Fort Family Cemetery

Camp 51/Guardian Cemetery Project
Contains the remains Col. William Fort
Second South Carolina State Troops

William Fort, son of Arthur Holmes Fort and Phoebe Corley, was born in Edgefield District but lived most of his life in Lexington District. After attending the University of Virginia (1851-1853), he studied law in Edgefield under Nathan Lipscomb Griffin (1803-1853) and James Parsons Carroll (1809-1883), was admitted to the bar in 1854, and operated a law practice at Lexington. According to the 1860 census, he possessed real estate valued at $2,000 and personal property (including four slaves) worth $9,500; in 1863 he owned six slaves. Legislative service began for Fort when he was elected to the House for Lexington for the Thirty-eighth General Assembly (1848-1849). Lexington later returned him to the House to fill a vacancy, and he qualified 26 November 1860 for the Forty-fourth General Assembly (1860-1861). Reelected to the House, he served in the forty-fifth (1862-1863) and forty sixth (1864) General Assemblies. While in the house, he was a member on the committees on internal improvements (1848-1849), accounts (1860-1861), incorporations (1860-1864), commerce and manufactures (1861-1863), and claims (1864). Fort also served during the Civil War as colonel of the Second Regiment of South Carolina State Troops and was stationed at Pocotaligo and McPhersonville (31 July 1863-2 February 1864). Elected to the state Senate in a special election, he qualified 27 November 1866 to represent Lexington in the Forty-seventh General Assembly (1865-1866). At the end of his Senate term, he retired from public life. A bachelor, William Fort died 19 January 1875 in Lexington and was buried in a family cemetery there.
 
Forty-seventh General Assembly Lexington 1866*
Sources: Biographical Directory of the House, 1: 359, 383, 387, 391. Census. 1860. Lexington District., 431. Census 1870. Lexington Co. 367. Columbia Daily Phoenix, 21 Jan. 1875. Confederate Soldiers roll 169. 2d State Troops . House Journals, 1848, 14; 1860. 9; 1861. 83; 1862. 49, 51; 1864, 2. Lexington County Inventories, Book B(1874-1884). 47-56. O’Neal, 2; 608. Questionnaire and letter from Jimmie Fort Rast, 2 June 1967, on file in office, Reynolds & Faunt. Slave Schedules, 1860, Lexington District, 230. University of Virginia, Its History, Influence, Equipment and Characteristics, with biographical Sketches and Portraits of Founders, Benefactors, Officers, and Alumni, 2 vols. (New York, 1904), 2; 23.  
Biographical Directory of the South Carolina Senate
1776-1985
Volume 1