文章基本信息

标题：A postwar morality
作者：Bigham, John Mills
期刊名称：Military Images
印刷版ISSN：1040-4961
出版年度：1998
卷号：Nov/Dec 1998
出版社：Military Images

A postwar morality

Bigham, John Mills

Thomas Robertson Wilson bled to death on May 14, 1871 after violently coughing up a bullet. He was thirty-three years old and had suffered poor health since coming home from the war.

Thomas Wilson had enlisted as a private at Newberry, South Carolina on April 14, 1861 and was paroled at Greensboro on May 2, 1865. He had served in Company E, "The Quitman Rifles," 3rd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, Kershaw's Brigade. On his slouch hat he wears the company letters "QR"; For comparison, an image on page 155 of Wyckoff's A History of the 3rd South Carolina Infantry illustrates similar use of the insignia "QR" on a soldier who enlisted the same day as Wilson.

The Quitman Rifles may have been an established militia unit prior to the war, and probably was named for Mexican War Major General John A. Quitman of South Carolina, brigade commander and first president of the Aztec Club of 1847. During the Mexican War the Newberry Company served in the Palmetto Regiment in Quitman 's Division.

The Quitman Rifles under discussion were raised in Newberry District in April of 1861 by Captain James D. Nance and were mustered into Confederate service on June 6, 1861 at Columbia by Lt. Col. Bernard E. Bee. (Bee subsequently was killed in action on July 21, 1861 at Manassas.) The 3rd S.C. also fought at 1st Manassas and with the Army of Northern Virginia until surrendered in North Carolina four years later. The same James Nance who raised the Quitman Rifles was elected colonel of the 3rd SCVI in the 1862 reorganization of the Confederate army; he was killed in action May 6, 1864.

Thomas Wilson was promoted sergeant at some point during his lengthy service. Along the way he was wounded at Chickamauga, Savage Station and North Anna River, Virginia. One of these wounds eventually proved mortal, most likely the North Anna wound sustained on May 25, 1864.

Sixth plate ambrotype courtesy Diane Davis and Brian Davis, relatives.