Company K was especially unfortunate in her commanders. Captain Langford was killed at Savage Station; then Lieutenant L.P. Foster, son of Lieutenant Colonel Foster, was promoted to Captain and killed at Fredericksburg. Then W.H. Young was made Captain and killed at Gettysburg. Then J.H. Cunningham became Captain and was killed at Chickamauga. J.P. Roebuck was promoted and soon after taken prisoner. First Lieutenant John W. Wofford commanded the company till the surrender, and after the war became State Senator from Spartanburg.
Captain N.F. Walker was permanently disabled at Savage Station, returned home, was appointed in the conscript bureau, and never returned to active duty. He still retained his rank and office as Captain of Company D, thereby preventing promotions in one of the most gallant companies in Kershaw's Brigade.
It was at the battle of Fredericksburg that the regiment lost so many officers, especially Captains, that caused the greatest changes. Captains Hance, Foster, Summer, with nearly a dozen Lieutenants, were killed there, making three new Captains, and a lot of new Lieutenants. It was by the death of Captain Summer that I received the rank of Captain, having been a Lieutenant up to that time. From December, 1862, to the end I commanded the company, with scarcely a change. It [111] will be seen that at the reorganization the Third Regiment made quite a new deal, and almost a clean sweep of old officers—and with few exceptions the officers from Colonel to the Lieutenants of least rank were young men. I doubt very much if there was a regiment in the service that had such a proportion of young men for officers.
I will here relate an incident connected with the name of Captain Hance's family, that was spoken of freely in the regiment at the time, but little known outside of immediate surroundings—not about Captain Hance, however, but the name and connection that the incident recalled, that was often related by the old chroniclers of Laurens. Andrew Johnson, who was at the time I speak United States Senator from Tennessee, and was on the ticket with Lincoln, for Vice-President of the United States in his second race against McClellan, was elected, and afterwards became President. As the story goes, and it is vouched for as facts, Andrew Johnson in his younger days had a tailoring establishment at Laurens, and while there paid court to the mother of Captain Hance. So smitten was he with her charms and graces, he paid her special attention, and asked for her hand in marriage. Young Johnson was fine looking, in fact handsome, energetic, prosperous, and well-to-do young man, with no vices that were common to the young men of that day, but the great disparity in the social standing of the two caused his rejection. The family of Hance was too exclusive at the time to consent to a connection with the plebeian Johnson, yet that plebeian rose at last to the highest office in the gift of the American people, through the force of his own endowments.
SEVENTH SOUTH CAROLINA REGIMENT.
The Seventh Regiment was reorganized by electing—
Colonel—D. Wyatt Aiken, Abbeville.
Lieutenant Colonel—Elbert Bland, Edgefield.
Major—W.C. White, Edgefield.
Adjutant—Thomas M. Childs.
Sergeant Major—Amos C. Stalworth.
Quartermaster—B.F. Lovelace.
Commissary—A.F. Townsend.
[112] Company A—Stuart Harrison.
Company B—Thomas Huggins.
Company C—W.E. Cothran.
Company D—Warren H. Allen.
Company E—James Mitchell.
Company F—John S. Hard.
Company G—W.C. Clark.
Company H—H.W. Addison.
Company I—Benj. Roper.
Company K—Jno. L. Burris.
Company L—J.L. Litchfield.
Company M—Jerry Goggans.
I am indebted to Captain A.C. Waller, of Greenwood, for the following brief summary of the Seventh after reorganization, giving the different changes of regimental and company commanders, as well as the commanders of the regiment during battle: