Wade Hampton III - Postbellum Career

Postbellum Career

Hampton was offered the nomination for governor in 1865, but refused because he felt that those in the North would be suspicious of a former Confederate general seeking political office only months after the end of the Civil War. After his refusal, Hampton had to campaign for his supporters not to vote for him in the gubernatorial election. In 1868, he became the chairman of the state Democratic Party central committee, which lost to the Radical Republicans in the election. His role in the politics of the state ceased until 1876, although he tried to help Matthew Calbraith Butler in the Union Reform campaign of 1870.

Hampton was a leading opponent of Radical Republican Reconstruction policies in the South, and re-entered South Carolina politics in 1876 as the first southern gubernatorial candidate to run on a platform in opposition to Reconstruction. Hampton, a Democrat, ran against Radical Republican incumbent governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain in Charleston. Supporters of Hampton were called Red Shirts and were known to practice violence. Due to their crude reputation, and hoping to allay Union suspicion, Hampton used Grace Piexotto's "The Big Brick House", a prominent brothel located at 11 Fulton Street, to assure complete privacy for the Red Shirts' meeting ground, which mainly served as campaign headquarters (Jones 2006: 22-23). The 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election is thought to be the bloodiest in the history of the state. Both parties claimed victory. For over six months, there were two legislatures in the state, both claiming to be authentic. Eventually, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Hampton was the winner of the election. The election of the first Democrat in South Carolina since the end of the Civil War, as well as the national election of Rutherford B. Hayes as President, signified the end of Reconstruction in the South. He is considered a Bourbon Democrat for his mobilization of emancipated slaves which helped lead to his election win.

After the election, Hampton became known as the "Savior of South Carolina". He was reelected in 1878, but two days after the election he was thrown from a mule while deer hunting and broke his right leg. The New York Times called this incident the "Mule Fraud", claiming it was a political trick planned by Hampton so he would not have to sign election certificates, even though the Governor of South Carolina does not sign such certificates. Several weeks later, his right leg was amputated due to complications arising from this injury. Despite refusing to announce his candidacy for the Senate, Hampton was elected to the United States Senate by the General Assembly on the same day as the amputation of his leg. He resigned from the governorship in 1879 and served two terms in the Senate, until 1891, but was denied a third term by the Tillmanites in the state elections of 1890.

In 1890, Hampton's niece Caroline, an operating room nurse, married the "father of American surgery", William Halsted. It was because of her skin reaction to surgical sterilization chemicals that Halsted invented the surgical glove the previous year.

From 1893 to 1897, Hampton served as United States Railroad Commissioner, appointed by President Grover Cleveland. In 1899, his home in Columbia, was destroyed by fire. An elderly man, he had limited funds and limited means to find a new home. Over his strong protests, a group of friends raised enough funds to build him one.

Hampton died in Columbia and is buried there in Trinity Cathedral Churchyard. Statues of him were erected in the South Carolina State House building and the United States Capitol. An equestrian statue by Frederick W. Ruckstull was erected on the grounds of the South Carolina State House in 1906.