Great Generals from South Carolina

18611096

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Not an area of study of mine but who were some of the best generals during the Civil war from South Carolina? James Longstreet was one was there any others?
 

diane

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Oh, Wade Hampton comes immediately to mind! A fine cavalryman, richest man in the South, a wicked good asset to Lee but had to leave him at a most critical moment to shoo Sherman off his front porch. (Literally!) After the war, he became governor of South Carolina. (He's second only to N B Forrest for personal combat kills...18.)

States Rights Gist was another Sandlapper - his parents were very enthusiastic supporters of John Calhoun, hence his unique name. (He was also a relation of Sequoyah.) Gist was killed at the battle of Franklin, one of six generals laid out on the back porch of the Carnton house.

Richard Heron Anderson, notable at Spotsylvania, was also from South Carolina. He was a veteran of the Mexican War, a good soldier and had an unsettling experience on his way to Spotsylvania. He and his men camped in the dark and didn't realize they were camping on a battlefield from the year before...until bones and skulls started showing up! He got a really early march on and, for once in history, the troops couldn't comply fast enough...and that was why they were able to beat Warren's troops to Laurel Hill. They had to run, but the extra goose from dem bones certainly helped!
 

18611096

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Oh, Wade Hampton comes immediately to mind! A fine cavalryman, richest man in the South, a wicked good asset to Lee but had to leave him at a most critical moment to shoo Sherman off his front porch. (Literally!) After the war, he became governor of South Carolina. (He's second only to N B Forrest for personal combat kills...18.)

States Rights Gist was another Sandlapper - his parents were very enthusiastic supporters of John Calhoun, hence his unique name. (He was also a relation of Sequoyah.) Gist was killed at the battle of Franklin, one of six generals laid out on the back porch of the Carnton house.

Richard Heron Anderson, notable at Spotsylvania, was also from South Carolina. He was a veteran of the Mexican War, a good soldier and had an unsettling experience on his way to Spotsylvania. He and his men camped in the dark and didn't realize they were camping on a battlefield from the year before...until bones and skulls started showing up! He got a really early march on and, for once in history, the troops couldn't comply fast enough...and that was why they were able to beat Warren's troops to Laurel Hill. They had to run, but the extra goose from dem bones certainly helped!

I forgot Wade Hampton was a South Carolinian. Was he as great as you say? I might disagree but I have also not studied him in depth. Thanks for your post and info.
 

diane

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I forgot Wade Hampton was a South Carolinian. Was he as great as you say? I might disagree but I have also not studied him in depth. Thanks for your post and info.
For the eastern theater, I'd really suggest Wade Hampton was second only to Jeb Stuart. He was a ferocious fighter and had plenty to fight about - his family owned nearly 1000 slaves and had three or four plantations scattered from Louisiana to South Carolina. He was, one might say, the east's answer to N B Forrest! Hampton raised Hampton's Legion, who played a major part in the battle of Bull Run, he had no military experience and he became Lt General of all the eastern cavalry after Jeb Stuart's death at Yellow Tavern. He led from the front, a tradition for Southern gentleman, which is how he came to kill 18 men in personal combat and was seriously wounded several times. It was a tremendous loss to Lee when Hampton had to leave to go home to South Carolina - Sherman had finished his march through Georgia and was headed through South Carolina. Hampton's family home was in Columbia, which got quite a beating. Hampton's departure left the younger and less experienced (but seriously capable) Fitzhugh Lee in command of Lee's cavalry, and this had unfortunate consequences at the decisive fight of Five Forks. He and pals had a shad bake - not quite as stupid as it sounds at the time but in hindsight very much so! - and Lee lost a vital railroad. If the much older and more disciplined Hampton had been in charge, nothing of the kind would have happened and chances are Five Forks would have been held.

There's a lot more about Wade Hampton III. He survived the war and lived to a nice old age!
 

5fish

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best generals during the Civil war from South Carolina?
Best is not the word... good, fine but not remarkable... like... http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/civil-war/

Several men born or raised in South Carolina became general officers, among them Stephen Elliott, Jr., and Johnson Hagood, who served for most of the war in their home state; Richard H. Anderson, Matthew C. Butler, Wade Hampton, Micah Jenkins, Joseph B. Kershaw, and James Longstreet, who served in the Army of Northern Virginia; and Ellison Capers, States Rights Gist, and Arthur M. Manigault, who served in the Army of Tennessee.

My God it is his god given name by his dad...

States Rights Gist (September 3, 1831 – November 30, 1864) was a lawyer, a militia general in South Carolina, and a Confederate Army brigadier general who served during the American Civil War. A relative of several prominent South Carolinians, Gist rose to fame during the war but was killed at the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. His name was based on the Southern states’ rights doctrine of nullification politics of his father, Nathaniel Gist.[1] Nathaniel Gist was a disciple of John C. Calhoun and chose his son's name to reflect his own political sentiments.[2]
 

diane

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Oh, Maxcy Gregg was from SC. He was one of the commanders of the famed 12th South Carolina Infantry, one of Lee's most prized brigades and one of the toughest. He was killed at Fredericksburg but the brigade retained his name - Gregg/McGowan Brigade.
 

