South Carolinians remember hero
By Robert Slimp

Photo by Mike Maddock

A memorial service for S.C. hero Wade Hampton will be held on Sunday, March 25, 2007, at 3 pm in Keenan Chapel at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter Street. The observance is an annual event sponsored by the Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton Camp 273, Sons of Confederate Veterans. The public is invited.

Wade Hampton was born on March 28, 1818, and died April 11, l902. He is buried in the Trinity Cathedral church yard. He joined Trinity when he was a boy and remained a lifelong member. He was one of the greatest of the Confederate Cavalry Commanders, rising in rank to Lt. General.

Following the War for Southern Independence, Hampton was elected governor of South Carolina in l876 on a platform of ending the horrors and unjust treatment of Reconstruction. He succeeded through an agreement with Republican Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes.

In early 1877 all Federal occupation troops were removed from the South. In restoring free and fair elections to the Palmetto State, Governor Hampton insisted that Black people be given the right to vote and treated fairly. His last words were, "God bless all my people, black and white." In 1879, he was elected to the U.S. Senate for two terms, serving until 1891. He helped southern and northern Senators work together to make a better nation, and took a keen interest in the development of the American West.

The speaker for the Hampton Memorial Service is Dr. David Aiken, a professor of English at the Citadel. He is a founding member of the William Gilmore Simms Society and has written more than 30 books on Simms and other writers, including Fire in the Cradle; Charleston's Literary Heritage . His most recent book is A City Laid Waste, the Capture, Sack, and Destruction of the City of Columbia.

Following the address, led by a bag piper and re- enactors, those attending will be led to the Hampton Grave Site, where they will sing Amazing Grace accompanied by the bag piper. Then the re- enactors will lead the group to the Wade Hampton Monument on the State House grounds where there will be a firing of a rifle salute by Confederate re- enactors. This will be followed by the thunderous roar of an artillery battery of four cannons firing a salute. The observance will end with a bugler sounding Taps and Tattoo.

All attendees are invited to proceed to Millwood Plantation to view the ruined six columns, which are all that is left of the magnificent Hampton mansion after General Sherman ordered it burned. The home was built in 1838 as a wedding present for Wade Hampton and his bride.