Daniel Boyd wrote his father from Rapidan Station, Virginia Sept. 21, 1864. The 7th South Carolina had left Winchester, Virginia on Sept. 15th, four days before the Battle of 3rd Winchester. He gives his opinion of their new brigade commander, Gen. James Connor of Charleston. Connor had been the District Attorney for the state of South Carolina who had prosecuted the captain of The Wanderer – long believed to be the last ship to disobey the law banning the importation of African slaves. Daniel said that Connor was the hardest of all the generals they had served under.

Daniel tells about a skirmish they 8th South Carolina experienced on Sept. 13th and says they were nearly all taken prisoner. This skirmish was at Winchester and he says that Colonel John W. Hennigan and 104 of the men of the 8th were captured. He says in regards of the attrition of the army: “Our Bregaid is getting very small.“

He talks of being tired of war and expresses a dim view of their chances believing they will soon be starved out. He says of the Yankees, “They burn everything wher they go.”

Boys of Diamond Hill

The Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal for History 2012.

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