| Birth: | Oct. 14, 1837
Charleston
Charleston County
South Carolina, USA | | Death: | Apr. 22, 1908
Columbia
Richland County
South Carolina, USA | 
Civil War Confederate General, Anglican Bishop. Raised in Charleston, he was educated in the local schools and in 1857 graduated from The Citadel, of which his older brother Francis Withers Capers was founding president, and became an instructor at that institution. Appointed Major of South Carolina Volunteers he took part in the 1861 shelling of Fort Sumter, initially served in coastal defense, and in 1863 was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel after helping to recruit the 24th. South Carolina Infantry. Fighting in North and South Carolina as well as at Vicksburg, Capers was wounded multiple times; he served under General Bragg at Chickamauga and was advanced to Colonel during the Atlanta Campaign. Receiving brigade command following the death of General States Rights Gist at Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864, he was appointed Brigadier General effective March 1, 1865. Captured at Bentonville, North Carolina, in late March of 1865 he went to Columbia, South Carolina, at the end of the war and was appointed Secretary of State. While serving in that position, Capers read Holy Orders under the direction of the Bishop of South Carolina, the Right Reverend Thomas Davis. Ordained a Priest in 1866 he was called to Christ Church of Greenville, South Carolina, where he was to serve intermittantly for 20 years while also teaching at the Greenville Military Academy, the Greenville Female Academy, and Furman University. After spending 1875 at St. Paul's Church in Selma, Alabama, he returned to Greenville, then in 1887 was appointed Rector of Trinity Church, Columbia. Consecrated the 169th. Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States in 1893, he was named Bishop Co-Adjutor of South Carolina, succeeding to the Episcopate upon the death of Bishop Howe the following year. The Right Reverend Capers headed the Diocese of South Carolina for the remainder of his life, served for many years as Chaplain General of the United Confederate Veterans, authored the South Carolina volume of the "Confederate Military History", and was Chancellor of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, from 1904 until his death. He died of the effects of a stroke suffered in 1907 while in Sewanee for board meetings. A Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and a hall at The Citadel carry his name, while the inscripton on his tombstone reads: "He rendered unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's". (bio by: Bob Hufford)
Family links:
Spouse:
Charlotte Rebecca Palmer Capers (1837 - 1908)*
Children:
William Theodotus Capers (1867 - 1943)*
*Calculated relationship
Search Amazon for Ellison Capers | | | Burial:
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Cemetery
Columbia
Richland County
South Carolina, USA |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Mar 20, 2000
Find A Grave Memorial# 8961 |
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(3.7 after 22 votes)
