The Civil War in South Carolina
Drayton, Brig. Gen. Thomas Fenwick
Brigadier-General Thomas Fenwick Drayton was born in South Carolina about 1807, of an ancestral line distinguished in the history of the State. His grandfather, William Drayton, born in South Carolina in 1733, was educated in law at the Temple, London; was appointed chief justice of the province of East Florida in 1768, and after the revolution was judge of admiralty, associate justice of the supreme court, and first United States district judge. His father, William Drayton, born in 1776, a lawyer, entered the United States service as lieutenant-colonel in 1812; was promoted colonel, and later inspector-general; was associated with Generals Scott and Macomb in the preparation of a system of infantry tactics; resigned in 1815, afterward served in Congress 1825-33, and was a warm friend and supporter of President Jackson. General Drayton was graduated at the United States military academy in 1828, in the class of Jefferson Davis, and was in the service as second lieutenant of Sixth infantry until his resignation in 1836. Subsequently he was occupied as a civil engineer at Charleston, Louisville
and Cincinnati for two years, then becoming a planter in St. Luke's parish. He served as captain
of South Carolina militia five years, was a member of the board of ordnance of the State, a State
senator 1853-61, and president of the Charleston & Savannah railroad 1853-56. September 25,
1861, he was commissioned brig-adier-general, provisional army of the Confederate States, and
was assigned to the command of the Third military district of the State. He was in command of
the Confederate forces during the bombardment and capture of Forts Walker and Beauregard, at
Port Royal entrance, in November, 1861, on which occasion his brother, Capt. Percival Drayton,
commanded the steamer Pocahontas, one of the Federal vessels under Admiral DuPont. He was
in charge of the Fifth military district, under Gen. R. E. Lee, and the Sixth and Fourth districts
under Pemberton, in the same region, with headquarters at Hardeeville. During the Second
Manassas and Maryland campaigns he commanded a brigade composed of the Fifteenth South
Carolina, and two Georgia regiments, which, with Toombs' Georgia brigade,
constituted the division of D. R. Jones, Longstreet's corps, and participated in the battles of
Thoroughfare Gap and Second Manassas, South Mountain and Sharpsburg. In August, 1863, he
was ordered to report to Gen. T. H. Holmes, at Little Rock, Ark., and was there assigned to
command of a brigade of Sterling Price's division, consisting of Missouri and Arkansas troops.
From the beginning of 1864 he was in command of this division in Arkansas, until Gen. Kirby
Smith relieved Holmes, when he was transferred to the command of the West sub-district of
Mexico. He was also in command of the Texas cavalry division composed of the brigades of
Slaughter and H. E. McCullough. In the spring of 1865 he was a member of the board of inquiry
demanded by General Price after his Missouri expedition. After the close of hostilities, General
Drayton farmed in Dooly county, Ga., until 1872, afterward was an insurance agent, and in 1878
removed to Charlotte, N. C., as president of the South Carolina immigration society. He died at
Florence, February 18, 1891.
REF: Confederate Military History Vol. 5, pg. 387
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