John Howlett was a wealthy physician and farmer in Chesterfield, VA prior to the war. He was granted his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in April 1847.
Doctor Howlett, although he did not bear arms for either army, will be forever associated with the Civil War due to the naming of the Howlett Line, the Confederate earthworks extending from the James River to the Appomattox River that were named after Howlett's home which was located at the north end of the line. Ironically, the fort located near the Howlett house, originally known as Fort Howlett, was designated Battery Dantzler shortly after the death of another R-MC alumnus, Col. Olin M. Dantzler of South Carolina, who died in battle in June 1864 during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. The house was eventually destroyed by Union gunboat fire from the James River, and Howlett's farm property was badly damaged.
Howlett took the oath of allegiance on April 12, 1865, and in his July 24, 1865 application for amnesty he indicated his property before the war might have been valued as high as $100,000. He stated that he was left with "nothing but the naked ground, so much cut up by fortifications as to be of comparatively little value." He was granted amnesty but received no compensation. He died bankrupt on November 5, 1870.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Albertus Chambers Spain, student 1837-1838
Spain attended South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) after leaving R-MC, graduating in 1841. He became a lawyer in Columbia, SC and later in Sumter, SC, and served as 1st lieutenant in Captain Sumter's company of the First Regiment South Carolina Volunteer Infantry during the Mexican American War. He carried the honorific title "major" afterwards. Spain practiced law and served in the SC legislature in the years before the Civil War.
An ardent secessionist and slaveholder who publicly advocated southern rights from the late 1840s, Spain represented Sumter, SC as a delegate at the state's 1860 Secession Convention, signing the Ordinance of Secession of South Carolina. Spain was appointed to represent the state of SC at Arkansas' secession convention in March of 1861. Spain moved to Darlington, SC during the war. In March 1865 after Union soldiers had passed through Darlington and then Confederates returned, one of Spain's slaves, Amy Spain, who had declared herself free and taken household goods, was arrested and hung. Amy was immortalized in an article in the September 30, 1865 issue of Harper's Weekly.
After the war, he continued to practice law in Darlington, SC. Spain died in 1881 and was buried in the "old Methodist cemetery" in Darlington. A marker for him is located in Darlington's Grove Hill Cemetery, which was opened a number of years later. It is unknown whether he was re-interred or remains in his original burial place.
An ardent secessionist and slaveholder who publicly advocated southern rights from the late 1840s, Spain represented Sumter, SC as a delegate at the state's 1860 Secession Convention, signing the Ordinance of Secession of South Carolina. Spain was appointed to represent the state of SC at Arkansas' secession convention in March of 1861. Spain moved to Darlington, SC during the war. In March 1865 after Union soldiers had passed through Darlington and then Confederates returned, one of Spain's slaves, Amy Spain, who had declared herself free and taken household goods, was arrested and hung. Amy was immortalized in an article in the September 30, 1865 issue of Harper's Weekly.
After the war, he continued to practice law in Darlington, SC. Spain died in 1881 and was buried in the "old Methodist cemetery" in Darlington. A marker for him is located in Darlington's Grove Hill Cemetery, which was opened a number of years later. It is unknown whether he was re-interred or remains in his original burial place.
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