The Charge of the Pendleton Guard
On April 1st, 1908, the mess hall began to stir as Cadets once again began to plan a large-scale walk out in protest of early morning drill. Then spectator and future Clemson College President, Walter Riggs recounted the incident later during his tenure. On the eve of the anniversary of the event, he stated “It was a beautiful day just as it is today…a light headed leader…raised a cry in the mess hall to cut classes and go to Pendleton. From the porch of my home, I watched them go by, with yells and laughter, and I thought to myself, what a tragedy for Clemson.” The 305 Clemson cadets who participated in the day-long “parade” to Pendleton returned to campus still in costume only to be informed that they had been expelled. Walter Riggs noted that “I saw them that afternoon as they came silently back, without song or cheer, with the impending doom hovering over them…”[1]
With 305 of Clemson cadets expelled, the Clemson Board of Trustee’s and President Patrick Hues Mell, who had accepted the position following the resignation of Henry Hartzog, face a daunting challenge. The South Carolina Attorney General, the General Assembly, and local media affiliates threatened the institution with invasive investigations into how the administration was handling disciplinary matters. Nearly all of the cadets that were expelled in the April 1st walkout, reapplied for admission but were denied, because according to Reel “the expelled said their loyalty to their school class was more important than their loyalty to their college.”[2] Reel’s statement on the notion of ‘state over nation’ draws glaring similarities to the beliefs of Southern men during the secessionist movement and formation of the Confederate States of America. In the 1942 memoir, Red Hills and Cotton written by Upcountry local and Clemson College graduate, Ben Robertson he stated that “[My mother] said we and all of our kissing kin were Carolinians, and after we were Carolinians we were Southerners, and after Southerners, we were citizens of the United States.”[3] The Clemson cadets cultural identity represented a microcosm of a belief that was deeply entrenched in the upbringing of white Southerners.
The cadets who took place in the April 1st, 1908 walkout would become known as the “Palmetto Guard.”[4] Much like their Confederate ancestors, the rebellious actions of the cadets against the administration would go on to be revered and honored. In the 1909 Clemson College Yearbook Taps, a poem is published titled The Charge of the Pendleton Guards depicting the event in a war-like fashion. The poem states “Everyone onward! /Out past the commandment/Streaked the three hundred…flash’d their nickles bare…/wreathed in tobacco smoke/until every man was broke…”. The line refers to the cadet’s day spent in Pendleton, a town seven miles south of Clemson College’s campus. The poem continues by stating “Then they hiked back… ‘Profs’ to the right of them…look wise and grumbled. Stormed at with questions well, /each erstwhile hero fell/those who charged so well.” The poem closes with “Honor the classes they made/reinstated three hundred”![5] On the left side of the yearbook is a drawing of a monument, coincidentally similar to the Confederate Soldier Monument at the South Carolina State Capitol. The monument reads “This monument perpetuates the memory of those true to the instincts of their birth, faithful to the teachings of their fathers, constant in the love for the state, died in performance of a duty."[6]
In the Taps yearbook, the cement cadet is pictured with its legs and arms cross clothed in cavalry regalia, the concrete it sits upon reads “IN MEMORIAM PENDLETON GUARDS…DEPARTED COLLEGE LIFE APR. 1. 08” Just a year after an incident that left a majority of the student population expelled, a fraternal organization was formed. Through insurrection, the Pendleton Guards earned respect and honor from those who had yet to come. As the 1909 Taps Yearbook explains “Whereas Jas. Pride. Prep Shoat C Pridmore did not go with the Pendleton Guards last April, but emphatically and conscientiously shown his approval of our worthy deed…we elect him an honorary member.”[7]
[1] Reel, The High Seminary, 152.
[2] Reel, 152.
[3] Robertson, Red Hills and Cotton, 3.
[4] Reel, The High Seminary, 152.
[5] Clemson University, Taps, 175.
[6] “South Carolina Confederate Monument Historical Marker.”
[7] Clemson University, Taps, 200.