00:00 -

00:00 - As Marcus stated we are Company I, Palmetto Guard with the 2nd

00:04 - South Carolina. Palmetto Guard has a very long very long

00:09 - history.

00:10 - Palmetto guard actually was in existence during the Mexican

00:13 - War.

00:15 - To give you a little bit of a brief synopsis and a little bit

00:18 - more interactive just to give you an idea of the Civil War

00:22 - soldier you would be issued a pack.

00:26 - Go ahead.

00:26 - It's kind of heavy.

00:30 - You'd be issued a backpack.

00:32 - There's different styles that that's a soft pack; in that it

00:35 - would contain some of your personal personal gear as well

00:39 - as a change of pants drawers socks shirt blankets and

00:45 - whatnot.

00:46 - That particular pack right now weighs about 12 pounds give or

00:49 - take that can get as heavy as 15. Imagine and the weight on

00:53 - your back if you were a civil war soldier the day. Tony.

00:58 - Another thing that you would be given as a soldier would be a

01:01 - rifle.

01:03 - This particular rifle is 1863 Richmond rifle it's a

01:06 - Confederate knockoff of a Springfield rifle.

01:09 - This is actually one of the more heavy weapons of the day.

01:12 - This weapon weighs probably ten pounds.

01:18 - Ok so if you guys were all soldiers in the 2nd South

01:21 - Carolina you'd have some light a little bit idea the way you're

01:24 - carrying around.

01:27 - Ok.

01:28 - Now as I said it's second South Carolina was around for excuse

01:30 - me the Palmetto Guard was around for quite some time.

01:33 - It's a matter of fact in December 20th of 1860 when South

01:37 - Carolina finally secedes from the Union.

01:41 - Charleston area is all abuzz with a flutter of activity.

01:45 - The state of South Carolina calls its militia up the

01:49 - Palmetto guard arrives in Charleston in January musters in

01:54 - and is actually positioned on Morris Island at Stevens

01:57 - battery.

02:00 - Now in April of 1861 you have the firing upon Fort Sumter

02:04 - starting hostilities between North and South.

02:07 - Palmetto Guard actually fired shots at Fort Sumter and was

02:12 - part of the bombardment. With the capitulation of Fort Sumter,

02:17 - The second South Carolina was actually bestowed with the honor

02:20 - of being the first troops actually garrisoned the fort

02:23 - after its surrender.

02:24 - So our unit actually went into the fort and was the first flag

02:28 - to be raised over the fort.

02:30 - Now with the hostilities started they Abraham Lincoln calls for

02:35 - 75000 volunteers put down the rebellion.

02:39 - When that happens the South especially the upper south there

02:44 - is two sections, the south the lower south and upper south; the

02:47 - lower south actually seceded first with the call up of more

02:50 - volunteers put down a quote rebellion.

02:52 - The upper south finally succeeds that's North Carolina Virginia

02:56 - Tennessee and states such as that. With that occurrence.

03:00 - They call for troops to defend their area.

03:03 - Second South Carolina in which the company "I" come out of

03:05 - guard is now incorporated into is actually called upon and are

03:09 - the first troops to come to Virginia's aid.

03:12 - When that happens the second South Carolina is attached to

03:16 - Bonham's brigade and are at first at the Battle of First

03:21 - Manassas.

03:22 - At First Manassas they actually hold a very crucial part a

03:25 - crucial part of the line they hold the very left flank.

03:29 - They are heavily engaged and they actually hold that flank

03:31 - until the arrival of Stonewall Jackson's troops from the

03:34 - valley.

03:36 - After the Battle of Manassas were then transferred down onto

03:40 - the peninsula of Virginia where actually Yorktown under James or

03:45 - Prince William Prince John Magruder excuse me.

03:49 - And where at Yorktown to try and defend McClellan's advance up

03:52 - the peninsula on through Richmond.

03:54 - We fall back as the army does.

03:56 - Eventually we're engaged in a 7days campaign.

04:00 - We're engaged at Savage Station in Malvern Hill after McClellan

04:07 - pulls back down down the peninsula.

04:09 - Lee takes command of the army decides to attack another army

04:13 - north of Richmond under John Pope. Second South Carolina is

04:17 - not detached with that army.

04:19 - It's actually stayed put to keep it on McClellan so he doesn't

04:22 - re- advance on Richmond.

04:25 - Second Manassas happens.

04:27 - Lee destroys Pope's army, decides to move north.

04:30 - That point in time we're attached to McLaws division and

04:34 - we move north with the Army in Northern Virginia and move north

04:39 - into western Virginia.

04:41 - We actually take part in the capture of Harpers Ferry.

