The South Carolina cavalry and horse artillery participated in this memorable campaign under Stuart, until that famous leader fell at Yellow Tavern, then under Hampton. In Hampton's successful battle with Sheridan at Trevilian, Butler's South Carolina brigade opened the attack and was distinguished throughout. Among the wounded was Colonel Aiken, of the Sixth cavalry. Before the battle of Nance's Shop, Hampton was joined by Brig.-Gen. M. W. Gary, with a brigade including the Hampton legion cavalry and Seventh South Carolina cavalry. Gary opened the battle at Nance's shop and contributed materially to the victory.
Meanwhile other gallant South Carolinians had been on duty under General Beauregard, guarding the approaches to the Confederate capital, and holding back the advance of the Federal army under Gen. Ben Butler. These South Carolina commands were Brig.-Gen. Johnson Hagood's brigade; Evans' brigade, under Col. Stephen Elliott; the Seventh cavalry, Col. W. P. Shingler, and Kelly's battery (Chesterfield).
The Twenty-first and part of the Twenty-fifth arrived at Port Walthall junction on May 6th, and at once went out under Colonel Graham to meet the enemy. They were successful in checking the enemy. The whole brigade, arriving, was engaged in battle at the junction on the 7th, repulsing the enemy, and at Swift Creek on the 9th. The brigade loss was 177. The brave Lieutenant-Colonel Dargan fell at the head of his men; Colonel Graham was wounded in two places; Lieutenant-Colonel Pressley, and Captain Stoney, of the staff, were seriously, and Lieutenant-Colonel Blake, Twenty-seventh, and Captain Sellers, Twenty-fifth, slightly wounded.
At the battle of Drewry's Bluff, May 16th, according to General Beauregard's report, "Hagood and Bushrod Johnson were thrown forward and found a heavy force of the enemy occupying a salient of the outer line of works.... Hagood with great vigor and dash drove the enemy from the outer lines in his front, capturing a number of prisoners, and in conjunction with Johnson, five pieces of artillery. He then took position in the works." The casualties of the brigade were 433 out of 2,235. Captain Brooks, of the Seventh, received three severe wounds. Fifty-seven bullet marks were found upon the flag of the Seventh battalion after the fight, and in one of its companies 19 were killed and 46 wounded. It was by such heroic fighting that Petersburg and Richmond were held in May, 1864.
Brig.-Gen. Stephen Elliott reported a severe fight on June 2d, in which the Seventeenth and Twenty-second South Carolina were engaged, and the latter regiment lost its colonel, O. M. Dantzler, who fell mortally wounded while leading a charge.
Grant having transferred his army south of the James, Bratton's brigade was sent across to Beauregard's line near the Howlett house, on June 16th. Taking position on the right, they saw next morning that the enemy was still in partial possession of part of Beauregard's line. "About the middle of the day the division (Field's) made a sort of spontaneous charge," as Bratton put it, "in which my skirmish line participated, and recovered the line." Next morning, relieved by Pickett, Bratton moved to the Petersburg line beyond the Appomattox, taking position on the right of where the mine was sprung later. Here for several days, during the first assaults of Grant's army, under incessant fire night and day, Bratton's men had their severest tour of duty in all the four years. On June 24th they were relieved by Elliott's South Carolinians, and took other positions on the line until transferred north of the James.
Hagood's brigade served with distinction in the Petersburg battles of June 16th to 18th, repelling all assaults. Reaching Petersburg from the Drewry's bluff line on the night of the 15th, the brigade pushed out at the City Point road where the Confederates were being driven from the outer intrenchments. Under a fierce shelling on the 16th and 17th, many were killed. Captains Hopkins and Palmer and Adjutant Gelling, of the Twenty-second, were killed by the shells. Lieutenant Allemand was mortally wounded. So they fell all through the first two months in Virginia, till many of the best and bravest were laid to rest.
On the 18th Hagood fought to hold and did hold Hare's hill, the scene of Gordon's desperate sally in February, 1865. Lieutenant Harvey, Seventh battalion, was killed that day, and Lieutenant Felder, Twenty-fifth, and Major Rion, Seventh battalion, were wounded. The brigade lost about 220 in the three days. On the 24th Hagood's brigade occupied a single line of intrenchments, on the left of the Confederate line, the Twenty-seventh, Twenty-first and Eleventh between Appomattox creek and the City Point road, the Twenty-fifth and Seventh battalion south of the road, facing the enemy, who was intrenched in three lines. At dawn the South Carolinians were told that a general engagement was ordered, which they were to open, after a heavy cannonading of the enemy by the batteries north of the Appomattox. The three regiments north of the road were to charge and wheel to the south, and supported by other brigades, it was hoped to roll up the Federal flank and drive them beyond Hare's hill. Lieutenant-Colonel Nelson, Seventh battalion, was put in command of 400 picked men for the skirmish line, a detail which left only 550 men of these regiments in the second line. The attack was made, and the enemy driven from his rifle-pits and part of the first line of intrenchments, but the South Carolinians were too few to go further, and their expected support did not arrive in time. So the battle failed, but Hagood held the Federal rifle-pits all day. The loss in the three regiments and Seventh battalion was very heavy, 25 killed, 73 wounded and 208 whose fate was at the time unknown. Lieutenant-Colonel Nelson was missing; Captain Axson, Twenty-seventh, was killed; and Lieutenants Huguenin and Trim, Twenty-seventh, Chappell, Ford and Vanderford, Twenty-first, and Smith, Eleventh, wounded; Captains Mulvaney and Buist (wounded) were captured; Captain Raysor and Lieutenants Reilly, White and Clemens, missing.
On the 29th of July, Bushrod Johnson's division was arranged in the works with Ransom's North Carolinians on the left, Elliott's South Carolinians next, then Wise's Virginians, and Colquitt's Georgians on the right. A projecting part of the works known as Pegram's salient was occupied by Pegram's battery, with the Eighteenth South Carolina on its left and the Twenty-second behind it and to the right. To the left of the Eighteenth were the Twenty-sixth and Seventeenth, and to the right of the Twenty-second was the Twenty-third, all along the parapet. A second line of intrenchments, behind, Elliott did not have men enough to occupy. Upon these devoted South Carolinians in the parapets was to fall a tremendous blow, which was expected to open a way for Grant's army into Petersburg.
About 4:55 on the morning of July 30th, after a moment's appalling rumbling and trembling, the earth burst like a volcano beneath them, and great masses were cast in the air. Mingled in this horrible eruption which followed the explosion of the Federal mine, were the bodies of men, who fell nearly all of them lifeless, while scores of others were buried as the upheaval settled about the great "crater," nearly 100 by 150 feet, and 30 feet deep. Five companies of the Twenty-second South Carolina were blown up with the left of the battery, and four companies of the Eighteenth were thrown in the air or buried. The loss of the first regiment was 170; of the latter, 43 killed, 43 wounded, and 76 missing—buried or captured. Stunned by the shock of this explosion, both Federals and Confederates for a little while made no move, but when the torrents of dust had subsided, the Federals were seen pouring into the breach, and at the same time there was another and more deafening outbreak—that of the Federal artillery, all along the line, in a torrent of shot and shell and continuous reverberation, surpassing any previous artillery fire in the war. But Lee's undaunted veterans held firm.