A History of the Hampton Legion Infantry
Illustrated, endnotes, bibliography 907 pp., 2008. Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1907 Buena Vista Circle, Wilmington, NC 28411–7892, $45 plus shipping The Hampton Legion was formed in the spring of 1861 by noted South Carolina planter Wade Hampton. The idea was to have a “legion” of combined arms — artillery, cavalry and infantry — although this type of organization was never really fulfilled at the operational level. The men were raised from all over the Palmetto State. Sons of wealthy lowland aristocrats patriotically served as privates alongside yeomen farmers from the hills. By mid-June, the men were at the state capital, Columbia, an experience that was punctuated by intense training and much favorable attention by the city’s pretty girls. Soon the troops were camped near Richmond, Va., engaged in more drill. On July 20, Hampton’s men, 600 strong, were crammed into boxcars for an excruciating 30-hour rail ride, without rations or water, to Manassas Junction. Disembarking to the sound of the guns, the Legion (infantry only) arrived just in time for the Battle of First Manassas. Soon the Palmetto state soldiers were in the thick of it on Henry House Hill, suffering more than 100 casualties out of 600 engaged. In June 1862 the Legion infantry was assigned to Hood’s Texas Brigade. The Legion lost nearly half of its men in action on the Peninsula. In August they returned to the plains of Manassas. In this rematch with the Yankees they played a major role in sweeping Gen. John Pope’s army from the field. With no rest for the weary, the Hampton Legion infantry marched into Maryland with the rest of the Texas Brigade. At Sharpsburg, with only 77 men present for duty, they slugged it out with elements of the Union First Corps along Hagerstown Pike, suffering an incredible 66 casualties. Following reorganization, the Legion was transferred to the brigade of Gen. Micah Jenkins. During the winter of 1863 the men took in the famous two-hour brigade size snow ball battle near Fredericksburg and their excellent band traded serenades with Union bands on the other side of the Rappahannock. The Legion experienced a respite from heavy combat, missing Chancellorsville that spring, as it engaged in the foraging expedition to Suffolk. The men also missed Gettysburg because the Legion was one of the units assigned to garrison duty near Petersburg during the summer of 1863. In September 1863 the Legion was shipped west via rail, with the rest of Longstreet’s command, participating in the Chattanooga and Knoxville Campaigns. After a hard winter of service in East Tennessee, the Legion was sent home to South Carolina to prepare for its a new role as cavalry. Following a grand barbecue in Columbia, the Legion, now mounted, rode off more than 800 strong to Virginia. As cavalry the South Carolinians fought through the Petersburg and Appomattox Campaigns. These are the dry bones facts of the Legion’s history. A concluding chapter follows some of the men through the postwar period. However, this book far exceeds the scope of combat narrative with two-thirds of the study devoted to documentation. The author gives more than 300 pages to documenting the lives and service of hundreds of members of the Legion. A real treat is the 333 pages of endnotes, some of which go on for more than a page concerning individual soldiers, battles and campaigns. This book gives new meaning to the term tome. Indeed, one may call it the “mother of all regimental histories.” O. Lee Sturkey is to be commended for providing us with the definitive study of the Hampton Legion Infantry. Kudos to Tom Broadfoot for publishing this work and the other volumes in his South Carolina Regimental series. Reviewer: Ted Alexander is a historian and author of more than 100 articles for various publications and several books. He is Park Historian at Antietam National Battlefield.
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