Edgefield Hussars

Last updated March 26, 2019

The Edgefield Hussars comprised a military company raised in the state of South Carolina. It served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, being redesignated as Company A, Cavalry Battalion, Hampton Legion. It fought in numerous battles in the Eastern Theater.

South Carolina is a state in the Southeastern United States and the easternmost of the Deep South. It is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the southwest by Georgia across the Savannah River.

The Confederate States Army (C.S.A.) was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Davis was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War. He had also been a United States Senator from Mississippi and U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. On March 1, 1861, on behalf of the Confederate government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at Charleston, South Carolina, where South Carolina state militia besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, held by a small U.S. Army garrison. By March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress expanded the provisional forces and established a more permanent Confederate States Army.

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history. Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

The original militia company was formed in 1833 by Capt. Andrew Pickens Butler, in Edgefield, South Carolina. By 1851, it was a part of the Edgefield Squadron, 2nd Regiment of Cavalry, South Carolina Militia. On May 8, 1861, the company was accepted into Confederate service as part of Hampton’s Legion. It later became Company I, 2nd South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, when the cavalry battalion of the Legion was reorganized on August 22, 1862.

A militia is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a nation, or subjects of a state, who can be called upon for military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of regular, full-time military personnel, or historically, members of a warrior nobility class. Generally unable to hold ground against regular forces, it is common for militias to be used for aiding regular troops by skirmishing, holding fortifications, or irregular warfare, instead of being used in offensive campaigns by themselves. Militia are often limited by local civilian laws to serve only in their home region, and to serve only for a limited time; this further reduces their use in long military campaigns.

Edgefield, South Carolina Town in South Carolina, United States

Edgefield is a town in Edgefield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 4,750 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Edgefield County.

Civil War

Officers

Matthew Calbraith Butler, Captain
J. J. Bunch, 1st Lieutenant
J. D. Crafton, 2nd Lieutenant
James M. Lanham, 3rd Lieutenant

Uniform

The original uniform of the Edgefield Hussars most likely consisted of an eight-button light-colored (probably grey) sack coat with tape trim of lighter hue around a low standing collar. A single small button was sewn at the end of a blind button hole on either side of this collar. Pants were the same color, and the headgear consisted of an M1851 dress cap of darker hue with stiffening removed with the initial ‘EH’.

Flags

The original flag carried by the company consisted of a dark blue silk field, 34 ½ inches on the staff by 40 ½ inches on the fly, bounded on three sides with a ¼ inch gold border, to which is attached a 1 ½ inch gold metallic fringe. The obverse bears a palmetto tree embroidered in green, brown, gold and white, standing on an island of the same colors. Arched above the tree ‘SOUTH CAROLINA’ is embroidered in 1 ¾ inch gold metallic block letters. Counterarched below the tree is the unit designation ‘EDGEFIELD HUSSARS’ in a similar style. The reverse contains a single six-pointed star in the center, measuring 3 ½ inches across, worked in gold metallic thread. The mottos ‘STATE SOVEREIGNTY’ and ‘EDGEFIELD HUSSARS’, arc above and below this star are embroidered in the same style as on the reverse.

A second flag was presented to the unit on June 24, 1861, made by the wife of Lieutenant James Lanham. The Edgefield Advertiser described it as a Confederate flag with the following additions, where one side is a Palmetto tree overtopped with the Crescent, with the name ‘Edgefield Hussars’ gilded on a white bar. On the other side contains a full circle of stars, and on a white bar, the motto ‘OUR CAUSE, OUR HOMES, OUR HONOR’

The Edgefield Advertiser is a newspaper in South Carolina, published continuously under the same nameplate since February 11, 1836. It is published in Edgefield, South Carolina.

Arms and equipment

The original arms consisted of whatever could be locally procured mainly consisting of shotguns and revolvers.

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References

Field, Ron, The Hampton Legion, Part 2, Company Histories. Lower Swell, Gloucestershire, England: 1995, ISBN 978-1-874683-25-4.

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