John Doby Kennedy John Doby Kennedy ( January 5 , 1840 – April 14 , 1896 ) was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War , as well as a post - war planter , attorney , politician , and the 57th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina . Early life and career . Kennedy was born in Camden , South Carolina . His father was an emigrant from Scotland who had settled in Kershaw County about 1830 and married a local woman . Kennedy served as a lieutenant in a Camden pre - war militia unit . He studied at South Carolina College from 1855 – 57 . On October 28 , 1857 , he married Elizabeth Cunningham ( 1842 – 1876 ) , and they eventually had 7 children . Kennedy read law and was admitted to the bar in January 1861 . However , South Carolina ' s secession and the subsequent outbreak of the Civil War delayed his plans to establish a law practice . Civil War . Enlisting in the Confederate Army in April 1861 , Kennedy became captain of Company E , 2nd South Carolina Infantry , under fellow Camden resident Col . Joseph Brevard Kershaw . At the First Battle of Manassas , he was struck by a Minie ball and badly wounded . Recovering , he was promoted to colonel when Kershaw was promoted to brigadier general . Kennedy ' s first action in command of a regiment occurred at a skirmish on the Nine - Mile Road near Richmond , Virginia , in June 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign . After fighting at the Battle of Savage ' s Station , he was disabled for several weeks by fever . He returned to his regiment in time for the Maryland Campaign . During Stonewall Jackson ' s investment of Harpers Ferry , Kennedy was with Kershaw ' s brigade in the capture of the important Maryland Heights . He led his regiment in Kershaw ' s counterattack during the Battle of Sharpsburg , driving a part of the Union II Corps before him . However , he fell painfully wounded in the first charge , struck in the instep and Achilles tendon while crossing a wooden fence along the Hagerstown Pike . Once again recovering in time for a major battle , Kennedy led the 2nd and 8th South Carolina to the support of Gen . Howell Cobb at Marye ' s Heights , the focus of the hottest fighting . In 1863 , Kennedy efficiently led his regiment during the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg . During 1864 , when not disabled , he was either in command of his regiment or of Kershaw ' s old brigade during the Richmond and Shenandoah Valley campaigns . In December , he was promoted to the temporary rank of brigadier general and assigned command of a brigade in Lafayette McLaws ' division of Hardee ' s corps . He took part in the Carolinas Campaign against William T . Sherman , including the Battle of Bentonville , and surrendered with Johnston ' s army at Greensboro . Kennedy survived six wounds during his service to the Confederacy , and was hit fifteen times by spent balls . Postbellum activities . After the close of hostilities , Kennedy was mainly engaged in planting until 1877 , when he finally established a law practice . He was an active member of the Kershaw Lodge # 29 of the Freemasons in Camden . Elected to Congress in 1865 , Kennedy declined to take the " ironclad " oath of allegiance demanded and did not take his seat . After his first wife died in 1876 , Kennedy married Harriet A . Boykin and had an additional child . In 1878 – 79 , he represented Kershaw County in the state legislature . He was elected Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina in 1880 and served until 1882 , when he unsuccessfully ran for Governor . Kennedy became Grand Master of South Carolina Masons in 1881 – 83 . In 1884 , he was a presidential elector - at - large on the Democratic ticket . In 1886 , President Grover Cleveland appointed him as consul general at Shanghai , China . Returning from that post in 1889 , Kennedy continued the practice of law at Camden until his death from a stroke . He was buried in Camden ' s Quaker Cemetery . A United Daughters of the Confederacy chapter was named for him . In 1911 , Camden officials erected the Confederate Memorial Fountain , a six - sided structure with tablets on each column commemorating Kennedy and five other generals born in Kershaw County .