Daniel Island resident writes first book, Sons of Privilege

Today, the 39 year-old Daniel Island resident says history still stokes his imagination. Not only is he the Executive Director of the South Carolina Historical Society based in Charleston, but he has begun to tell some stories of his own. Emerson, who moved to Daniel Island in 1999, recently penned his first book, Sons of Privilege, about an elite Confederate cavalry unit known as the Charleston Light Dragoons. What started as a topic for his doctoral dissertation at University of Alabama evolved into a vivid account of one of Charleston’s most prominent militia organizations.

"I started looking around at the archives of the South Carolina Historical Society…and I came across the letters of two first cousins, Frank and Oliver Middleton," recalls Emerson, who says the two men died two days apart in a Civil War battle under very similar circumstances. "The letters to the family members and then from family members to their friends were just very poignant."

Emerson studied the men’s backgrounds and realized they were from the same unit.

"This whole unit was comprised of members of the first families of the Lowcountry and of the state (of South Carolina) as well," added Emerson. "Then I did a little more research…and I just found some great correspondence about these guys and put together a history of the unit."

What Emerson discovered as he worked on his dissertation is that the Charleston Light Dragoons were most certainly not your typical Confederate soldiers. Unless of course you lived in the South Carolina Lowcountry, where privilege dictated your status in society.

"This longstanding cavalry troop originated in a city with a large and disparate population, but the unit’s members overwhelmingly represented a single group: the city’s (and the region’s) economic and social elite," writes Emerson in the book. "Its members carried the surnames of antebellum Charleston’s oldest and most prominent families. The sons, nephews, and cousins of the state’s largest planters and slave owners filled the company’s ranks."

The Charleston Light Dragoons were privileged as civilians, says Emerson, and they were treated the same way in their military service under the Confederate high command.

"I looked at it as kind of a war and society study instead of a traditional military study," adds Emerson. "I wanted to explore the juncture of community and war and how each affected the other."

The dragoons were considered to be the elite of the South Carolina militia system even before the start of the Civil War, says Emerson, not because of military prowess or combat experience, but because of who they were.

"Even three years into the war, I found documents that show people were being elected into the unit at a time when every other Confederate unit throughout the south can’t get enough men," adds Emerson.

***image2***Emerson’s research revealed other examples of how privilege gave this "company of gentlemen" more than their Confederate counterparts.

"Each man had at least one body servant (slave), some had two," says Emerson. "So there are more slaves in camp than there are soldiers. So whenever they have to do a detail (like cleaning their weapons), their slaves would do it. That freed them up to do things like gamble, drink and race horses."

Dragoons seemed especially good at taking full advantage of their status, according to Emerson, enjoying "camaraderie, strong drink, and good food." The unit was stationed in Beaufort district for the first two years of the Civil War. Due to the region’s close proximity to Charleston, they were always near family homes.

"Where other Confederate soldiers had very little to eat and were working on half rations, these guys could draw from supplies from local plantations, so they never actually suffered like other Confederate troops in that regard," recalled Emerson. "And they always…camped away from other Confederate troops because they didn’t want, in their words, to be around the wrong sort of people. And they did all of this with the approval of their commanders!"

Why were the dragoons not chastised by other soldiers outside of their unit for this special treatment? Emerson says it has a little something to do with a thing called "noblesse oblige." Because of their descent or lineage, they had an obligation to be noble.

"It was the whole idea of privilege," commented Emerson, who sees the dragoons "disillusions" about themselves as humorous at times. "Everyone knew who they were… No one ever questioned their character."

When not enjoying their "playboy lifestyle" the dragoons did in fact serve a military purpose in the war. One of their duties, says Emerson, was to serve as couriers on Morris Island.

"They would deliver messages from Battery Gregg, which is on the tip of Morris Island to Battery Wagner, and they would do so under fire from Union naval vessels and Union snipers further up the beach," recounts Emerson. "It became kind of like a spectator sport…they would jump on the horses and immediately take off and they would ride up the beach under naval fire. The Union troops would be yelling ….’Kill them’ and the Confederates would be rooting them on to get to Battery Wagner safely."

The dragoons witnessed the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter while patrolling the beach on Sullivan’s Island. After serving as picket guards on the Charleston neck in the spring of 1864, the dragoons’ "plush life" would soon come to an abrupt halt. It was time for combat and their services were desperately needed north, says Emerson. Despite attempts in both the Confederate and State Legislature to spare this "fair flower of south Carolina" from going into battle, they are sent to Virginia under the Confederate command of Major General Wade Hampton.

"They get there on May 24, 1864," says Emerson. "Four days later, on May 28, they are involved in their first major battle at a place called Haw’s Shop and they suffer 45% casualties…Of the ones who are left, there is another engagement two days later at a place called Matadequin Creek. There they suffer 50% casualties."

After two battles and just a few days, only a handful of the dragoons are left alive.

"They showed up in Virginia and these lead veterans kind of mocked them and made fun of them," adds Emerson. "And so family members speculated after the battle that they had fought with more valor than discretion…They fought very bravely, but they probably retreated later than they should have in the battle. They were cutoff and surrounded by Union troops."

Even though their fortunes had been destroyed or decimated, Emerson says the dragoons returned to their home city determined to rebuild what they lost. But this new, post civil war era would be different.

"These guys had the most to lose (in the Civil War)," notes Emerson. "If you think about wealth, it was common right before the war that about half of your assets were in personal property, and personal property means slaves. So let’s say you were worth about $500,000, about $250,000 would be valued in slaves. So with the 13^th Amendment, half of your assets just walk away."

Although broken, the dragoons worked to recreate the social organizations that had set them apart before the war. Even today, says Emerson, we see evidence of their efforts.

"All of their descendents are members of the South Carolina Historical Society. They are still members of the St. Cecilia Society and are still the basis for most of the elite organizations in town today."

In fact, those descendents are among Emerson’s biggest supporters of Sons of Privilege.

"I spoke to the St. John’s Hunt Club recently, and the room was filled with Ravenels, Porters and other descendents of these guys. They just laughed and laughed!"

Emerson says he is excited about the response to the book but admits he is his own worst critic.

"When the book shows up on Amazon.com you say ‘is that mine?’ It just doesn’t seem real," he says. "They say the happiest five minutes of an author’s life are the five minutes before he opens the book, because as soon as you open it you’re immediately disappointed with something."

Still, the author may try his hand at another topic in the future. Only this time, he says, it probably won’t be about the Civil War or Charleston. He’s hoping to do something a little broader in scope. For now, he’s content to enjoy time with his wife, Cathy, and their two daughters, Grace, 5, and Claire, 2. In Sons of Privilege, Emerson acknowledges his children for inspiring him to be "a better historian and a better person." When it comes time to share a few good stories of days gone by, there will undoubtedly be a couple of wide-eyed youngsters ready to listen.