There was a Captain William Terrell Wilkins that was born in Spartanburg County in South Carolina on September 28, 1818. He died while visiting his sons in Texas in May 1896. At the outbreak of the war he was connected with the 5th South Carolina. Due to his age he returned home where he took it on himself to raise a company of cavalry. This was an independent company that used in several home guard activities . It appears that as Sherman approached South Carolina that the company was sent to the coast. Some records seem to indicate that the company may have been brigaded for a time with the 2nd South Carolina Cavalry. The company was primarily composed of 17 year old boys. From their pensions it appears that a large number of them got paroled in South Carolina and not with Johnson's army in North Carolina.