04:45 - We captured Maryland Heights thus enabling the capitulation

04:49 - of the arsenal.

04:52 - After that we moved further north and actually engage at

04:55 - Antietam where Sharpsburg. At Sharpsburg were engaged around a

04:59 - Dunker Church area of hotly contested ground.

05:04 - At the end of that battle Lee withdraws back in the Virginia

05:06 - and ends up around Culpepper area eventually moving towards

05:10 - Fredericksburg.

05:13 - Winter of 62 there's the battle of Fredericksburg. At

05:17 - Fredericksburg 2nd South Carolina is called upon to aid

05:20 - Cobb's Legion who is in a sunken road behind the wall at the base

05:23 - of Murry's Heights. Second South Carolina goes in support.

05:27 - With the exception of the Palmetto Guard. Our particular

05:30 - unit is actually dispatched to the right flank of the wall to

05:33 - protect that flank.

05:34 - Don't engage a lot there but we do we do engage a little bit and

05:37 - tear into the flank of a one or two Yankee units in the advance

05:40 - against the wall.

05:43 - After the Battle of Fredericksburg winter sets in.

05:46 - Not much happens during winter.

05:48 - Spring arrives.

05:50 - Battle of Chancellorsville which 150 years ago next weekend

05:53 - occurs. The Battle of Chancellorsville, the second

05:59 - South Carolina is called upon and we actually become part of a

06:02 - major movement to block Hooker's advance on the Fredericksburg

06:05 - area. Actually capture Chancellorsville cross roads and

06:09 - hold that next day.

06:13 - We're engaged in a feinting action to cover the actual

06:16 - flanking maneuver of Stonewall Jackson.

06:19 - We keep the Yankees occupied while he's doing that.

06:22 - When that finally happens we engage a little bit.

06:26 - The battle happens, Hooker eventually gets able to recross

06:31 - the Rappahannock.

06:34 - After Chancellorsville once again Lee decides to move north.

06:38 - He comes to a little town and just down the road, Gettysburg.

06:43 - We're not in the lead of that we're not involved in that first

06:46 - day's action but we are involved in the second day's action.

06:50 - Second South Carolina takes part in a peach orchard.

06:54 - Eventually it moves on and just to give you an idea.

06:57 - Confusion sometimes our half of the unit was going towards peach

07:03 - orchard.

07:04 - There is a barn separating them and other units were moving out

07:07 - that way.

07:08 - One fell back, somebody on our end saw it but we were supposed

07:11 - to reform and then turned our flank right to expose it to

07:15 - artillery. Took tremendous beating from that.

07:19 - Once we actually pushed past the peach orchard we move on through

07:23 - into the wheat field. Wheat fields very hotly contested

07:26 - ground changes hand quite a few times.

07:29 - Eventually we prevail push on to the base of the Little Round Top

07:33 - make a little bit of the initial assault on Little Round Top but

07:35 - by that point we're spent. We're pretty tired.

07:37 - We've had a long day of fighting. Other troops come in

07:40 - to relieve us and push on.

07:42 - That's the occurrence of our action at Gettysburg.

07:45 - We don't take take any kind of part in Pickets Charge or

07:47 - Longstreet Assault depend on which side you're on. After the

07:50 - Battle of Gettysburg we retreat back south into Virginia with

07:54 - the Army in Northern Virginia.

07:56 - At that point in time Lee decides to detach us out west

07:59 - into Georgia to help General Bragg excuse me deal with

08:08 - General Rosecrans in the West.

08:11 - Luckily for us at the time somewhere between us leaving for

08:15 - Georgia and leaving Gettysburg we were issued new uniforms.

08:19 - Ironically enough the uniforms happened to be almost federal

08:21 - blue.

08:23 - So we go out into Georgia.

08:26 - We meet up with Braggs Army attached that. They engage.

08:30 - Bragg attacks Rosecrans left flank. Rosecrans decides to take

08:35 - guys out of the center, move them to deal with that.

08:39 - We hit his center.

08:41 - Lucky for us we have been issued new uniforms, they think we're

08:45 - friendly.

08:47 - We look look only last so long. Eventually they discover the

08:51 - colors that were Confederate and they put a pretty good beating

08:54 - on us. After the Battle of Chickamauga Longstreet got a

09:01 - little bit of independent command.

09:02 - He goes up and does some actions around Knoxville.

09:05 - Eventually we do return back to Virginia just in time for the

09:09 - Overland campaign. The beginning of the Overland campaign starts

09:13 - with the wilderness the wilderness battle. What happened

09:17 - the previous day's battle; Lee's army gets pretty battered in

09:22 - particular AP Hill's 3rd Corps gets pretty pretty bashed up but

09:26 - if anybody's ever been in the wilderness.

