THE FOUR FRIENDS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVII, Issue 4, 6 January 1891, Page 4

THE FOUR FRIENDS.

"Lovely and pleasant m their lives, and m their death they were not divided." This sentiment from David's lament over Saul and Jonathan, might have been appropriately inscribed on the grand cross which marks four graves m Virginia. The occasion of the monument is thus told : — In 1543 four gentlemen entered their sons at a boarding-school m Cokesbury, S.C. They had been for years intimate friends and clergymen m the Methodist Church. These boys remained at this school, room-mates and class-mates, for two years, and entered Wofford College, standing relatively first, second, third, and fourth. They then entered a law office at Spartansburg, and studied law under the same chancellor. The war broke out, and at the call for troops they all entered Jenkins's rifle regiment from South Carolina, and were messmates m the same company. Being near the same height, they stood together as comrades m battle m this leghnent. At the second battle of Manassas, August, 1864, a shell from the enemy's battery fell into the ranks of this company, killed these four boys, and none other m the company. They are buried m the battlefield, and sleep hi the same grave. Their names were Capers, M'Swain, Smith, and Duncan, and, they were the sons of Bishop Capers, Eev. Drs. M'Swain and Smith of South Carolina, and Rev. Mr. Duncan of Virginia, the last being a brother of Eev. Dr. Duncan of Bandolph Macon College. The grave is marked by a granite cross, and enclosed with an iron railjng. -~*>