Sgt. Tyree

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Cavalry historian Eric Wittenberg considers Hampton one of the best. He said that Hampton never lost a cavalry fight.
 

diane

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Cavalry historian Eric Wittenberg considers Hampton one of the best. He said that Hampton never lost a cavalry fight.
Not so you'd notice it - very good at his job. Great Beefsteak Raid! Stepping out to get you some breakfast, guys - be back... :D
 

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For the eastern theater, I'd really suggest Wade Hampton was second only to Jeb Stuart.
Being such a gentleman, he was also a great subordinate. I've read that Stuart and Hampton were not close - they had a professional, working relationship at best. But I speculate much of Hampton's later success is due to him being a Stuart protege, in addition to his natural ability.

He was a ferocious fighter and had plenty to fight about - his family owned nearly 1000 slaves and had three or four plantations scattered from Louisiana to South Carolina.
The Hamptons also had a property near what is now Cashiers, North Carolina. They would sometimes head up to the Appalachians to escape the low country heat. A young Wade did a lot of fishing and bear hunting while growing up thereabouts.

The property became The High Hampton Inn. It's now a resort and country club type of place with golf and tennis - stuff the original Hamptons probably would not have cared much about.

There's a lot more about Wade Hampton III. He survived the war and lived to a nice old age!
The Hamptons were known to entertain sportsmen from abroad. One Englishman, I picture him as something of a prim and proper fox hunting dandy, opined about Hampton, "No man in England can ride with him!"

I think I like and admire Hampton in spite of disagreeing with what he stood for in the antebellum period.
 

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Hampton certainly had a life of privilege and promise, and he was the essence of what a Southern aristocrat was. It's said he killed 80 bears with just a knife! Don't know if that's true, but it sure is true he was very tough and scared of nothing.

Stuart and Hampton really didn't like each other, but they worked together. It was Hampton's three brigades Stuart took with him on that interesting ride just before Gettysburg. He left him Jones, Jenkins and Imboden - Grumble Jones was an excellent cavalryman. But Hampton and Stuart were Lee's! Maybe he came to depend on them too much, especially Stuart. But, personally, Stuart was a younger man than Hampton and Hampton had a natural overbearing way. He thought Stuart was a capable fop and Stuart thought Hampton was condescending!
 

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I believe he was a brigadier general at the time of Gettysburg. His legion had been folded into Johnston's army early on, then reassigned when Lee took command. Like Forrest, he had paid for the whole outfit and set them up - at the end of the war he, Forrest and Richard Taylor were Lt Generals. Hampton was wounded rather severely at Gettysburg - he was one of those officers who had a big bull's eye on his back! - and that kept him out of action until the fall. At Brandy Station, like Forrest at Okolona, he lost his younger brother. Brandy Station was a free-for-all and had all my eastern theater favorites - including John Buford!

I think my favorite story about Hampton was when Johnston finally got cornered at Bentonville and Sherman was there drawing up the surrender. Outside, Union and Confederate officers were waiting...and Judson Kilpatrick decided to start insulting Wade Hampton about the rebel defeat. Hampton thought of the Great Skedaddle - one of Kilpatrick's finer moments when he did a Washburn and escaped capture by running off in his night clothes. "Well, at least nobody ran me off the battle field in my socks!" snapped Hampton. Kilpatrick continued...he apparently had a limited comprehension of what might happen if he poked the bear too much, and he was just about to find that out when Sherman and Johnston came out the door! Lucky. I honestly don't think it would have taken Hampton five seconds to make a little smear on the porch of Kilpatrick!
 

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I think my favorite story about Hampton was when Johnston finally got cornered at Bentonville and Sherman was there drawing up the surrender. Outside, Union and Confederate officers were waiting...and Judson Kilpatrick decided to start insulting Wade Hampton about the rebel defeat. Hampton thought of the Great Skedaddle - one of Kilpatrick's finer moments when he did a Washburn and escaped capture by running off in his night clothes. "Well, at least nobody ran me off the battle field in my socks!" snapped Hampton. Kilpatrick continued...he apparently had a limited comprehension of what might happen if he poked the bear too much, and he was just about to find that out when Sherman and Johnston came out the door! Lucky. I honestly don't think it would have taken Hampton five seconds to make a little smear on the porch of Kilpatrick!
Rod Andrew Jr. mentions that in his book Confederate Warrior to Southern Redeemer.
 

diane

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Yes, that's a good one - so is Longacre's bio. There's another on Hampton's scouts, who were very much like Forrest's escort and scouts - intelligence gathering, special ops and shock troops all rolled into one! They were excellent. The scouts were the nails in the horse's shoe that kept both these generals on top. Forrest was surprised once, Hampton never!
 
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