In April 1861, Dick and Tally Simpson, sons of South Carolina Congressman Richard F. Simpson, enlisted in Company A of the Third South Carolina Volunteers of the Confederate army. Their letters home--published here for the first time--read like a historical novel, complete with plot, romance, character, suspense, and tragedy. In their last year of college when the war broke out, Dick and Tally were hastily handed their diplomas so they could volunteer for military duty. Dick was twenty; Tally was twenty-two.
Well educated, intelligent, and thoughtful young men, Dick and Tally cared deeply...

The Pendleton District in northwestern South Carolina has a complex history. It was originally part of the Cherokee Indian lands which were divided in 1789 to create Pendleton and Greenville Counties. The name was subsequently changed to Pendleton District and it finally ceased to exist as a political unit about 1825 when it was subdivided to form the present Anderson and Pickens Counties. This volume provides a brief, seventy-page history of the region followed by hundreds of genealogical sketches of district families. The genealogies are generally lacking in vital statistics, but...