Brigadier-General Ellison Capers, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 5, South Carolina
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[134] refers to his advance against a battery at or east of the Chinn house, when the Holcombe legion (of Evans' brigade) came up to his support and fought ‘with much spirit and gallantry.’ Colonel Gary, the commander of the Hampton legion infantry, in his report says: ‘We were then [Wofford's brigade] hotly engaged around the Chinn house, where the brigade captured several pieces of artillery. At this place the brigade of General Evans came up in gallant style and relieved us.’ Evidently the Chinn house, which stood about one mile southwest of Groveton, formed the center of the theater of battle for the brigades of Jenkins and Evans and the Hampton legion infantry, under Colonel Gary.

These commands carried their battle for a half mile east of the Chinn house, when darkness checked and ended their advance. Over the space indicated the South Carolinians fought with steady courage, attesting their devotion by the sacrifices of the day. In this advance fell the noble-hearted Governor Means, at the head of the Seventeenth; the accomplished and gallant Glover, at the head of Hagood's First; the brave Gadberry, leading the Eighteenth; the dashing Moore, commanding the Second rifles; the heroic Palmer, urging the Holcombe legion to the charge, and Henry Stevens, aide to Col. P. F. Stevens, falling with five wounds.

A single shell bursting in front of Company K, Palmetto sharpshooters, killed five young men—Theodotus L. Capers, James Palmer, Whiteford Smith, Bearden and McSwain—graduates and undergraduates of college, the very best Carolina could give for her cause. It is particularly noted, that these were representative young men, sons of men of prominence in the church and in the State. Never did one shell destroy more of the beauty and promise of life, or carry more sorrow to human hearts.

The Fifteenth South Carolina operated on the extreme right in support of cavalry, and is reported as losing 21