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| Drawing of William Rose from the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, dated Tuesday, May 9, 1899. |
In a previous post, I shared my photos from the annual Confederate Memorial Day event hosted by the South Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SC SCV) and United Daughters of the Confederacy (SC UDC) at the historic Elmwood Cemetery in downtown Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday, May 2nd.
The very same day, immediately following that service, there was a second -- and equally important -- memorial service at the neighboring historic Randolph Cemetery where a new headstone was dedicated for a Confederate Veteran.
William Nesbit Rose was born in Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday, December 25, 1813 as a slave of Jacob Barrett (1792-1871) of the wealthy Jewish Barrett family. He was brought to Columbia at the age of 12 where he was apprenticed to the trades of tinning and carpentry. He was living in Columbia in 1825 and remembered the impressive
ceremonies welcoming French hero and American Revolutionary War General Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) to the city when the General toured America in 1824-5.
Around 1829, the Barrett family sold William to U.S. Army Lieutenant Pierce Mason Butler (1798-1847), who was then president of the State Bank of
South Carolina. William attended the 1832 Nullification
Convention with Butler.
He served in three American wars: the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), and the War Between the States (1861-1865).
On February 11, 1836, William and Pierce Butler, who had been elected
Captain of the Richland District Volunteer Infantry, left with the 1st Palmetto Volunteer Regiment for the
Seminole War in Florida, serving under Colonel Benjamin Elmore. Among his duties as Butler's personal servant, Rose would serve as company drummer and would eventually earn a small pension for his service in that war.
On their
return from the war, Captain Butler was elected Governor of South
Carolina. This would mark William's first service in the Governor's office.
After a two year term, Governor Butler was appointed by U.S. President John Tyler
as Federal Agent to the Cherokee Nation in 1841 at Fort Gibson (present day Muskogee County, Oklahoma). He remained in
this position until ill health forced him to resign in 1846. William served with him during his time.
During the Mexican-American War, he became the body servant for now Colonel Butler, in the Palmetto Regiment -- as well as once again serving the military role as drummer for the Richland Company. Colonel Pierce Butler would be killed at the Battle of Churubusco on Friday, August 20, 1847. Rose would recover his body and bring his remains back to Columbia.
William Rose continued as a member of the Richland volunteers of the
Palmetto Regiment, and when they provided the military escort for the
funeral of South Carolina Senator and former U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1850, William "banged the muffled
drum" in the procession.
During the American Civil War, William Rose once again served as company drummer and also became a body servant, this time to Confederate Brigadier General Maxcy Gregg -- who would be mortally wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg on Saturday, December 13, 1862. He would stay with General Gregg and witness the deathbed conversation with Lieutenant General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson where Gregg would come to the Lord. Before he passed, Maxcy Gregg gifted to William Rose his gold pocket watch and sent messages to his sisters, Julia and Cornelia, in Columbia. Rose would again escort the body of a fallen Southern officer back to Columbia for burial at Elmwood Cemetery. General Gregg's sisters subsequently
had the gold watch engraved for William and he kept and treasured it ever
after.
The engraved watch given to Rose by General Gregg is on permanent display at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum in the South Carolina State Museum in downtown Columbia.
After General Gregg's death, William subsequently served in the
office of South Carolina Governor Milledge L. Bonham (1813-1890) for a time (his second service in the Governor's mansion) before returning to the Palmetto Regiment and serving out the remainder of the War Between The States as the company drummer, eventually earning the rank of Sergeant for his service.
In 1860, William had married Mary
Elizabeth (1837-1898) from Camden, South Carolina. In November of
1866, the couple were part of a group of 500 newly freed slaves who left
Charleston on the ship Golcana for the African Republic of Liberia.
Accompanying them on the trip was General Gregg's sister, Julia
De Berniere Gregg (1823-1893), who went to Liberia to be a teacher and
missionary at the Episcopal Mission at Cape Palmas.
Apparently,
William and Mary Elizabeth did not care for Liberia as they were back
in South Carolina by January, 1868. Julia Gregg would remain there for
several more years. William went to work for former Confederate General Wade Hampton III
(1818-1902); and, when General Hampton was elected Governor of South
Carolina in 1876, he appointed William Rose as the Governor's usher and
messenger, and handed him the keys to the Governor's office. William
served in this capacity for the next 25 years under 11 different
South Carolina Governors.
When the Spanish-American War began in 1898, William, then 83,
wanted to go to Cuba with the Palmetto Regiment, but the people
persuaded him to stay at home. That same year Mary Elizabeth
died, which was a serious blow to William, but he continued his
duties at the Capitol, and was a member of the historic African-American Ladson Presbyterian Church.
In 1899, at the age of
85, William was "retired" from his duties due to old age and disability.
He did not care for this and when the next Governor came into office,
he petitioned to get his job back. Governor Miles B. McSweeny (1855-1909) re-hired him, although
he also hired a younger man to do the active work. William still held the
rank of Sergeant in the Richland Volunteers, but Governor McSweeny promoted
him to the rank of Captain. For sixty years, Rose had been identified with the Richland Volunteers
and never missed marching in one of their parades. In 1892, he presented
a gold medal to the unit to be used as an annual prize for
marksmanship and
the company in turn gave him a gold headed cane.
William Rose was proud of his service in the War Between The States and was an active member of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) and he attended
many Confederate veterans' reunions in different parts of the South -- the
last one a few weeks before he died.
William Rose died at his home on Monday, May 27, 1901 at the age of 87. He was buried with full military honors, wearing his Richland Volunteers uniform
with the captain's epaulets on the shoulders.
Captain Rose's headstone dedication following the official Confederate Memorial Day service at neighboring Elmwood Cemetery in downtown Columbia was conducted by the General States Rights Gist Camp #1451 SCV of West Springs, South Carolina.
The service included the traditional firing of three volleys from the members of the Palmetto Battalion re-enactors, a canteen ceremony conducted by the 16th South Carolina Color Guard from Greenville, South Carolina, and -- most important of all -- the unveiling of the new grave marker for a Confederate Veteran.
The following are the photos I took of the event, which this blogger was honored to be a part of.
