Biography:

Wade Hampton III was a Confederate officer during the Civil War and a politician from South Carolina. He was elected Governor of South Carolina in 1876, aided by a Democratic paramilitary group known as the Red Shirts who disrupted Republican meetings and suppressed the African American vote through violence and intimidation. He served as governor until 1879, and later was a US Senator from South Carolina, 1879-1891, and US Railroad Commissioner, 1893-1897.