1st South Carolina Cavalry Memorials
In honor of our ancestors — they are not forgotten
Family memorials, obituaries and gravestone records of men of the 1st South Carolina Cavalry, sent in by their descendants over many years. Each is given as it was sent, with the contributor’s name.
On This Page
- Company A · Company B · Company C · Company D · Company E · Company F · Company G · Company H · Company I · Company K
- Col. John Logan Black
- Confederate Iron Crosses
- Send a Memorial
Company A
See the Company A roster.
James M. Gilliam
Obituary. Death of a Gallant Man. James M. Gilliam died early Tuesday morning at his home in the Sharon neighborhood at an advanced age. He had been in declining health for years and had lost his eye sight. He was an honorable and respected man. During the war he was a soldier in the 1st SC Cavalry. On one occasion while engaged with the enemy on James Island his comrade J.J. Palmer had his horse shot under him and was severely wounded. The deceased was unwilling that his wounded friend should fall into the hands of the Negro troops with whom the cavalry was fighting, dismounted, placed Palmer on his own horse and took the consequences. He was captured, blindfolded and prodded with the Negro bayonets and would have been killed if a white officer had not interfered and saved his life. Such a man was James M. Gilliam. To save a friend he put his own life at stake.
— Abbeville Medium
Contributed by Susan Gilliam Gladden, a proud descendant.
David J. Wardlaw and David Morrah
Both served with Company A, 1st South Carolina Cavalry. They joined the regiment in May 1864 and served until the end of the war.
Contributed by Robert McGarity.
Company B
See the Company B roster.
James William Cheek and Willis Abram Cheek
Twin brothers, both of whom served in Company B of the 1st South Carolina Cavalry Battalion.
James William Cheek was born in Laurens County, South Carolina, on 17 December 1833 and died there on 9 September 1864, aged 30. He married Elizabeth E. Nesbitt in Laurens County on 27 January 1853. Elizabeth was born in Laurens County on 31 May 1832 and died there on 14 February 1918, aged 85. James and Elizabeth had four children.
Willis Abram Cheek died on 17 July 1904 in Princeton, South Carolina, aged 70. He married Sara Lee Fowler in Laurens County on 27 November 1856. Sara was born in Laurens County on 6 March 1838 and died on 30 December 1902 in Princeton, aged 64. Thirteen children were born to Willis and Sara, including two sets of twins.
Contributed by Dennis Thompson.
The two J. H. Copelands
A tale of two separate J. H. Copelands, both serving with Company B: John Henry and John Holland.
John Henry Copeland, son of John Copeland II and Nancy Jennie Mills, and husband of Martha Elizabeth “Lizzie” Dillard. He died of pneumonia at Richmond, Virginia, and his body was taken back to Laurens County by mule team. He is buried at Hurricane Baptist Church Cemetery, Laurens, SC.
A Copeland reunion booklet, “Descendants of Henry Copeland, James Copeland, Polly Copeland, Mills Copeland and Peggy Copeland,” knows him as Henry, though in Civil War records he is John H. It says that most of the Copeland family descend from Henry Copeland, John II’s son, who married Lizzie Dillard about 1850 and died while in the army during the Civil War.
John Holland Copeland, grandson of John Copeland and Margaret Blakely; son of James Copeland and Elizabeth Little; husband of Martha T. Finney; brother of Leisel Copeland, who also served in Company B. He surrendered at the close of the war. He is buried at Duncan Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery. His stone reads:
J H COPELAND
JUNE 10, 1839 DEC 20, 1906
A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER LIEUT
CO B 1ST SC CAVALRY
Sources: Laurens County Enrollment Book of Confederate Veterans, 1902, p. 30; Burying Grounds, Graveyards and Cemeteries, Laurens County, SC, Vol. I.
Leisel Watts Copeland, 14 March 1825 – 27 December 1894, served in Company B of the 1st South Carolina Cavalry Battalion. He married Sarah Jane Owens.
Contributed by Carol Hoffman.
Company C
See the Company C roster.
James Bush Howard
He enlisted with Company C, the Edgefield Rangers, then served in Company K, and later in Holcombe’s Legion. He was held as a prisoner of war at Point Lookout, Maryland.
