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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[747] in the year 1826. He removed to South Carolina in 1846, and made his home at Charleston, where in 1853 he established the influential journal of which he is yet the honored head. In 1858 he became a member of the German artillery, a volunteer organization at Charleston, and was at once elected first lieutenant, and with this command he entered the active service of the State, December 27, 1860, going on duty at Sullivan's island, where he continued until after the fall of Sumter. On October 11th he was sent with his company to Hilton Head, to take charge of Fort Walker, and there he participated in the engagement of November 7th. A month later the command was stationed at Chapman's Fort on the Ashepoo river. February 12, 1862, the company volunteered in the service of the Confederate States, and on April 26th was ordered to Fort Pemberton, James island, where they had a skirmish with the Federal fleet on Stono river in May. On June 5th he was elected captain, the rank in which he served during the remainder of the war. In command of his battery he participated in the battle of Secessionville, June 16, 1862, the engagement with the Federal gunboat Isaac P. Smith, on Stono river, January, 1863; and in May, 1863, took charge of a battery of eleven guns at Georgetown, where they were on duty until the spring of 1865. Then joining the Confederate army at Kingstree, they moved to Cheraw, hotly pursued by Sherman, and on into North Carolina, the campaign closing at Greensboro. On returning to Charleston Captain Melchers found his office destroyed, but he had fortunately $200 in the hands of his brother, with which he was able to refit his office and resume publication of his paper. He has served two years in the legislature by election in 1865, and again two years by election in 1876. In the latter year also he was appointed on the staff of Gov. Wade Hampton, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Theodore A. W. Melchers, one of the most prominent wholesale merchants of Charleston, in his younger days had an adventurous career as a soldier of the Confederacy. He is a native of Germany, but made his home at Charleston in 1848, at the age of fifteen years. In the fall of 1860 he went on active military duty as sergeant-major of the First South Carolina regiment of rifles, commanded by Colonel Branch, served on Sullivan's