Judge Samuel McGowan

This is a name which requires no qualifying appellations to recall to the world's remembrance the brilliant deeds woven in its earlier history, or to exemplify the august issues of its maturer age, for while its mention awakens the purest passions in every Southern heart, reverberating in admonitary strains on Northern breasts, its non retrogressive and ever progressive life is an example of what man can achieve by a uniform observation of right, a stern conviction of always being on the side of truth, backed by an indomitable will and belief that success must ultimately be the goal of effort.

Samuel McGowan was born on his father's plantation, in Laurens County, South Carolina, 9th October, 1819; his parents were of Scotch-Irish descent, having emigrated with their family while quite young, from Antrim, Ireland. He was the second child in a family of 8, 4 boys and 4 girls, the eldest being a boy.

He received his earlier education at the county schools, afterwards at Greenwood Academy, Abbeville County, and entered South Carolina College, where he continued to show that assiduity in his studies which has through life distinguished him, and in 1841 graduated from here second appointment in his class, Prof. Rivers, of Baltimore, taking the first place. He then commenced and diligently pursued the study of that abstruse science, in the practice of which he has gained unexampled success, with Col. T. C. Perrin, of Abbeville, and was admitted to the Supreme Court of the State in the fall of 1842.

He practiced law in partnership with his preceptor till the outbreak of the Mexican War when he joined the famous Palmetto Regiment, being soon appointed to the place of Assistant Quartermaster, attached to Gen. Twigg's Second Division. He served all through the war from Vera Cruz to Pueblo, being volunteer aide of Gen. Quitman, at Chepultepec and the Garreta del Bellen, where he was hit, and at the close the government wished to brevet him as Major, but this he declined.

Returning to Abbeville he continued the practice of his profession for a few years with Col. Perrin, and then with his brother, Alexander Hamilton, as McGowan & McGowan.

The outbreak of the Civil War found him in possession of a considerable fortune, amassed solely by his own energies, an extensive practice and a name recognized as that of the ablest lawyers of our State. Unmindful of these advantages, those fortunes and this immediate happiness, so hardly won, so dearly bought, the Great Cause, whose ablest defendant and most powerful advocate indeed was born, reared and lived in this very county, awakened in his breast emotions which only such whose constitutional rights, whose liberties, whose firesides, whose women, whose all what they possessed or enjoyed from their earliest days have been assailed can conceive, and the call of his country to decide in the field what had been, by sectionalism and party ascendancy, outvoted at the ballot-box was to him as the voice of God.

On April, 1861, he was appointed Brigadier-General of State troops by Gov. Pickens—was thus one of the first four Generals from the State—and at the fall of Fort Sumter commanded his brigade, made up of four regiments. His commission lapsing by the transferral of his command to Confederate service, he joined Brigadier-General Bonham as aide-de-camp and served with him at First Manassas. He then returned home and was at once elected Confederate Lieut.-Colonel of the 14th Regiment, and in the spring of 1862, by the resignation of Col. Jones he was promoted to the Colonelcy, succeeding to the command of the brigade, being promoted over his seniors, Col. Edwards of the Thirteenth, and Col. Hamilton of the First, on Gregg's death at Fredericksburg, in December, 1862. As Brigadier-General in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States the General's glittering record is too well known to require comment at our hands. His memorable career is traced in every engagement along the lines of the James and Potomac, from the brilliant Confederate victories around the Rappahannock to Lee's final surrender: he saw the first gun fired on Fort Sumter, and the roar of battle, the cries of the wounded and the dying, and the yells of the victorious were around him till at Appomattox Courthouse his men were among the last ordered to stop firing. He was wounded no less than five times, at Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Spottsylvania. He was recommended for promotion for his gallant and efficient services in the battles around Richmond, Cold Harbor and Malvern Hill.

Gen. Gregg in his official report of the battle of Cold Harbor, says: “The 14th Regiment, Col. McGowan arrived on the field at the moment it was so greatly needed. Stopping the fire of Crenshaw battery for a short time to allow a passage through the guns I ordered the 14th forward. Tired as they were by two days and three nights of outpost duty, and by a rapid march under a burning sun, they recovered strength at once and advanced with a cheer, at the double-quick. Leading his regiment to the right of the 13th and across the hollow, Col. McGowan arrived just in time to repulse the advancing enemy, and prevent, them from establishing a battery on the edge of the open ground on the brow of the hill. The 14th maintained its position gallantly till the end of the battle.”