The prison camp site in Maryland has a Confederate Memorial Park, where a memorial brick can be bought for prisoners who died there or who survived their imprisonment. For membership or a memorial brick, visit the Confederate Memorial Park page.
Contributed by Laurie McKinney, his great-granddaughter.
Company D
See the Company D roster.
Rev. Jesse Alexander Clifton
Born 26 September 1845 in Chester County, SC; died 14 June 1906 in Marion, SC. He went to war before he was sixteen and rode with Hampton and Butler for four years, two of them as a scout. After the war he studied law at the University of Virginia, became a Methodist minister in 1869, and served churches across South Carolina for 37 years. He married Mary Elizabeth Hicklin in 1868 and had seven children.
Read his full obituary
Rev. Jesse Alexander Clifton, DD, son of Jesse C Clifton and Mary H Walker, was born in the eastern part of Chester County, SC, September 26, 1845 and died at Marion, SC, the 14th of June, 1906.
His father was by occupation a farmer, and served in the Confederate army as lieutenant and captain of the militia, and was regarded as a man of decided courage, energy and integrity.
Among his ancestors were Alexander Walker, Justice John Gaston, William Clifton and William Heath; all of who came from Ireland and settled in Chester, SC before and during the American Revolution. His great-grandmother Esther Gaston, was a woman of marked devotion to the cause of her adopted country, and is honorably mentioned in Mrs. Elliot’s “Women of the Revolution”. It was through William Heath and his noble wife that Methodism was introduced in that part of Chester County.
He grew up on his father’s farm, where he found much pleasure in both open fields and woods, and developing a strong constitution and receiving superior moral training from his parents.
When the war came, although he was under sixteen years of age, he went to the front and was with Hampton and Butler for four years. He was a scout for two years, and did many acts of daring. On one occasion he went through the Yankee lines in the night and captured General Meade’s saddle horse, hitched just outside the tent. He had a deep saber cut on the side of his neck and another in the corner of his eye, and a bullet just over his heart, which was never removed.
After the war he did much to aid in the redemption of his State from radical rule. He received the advantages of the schools of his community and also the classical school conducted by Prof. Matthew Elder. He was a great reader all of his life, and all the standard works, both English and American, poetry and prose and theology, had engaged his thoughtful attention. After the war he went to the University of Virginia, where, in addition to studies in the literary department, he graduated at the head of his class in law, and was elected final orator by his class, and received compliments on his speech that have lingered in the history of the university through the years.
A sermon preached by the Rev. J L Shuford deeply convicted him of sin, and for three months he had a terrible battle, which resulted in his sound and powerful conversion, alone in his room at the hour of midnight. He joined the Methodist Church at El Bethel, in Chester County, in 1868.
With his conversion came his clear call to the ministry, and in the same year was licensed to preach. He served one year as a local preacher and was admitted on trial into the South Carolina Conference in 1869 in Cheraw. He appointments have been as follows:
- Columbia circuit 1870-1872
- Fairfield circuit 1873
- Batesburg circuit 1874-1876
- Saluda circuit 1877-1878
- Graham circuit 1879-1880
- St Matthews circuit 1881-1882
- Spring Street, Charleston 1883
- Newberry station 1884-1885
- Central Church, Spartanburg 1886-1889
- Buncombe Street, Greenville 1890-1891
- Bethel, Charleston 1892-1895
- Abbeville station 1896-1897
- Sumter station 1898-1901
- St Paul’s, Orangeburg 1902-1905
- Marion 1906
Where he died in the thirty-seventh year of his active work in the South Carolina Conference.
Dr. Clifton was unique-a genius. In a masterful address he once said God had made only one man like himself and would not make another. He stood out in his individuality before men. He could say and do things that would have been the undoing of anyone else.
He was a man of wonderful magnetism and reached up and down the scale of life in helping men, the highest and the humblest. His sympathy for people in trouble of any kinds brought into action all he had, and brought out the real greatness of his nature. The greatness is nowhere the better shown than in helping with our all those who are in sin and shame and sorrow. This he did on every occasion.
His humor, wit and pathos, together with his strong intellectual powers and fine oratorical ability, put him in great demand for lectures, speeches, dedications of churches, and school and college commencements all over the state and beyond. It is highly probable that he did more of his kind of work than any man in the South Carolina Conference.
