A Family in Gray
The LeRoy Brothers of the
"Oconee Rifles"
Company E 1st South Carolina Rifle's
(Orr's Regiment)
Biography by John Mills Bigham
Curator, South Carolina Confederate
Relic Room & Museum
Feel the excitement tingled with dread--whole families enlisting to defend the South!
Gentlemen of means from Pickens District financed the "Oconee Rifles" in 1861. Six of seven LeRoy brothers enlisted in Company E, not knowing that all six were doomed to die in the War Between the States. The portraits of the LeRoys give a clear illustration of the uniforms of their company. In keeping with the designation as a Rifle unit, the uniform trim is tinted green on the LeRoy ambrotypes.
During early service in Charleston, substantial numbers of the men in Orr's Rifles made their way to local artists. (Indeed, more uniformed images of this unit have been collected for the Confederate Relic Room than any other S.C. unit.) The regiment remained at Charleston until transferred to Virginia in the spring of 1862, where it was assigned for the war to Maxcy Gregg's S.C. Brigade in June of 1862. Orr's would remain with this organization for the balance of the war. The regiment, after 21 fights with the Army of Northern Virginia, documented 745 deaths. From the "Oconee Rifles" witness four of them:
Private David LeRoy left a wife and four children when he enlisted July 20, 1861 at Camp Pickens, located at the town of Sandy Springs. He died in Richmond's Chimborazo Hospital #4 of a gunshot wound and punctured lung at age 26 on July 31, 1862. His widow, Martha, filed claim on September 20, 1862 for $108. She gave her address as c/o J. E. Hagood,
Pickens Court House, S. C.
Private Samuel P. LeRoy enlisted July 20, 1861 and died of disease August 9, 1862 at Richmond, age 22. His father, John LeRoy, made claim for $111.30, using the same address as his daughter-in-law.
Private Charles T. "Tom" LeRoy, age 40, died of wounds on August 9, 1864 at Forsyth, Georgia while serving in Company H, 19th S.C.V.I., Manigault's Brigade, Army of Tennessee. Records on Tom are not found in Orr's Rifles, nor is transfer information extant; however, the uniform is identical to that of Company E. Tom left his home in Abbeville District to join up with his younger brothers. Extant microfilm records have him enlisted in Company H, 19th SCVI at Camp Hampton [Columbia] January 3, 1862 for 12 months. Perhaps transfer out of Orr's resulted from a Charleston brawl in which Tom bit off the ear of a combatant, a family legend that may verify obliquely the contradiction in regimental records. If a death claim was filed, it is not found in the microfilm.
Private John LeRoy
was killed in action at Gaines Mill, June 1862 at age 24. While the records do not show his service, he wears Company E garb.
Private Hiram Andrew LeRoy,
September 28, 1845-December 14, 1916, the only one of seven brothers who survived the war. Andrew was enlisted, according to microfilm, on April28, 1863 at Pickens by Lieutenant Marshall for 3 years or the war. He served in Charleston in Company G, 1st (Butler's) S.C. Infantry (also know as 1st S.C. Regulars and 3rd Regiment S.C. Artillery.) A comment on one roster says, "lost by neglect 1 haversack, 1 canteen & strap." Andrew sustained an arm wound during service. Recores dated March 19, 1865 show him admitted to General Hospital No. 3, Greensboro, transferred from Raleigh. His regiment originally served in the defenses of Charleston; two of its companies were involved at Battery Wagner on July 11, 1863; in the final days of warfare, it fought in the Carolinas.
Two other brothers, James and Abraham, not pictured here, died service-related deaths in the "Oconee Rifles."
