The Invincible Twelfth: The 12th South Carolina Infantry of the Gregg-McGowan Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia

At a regimental reunion in 1880, former Confederate Brig. Gen. Samuel McGowan lauded the 12th South Carolina as “The finest of that immortal army,” “foremost in the charge,” and “the invincible Twelfth.” The regiment, along with four others, served under McGowan from early 1863 through the end of the war. The aging brigadier, wounded four times in combat, was an authority on the regiment’s reputation. “It would be impossible on an occasion of this kind, to give anything like a history of th...