He left nothing written all his lectures and speeches and sermons were worked out in his heart and head, and were recorded only in the minds and hearts of his hearers and in the books of God. In every charge he ever served his popularity took in all people of whatever Church. The Negroes, for whom he often preached, idolized him.
His sermons were remarkable in that they reached up to the strongest mind in the audience and down to the lowest, and thus he got hold of all. He was one of the finest preachers of our land, and at times climbed to marvelous heights of eloquence and power.
There were always brains and gospel and pathos and the way to Christ in every sermon he preached-and he loved to preach.
He was strong in his moral character, true as steel in his friendships, unwavering in his faith and courage, devoted to the work of the Lord, ready to help any man that was down, and as gentle and guileless and unsuspicious as a little child.
“Jesse Clifton”-that is how he has been called and that is the way he will be remembered by the people at large. On the recommendation of some of the most literary men in Charleston, SC, Rutherford College, NC, conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon him when he was pastor of Bethel Church. But the public had long before given him that title and the higher one of “Jesse Clifton”. It is only to remarkable men who are too great for titles to hang on to them that the people will give pet names. Unborn children will have handed down to them the sayings and doings of “Jesse Clifton”.
On November 24, 1868, Dr. Clifton was married to Miss Mary E Hicklin, daughter of Dr W J Hicklin, a prominent physician of Chester County. They were devoted to each other through all of their married life, and she stood by him with the truest heroism in all of his itinerant career. Two people could not have been better suited to each other as man and wife than they. Sr. Jesse A Clifton, Jr., Mrs. Mary C Kelly, J Sam Clifton, Hon. John Hicklin Clifton, Mrs. Josephine Camp, and Mrs. Kate M Hill are their living children. They have one buried at Newberry, and one at Greenville, who died in infancy.
He was elected by the South Carolina Conference as a delegate to the last four General Conferences, where he rendered efficient service.
“Jesse Clifton” was perhaps the most universally popular and beloved member of the South Carolina Conference. For years one of the features of the South Carolina Conference was his speech on the resolution of thanks for the entertainment of the Conference.
Dr Clifton fell asleep without a struggle while sitting in a chair in the parsonage at Marion; his ever faithful wife was at his side, fanning him at the time. The interment was at Sumter, and people came from different parts of the State to pay their respects to his memory. Camp Glover, Confederate Veterans, Orangeburg, of which he was a chaplain; and the Board of Stewards of the Orangeburg station, where he had served the previous four years and was exceedingly popular, sent delegations. The funeral services partook of the nature of a memorial service and many high and loving tributes were paid to his memory. Dr C C Brown, pastor of the Baptist church at Sumter, and the Methodist churches at Marion and Orangeburg held memorial services, and various charges throughout the Conference have passed resolutions in memory of “Jesse Clifton”
— Marion Dargan
Contributed by Allyson Lee.
The Wilkes brothers
John W. Wilkes and Eli C. Wilkes, who died in Virginia in 1863, and William Thomas Wilkes, killed on 9 June 1863 in the cavalry battle at Brandy Station.
Contributed by Bob James.
Company E
See the Company E roster.
Charles Allen Hill and Capt. J. R. Hill
David Ross
Born 19 February 1831 in Orangeburg, SC; died 30 October 1909 in Atmore, Escambia County, Alabama. He married Mary Dorrity (spelling uncertain).
Contributed by Bruce Ross.
Madison P. Way
Born 24 December 1826. He transferred to Company A, 5th SC Cavalry, on 26 March 1863. He died 10 May 1896 and is buried at Jerusalem Methodist Church, Elloree, SC.
Contributed by Fred Knudsen, Columbia, SC.
John M. Hussey and Jonas Durant Stroble
John M. Hussey was born in 1835 in St. George, SC, son of Simeon Hussey and Ann C. Moorer. He married Mary Ann C. Strobel and had two children, John W. Hussey and Ann E. Hussey. He died on 13 July 1863 of wounds received at Gettysburg. His body was never recovered.
Jonas Durant Stroble, brother of Hussey’s wife, was born 28 July 1842 in St. George, SC, son of David Stroble and Sarah A. Spell. After the war he married Isabell (surname unknown) and had seven children. He died on 15 February 1924 in Graniteville, Aiken County, SC, and was buried in Graniteville Cemetery in his full uniform and saber, according to an eyewitness account by his grandson, Joseph Lawton Stroble II.
