Lawrence James Sweat

Son of a wealthy doctor, in 1860 he was a 21 year old medical student living with his father, 7 siblings, and 48 slaves at Midway in the Barnwell District, SC. He enlisted at Summerville, SC on 20 July 1861 and mustered as 3rd Sergeant of Company F (later G), First South Carolina Infantry. He was elected 2nd Lieutenant of Company G on 12 April 1862 at the regimental reorganization and was promoted to First Lieutenant on 1 September.

He led his company in Maryland and was slightly wounded in action Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862, bruised in the right thigh by a piece of shell. He came to command of the regiment that afternoon as the senior officer still present after Captains Knotts and Stafford left the field, and remained in command for the rest of the day.

He was furloughed home from a Richmond, VA hospital on 28 November 1862. He was promoted to Captain on 16 April 1863 and was mortally wounded near Chattanooga, TN on 25 September 1863 by a gunshot that shattered his right upper arm. His arm was amputated at the shoulder on 7 October, probably in a hospital in Atlanta, and he died there of "exhaustion" 8 days later.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3, with Sharpsburg details from the Memoirs.2 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, and A.C. Moore's Roll of Students of South Carolina College, 1805-1905 (1905). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married

07/06/1839; Barnwell District, SC

10/15/1863; Atlanta, GA; burial in Barnwell Baptist Church Cemetery, Barnwell, SC