tes, he
practiced his profession with eminent success, and served also in the
Legislature several terms, being handsomely re-elected when he stood
for the place. He took a deep interest in the struggle then impending,
and was a member of the Secession Convention from his native district.
As it became more and more evident that there would be war, he ran
for and was elected to the office of Colonel of the militia regiment
composed of companies from Kershaw and adjacent districts, which,
early in 1861, by command of Governor Pickens, he mobilized and led to
Charleston and thence to Morris' Island, where the regiment remained
until it volunteered and was called to go to Virginia to enter the
service of the Confederacy. Several of the companies then in his
regiment consented to go. These were supplemented by other companies
which offered their services, and the new regiment, now known as the
Second South Carolina Volunteers, proceeded to Richmond, thence to
Manassas.

From this time until 1864 it is unnecessary to trace his personal
history in this place, because the history of the brigade, to the
command of which he was elected at the reorganization in 1862, and of
its commander cannot be separated. In May, 1864, he was promoted to
the rank of Major General and assigned to the command of a division,
of which his brigade formed a part. His was the First Brigade of the
First Division of the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. On
the retreat from Richmond his division, with other troops, numbering
in all about 6,000 men, was surrounded and captured at the battle of
Sailor's Creek, April 6th, 1865. In this disastrous battle Lieutenant
General Ewell, Major Generals Kershaw and Custis Lee, Brigadier
Generals D.M. DuBose, Semmes, Hunter, and Corse, and Commodores Hunter
and Tucker, of the Confederate States' Navy, ranking on shore duty as
Brigadiers, were captured, together with their respective commands,
almost to a man, after a desperate and sanguinary struggle against
immense odds. Those officers were all sent to Fort Warren, Boston
Harbor, where they remained in prison until some time in August, 1865,
when they were allowed to return to their respective homes.

General Kershaw resumed the profession of law in Camden immediately
upon his return, and enjoyed a large and lucrative practice for many
years, until called to serve his State as Circuit Judge in 1877, when
the government was wrested from the hands of the R