[906] convention of 1895, but has refused all proffers of official position. June 13, 1870, he was married to Mary J., daughter of Col. J. W. Hill, of Florida. She died in 1895, leaving him four sons and four daughters.
Lieutenant William J. Wells
Lieutenant William J. Wells, of Greenwood county, S. C., was born in Laurens county, June 16, 1844, his parents being Aaron and Elizabeth (Hollingsworth) Wells. In December, 1861, he volunteered as a private in Company B, James' battalion, and served with it one year, and was then transferred to the Seventh South Carolina cavalry, of which his father was a member. After serving one year as a private, he was made a corporal in Company B, Thomas' battalion, and afterward promoted to third lieutenant, in which position he served until the close of the war. He was captured at Cooley's bridge on the Saluda river in Laurens county, S. C., a few days after the surrender of General Lee, by an Ohio cavalry company, but the war being ended, he was immediately paroled. He participated in the battles of Second Manassas, South Mountain, Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg while a member of James' battalion. As a member of the Seventh South Carolina cavalry, he was in seventeen different engagements, including Riddle's Shop and Bean's Station. With Thomas' battalion he fought at Averasboro and Bentonville. Once in Virginia, while a member of the Seventh cavalry, he was wounded by the explosion of a shell. Since the war his chief pursuit has been that of a farmer and stockraiser, and has lived on a farm near Greenwood, S. C., since 1875. He is a member of D. Wyatt Aiken camp, U. C. V. He was married in 1866 to Miss Mattie Ball, and they have eight living children, two sons and six daughters.
Captain Julius J. Wescoat
Captain Julius J. Wescoat, of Charleston, one of the last commanders of the Eleventh South Carolina volunteers, was born on Edisto island in 1844, and was educated at Charleston. When sixteen years of age he entered the military service of the State, in December, 1860, in the Calhoun artillery, and served with that command until his enlistment in the spring of 1861, as a private in Company B of the Ninth regiment, afterward known as the Eleventh. A year later, when the regiment enlisted for the war, he was elected captain of Company B, the rank in which the remainder of his service
