South Carolina and Ulster 2

Some of the Ulster Scots who settled in South Carolina. One of these families were the Brownlees.

Leading Confederate soldier in South Carolina, Captain John E. Brownlee,was the third generation descendent of Ulsterman James Brownlee who emigrated in 1768, arriving in Charlestown from Belfast on board the sailing ship Brigantine Lord Dungannon. The Brownlees settled in Abbeville in the South Carolina back country and John E's mother Rosa Pettigrew was a member of a family who had originally moved from Co Tyrone. His father John was a prime mover in the separation of South Carolina from the Union at the outset of war.

Captain Brownlee served in Company 1, 14th Regiment, McGowan's Brigade of Infantry, and after the war he remained an unrelenting advocate of the Confederate cause. He became a wealthy farmer and served on the Abbeville board of commissioners. He was prominently involved in the Masonic Order and a leader of the ''Red Shirts'' in opposing the Union occupation force in the years after the war.

Captain Brownlee is buried in the cemetery of Little Mountain Presbyterian Church near Abbeville, which his grandfather William Brownlee helped to build.