Several notable soldiers have come from Kershaw County. After the state seceded from the Union, six men served in the American Civil War as Confederate generals: James Cantey (1818–1873), James Chesnut (1815–1885), Zachariah C. Deas (1819–1882), John Doby Kennedy (1840–1896), Joseph Brevard Kershaw (1822–1894), and John Bordenave Villepigue (1830–1862). Richard Rowland Kirkland, a Confederate soldier and hero at the Battle of Fredericksburg, was also from Kershaw County. He served under General Kershaw. In the last months of the war, Union troops under Gen. William T. Sherman burned parts of Camden in February 1865, in their March to the Sea.