By Mac Wyckoff

Chesley Herbert "a true friend of the colored race" was murdered by a black
man black man in Newberry, South Carolina after surviving three years of
combat in the Civil War.  The murder of the prominent white man created a
major incident in Newberry.

Chesley, the son of Isaac and Frances Herbert, was born on June 10, 1832
in the Newberry District.  He prepared for college at Cokesbury Conference
Scholl and graduated from South Carolina College in 1855 and the following
January married Elizabeth S. Goggans.  In 1860 he was the magistrate of
Newberry.  
	
Herbert enlisted as a lieutenant in Company C, 3rd South Carolina on the
day after Fort Sumter surrendered.  He was promoted to captain on July 1,
1862 as result of the loss of the previous captain that day in the Battle of
Malvern Hill. A year later he received a flesh wound in the left knee during
the second day of fighting at Gettysburg.  The Yankees captured him, but
somehow he escaped or was recaptured.   After a brief stay in a Richmond
hospital, Herbert was furloughed for sixty days.  The records do not
indicate when he returned, but he was present on New Year's Day of 1864.  

On May 6, 1864, he was again severely wounded in the left knee at The
Wilderness.  This time he had a longer hospital stay before being furloughed
for sixty days on America's Independence Day.  The injury disabled him for
life and he was finally discharged on February 24, 1865.  

On March 8, 1866, a black man stole his horse.  Herbert apparently jumped
on another horse and chased the thief for some distance.  After catching
him, they started back.  While stopping to rest and share some bread, the
robber picked up a heavy stick and hit Herbert on the head.  Crippled by his
Civil War injuries, Herbert was unable to effectively fight back.  The man
then drew Herbert's pistol and shot him in the head.  His body was buried in
the New Chapel Methodist Church Cemetery in Newberry.  The black man was
captured, recaptured after escaping from jail, tried and hanged.