rocks. This is my estimate at least,
and the result proved most disastrous to the brigade and General
Drayton himself, as he was soon afterwards relieved of his command."

It has been the aim of the writer of this History not to criticize,
condemn, nor make any comments upon the motives or acts of any of
the officers whom he should have cause to mention, and he somewhat
reluctantly gives space to Colonel Rice's stricture of General
Drayton. It is difficult for officers in subaltern position to
understand all that their superiors do and do not. The Generals, from
their positions, can see differently from those in the line amid the
smoke of battle, and they often give commands hard to comprehend from
minor officers' point of view. General Drayton was an accomplished
and gallant officer, and while he might have been rash and reckless at
South Mountain, still it is hard to conceive his being relieved of his
command through the charge of "rashness," especially when his brigade
held up successfully for so long a time one of the most stubborn
battles of the war.

At the Battle of Sharpsburg or Antietam, the little remnant of the
battalion was again engaged. On Lee's return to Virginia, and during
the last days of November or early in December, the Third Battalion
and the Fifteenth Regiment were transferred to Kershaw's Brigade, and
from thence on it will be treated as a part of the old First Brigade.
At Fredericksburg, on the day of the great battle, the battalion held
the railroad cut running from near the city to the right of Mayree's
Hill, and was well protected by a bluff and the railroad, consequently
did not suffer as great a loss as the other regiments of the brigade.

* * * * *

COLONEL GEORGE S. JAMES.

The first commander of the Third Battalion, and who fell at South
Mountain, was born in Laurens County, in 1829. He was the second son
of John S. James, a prominent lawyer of Laurens, who, meeting with
misfortune and losing a handsome fortune, attempted to retain it
by moving to Columbia and engaging in mercantile pursuits. This he
followed with success. Colonel George S. James received his early
education in the academies of the up-country. While yet a youth
some seventeen years of age, war with Mexico was declared, and his
patriotic and chivalric spirit sent him at once to the ranks of the
Palmetto Regiment, and he shared the triumphs and fortunes of that
command to the close of