09:27 - It's a very dense area.

09:30 - So it kind of helps a little bit.

09:31 - Now what happened over the first.

09:34 - After the battle.

09:35 - The first day that evening A.P. Hill went to generally asking to

09:39 - reorganize lines.

09:41 - Lee said don't worry about it, Long Streets corps will be up in

09:43 - the morning.

09:45 - Unfortunately we didn't realize just how far away Longstreet

09:48 - corps was.

09:50 - First thing in the morning General Hancock of Second Corps

09:53 - fame of Gettysburg smashes into what's left of A.P Hill's corps

09:57 - pushes through and just in the nick of time for the Army and

10:00 - Virginia who shows up Kershaw's brigade and the Second South

10:04 - Carolina avoiding total collapse and disaster.

10:09 - So we stem the tide and basically avert total disaster

10:12 - for the Army and save the Confederacy that day. After the

10:16 - battle of wilderness that night.

10:19 - Like I said it's dense woods.

10:21 - There's a lot of fires due to the combat.

10:24 - We had orders issued to us to move southeast toward spots of a

10:27 - courthouse.

10:30 - Unfortunately we couldn't find anywhere to bed down for night

10:33 - or rest.

10:34 - Like I said there is too many place that had fires going on,

10:36 - what not.

10:37 - Luckily for the Army there in Virginia once again our

10:41 - commanding officer General Kershaw decides to push on.

10:44 - He pushes on through the night.

10:46 - We marched throughout the night arriving about three miles away

10:48 - from Spotsylvania Courthouse where there was Stuart's

10:51 - cavalry.

10:52 - No sooner an hour later Stewart's messenger sends, come

10:56 - quick. We advance and we get that across the vital Cross

11:00 - Roads about 30 to 60 yards ahead of the. Yankees once again and

11:04 - within 48 hours. Saving Lee's army from destruction.

11:08 - Battle of Spotsylvania takes place.

11:11 - We're not in the Muleshoe, the very famous part of that battle.

11:14 - We're on the other end of it.

11:16 - We are engaged.

11:17 - Don't take a lot of casualties after Spotsylvania we go on to

11:21 - North Anna, Coldharbour, and in this time we lose two commanding

11:28 - officers within two weeks.

11:30 - By the time we get the Coldharbour we lose another

11:32 - commanding officer.

11:34 - So it's actually three in two weeks.

11:38 - We move on to cross the James, end up in Petersburg.

11:41 - We're part of the initial defense of Petersburg.

11:46 - Eventually Petersberg settles into a siege.

11:50 - Once again we're detached.

11:52 - This time we're sent south to deal with Sherman's move through

11:54 - the Carolinas.

11:56 - But this time we go home.

11:58 - This time we all go back to our native city of Charleston.

12:03 - We defend Charleston, realized Sherman is not making a move on

12:06 - Charleston, he is heading north towards Columbia and North

12:07 - Carolina.

12:09 - We attach or we end up being attached to Joe Johnston's army.

12:14 - We end up fighting a battle Averys Barrow and Bentonville.

12:18 - Lee's surrender is April 9th of 1865.

12:21 - We don't surrender until April 19th 1865.

12:25 - We surrender 2 full weeks, week and a half later so it's pretty

12:32 - much a brief synopsis our history and just as a side note

12:35 - as well out of the 100 man company that started off as the

12:40 - Palmetto guard, at the final muster call, there were only

12:44 - three original members left and a handful of recruits to give

12:48 - you an idea of how many guys were left.

12:51 - Right now go through a little bit of drill with the guys.

12:56 - This is something a soldier typical soldier would do day in

12:58 - and day out from sunup to sundown.

13:01 - There's a statistic I saw that was applied to the Army of the

13:05 - Potomac which probably applies to the Army in Northern Virginia

13:07 - as well.

13:08 - It says that the 1900 days that the Army of Potomac was in

13:13 - existence and only spent 45 days in combat.

13:18 - So what are you to do all that time. You would drill from sunup

13:22 - to sundown.

13:23 - Some of the things that you would learn would be.

13:25 - Such as.

13:26 - Company!

13:28 - Shoulder! Arms!

13:31 - Now this would be the common way of carrying your rifle.

13:34 - You generally do a lot of marching in a style.

13:37 - It's very comfortable.

13:37 - I know you all had held one of them and they do get rather

13:40 - cumbersome.

13:41 - So there are different different ways and mannerisms to carry a

13:44 - rifle.

13:45 - Support! Arms!

13:49 - If you take notice the hammer or the rifle is resting in the

13:52 - crook at the elbow.

