The last service of Bratton's brigade in 1864 was a hurried expedition by rail to Gordonsville, December 23d, to the assistance of General Lomax, confronting Sheridan, from which it returned without loss. At the beginning of 1865 General Bratton reported that he entered the campaign with a total of 2,016, had lost 176 killed, 1,094 wounded and 94 missing, total, 1,364, and had present at the date of his report, a total of 1,820. He particularly commended Colonels Hagood and Howard and their regiments, and the valuable services of Adjt.-Gen. J. B. Lyle.
Elliott's brigade remained on the Petersburg lines with Johnson's division through the fall and winter, and the reports of General Johnson show that they had almost daily losses in killed and wounded. On the night of October 27th, the enemy carried a part of the picket line of the Holcombe legion, and Gen. W. H. Wallace, then in command of Elliott's brigade, immediately sent forward a force of 200 men from the legion and Eighteenth regiment, under Captain Brown, who retook the line, with 14 prisoners. On the night of November 5th, 200 men of the legion, under Captain Woodruff, attacked the Federal line in front of the Crater, and 60 men attempted to intrench the position gained, but they were all compelled to retire, with a loss to the brigade of 95 men.
In the latter part of September, General Heth and Hampton's cavalry administered a severe check to the enemy at Hatcher's run, and on the Vaughan and Squirrel Level roads. In the latter fight, General Dunovant was killed at the head of the South Carolina cavalry. The continued activity of the enemy on the Hatcher's Run line resulted in the battle of Burgess' Mill, October 27th, fought by Mahone and Hampton. In a gallant charge by Butler's division, Lieut. Thomas Preston Hampton, aide-de-camp, fell mortally wounded, and Lieut. Wade Hampton, of the general's staff, was severely wounded. Lieutenant-Colonel Jeffords was killed at the head of his regiment, the Fifth South Carolina, and Maj. T. G. Barker, division adjutant-general, was dangerously wounded. The gallant Captain Hart lost a leg while fighting his guns close up to the enemy.
Kershaw's brigade, under Gen. James Conner, and later under Colonel Kennedy, served gallantly under Early in the Shenandoah valley. At the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19th, a day of victory and disaster, the brigade suffered a loss of 205. Maj. James M. Goggin, subsequently commanding, reported the gallant service of Lieut. Y. J. Pope and Cadet E. P. Harllee, both wounded; of De Saussure Burrows, killed; of Couriers Crumley and Templeton, of the brave Capt. B. M. Whitener, who fell in command of the battalion of sharpshooters; of Maj. B. R. Clyburn, who lost a leg, and of Major Todd, commanding Third regiment, severely wounded. Among the captured were Colonel Boykin and Lieutenant-Colonel McMichael, of the Twentieth.
In the latter part of December, Hoke's division was ordered to Wilmington, N. C, to meet the expedition against Fort Fisher. Hagood's brigade, then containing 720 effective men, took part in the operations which resulted in the withdrawal of the Federal forces under B. F. Butler. Besides the brigade, the Second cavalry was present.
In mid-January the attack on Fort Fisher was resumed, with a tremendous bombardment during the 13th and 14th, and an infantry assault on the 15th. Col. R. F. Graham, commanding Hagood's brigade, at Fort Anderson, was ordered to support the garrison, and on the afternoon of the 15th, the Twenty-first and Twenty-fifth regiments, under Captains DuBose and Carson, were landed, but the enemy's fire was too severe to land any more. The Twenty-first at once moved up to Fort Fisher, and the other regiment reached there later in the day, but the brave Confederate garrison was compelled to abandon the fort and surrender. The remainder of the brigade did not again join the army of Northern Virginia, but closed its record in the campaign in the Carolinas. Early in January, Conner's brigade, Kershaw's old command, was sent to General Hardee at Charleston. Butler's cavalry brigade accompanied General Hampton when he took command of cavalry in the Carolinas.
The South Carolina commands which participated in the final struggle to hold the defensive lines of Richmond and Petersburg in 1865, were as follows, as compiled from the reports and parole lists of Appomattox:
Brig.-Gen. John Bratton's brigade of Field's division, First corps: First, Fifth, Sixth regiments and Second rifles, Colonels Hagood, Coward, Steedman and Bowen, and the Palmetto sharpshooters, Capt. A. H. Foster.
Brig.-Gen. Samuel McGowan's brigade, Wilcox's division, Third corps: First regiment (provisional army), Lieut.-Col. A. P. Butler; Twelfth, Capt. J. C. Bell; Thirteenth, Col. I. F. Hunt; Fourteenth, Lieut.-Col. Edward Croft; Orr's rifles, Lieut.-Col. J. T. Robertson.
Brig.-Gen. William H. Wallace's brigade, of Johnson's division, Lieut.-Gen. R. H. Anderson's corps: Seventeenth, Capt. E. A. Crawford; Eighteenth, Lieut.-Col. W. B. Allison; Twenty-second, Col. William G. Burt; Twenty-third, Lieut.-Col. John M. Kinloch; Twenty-sixth, Maj. Ceth S. Land; Holcombe legion.
In the cavalry under Fitzhugh Lee, were the Seventh regiment, Col. A. C. Haskell, and the Hampton legion, Lieut.-Col. R. B. Arnold, of Brig.-Gen. M. W. Gary's brigade, the last troops to leave the capital of the Confederacy.
With the artillery were the South Carolina batteries of Capt. H. R. Garden, Lieut. E. L. Purse (Fickling's), and Capt. T. E. Gregg.
Wallace's brigade suffered severely at the battle of Five Forks, only a remnant marching thence to Appomattox Court House.
[L] Of this movement Col. R. E. Bowen writes: "The regiment marched fully one mile under a continuous fire of shell, grape, canister and minie balls, without losing a single man—one of the most remarkable events of the war."