Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/45

 Rh and place the proceeds in England pending the issue; this he indignantly refused to do and forbade any further remark on the subject, saying: "Rather than exhibit such a want of faith in Southern success, and so weaken the faith of others, I will cheerfully submit to the loss of all the property I possess should the North eventually triumph."

When the war had ended and the planters on the coast had no resources with which to commence their planting operations, Colonel Colcock proposed that the United States government issue to the planters on credit the large supplies which had been prepared for the Union soldiers on the coast.

This was done, and it enabled many to start planting who would otherwise have had no resources. Eventually the debts were cancelled, as the crops were all lost.

After his second marriage, Colonel Colcock entered commercial life in Charleston as a member of the cotton firm of Fackler, Colcock & Co., which did a large business, receiving cotton from North Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina, Charleston then being the chief market for several cotton growing States. This firm was a branch of the great factorage house of Bradley, Wilson & Co., of New Orleans.

By a curious coincidence the completion and opening of the Charleston and Savannah Railway, projected by Colonel Colcock, was being celebrated in Charleston when the news of Mr. Lincoln's election was made known, with its attendant excitement. The sentiment of resistance was largely developed at these festivities, where the eloquence of Bartow, of Savannah, and (Alfred) Huger, of Charleston, electrified the great assemblages.

After the death of his second wife from pneumonia a new phase of Colonel Colcock's life developed; without military training and experience, his fondness for fine horses and skill as a horseman soon transferred him from civil life to the command of 3d South Carolina cavalry. He was elected colonel early in 1862, and led the regiment with signal ability until the close of the war. Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Johnson, and Major John Jenkins, being the other field officers. He was constantly on duty on the coast line of defences for more than three years, active and enterprising; the 3d South Carolina cavalry performing this arduous and important duty under daily disabilities and hardships, and it should be added—a service unobserved and to a great extent unknown to the armies elsewhere.

It is in order to say that the "3d South Carolina cavalry" was a