Pineville, a historic refuge
Part 25: A Tragedy of War
By Warner M.Montgomery Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

Rev. William Porcher DuBose left Pineville during the Civil War. He became a leading professor, author, and administrator at the University of The South, Sewanee.

Pineville was devastated by the Civil War. Most of the homes were burned, most of the plantation owners left the area, and most of the freed Negroes wandered away. The rice and indigo fields returned to nature, and the cotton and corn fields fell to neglect.

An example of the fate suffered by the once elegant plantations is that of Walnut Grove owned by James Gaillard. During the war, aged Gaillard served the CSA by hosting homeless women and Confederate scouts. Because of this, Walnut Grove suffered the wrath of General A.S. Hartwell.

Only when the courageous women refused to leave the house did the Federal soldiers drop their torches. However, Old Man Gaillard and the women watched as the soldiers ripped off the shutters and doors and stole all the furniture. The only valuables saved were those hidden by the loyal slaves. In 1881, dilapidated Walnut Grove was sold to Frederick Conner who kept it until it was flooded by Santee- Cooper.

Maria Louisa Porcher fled Pineville during the Civil War. She became a major benefactor at the University of The South, Sewanee.

Eutaw Plantation, headquarters for General Hartwell in 1865, was not burned when the Federal troops left for Charleston. The owner, Charles Sinkler, had gathered his slaves together when Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation and told them he intended to divide his provisions with them. After Hartwell's troops left, Sinkler told his servants, "I never expected us to hear freedom come and knock at my door and I refused it, but that is what me and my family have done for the sake of you all." He kept his promise.

Parcels of Eutaw and the adjacent Belvidere Plantation remained in the Sinkler family until the Santee- Cooper took most of the land. The Sinkler farms, however, never recovered from the loss of slave labor.

The newly- founded (1858) University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, was the beneficiary of at least two of Pineville's refugees: Maria Louisa Porcher and Rev. William Porcher DuBose.

Maria Louisa Porcher was the granddaughter of Maj. Samuel Porcher of Mexico Plantation. She and her parents, Philip and Martha, lived at Oldfield Plantation in Pineville. When the Civil War broke out, they took refuge in Winnsboro. Maria cared for the three children of her deceased sister and her husband, Dr. Edwin Steele who was one of the first Confederate casualties. Before the war ended, she had eight orphaned relatives under her wing.

Meanwhile, her cousin, Rev. William Porcher DuBose, fled to Abbeville where he pastored Trinity Church. After the war in 1871, DuBose moved to Sewanee as university chaplain. He invited Maria and her children to The Mountain, as the university was called.

Maria Porcher built a student residence hall, Magnolia Hall, with her own money. She took in students, paid their tuition, nursed them, darned their socks, and comforted them. Rev. DuBose called her, "half bishop, half general." She died in Sewanee in 1907. Magnolia Hall was used as a dining hall until it burned in 1960.

Rev. DuBose taught many subjects in liberal arts and theology. He became the first dean of the School of Theology and authored six major books on the New Testament. He died in 1918 and is now honored at Sewanee with an annual School of Theology Lecture Series.

(Next week: Return and

Reconstruction)