Benjamin Rutledge Clyburn

Oldest son of prominent planter Thomas Lorenzo Clyburn (1809-1869), he enrolled at age 21 on 28 April 1861 at Lancaster Court House, SC and mustered as First Lieutenant of Company H, 2nd South Carolina Infantry on 22 May. He was promoted to Captain on 13 May 1862.

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

He was home on wounded furlough to 28 December 1862, then back with his company. He was wounded again, by gunshots to his right leg and face at Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863, and was again on furlough by 21 July, returning to duty on 12 January 1864.

He was appointed Major on 10 August (to date from 6 May) and was wounded for the third time, on 19 October at Cedar Creek, VA, and captured there. He suffered a gunshot to his left thigh which broke the bone and his leg was amputated the same day. He was in a US field hospital in Winchester, VA by 19 December then transferred, by way of a hospital in Frederick, MD, to the US Army General Hospital in West's Buildings in Baltimore, MD on 28 December. He was "nearly well" when he was sent on to Fort Delaware on 10 January 1865.

He was paroled and sent to City Point, VA for exchange on 27 February 1865 with no later military record.

He served in the South Carolina House 1865-66 and by 1870 was a lawyer at Lancaster, SC.

His service details from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1850 & 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Clarissa “Clara” Mittag (later Edwards, 1847-1913) between 1871 and 1874 and they had a son Frederick, who died as an infant.

1840; Lancaster District, SC

03/20/1877; Lancaster, SC; burial in Olde Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Lancaster, SC