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Submitted: 12/13/19 • Approved: 12/16/19 • Last Updated: 12/19/19 • R1286049-G0-S3
MAJOR CSA
Company B 12 South Carolina Infantry
Civil War Confederate
September 25, 1833 - March 10, 1914
*Source: Sons of Confederate Veterans, Benton County, Arkansas 2009
Compiled by William W Degge
*Obituary
Benton County Democrat
Thursday, March 19, 1914
DUNLOP, William S. – Fayetteville, March 12. – Many friends of the late Col. William S. Dunlop, 80 years old, former auditor of State, attended his funeral here this afternoon. Burial was in Evergreen Cemetery. He died at 7:30 o’clock last night at the residence of his brother-in-law, Dr. S.W. Davies, following an illness that resulted from a severe fall 10 days ago. Col. Dunlop is survived by his wife.
*Obituary (Article)
---Robert R. Logan [WCHS Flashback Vol. 2, No. 4]
DUNLOP, William S. –(Tribute) Major William S. Dunlop was born September 25, 1833, probably in York District, South Carolina and died in Fayetteville March 10, 1914. He is buried by the side of his wife, the former Mary Elizabeth Davies, a sister of the Rev. S.W. Davies, a pioneer Presbyterian minister who organized the First Presbyterian Church (Southern) in Fayetteville. The Dunlops for many years prior to their deaths made their home with our next-door (at that time) neighbors, the Davies at 207 N. College Avenue. Major Dunlop, known to everyone as “Uncle Major”, was one of the best-loved friends of my small-boy days. Many times he sat on the Davies porch telling stories of “The War”. Some of the best were about his Irishman, who in trying times kept the men in good spirits with his wit and antics. In the lines during the siege of Petersburg, fire-flies in a bottle frequently were the only source of light to read watches or orders. This Irishman was remembered especially for his vain efforts to light his pipe with a firefly.
“Uncle Major”, who was an enthusiastic fisherman, also told of his intense longing in the spring to forget the business of fighting and just go fishing. In one battle he stopped long enough to pin a turtle down with his sword and then after the battle was able to enjoy turtle soup. Major Dunlop told of the famous oak tree at “The Angle” at Spotsylvania, which after it had been cut down by Federal rifle fire, fell on men from his old regiment, the 12th South Carolina Volunteers. By his measurement, the tree was 55 inches in circumference.
In 1913, Major Dunlop was badly disappointed when because of partial paralysis from a recent “stroke” he could not accept an invitation to attend the Blue-Gray Reunion at Gettysburg on the 50th anniversary of the battle. On the afternoon of July 3, anniversary of Picket’s charge which he had seen, he sat on the porch telling of the Gettysburg campaign even though he complained that his tongue seemed “so thick” that talking was an effort. He cried like a child as he spoke of an irretrievable defeat when victory had been so near.
Major Dunlop was first a member of the 12th South Carolina Volunteers, the companies of which rendezvoused at Columbia about July 1, 1861. This regiment with four others formed Gregg’s Brigade, which became McGowan’s Brigade after Gregg was killed at Fredericksburg. First service was on the coast of South Carolina where a bombardment introduced them to shellfire but did no harm. This South Carolina Brigade reached Richmond just in time to take part in McClellan’s battles around Richmond in the summer of 1862. At Mechanicsville they received their first hostile shell. From then on, the Brigade and Major Dunlop missed nothing –Gaines Mill, Second Manassas, Harper’s Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, to mention only the most important engagements.
At Gettysburg, he was assigned to the sharpshooters of McGowan’s Brigade. When the commanding officer was killed, Dunlop, then a Captain, was given command of the battalion in an order never delivered because the bearer was killed enroute. After Gettysburg the remnants of the sharpshooters were reorganized into a three company battalion, brought up to strength by a draft upon other companies of the Brigade, and placed under the command of Dunlop for the rest of the war. This battalion was at the Wilderness, at Second Cold Harbor and at the “Bloody Angle” at Spotsylvania were it suffered such serious losses that the sharpshooters were ordered no longer to join in the battle line but to act only as skirmishers, for which they had been carefully selected and trained.
