Two from Gregg's 1st S.C.

Gregg's original 1st South Carolina Infantry Regiment served for six months with the Army of Northern Virginia.

Two images of members of Gregg's Ist South Carolina Volunteer Infantry have recently come to light.

On this page is Major Edward DuBois Brailsford (18341878 or `79). He was appointed first lieutenant of The Richardson Guards, Co. I, which had served previously as a six-month unit that then mustered for the war into the Confederate service at Richmond on September 7, 1861, in July 1861. He was promoted to captain on the killing of the company's captain at Cold Harbor, June 17, 1862, and to major on June 19, 1864.

Three uniformed images of Brailsford survive that reflect these ranks, the other two being close to Confederate Army regulations. This first one of him as a captain is the most attractive, having the electric feel of springtime 1861 in Charleston. The artist is unknown.

Charleston survivors of the Ist met to remember Brailsford upon his death. Col. Edward McGrady, Jr., stated, "As the war was unsuccessful we must not expect even our own people to remember even that we tried to do our duty. In the troubles which have followed, many, if they do not condemn the struggle, try to forget it. But on that very account we should cling the closer together, and not let a valued comrade and good soldier go down without our testimony."

Brailsford traced direct lineage to South Carolina revolutionary Major General William Moultrie, namesake of the Charleston fort. He attended the Military Academy and "entered the service as lieutenant in the Richardson Guards. In this company, upon the fall of Sumter, he went with Gregg's Regiment to Virginia, the first regiment to tread the soil of the Old Dominion."

Brailsford was wounded many times, the last wound received in the closing days near Appomattox. Finally, "It fell his lot to be the last officer in actual command of the regiment. It surrendered under him."

Private William Thomas Cribb, above, (1833-October 11, 1910), a farmer, enlisted with two brothers August 26, 1861, in Co. E, the Marion Volunteers of Marion District.

Cribb received gunshot wounds to the hand and arm at Chancellorsville May 6, 1863, and was sent to Chimborozo Hospital #5 in Richmond. He was one of 104 casualties the regiment suffered at that battle.

Following a 40-day-long furlough, he returned to active duty and fought it out until the end of the war, one of 101 enlisted men and 18 officers of the 1 st to surrender at Appomattox.

Copyright Military Images Sep/Oct 2001
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