The Life And Death Of Brigadier General Maxcy Gregg C.S.A. (1814 - 1862)

Brigadier General Maxcy Gregg, C.S.A.
(August 1, 1814 - December 15, 1862)
Image courtesy of the SC Dept. of Archives.

 

Maxcy Gregg was born on Monday, August 1, 1814 in Columbia, South Carolina to the city's mayor, James Gregg (1787-1852) and his wife, Cornelia Manning Maxcy Gregg (1792-1862).

His family history tells that his maternal great-grandfather was Commodore Esek Hopkins -- the first commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy (1775-1785) during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). His maternal grandfather was Jonathan Maxcy (1768-1820), the first president of the University of South Carolina (USC). His paternal great-grandfather, John Gregg (1732-1775), was an Ulster-Scots immigrant who settled in South Carolina in 1752 and became one of the American progenitors of the Gregg family. His great-uncle, James Gregg (1752-1802) served as a Patriot captain in the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War under Brigadier General Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion. 

As a young man known to have a keen intellect, Maxcy Gregg attended South Carolina College (later USC) and studied astronomy, botany, ornithology, and languages among other intellectual pursuits. He graduated co-valedictorian of his class in 1836 and would study law and be admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1839. He would practice the law with his father, becoming a very well respected member of Columbia society. The scholarly scientist-lawyer also owned his own small private observatory at his home so well equipped it would have been coveted by many colleges. 

Gregg's first military experience came when he was commissioned a Major in Milledge L. Bonham’s 12th U.S. Infantry Regiment in the American-Mexican War (1846-1848), however, he did not arrive in time to participate in any of the major battles of the war.

He was also a life-long bachelor and never married.

For two decades -- with only his duty in the Mexican War as an interruption -- Maxcy Gregg was extensively involved in State and regional politics. Gregg was a strong advocate of States' rights his entire life, one of the original Fire-Eaters, and a major supporter of Robert Barnwell Rhett (1800-1876), the "father of secession". He was a member of the Southern Rights Convention of 1852.

Gregg was a major proponent of secession prior to the commencement of the Civil War. In 1858, he issued the secessionists' manifesto in a pamphlet entitled, "An Appeal to the State Rights Party of South Carolina." In it, Gregg argued that Carolinians had looked unfavorably upon and rejected incorporation into the Democratic Party since the tariff controversy.

He served a delegate from the Richland District (Richland County) to the 1860 Secession Convention, voting to leave the Union on Thursday, December 20, 1860 and assisted in writing the Ordinance of Secession.

Gregg helped organize the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, and served as the regiment's first colonel. This regiment was authorized for six months by the State of South Carolina and the volunteers participated in the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on Friday, April 12, 1861. Part of this unit was under fire during the bombardment, but took no casualties.

When the State of Virginia seceded, the regiment moved north, where they spent the spring months drilling and picketing. When their term expired on July 9th of that year, many members of the regiment returned to their homes, missing the First Battle of Manassas  on Sunday, July 21, 1861.

Gregg and other officers recruited another 1st South Carolina Infantry Regiment (also known as "Gregg's First South Carolina") that August. With the newly formed 1st South Carolina, he was ordered to the Suffolk, Virginia, area in autumn 1861. On Saturday, December 14, 1861 he received his commission promoting him to the rank of Brigadier General.

The battle flag of the 1st Regiment South Carolina Volunteers
(also known as Gregg's 1st South Carolina).
Image courtesy of the SC Confederate Relic Room & Military
Museum, Columbia, South Carolina.

In May of 1862, General Gregg's brigade was assigned to a division of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia (ANV) under the command of Major General Ambrose P. Hill.  Gregg's brigade consisted of five South Carolina regiments: his own 1st South Carolina Infantry, the 12th, 13th and 14th South Carolina Infantry Regiments, and the 1st South Carolina Regiment of Rifles (also better known as "Orr's Regiment of Rifles").

