Edgefield, South Carolina, is just across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia. I found myself visiting the county and the town in September 2007 because my Aunt Pat, Cleopatra Hammonds Hobbs, the wife of my mother's brother, Ed Hobbs, passed away. Uncle Ed died last year.

Edgefield is famous for being home to ten Governors of South Carolina among them Strom Thurmond, whose statue adorns the courthouse square.

Buried in Edgefield's First Baptist Church is Jonathan Hanby Carter, who was a friend of J. E. B. Stuart when they were young. Carter visited Stuart when the latter was at West Point. Carter, born in Surry County, North Carolina, was in the first graduating classes at the United States Naval Academy in 1846, commanded in the U. S. Navy and in the Confederate States Navy building ironclad ships on the Red River in Louisiana. Carter's family came from Patrick County, Virginia.

                                    Click here to learn more about Carter http://www.freestateofpatrick.com/sccwr

Many other prominent people are buried in the First Baptist Church Cemetery with J. H. Carter.

Above left is the grave of Matthew C. Butler, who rode with J. E. B. Stuart and is considered the hero of the Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863. Butler lost a leg in the battle, but lived to become a Governor and Senator from South Carolina. Above right is the grave of Governor Francis Wilkinson Pickens of South Carolina during the Civil War.

Below are Wikipedia links for these two men

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Butler

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Wilkinson_Pickens

Born in Edgefield County was James Longstreet, who commanded Robert E. Lee's First Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia during the War Between The States. The site of Longstreet's birthplace is marked with the wayside shown below.

No visit to Edgefield can be complete without a visit to the grave of Strom Thurmond, the former Governor and Senator from South Carolina, who managed to have everything in sight named for him it seems. He fought in World War Two, ran against Harry Truman for President in 1948 and became the oldest living member of Congress in history.

Strom Thurmond's grave above and below looking towards the grave of J. H. Carter.

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