Charleston Light Dragoons

[aidenmac17]

How were the Charleston Light Dragoons organized, and what uniforms did the different companies of this unit have?

 

[JackADriscoll]

How were the Charleston Light Dragoons organized, and what uniforms did the different companies of this unit have?
View attachment 525363

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://schistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Charleston-Light-Dragoons-1133.00-1.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwix8tvqiZaJAxXNRDABHQVTMnIQFnoECBIQAQ&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw1gm7a1FmLuTBSCojvnoHCk

Charleston Light Dragoons, Charleston County, South Carolina

Charleston county, South Carolina free genealogy and family history, marriages, military data, obituaries, cemeteries, old news articles, biographies, wills and more.

genealogytrails.com

Here's a couple nice write ups on them

 

[Stryker65]

How were the Charleston Light Dragoons organized, and what uniforms did the different companies of this unit have?
View attachment 525363

https://www.carolana.com/SC/Civil_War/b_h_rutledges_company_sc.html

During the ACW, the Charleston Light Dragoons served as Company K, Fourth South Carolina Cavalry, formerly Rutledge's Militia Company. See the above link for more details, and the Fourth S. C. C. history as well.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Sons of Privilege: The Charleston Light Dragoons in the Civil War by W. Eric Emerson

Amazon.com

A Sketch of the Charleston Light Dragoons, From the Earliest Formation of the Corps by Edward Laight Wells

A Sketch of the Charleston Light Dragoons, from the Earliest Formation of the Corps

books.google.com

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[major bill]

The Confederate Historical Society Journal did an article on Charleston Light Dragoons, detailing their changing uniforms with focus on their pre Civil War uniforms. Some nice black and white uniform plates. If anyone is interested I could thumb through the copies I have of the Confederate Historical Society Journal and find the article.

 

[LisaJ]

The writings of Gabriel Manigault give some insight to the cultural make-up of the Charleston Light Dragoons.
Gabriel Manigault 1833-1899 - served in Rutledge Mounted Riflemen; Charleston Light Dragoons / 4th SC Cavalry

Several of my ancestors were members of the Rutledge Mounted Riflemen, a militia cavalry company raised to defend the lowcountry of South Carolina. As I searched for information about the RMR unit, I came across the handwritten manuscript, "Autobiography of Gabriel Manigault," kept at the UNC University Libraries. The document, penned during the years 1887-1897, includes detailed accounts of Gabriel Manigault's service, and that of his younger brother Alfred, while they were in the Rutledge Mounted Riflemen in 1861, and then in the Charleston Light Dragoons / 4th SCC, 1862-1865. The brothers quit the RMR in February 1862, and enlisted in the Dragoons; they seem to have taken a few planter-class friends along with them (implied in my family letters).

Manigault's autobiography reveals inter-class prejudice among the South Carolina coastal militias, illustrated by differences between these two units: the Charleston Light Dragoons maintained their gentlemanly exclusivity while the ranks of the Rutledge Rifles grew by inclusion of "rougher" men. In one example Manigault sniffed: "...we joined [the Dragoons] because most of our friends were there...sons of low country planters… while [the RMR] was recruited from entirely different material - men whom none of us knew."

After more than a year in the company, however, the Manigault brothers did know the RMR men. What they did not like was being in subjection to Captain William Trenholm of the Rutledge Mounted Riflemen. Trenholm's father was a wealthy merchant, but he was not of the planter class. Gabriel Manigault explained his preference:

". . . [the sons of planters who initially joined the Rutledge Rifles] were of independent means, accustomed themselves to command others, and not willing to submit to the restraints of barrack or garrison life, especially when it was proposed that its duties should be enforced by other young men as inexperienced as ourselves.

. . . [the Charleston Light Dragoons] was made up of the sons of low country planters, with some few from the middle country, who did not require rigid military rules for duty to be enforced, and who made a good name for the company while it remained in the State and when it went afterwards to Virginia - while the [Rutledge Mounted Riflemen] was recruited from entirely different material…

. . . The composition of the two companies was such that a different treatment of the men was required for each."

 

[major bill]

Here is a black and white image. note the 1863 uniform. By 1863 their fancy uniforms were not worn on active service.

 

[major bill]

Nice image of the 1860 uniform. The rear of the coatee is interesting.

 

[huntingshirt]

Editor of the Journal of the Confederate Historical Society Richard Warren deserves credit for his writing about the uniforms and headgear of the Charleston Light Dragoons and his accompanying drawings..