SC Independence News Blog & Videos
"There is a true glory and a true honor: the glory of duty done - the honor of the integrity of principle." -Robert E. Lee
WILLIAM TRAVIS
William Barret Travis 1809-1836 Travis grew up in Saluda County, SC. He married young and practiced law as a young man. He started publishing a newspaper and joined the State militia. When his marriage failed though he packed up his things and headed West. There in Texas he gained some land and began practicing law again. Travis was one of the first to join the pro-independence cause in Texas. He led 30 men into the Alamo in 1836 and found himself in charge of the defense of that make-shift fort. He commanded the patriots in battle against overwelming odds and fell with the other 179 heroes. He was only 26 years old but he will be remembered forever as a hero.
MARY CHESTNUT
Mary Boykin Chesnut 1832-1886 A South Carolinian woman who is most famous for her diary that documents life in the South during the Federal invasion. Mary was born in Statesburg, SC to a wealthy and politically prominent family. At seventeen she he married James Chesnut, an SC planter and staunch secessionist who was a member of the secession convention that declared independence from the Union. She herself was opposed to slavery but strongly supported South Carolina's right to leave the Union through secession. Through her husbands' connections Mary Chesnut became friends with President Jefferson Davis' wife Varina Davis. Through Varina she met many Confederate leaders of the government and military, giving her a great deal of inside knowledge - much of which she put down in her diary. In it she diligently recorded events great and small for future historians. "Many critics since have labeled it one of the most important [S]outhern literary works of the nineteenth century. The editors of the first edition claim that "perhaps nowhere else in the literature of the war, will be found the Southern spirit of that time expressed in words which are not alone charming as literature, but genuinely human in their spontaneousness, their delightfully unconscious frankness." Following the war, Mary rewrote and condensed her diary, giving it to a friend before her death in 1886. It was first published as "A Diary from Dixie" in 1905. A version of her diary published in 1981 titled "Mary Chesnut's Civil War" won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize in History.
JOHN RUTLEDGE
John Rutledge 1739-1800 South Carolina adopted a State Constitution in March of 1776, before the July 4th Declaration of Independence. Thus, SC was the first American republic - and that year the SC General Assembly elected Rutledge the first president of that very first republic. When the title of our chief executive was changed from "president" to "governor" he was also the first to be elected to this position. John Rutledge was born in Charleston, educated in London, but spent his life in defense of South Carolina. Rutledge led the State's revolutionary fight against the British crown for independence. He served in most of the pro-independence bodies that met during the war, including the Stamp Act Congress and the Continental Congress. Later he played a major role in helping to create the US Constitution. Rutledge served on the US Supreme Court and was Chief Justice of the SC Supreme Court as well. His life of service and lasting influence distinguish John Rutledge as one of our most honored heroes - a Founding Father of our Republic.
HENRY TIMROD
Henry Timrod 1828-1867 Called "the Poet Laureate of the Confederacy" by famed Victorian era poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. A poet, teacher, lawyer and soldier, Timrod was a man of many abilities who used them all for the good of our State. Born in Charleston to a German-descended family, he studied law as a young man but left the field after having several promising poems published. After taking up a job as a teacher on a plantation near present-day Florence, Timrod published several works. With the Palmetto State's secession in 1860 he returned to Charleston to write emotional, patriotic poems that stirred young South Carolinians to join the Southern independence cause. He volunteered and fought in the Battle of Shiloh, but illness denied him long military service. After serving as a war correspondent for a while he returned to Columbia, becoming the editor of a newspaper and marrying his sweatheart. During the evil days of Sherman's occupation of our capital, Timrod, a known Confederate patriot, had to go into hiding. The Federals destroyed his newspaper office out of hatred for the man and our State and the war left him broke. To make the story even sadder his baby son died about this time. His world destroyed and aided by consumption, Henry himself passed away just two years after the war. We remember him today as a great patriot and artist. Some of his works include A Cry to Arms, Carolina, Katie, A Vision of Poesy. His poem Carolina has been adopted as the lyrics to our South Carolina national anthem.
WADE HAMPTON
Wade Hampton 1818-1902 Perhaps the wealthiest planter in America before secession, Hampton depleted his entire fortune during the war equipping South Carolina troops. He became a famous and daring Lt. Gen. in the cavalry, enduring five wounds - including a sabor gash to his head during a charge at Gettysburg. While he was in command of the Confederate cavalry corps he never lost a single fight through the war. One Confederate soldier described Gen. Hampton "a veritable god of war." General Hampton was very relulctant to surrender, even after the South had clearly been defeated. After seeing the way South Carolina was treated under Federal military occupation, Hampton told Union General and later President Ulysses S. Grant, "If we had known that you were going to back with bayonets the carpetbagger, the scalawag, and the negro in their infamous acts, we would never have given up our arms!" Hampton was the first defiant pro-South governor elected after Reconstruction. In his quest to bring down the Reconstruction occupation he led his famous "Red Shirts" against the stationed Union forces and their political allies. A hero across the State, he became known as the "Savior of South Carolina." Twenty-thousand people followed behind his casket at his funeral. We here salute General, Governor and Senator Wade Hampton, possibly our greatest hero of all.
FRANCIS MARION
Francis Marion 1732-1795 A Revolutionary War hero who was nicknamed the "Swamp Fox" by the British because of his elusive tactics. Francis Marion was born near Georgetown, South Carolina in 1732. He was a descendant of French Huguenots who settled on the Santee River. During the war he led South Carolina troops against the British in the Low Country and backwoods of the State. He normally attacked at night and then vanished into the swamps and marshes he and his men knew so well. His own personal phyiscal accomplishments are incredible, as well as his cunning and natural military ability. He served the State politically as well and voted for a free and independent SC to enter the Federal Union.
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