Richard Morrison II

Captain Richard T. Morrison II was an American secessionist, settler, military officer, politician, and farmer who was one of the founders^[2] of McClellanville, South Carolina.^[3][4] He served as a state representative for South Carolina between 1860 and 1861 where he voted for secession from the United States, thus directly causing the start of the American Civil War. In this time, he was serving the South Carolina government, through its secession, into its month or so long independence by itself, and then its joining with the Confederacy, and the start of the Civil War. He fought in the American Civil War and served as an officer, seeing action at many major battles. He survived the war, alongside his sons and returned back to South Carolina.^[5][6]

Richard Tillia Morrison II was born on March 21, 1816, to Richard Tillia Morrison I^[7] and Elizabeth Toomer Legare.^[8] He married his wife Elizabeth Ann Venning around 1837^[9]and he married his second wife Eliza circa. 1860. Between his two wives, he had a total of 17 children.^[10] Morrison was a 3rd great-grandson of John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732), who was a leader of the Jacobite rising of 1715. He was also a 2nd great-grandson of Daniel Legare, a representative to the South Carolina Provincial Congress.

Richard Morrison served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1860 to 1861.^[11] In this time the South Carolina House of Representatives voted on secession and created the short lived South Carolina Republic, which existed until it was joined in secession by the other states of the Southern United States in the creation of the Confederate States of America.

Morrison joined the Confederate Army as soon as the war broke out, joining in Charleston, South Carolina in 1861 with his sons, Richard III, Robert, and James. ^[12] He brought his own horse and served as an officer in Hampton's Legion, seeing action at many of the wars major battles. He served in the Army of Northern Virginia as a cavalryman until his unit was moved into North Carolina as part of the Carolina Campaign.^{[13][14][15][16]}

After returning home to his plantation around Jeremy Creek^[17] and the Santee River,^[18] he and another local land owner named A.J. McClellan sold off some of their land after the war to create the town of McClellanville.^[19][20] This was a place where people would go to get away from the Mosquitos and the summer fevers that plagues many of the surrounding lowlands. Soon after its founding in the 1860s, the village became the social and economic center for a wide area that produced timber, rice, cotton, naval stores, and seafoods.^[21] Richard Morrison lived on his plantation until his death in 1910 at the age of 94.^[22]