The banner of the South and planters' journal. (Augusta, Ga.) 1870-18??, December 17, 1870, Page 8, Image 8

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8 (ffonfrfcerate fHroiorials Reoort of the Executive Board of the Survivors Association of the State of South Carolina The Executive Board respectfully report the duty of preserving the his tory of the events ot the late war be tween the Confederate and United States, which are Btill fresh in the memory of its survivors, and of col lecting the many Confederate records which yet exist, but which will be for gotten- and destroyed unless at onee oollected and put in permanent form is reorganized and assumed in the basis of organization of this-Associa tion. To perform this duty it is provided in the constitution that there shall be an Executive Board consisting of seven members appointed by the President, which shall l>e charged with the collec tion, arrangement and preservation of the records of the Association, and shall have the general superintendence and control of the Bureau of Records. It is also provided that the Executive Board shall annually elect a Librarian, who shall be charged with the imme diate custody of all books, papers and records committed to his care by them, and of their arrangement and record under the superintendence of the Board, and who shall receive such com pensation as the Board shAll determine. Under the provisions of the constitu tion the undersigned were appointed upon the Executive Board, and entered upon their duties. There appear to the Board to be two classes of records which it is desirable to preserve. The first relates to the general history of the war. The sec ond to the number, organization and personal history of the troops furnished by the State to the Confederate army. The Board belie es that a large amount of loose, but most valuable material for the first exists, Rueh as re ports, orders, letters, <tc., scattered about in private portfolios, which will be lost not only to the State, but to the individual possessors, unless systemati cally preserved, and they are anxious to obtain these papers at least for the purpose of making copies. They would recommend that the Board be authorized to purchase it'thev cannot otherwise procure a complete file of the official reports issued from the war office of the Confederate States, and Such other histories of the war as they may consider worthy of preservation for the use of the Association, and as its means may permit They regard, however, the second class of records by far the most perti nent to the designs of this Association, and they believe it to be that which first demands our efforts to preserve. The largo number of able and promi nent officers interested in the history of the general operations of our armies is some guarantee that an effort will be made to obtain a fair statement of what was done by the Confederate troops in the field. But there is another part of the history’ of the times which it be hoves us carefully to preserve, and in which as none arc so immediately and personally interested is in more danger of being lost. The war having ended disastrously to our cause the whole Southern peo ple turn upon us the most scrutinizing inquiry as to tlfc part our State took in the war she inaugurated. And this is but just. As we gloried in having rushed foremost into the fray, and as our action compiled the people of our sister Southern States either to stand by and see us, and with us, their own cause Subjugated, or to join in the struggle, so now, in their own and our own defeat, it becomes us to show that we were not laggards in the strife to which we called them. And this we can do. We believe that we can show out of a voting popu lation of Ires than 68,000 we gave 44,000 volunteers during the first 18 months of the war, and during the whole war at least one soldier for eve ry vote cast tor secession. We believe that we can show that our State gave more than 12,000 lives for the South ern cause. And we believe that- we can show that of the remnant of the glorious Army of Northern Virginia which stood by its chieftain to the last, one-fifth of the whole were South Caro linians, and that though she was one BANNER OF THE SOUTH AND PLANTERS’ JOURNAL. I of the smallest of the nine States whose ! troops composed his army. But all this must be shown not merely asserted. And how can we show it ? The records of both State and Confederate States have been de stroyed, and facts and names are fast passing from our memory. Unless we can gather at oned all the remaining rolls and supply the missing from such memoranda as may yet exist, we shall soon be left to bare assertion. There is yet another and as grave a reason why our first efforts should be directed to the personal history of our troops. In an article in a recent English re view on the government scheme of Army Reform submitted to Parliament it is said: “The enfant* perdu of the world are your , “beat soldiers, the men who liavc lost, all “taste for civil life, who are no Joss to civil “society, who.have weighed life in the bal “ance and found it wanting—men of wreck “ed prospects and rained hopes—men who “seek in the wild excitement of the strife an ‘‘escape from the memory of bright days ‘‘gone by from the thought of fortunes