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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[771] farm, and in 1854 he graduated at Erskine college. His life pursuit has been that of a farmer. In the spring of 1861 he volunteered in Company A, James' battalion, as a private, and served with it in the battle of Secessionville and others of less importance. He was then transferred to Company C, Holcombe legion of cavalry, and served with it one year. Then he was transferred to post service in Chaleston, Columbia and Greenville, in which he continued to the end of the war. He was present at the bombardment of Fort Sumter and saw the first gun fired at the fort on April 12, 1861. Since 1854 he has resided in Abbeville county, which he has served one year as commissioner, elected in 1891. In 1892 he was elected sheriff of the county, was re-elected in 1896 and is the present incumbent. He is a member of Secession camp, U. C. V. He has been twice married, first in 1854 to Miss Jane M. Agnew, who died in 1893, leaving three sons and two daughters, and in 1894 he married Miss Ella M. Huckabee.

Colonel James Drayton Nance, who was killed at the battle of the Wilderness, was born in Newberry, S. C., October i o, 1837, the son of Drayton and Lucy (Williams) Nance. His great-grandfather, James Williams, was one of the heroes of King's Mountain, and was killed in that Revolutionary battle. Colonel Nance received his preparatory education at Newberry, was graduated from the Citadel military academy at Charleston, and in 1859 he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law at Newberry. In the winter of 1860-61 he was unanimously elected captain of the Quitman Rifles, an infantry company formed at Newberry and afterward incorporated into the Third regiment, South Carolina volunteers. With his company he was mustered into the Confederate service at Columbia in April, 1861, and took part in the first battle of Manassas. On May 16, 1862, upon the reorganization of the Third regiment, he was chosen its colonel, and as such commanded it in the battles of Seven Pines, Savage Station, Malvern Hill, Maryland Heights, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Knoxville, and the Wilderness, where, on the 6th of May, 1864, he was instantly killed. His body was brought home and interred with honors befitting a brilliant and brave officer. He rendered marked service to the Confederacy