mber 20th, 1860, Captain Kershaw was elected
Colonel of the Second South Carolina Volunteers, and Lieutenant
Kennedy was chosen Captain of the Camden Volunteers, a company
composed of members of the Camden Light Infantry and those who united
with them for service in the field. This company became Company E,
Second South Carolina Volunteers, was ordered to Charleston April 8th,
1861, and witnessed from their position on Morris Island the siege of
Fort Sumter, April 12th, 1861. The Second Regiment formed part of the
First Brigade, commanded by General M.L. Bonham, of the Army of the
Potomac, as the Confederate Army in Northern Virginia was then called.
In the spring of 1862 the troops who had volunteered for twelve months
reorganized for the war, the Second South Carolina Volunteers being, I
believe, the first body of men in the army to do so. At reorganization
Captain Kennedy was elected Colonel, in which capacity he served until
1864, when he was promoted to the command of the brigade, which he
held until the close of the war. In 1862 the name of the army was
changed to the Army of Northern Virginia, the Federals having called
theirs the Army of the Potomac. The Second was engaged in every battle
fought by the army in Virginia, from the first Manassas to Petersburg,
except Second Manassas, and was also in battle of Chickamauga, battles
around Knoxville, Averysboro, and Bentonville, and surrendered at
Greensboro April 27th, 1865. General Kennedy was in every battle in
which his command was engaged, and was wounded six times and struck
fifteen times. He died in Camden, S.C., April 14th, 1896.
* * * * *
COLONEL R.P. TODD.
Colonel R.P. Todd was born in Laurens County, about the year 1838.
Graduated at a literary college (I think the South Carolina), read
law, and entered upon the practice of his profession a year or two
before the beginning of hostilities. At the first call by the State
for twelve months' volunteers, Colonel Todd enlisted in the "Laurens
Briars," afterwards Company G, Third South Carolina Regiment, and was
elected Captain. He took his company with him into the Confederate
service, and at the reorganization in 1862, was again elected Captain.
Was made Major in 1864 and Lieutenant Colonel in the early part of
1865. He was in most of the great battles in which the regiment was
engaged, and was several times severely wounded. He surrendered at
Greensboro, N.C.
After the
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