once ‘‘fair, now blasted—frimi the broken dream ‘‘of faith in woman's love. Such men tilled ‘‘the ranks of the zouave battalions of ‘‘France during the Crimean war. Such ‘‘men were to be found in numbers in the ‘‘European Regiments of the Old company's, ‘‘service in India. Men very hard to hold ‘‘in peace, but harder still to light in war.” And such, doubtless, were the men wlto have composed moat armies of the world. But Such were not the men who marched with Jackson, who fought at Chickamauga, who stormed the heights of Gettysburg, who charged with Hampton, or who stood frnndst Sumter's crumbling walls. To describe the characters of those who composer? the armies of the Con federate States, is but to describe the character of our people. The rich and the poor, the educated and ignorant, the farmer and merchant, the student laborer stood side by side in our ranks. The general historian will tell of the operations in the field, and will give as far as the imperfect, records will enable him an estimate of the number engaged. But who will tell of the host of privates, our friends, our brothers, who, with bare and bleeding feet, struggled over rocky gnd frozen roads to fall unknown in bartle ? To those of us who survive, though it has fallen to our lot to bear the hu miliation of deteat from which tie/ have been spared, there yet remains the op|)ortuiuty of straggling for our native land, and the hope some day of realizing the objects for which we fought, though not in the form we de sired. But for those who fell no such hope remains. They gave their lives for our cause, it becomes us to pre serve their memories. The Executive Board were author ized to appoint a Librarian to take charge of the books, papers and records of the Association. It was known to the Board that. Professor W: J. Rivers had been engaged during and since the war in collecting the names of the dead aud gathering in formation in regard to the organization and number of our troops. They sought, therefore', to obtain invaluable assistance in this capacity. But though generously putting all the material lie had collected at the dis posal of the Association, circumstances prevented his assuming the charge of our records, lie consented, however, •for the present to aid the Board in their work. In a preface to the papers tendered to the Association, Prof. Rivers says : "The plan "devised for tic- arrangement of the mate rnal collected consists of two parts. First "an introduction containing (lj a ehrono ‘‘logical account of the raising of trooi>s for “State and Confederate service, (2) a brief “account of the career of each organization “during the war with ;ui appended group ing together of the dead of each regiment “or battalion, (8) statistical tables showing “the number killed in battle, the number of “those.who died of wounds, of disease or “from accident; the number who died be “tweeu the age of 15 and 20, 20 and 25, and “so on the number from each district, and a “list of the engagements in which our State “troops participated. The second consists “of the roll or an alphabetical list of all who “perished with the district from which each “soldier came, his rank, company, regi “ment, arm of service, date of death, cause “aud place of death aud age.” lie now offers to the Association the work thus far completed hv him, viz ; The introduction to fiis collection containing, as he proposed, a chrono logical account of the raising of troops ! for State and Confederate service, in itself a most valuable work, and one of great historical importance, mid also sketches prepared by him (from in formation furnished by the officers) of tlia careers of the following regiments, to-wit: Ist S. C. V. (Ilagoods); 2nd 8. C. V., 7th S. C. V., 10th 8. C. V., 13th S. C. V., 18th S. C. V., 20th S. C. V., 22nd S. C. V., 24th S. C. V., (Holcombe Legion), 2d S. C. Rifles, 3th and 7th S. C. Cavalry and 7th S. C. Battalion, together with a list of the battles in which the troops from ! this State were engaged arranged in j chronological order, amounting in all to the n tmber of one hundred and and eight, not including the general operations of the Beige of Petersburg lasting 10 months, and that of Claries ton lasting three years. It appears from the Adjutant Gen-! eral’s lieport in appendix to Journal of 4th session of the Convention which is ; quoted by Prof. Rivers, that upon the 30th of August, 1862, the State of South Carolina had in the field 41,873 volunteers and 1100 conscripts, and that it was estimated t hat the number of men contributed by the State | up to that time to the Confederate service exceeded 45,000, besides which she then had in active service 8,000 reserves, and that during the last year of the war we had in the field 32 Regi ments and 3 Battalions of infantry, of which 8 regiments of cavalry and 2 regiments, 2 battalions and 22 batteries of artillery, with 4 regiments of re serves, besides the corps of State cadets. This enumeration does not include the officers and men ‘of the General Staff, to-wit: the Engineer, Ordnance, Adjutant,Quartermasters, Commissary, Signal and Medical Corps, of which we have not, as yet, been able 'to obtain estimates. . But the most valuable material offer ed to the Association by Prof. Rivers in the opinion of the Board are the