ERRATA.

Page 32, line 17, for Loudon, read Loudoun.

Page 36, line 6, for condiment, read sauce. Page 47, line 2, for are, read have.

Page 156, line 24, for Pope, read L. E. Polk.

Southern Historical Society Papers.

VOL. XXXI. Richmond, Va., January-December. 1903.

THE WASHINGTON LIGHT INFANTRY, 1807-1861.

"The primal duties shine aloft, like stars;

The charities that soothe and heal and bless."

A PERMANENT CONFEDERATE BENEFACTION.

"And we can only dimly guess

What worlds of all this world's distress,

What utter woe, despair and death,

Their fate has brought to many a hearth."

THIS TOO BRIEF NARRATIVE

IS DEDICATED TO

THE WASHINGTON LIGHT INFANTRY,

of Charleston, S. C., now nearing the close of a century of company life; with the fervent hope that the young men who now fill its ranks may emulate its past honorable and dutiful achievements, and maintain and transmit its name and fame to the generations yet to succeed them.

WM. A. COURTENAY, Captain W. L. I.. 1872-'74; 1877-'79.

Innisfallen, 22d February, 1903.

[This chaste memorial, of a historical corps, at the hand of an honored ex-commander, can but be inspirative to exalted patriotism. The exemplification of Captain Courtenay, as soldier and citizen, commends itself to the emulation of all.

His career of comprehensive usefulness, has been most admirably progressive and providential, in the interest alike of general enlightenment and material prosperity.-EDITOR.]

THE WASHINGTON LIGHT INFANTRY, 1807-1861.

The ante-bellum history of "old Charleston's loyal sons' was so continuously prominent in the annals of Charleston, for more than half a century, that it is only in order to refer very briefly to it here. Founded by William Lownes in 1807, upon receiving the news of the "Leopard and Chesapeake" affair, its roll of thirteen commanders down to 1861, reveals the character of its membership-Lowndes, Cross, Crafts, Simons, Miller, Gilchrist, Ravenel, Lee, Jervey, Porter, Walker, Hatch, Simonton.

The public observance of Washington's birthday, by an oration and social functions, on 22d February, was an annual feature of W. L. I. life, and the annual response from the community indicated the highest public favor. This observance was continued up to and in the war period, the last celebration taking place in Fort Sumter while the command was part of the garrison of the gateway of Charleston, on the 22d of February, 1862.

Referring to earlier annals, the W. L. I. was designated, with the "Fusileer Francaise," as the special guard of honor to Lafayette, upon his entrance in the city in 1825. Captain W. H. Miller, commanding the Escort Battalion, announced all his orders in French!

On the 19th April, 1827, the venerable widow of Colonel William Washington, of the Revolution, delivered to Captain R. B. Gilchrist in front of her residence, at South Bay and Church streets, her husband's crimson battle-flag, which had been identified with the battles of Cowpens, Guilford Court House, Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs, in 1781. This great distinction has ever since had a marked influence on the life of the corps.

In the ante-bellum career of the corps there was maintained an esprit de corps, watchful and virile. "Success" was the rallying cry, and without a single failure, uniformly crowned all company efforts. Witness the great parade of 4th July, 1846, under Captain W. D. Porter, with one hundred and forty-six members in line; and, fourteen years later, on 4th July, 1860, under Captain C. H. Simonton, with one hundred and forty-four members in line; both parades decisive tests of company pride and strength. Further mention of notable events is not possible in this necessarily brief narrative.

The recognized eminence, military and social, of the W. L. I., was shown at the opening of the great struggle of 1860-65. The first military order issued in all the Southland, in anticipation of that

momentous struggle, was to the W. L. I. to take possession and guard the United States arsenal, in Cannonsboro, a few days after the Presidential election, 6th November, 1860, and the service was continuous thereafter, first under authority of the State, and then, "for the war," in the Confederate army; one company in peace, three full companies in war; one hundred and fourteen dead," and so the W. L. I., of Charleston, has the longest war-service record of any company in the South.

THE WASHINGTON LIGHT INFANTRY CHARITABLE ASSOCIATION, 1866.

"The affair of the 'Leopard and Chesapeake' involved no desecrated homes, no abandoned altars, no social insults, no unspeakable injuries-what wrongs perpetrated by England, can compare in results, with the storm of fiery desolation, that swept over our country, and left us, in 1865, from the seaboard to the mountains, in fettered destitution, without a home, without a country, and almost without a hope. The question of duty in 1860 repeated the demand of 1807; that of 1865 combined them both! What do my people need? Arms and a life! Let them be given! question of 1807 and 1860—what do my people need? Bread and hope! This was the great question of 1865. Bread and hope were given, and something more was added. The bivouac of the dead was marked with a shaft of honor, that the stranger might know that the men who slept there died for their country! What heart and hand could do for the widow and orphan, was done; and in the charter of the 'Charitable Association,' was laid the corner-stone of this 'Reorganization of the old corps of 1807.'"'*

This was the

The war ended in the spring of 1865, and Generals Lee and Johnston, in final orders, so announced to their respective armies, and advised the soldiers to return to their homes and resume their citizenship.

Charleston had kept a protracted and successful defense, had "been kept virgin to the last," but at untold cost and sacrifice. With most of the city for many months within reach of hostile guns, and shot and shell, a large part of the population had become refugees in the interior of the State. From Appomattox to Greensboro, from prison camps and hospitals, the Confederate soldiers. from Charleston slowly made their way homeward during the sum

* General F. W. Capers' address before W. L. I., 1874.