I could not have drawn away in more consternation if they had been a nest of rattlesnakes.
First—[Lt. Col.] Frank Hampton* killed at Brandy Station. Wade telegraphed Mr C to see Robert Barnwell and make necessary arrangements to receive the body. Mr C still at Wilmington. I sent for Preston Johnston, and my neighbor Colonel Patton offered to see that everything proper should be done.
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| Frank Hampton (1829-1863) |
That afternoon I walked out alone. Willie Munford had shown me where the body—all that was left of Frank Hampton—was to be laid in the Capitol.
Mrs Petticola joined me for a while and then Mrs Singleton. Preston Hampton and Peter Trezevant with myself and Mrs Singleton formed the sad procession which followed the coffin. There was a company of soldiers drawn up in front of the State House porch.
Mrs Singleton said we had better go in and look at him before the coffin was finally closed.
How I wish I had not looked! I remember him so well in all the pride of his magnificent manhood. He died of a saber cut across the face and head and was utterly disfigured. Mrs Singleton seemed convulsed with grief. In all my life I had never seen such bitter weeping. She had her own troubles, but I did not know. We sat for a long time on the front steps of the State House. Everybody had gone. We were utterly alone."
*Frank Hampton was served in the Confederate Army under his older brother General Wade Hampton, Hampton's Legion, 2nd Regiment, South Carolina Cavalry. He was killed during the battle of Brandy Station in Virginia, June 9, 1863.
