"There have been many depredations."

One of the regiments in Tooms' brigade is the Ist South Carolina. This image, courtesy of the Library of Congress is of Private Eli Franklin of B Company, the Rhett Guards. Franklin enlisted at Newberry, South Carolina on July 27, 1861. It was in Richmond that he was mustered into the 1st. His service record shows he suffered a contusion to his left thigh which resulted in his being admitted to Charlottesville Hospital on May 10, 1864. He was returned to duty the next day. His records do not show what the cause of the contusion was. Franklin does not appear on the Appomattox surrender paroles.

Wednesday, May 4, 1865, Kershaw County.

We are on our way. We were a very few thousand when our division left Appomattox. By the time we arrived at Lancaster, the division no longer existed, only the brigade remained. The brigade dissolved itself at Lancaster as the various parts broke away from the whole to return home. Orr's Rifles is now on their way to the far western part of the state as are the Thirteenth and the Fourteenth regiments.
The First is off to the far eastern part of the state, not too far from North Carolina.

This leaves the Twelfth. A good deal of it has already been left behind in York and Lancaster. Two companies are on their way to Pickens. Three companies are making their way with us. My own company, I, is getting settled in to spring planting and barn building.

It was not easy at all leaving my comrades behind, not knowing if I'll ever see any of them again. There is a chance that things in Beaufort will be such that I cannot start over again. If that proves true, I may have to return to Lancaster to accept Hancock's offer of a job. If I have to, I have to, but Beaufort District is home and home is where I wish to be.

It was a first rate send-off. Hancock and the two Crenshaws were there as was Terry. Corporal Flynn and Sergeant Harper were there. I missed seeing Lieutenant Williamson as he was sick at home. He should have been promoted to our captain long ago. He was a good soldier and a good officer. He deserved better than he received. Dear Mrs. Hancock made up some hoe-cakes and some pork for me.

I would have liked to have stayed longer but my party was leaving and I dared not miss them. There are many ex-soldiers on the roads going to wherever home is if it has not ben destroyed. Our immediate party numbers just two dozen. We are under the, "command," of Colonel Butler of the First. There are ten of us from the old Twelfth, three from C company, five from F company and one each from D and I companies, myself being the lone Lancaster Hornet from Company I. The others are from the First. We from the Twelfth have formed our own mess.

Not long before we left Lancaster, word arrived concerning Joe Johnston's army. It is believed reliable that Johnston has surrendered the Army of Tennessee. With Lee's army's surrender, it was only a matter of time before the other grand army went up. We have no word on our friends across the Mississippi. They cannot last.

There is some look of soldiery about us but not much. Our surrender at Appomattox is less than a month ago but already we more resemble just a body of traveling men than a marching party of soldiers. The only reason we are still in our uniforms is that we have nothing else to wear. We form up the first thing in the morning after breakfast but that bearing does not last two miles.

We still retain our rifles and ammunition. There have been many depredations. Each side is guilty. Some bands of marauders are made up of both blue and grey together. They are outlaws and deserve nothing less than the hangman's noose.

The sole officer of the Twelfth is Captain Kinsler and he is the captain of our mess. He does not take his meals with the company. He eats with the other officers. Solomon Burkett is acting mess captain and he is a good egg.

Bottles have been passed around at each meal. The folks in Lancaster either sold or gave us a bountiful supply of whiskey for medicinal purposes, of course. The officers frown but they know that they can do nothing about it. Besides, they have their own bottles.

We have two nurses with us, Leseman and Cleapor, both in the First. Some of us surfer from leg wounds and marching is done with some difficulty. It is good that we have someone with at least the rudiments of medical knowledge with us. Should their services be needed, I do not know what could be done as we have no hospital knapsack.

Somehow, from somewhere, we need new shoes.


I Send You These Few Lines.


Everyone is going home in their own way. The five regiments that made up Gregg's, later Perrin's and finally McGowan's brigade were assembled from individual companies from all throughout South Carolina. Each regiment drew its' soldiers from no one place. The 1st South Carolina, just to use one example, raised two companies from along the coast, two from the interior near the capital, two from the Georgia borderlands, and the remaining four from the upcountry .

Captain Kinsler is John N. Kinsler of D Company of the 12th. His entire company, when surrendered at Appomattox, numbered just two soldiers, himself and William M. Brown, brigade teamster. His home was in York District so he is already home.

Kinsler was a signer of the South Carolina Articles of Secession at Charleston in December of 1860. His major holdings were near the state capitol at Columbia. The 1860 Federal Census documents that his occupation was a farmer with real estate valued at $18,000 and personal property valued at $30,000. This is a great deal of money for the times and that means slaves.

South Carolina Ordnance of Secession.

Kinsler was a major state slave holder in the state according to the 1860 slave census. He owned many dozens of slaves including one unnamed female, aged 100.

From 1935 to 1938, the WPA (Works Progress Administration) interviewed surviving ex-slaves including Gracie Gibson, who was 86 when interviewed about her being one of Kinsler's slaves.

"I was a slave of Captain John Kinsler. Wish all white men were like him, and all white women like Miss Maggie Dickerson, de lady that looks after me now. We lived in a two-room log house, daubed wid mud and it had a wood and mud chimney to de gable end of one room. De floor was hewed logs laid side by side close together.

"I 'member Wheeler's men came to our house first before' de Yankees. They took things just like de Yankees did dat come later. Marster John was a Captain, off fighting' for the Confeds but dat didn't stop Wheeler's men from takin' things they wanted, no sir! They took what they wanted. Wasn't long after then dat the Yankees come and took all they could and burnt what they couldn't carry off wid them."

Joe Wheeler.

Counties in South Carolina were called districts at the time.

Colonel Butler is Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Pickens Butler. He served with the 1st South Carolina.

Joseph Flynn, James H. Harper, Burrell Hancock, William Terry, Wilson and Troy Crenshaw and James Williamson all served with Tooms in Company I, the Lancaster Hornets.

The Wheeler that Gracie Gibson spoke of was Confederate cavalry commander Joe Wheeler. His men were not the most gentlemanly of cavalrymen.

Leseman and Cleapor are Frederick W. Leseman and John Cleapor, both of Company L, 1st South Carolina. Both were detailed away from their companies to work in hospitals. Both were mustered in at Camp Lightwood Knot Springs, near Columbia in September, 1861. Tooms was mustered-in there as well.

Jefferson Davis and his party of refugees are in Washington, Georgia just one step ahead of their Union pursuers.