South Carolina Confederate Flag
Today the son of a Baptist minister enlists in the Confederate Army, Company K, 1 It Regiment, South Carolina Infantry. In so doing, Lucias Chambers chooses to fight alongside one brother, Lamech, and against another brother, Lemuel, who serves in the Union army. Lucias participates in the Battle of Port Royal on the South Carolina coast and is discharged on January 15, 1862. He “is believed to have re-enlisted on April 2, 1863, again in Walhalla, SC. The company served in the Carolinas and L. Chambers is on the March, 1865 register for the CSA General Hospital in Greenboro, NC.”
The father of the Chambers’ clan was Barak Chambers (1792-1847), a South Carolina farmer and landowner who became a founding member and the first church clerk of the Holly Springs Baptist Church, established in May 1828. Barak served ably as a layman, and in 1835 was appointed as minister of the congregation, a position he held until 1841. For the next 75 years, the church was pastored by Chambers, beginning with Barak’s son Lemuel.
Yet while the Chambers’ family maintain Baptist sympathies, their political loyalties are divided, despite the fact that the clan live in the very state from which the southern rebellion originated. During the war, brothers and nephews and cousins take up arms on opposite sides of the conflict. Lemuel Chambers (the Baptist minister) and his son Barak fight and die for the Union Army, while the rest of the Chambers’ menfolk (including Lamech and Lucious, Lemuel’s brothers) fight on the side of the Confederacy.
The story of the Chambers’ family illustrates the complexity of the war. Many sons and grandsons of the senior Barak are already fighting for the Confederacy when Lemuel and his son Barak, having long remained neutral, are forced to make a decision:
On November 23, 1863 … circumstances forced a hard decision. Generals Grant and Thomas crushed Chattanooga. Surrounded by victorious Union troops, it no longer mattered much on which side Lemuel’s true sympathies lay, and he was apparently a practical man. Then again, maybe joining the Union Army wasn’t as difficult a decision as it might appear on the surface. Lemuel had earlier hidden in the mountains to avoid being drafted into the Confederacy. He was caught and handcuffed by a Rebel and told if he didn’t join, he, the Rebel, would kill him. He refused. Rather than carrying out his threat, the Rebel brought Lemuel to trial, but he was later released for lack of evidence. Shortly thereafter, he opted for a blue uniform. Whether that choice was made out of expediency or spite, we will never know. The fact remains, at least two Chambers took up the Yankee banner.
Source: John Limmer, “The Chambers” (link)
