Rusty Cage Gray

Today marks the 208th Birthday of Wade Hampton III, who was a State Representative, Senator, and the 77th Governor of South Carolina. He also served as Lieutenant General in the CSA. He was a true American Patriot and Hero.

Happy birthday to General Wade Hampton! He was born on this day in 1818 in Charleston, SC. In 1861, he enlisted in the SC Militia as a Colonel and was soon promoted to Brigadier General. Post-war, he was elected as SC Governor and two-term senator, dying with distinction in 1902

@Jeff_Davis1808 “…as they were true to their convictions in the one case, they will prove true to their obligations in the other." -General Wade Hampton And they were. Thank you Mr. President. 🙏🏼

"The South unequivocally "accepts the situation" in which she is placed. Everything that she has done has been done in perfect good faith, and in the true and highest sense of the word, she is loyal. By this I mean that she intends to abide by the laws of the land honestly; to fulfill all her obligations faithfully and to keep her word sacredly, and I assert that the North has no right to demand more of her. You have no right to ask, or expect that she will at once profess unbounded love to that Union from which for four years she tried to escape at the cost of her best blood and all her treasure. Nor can you believe her to be so unutterably hypocritical, so base as to declare that the flag of the Union has already usurped in her heart the place which has so long been sacred to the "Southern Cross." The men at the South who make such professions are renegades or traitors and they will surely betray you if you trust them. But the brave men who fought to the last in a cause which they believed and still believe to have been a just one, who clung to their colors as long as they waved, and who, when their cause was lost, acknowledged their defeat and accepted the terms offered to them, as they were true to their convictions in the one case, they will prove true to their obligations in the other." -General Wade Hampton to President Johnson 1866 #history

@Rustyshere x.com/Jeff_Davis1808…

Happy Birthday to a Great South Carolinian and Southern Patriot

HBD to Lt General Wade Hampton III (March 28, 1818 – April 11, 1902) Hampton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest son of Wade Hampton II (1791–1858), known as "Colonel Wade Hampton", one of the wealthiest planters in the South (and the owner of the largest number of slaves), an officer of dragoons in the War of 1812, and an aide to General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. He was grandson of Wade Hampton (1754–1835), lieutenant colonel of cavalry in the American War of Independence, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and brigadier general in the War of 1812. His uncle, James Henry Hammond, was a member of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, as well as a Governor of South Carolina. Hampton grew up in a wealthy family, receiving private instruction. He had an active outdoor life, riding horses and hunting, especially at his father's North Carolina summer retreat, High Hampton. He was known for taking hunting trips alone into the woods, hunting American black bears with only a knife. Some accounts credit him with killing as many as 80 bears. In 1836 he graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina), and was trained for the law, although he never practiced. He devoted himself, instead, to the management of his great plantations in South Carolina and Mississippi, and took part in state politics. He was elected to the South Carolina General Assembly in 1852 and served as a Senator from 1858 to 1861. Hampton's father died in 1858 and the son inherited a vast fortune. Although his views were conservative concerning the issues of secession and slavery, and he had opposed the division of the Union as a legislator, at the start of the Civil War, Hampton was loyal to his home state. He resigned from the Senate and enlisted as a private in the South Carolina Militia; however, the governor of South Carolina insisted that Hampton accept a colonel's commission, even though he had no military experience at all. Hampton organized and financed the unit known as "Hampton's Legion", which consisted of six companies of infantry, four companies of cavalry, and one battery of artillery. He personally financed all of the weapons for the Legion. Despite his lack of military experience and his relatively advanced age of 42, Hampton was a natural cavalryman—brave, audacious, and a superb horseman. Some say he merely lacked some of the flamboyance of his contemporaries, such as his eventual commander, J.E.B. Stuart, age 30. He was one of only three officers without previous military experience (the other two being Nathan Bedford Forrest and Richard Taylor, son of President Zachary Taylor) to achieve the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate service. Hampton first saw combat in July 1861, at the First Battle of Bull Run, where he deployed his Legion at a decisive moment, giving the brigade of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson time to reach the field. He was wounded the first of five times during the war when he led a charge against a federal artillery position, and a bullet creased his forehead. On May 23, 1862, Hampton was promoted to brigadier general, while commanding a brigade in Stonewall Jackson's division in the Army of Northern Virginia. In the Peninsula Campaign, at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862, he was severely wounded in the foot, but remained on his horse while it was being treated, still under fire. Hampton returned to duty in time to lead a brigade at the end of the Seven Days Battles, although the brigade was not significantly engaged. After the Peninsula Campaign, General Robert E. Lee reorganized his cavalry forces as a division under the command of J.E.B. Stuart, who selected Hampton as his senior subordinate, to command one of two cavalry brigades. During the winter of 1862, around the Battle of Fredericksburg, Hampton led a series of cavalry raids behind enemy lines and captured numerous prisoners and supplies without...

