Excerpt from A Story of the Late War, written by Hannah Lide Coker.
She was the mother of James, Willie and Charlie.
"When the Confederate States were forced into war to repel the invasion of the United States armies, my three sons at once offered their services as soldiers.
"James went as Captain of a company, joining the 9th Regiment South Carolina Volunteers and was afterward {at reorganisation in 1862} transferred to the 6th South Carolina Volunteers.
"Willie joined Captain Evans' Company of the 8th Regiment South Carolina Volunteers. After serving a year as a Sergeant, at the reorganization of the Regiment, became a Lieutenant; and after the death of his Captain, Thomas E. Howle, was promoted Captain of his Company.
"Charlie, who was a student at the South Carolina College, went with his College Company to Charleston when Fort Sumter was taken. The students, by order of the Governor, returned after that to college. But the College boys could not content themselves to remain as students while soldiers were needed at the front; and Charlie, early in 1862, went to Virginia and joined the 8th Regiment. Of which he was appointed Ordnance Sergeant.
"The battle of Malvern Hill was the first severe battle in which his Regiment was engaged after he joined it. After distributing ammunition to the men and performing all his duties preliminary to the battle, he took a musket and accoutrements and went into the fight. His position exempted him from battle and he should have remained with the ordnance train; but remarking that he could not remain in the rear while his comrades went into danger, he stepped into line and marched forward with them into the thickest of that terrible fight. There he offered up his precious life.
"Charlie, my beautiful and brave boy, lovely to all who knew him, gentle in his life, a hero in his death, fell on that bloody field and died there all alone. Willie saw him fall, but was impelled by stern duty to go forward with his men. After the battle, though himself wounded, he carried his brother in his arms from the battlefield, assisted in making for him a rude coffin and buried him in a soldier's grave."
A Story of the Late War
Hannah Lide Coker
Published 1887 Walker , Evans and Cogswell Co., Charleston
ISBN: 7-153-32231-0