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J. W. Blye, E/Hampton Legion (S.C.) Mtd Inf.

J. W. Blye (whose surname is variously also given as Blythe and Blaine) enlisted in Company E of the Hampton Legion Mounted Infantry at Columbia, S.C. on 18 May 64. This unit, which had been an infantry regiment, had been sent back to S.C. to be mounted as mounted infantry. He is shown as present on the Sep-Dec 64 muster rolls (the only ones existant for teh Legion in 1864), but I have been able to determine that he was present (barring any short furlough) from May thoough Aug 64 as well. At 2nd Darbytown Road on 13 Oct 64, after a Federal sharpshooter wounded Major Benjamin E. Nicholson of the Legion, Blye shot and killed the sharpshooter. Upon the fall of Richmond, Gary's cavalry brigade, of which the Legion was a part, formed the rear guard out of Richmond, and Blye, Elijah T. Tollison, and John P. Rice, all member of company E, together with several other unnamed men of the Legion, were cut off from the main body of the brigade, probably near Amelia Court House following the fight at Paineville on April 5. They managed to escape south to Danville, and from there made their way back to South Carolina. En route, the group stipped at the home of a farmer for food, and at first the farmer refused to allow Blye into his home, believing him to be an African American. The members of the party however, demanded that Blye be served with them, explainign that he was an Indian, and it was done. Tollison wrote of this incident in his postwar Reminiscences, a copy of which is at the Georgia Archives, and a slightly different version in the Army Historical Center, Carlisle, Pa. Tollison spells his name "Blaine." The postwar South Carolian Volunteers in Confederate Service (commonly called the Memory Rolls), prepared after 1890 to support the State pension program, spells his name "Blythe." On the roll of Company E, the notation is made "An Indian and a good solider," and gives his place of residence as North Carolina. Incidentally, few of the men have such notations, and it is probably indicative of the esteem which was held for him by his fellow soldiers. Benjamin H. Teague, a member of the Legion in Company B and a postwar historian of the unit, recites the story of the shooting of the Federal sharpshooter. It apparently was quite a shot. Teague, who spells his name "Blye," also confirms the North Carolian residence. I have been unable to identify him on any Cherokee rolls to which I have access. Greenville County (then District), S.C. was on the northern border of S.C., less than 50 airline miles from Cherokee. Can anyone help me with this intriguing man?

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J. W. Blye, E/Hampton Legion (S.C.) Mtd Inf.
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