During the Seven Days' Battles around Richmond, General Gregg's South Carolinians played a prominent role in General Hill's assault on the Union lines at the Battle of Gaines Mill (Friday, June 27, 1862). The advance of Gregg's five South Carolina regiments was, according to General Hill, "the handsomest charge in line I have seen during the War."

The South Carolina brigade would suffer 939 casualties -- more than any other brigade in A.P. Hill's Light Division during the Seven Days Battles.

The 1st South Carolina lost lost 20 killed and 133 wounded -- including their lieutenant colonel who was killed. Orr's Rifles lost 81 killed and 234 wounded. The 12th South Carolina lost 17 men killed and 121 wounded -- including their colonel. The 14th South Carolina lost nearly half of the 500 men engaged in the battle, including a major and two captains who were wounded. Most of these casualties took place at Gaines Mill.

Gregg’s brigade, along with the rest of Hill's Light Division, served in Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson’s Corps at the Second Battle of Manassas (August 29-30, 1862).

During the first day of the battle on Friday, August 29th, Gregg walked along the brigade's line, fearlessly exposing himself to enemy fire and encouraging his men to hold their ground near an abandoned railroad cut. The brunt of the Federal attack fell on Gregg's brigade, which had defended against six Union assaults over an eight hour period that day. During one of these attacks, Gregg sent a message saying: "Tell General Hill that my ammunition is exhausted, but that I will hold my position with the bayonet!"

The brigade was nearly out of ammunition in addition to having lost most of its officers, many of the South Carolinians resorting to throwing stones from the railroad cut at the advancing Federals. As they fell back onto the edge of a hillside to regroup, Gregg lopped some wildflowers with his great-uncle's old Revolutionary War scimitar and remarked, "Let us die here my men, let us die here."

In their defense of the railroad cut, Gregg's Brigade suffered among the highest casualties -- about 613 men killed and wounded.

The 1st South Carolina Infantry lost 53 percent of the 233 men engaged. Orr's Rifles lost 116 men -- including its command officer and second in command killed. The 12th South Carolina lost 146 men out of 270 with three of its major officers wounded. The 13th South Carolina lost 26 killed and 118 wounded with its colonel wounded. The 14th South Carolina lost 8 killed and 57 wounded (among the wounded both their colonel and lieutenant colonel).

The South Carolina brigade also fought at the Battle Of Ox Hill (Monday, September 1, 1862) in pursuit of the retreating Union forces following the Confederate victory at Second Manassas. The Light Division drove back a Union assault during a driving rain.

In General Robert E. Lee's Maryland campaign, Gregg’s brigade participated in the capture of Harper’s Ferry (September 15, 1862) and then made a forced march to Sharpsburg, Maryland, arriving in the middle of that battle to take a place in the right center of the line, where it joined the fighting that afternoon and, along with the rest of Hill's Light Division, checked the final assault of the Union forces and saved the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia from total defeat.

It was at the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam Creek) on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 17, 1862 where General Gregg was slightly wounded in the thigh by the same Union volley that killed North Carolina born Brigadier General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch. Gregg would miraculously discover the spent minieball in his handkerchief the next morning at breakfast. His brigade arrived in time to save the Confederate flank and would be the last Confederate brigade to recross the Potomac River following the end of the Maryland Campaign.

After two months of recuperation at camp near Winchester, Virginia, the brigade participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg on Saturday, December 13, 1862 on Stonewall Jackson's position on the right of the Army of Northern Virginia. Gregg's Brigade held a reserve position behind the rest of the Light Division.

Unknown to General Gregg and his men, the Light Division's defenses in the thickly wooded position had a dangerous gap that was exploited by Union forces under Union Major General George G. Meade.

Gregg's Brigade was taking cover from the Union artillery and most of them still had their arms stacked when the Federals appeared. Because of the confusion and the foggy conditions in the thick underbrush, Gregg misidentified the advancing Union soldiers as retreating Confederate pickets and ordered his South Carolinians atop a ridge to hold their fire. This would be a fatal mistake as the Yankees open fire.

