"A History Of The Third South Carolina Infantry 1861-1865" by Mac Wyckoff (Sergeant Kirland's Museum and Historical Society Publishing, 1995, 330 Pages), is the history of the hard fighting regiment from South Carolina that fought in the Army of Northern Virginia under the leadership of Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. This regiment from the first state of the secession was quickly formed right after South Carolina seceded from the Union in December of 1860. The regiment was formed from the men of Charleston and other towns throughout South Carolina. From the cities to the country young men would enlist in the Confederate Army at first due to their passion of becoming independent from what they considered a hostile Federal Government, others would join because their brothers, fathers, cousins, and close friends would enlist, and others for the "romanticism and adventure" of going off to war.

The men were organized into companies that formed the Third South Carolina Regiments and were enthusiastically supported by the people they encountered as they first formed on the South Carolina Coastline then marching up to Virginia to be a part of the Army of Northern Virginia. At first the regiment encountered the Union Army in small skirmishes, then afterwards would be involved in the major battles of the ANV. The regiment would fight in Manassas (Bull Run), the Seven Days Campaign, Sharpsburg (Antietam), Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, while as a part of the famous Kershaw Brigade where they would fight at the Peach Orchard and the Wheatfield, they would encounter the Army of the Potomac's Second Corps and engage in intense close combat many soldiers would fall.

After Gettysburg, the regiment would transfer to the western theater of the war under General James Longstreet's Corps and fight at Chickamauga, the Tennessee Campaign, Overland Campaign, Petersburg, Cedar Creek and finally surrender at Greensboro on April 28, 1865 a few weeks after General Robert E. Lee surrendered the ANV at Appomattox Courthouse.

Mac Wyckoff wrote an excellent history of the Third South Carolina Infantry, his narrative puts the reader right in the action of the battles the Third SC fought in, the daily camp life the soldiers endured, and of course the unfortunate phases of the diseases that swept thru the regiment and cause much sickness and death of the men of South Carolina.

Of the 1,343 soldiers in the regiment 298 were killed in battle from 1861-1865, 298 died of disease, 697 survived combat wounds, 110 men transferred to other units during the war.

The author also provides many photos of the officers and men of the regiment, maps, illustrations of the battles the Third SC fought in, and the end chapters provide an excellent muster of the regiment, great footnotes and author's notes.

This is a great book about this hard fighting regiment from South Carolina, it is an interesting read that is not bogged down in mundane details, and keeps the reader interested from the first pages to the end of the book. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the history of South Carolina during the Civil War, South Carolina Infantry Regiments during the war, the Army of Northern Virginia, and Confederate History. A great read!