Richard Augustus Tompkins

Like his brother Bob, he graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1855. He enlisted and mustered as 2nd Sergeant of Company B - the Watson Guards - of the Hampton Legion Infantry in 1861. He was appointed First Sergeant on 15 August and elected 3rd Lieutenant of the Company at the reorganization of April 1862. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on 16 June.

He was seriously wounded in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was promoted to First Lieutenant after Sharpsburg and to Captain on 3 September 1864. He was surrendered with his Company at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.

He went to Harris County, Texas but died, probably in Houston, of yellow fever at about 35 years of age in the epidemic of 1867.

His service from the Rolls,1 as R. Augustus Tompkins. Further details from McArthur & Burton's A Gentleman and an Officer: A Military and Social History of James B. Griffin's Civil War (1996), M. Laborde's History of the South Carolina College (1859), and his obituary in the Edgefield Advertiser of 18 September 1867. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Originally buried in Texas, he may have been reinterred in the family cemetery later.

He married Lucy Glover (b. 1845) in October 1865 in Brazoria, TX and they had a son, R. Augustus (1868-), born after his father's death.

His younger brother Bob was Captain of Company B. They were two of the 6 Tompkins brothers who served in Confederate uniform.

1832; Edgefield County, SC

09/08/1867; Houston, TX; burial in Tompkins Homestead Plantation Cemetery, Parksville, SC