13:53 - You could actually march quite a ways with this.

13:55 - If as a commanding officer you think that the guys are getting

13:57 - tired.

13:58 - You can also have a supplemental command rest.

14:02 - That's where the soldier will actually grab a small the stock

14:05 - and give it a little bit more support in the US you can travel

14:07 - a lot further.

14:09 - Shoulder Arms.

14:11 - Now for a reason you are in combat.

14:13 - Now you have to keep in mind that a Battlefront is two lines

14:18 - deep stretching across.

14:21 - You have to imagine another another rank behind them.

14:24 - Now if you moving very quickly in combat you can imagine that

14:28 - weapons will be swaying back and forth.

14:30 - There's another way carrying the weapon to avoid that.

14:32 - Right shoulder shift arms.

14:36 - Could take note. The barrels are much more upright and I know we

14:39 - all held it.

14:40 - Like I said it's very balanced like that.

14:43 - Contrary to what you might think.

14:47 - Shoulder. Arms.

14:51 - Right about. Face. Load.

14:57 - Now I'm going to give you a little bit of a demonstration on

14:59 - different firing methods.

15:03 - There's a lot different.

15:04 - There are different schools of the soldier.

15:07 - We use Gilliams but all the firing all the firing procedures

15:12 - are the same.

15:13 - There's actually nine steps to loading this rifle.

15:17 - Each step is very orchestrated.

15:18 - I won't go through all the steps as a very very good museum video

15:22 - in the museum that goes through all steps and a very nice job.

15:27 - Now also a very good infantryman is trained to be able to fire

15:31 - three rounds in a minute.

15:34 - Ready.

15:38 - Know if you want to cover your ears or not.

15:41 - It's not loud loud, but

15:42 - Aim!

15:48 - Now if you notice they instinctively go right back to

15:51 - reloading.

15:52 - Now if we were in a combat situation come up give a company

15:56 - volley that's 100 that's 100 guns going off.

15:59 - So try and amplify that and give yourself an idea.

16:03 - There's another way that could be fire thrown down range.

16:06 - And it's all at the discretion of the commander after the first

16:09 - company volley.

16:11 - Like I said earlier there's usually another line of men

16:14 - stretching on behind them and that would be rank I could have

16:18 - the guys fired by rank such as if I said front rank ready aim

16:22 - fire the front rank would fire.

16:25 - I could determine the effect of the fire downrange on the enemy.

16:28 - I still have guys loaded with smoke clears I see that I need

16:31 - to put more firepower down.

16:32 - I just have to rewrite fire.

16:34 - I can do the same thing was called by files which is each

16:37 - two guys down the line.

16:40 - Ready firing by falls from the left.

16:44 - Aim.

16:46 - Fire.

16:50 - OK now as I said earlier imagine a hundred more rifles down the

16:54 - line and goes down like a chain effect.

16:57 - And like I said earlier you are instructed as well to

17:00 - automatically reload.

17:02 - Once again this gives me the opportunity to determine the

17:04 - effects down range.

17:06 - And I have people already loaded by the time that the end is

17:09 - done.

17:09 - So I have a continuously cycle through if I need to.

17:13 - Another way of doing things will be if the enemy.

17:15 - Should all of a sudden appear on our left or right does not

17:18 - matter.

17:19 - But if they were to appear on our left per se right now I

17:22 - could engage them without even moving the guys company ready

17:28 - firing at the left oblique.

17:32 - Aim! Fire!

17:33 - I'm going to. That's pretty much a very quick synopsis of some

17:40 - firing styles and techniques as well as the manual of arms.

17:45 - We're going to have them clear their weapons and then we'll

17:47 - leave the floor open to you guys.

17:51 - Ready! Aim! Fire!

17:58 - Recover arms. Shoulder arms. Right about face.

18:04 - Now if you also take notes that there are there are two parts

18:06 - every command as what's called a preparatory command which allows

18:11 - the troops to realize what's coming next and then the command

18:14 - of execution which is a little bit harsher.

18:16 - And that's where everybody is supposed to actually make the

18:18 - move.

18:20 - Like I said there there's tons of things to be learned as a

18:22 - soldier or even just regular steps marching.

18:26 - There's different steps common time as 90 steps a minute, quick

18:31 - 110, and I believe a hundred and sixty for double quick.

18:35 - Now double quick is like a fast very fast walk.

18:38 - And that's when you would go to right shoulder shift that's when

18:40 - you move fast.

18:43 - That's pretty much a general synopsis for all of us.

18:45 - So the floor is yours and you're welcome to come across and talk

18:49 - to us or go visit the camp.