Readers who at your cheerful fireside enjoy that peace, happiness and freedom to gain which so much noble blood was spilt, so many gallant unrecorded deeds were wrought, I leave it to your own imagination, to conceive, to your own mind to judge, what glory you will accord to one, who with unflinching bravery while he was ever foremost in the victories of the Confederate arms, in the advancement of that cause, so dear to every Southern heart, and holding in his hand the lives and fortunes of so many beings, was, with that cool collectiveness and ability to grasp the minutest details characteristic of all great generals. not unmindful of the dangers and difficulties which beset the movements of his men, and at no time forgetful of the requirements, wants and comforts of the wounded soldier. That he is appointed a place among those whose names grace the pages of American history generations will relate.

Pronounced as has been his life as a soldier, equally exultant is his career as a politician, and still more triumphant his victory as a lawyer.

Going back to his earlier days we find him in 1844 participating in a duel with Col. John Cunningham, of Charleston, and in it was severely wounded, and from 1850 till the war was Major-General of the 1st Division of South Carolina Militia. In the political arena he was not forgotten by the people. He was many times Intendant of the town of Abbeville, and in 1850 was elected to the Legislature, being re-elected six terms successively, only resigning when engaged in the war. As a member of the House he took a leading and conspicuous part in all its proceedings, and was ever active in furthering those motions and laws which have since given the greatest benefits to the greatest number. The fact that he for five years was chairman of the military committee, the duties of which in attending to the State Military Academy were perhaps the most numerous and difficult attached to any similar office, and that for the next five years, he held the responsible place of chairman of the committee on education, and in virtue thereof ex-officio trustee of the South Carolina College, is enough to show to our readers, how also in this phase of his career he was distinguished and marked among his contemporaries.

After the war he returned to Abbeville to find himself deprived of everything but the house and land he possessed. This he afterwards sold and bought his present dwelling, where with his family he has since lived in happiness. He commenced practicing again and at once found that in the proportion his material wealth had been lost his good name was augmented, and his business soon extended even beyond its old limits, and in 1869 he formed a partnership with Mr. Parker, with whom he was till elected to the Supreme Bench. Among the many important and difficult cases he has, against the greatest odds, conducted to successful issue, the following are perhaps worthy of special mention: Chevis vs. Haskell, on the construction of Judge Chevis’ will, involving property amounting to $100,000 in value; Cloud vs. Calhoun, on a deed of gift of negroes before marriage, establishing the validity of the marriage settlement; LeMare vs. Reed, on the right of title to forty negroes.

The General was elected to Congress from the Third District of South Carolina, but was not allowed to take his seat. In 1876 he was elector at large for Tilden and Hendricks, and along with his colleague, Major Barker, really carried the State, though counted for Hayes. In 1878 he was returned to the Legislature and was at once appointed chairman of the judiciary committee, filling this trust till December, 1879, when he was elected to the Supreme Bench of the State, for the unexpired term of Judge Haskell, and in 1882 was re-elected.

Eloquent as a speaker, versed in all the principles, rules and forms of law, a close and correct observer of men and things, a man of varied experience and many attainments, he has few equals as a judge in any State in our Union. At the zenith of his fame few men can look back on their lives with such contentment, fewer still with such pride, for since he put his first foot upon the lowest step of the ladder he has continued to advance to the greatest honors our State can confer, and should he be called to fill a higher pinnacle of legal greatness his history will show that he is suited to perform the most responsible functions which may devolve upon him.

At home in the little town of Abbeville, the General is as much beloved for his liberal-mindedness and large-heartedness, as his is honored abroad for his talent and power, and for the benefit of those who have not come in personal contact with him, we may say he is possessed of those qualities of easy manner, grace and affability, peculiar to the truly great, the only noble.

He married on the 2d January, 1851, Susan Caroline Wardlaw, the daughter of Judge D. L. Wardlaw, one of the oldest families in the county, as loved as her loss was mourned, by whom he has three surviving children, two daughters and one son.