On December 20, 1860 South Carolina seceded from the Union of states that she had freely joined eighty years earlier. Among the regiments raised for the defense of the State, Beaufort District contributed the 11th S.C. Volunteer Infantry. This group of men consisted of some of the finest families of Beaufort. One thousand men answered the call. Four years later the 11th had crossed battlefields from Olustee, Florida to the killing fields of Virginia. When the 11th surrendered on April 26, 1865 only sixty-five men were left to answer the rolls. When duty summoned they had responded and in the end they had shared "No Prouder Fate Than Theirs, Who Gave Their Lives To Liberty."