". . . there are men in South Carolina who think I possess a disqualification of which I cannot divest myself, and would not if I could. I mean what they call my war record. That is the record of 50,000 South Carolina soldiers, and if I am to forfeit that and say that I am ashamed to have been one of them, all the offices in the world might perish before I would accept them."
[from Gen. Hampton's speech upon being nominated for Governor of S.C. by Gen. Matthew Cailbraith Butler, July 12, 1876]