The story of that regiment as told by one who was in it and part of it, almost from the first until very nearly the close now lies before me, and from it I propose to condense briefly and relate its history. It was organized at Camp Butler, S. C., April 15th, 1861, to serve for twelve months; Thomas G. Bacon, Colonel; Robert Fair, Lieutenant Colonel; Emmet Seibles, Major. It was amongst the first to go to Virginia and with the Second, Third, and Eighth it formed a brigade under M. L. Bonham, afterwards under J. B. Kershaw. This regiment was not engaged at the battle of Bull Run, First Manassas, though under artillery fire. The writer of the sketch, from which we draw, enlisted for the war in a re-enlisted company (M), of which E. Jerry Goggans was elected Captain on the 24th of March, 1862, and joined the regiment on the Peninsula. On the Peninsula they were under command of General J. B. Magruder until the arrival of General J. E. Johnston. They were near, but not engaged in the battle of Williamsburg. On the 12th of May, 1862, the regiment was re-organized. At an election for field officers held on the 13th, D. Wyatt Aiken was elected Colonel; Elbert Bland, Lieutenant Colonel; and -- White, Major. This regiment was in all the campaigns of the Peninsula and around Richmond under Magruder and Johnston and Lee. They were in the desperate conflict at Malvern Hill, where Lieutenant J. R. Bouknight was killed. They were in the invasion of Maryland, fording the Potomac where it was about 400 yards wide. Some soldiers stripped naked in order to keep their clothes dry; most of them only pulling off their pants and drawers, keeping on their shirts; some only rolled up their breeches, and these got their clothes wet, as the water came up higher than they could roll their breeches.

In Maryland they met many friends and some foes. The friends would smile and wave their handkerchiefs, and a smile from a lovely girl was very charming. The enemies would close their doors as the Confederates passed, grin and make faces at them through the windows. As they passed Frederick City great demonstrations were made by both friends and foes - some ladies brought pails of water; some milk, some bread, some waved handkerchiefs, and Confederate flags, while others waved Union flags from the windows and held their noses as the Southerners passed. "A Georgia Major, inspired by the occasion and by liquor was riding along the lines and speaking. He was calling the attention of the citizens to the grand, invincible army of the South. As he passed Kershaw's brigade he said: "I'm a Georgian, but I give to South Carolina the honor of beginning this struggle for liberty?" We cheered him and he passed on."

This regiment was at the taking of Harper's Ferry and played an important part in that enterprise. They were at the battle of Sharpsburg, where Colonel Aiken fell, shot through the lungs, and the regiment lost 169 killed and wounded, being half that went into action. Company M lost 17 killed and wounded out of 29 that were present on the field of battle. Major White was killed in this battle. After crossing the Potomac at Winchester on the return from Maryland after the battle of Sharpsburg, Lieutenant Colonel Bland took command of the regiment. He had been wounded at Savage Station and was not at Sharpsburg. J. S. Hard, senior Captain, became Major. He was afterwards killed at Chickamauga. I am tempted to give here large extracts from this Diary of Sergeant J. J. McDaniel, of company M, as personal narratives always have great charms for me; but I am compelled to forego that pleasure. I yield, however, to the temptation to give a description of "winter quarters."

"The Seventh Regiment remained encamped near Fred- ericksburg from the time of the battle of the 13th of December till the 10th of January, 1863. On that day McLaw's Division moved back some six miles from town, where we could obtain wood plentifully. For where a division encamps during the winter in a cold climate, it takes but a little while to clear large fields, leaving not a tree, where so lately waved a large forest. Our brigade was placed in the midst of a dense forest, the regiments composing it being crowded together closer than usual. Here we went regularly into winter quarters, and I will describe here the appearance of some of our quarters. With the exception of a very few officers we had no wall tents; but a simple fly, which is a piece of canvass stretched across a ridge pole, generally raised on two forks as high as you could reach, so as to be convenient to hang up articles. We often run our waist belts around the pole, buckling them for a `rack,' or swing for our guns, and these in their turn serving to hang clothes upon and other articles of camp equipage. The ends of the canvass we pegged to the ground on each side, some six or seven feet from the upright forks, leaving the tent open at both ends, with but little inside. To obviate this inconvenience most of the messes built log pens 3 ro 4 feet high, and put the fly on top of this pen, which, when daubed with mud, formed an excellent wall to exclude the rigor of the winter. To complete the tent a chimney must now be built. This is first made of sticks and afterwards daubed with mud. Many being too lazy to build their chimney high enough with sticks, obtained empty flour barrels, which they set on top to lengthen out the funnel. These generally burnt up, as they could not be daubed or plastered with mud to shield them. It was no uncommon thing to hear a passer-by cry out to the inmates, `Your barrel is on fire.' But there are other kinds of tents or quarters which some build without any canvass. These resemble the roof of a house, and are made by leaning poles or boards against the ridge pole at an angle of about 45 degrees, and covering these with leaves and dirt, form a very warm tent. Others again, when they are camped on the side of a hill, cut out a tent in the side of the hill, making solid walls of earth, and thus literally, Esquimaux fashion, burrowing under ground. These excel all others in warmth. The next question after the tent is finished is how shall we sleep? for it is unhealthy to sleep on the ground, with nothing but your bedding under you, though some do it. The plan generally adopted is to drive up four forks some 2 feet high, form a scaffold, and cover this with small poles, upon which make your bed. This seems pretty rough at first, as soldiers don't have bedding enough to make the poles soft, yet in a few nights they would not exchange them for feather beds.