Contributed by Robert Bryan Aldrich.
W. D. Shirer
W. D. Shirer was listed in the 1860 census as age 18, of Orangeburg, SC. He enlisted in the South Carolina forces in November 1861. The Official Records list him as wounded at Chancellorsville in May 1863, but according to the personal recollections of J. P. Malone, also of the 1st SC Cavalry, he was wounded in the East Cavalry Field action at Gettysburg in July 1863. He died in a Union hospital a few weeks later, having been left behind in the Confederate withdrawal. His burial place is unknown.
See also W. D. Shirer, Company E.
Howell, Rigby and Wimberly
Lewis Robert Carn Howell, born 12 December 1823 in St. George, SC, died 22 October 1898, buried in Indian Fields Methodist Church Cemetery, Rosinville, SC. Oldest son of Joseph Hardy Howell and Louisa Carn. He married Sarah E. Reeves, born 8 February 1831 in Cottageville, SC, died 25 July 1915 and buried with her husband. Eleven known children and many descendants.
Charles S. Rigby, born 30 November 1840 near Reevesville, Colleton District, SC, died 5 July 1904, buried in Reevesville Baptist Church Cemetery. Son of William Washington Rigby and Elizabeth Hussey, widow of John Grimes. He married Amanda Griffith, born 14 July 1845, died 13 October 1913 and buried with her husband. No known descendants.
Joel George Washington Wimberly, born 10 June 1838, died 30 April 1885, buried in Indian Fields Methodist Church Cemetery, Rosinville, SC. Son of Captain Isaac Wimberly. No known spouse.
Contributed by Robert Bryan Aldrich, 26 February 2002.
Company F
See the Company F roster.
Pvt. Sargent Daniel Anthony
Born May 1846. Enlisted 20 April 1864 in Columbia, SC. Son of Henry Jacob Anthony and Averilla Griffin Anthony. He died in North Carolina, in the fork of the Yadkin and “Huhonor” rivers, on 18 April 1865, aged 18 years, 11 months and 9 days.
Although his name appears as L.D. in the Broadfoot roster and some other sources, his actual name is S.D. Anthony, Sargent Daniel Anthony. He was the oldest brother of my great-grandmother Vashti Elizabeth “Betty” Anthony Hendricks. I had searched for him in rosters for a number of months before I realized that “L.D” must be referring to him, and then I found an entry in the records of Griffin Baptist Church in Pickens County, SC that mentioned the unit he served with. I thereupon sent off for his service record, and sure enough, a couple of pages in his record had L.D. at the top, but most of them said S.D; it was just a transcriber’s error.
From the records of Griffin Baptist Church, Pickens County, SC, September 10[?], 1865:
“Griffin Baptist Church met at the water and after Bro. B. Holder baptized Mary A black girl living at R. Hills the church & congregation assembled at the house when Bro Thos Gary preached the funerel of Sargeant Daniel Anthony who died in North Carolina in the Fork of the Yadkin Huhonor River on the 18th of April A.D. 1865 of chills & remittent fever & congestive chill at the age of 18 years 11 months & 9 days old. Bro Holder also delivered a discourse on the death of S.D. Anthony from the same text of Scripture, vz. James, 4 chapt 14th verse part vz. What is your life. “The deceased was a member of Co. F 1st S.C. Cavelry comded by Col. Black he was Brave in Battle beloved by his comrades in arms and we hope he is now in the Army of king Jesus.”
From the family history of Ed Hendricks, written in 1915:
“Bud Anthony, soldier. Sargent Anthony was told by his captain that he was a coward when he told him he was unable to stand guard & Sargent said rather than be counted a coward he’d stand guard if it killed him & it caused his death. Bud Anthony had a relapse of measles in the army & died on his way home.”
Sources: Confederate service record; records of Griffin Baptist Church, Pickens County, SC.
Contributed by Mary-Hope Villela.
Pvt. Butler Burrell
Butler Burrell (1826–1863), Company F, was killed at Gettysburg on 3 July 1863, between the Round Tops and the Wheat Field. His death was witnessed by his brother, Pvt. Bright Burrell, also of Company F, whose sketch of the company flag survives.
