Officers and Soldiers of the Holcombe Legion:

I can find no words with which to thank your gallant Colonel for the compliment he has paid me, in giving to his noble command the name I once bore; but I trust the presentation of this standard may in some small measure testify my deep appreciation of the honor conferred upon me. In seeking to render this ensign worthy of your valor and devotion, I have placed first among its devices the armorials of your beloved State, the glorious palmetto and crescent, emblems consecrated to noble daring and high resolve, for they waved in our harbor when Carolina stood alone in this momentous contest, and floated over that heroic battery which threw its steady and victorious fire into the arrogant "Star of the West." I remember with pride that your commander, Colonel Stevens, had charge of that battery, and thus early in the war established a claim to Carolina's grateful remembrance. While I give into your honorable keeping the spotless escutcheon of your State, I look with eager confidence toward that future, when your heroism shall achieve for it a new lustre and renown.

The dates inscribed 1776 and 1860 are eloquent with meaning. The first commemorates our disenthralment from a foreign foe, the second speaks to you of that glad hour when we threw off the tyranny of domestic wrong, and welcomed the new birth of a higher freedom. If I have reversed the Palmetto with the Lone Star of the "Imperial State of Texas," if I have thus sought to associate on your battleflag the two devices which share the devotion of my own heart, you will not blame me; you will remember the bloody struggle, the Spartan endurance, the indomitable courage by which she won her right to honor and independence; and the chivalric, heroic blood of South Carolina which flowed at the Alamo will, to the last day, challenge an admiring tribute from every son of her soil. I feel assured that the noble motto inscribed on this banner, "It is for the brave to die, but not to surrender" - is but the expression of the spirit which animates the breast of every soldier in your midst. Patriotism ranks with us, as with the ancients, first among virtues, and life is only worth keeping that we may perform the duties belonging to it.

And now I cannot resist telling you how anxiously I will follow your every movement; what pride I will feel in your moments of victory and success; and I will grieve if reverses befall you. I earnestly pray that God will keep each one of you in His charge, and that the fortune of war may give you all you require, an opportunity to show yourselves a legion of heroes.