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COLONEL ROBERT CLAYTON MAFFETT.

Colonel Robert Clayton Maffett was born in Newberry County, about the year 1836.  Was the only son of Captain James Maffett, long time a member of the General Assembly of South Carolina.  At the breaking out of the war Colonel Maffett was Colonel of the Thirty-ninth Regiment of State Militia.  From this regiment two companies were formed in answer to the first call for volunteers.  One of these companies elected him Captain, which afterwards became Company C, Third South Carolina Regiment.  His company was one of the few that reorganized before the expiration of the term of the first twelve months’ enlistment, and again elected Colonel Maffett as its Captain.  After a thirty days’ furlough, just before the seven days’ battle, he returned with his company and became senior Captain in command.  He soon became Major by the death of Lieutenant Colonel Garlington, Major Rutherford being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.  After the death of Colonel Nance, 6th of May, he became Lieutenant Colonel.  He participated in nearly all the great battles in which the regiment was engaged, and was often in command.  He was several times wounded, but not severely.  At the time of his capture he was in command of the Seventh Regiment.  Colonel Maffett was conspicuous for his fine soldierly appearance, being a perfect type of an ideal soldier.

He was loved and admired by the men as few officers of his station were.  In camp he was the perfect gentleman, kind and indulgent to his men, and in battle he was cool, collected, and gallant.  He died in prison only a short while before the close of the war, leaving a wife and one daughter of tender age.

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CHAPTER XXXV

Reminiscences of the Valley.

Y.J.  Pope, Adjutant of the Third South Carolina, but then acting as Assistant Adjutant General on General Connor’s Staff, gives me here a very ludicrous and amusing account of a “Fox hunt in the valley.”  A hunt without the hounds or without the fox.  No man in Kershaw’s Brigade was a greater lover of sport or amusement of any kind than Adjutant Pope.  In all our big snow “festivals,” where hundreds would engage in the contest of snow-balling, Adjutant Pope always took a leading part.  It was this spirit of sport and his mingling with the common soldier, while off duty, that endeared Pope so much to the troop.  With his sword and sash he could act the martinet, but when those were laid aside Adjutant Pope was one of the “boys,” and engaged a “boat” with them as much as any one in the “Cross Anchors,” a company noted for its love of fun.

Says, Adjutant Pope, now a staid Judge on the Supreme Court Bench.