"The amusements and employments of our soldiers while in winter quarters were various. The inclemency of the weather during this winter in Virginia, was such that for weeks we did not drill. There were many heavy falls of snow, generally followed by rain. Two or three days after a heavy fall of snow the country for miles around would be full of soldiers hunting rabbits. When they would get on one's track in the snow, they would be almost sure to `jump' him, and then he was almost sure to be caught, for, hindered on one hand by the deep snow, and, headed on all sides of soldiers, he was soon captured. I have known some exciting races.

"Another great sport was snow balling. Frequently when you showed your head outside of your tent you would be saluted with a volley of snow balls, and if you were not disposed to join in the fight your best policy would be to double-quick out of danger. I have frequently seen one regiment arrayed against another in these snow ball battles, led by their respective officers. In fact, I have seen two brigades meet in these bloodless contests, each man having a haversack full of ready-made snow balls. In such a battle the air is white with the flying missiles, darting sprotively through the contending ranks.

"Other favorite sports were the various games of town ball. But I am sorry to say that many spent most of their time at cards, playing and betting on games of chance. I have known soldiers paid off 2 or 3 months' wages, and before night lose it all gambling. How much more profitably it would be to them to spend their time in reading some religious book or tract, and then save their money, character, and morals.

"Nothing of an exciting nature occurred for some time to break the dull monotony of camp life in winter quarters. We received a daily mail from Richmond, together with the daily papers, which served as a source of instruction and a means of employing profitably much of our time. The "Dispatch," "Whig," "Examiner," and "Sentinel" were eagerly sought to learn the latest news. We paid for each of these papers mostly 15 cents, sometimes less and frequently more. We sometimes formed clubs of eight or ten, which would enable the club to read all the dailies at a small cost to each member. The Illustrated Southern News was the favorite weekly, in which we received a likeness and history weekly of some of our distinguished generals. We also received a great many religious papers and tracts, sent by the various religious associations for that purpose throughout the Confederacy. These, like bread cast upon the waters, will doubtless be gathered after many days. Their fruits in part were seen in the revivals which followed in the spring . . . Our camp had the appearance of a busy workshop on cold winter evenings. You could see the soldiers coming and going in all directions, carrying wood for the night, and the sound of many axes resounded throughout the camp.

"Our regiment picketed at Fredericksburg. When it came our turn to go we would stay a week and quarter in the houses around the town. We picketed up the river, neaer a mile above town, opposite Falmouth, a small place on the north bank of the Rappahannock. The Yankees were stationed on that bank and we on the south. By agreement the pickets did not fire at each other across the river near Fredericksburg. For awhile they exchanged papers, and the Yankees would swap coffee for tobacco. The means by which this traffic was conducted was a very small boat into which they put the articles, and then arranging sails it was carried over by the winds. The Yankee officers captured one that some of ours sent over called the "Body Louse". They stated in their account of it that they would send it to Washington to be placed in the patent office as a curiosity."

But winter quarters passed away; and the campaign of 1863, with all its battles and bloodshed, began about the middle of April. In May of this year was fought the battle of Chancellorsville, where Stonewall Jackson was killed, a loss from which the Confederacy never recovered. The writer of the Diary from which we are reading says: "Chancellorsville, which consisted of a large house used as a hotel and latterly as a female boarding school, was all in flames when he saw it. It had been set on fire by our shells. This was Hooker's headquarters, and report says that while leaning against a piazza post it was knocked down by a cannon ball, precipitating him to the ground. He villianously retained several ladies in the house, saying to them that General Lee would not fire on the house while they were in it. The Richmond Dispatch gave the names of the ladies, and a full account of it. They plead with the brutal coward, telling him that General Lee would not sacrifice a victory for the sake of a few ladies - that there was too much at stake - the cause of the entire Confederacy. Yet he would not let them go till the house was in flames, and then he had to move his own carcass to a safer place." Some wounded soldiers were burned to death in the house, and many in the woods which took fire from Jackson's artillery.

It would be a pleasure to give the sergeant's account of this battle in full, and of the march of the army into Pennsylvania and of the battle of Gettysburg, but want of space forbids.

The writer of the Diary was wounded at Gettysburg - shot clear through the body, the ball passing through the lungs. As soon as he was able to travel he was sent home, leaving the army on the 2nd of July, 1863. He returned to it again, arriving there on the 19th of July, 1864, having been absent a little over one year. His Diary contains an account of the movements of the army and of the battles in which his regiments were engaged during his absence. After his return he served faithfully, continuing his record until the 28th of December, 1864, when he was honorably discharged from the army on account of his wound, which, it was considered, entirely disabled him for further military service. He left Richmond on the 29th of December, 1864, and arrived at home on Monday, the 2nd of January, 1865. Having been wounded at Gettysburg, he was not with his regiment when it was sent to the assistance of Bragg at Chickamauga, nor when it passed through Middle and East Tennessee on the return to Virginia.

The Diary is well written, and could it be printed and published, it would make a valuable contribution to the history of the war. it portrays faithfully the spirit which animated the men in the ranks.

But perhaps enough has been written in this book about the war. In that time of fiery trial, as far as is known to this writer, Edgefield did her part nobly and well.

Chapman - History of Edgefield County - pg 207