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

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[506] to Columbia, and there in 1839 was married to Sarah Wilson, by whom he had two children, James H. and Sarah A. For four years prior to the secession of the State Mr. Casson was captain commanding the Governor's Guards, a fine military organization which went into active service early in 1861, as Company A, Second regiment of infantry. After the fall of Fort Sumter he went with his company and three others to Virginia, and served there in the rank of captain until promoted to major of the regiment in the fall of 1861. At the reorganization in May, 1862, he was transferred to the South Carolina coast, with headquarters at Georgetown, and the rank of major of the Eighth regiment. In the fall of 1864 he was detailed by the secretary of war to take charge of the office, books and papers of the South Carolina railroad, at Columbia, where he remained until after the bombardment, when in the performance of the same duty he was stationed at Chester, and finally at Charlotte, N. C. While on duty in Virginia he participated in the famous battles of First Manassas, Fairfax Court House, Vienna, Falls Church and Williamsburg. Major Casson not only gave his own services to the Confederacy, disregarding the exemption due his advanced age, but also gave his only son to the cause, a gallant boy who fought bravely in his father's old company, was badly wounded at Savage Station, and was killed on the bloody slopes of Gettysburg. His daughter, Sarah, died on the same day, on receiving the fatal news. He had lost his first wife some years before, and had remarried, in 1846, Lucretia Davis Daniels, who died in 1890, leaving one son, William, who died in 1897. Major Casson returned to Columbia after the war, and resumed the position of influence which he had for many years held among the good people of that city, and entering the service of the South Carolina railroad, has continued in that employment ever since.

William J. Cathcart, sheriff of Richland county, was born in Columbia, S. C., April 27, 1845. From that city, in the spring of 1861, though but sixteen years of age, he enlisted as a private in Company F, Third South Carolina battalion, which was identified throughout the war with the record of Kershaw's brigade and division. He served until he was surrendered with the remnant of his command at Appomattox, participating in all the