{⋆★⋆} BG Kennedy, John Doby

John Doby Kennedy​

Born: January 5, 1840

Birthplace: Camden, South Carolina

Father: Anthony McMillan Kennedy 1817 – 1892

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

Mother: Sarah Ann Belton Doby 1821 – 1893

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

1st​ Wife: Elizabeth Cunningham 1842 – 1876

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

2nd​ Wife: Harriett A Boykin 1844 – 1907

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

Children:

Sarah "Sallie" Doby Kennedy Winkler 1865 – 1949​

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

​

Elizabeth McMillan Kennedy Blakeney 1868 – 1896​

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

​

Alfred Edward Kennedy 1872 – 1956​

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

​

Margaret Doby Kennedy 1874 – 1880​

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

​

Annie Cunningham Kennedy McDowell​

​

Josephine Ester Kennedy Cureton 1876 – 1955​

(Buried: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina)​

Education:

1855 – 1857: Attended South Carolina College​

Occupation:

Learned law in Camden, South Carolina, Planned to open law practice​

​

1861: Lt in the Camden, South Carolina State Militia​

Civil War Career:

1861 – 1862: Captain of Company E, 2nd​ South Carolina Infantry​

​

1861: Wounded during the Battle of First Bull Run​

​

1862 – 1864: Colonel of 2nd​ South Carolina Infantry​

​

1862: Participated in the Nine Mile Road Skirmish​

​

1862: Participated in the Peninsula Campaign​

​

1862: Disabled by Fever for several weeks after Battle Savage's Station​

​

1862: Participated in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign​

​

1862: Wounded during the Battle of Sharpsburg​

​

1863: Participated in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg​

​

1864: Participated in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign​

​

1864 – 1865: Temporary Brigadier General in Confederate Army​

​

1865: Participated in the Carolina's Campaign​

​

1865: Participated in the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina​

​

1865: Surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina​

Occupation after War:

1865 – 1877: Planter in Camden, South Carolina​

​

1865: Elected to U.S. Congress refused to take Iron Oath​

​

1877 – 1896: Attorney in Camden, South Carolina​

​

1878 – 1879: South Carolina State Representative​

​

1880 – 1882: Lt. Governor of South Carolina​

​

1881 – 1883: Grand Master of South Carolina Freemasons​

​

1884: Democratic Party Presidential Elector​

​

1886 – 1889: United States Counsel to Shanghai, China​

Died: April 14, 1896

Place of Death: Camden, South Carolina

Cause of Death: Stroke

Age at time of Death: 56 years old

Burial Place: Quaker Cemetery, Camden, South Carolina

 

[rpkennedy]

Kennedy was wounded 6 times during the war and is said to have been struck by spent balls another 15 times.

Also, no relation.

Ryan

 

[John Hartwell]

[Anderson (S.C.) Intelligencer, 22 April 1896]
​

The following September, this tribute appeared in several South Carolina newspapers:

 

[Luke Freet]

Upon his return to the brigade in late 1864 (after he had been wounded at the Wilderness), he was given ccommand of Kershaw's old brigade. He would lead it through the rest of the conflict, though the only battle I can recall him being present in this capacity was Bentonville.

 

[Pollaco]

57th Lt. Governor of South Carolina,he served under Gov. Johnson Hagood.He filled the seat of William Dunlap Simpson, who succeeded Wade Hampton who resigned as governor to become Senator.

 

[Norman Dasinger Jr]

I wrote this last year for the BGES Dispatch

John Doby Kennedy

Shot 21 times

By Norman Dasinger, Jr



"And now abideth faith, home and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

These words are inscribed on the tombstone of John Doby Kennedy in the Quaker Cemetery, Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina.

In 1860, his personal estate was valued at $335,000 and he owned sixty slaves. John's father was an immigrant from Scotland having arrived here in 1830. John was born in 1840 in Camden and attended college for two years and as a young man joined a local militia company - the Camden Light Infantry. He had just been admitted to the bar when South Carolina seceded. By April of 1861, he was the captain of Company E, 2nd​ South Carolina Infantry, Confederate States Army. A fellow Camden resident, Joseph Kershaw, was the colonel. The unit was ordered to Charleston on April 8th​ and Capt Kennedy witnessed the April 12th​ bombardment of Ft Sumter from his position on Morris Island.

In four years of combat, John was wounded badly six times and fifteen times was hit by spent balls.

Kennedy and the 2nd​ South Carolina were present at the battle of 1st Manassas, July 21, 1861 and he was badly wounded that day but by February of 1862, he had taken command of the regiment when Kershaw was elevated to brigadier general. At Antietam, Maryland, John was shot through the Achilles tendon leading a charge across the Hagerstown Pike. At Gettysburg, his regiment fought on the Rose Farm and he was badly wounded assaulting a Union battery near the Peach Orchard. Again badly wounded at Knoxville, Tennessee in November of 1863 and again he was hurt at the battle of the Wilderness in 1864 where he almost died from loss of blood. He was back in command for Early's Shenandoah Campaign where he had control of the brigade.

By the end of 1864, the governor of South Carolina requested the return of Kennedy's natives and that meant he was in command, as a brigadier general, during Sherman's Carolina Campaign.

Returning to Camden after the War, he finally established his law practice and was elected to the US Congress in 1865 but refused to take his seat when he declined to take the Oath of Allegiance. He became an active Mason serving as Grand Master for the state of South Carolina from 1881 to 1883. In 1886, President Cleveland appointed him Consul-general in Shanghai, China. This post was established in 1844 and was among the oldest American diplomatic and consular posts in the Far East.

In 1883, the Ladies Memorial Association of Camden unveiled a monument dedicated to Kershaw County's Confederate War Dead. John Doby Kennedy laid the cornerstone with a Masonic trowel once used by the Marquis de Lafayette, also a Mason.

General Kennedy died of a stroke April 14, 1896.
The local Camden Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is named for him.

 

[ErnieMac]

Kennedy was one of six Confederate generals born in Kershaw County SC. He is buried in the Quaker Cemetery in Camden near generals Joseph B. Kershaw and John B. Villepigue and Sergeant Richard R. Kirkland, the "Angel of Mayre's Heights".