Sixteenth South Carolina C.S.A.

"The Last Lieutenant of the Sixteenth?"

Sixteenth South Carolina C.S.A.

Lt. Wm. Pearson Company B Sixteenth South Carolina "The Brass Mounted Army" Music by Dayle K.

A group of Confederate Veterans of Greenville rallied 'round their comrade,' William Randolph Pearson at his home near the Sandy Springs Baptist Chuch last Wednesday to congratulate him on having passed the century mark in age. The combined ages of the group is estimated at over 700 years. Mr Pearson is seen in the rolling chair holding a birthday cake in which 100 candles have been planted. Those seen in the picture left to right include: Front Row, George W. Sirrine, W.H. Cely, W.R. Pearson, J.R. Childress. Rear row: F.M. Blakely, J.T. Campbell, W.S. Grady, A.W. Holliday, Sam Vaughn. - Photo by Orr Greenville News: May, 1926 With special thanks to Kim Hagen, descendant of Private A.W. Holliday

Left to Right Lt. William Randolph Pearson, Company B, Sixteenth S.C.V. Greenville News, Kim Hagen Private William Cely, Company C, Sixteenth S.C.V., Greenville News, Kim Hagen Private A.W. Holliday, Company E, Sixteenth S.C.V., Greenville News, Kim Hagen Private Sam Vaughn, Company F, Sixteenth S.C.V., Greenville News, Kim Hagen Cely and Holliday at an earlier Reunion, Vaughn family photo, Lee Holtzclaw.

"The last Lieutenant of the Sixteenth? In this morbid waste land called the late twentieth century, it is good to focus on a time when old men were not carted away to homes, a time when this celebration called life continued on into the far distant tomorrow that we all face. Lt. Pearson may well have been the last surviving lieutenant of the Sixteenth South Carolina Volunteers when he sat for this picture over half a century ago. In South Carolina when this photo was made and published, the loving hand of Emma Holliday Hagen snipped and clipped and saved the photo of her beloved brother, A.W. Holliday. She knew exactly why she saved it, for children not yet born, who would wish to know him and to know her. She in turn passed the scrapbook on to her daughter, Daisy Hagen, who in turn gave the book to Walter Hagen, her brother, who in the fullness of time shared it with his daughter Kim Hagen. Now Kim, the loving grandaughter of Emma Holliday Hagen, just as lovingly shares with you someone she never met but has always known. This is the greatest expression of what we in South Carolina treasure and will always treasure. Thank you Kim, for remembering not just who you are, but what we are and what we believe in and stand for... and have all too often died for. E-Mail Descendant of A.W. Holliday

Follow General Gist to the Stories, or follow the Flag to the Main Index.