Contributed by Charles Robbins.
E. V. Nicholson
Buried at Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery, 198 Camp Chatuga Road, Mountain Rest, SC. His stone reads:
EV NICHOLSON
OCT 1, 1844 – NOV 19, 1902
CO F 1 SC CAV CSA
Contributed by Misty Belt.
Company G
See the Company G roster.
G. W. and Andrew Jackson Woodhurst
Brothers, both from Abbeville, SC.
Pvt. G. W. Woodhurst died of typhoid on 18 July 1862 on James Island, SC, aged 26. The record also says he died “on the horseshoe” at the SC State hospital. He is listed in Randolph W. Kirkland, Broken Fortunes: South Carolina Soldiers, Sailors & Citizens Who Died in the Service of Their Country and State in the War for Southern Independence, 1861–1865 (South Carolina Historical Society, 1995).
Andrew Jackson Woodhurst, his brother.
Contributed by Patricia Childers.
Company H
See the Company H roster.
No memorials have been sent in for Company H yet. Its captain, Robin ap C. Jones, was killed at Brandy Station. If you have a Company H ancestor, please send a memorial.
Company I
See the Company I roster.
Ackerman Cemetery, Colleton County
Buried at the Ackerman Cemetery, Colleton County, South Carolina:
- John G. Ackerman. He transferred from Company C, 5th SC Cavalry, in exchange with Thomas C. Moore, on 12 October 1863. A resident of Colleton District.
- Thomas C. Moore. He transferred to Company C, 5th SC Cavalry, in exchange with John G. Ackerman, on 12 October 1863.
- A. W. Rumph. Previously a first lieutenant in Smith’s Company (Beech Hill Rangers), 1st (Martin’s) SC Mounted Militia, in state service September 1861 – February 1862. Probably a resident of Colleton District.
Contributed by Fred Knudsen, Columbia, SC.
- Joseph O. Ackerman, 1844–1862
- A. L. A. Bridge
- Jacob Cattles
- H. C. Rhode, 27 April 1840 – 17 January 1904
Capt. John R. P. Fox and Lt. Isaiah Irvin Fox
Capt. John R. P. Fox, 16 November 1826 – 1 June 1896, buried in Fox Cemetery. He was severely wounded at Brandy Station while leading the regiment’s sharpshooters.
Lt. Isaiah Irvin Fox, 5 April 1841 – 19 April 1878, “Member of the Bar,” buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Walterboro, SC.
Contributed by Dot.
Sgt. Lucius Jordan
14 April 1842 – 19 September 1896. “Gone but not forgotten.” Buried in Jordan Cemetery.
Company K
See the Company K roster.
John W. Morris
Of Chester, South Carolina, he enlisted in Company K in September 1861 along with his brother-in-law, William Stone. He was born on 5 April 1833 and married Mary Ann “Mollie” (surname unknown) on 5 September 1854. They had no children.
He was wounded on 5 February 1865 in a skirmish on the Combahee River in South Carolina, losing one finger and the use of his right hand. In 1868 he and Mollie moved to Georgia, where they lived for the rest of their lives. He died on 7 March 1914 and is buried at Union Campground Cemetery, Carroll County, Georgia.
Contributed by William Stone.
Joseph Monroe Minter
He served in Company D of the 1st South Carolina Cavalry Battalion, organized in 1861, and from 1862 in Company K of the regiment. Born 17 February 1830, he married Mary Ann Harden in 1854 and had six children before the war and two after. He came through his service without injury, went back to farming in Chester County, SC, and lived there until his death on 11 October 1908.
Contributed by John Minter.
Col. John Logan Black
Commander of the 1st South Carolina Cavalry. His grave is in Ridgeway, SC. Read his reports in the Brandy Station and Official Records pages, and his memoirs, Crumbling Defenses (HathiTrust).
Confederate Iron Crosses
See the Confederate Medal of Honor (Wikipedia).
Send a Memorial
Do you have an ancestor who served in the 1st South Carolina Cavalry? Please send his story, dates, burial place or photograph using the form on the 1st South Carolina Cavalry page, and it will be added here.
More Photos
1st SC Cavalry: Regiment history · Company rosters · Memorials · Official Records · Brandy Station · Camp Johnson · Miscellany