The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-04-14

company vas formed, u my NELL
ory fails me on that. On that day
a great crowd had assembled, old
men, young men, brave men and
boys. Speeches were made by j.
Foster Marshall and W. C. Davis,
and possibly others from Abbevllie;
also speeches by General F. II.
Bradley, W. K. Bradley, DR.. J. W.
Hearst and others from the COM
munity. Then the music began,
not with a brass band but with fife
and drum. The players marching
around the crowd, while cheer after
cheer went up. Then a call for
volunteers was made. Now the
young men hesitated. None OF
them wanted to be first to march
out. Then old man Tommie Dew
lin, palsied with age, with a stick
in each hand, telling them with
trembling voice if they were all
blamed towards to get out of the
way, and he would 60. The scene
that followed beggars description;
men pulled each other back, jumped
over each others heads to be first
in the ring. In a few minutes one
hundred and ten men had volun-
teered.
Then came the election of Off
GERS. General P. H. Bradley was
elected captain. The ~lieutenants
were, Thos. Rogers, John F. Cal
houn and Wade Cothran.
This company was composed al
most entirely of young men and un-
married men. In it were, Adam
SON, Barksdale, Bosdell, Bradleys,
Chiles, Cooks, Cothran, Conner,
Devlins, Dowtin, Edmunds, Gray,
Hearst, Jays, Knox, Kennedys,
Links, Lyons, McCaslin, Mckinney,
McLanes, Martin, Newly, New,
Purdy, Reagen, Robinson, Willis,
Turnage, Widemans, and others
whose names escape me for the pre-
sent. In a very short time they
were ordered out and mustered in
to service as Company "C", Seventh
Regiment. A regiment that help
ed to make generals out of Ker-
shaw, Kennedy, and Conner, and to
add their part to making a name
and fame for Longstreet's Division.
If you were to call the Roll of
that Company, and it were possible
for them to answer, the answer
would come from all the important
battlefields of Virginia, Maryland,
Gettysburg, Chattanooga, Lookout
Mountain, Averysboro, and Benton
vile, at last surrendering at Green's
boro, North Carolina.
At the end of one year, the Com
pany volunteered for the war. when
Wade Cothran was elected Captain,
with Tom Traylor, Hodge Palmer
and John Lyon as lieutenants. In
e short time Captain Cothran was
desperately wounded and retired
from service. Then the duty of
commanding the Company devolved
on Tom Traylor. He did not serve
long before he was killed in a charge
at the head of his company. This
placed Hodge Palmer, the next in
rank, at the head of his company.
He was captured at Gettysburg.
This placed John Lyon at the head
of the Company with j. C. McClain
as lieutenant, Palmer being in pri-
son and Captain Cothran still hold
ing his Office. John Lyon was not
made full captain until about a year
before the war ended.
I have no doubt that from first
to last there were over two hun
dred names on its rolls, at the sur
render, a mere hand full of them
left, and now how few are left. One
by one they have gone to answer
the last roll call.
The descendants of numbers of
these men today can't tell what
company their father belonged to.
Just a few weeks ago I read a very
kind notice of the death of a friend
of mine, Young P. Reagen. The
writer spoke of him as a member
of Company &c" Fourteenth Regt.