behind AotW

Here’s the very image of pre-war South Carolina aristocracy: a young Richard Caspar Simpson, then about 20 years old, posing with his shotgun and hunting dog.

He was oldest son and 2nd of 8 children of wealthy physician and slaveowner John Wells Simpson and his second wife Eliza Adams (1810-1854) and was raised in the Laurens District in upstate South Carolina. He graduated from South Carolina College (now USC) in Charleston in 1859 and was studying to be a doctor when the war began.

Along with a number of brothers, step-brothers, and cousins, he enlisted as a Private soldier in the 3rd South Carolina Infantry in April 1861 and was appointed Corporal by the fall of 1862.

His apparently unlimited future ended when he was killed in the battle at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

This remarkable photograph was contributed to his online memorial by Lynne Lewellen.