hours, our army took up the line of
march towards Richmond. It has been computed that McClellan had with
him on the Peninsula, outside of his marines, 111,000 men of all arms.

As the term of first enlistment has expired, I will give a brief
sketch of some of the field officers who led the regiments during the
first twelve months of the war.

* * * * *

COLONEL JAMES H. WILLIAMS, OF THE THIRD SOUTH CAROLINA VOLUNTEERS.

Colonel James H. Williams, the commander of the Third South Carolina
Regiment, was born in Newberry County, October 4th, 1813. He was of
Welsh descent, his ancestors immigrating to this country with Lord
Baltimore. He was English by his maternal grandmother. The grandfather
of Colonel Williams was a Revolutionary soldier, and was killed at
the battle of Ninety-Six. The father of the subject of this sketch was
also a soldier, and held the office of Captain in the war of 1812.

Colonel Williams, it would seem, inherited his love for the military
service from his ancestors, and in early life joined a company of
Nullifiers, in 1831. He also served in the Florida War. His ardor in
military matters was such he gave little time for other attainments;
he had no high school or college education. When only twenty-four
years old he was elected Major of the Thirty-eighth Regiment of State
Militia, and in 1843 took the Captaincy of the McDuffie Artillery, a
crack volunteer company of Newberry. In 1846 he organized a company
for the Mexican War, and was mustered into service in 1847 as Company
L. Palmetto Regiment. He was in all the battles of that war, and,
with the Palmetto Regiment, won distinction on every field. After his
return from Mexico he was elected Brigadier General and then Major
General of State Militia. He served as Mayor of his town, Commissioner
in Equity, and in the State Legislature.

Before the breaking out of the Civil War, he had acquired some
large estates in the West, and was there attending to some business
connected therewith when South Carolina seceded. The companies that
were to compose the Third Regiment elected him their Colonel, but
in his absence, when the troops were called into service, they were
commanded for the time by Lieutenant Colonel Foster, of Spartanburg.
He joined the Regiment at "Lightwood Knot Springs," the 1st of May.
He commanded the Third during the term of its first enlistment, and
carried it through the first twelve months' campa