[444] had become so decimated that several of its companies were consolidated and placed in the Third South Carolina regiment, and Private Balle surrendered with it at Greensboro, under General Johnston. He served as a private all the way through and participated in the battles of Second Manassas, South Mountain, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Second Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg, being twice wounded, first at Second Manassas and next at Chickamauga. At Second Manassas his battalion was double-quicked from left to right and right to left in the preliminary movements until when the battle opened but seven members of his company were able to enter the fight, the rest having given out in the intense heat. He was one of the seven to enter the fight and was the only one of the seven wounded. There were but thirteen members of James' battalion that entered the Sharpsburg fight, he being one of the number; Colonel James had been killed at South Mountain, three days previous. He was married during the war, on February 14, 1865, while on a furlough, to Miss Mary A. Helms, of Laurens county. After the war he returned to Laurens and his bride, and resumed his trade, which he followed three years, abandoning it on account of ill health. In 1868 he bought a farm in Laurens county and removed to it and devoted himself to farming until 1874, when he returned to Laurens and embarked in a mercantile business, which he followed until 1889. In that year he was called to his present position as clerk and treasurer of the city of Laurens and he has held the office ever since, having been four times re-elected. Mr. Balle, by sterling habits and strict attention to business, has built up a good name in the city of his adoption. Mr.Balle and Mrs. Balle have six children, three boys and three girls.
Lieutenant Francis Marion Bamberg
Lieutenant Francis Marion Bamberg was born in that portion of Barnwell which is now Bamberg county, June 27, 1838. He was educated in the schools of Barnwell county and attended for a time a school in Winnsboro, where he was at the time the war commenced. He enlisted in the early part of 1861, as a private in Hart's battery of light artillery, then commanded by Stephen D. Lee, and served through the various ranks until the reorganization
