Brigadier-General Ellison Capers, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 5, South Carolina
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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[556] company, became Company E, Sixth South Carolina infantry,, the company being commanded by Capt. (afterward major) J. L. Coker. Mr. Durant served as third sergeant in that company until the battle of Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862, when he was shot through the body. As a result of this wound he was discharged from active service. In 1864 he had recovered sufficiently to do light service and was placed in the quartermaster's department, with headquarters at Bishopville, S. C., receiving tithes for the support of the army. He remained in Bishopville thus engaged to the close of the war. He was in the following engagements: Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Mechanicsville, and Gaines' Mill. After the close of the war he remained at Bishopville and has from that time to the present engaged in farming and merchandising. He has filled the position of magistrate and is now president of the board of pensions for Bishopville, and secretary of the board of pensions for Sumter county. He was married, November 18, 1862, to Miss Selina A. Carnes, of Bishopville, and they have six children: J. Walter, Mary E., now Mrs. W. S. James; Selina A., now Mrs. John C. Shaw; Florence A., now Mrs. James H. Scarborough; John O., and Celia B., now Mrs. W. M. Reed. He is a member of Camp Dick Anderson, of Sumter, and also secretary of Camp Blanding, of Bishopville.

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Thomas Nicholson Durst

Thomas Nicholson Durst was born in Edgefield county, S. C., January 12, 1838, and was educated in the common schools of the county. In April, 1861, he enlisted in Company G, Seventh South Carolina regiment, and was appointed corporal. In 1864 he was appointed orderly sergeant. He participated in the battle of First Manassas, was wounded at Seven Pines, and was in every engagement of the regiment up to Franklin, Tenn., where he was again severely wounded. He afterward took part in the battles from the Wilderness to Cedar Creek, in the valley of the Shenandoah, in October, 1864. There he was mortally wounded and captured, and died in a Federal hospital at Winchester, December 20, 1864. His grave could never be identified, though his brother made repeated efforts to do so, and his remains now rest with about 800 others under the monument erected to the unknown dead in Winchester, Va.