Friday, December 14, 2012

North Carolina Patriots of ’61 – Colonel Hector M. McKethan of Cumberland County

51st Reg't 
10:00  Hector McKethan, Colonel

The son of Alfred Augustus and Loveday Campbell McKethan, he was born 15 September 1834 in Cumberland County; his mother was the daughter of Reverend James Campbell of Pennsylvania. A prosperous carriage maker in his father’s Fayetteville business prior to 1861, Hector entered the service of his State as a member of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry, (FILI), with the rank of third lieutenant. Engaged at Bethel Church in Virginia with Company H (FILI) of the First North Carolina Volunteers under Captain Wright Huske, McKethan would later rise to the rank of Colonel of the 51st North Carolina Regiment which was organized at Wilmington in April, 1862.  

The 51st was comprised of men from New Hanover and Brunswick, the “Warsaw Sampsons” from Duplin and Sampson counties, the “Duplin Stars,” Robeson county’s “Scotch Tigers,” the “Clay Valley Rangers” and “Ashpole True Boy”s of Robeson county, the “Columbus Light Infantry”, and Sampson’s “Confederate Stars.” First commanded by Col. John Lucas Cantwell of Wilmington, the regiment saw action in South Carolina at Battery Wagner; in Virginia at Petersburg, Second Cold Harbor, and Fort Harrison, where McKethan received a serious wound.

After the Battery Wagner battle, McKethan wrote: “[Our] line was unbroken during the entire fight, and was successfully defended from three separate assaults made on it by the enemy, and their dead and wounded are the surest evidence of the precision with which we fired. The first assault [led by the 54th Massachusetts Regiment [colored] was made about 8 PM…the enemy was three times repulsed from the front of my line, [I] directed my fire to rake the ditch and the outer portion of the work at that point, and am convinced that our fire must have been very destructive….the action continued until 11:30PM, when the firing ceased.  [My] heavy loss is an evidence of the readiness with which the men exposed themselves.” 

At Petersburg in June of 1864, McKethan’s 51st North Carolina (in Clingman’s Brigade) formed part of the 15,000 Southern soldiers defending the city against 75,000 enemy troops –  and is credited with helping to seal a dangerous enemy penetration of the line with a bayonet charge and hand to hand fighting with muskets used as clubs.  

He succeeded Col. Cantwell to regimental command, and then assumed command of the wounded Gen. Thomas Clingman’s Brigade under Gen. Robert F. Hoke during the campaign from Fort Fisher, to Southwest Creek and Bentonville. It was Col. McKethan and Clingman’s Brigade at the battle of Forks Road below Wilmington which helped repulse three enemy assaults; the latter got no closer than 150 yards from McKethan’s line. 

Col. McKethan returned to the old Fayetteville home of his parents where he lived unmarried until his death on 6 November 1881, and is buried in Cross Creek Cemetery, Fayetteville. His obituary from the Laurinburg Enterprise reads: “Death of Col. Hector McKethan, the brave commander of the 51st N.C. Regiment…died at the residence of his father in Fayetteville last Sunday afternoon. He was a brave soldier, a discreet and valiant commander, and distinguished himself on many a bloody battle field. Having the esteem of his soldiers, they followed his lead and obeyed his command with a readiness which fully attested their devotion….More than once did he return from bloody contests with but a small number of those courageous fellows who entered with him.  Brave and generous as he was, he is gone. Peace to his ashes; and may his surviving comrades, who laid him to rest at the tomb with military honors, see that his grave is kept green!”

Sources: USGenWeb Archives; 51st NC Regimental History, A.A. McKethan

The Official Website of the North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com

 

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