General Gregg attempted to rally his surprised men and try to lead them in a counterattack to close the gap in the line. Riding toward the front, Gregg was struck by a rifle ball that entered his right side from the back and severed his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

Brigadier General Maxcy Gregg succumbed to his agonizing injury two days later on Monday, December 15, 1862, reportedly saying on his deathbed: "I yield my life cheerfully, fighting for the independence of South Carolina."

He was 48 years old at the time of his death.

Gregg's loss weighed especially heavy on his commanding officer, General A.P. Hill, who stated: "A more chivalrous gentleman and gallant soldier never adorned the service which he so loved." According to the Wednesday, December 17, 1862, issue of the Richmond Daily Dispatch, his remains received a hero's welcome in the Confederate capital.

Prior to General Stonewall Jackson’s death in May of 1863, he said of Gregg: "General Gregg was a brave and accomplished officer, full of heroic sentiment and chivalrous honor.  He had rendered valuable service in this great struggle for our freedom, and the country has much reason to deplore the loss sustained by his premature death."

 

Regarding the untimely death of Maxcy Gregg, Robert E. Lee wrote to Governor Pickens as follows:

CAMP NEAR FREDERICKSBURG, December 18, 1862.
His Excellency FRANCIS W. PICKENS,

Governor of South Carolina:

SIR: While South Carolina is mourning the loss of the gallant and distinguished son, General Maxcy Gregg, permit me to join in your sorrow for his death. From my first acquaintance, when you sent, him with his gallant regiment to the defense of our frontier in Virginia, I have admired his disinterested patriotism and his unselfish devotion. He has always been at the post of duty and of danger, and his services in this army have been of inestimable value, and his loss is deeply lamented. In its greatest triumphs and its bloodiest battles he has borne a distinguished part. On the Chickahominy, on the plains of Manassas, at Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, and Shepherdstown he led his brigade with distinguished skill and dauntless valor. On the wooded heights of Fredericksburg he fell, in front of his brigade, in close conflict with the advancing foe. The death of such a man is a costly sacrifice, for it is to men of his high integrity and commanding intellect that the country must look to give character to her councils, that she may be respected and honored by all nations. Among those of his State who will proudly read the history of his deeds, may many be found to imitate his noble example.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE,
General.

Brigadier General Maxcy Gregg is buried at historic Elmwood Cemetery in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.

The grave of Brigadier General Maxcy Gregg at historic Elmwood Cemetery
in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.
Photo taken by the author of this blog in May, 2022.

Sources for the historical information for this article:

Caldwell, J. F. J. The History of a Brigade of South Carolinians Known first as “Gregg’s” and Subsequently as “McGowan’s Brigade.” Philadelphia: King & Baird, 1866.
Freeman, Douglas Southall. Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command. 3 vols. New York: Scribner’s, 1942–1944.
And most of all to the good folks at the South Carolina Department of Archives, the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum, & the University of South Carolina (USC) in Columbia.

The Life Of Sergeant Berry Benson C.S.A. (1843-1925) -- The Man On The Monument

Berry Benson as a private in the
1st South Carolina Infantry Regiment
taken in 1861.

The Augusta Confederate Monument currently located in the median of the 700 block of Broad Street in downtown Augusta, Georgia. Dedicated in 1878 to honor the Confederate dead, this Confederate monument soars seventy-six feet into the sky, and around the base of the monument are the life size statues of four Southern generals in the War Between The States: Thomas R. R. Cobb, William H. T. Walker, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, and, of course, Robert E. Lee.

Towering above them all atop this memorial for the dead is another life-sized statue or a simple Confederate citizen soldier, the life's blood of the South's fight to maintain its fledgling independence.

Referred to as "the man on the monument" by local residence, the Confederate soldier that stands his post on top of the Augusta Confederate Monument is modeled after another local resident born across the Savannah River in South Carolina: Confederate Veteran First Sergeant Berry Benson, a man who had a very remarkable history both during the war and in the years after it.

