Edgefield's Oakley Park serves as Red Shirt shrine
"Hooray for Hampton! Hooray for Hampton!" shouted about 1,500 men as they marched through downtown Edgefield on their way to the courthouse to cast their ballots in the gubernatorial election of 1876.
According to local lore, these men had come from all parts of the county to gather on the grounds of Oakley Park, the home of Gen. Martin Witherspoon Gary, in preparation for this demonstration of their united support for candidate Wade Hampton III, a war hero and the scion of a distinguished line of antebellum planters.
At stake in the momentous state election of that year was the re-establishment of the old order in South Carolina, a return to home rule after more than 10 years of federal intervention following the Civil War. The Hampton's followers, noted for the red shirts they wore as emblems of allegiance to his leadership, developed an election strategy that, according to historian Walter Edgar, had the "precision" of a military campaign.
It is, therefore, not surprising that Edgefield native Gary should have been at the forefront of those seeking Hampton's victory. After all, Gen. Gary had battlefield experience with the 7th South Carolina Cavalry, and when Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, the stunned Gary, according to Edgar, "cursed while his hardened veterans wept" in collective disbelief.
More than a decade later, however, Gen. Gary's political strategizing met with a far happier fate than did his military efforts. Although the 1876 election results were contested by the Reconstruction-era Republicans then in control of state government and South Carolina was made to endure four months with two rival governors and two rival general assemblies, Hampton and his fellow Democrats eventually assumed control after President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew federal troops from the state in April 1877.
Now touted as the only shrine to the Red Shirt Movement, Oakley Park, home of both Gen. Gary and his nephew Gov. John Gary Evans, is operated today as a public museum in Edgefield. Surrounded by seven acres of land, the house still boasts many of the features in place during Gary's time.
There is still, for example, the narrow central balcony from which he is said to have rallied his men on that fateful election day in 1876. This occasion offered yet another opportunity for Gary to justify the appropriateness of his wartime nickname "the bald eagle," a sobriquet he earned in part for his piercing eyes and in part for his shrill voice that could be heard above a crowd.
Among other features dating from Gary's tenancy in the house are hand-carved moldings and mantels and seven pieces of the general's own furniture, including an elaborate hall tree in the first-floor entryway, a plantation desk, a rocking chair and an assortment of bedroom furnishings. Other notable pieces donated to the house are an original red shirt, dyed its characteristic color by the use of pokeberry juice, and a valuable corner china cabinet made by skilled slave labor.
Gary was only 50 when he died in the house, which was then inherited by his sister, who deeded it to her son, John Gary Evans. One of the 10 governors who called the Edgefield District home, Evans lived in Oakley Park until his death in 1941. The house holds many mementos of his life and career. He practiced law in Aiken before devoting himself to politics, serving as our state's youngest governor - he was only 31 when he was elected - and the one who presided over the writing of South Carolina's current constitution in 1895. The subject of ongoing controversy, this is the document that confirmed the central role of the legislature in our state at the expense of a relatively weak executive branch.
Built in 1835, Oakley Park is the object of continuous restoration by Chapter 1018 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the organization now responsible for its maintenance. According to Carolyn Piekielniak, curator and hostess, the group recently received a $150,000 state grant, making it possible to restore the front parlor and begin restoration on the back parlor and library, update the kitchen for catering purposes and solicit bids for the installation of central air and heating.
To cover the cost of preserving the home and its grounds, which also features a kitchen house dating from 1865, an admission fee is charged and donations are gratefully accepted. Located just 22 miles north of Aiken at 300 Columbia Road in downtown Edgefield, Oakley Park Museum is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. three days a week - Thursday through Saturday - and by appointment. For more information, call (803) 637-4027 or 637-6861.
Dr. Tom Mack is a Carolina Trustee Professor at USC Aiken.