At the hour named, the members took seats in the Courthouse. On motion of Captain C.A. Parkins, Colonel James McCullough was called to the chair and Captain C.M. McJunkin requested to act as secretary. These gentlemen complied with the requests and assumed seats.

Colonel McCullough explained the object of the assemblage, which was the purpose of organizing a Survivors Association,(to) obtain rolls of the regiment and of the companies and report them to the office of the Adjutant and Inspector General of the State, for preservation among the archives; besides it would be pleasant for each one to know who are alive and to meet face to face. He stated that it did his heart good to see so many of the Sixteenth Regiment and he knew that the pleasure was participated in by all. He said he had feared the meeting would not be a large one, on account of the season – when the farmers were ready to plant their crops – but the presence of so large a number was an assurance that the memories of the command were still alive in the breast of many of the men who composed it.

On motion of Reverend S.M. Green, the former Chaplain was requested to open the meeting with prayer, which he did.

An informal discussion followed, participated in my Messrs. C.A. Parkins, J.W. Boling, J.R. Harrison, and others, as to the best means of proceeding to secure the names of the survivors present.

On motion, the meeting took a recess of five minutes for the purpose of enrolling the names of the members present by companies. It was ascertained that one hundred and thirty-six members were present.

The meeting proceeded to the election of officers, with the following result: President - Colonel James McCullough , First Vice President - Captain C.A. Parkins, Second Vice President – J.W. Boling, Third Vice President – Captain G.W. Holtzclaw, Secretary – Captain C.M. Furman, Treasurer – J.T. Williams, Esq., Chaplain – Reverend S.M. Green.

The newly elected President thanked the old soldiers for the honor conferred on him in the election. He then announced that he would like to present them to their old flag. It was unfurled before the meeting. On the motion of Mr. E.F. Reynolds, three cheers were given for it, and three times were the walls of the courthouse to resound to the honor of the worn, tattered, and torn, ensign.

The President had the annexed letter read, received from Colonel B.B. Smith, the last Colonel of the Regiment.

Charleston, South Carolina February 25, 1883

My Dear General:

In reply to your letter on the 17th inst., On the part of the committee of the Survivors Association of the Sixteenth South Carolina Vols. Requesting that I would entrust to you, as Chairman, the flag of that Regiment, I have to say that keenly regretting that I am unable to deliver it to you in person, I have forwarded it to you by reliable means.

To no other person so qualified to receive it, by intimate association with the regiment throughout years of hardship and danger, of glory and defeat, as companion as brigade commander, could I deliver it with so just a sense of its security and honor for the future, nor is there any other to represent me, as I now desire and authorize you to do, in my unavailable and enforced absence.

In returning the flag to those who marched beneath its folds recall to the memories of the fire encircled Jackson, the glorious charge at Chickamauga, the obstinate tenacity of the rear guard which they formed at Missionary Ridge, where they, with others of Gist’s Brigade were the last to leave the field, steadily and in order.

Remind them of the Brigade at “Resaca”; the three weeks bloody salient at “Kennessaw; where the gallant O’Neall (sp) sealed the promise of his noble youth in his blood; of “Decatur” where the veteran General Walker fell at its head; of the forty days attenuated line at “Atlanta”, of Jonesboro where the brigade under McCullough held the flank of Hardee’s Corps, with its left support broken and nothing on its right, except the enemy. Tell them of the bloody foot prints of the barefooted veterans that marched beneath this flag, left on the frozen ground from “Franklin”, on (to) “Nashville”; of the pontoon bridge saved by them at “Duck River”; without which the remnants of Hood’s Army must have surrendered at the Tennessee crossing. March with them along the painful route from Alabama to North Carolina. Charge with them for the last time at Bentonville and with the strong men who laid down their arms by orders at Greensboro. War’s labor done, accompany them under the same flag in orderly disciplined march, without a straggler, in soldierly obedience to the commands of their officers to the place where four years earlier they had enlisted their hearts in the cause of their county. Defeated and overpowered, but not cast down, because they had fought a good fight and had the consciousness of duty well performed to the end.

Five years ago I gave unto your hands the glorious flag of the 24th South Carolina Volunteers, to which all that I have said of the 16th South Carolina Volunteers, will equally apply. At the end of the great struggle they found themselves only more closely united than when brigaded together three years before, and I suggest to you, General, that as in life they were joined together, so now in their deathless reunion, (should) they be put asunder. Let the two flags now re-united be under the guardianship of a joint association of the survivors of the 16th and 24th Regiments, and let their stars forever guide to honor and duty the sons of those who marched beneath them to the ends of those who repose on the battlefields of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Keep the memories of a glorious past ever green in the hearts, so that if grim visaged war shall ever again rear it horrid front in this our land, these two flags, borne by the men of Carolina alongside of the banner of our re-united country, and in noble rivalry, to be first in the fight for Fatherland, shall prove that these sons of those who wore the gray, are worthy inheritors of the heroism of their dauntless sires.

Very Truly Yours,

Major B. Burgh Smith Formerly of Gist Brigade

After the adjournment, the men formed in line on the street in front of the courthouse, and after straightening up, the column, headed by Colonel McCullough , the flag being carried by Color Bearer Greer, marched up the street, as it proceeded, it was suggested to Colonel McCullough that the body march up Coffee Street to General Capers residence and cheer him, which was done.

