Lieutenant James Willis Cantey, Jr.

Lieutenant James Willis Cantey, Jr. (1822 to 1847) monument is erected next to the memorial marker for his father, General James Willis Cantey Sr.   Neither of which are buried at these sites in Quaker Cemetery. 

Lieutenant Cantey was born on 21 November 1822, in his family home in Camden, he attended the University of Carolina and graduated in 1843.  In 1846, when President Polk called for volunteers against Mexico, the first South Carolina Company to volunteer was the DeKalb Guards of Camden.  Included in this group was Lieutenant James Willis Cantey Jr.  This Palmetto regiment engaged the enemy from Vera Cruz to Mexico city. 

On 12 September 1847, the main assault began on Mexico City.  The entry to the city was guarded by Chapultepec Castle.  The infantry assault was preceded by an all day artillery barrage.  The next day, 13 September,  the 4th Division, under the direction of General John A. Quitman, spearheaded the attack against the castle. 

General Quitman pointed at the stone fortification with 15-foot walls, lined with six cannons of the 12-pounder classification, supported by 2,000 Mexican soldiers, and stated that the fate of the day depended on taking that wall.  One hundred and fifty South Carolinians, what was left of the DeKalb Guards, some wounded and lame, heard his address.  With the battle cry of "come on boys" every man stepped forward with unflinching determination. 

Captain James  Cantey,  a cousin to Lieutenant Cantey and later a Confederate Brigadier General,  described the action:  "Our way lay over an open plain cut up by many deep ditches; through by fire from the fort in front crossed by another from the right.  The regiment moved forward and gained the wall without discharging a musket.  But, alas, many who started for that goal of distinction failed to reach it.  It was crossing the plain near the wall, that Lieutenant James Willis Cantey, poor fellow, received his wound while leading a detachment of two companies in advance of the Regiment.  He was a noble and generous a spirit as ever lived, and as brave and gallant a soldier as ever bore a sword; his conduct was the subject of remark by the whole Regiment."

As soon as Chapultepec Castle was taken and under heavy fire, the army moved on towards the gates of the city.  The Palmetto Regiment had started the campaign with 1100 men and at the end of the Battle for Mexico City they were left with 140 effectives. 

On Lieutenant Cantey's  monument is engraved:

 "When South Carolina summoned her sons to the field, he obeyed the call  by shouldering his musket.  Afterwards elected a Lieutenant in the company from his native district, he shared with honor in all the hazards and glories of his regiment in the Mexican campaign."

"In the battle of Churubusco where the regiment from South Carolina came near being annihilated on the field, from which they refused to retreat,  his chivalric daring was eminently conspicuous .  His superior officers being disabled by honorable wounds, he henceforth assumed command of the remnant from Kershaw who had escaped death without dishonor."

"On the 18th Sept. 1847, the castle of Chapultepec was carried by storm.  While leading his men up to a breach in the walls which he had discovered, this gallant soldier fell before it.  Shot in the front and died under the victorious flag of his country."

Lieutenant Cantey's actions led the way for the DeKalb Guards to be the first to storm the gates of Mexico's capital and their flag was the first that floated over the gates of the city.