Berry Greenwood Benson was born on Thursday, February 9, 1843 in Hamburg, Aiken County, South Carolina, just across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia (near modern-day North Augusta, South Carolina).

Berry Benson was the son of Abraham Madison Benson and Nancy Harmon Benson.

In 1861, at age 17, Berry Benson enlisted with his brother, Blackwood Ketchum Benson (age 15) in the 1st South Carolina Regiment Infantry Sharpshooters under Colonel Maxcy Gregg. The next spring the two brothers witnessed the bombardment of then U.S. military-occupied Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina on Friday, April 12, 1861, where the War Between The States began.

After the surrender of Fort Sumter, the 1st S.C. Sharpshooters were sent to the front in Virginia where the Benson brothers served in General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia under General A.P. Hill and General "Stonewall" Jackson. The unit served as part of Jackson's "foot cavalry" during the 1862 Valley Campaign and later fought in battles such as Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, and Sharpsburg. Benson was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville and missed the Battle of Gettysburg, but he had recuperated by winter 1864 and returned to his unit where he was appointed as a scout and joined the regiment's sharpshooter corps.

May of 1864 would bring yet another Union offensive into The Wilderness.

After a confusing and bloody battle, Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac, attempted to get around the Confederate army and march on Richmond, Virginia, but was checked at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, one of the most terrible battles of the Civil War, in which the most severe action occurred at the "Bloody Angle," where Sergeant Benson fought.

By then the young soldier had won a reputation for scouting enemy positions. At Spotsylvania he spied on the Union camp and, on an impulse. stole a Yankee colonel's horse, leading it back to Confederate lines. 

 

It was on one of these reconnaissance missions that he was captured and imprisoned at the military prison in Point Lookout, Maryland. 

 

On the second day of his captivity, Benson slipped unseen into the waters of Chesapeake Bay and swam two miles to escape, but unfortunately for him he was recaptured in Union-occupied Virginia. He was then was sent first to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C., then to the brutal Union prison camp at Elmira, New York. Once there he joined a group attempting to tunnel out but the effort was discovered and broken up. 

 

The prisoners tried again and on Friday, October 7, 1864 at four o'clock in the morning he and nine companions entered a tunnel sixty-six feet long which they had been digging for about two months. The earth extracted had been carried away in their haversacks and disposed of in the prison courtyard. On reaching the outside of the stockade the prisoners scattered in parties of two and three, Sergeant Benson going alone, since the companion he had intended to take with him failed to escape. 

 

He headed south and miraculously reached Confederate lines. Sergeant Benson, half a century later, still preserved the passes given him from New Market, Virginia, where he first reached General Jubal Early's army, to Richmond and the besieged city of Petersburg, where his regiment was serving. 

Benson would continue to serve with the Army of Northern Virginia until the surrender at Appomattox Court House on Sunday, April 9, 1865. Benson and his brother, Blackwood, left carrying their rifles to go to North Carolina and join General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee and continue fighting, but upon learning of the surrender of Johnston at Bennett Place, near Durham, North Carolina on Wednesday, April 26th, Benson and his brother walked home, arriving on Monday, May 15, 1865. 

 

Berry Benson never surrendered his rifle.

 

On Saturday, February 6, 1868, Benson married his wife Jeanie Oliver at Augusta's First Christian Church. The couple would have six children: Ida Jane, Olive, Pauline, Arthur, Charles, and Dorothy. He and his wife wrote poetry for publication, and his wife and daughters were all fine pianists. One of his daughters, Ida Jane "Jeanie" Benson, studied violin in New York and became a concert performer.

 

In 1878, Benson became an officer in the Confederate Survivors Association. That same year the Augusta Confederate Monument was dedicated. A committee appointed by the Augusta Ladies Memorial Association, consisting of former Confederate Colonel George W. Rains, Major Joseph B. Cummings, and Lewis D. Ford, choose Sergeant Berry Benson to represent the common citizen soldier of the South. The statue was modeled after Benson. 

