[660] he moved to Tennessee on account of his health, but in 1841 returned to South Carolina and located in Laurens county, near Princeton, on the farm where his son, Capt. J. B. Humbert, now resides, and where he died in April, 1866. Captain Humbert's grandfather, David, was a native of Beaufort county, S. C., and son of Melchior Humbert, whose father, Peter Humbert, was a native of Genoa, Italy. The latter obtained a grant of land in Beaufort county from the English government in 1738 and came to America that year with a colony of Huguenots. The mother of Captain Humbert was Mary Elizabeth Guinn, whose great-grandfather was one of the first settlers of Savannah, Ga., going there with General Oglethorpe. Captain Humbert, who was only four years old when his parents returned to South Carolina, was reared on the farm and educated at Wofford college in Spartanburg, graduating there in June, 1860. During the early part of 1861 he taught school in Orangeburg county, but in November of that year volunteered as lieutenant in the Orangeburg artillery, which became Company I, of the Second South Carolina artillery. He commanded his company at the battle of Secessionville, on James island, June 16, 1862, and for bravery was promoted to the vacant captaincy of his company, serving thereafter in that position to the end of the war. At the close of the battle, Captain Perineau, of the Confederate States navy, who witnessed the engagement and saw the great advantage the Federal forces had in numbers, remarked to Lieutenant Humbert that his 10-inch columbiad deserved to be mounted on a golden carriage. In the long-continued fighting around Charleston he and his command were prominent, especially in the defense of Battery Wagner, where at one time he fired from his battery, on Cummings Point, one 10-inch columbiad gun every five minutes for three weeks, consuming 60,000 pounds of powder. The Swamp Angel, that threw the first shell into Charleston, was right in front of his battery. Upon the evacuation of James island, in February, 1865, he had charge of the rear guard and narrowly escaped capture. He was with Johnston's army in the campaign of the Carolinas and participated in the battles of Averasboro and Bentonville. After the latter battle he was detailed to gather up the men who had been separated from their commands and was engaged in this
