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Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton
Camp 2023
Sons of Confederate
Veterans
Modesto, California
CHARTERED IN 2003
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Lt. General Wade
Hampton
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Wade
Hampton was born in Charleston, South Carolina on March 28, 1818. As a member of one of the wealthiest
families in antebellum South Carolina, Wade Hampton was reputed to be the largest
landowner in the South. He owned several plantations in both South Carolina and Mississippi.
Wade
Hampton was one of three citizens to attain the rank of Lt. General in the
Confederate Army without benefit of formal military training – the other two
being Nathan Bedford Forrest and Richard Taylor.
Prior
to the War for Southern
Independence, Wade
Hampton served as both a State Representative and a State Senator for South Carolina. At the
outbreak of the War, he resigned from the South Carolina Senate to accept a
Colonel’s commission in the Confederate Army.
Hampton
formed Hampton’s Legion, which he equipped at his own expense. Taking his Legion to Virginia, Hampton’s force fought at First Manassas where Hampton was wounded.
Hampton’s Legion was later broken up into separate
units. Hampton also was wounded at Gettysburg. In 1865,
he evacuated Columbia, South
Carolina
when General Sherman’s forces entered the city.
After
the War, Wade Hampton was elected Governor of South Carolina and was instrumental
in ridding the state of carpet baggers.
He died in Columbia on April 11, 1902
and is buried at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia, South Carolina.
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