Caleb Glover & Colonel Olin M. Dantzler C.S.A. -- United Confederate Veterans

Caleb Glover wearing the Southern Cross of Honor,
awarded to him by the Paul McMichael Chapter of
the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).
Picture courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives.

Mr. Caleb Glover was born into slavery sometime around 1827 in St. Matthews, South Carolina to the Dantzler family of Calhoun County. He was both the slave and the life-long friend of the Dantzler family's oldest son, Olin Miller Dantzler, born on January 14, 1825.

As the two boys grew up together Dantzler secretly taught Caleb how to read and write (something that was against the law at the time in South Carolina).

To those in the Dantzler family and community, he was known as "Uncle Caleb". Those who knew Caleb described him as truthful, reliable, and one who never used foul language. His given last name Glover would later be taken from the surname of Olan Dantzler's wife, Caroline Anne Glover.

Olan Dantzler served as a South Carolina representative prior to the American Civil War (1861-1865) and reluctantly spoke out against secession until December 20, 1860 when the State formally seceded from the Union.

When the War Between the States broke out in 1861, Dantzler volunteered and was made Lieutenant Colonel of the 20th South Carolina Infantry on January 11, 1862 when the regiment was organized in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Some conflicting accounts exist as to Caleb's legal status at the time with some suggesting he was still a slave, and others suggesting he was a free man of color and voluntarily accompanied Olan to war.

One of those accounts has Olan formally manumitting (freeing) Caleb and giving him a choice to go with him, or stay with the family; to which the older man, never one to leave his childhood friend and former master's side, choose to come along as Olan's "manservant" (body servant).

The regiment was assigned to the 2nd Military District of South Carolina, Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. On March 4, 1862 the 20th South Carolina Infantry was stationed on James Island near Charleston, South Carolina near Secessionville.

Caleb and Olan and the 20th South Carolina would see their first action on April 7, 1862 when four companies of the regiment withstood bombardment from Union ironclads on Sullivan’s Island and while manning the siege guns on Battery Marshall.

Between July and August of 1863, the 20th South Carolina would suffer 33 casualties (9 killed, 24 wounded) while serving on picket duty on Morris Island, South Carolina.

When returning by steamer from Morris Island on August 30th the nearby Confederate batteries misidentified their boat as a Yankee ironclad and the regiment briefly came under fire, resulting in 16 of their number either killed outright, or drowned in Charleston harbor -- ironically losing men to "friendly fire" than to enemy action.

The 20th South Carolina was again stationed at Battery Marshall on Sullivan's Island in Charleston harbor in early 1864 when the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was stationed and being readied for its fateful mission. While there, Caleb Glover -- along with other servants -- probably helped prepare meals for the rest of the garrison, including the Hunley crewmen.

According to history, it was Colonel Dantzler, with Caleb likely by his side, that spotted the "blue light signal" signaling that the Hunley had completed its mission on the night of February 17, 1864 sinking the Union ship USS Housatonic -- the first submarine to successfully destroy an enemy vessel in naval history.

The Hunley never returned to port and sank in the harbor.

Dantzler's report to his commanding officer, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, reads as follows:

HEADQUARTERS BATTERY MARSHALL, Sullivan’s Island, February 19, 1864.
"I have the honor to report that the torpedo boat stationed at this post went out on the night of the 17th instant (Wednesday) and has not yet returned. The signals agreed upon to be given in case the boat wished a light to be exposed at this post as a guide for its return were observed and answered…"
O. M. DANTZLER

Colonel Olin Miller Dantzler,
22nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment, CSA.
Image courtesy of Find A Grave.

At the end of April of 1864, Olin Dantzler was promoted to Colonel and reassigned to command the 22nd Regiment South Carolina Infantry, which was stationed near Fort Moultrie, also on Sullivan's Island. Caleb accompanied him as well.

The regiment was then sent to Northern Virginia and took part in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign in May of 1864 near the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia.

On June 2, 1864, General Beauregard sent troops towards Union positions to discover their strength. Colonel Dantzler, with Caleb at his side, led the 22nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment in an attempt to capture Fort Dutton.

As the Confederates emerged from a ravine within 150 yards of the fort, cannons of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery Regiment fired canister shot, killing 16 of the Southerners. Colonel Olin Danzler was mortally wounded as a piece of shrapnel hit him in the chest. He died on the battlefield in the arms of his friend, Caleb.

Caleb Glover recovered Colonel Danzler's body and returned with it, and the survivors of the assault, to Confederate lines. On June 13, 1864, General Beauregard issued General Orders No. 12 naming a Confederate fort near the James River Battery Dantzler in the colonel’s honor.

Caleb also recovered the body of Colonel Laurence M. Keitt, commander of the 20th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment who was also from St. Matthews. 

The three men: Glover, Dantzler and Keitt grew up near each other in South Carolina. Dantzler and Keitt were political rivals with Keitt being a known Fire-Eater who supported secession. Prior to the war, their political disagreements even led to a duel in which Keitt was wounded.

Ironically, both men would die on the same day within miles of each other in Virginia on June 2, 1864, (Keitt at Cold Harbor and Dantzler in Chesterfield). Kiett was mortally wounded during his first  (and only) field command while leading his infantry on a horse in a charge against Philip Sheridan's dismounted cavalry near Beulah Church when he was shot in the liver, or lung, and collapsed on the field.

Caleb recovered Colonel Keitt's body at night under the cover of darkness, barely avoiding Yankee pickets.

With his part in the war seemingly over with, Caleb Glover borrowed a wagon and took the bodies of his childhood friend, Colonel Dantzler and Colonel Keitt home to St. Matthews, South Carolina and remained there to comfort Dantzler's family until the end of the war in April of 1865.

Colonel Olan M. Dantzler is buried in a family plot at Tabernacle Cemetery in St. Matthews next to his parents and his wife, who would die later the same year on October 17th.

After the war, Judge Charles Glover Dantzler (1854-1919), the eldest of Col. Dantzler’s five sons, took care of the elder Glover for the remainder of his life.

Caleb Glover was recognized by those who served with him as a Confederate Veteran and awarded the Southern Cross of Honor medal for that service from the Paul McMicheal Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy for his service -- a medal Glover wore with pride to reunions of the United Confederate Veterans until his death on March 25, 1920 at age 93.

Caleb Glover is buried at the Bethel AME Church Cemetery in St. Matthews, South Carolina. His gravestone was restored and is currently maintained by the Colonel Olin M. Dantzler Camp #73 Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The grave of Caleb Glover at Bethel AMC
Church Cemetery in St. Matthews, SC.

The grave of Colonel Olin M. Dantzler at
Tabernacle Cemetery in St. Matthews, SC.

A special thanks to the outstanding folks at the Calhoun County (SC) Historical Society, South Carolina Department of Archives, Find A Grave, and the Olin M. Dantzler Camp #73 South Carolina Division Sons of Confederate Veterans for providing the information for this article.