The First Families Project - SC - Charleston County - Capers Family Brigadier-General Ellison Capers, a descendant of an English family which settled in South Carolina among the earliest colonists, was born in Charleston, October 14, 1837. His father, grandfather and several generations of the name, belonged to the parishes of St. Thomas and St. Denis, in Charleston county, in the territory originally called Berkeley county. His mother was of Irish extraction, her father, William McGill, having settled in Kershaw county, upon coming from Ireland. William Capers, the grandfather of Ellison, was a soldier of the revolution, a lieutenant in the Second South Carolina regiment, and after the fall of Charleston in 1780, one of Marion's captains in his famous partisan brigade, in which his only brother, G. Sinclair Capers, held the same rank. Several thrilling incidents in the career of these two gallant partisan captains are related by Judge James, of South Carolina, in his life of Marion. They were both planters. William Capers, father of Ellison, was born on his father's plantation, "Bull Head," in St. Thomas parish, about 20 miles north of Charleston, January 25, 1790. He was graduated at the South Carolina college in Columbia, entered the Methodist ministry in 1808, and devoted his life and brilliant talents to his sacred calling. He was elected and consecrated a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal church South, in 1845, and died at his home in Anderson, S.C., January 29, 1855. Ellison Capers, the fourth son of his marriage with Susan McGill, was graduated at the South Carolina military academy in November, 1857. The next year he was a resident graduate and assistant professor of mathematics and belles lettres in his alma mater. In 1859 he married Charlotte Rebecca, fourth daughter of John Gendron and Catherine Cotourier Palmer, of Cherry Grove plantation, St. John's, Berkeley, S.C. In the fall of this year he was appointed assistant professor of mathematics in the South Carolina military academy at Charleston with the rank of second lieutenant. The active state of affairs in Charleston during the summer and fall of 1860 roused the military spirit of the people, and the First regiment of Rifles was organized in Charleston, of which Lieutenant Capers was unanimously elected major. He served with this regiment at Castle Pinckney, and on Morris, Sullivan's, James and John's islands. His regiment also constituted a part of the army under Beauregard during the attack on Fort Sumter. He continued to serve in the vicinity of Charleston until November, when he resigned the rank of lieutenant-colonel to which he had been promoted, in order that he might enter the Confederate service. Satisfied that a terrible struggle was before his people, he resigned his professorship at the military academy and united with Col. Clement H. Stevens, of Charleston, in enlisting a regiment for the war. The regiment was mustered into the Confederate service as the Twenty-fourth South Carolina volunteer infantry, April 1, 1862, with Clement H. Stevens as colonel, Ellison Capers, lieutenant-colonel, and H. J. Hammond, major; on the 4th of April was ordered to Coles' island, and on the 25th of May was transferred to James Island. On June 3rd, Companies A, B, D and E, and the Charleston battalion, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Capers, opened the James Island campaign. In this engagement Colonel Capers led the attack, and for his courageous and skillful management of this affair he was commended in general orders. At the battle of Secessionville, the Twenty-fourth was again engaged, and Colonel Capers was praised in orders. He was next detailed to command a battery of siege guns at Clark's house. Except a short service at Pocotaligo the regiment was on James Island until December 15, 1862, when it was ordered to North Carolina to the relief of Wilmington, and stationed at the railroad crossing of Northeast river on Island Ford road. On February 13th it was returned to South Carolina and placed on duty in the Third military district (W. S. Walker's). Lieutenant-Colonel Capers, with part of his regiment and other commands, was detached to command the district between Combahee and Ashepoo rivers. Charleston being threatened with attack, the regiment was ordered back to Secessionville, April 5, 1863. On May 6th it left South Carolina for Jackson, Miss., being assigned to Gist's brigade, and eight days later, while commanding the regiment in the battle at Jackson, Lieutenant-Colonel Capers was wounded. About the last of August, Gist's brigade was sent to General Bragg. It participated in the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and in the former Capers was again wounded. During the winter at Dalton in January, 1864, Colonel Stevens was promoted to brigadier-general and placed in charge of the brigade formerly commanded by Gen. Claudius C. Wilson. It was while leading this brigade that General Stevens received his mortal wound at Peachtree creek, July 20, 1864. Lieutenant-Colonel Capers was promoted to the colonelcy of the Twenty-fourth, which he led through the Atlanta and Tennessee campaigns until the battle of Franklin, where he was wounded and Gist was killed. On March 1, 1865, on the recommendations of Generals Johnston, Hardee and Cheatham, he was commissioned brigadier-general and assigned to the command of Gist's brigade. After the war General Capers was elected secretary of state of South Carolina, December, 1866. In 1867 he entered the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was for twenty years rector at Greenville, S.C., for one year at Selma, Ala., and for six years at Trinity, Columbia. In I889 the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by the university of South Carolina. On May 4, 1893, he was elected bishop by the convention of South Carolina on the first ballot, and on July 20, 1893, was consecrated in this sacred office. SOURCE: Confederate Military History - SC Volume