Robert Clayton Maffett Robert Clayton Maffett ( about 1836 – April 26 , 1865 ) was a colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Biography . Maffett was born in Newberry County , South Carolina . The Maffetts are thought to have arrived in Newberry County in 1772 with a group of immigrants from County Antrim , Ireland , under the leadership of Reverend John Renwick of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church . They were part of the massive ( 25 , 000 ) group of landless Scots - Irish who left Ulster in the period 1771 - 1775 searching for religious freedom and economic opportunity . The Maffetts propered in their new home and James H . Maffett ( 1795 – 1880 ) , Robert ' s father , was a successful farmer and long - time member of the state legislature . Robert Maffett ' s first wife , Ann Lavinia Gallman , died in 1860 . He fathered a single child , Florence , who was born in 1856 . With the outbreak of the Civil War , Maffett enrolled in the " Pickens Guards , " ( Company C of the 3rd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment ) on April 14 , 1861 , at Frog Level ( now Prosperity , South Carolina ) . He was elected captain . For much of the war , the regiment formed part of Kershaw ' s Brigade in McLaws ' Division of the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E . Lee . Maffett and the regiment participated in no less than 28 major engagements . A full 45 % ( 298 ) of its members were killed and another 698 wounded . Among those killed were six Maffetts from Newberry , South Carolina . After seeing action at Savage ' s Station and Malvern Hill , Maffet and the 3rd were held in reserve at Antietam during Lee ' s first invasion of the North . Later in 1862 , Captain Maffett was a patient in Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond while recovering from typhoid fever . In December 1862 , at the Battle of Fredericksburg , Maffet , by now a major , and the 3rd were positioned on Mayre ' s Heights above the famous stonewall manned by Cobb ' s Legion . Seven of the 3rd ' s officers were wounded at Fredericksburg , including Maffett . Shortly thereafter , his wounds not being serious , he returned home to marry Sarah Halfacre . In April 1863 , the 3rd was engaged in the Battle of Chancellorsville . On the last day of fighting , somewhere in the deep woods , Major Maffett and several other members of the 3rd were captured by members of the 122nd Pennsylvania . The Pennsylvanians tried to convince Maffett to surrender his sword peacefully , but the major refused to do so except to an officer of similar rank . Private Henry Nixdorf pointed a rifle at Maffett and said , " Are you going to unstrap that sword , or rather take the consequences of being run through with this bayonet ? " Maffett reluctantly surrendered his pearl - handled dress sword . Maffett soon escaped his captors in the confusion of battle and what happened to his sword is unrecorded . In June 1863 , the South Carolinians , a part of the First Corps of James Longstreet , were camped near the small Pennsylvania college town of Gettysburg . On July 2 , the second day of the battle , the soldiers of Kershaw ' s Brigade leapt over a stone wall in an unsuccessful attempt to silence Federal artillery along the Wheatfield Road . The 3rd and 7th South Carolina proceeded straight across the Rose Farm to the Stony Hill . A Federal counterattack soon drove them back . From Major Maffett ' s battle report , " In this position the enemy advanced to within 30 yards of us , and , for more than one hour we held him in check , notwithstanding the repeated reinforcements brought up by him . " The 3rd South Carolina itself was reinforced by 40 men of the 5th Georgia . He continued , " We remained in this position , under a heavy fire of musketry at short range in front , and an enfilading fire of grape and shrapnel from batteries that the left had failed entirely in silencing , until about dusk , when we were ordered by General Kershaw back to another line a short distance in our rear . Thus ended the fight for the day . " In September 1863 , the 3rd was in northern Georgia at the Battle of Chickamauga . It was heavily engaged at Snodgrass Hill , where Union General William H . Thomas made his famous stand , thus saving the Union Army from total collapse . After participating in the Battle of Knoxville , the 3rd returned to Virginia and saw action in 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness , where Col . James D . Nance , commander of the 3rd was killed . Afterwards , Maffett was promoted to lieutenant colonel . On August 26 , 1864 , while on picket line in Halltown , West Virginia , Lt . Col . Maffett and about 100 men of the 15th South Carolina were captured by Philip H . Sheridan ' s Federal cavalry . He was sent to the military prison at Fort Delaware in the middle of the Delaware River in New Jersey . He died there of chronic dysentery on April 26 , 1865 , just seven days after the surrender of General Lee ' s army at Appomattox Courthouse . The only comment other than the cause of his death was that he " left no effects . " The location of his grave is unknown .