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Lt. Col. Eli Thomas Stackhouse

Col. Stackhouse was born on March 27th, 1824 on his father's farm in Little Rock, SC in what was then Marion District (now Dillon County). He was the third child of Isaac and Martha Roper Stackhouse and attended local schools. While working on the farm, Stackhouse furthered his education by teaching as a young man. He sought to attend medical school, and studied for such, but quit to support his wife. He married Elizabeth Ann Fore on Oct. 21, 1847 and returned to farming to raise a family.

Stackhouse turned his father's poor farm into prosperous enterprise by hard work and dedication punctuated by his Methodist up bringing. He was also something of a teetotaler, never using alcohol or tobacco. He incorporated many new agricultural ideas of the time into the farm and redesigned it to lessen the workload and maximize production. It became a model that many area farmers copied. By the time the War broke out, Stackhouse was wealthy and well known.

The future colonel enlisted as a private in the "Spartan Band", soon to be designated Company I, Eighth South Carolina Volunteers. He was elected captain at the unit's organization in Marion in the spring of 1861. In April of that year, he volunteered for one-year's service in the Confederate Army. Stackhouse would participate in almost all the Eighth's battles, from 1st Manassas to Bentonville. Stackhouse was described as tall, weighing about 180 pounds, with a large head, steel gray eyes, a ruddy complexion, and a neatly shaved beard. His men remembered him as a man of strict integrity and kindness. In battle he was "...calm, collected, and brave..." and in camp "...sociable, moral--a Christian gentleman..." Though not a disciplinarian or tactical genius, Stackhouse had a gift of endowing confidence in his men. So much so they were willing to follow him anywhere.

He was wounded eight times; three seriously--at Sharpsburg on Sept. 17th, 1862; at Gettysburg on July 2nd, 1863; and Deep Bottom, June 18th, 1864.

He returned home in early 1862 and, per an act of the Confederate Congress, raised another company from the upper part of Marion District. This unit became Company L.

At Fredericksburg, Stackhouse was in command of the Eighth SCVI as senior captain. His skillful handling of the regiment at the height of the battle won him praise from Brig. Gen. Joseph Kershaw. Kershaw wrote of Stackhouse: "I never saw him excited or upset at anytime, in the field or sociably."

One account of the December 1862 battle recalls how Stackhouse, behind the Stone Wall, saved a badly wounded Union soldier while under heavy fire. The young Yankee had climbed his way to the 8th's position and caught the eye of the captain. Stackhouse reached over the wall and said, "Son, take my hand and I will pull you over." The young man was pulled to safety.

In 1863, the citizens of Marion elected him to the state assembly in his absence. After Gettysburg, Stackhouse was promoted to major and adjutant of the regiment. After the death of Lt. Col. Hoole at Chickamauga, the major was placed in command of the right wing of the regiment during the furious attacks on Snodgrass Hill and Horseshoe Ridge.

As the regiment held its hard-fought gains along the ridge, the Federals tried desperately to push the Carolinians back. According to Capt. Harllee, during one particularly vicious attack, Maj. Stackhouse was heard to shout "Give 'em hell boys!" He would immediately duck back down behind the regiment's makeshift breastworks and say "God forgive me for that".

Again and again this happened, until Stackhouse saw the left of the line begin to falter. Standing up among the shot and shell, he said in a booming voice: "Give them hell, I tell you boys, give them hell--goddamn their souls!" (Years after the war, a few of his comrades joked with Stackhouse on the event and asked if he meant the Old Testament account of hell or the New. The colonel responded, "Well, most times the New version will suffice. But to drive the wagon from the stall or the Yankees from your front, the Old version works best.")

Soon after the battle, Stackhouse was promoted to lieutenant colonel. With Col. John Henegan leading Kershaw's old Brigade, Stackhouse was in command of the 8th SC Volunteers during the vicious battles at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. Badly wounded at Deep Bottom, VA by Federal artillery, he recovered in a Richmond hospital and missed much of the disastrous Valley Campaign of late 1864.

After most of the regiment was captured at Abraham's Creek on Sept. 13th, 1864, Stackhouse returned to duty and lead the regiment through Sherman's Carolinas Campaign. He surrendered along with the remnants of the 8th SC on May 3rd, 1865.

Returning home with bad health, the family farm hovered near ruin. Stackhouse again resolutely rebuilt his fortune at farming. Held in high esteem and respected throughout the state, he weathered Reconstruction by raising everything necessary for his family and livestock to thrive. He was described as the "beau ideal of the Southern farmer" and was held in high esteem and respected throughout the state. He served two terms in the General Assembly in 1865 and 1866 and became a Trustee of Clemson College. Stackhouse was considered a pioneer in the usage of fertilizers and was recognized as the first farmer to raise two bales of cotton per acre in the state.

After Reconstruction, he was elected the President of the SC Farmer's Alliance. This association led to his election as the U.S. Representative for the Sixth Congressional District in 1891. At the time, he was also a brigadier general in the re-formed state militia--although he preferred the title "Colonel", the rank he said he actually earned. Stackhouse, father of 13 children, died in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 1892 while still in service of his beloved state. He is buried at Little Rock Cemetery.

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