 

In 1883, the Benson family moved to Texas, but returned to Augusta two years later.

 

Benson became an accountant for the local cotton mills and he developed and patented a fail-safe method for checking and correcting accounts that he called the Zero System. 

 

During that time, Benson showed a strong advocacy for the working class, both white and black.

 

In 1898, he became an advocate for striking cotton mill workers helping to end a strike where more than 30,000 textile workers walked off their jobs. He also worked on developing high-protein food crops for poor black sharecroppers.  

 

Benson also became a nationally known puzzle solver, breaking a secret French code known as the "Undecipherable Cipher" in 1896 on a challenge and informed the U.S. War Department that he had done so. 

 

During the Spanish-American War Benson offered his services to the United States Government, but the war ended before he could be of use.

 

He was perhaps best known for his role and private investigation into the case of Leo Frank, an Atlanta factory manager accused of raping and murdering 13 year old Mary Phagan in 1913. 

 

Benson became involved in the case through his childhood friend, William Manning Smith, the defense attorney for James "Jim" Conley, who was also accused. Perceiving discrepancies in prosecution testimony Benson concluded Frank was innocent. His logical arguments helped persuade then Georgia Governor John M. Slaton that there was enough uncertainty in the case to commute Frank’s sentence from death to life imprisonment. Unfortunately that did not prevent the subsequent lynching of Mr. Frank.

75 year old Sergeant Berry Benson with his rifle leading the United Confederate Veterans (UCV)
reunion parade in Washington D.C. in 1917.
Benson remained proud of his Confederate service till the day he died.

 

Sergeant Berry Benson at the
Washington D.C. Confederate Veterans
reunion parade 1917.
(Colorized Photograph)

Later Benson headed a campaign to support French war orphans in World War I. The Benson family "adopted" (fostered) at least five French orphans by agreeing to pay for their care until they were formally adopted. He convinced his friends and neighbors to adopt some of these orphans. The French ambassador sent him an official thanks for his efforts, which had benefited 160 orphans in all. 

Berry's involvement with French orphans got him involved in yet another adventure. In exchanging American dollars for French francs, he noticed discrepancies by the fall of the franc's value. He later advised the U.S. attorney general of the possibility of fraud involving European and American fiscal exchange rates before the world became aware of the criminal activities of Charles Ponzi. 

Even in advanced age Berry Benson remained fit and active, never losing his love for the outdoors. 

 

On Sunday, May 1, 1921, the local Boy Scout Troop based in Augusta's Sacred Heart Church announced plans for a fifteen mile hike led by Benson. As part of the outing, Berry and the boys camped overnight and Berry took an early-morning swim in cold water. At age 78, Berry was the youngest scout of all. 

In addition to serving as a scout leader, Berry Benson also attended United Confederate Veterans reunions and took part in parades wearing his old gray uniform and carrying the un-surrendered rifle he toted throughout the War. 

 

His last parade was on Thursday, June 22, 1922 in the Richmond, Virginia, where the aged Confederate sergeant led the Georgia battalion. He remained a proud Confederate Veteran till the end.

Berry Benson spend the last years of his life at his North Augusta residence with his daughters Ida Jane (Jeanie) and Olive -- neither of whom married -- and passed away on New Year's Day, Monday, January 1, 1923 at the age of 79. His wife Jeanie died in 1900. Both Benson and his wife are buried at Sunset Hill Cemetery in North Augusta, South Carolina. 

  

The Sgt. Berry Benson Camp #1672 Sons of Confederate Veterans in North Augusta bears his name. 

 

The grave and Confederate Cross of Honor
of Sergeant Berry Greenwood Benson
at Sunset Hill Cemetery in North
Augusta, South Carolina, USA.

His daughter-in-law, Susan William Benson, edited his memoirs which were published as Berry Benson's Civil War Book: Memoirs Of A Confederate Scout And Sharpshooter (Athens: The University of Georgia, 1962) ISBN-13:978-0-8203-2943-7 from which the information in this article was gleaned.