ny
battles, and gained so many victories, as to shed a halo around the
heads of all who marched with him and fought under the banner of
Joseph B. Kershaw. Here I will give a brief biography of General
Kershaw.

* * * * *

JOSEPH BREVARD KERSHAW

Was born January 5th, 1822, at Camden, S.C. He was a son of John
Kershaw and Harriet DuBose, his wife. Both of the families of Kershaws
and DuBoses were represented by more than one member, either in the
Continentals or the State troops, during the War of the Revolution,
Joseph Kershaw, the most prominent of them, and the grandfather of
the subject of this sketch, having lost his fortune in his efforts
to maintain the patriot cause. John Kershaw died when his son, Joseph
Brevard, was a child of seven years of age. He attended first a "dame
school" in his native town. Afterwards he attended a school taught
by a rigid disciplinarian, a Mr. Hatfield, who is still remembered by
some of the pupils for his vigorous application of the rod on frequent
occasions, with apparent enjoyment on his part, but with quite other
sentiments on the part of the boys. He was sent at the age of fifteen
to the Cokesbury Conference school, in Abbeville District, as it was
then known, where he remained for only a brief time. Leaving this
school, after a short sojourn at home, he went to Charleston, S.C.,
where he became a clerk in a dry goods house. This life not being
congenial to him, he returned to Camden and entered as a student in
the law office of the late John M. DeSaussure, Esq., from which, at
the age of twenty-one, he was admitted to the Bar. He soon afterwards
formed a copartnership with James Pope Dickinson, who was subsequently
killed at the battle of Cherubusco, in the war with Mexico, gallantly
leading the charge of the Palmetto Regiment. Both partners went to the
Mexican War, young Kershaw as First Lieutenant of the Camden company,
known as the DeKalb Rifle Guards. Struck down by fever contracted
while in the service, he returned home a physical wreck, to be
tenderly nursed back to health by his wife, Lucretia Douglass, whom
he had married in 1844. Upon the recovery of his health, the war being
over, he resumed the practice of law in Camden. But it was not long
before his services were demanded in the State Legislature, which
he entered as a member of the lower house in 1852. From this time on
until the opening of hostilities in the war between the Sta