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Isaiah Irvin Fox, Lt., 1 SC Cav, Co I
Obituary from the Colleton, SC
Democrat
Col. I.I. Fox – From the Colleton, S.C.
Democrat of April 26, 1878
It is our melancholy duty to record the
death of Col. I.I. Fox which took place
at his residence in Walterboro at 7:30
o’clock A.M. on Friday the 19th.
He had just attained the age of 37
years, April 5 having been his last
birthday. Col. Fox was but 20 years of
age when the late war commenced. He
entered the company of his brother,
Captain R.P. Fox as orderly sergeant.
This company was attached to Col.
Black’s regiment and was ordered to
Virginia, in June 1862. There the
regiment was attached to Hampton’s
division. Col. Fox remained in Virginia
until March 1864, actively participating
in the dangers and vicissitudes of those
world famed campaigns. At the battle of
Brandy station he was promoted to the
lieutenancy of his company. There are
few who in the counties of Colleton,
Charleston and Beaufort, do not remember
their conditions when in March, 1864
Col. Fox was ordered to organize in them
a company of Scouts, and in his
discretion protect property and maintain
peace. He arrived in time to bring
order out of chaos. His name soon
became a tower of strength to friends –
a terror to enemies. His old comrades
in arms will recall his indomitable
energy, his tireless activity, his
sleepless vigilance, his courageous
dash, his high sense of duty, his
fervent patriotism, nor will they ever
forget his winning pleasantries at the
camp fire; his genial smile, the honest
grasp of the hand, nor the burning words
of encouragement when the evil days came
with gloom and a Lost Cause.
After the war, Lieutenant Fox returned
to his farm to long deserted and here
again exemplified those traits of
industry, energy and perseverance for
which he had already established a high
reputation.
In 1868 he entered the South Carolina
University where he remained until 1870
when he returned to his native county,
studied law and immediately entered upon
a successful practice.
Col. Fox about the same time began to
bestir himself in the cause of good
government. He it was who inspired soul
into the Democracy of Colleton when
despondency had settled upon the hearts
of her citizens.
He it was, who by his untiring personal
efforts in the evil days, kept alive the
fires of patriotism. No defeat could
discourage him. It needed but his call
to assemble the steady yeomanry of the
county- but his voice to unite them.
His leadership was the result of
absolute confidence.
The campaign of 1878 found him the
chairman of the Democratic party of
Colleton. It was here that our close
intimacy with him began, as member and
secretary of his executive committee.
In the times that tried men’s souls, we
recognize in him the inspiration of the
hour. They were loath to organize under
what appeared to be the certainty of
defeat. Fox was equal to the occasion.
He breathed into the organization the
breath of life. He reassured the
strong, encouraged the timid, he
animated all. It is difficult to form a
just estimate of Col. Fox as a public
man. Had he been blessed with health
and years probability does not bound the
eminence to which he may have attained.
As a lawyer, his reputation had long
since gone beyond the confines of his
native county. He was possessed of a
quick, vivacious intellect, a fertility
of resources that rarely failed him.
His was a suggestive, penetrative,
studious mind.
I was the month of July 1877, that Col.
Fox who at that time appeared to be in
the full vigor of health was conversing
with some gentlemen at the window of the
auditor’s office near the court house –
he had but recently been appointed
auditor – complained that when he raised
his arm he felt a sharp pain in his
side. This was the beginning of the
end. When some days after physicians
were called in his liver was found to be
affected. His spleen soon sympathized
and then his lungs. Getting gradually
worse, his physicians advised a trip to
Florida. In October he went to
Titusville, Florida. From this place
unfavorable accounts of his condition
from time to time reached home. His
family and friends determined that he
had best return. In January 1878, he
re-entered his residence in Walterboro,
from which he, a corpse was borne with
military honors on April 21, and in the
presence of sorrowing friends was buried
in Walterboro Cemetary. While upon his
death bed he had been elected Col. Of
the Second Regiment of the South
Carolina Volunteers, State Troops.
We believe that Colleton County will
lament the death of Col. Fox, as she
never before did one of her public
citizens. For here was a man in the
full tide of the public usefulness, with
the future rosy with hopes and full of
promise, of unbounded hospitality,
endeared to all by bonds of association;
of friendship by the winning majesty of
his influence – blighted and cut down,
while his family shed the tears of
bitter sorrow, and his friends lament
the inscrutable decree of the All-wise
Providence. His fellow citizens will
weave chaplets to his memory. They will
ever cherish his name and his fair fame
and in their hearts burn the sweet
incense of affection. Fox still lives
in the hearts of his countrymen.
If you have any information about
Isaiah Irvin Fox, please contact
Compatriot
Frank
Smoak.
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