2nd Infantry Regiment

 


HISTORICAL NOTES:

    Toward the end of December, 1860, acting under authority of an Act of the General Assembly of South Carolina, passed December 17, 1860, Governor Pickens called for ten regiments of volunteers from the militia of the State to serve for one year.

    One of the regiments organized under that call was designated the 2nd (Palmetto) Regiment. It was mustered into State service, April 9, 1861. When the men of the regiment were offered the opportunity of volunteering for Confederate service four companies - those commanded by Captains W. H. Casson and William Wallace, of Columbia, John D. Kennedy, of Camden, and John S. Richardson, Jr., of Sumter - volunteered. These four companies, with the field and staff of the regiment, were transferred to Virginia, April 24, 1861. Six other companies soon joined them and the regiment was mustered into the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, by Captain John Scott, C. S. A., Mustering Officer, May 22 and 23, 1861. Much of the subsequent history of the regiment is given in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies and in the History of Kershaw's Brigade by D. Augustus Dickert (Newberry, 1899).

    2nd Infantry Regiment [also called 2nd Palmetto Regiment] completed its organization near Richmond, Virginia, in May, 1861. The men were from Columbia, Camden, and Charleston, and the counties of Sumter, Richland, Greenville, Kershaw, and Lancaster. After fighting in Bonham's Brigade at First Manassas , the unit served under Generals Toombs, Kershaw, Kennedy, and Conner. It participated in many conflicts of the army from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor except when it was detached with Longstreet at Chickamauga and Knoxville. The 2nd was active in Early's Shenandoah Valley operations and ended the war in North Carolina. It reported 5 killed and 43 wounded at First Manassas , and lost eighteen percent of the 338 at Savage's Station , twenty percent of the 203 at Malvern Hill , thirty-seven percent of the 253 at Sharpsburg , and forty-one percent of the 412 at Gettysburg . The regiment sustained 10 casualties at Bentonville and totalled 184 men on March 23, 1865. It surrendered with the Army of Tennessee.

OFFICERS:

    Colonels Ervine P. Jones, John D. Kennedy, and Joseph B. Kershaw; Lieutenant Colonels Franklin Gaillard, A.D. Goodwyn, and William Wallace; and Major Benjamin R. Clyburn.

ASSIGNMENTS:

BATTLES:

    Fort Sumter SC (12 - 13 APR 1861)
    Blackburn's Ford (18 JUL 1861)
    1st Bull Run (21 JUL 1861)
    Yorktown Siege (APR - MAY 1862
    Williamsburg (4 MAY 1862)
    Seven Days Battles VA (25 JUN - 1 JUL 1862)
    Savage's Station (29 JUN 1862)
    Malvern Hill VA (1 JUL 1862)
    Nine Mile Road, near Richmond VA (18 JUL 1862)
    Harper's Ferry (12 - 15 SEP 1862)
    South Mountain VA (14 SEP 1862)
    Antietam VA (17 SEP 1862)
    Fredericksburg VA (13 DEC 1862)
    Chancellorsville (1-4 MAY 1863)
    Gettysburg PA (1-3 JUL 1863)
    Chickamauga GA (19-20 SEP 1863)
    Chattanooga Siege GA (SEP - NOV 1863)
    Knoxville Siege GA (NOV - DEC 1863)
    Campbell's Station (16 NOV 1863)
    Fort Sanders (29 NOV 1863)
    Bean's Station (15 DEC 1863)
    The Wilderness VA (5 - 6 MAY 1864)
    Spotsylvania Court House VA (8 - 21 MAY 1864)
    North Anna VA (23 - 26 MAY 1864)
    Cold Harbor VA (1 - 3 JUN 1864)
    Petersburg Siege VA (JUN 1864 - APR 1865)
    Berryville (AUG 1864)
    Near Port Republic (7 OCT 1864)
    Near Strasburg (14 OCT 1864)
    Cedar Creek (19 OCT 1864)
    Carolinas Campaign SC (FEB - APR 1865)
    Averasboro (16 MAR 1865)
    Bentonville NC (19 - 21 MAR 1865)

ROSTERS:

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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