance, by means of the remarkable successes on the one side, and the disastrous failures on the other; from it we may learn such lessons of statesmanship as relate to the form and administration of government suited to our race; and, beyond all this, we may find, throughout, teachings on the nature of the individual man, which are as useful as they are sad to know.

These matters cannot, of course, be at all fully described in the history of a brigade. I must leave them to larger minds and larger volumes than mine. I shall only endeavor to supply a thread by which one may safely traverse the great labyrinth of wonders; to give the careful history of a small command, which shall make some picture of the operations of the greatest Confederate army; to detail the sufferings of a part, from which the struggle of the whole nation may be inferred.

But there is a last reason for a history of those times, and, I confess, it is the principal one which has moved me to this undertaking. Valor, and fortitude, and devotion are things whose claims to admiration civilized and savage men equally admit. There need be no discussion on the causes which called them into action; they are intrinsically noble, and worthy of the most ardent applause and emulation. If they be our friends and co-workers who exercise them, certainly our feeling becomes more intimate and tender; but brave and honest men never hesitate to accord

the highest commendation to those very enemies to whom they have dealt and from whom they have received the heaviest blows.

These heroic qualities I feel confident clearly to exhibit in the soldiers of the old brigade.

I feel that I shall show them in our dead; for I shall show how they abandoned luxurious homes for the inhospitable field; how they bowed their proud necks to the yoke of military discipline; how they contented themselves with coarse and scanty fare; how they marched, often in rags, sometimes even barefoot, over hundreds of miles of mountain, plain and morass, under the burning sun of summer, and amid winter snows; how they fought the immense hosts of the Federals in every great battle of the Army of Northern Virginia; and how, slaughtered by those hosts, or smitten down by disease, they now slumber in cemeteries. or on battle-fields, throughout the vast Aceldama of Virginia, and in two States beyond the Potomac, many of them without a handful of dust to cover their neglected bones. The Macedonian Phalanx and the Old Guard never surpassed them; the victors of Marathon and Morgarten. are but their rivals; the Swiss Guard and the Three Hundred Spartans need not blush to call them kindred!

And I feel that I shall show that those who survived them are not less worthy of fame. For I shall show how they suffered and battled alike with those others; how they were unmoved by the death of comrades and the wasting of our armies; how they were unappalled by the incessantly renewed menaces and preparations of the Federal gov

ernment; how they were uncorrupted by the timidity and base disaffection of multitudes at home; how, when the capital had fallen, when three-fourths of Lee's army had disappeared from the ranks, when Grant's thousands swarmed around them on every side, they, poor remnant, marched forward to battle with steady tread and flying banners, until recalled to be surrendered!

It is my object to give a connected account of the brigade from its organization to the close of the war. I shall describe the battles, marches, camp-life, discipline and whatever else relates to the military history of the command. I shall, before each battle, give the names of all the general and field-officers of the brigade; I shall give the strength and relative position of each regiment in battle, and I shall follow each engagement with a list of casualties, and with sketches of the most prominent of the dead, whether in commission or in the ranks. Those who died from disease, or left us from any other cause, shall receive such mention as I consider them entitled to, in the history of the period in which we lost them.

It is impossible that the work should be exhaustive; but I think it will be found a fair account of the Confederate soldier's life, and I know that it will be strictly true, if there be any truth in a carefully-guarded memory.

CHAPTER I.

THE FIVE REGIMENTS CONSTITUTING GREGG'S BRIGADE.

THE regiments which composed Gregg's brigade of South Carolina infantry, as it was commonly known, and which always composed McGowan's brigade, were the following: the First South Carolina volunteers, the Twelfth South Carolina volunteers, the Thirteenth South Carolina volunteers, the Fourteenth South Carolina volunteers, and Orr's regiment of rifles, also from South Carolina. This last regiment was sometimes called the First, because it was the first regiment of rifles raised for Confederate service in South Carolina. But Col. (now Gov.) Orr has told me that it was named by him, and known in the War Office at Richmond, as Orr's regiment rifles. By that name, therefore, will it be styled in this history.

These regiments were not all united under Gen. Gregg until about the middle of June, 1862. It will, therefore, be necessary to give a separate account of each regiment up to that time, or until some union less than that of the five.

THE FIRST SOUTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS.-Soon after the secession of the State of South Carolina from the United States of America, (which it will be remembered took place on December 20th, 1860,) a bill was passed by the Convention of South Carolina authorizing the raising of a regiment of infantry for the service of the State for the period of six months. The companies composing this regiment were of various origin, some of them being volunteer militia companies of long standing, some of them being raised by officers commissioned by Gov. Pickens for that purpose. Col. Maxey Gregg, at that time a lawyer of Columbia, and a member of the convention, was appointed to command this regiment; Col. A. H. Gladden, a native of South Carolina, though at that time residing in Mobile, Alabama, who had commanded the Palmetto

regiment during the last few months of the Mexican war, was appointed lieutenant-colonel; D. H. Hamilton, Esq., late United States marshal for the District of South Carolina, was appointed major.

The companies constituting the regiment rendezvoused, at various dates, in Charleston, whence they were distributed on Sullivan's and Morris' islands. They had all assembled by or about February 1, 1861. Nothing occurred to vary the monotony of drill and picket duty until the bombardment of Fort Sumter by the Confederate forces, April 12. A portion of the regiment was under fire of artillery during that engagement, but no casualties occurred, as every one knows who has heard of that singular conflict.

Some time previous to the fall of Fort Sumter, Lieut. Col. Gladden resigned his commission, and Major Hamilton was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy. Capt. Augustus M. Smith, adjutant of the regiment, (adjutant ranked as captain under the State regulations,) was appointed to the majority.

In the month of May the regiment was called upon to transfer itself to the service of the Confederate States. The greater portion did so, and were accordingly ordered to Richmond, Virginia, early in June, whence, after a brief stay, they were ordered to Manassas Junction. The Federal troops now occupied Alexandria. From Manassas, the First regiment was moved to Fairfax Court House.

During their stay at the latter place they were sent to the little village of Vienna to meet a force of the enemy expected to come from the direction of Alexandria. The regiment was now in the brigade of Gen. M. L. Bonham, of South Carolina, but they, with Kemper's battery of artillery, were detached for this expedition. The regiment of Ohio troops approached the place in a train of cars, when the artillery fired upon them, inflicting a loss which is variously estimated from ten or fifteen up to two hundred. The infantry were not engaged and sustained no loss. The Federals abandoned the field at once.

On the 2d or 3d of July the regiment was carried back to Richmond and disbanded, its term of service having expired. Col. Gregg, Lieut. Col. Hamilton, and Major Smith, however, were continued in commission, and author