David Wyatt Aiken

He taught school for two years, and was "engaged in agricultural pursuits" beginning in 1852. In 1861 he enlisted as a private, was appointed adjutant and later elected Colonel of the Seventh South Carolina Infantry.

He was wounded by a gunshot to the chest, through a lung, in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He was tended, among others, by his brother Augustus, then on General McLaw's staff. He did not expect to survive his wounds.

His brother and body servant got him back across the Potomac to Shepherdstown late on 17 September. He was later captured and paroled there. He recovered sufficiently to command his regiment at Gettysburg, PA in July 1863, but then was on light duty in Macon, GA due to the effects of his Sharpsburg wound. He resigned his commission in 1864 and was a member of the South Carolina State House of Representatives, 1864-66.

Delegate to Democratic National Convention from South Carolina, 1876; U.S. Representative from South Carolina 3rd District, 1877-87; was not a candidate for renomination in 1886, being an invalid throughout his last term.

Photograph above from Dickert1, with bio details from his Congressional Biography2.

3/17/1828; Winnsboro, SC

4/6/1887; Cokesbury, SC; burial in Magnolia Cemetery, Greenwood, SC