#OTD 1818 Wade Hampton III is born in Charleston, South Carolina. The eldest son of Wade Hampton II and Ann Fitzsimmons Hampton. His father served with General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans, War of 1812. His grandfather served the Patriot cause during the Revolutionary War.

“It is full time that some voice from the South should be raised to declare, that though conquered she is not humiliated; though she submits she is not degraded; that she has not lost her self-respect” ‘A Southern Speech’ Wade Hampton 9/22/1866 abbevilleinstitute.org/a-southern-spe…

“The men who had borne without a murmur every privation, who had faced death in a thousand shapes without flinching, were not proof against the cries which came to them from homeless and starving wives and children.” Wade Hampton 1866

“The sword failed to conquer her, for on nearly every battlefield she was victorious, and her enemies were forced to resort to weapons more congenial to their nature: fire and famine.” Wade Hampton Speech at Walhalla, SC September 1866 🧵⬇️

From “The Virginia Pilot” Sunday, April 3, 1921 “The sod at the base of the Arlington Monument, in the Arlington National Cemetery, was broken and his final resting place was made.” #RetoreArlington

“In 1921 his body came home. His burial was the first ceremony ever held in the Arlington amphitheater.” Actual video from the funeral of Moses Ezekiel March 30, 1921 below: x.com/rustyshere/sta…

404 years ago

“Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;” Psalm 1:1 #SundayMorning☀️

"I was greatly shocked & grieved at the report of Gen Gordon's death. I had the honor of numbering him among my personal friends and entertaining him at my house. A more gallant, generous and fearless gentleman and soldier has not been seen by our country." -Roosevelt 1/12/1904

“The Spirit of Fraternity” x.com/jeff_davis1808…

"think what good fortune is ours as a Nation, that it is possible for the President of the Union to come here to-day to be conducted through your National Park by the surviving lieutenant-general of the Confederate Army, and to feel that every instance of heroism recorded by the monuments alike to the Union and to the Confederate dead on that battlefield is a subject for just pride to every citizen of this Union, no matter where he may dwell. General [Stephen D.] Lee read to me that noble inscription on the Pennsylvania monument, an inscription that should make the heart of every true American thrill as he reads it: "Here brothers fought for their principles, here heroes died for their country, and a united people will forever cherish the precious legacy of their noble manhood." What other war is there of which we can say what we can say of this war? Before the generation that fought it has died away, the whole country grows to feel the same stern pride in the deeds, alike of those who fought so valiantly for what they believed to be right, and triumphed, and of those who fought so valiantly for what they, with equal sincerity, believed to be right, and lost." -President Roosevelt at Vicksburg (10/21/1907) #histroy #ushistory #quoteoftheday

"The bitterness of conflict is passed. Time has softened it; discretion has changed it. Your country respects you for cherishing the memory of those who wore the gray. You respect others who cherish the memory of those who wore the blue. In that mutual respect may there be a firmer friendship, a stronger and more glorious Union." -President Coolidge (R-VT 5/25/1924) #history #ushistory #quoteoftheday