names of the dead collected by him. This roll he had made up from all sources within his reach, newspaper reports, reports of friends, auQ some official re ports. Thus collected they had been put down only in al|ihabetical order, that is the names were only collected together by the initial letters, and so in looking for any given name in many cases hundreds had to l»e read. Gath ered moreover from various sources and put down from tifflo to time it was impossible, but that it should lmpj>en that some names would be t wioe or even three times entered, and this was the more likely to happen, as in the hurry of the official reports, the diffi culty of deciphering illegible writing, and through the mistakes of the press, combined with the arbitrary method of spelling names, the same name rei>ort ed from different sources was often so varied as to make a doubt as tot its identity. The Board, therefore, undertook to have this collection of names rear ranged, lexicographically and fairly written out, and engaged a lady, the widow of a Confederate officer, to per form the task. This work lias l>een done and supervised with the assist ance of Prof. Rivera, and we herewith present to the Association a roll of 10,000 South Carolinians who gave their lives to the' Southern cause, with an appendix of 2,000 more collect ed from sources not as authentic. The lady who undertook this work agreed to doit for the sum of SIOO, and that amount has been advanced to her by meml*era of this Board. But it is not considered, a sufficient remuneration for the labor it has cost. She has been [ obliged to procure assistance, and the j task has occupied the whole summer. The Board tkuik that an inspection of | the work will show that the Associa tion is indebted to the ladies who have performed it, and recommend that the Treasurer lx: authorized and instructed to pay them the further sum of $25 as soon as in funds. The Board are well aware that some names are still wanting, they them selves could supply a fewoinisions, but they have determined to recommend that it be published as it is, in two edi tions. the first with a preface inviting corrections and additions to lie submit ted to the Board by the friends- of those who fell, the second with the additions and corrections thus made in a better and more permanent form. The Board have obtained estimates ', of the cost of publishing the Roll, to ! get her with J'rof. River’s history of j the raising of troops in this State in [the two editions, and report that .Messrs. Walker, Evans <fc Cogswell, of [Charleston, offer to publish 1,000 copies of each edition for $2 50 a copy, to be paid on delivery'. If then we can obtain 1000 subscribers at $5 for the two editions, this great memorial of our dead and valuable historical j work of our State will be secured.. The Board herewith present printed 1 forms for subscription lists, and feel confident that if the plan is adopted the number of subscribers will soon be found. While thus securing the remem brance of those who tell, the Board have felt tliat all who offered their lives were equally entitled to have their names recorded upon the glori ; ous roll of those who tought for our | cause. To this end the President of the Association in conference with the Board issued a circular appealing earn estly to all who (vere in the service to | co-operate with the Association in their effort to up the work commenced by Prof. Rivers during the war and to goon with it, to obtain aud perfect rolls of companies, the records of regiments and the history of brigades. (A copy of this circular is annexed to this re port marked A.) In furtherance of this object they prepared a printed form of rolls (a: copy of which is also annexed marked B) to be issued to the officers last in command of companies or to other suitable persons. These circulars and blanks they proposed to issue through the officers last in command of regi ments. To obtain the names and ad-j dresses of such officers inquiries were addressed to each officer last in com mand of the brigade of troops of this State. The names and addresses of officers last in command of the regi ments aud batteries, not brigaded with South Carolina troops, they ascertained as Iwst they could, and believe they have been successful in most instances in some they still need information. In answer to their inquiries they have received replies from Generals j Hagood, McGowan, M.-migault, Brat ton, Connor, Capers and Gary'. Major j Barker furnished the information of the | brigade of cavalry last commanded by 1 General Logan, who has removed from the State. From the officer whet’ commanded the Brigade of Regulars the Board have received no reply to I their communication. Upon the recommendation of the 1 Brigade commanders they sent circu lars (see copy appended marked C) to! the officers named in the list hereto j annexed marked D, and with each eir-1 cular a package containing printed i forms for rolls, and envelopes with i printed address of the Chairman of! the Board in which to return the rolls when completed. The Board could not obtain the ad dresses of the officers last in command of the regiments, battalions and bat teries named in the annexed lists marked E, with sufficient accuracy to issue circulars and forms of rolls, though