After Petersburg was abandoned, Major Dunlop and his sharpshooters were in the retreat up the Appomattox. On May 3, 1865, he was wounded and captured. Most of his men were captured this day or the next, a week before the general surrender. Major Dunlop was sent to Johnson’s Island in Lake Erie, where he was held until released in June 1865. The return to the South was by sea, defeated but not conquered. He reached Rock Hill, his South Carolina home, early in July after traveling from Charleston, alternately marching and riding the train. Here he writes he met “in tears of joy, among other rejoicing friends, my own darling wife, Amen.” More complete record of his service may be found in his own book, “Lee’s Sharpshooters; or, The Forefront of Battle,” which, based on a pocket diary, was composed in Little Rock (“Fifty Years Ago” column, Arkansas Gazette, October 10, 1948), and in J.F.J. Caldwell’s “History of a Brigade of South Carolinians, known first as ‘Gregg’s’ and subsequently as ‘McGowan’s’ Brigade.” (1866)
After the War, Rev. Davies was called to a church at Lake Pleasant, La., where Col. Breckenridge was an elder. His father received a call to a church at Cotton Plant, Arkansas, but died in South Carolina before he could remove to Arkansas. Rev. S.W. Davies, substituting for his father, preached at Cotton Plant and Augusta. Major Dunlop first came to Arkansas intending with Mr. Davies to open a school and at one time lived in Clarendon. When elected Auditor of the State he removed to Little Rock where he lived until about 1900, when he came to Fayetteville to live with the Davies family. While in Little Rock he suffered serious financial reverses through unfortunate investments in stock of a railway to be built from Corpus Christi, Texas.
Before he came to Fayetteville he suffered a “stroke”, from which he never fully recovered. Although not in good health, he never refused an invitation to go on a fishing party, although after the trip he was frequently “laid up.” He liked rice, served as a vegetable with gravy, and hot coffee three times a day.
Fayetteville remembers him as a kindly old man whose code of honor and knightly courtesy, characteristic of the Old South, were as unfailing as his formality in social behavior which never permitted him to appear, regardless of temperature, without a coat. Miss Marylou Davies recalls that he never became reconciled to the Davies girls in common with other girls of the neighborhood, in the summertime permitting young men to call upon them without coats. Such behavior to him was inexcusable.
One need not say that Major Dunlop was never “reconstructed.”
*Obituary (Article)
Fayetteville Democrat
Thursday, January 10, 1907
W.S. Dunlap to be awarded the Southern Cross of Honor on January 19, 1907 by the Mildred Lee Chapter No. 98 of the U.D.C.
*Obituary (Article)
Fayetteville Democrat
Thursday, August 10, 1911
Maj. W.S. Dunlap had a partial attack of paralysis this morning at the home of Dr. S.W. Davies. He has had two or three similar attacks previously and recovered. He will be confined to his bed several days, absolute rest being necessary.
*Obituary
Fayetteville Democrat
Thursday, March 12, 1914
Deaths – Major William S. Dunlop, age 80 years, died last night at 7:30 o’clock at the home of his brother-in-law, Dr. S.W. Davies. Major Dunlop was born in South Carolina and has been making his home here for the past several years with Dr. Davies. He was an old ex-Confederate soldier, and an upright Christian gentleman. The funeral services were held this afternoon at 3:30 from the First Presbyterian Church, services conducted by Rev. R.B. Willis. Interment was at Evergreen Cemetery. His wife survives him.
The active pall bearers were: Vol Walker, Clifford Boles, Henry Boggs, Dr. Shannon, Judge Haden Humphreys and Dr. J.R. Southworth. Honorary pall bearers were Wythe Walker, George Lake, Judge McDaniel, A.M. McCartting along well.
Contributed on 12/13/19 by judyfrog
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Record #: 1286049