Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/21

 Heroes of the old Camden District, S. C. 15

and were accepted by Colonel Maxcy Gregg as one of his original regiment, organized under the ordinance of that Convention. With Gregg's regiment the company served on Morris' Island during the winter and spring of 1861, and was present at the battle of Fort Sumter. From Fort Sumter it went with Gregg to Virginia as a part of the "Veterans from Sumter," and was engaged under him at the small affair in Virginia on the Alexandria line.

Upon the reorganization of that regiment, Captain J. B. Davis' company was transferred to the Fifteenth regiment, in which it served throughout the war. Captain Davis became colonel upon Colonel DeSaussure's death at Gettysburg, and the regiment, under his command, served in Kershaw's brigade throughout the Tennessee campaign, and from the Wilderness to the surrender.

THE SIXTH REGIMENT.

The General Assembly, on the iyth December, 1860, passed an act providing for an armed military force of ten regiments, to be orga- nized into a division of two or more brigades. One of these regi- ments, the Sixth, was raised from the counties of Chester and Fair- field. The officers were Colonel James H. Rion, Lieutenant-Colonel A. J. Secrest and Major Thomas W. Woodward.

The companies from Fairfield were: Fairfield Fencibles, Captain John Bratton ; Boyd Guards, Captain J. N. Shedd; Little Run Guards, Captain J. M. Brice ; Buck Head Guards, Captain E. J. Means; Cedar Creek Rifles, Captain J. R. Harrison.

The companies from Chester were : Chester Blues, Captain E. C. McLure; Captain G. L. Strait's company, Captain J. A. Walker's company, Captain O. Harden's company, and Captain J. Mike Brown's company.

Colonel Rion resigned in June, 1861, and the regiment went to Virginia under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Secrest. Upon the application of the regiment, Colonel Charles S. Winder (who afterwards became brigadier-general and was killed at Cedar Run on the gth August, 1862, while commanding the Stonewall Brigade under Jackson,) was assigned to the command and did much to perfect its organization. But it was under Lieutenant-Colonel Secrest, who had been a distinguished officer of the Palmetto regiment in Mexico, that the regiment was to make its first fight and win its first laurels. Though the Sixth was not in time to take part in the First Manassas, it was to be the next regiment from this State to be able to style