many of their names are well known. They have received returns w ith rolls of their companies from the officers named in the list marked F. Asa matter of historical interest they append to this report a list mark-1 ed G, of the General officers of this! State, and of the regiments, battalions i and lotteries, as they were ultimately organized, with the names of the com manders as far :is known to the Board, together with the brigade organizations as they were at the end of the war. They invite corrections and addi tions to these lists, if any’ mistakes or ommissious are detected in them.' The Board hope by the next meeting j to be able to report a roll of the Field and Stall' officers of the State. They j regret that they have no information ! to report in regard to the naval forces of the State, but Hope in another year • to jiave something in regard to that branch of the service to submit The Board did not feel themselves authorized to employ a Librarian until some definite arrangement had been made in regard to the finances of the Association. But they are anxious to have this office tilled at once. The correspondence in regard to the rolls now’ being prepared is large, the custo- dyot the papers a matter of responsi bility, and their arrangement a wor fc j requiring more time and attention than can be given, but by a person regularly employed to attend to it. They think 1 i l * lat f°r the small salary of SIOO they ; could obtain the sendees of a compe j tent person to jierform these duties. ,It is of great consequence too, that : the records should be kept in a secure place accessible to aIL They think they can effect an arrangement by ; which such a place of deposit will be [ found, and this only at the cost of fix ing a few si‘elves and boxes for the j books and records. They submit an estimate (see ap ;pendix II.) of the expenses already in cured by the Board and of the ex . penses for the n<fxt year, i The Board cannot close this report without calling the attention of the [ Association still more particularly to •the patriotic and laborious efforts of Prof. Rivers to collect and preserve the material for the history ot the troops furnished by the State, aud to his admirable arrangement of the material collected by him, as well as to the generous manner in which he has placed the results of his labor at the disposal of this Association. Prof. Rivera, it is true, was engaged by the Legislature of the State in 1864 to undertake this w’ork, but it should be known that he never re ceived one cent for his services dur | ing the time he was acting under its authority. His work had,' indeed, but been commenced w hen the war ended, and his official connection with the matter ceased. The great mass of the material has been collected since the end of the war by his disinterested efforts. The people of the State gen- I erallpr, but particularly those of whose services he has endeavored to preserve the record, ftwe to him a debt of grati tude. The friends of those whose names' this, his exertion, and found upon the glorious Roll of South Caro lina matyred dead, should appreciate and gratefully remember the services he has rendered them. In conclusion the Board would recommend the adoption of the follow ing resolutions : 1. Resolved, That the estimate of ex penses submitted by the Executive- Board be referred to a special com mittee of three to devise a plan for raising the amount so reported as necessary to meet the expenses already incurred and for the expenses of the next year, and report*the same to this meeting. 2. Resolved , That the Treasurer be authorized to pay to the Executive Board the sum of one. hundred and twenty-five dollars ($125) for the ladies who have rearranged and engrossed the Roll of the Dead, and also to pay the bill of Messrs. Walker, Evans & Cogswell reported due by the Board, amounting to eighty-three dollars and seventy-nine cents (SB3 79). 3. Resolved , That the Executive Bbad be authorized to publish by sub scription upon the plan reported by' them the Roll of the Dead prepared by Prof. Rivers as now rearranged, in two editions, the first edition for correc tions and additions, and the second so corrected and added to in permanent form. 4. Resolved, That the Executive Board be authorized to purchase as soon as the Treasurer shall be in suffi icient funds after having paid the ■ amounts already ordered, a complete ! tile of the official reports issued by the War Department of the Confederate States, and such other histories as they ! may deem it important at once to ob tain, and to draw on the Treasurer 1 when- so in funds, therefor to an I amount not. exceeding one hundred ! and twenty-five dollars ($125). ; 5. Resolved, That the Executive j Board be authorized to obtain a place j of deposit for the records and books of the Association, which shall be accessi ble to all?anil to expend upon the same a sum of not more than twenty five dollars ($25) for shelves, <&c. 6. Resolved, That this Association requests all persons having original re ports of or letters describing battles, marches, reconuoisances, sieges or other papers relating to the operations of the war, to permit the Executive Board to have copies of the same taken for preservation. 7. Resolved, That this Association [concluded on page bis.]