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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