Brig. General Johnson Hagood (CSA), Governor

Johnson Hagood was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and the 80th Governor of South Carolina from 1880 to 1882.

Born in Barnwell, South Carolina, Hagood attended Richmond Academy in Augusta, Georgia, and afterwards graduated at the top of his class from The Citadel in 1847. He was admitted to the bar in 1850, but never practiced because he preferred life on the plantation.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Hagood volunteered and was appointed a brigadier general and assistant adjutant general of the South Carolina Militia. His first commission in the Confederate States Army was as a colonel in the 1st South Carolina Volunteers. He participated in the Battle of Fort Sumter and the Second Battle of Bull Run, receiving appointment to brigadier general, effective July 21, 1862.

During the 1864 Overland Campaign, Hagood brought a brigade north to Petersburg, Virginia, and fought under Major General Robert F. Hoke in the battles of Drewry's Bluff and Cold Harbor. He and his men served in the entrenchments at the Siege of Petersburg until December 1864, when Hoke's Division was ordered to the relief of Fort Fisher. Hagood commanded Fort Anderson during the Battle of Wilmington.

After defeating Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment at the second Battle of Fort Wagner, commanding Confederate General Johnson Hagood returned the bodies of the other Union officers who had died, but left Shaw's where it was, using the logic of most Confederate officers that the African American soldiers were fugitive slaves and that the attack of the fort was a slave revolt led by Shaw. Hagood informed a captured Union surgeon that "had he been in command of white troops, I should have given him an honorable burial; as it is, I shall bury him in the common trench with the negroes that fell with him."

At the end of the war, Hagood's troops served under General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina, and he may have surrendered with him at Durham Station in April, 1865, although Hagood's Brigade was commanded by its senior colonel at the time and no record of his parole has ever been found.

After the war, Hagood resumed planting, but became incensed by the misrule and corruption of Radical Republicans during Reconstruction. He actively campaigned for fellow Confederate general Wade Hampton in the 1876 gubernatorial contest and himself was elected on the Democratic state ticket as Comptroller General. He served a term until 1880 when he was nominated by the state Democrats for Governor. Hagood easily won the gubernatorial election that fall and his major achievement in office was the reopening of The Citadel in 1882.

Hagood died in Barnwell and was buried at Episcopal Churchyard. For his loyalty and commitment to The Citadel, Johnson Hagood Stadium was named in his honor. Hagood, South Carolina is named for him, as well as several streets throughout South Carolina.

Hagood, Johnson BATTLE UNIT NAME: General and Staff Officers, Non-Regimental Enlisted Men, CSA SIDE: Confederacy COMPANY: SOLDIER'S RANK IN: Brigadier General SOLDIER'S RANK OUT: ALTERNATE NAME: FILM NUMBER: M818 ROLL 10 PLAQUE NUMBER: NOTES: none

Hagood, Johnson BATTLE UNIT NAME: 1st Regiment, South Carolina Infantry (Hagood's) SIDE: Confederacy COMPANY: F&S SOLDIER'S RANK IN: Colonel SOLDIER'S RANK OUT: Colonel ALTERNATE NAME: FILM NUMBER: M381 ROLL 14 PLAQUE NUMBER: NOTES: none 44

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https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/hagood-johnson/

Soldier, governor. Born in Barnwell District on February 21, 1829, Hagood was the son of Dr. James O’Hear Hagood and Indiana Margaretta Allen. Educated at Richmond Academy in Augusta, Georgia, he entered the Citadel in 1844, graduating with distinction in 1847. Admitted to the bar in 1850, he was appointed deputy adjutant general of militia for South Carolina in 1851 by Governor John H. Means, and served as commissioner in equity for Barnwell District from 1851 to 1861. On November 21, 1854, Hagood married Eloise Brevard Butler, the daughter of U.S. Senator Andrew P. Butler. They had two children.

On January 27, 1861, at the onset of the Civil War, Hagood was elected colonel of the First South Carolina Regiment of Volunteers. Calm and steadfast under fire, he saw action in South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina, from the reduction of Fort Sumter in April 1861 to the Battle of Bentonville in March 1865. His gallantry at the Battle of Secessionville led to his promotion as brigadier general on July 21, 1862. Additionally he was placed in charge of the Second and Seventh Military Districts encompassing South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on July 19, 1862, and February 20, 1864, respectively.

After the war Hagood returned to his plantations in Barnwell and Edgefield Counties. An advocate of scientific agriculture, he championed diversified farming and was a noted breeder of thoroughbred horses. He served as president of the State Agricultural and Mechanical Society (1869–1873) and was an incorporator in 1870 of the Columbia Oil Company. Politically he represented Barnwell in the Forty-seventh General Assembly (1865–1866), ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat in 1868, and was a member of the 1871 and 1874 Taxpayers’ Conventions. Initially a cooperationist with reform Republicans, he was elected state comptroller general in 1876 on the “straight-out” Democratic ticket, although he deplored the violence of the campaign. During the Ellenton Riots of September 1876, he commanded a posse commissioned to make arrests and quell the violence. As comptroller-general, he masterminded the crucial voluntary tax funding of the Hampton administration during the period of dual governments and was reelected in 1878. Overcoming a challenge by Democratic insurgent Martin W. Gary, Hagood was elected governor in 1880. Choosing to serve only one term, his administration enacted legislation that created a stronger railroad commission, reopened the Citadel, and expanded the coverage of artificial limbs for Confederate veterans. Also during his term, white Democrats solidified their control of state government by passing the Eight Box election law and by creating the “Black” Seventh District to contain African American voting power.

Personally reserved and a gifted organizer, politically Hagood was criticized as being overcalculating. Devoted to the Citadel, he served as chairman of the Board of Visitors (1878–1898), and president of the Association of Graduates (1877–1898). Hagood died on January 4, 1898, at his Sherwood plantation and was buried in Barnwell’s Holy Apostles Episcopal churchyard. As a mark of respect, the entire corps of cadets, officers, and faculty of the Citadel attended his funeral.