Bonham, the latter having seen varied service in Mexico, commanding a regiment of regulars, doing staff duty, and Military Governor of one of the provinces after the war.  At such injustice as this, gave General Bonham reason to resign his command and return to South Carolina, where he soon afterwards was elected to Congress, and later elected Governor of the State.  This left the command to Colonel Kershaw as senior Colonel, but he was soon thereafter made Brigadier General.  While the troops felt safe and confident under Kershaw, they parted with General Bonham with unfeigned reluctance and regret.  Although none blamed him for the steps taken, for all felt keenly the injustice done, still they wished him to remain and lead them to victory, and share the glory they felt sure was in store for all connected with the old First Brigade.

In future we will call the brigade by the name of Kershaw, the name by which it was mostly known, and under whose leadership the troops did such deeds of prowess, endured so many hardships, fought so many battles, and gained so many victories, as to shed a halo around the heads of all who marched with him and fought under the banner of Joseph B. Kershaw.  Here I will give a brief biography of General Kershaw.

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JOSEPH BREVARD KERSHAW

Was born January 5th, 1822, at Camden, S.C.  He was a son of John Kershaw and Harriet DuBose, his wife.  Both of the families of Kershaws and DuBoses were represented by more than one member, either in the Continentals or the State troops, during the War of the Revolution, Joseph Kershaw, the most prominent of them, and the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, having lost his fortune in his efforts to maintain the patriot cause.  John Kershaw died when his son, Joseph Brevard, was a child of seven years of age.  He attended first a “dame school” in his native town.  Afterwards he attended a school taught by a rigid disciplinarian, a Mr. Hatfield, who is still remembered by some of the pupils for his vigorous application of the rod on frequent occasions, with apparent enjoyment on his part, but with quite other sentiments on the part of the boys.  He was sent at the age of fifteen to the Cokesbury Conference school, in Abbeville District, as it was then known, where he remained for only a brief time.  Leaving this school, after a short sojourn at home, he went to Charleston, S.C., where he became a clerk in a dry goods house.  This life not being congenial to him, he returned to Camden and entered as a student in the law office of the late John M. DeSaussure, Esq., from which, at the age of twenty-one, he was admitted to the Bar.  He soon afterwards formed a copartnership with James Pope Dickinson, who was subsequently killed at the battle of Cherubusco, in the war with Mexico, gallantly leading the charge of the Palmetto Regiment.  Both partners went to the Mexican War, young Kershaw as