William Wallace McLeod | W.W. McLeod | McLeod Plantation
Posted By : manager
Posted : September 27, 2020
William Wallace McLeod enlisted in the Confederate States Army on 25 March 1862 at Grahamville, South Carolina. He was mustered as a Private in Company K, 4th South Carolina Cavalry. Muster Roll of March 1 to August 31, 1864, shows him as detailed at Regimental Hospital as Assistant Commissary on 17 July 1864.
In 1860, W.W. McLeod was a successful planter and was highly respected around Charleston. His sea-island cotton and other crops brought him great wealth. The family household consisted of him, his wife, a son
aged 10 and 2 daughters, 8 & 3 years old.
His service records start on March 25, 1862, when his unit, the Charleston Light Dragoons, was mustered into Confederate service. He did not have to serve because of his age. At 42 years old he was exempt from military service at this time. Despite his wealth & social standing, he remained a Private throughout his service. Further, he chose the cavalry, arguably the most physically demanding branch of service and usually filled with much younger men.
The Dragoons remained an independent company stationed at Grahamsville serving as scouts watching for Yankee intrusions from Beaufort. In December 1862, they were one of several units gathered to form the 4th South Cavalry regiment. The 4th camped in such places as McPhersonville,
Grahamsville, Pocotaligo & Green Pond until ordered to Charleston on August 18, 1863. The 4th was one of several SC regiments formed into
Matthew C. Butler’s famous “South Carolina” Brigade in March 1864.
Butler took it from Charleston to Virginia and it participated in some of the heaviest cavalry actions of the war. On August 22, 1862, McLeod was detached from his command by order of District Commander Colonel W.W. Walker and assigned to “daily duty, commissary”.
He took a 15-day furlough from February 18, 1864, just before the regiment departing for Virginia. This was the last time he saw his home & family
The regiment, oddly, was found to have too many men when getting ready to depart & several older men were re-assigned elsewhere to reduce the rosters. W.W. McLeod, age 44, remained with his regiment. This is a mark of note for not only was it his choice to go to Virginia, but the regiment’s choice to retain him in his capacity. His merits far outweighed the matter of his age.
In Virginia, he remained in his status with the regimental Commissary.
Butler’s Brigade was returned to South Carolina in February 1865 and served well under General Joseph Johnston against Sherman’s army. In February 1865 shortly after Butler’s Brigade returned to South Carolina Leaving Columbia and hoping to get to his home & family on James Island, W.W. McLeod made it as far as Moncks Corner before dying of pneumonia.
There are two memorial markers for him. One is in the St. James Episcopal Church cemetery on James Island and carries the following statement:
“Died In Confederate Service: Rests in Unknown Grave”
The other marker is in the Biggin Cemetery in Moncks Corner It states
“In Memory of William Wallace McLeod of James Island, Jan 1820 – Feb 1865, He Died In Confederate Service and Rests In An Unknown Grave In This Churchyard”. W.W. McLeod served efficiently, willingly and
without seeking fame, personal gain, or glory.
So who is
William Wallace McLeod?
The man who constructed and owned McLeod Plantation James Island, South Carolina. It is his Home… He is an honorable man loved by both the
free and the enslaved.
His plantation house was used as a hospital during the war of Northern aggression, you can still see the bloodstains on the floor. Family descendants tell us that as the Yankees were leaving his plantation they set the plantation records and the house on fire.
The New Age liberal interpretation of life on the plantation, it’s not germane to the time that William Wallace McLeod lived on the plantation.
