The 1st South Carolina Rifles
An album of officers in Orr's Regiment 
James
Lawrence Orr One might expect the Colonel to have a fancier
uniform, but Orr was not given to displays of martial vanity. This
may not be the uniform worn when the regiment was first mustered, although
Orr did not long serve with the Rifles: he was elected to the Confederate
States Senate in December 1861, and resigned his commission the following
February lst.
Thought by some to be a Unionist, Orr favored an armistice by 1863, but
throughout the war he was "a benevolent friend in Richmond"
to the South Carolina soldiers in the field He was the state's first post-war
governor While serving as U.S. envoy to Russsia in 1872, he died of pneumonia
in St Petersburg.
unit history by John
Mills Bigham
"Three years or the war" was
the agreement on July 20, 1861, when these officers were mustered into
Confederate service at Camp Pickens, Sandy Springs, South Carolina, midway
between the towns of Anderson and Pendleton. Colonel James Lawrence
Orr, a prominent state and national figure, was commissioned to raise the
regiment, the first from South Carolina expressly for service to the Confederate
States of America. Sometimes referred to as the lst South Carolina
Rifles, it was known to the Confederate States War Office as Orr's Regiment
of Rifles (O.R.R.) and such designation was Orr's preference.
Orr spoke against secession for many years, believing it would bring ruin
and desolation to the state, but when the movement became too strong to
stop, his desire for unity in the state overcame his national loyalty.
On December 20, 1860, Orr signed the Secession Ordinance.
From May to July 1861, Orr canvassed the men of his native section of western
South Carolina. Companies B and G were raised in the Abbeville District,
D, K and L in the Anderson District, and A, C, E and F in the Pickens District.
Company H came from across the state in the Marion District.
After training at Camp Pickens the regiment moved east to Sullivans Island.
A report from October 1861 shows 1,521 men serving with Orr on the island.
Four years hence, when flags were furled (or concealed and brought home)
at Appomattox, 334 officers and men had been killed, 201 were dead from
disease, and 791 had been wounded. (These figures compiled by J.F.J. Caldwell,
a lieutenant of the ist South Carolina Infantry who in 1866 published The
History of a Brigade of South Carolinians, First Known as Gregg's and Subsequently
as McGowan's Brigade)
The Rifles transferred to Virginia and, in April 1862, were first attached
to the brigade of a Virginian, Joseph Anderson, then in June to the brigade
of Maxcy Gregg, a South Carolinian.
The unit suffered heavily in a gallant charge at Gaines Mill, and won praise
for its staunch defense of the railroad cut at 2nd Manassas. At Fredericksburg
the following December, Gregg's Brigade was lying in support when Federal
troops broke through the front line, swept through a woods, and surprised
the South Carolinians resting under stacked arms. General Gregg,
who mistook the attackers for Confederates withdrawing from the front line,
was killed. The Palmetto troops, in the words of brigade historian
Caldwell, were "as a body, broken, slaughtered, and swept from the
field"
Following the death of Gregg at Fredericksburg, the brigade was assigned
to Samuel McGowan. It comprised Orr's Rifles and the lst, 12th, 13th
and 14th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiments. The regiments
served together from the Seven Days to Appomattox.
The officer's uniforms seen on the following pages are, for the most part,
those worn when the regiment was first mustered in 1861. Many are
similar in cut and design; others clearly attempt to follow the general
pattern but are significantly different in execution. An exact uniform
may have been required but the lack of a model led each company to a different
interpretation.
The uniforms from later in the war show a trend toward simplification which
reflect the shortages of a blockaded nation. As Lieutenant Caldwell
of the lst S.C. described it, "Most of the men rubbed out a jacket
in two or three months-a pair of pantaloons in one. It was coarse,
stiff and flimsy. Sometimes even cotton pants were offered us in
midwinter. Scarcely any object in nature, except a flour barrel,
would find a fit. Shoes were scarce, blankets curiosities, overcoats
a positive phenomenon."
All images are from a Charleston family album dated July 20, 1861.
lst
Regiment Rifles, known as Orr's Rifles, was organized at Sandy
Springs, South Carolina, in July, 1861.
Its members were recruited in
**************************************************************
248
SOUTH CAROLINA
the counties
of Abbeville, Pickens, Anderson, and Marion. The unit was first stationed
on Sullivan's Island and called by the other troops "The Pound Cake
Regiment" because of its light duty. Then in April, 1862, it
moved to Virginia with 1,000 men. Assigned to General Gregg's and
McGowan's Brigade, it fought with the army from the Seven Days' Battles
to Cold Harbor. Later the regiment endured the hardships of the Petersburg
trenches and the Appomattox operations. Of the 537 engaged at Gaines'
Mill, fifty-nine percent were killed, wounded, or missing. The unit
reported 116 casualties at Second Manassas and 170 at Fredericksburg, then
lost forty-nine percent of the 233 at Chancellorsville and three percent
of the 366 at Gettysburg. There were 12 killed and 81 wounded at
The Wilderness, 15 killed, 36 wounded, and 44 missing at Spotsylvania,
3 killed and 34 wounded at Deep Bottom, and 9 killed and 37 wounded at
Poplar Springs Church. It surrendered 9 officers and 148 men.
The field officers were Colonels Daniel A. Ledbetter, James W Livingston,
J. Foster Marshall, George M. Miller, James L. Orr, and James M. Perrin;
Lieutenant Colonels William M. Hadden, R E. Harrison, Joseph J. Norton,
and James T. Robertson; and Majors John B. Moore and Leonard Rogers.
******************************************************************
Thomas
A. Evins
George
Fullerton
William Hadden
Francis
Harrison
Robert
Hawthorne
William W.
Higgins
James Moore
Daniel
Ledbetter
W.T. Livingston
Jehu Foster
Marshall
John B. Moore
Joseph Jeptha
Norton
Miles Moore
Norton
Thomas B.
Lee
Nimrod Sullivan