In answer to calls, he came out – received with cheers - Said from hoarseness scarce able to speak, so glad to see them but for illness would have been at their meeting, reminded him of old times – looked like the 16th. (Laughter and cheer.) Rejoiced to see them and his dear old friend, Colonel McCullough , who persuaded him to swap horses with him at Jonesboro, and the Colonel’s horse ran away with and came very near carrying him into the Yankee lines of the Yankee Cavalry. Didn’t know the Colonel was so tricky; but glad to see him and all of them. What memories were stirred within his breast! What scenes and incidents of the march, bivouac, and bloody battles revived; of dangers and trials of old! He had the flag of the old 24th and would show it to them; it was badly disfigured, too, by the storm of war, and at the surrender some of the stars were cut out of it by men for mementos. (It was brought forth and received with cheers.) What a scene, these silent emblems when brought together! What a history connected with them!

The line disbanded and crowding around their old General (Ellison Capers), taking him by the hand, who remarked that he wished he had a turkey breast six feet long and as wide to invite them all to, as they formed and marched away.

Among the interesting incidents of the meeting was that of the unfurling of the old flag of the 16th which was received with three cheers. The old flag was carefully and reverently handled by the men who once marched and fought beneath its folds, which was dark and begrimed with the smoke of battle and torn with shot and shell. Two shells tore through it – one at Atlanta, July 22, 1864, another at Franklin, November 30, 1864. Innumerable bullet-holes were in every part of the flag. Several men were present who had been shot either carrying it or protecting it when wounded. Mr. W.V. Black was shot through the left thigh with a shell just in front of it, July 22, 1864, charging up the hill at Atlanta. The same shell tore a comrade (Forrester) in two just behind him. G.W.H. Walker at the head of the division was killed just a few minutes before, near the abatis, within thirty yards of the works and about thirty steps to the left of W.V. Black, who saw him fall and both were carried off the field in the same ambulance. Four of the old color bearers were present – Messrs. J.D. Cooper, E.F. Henderson, I Baylis Forerster, and A.R. Smith. Cooper was wounded at Pine Knot Mountain, June 15, 1864, the same day General Polk was also wounded. Cooper was captured at Franklin; induced a wounded comrade to stay by him and was captured there and remained a prisoner seven months.

B.A. Tinsley was mortally wounded in the same battle, and died in Nashville about February 1, 1865.

Captain J.W. Boling commanded the 16th until the campaign ended. During the early part of the fight Mr. Thomas Smith was shot across the bowels with a shell and killed while charging upon the works. John Arnold, the Color Bearer was in the act of planting the colors when Captain Boling cried, “Forward!” They rushed on a few steps, when Arnold was fatally shot in the lower abdomen- falling; his companion, I.W. Herbert caught him and the colors and carried them back. Captain Boling speaks in the highest terms of Herbert as a good and faithful soldier during these latter months of danger and death. He was Color-bearer until the surrender. He died in 1880, and was buried at Enoree Church in this county.

Mr. E.F Henderson was also shot and his right arm broken by it; falling he spoke to Herbert, telling him he was shot. Herbert took part of the flagstaff, using it as walking stick limped back to the field hospital. Said a Comrade; “He would have died before he would have given up the flag! His devotion did cost him his life, as he died soon after.

Messrs. Reuben Smith, W. Smith, and A.R. Smith (Our County Auditor) all members of Company F (Captain Holtzclaw commanding) agreed before the fight to stick together and to help each other in case of need. A.R. and Reuben were brothers and William was the brother of A.R. Smith’s wife.

The three were rushing along in the charge when the same shell tore its way through the lines, piling all three in a heap together. Our County Auditor lost his leg; Rueben Smith was shot through the body and had his right leg torn off; William lost both legs, which were taken off near the feet. As he fell A.R. exclaimed, “They have killed me.” William answered, “Both my legs are shot off.” Mr. Doc. Hudson, also a cousin of Mrs. A.R. Smith, lost his right leg by the same shell, taken off below the knee. Mr. Reuben Smith was placed on a litter, dying in a few moments, and was left on the battlefield. The other three were carried to a little out-house used as a field hospital and were placed side by side on the bunks used for the wounded. William died the next day and a few days later Hudson died also in a hospital at Franklin, which was captured. Of nine wounded men in one room, eight had lost a leg each and the other an arm. All died except Mr. A.R. Smith and a fellow of the 24th. The doctor gave him up and Mr. Smith thinks he died later.

Captain Boling says as they went over the works at Franklin, the ditch was full of Federals. Mr. Joseph McKinney, a boy, reported to him next day that he had taken twenty back into our lines as prisoners. Mr. McKinney was a brave soldier who also aided in saving the flag.

Mr. Willis Brown, of the 16th was wounded at Dalton, Georgia, in the right leg and the bone came out afterward. He is living in Georgia now. Messrs. Leonard Brown, Baylis Middleton and Levi Cooper carried off Jack Wade, who was wounded in the head and died next day, Returning, an exploding shell wounded all three – Brown through the foot, Middleton flesh wound in the right thigh, Cooper, right arm. The last named came home and died not long afterwards.

(E&M, 3-28-83)