Benjamin P. Roper (1832-1869), the grandfather of Clyde Roper, was born in Pickens, South Carolina to Joel and Julia Ann Roper. He married Esther Ann Roberston in 1851 and they had eleven children.

Benjamin joined the Confederate Army on April 15, 1861 as a 2nd lieutenant in the 7th Infantry. After the South Carolina militia was reorganized he led the 9th regiment and was promoted to captain.

7th Regiment, South Carolina Infantry

OVERVIEW:7th Infantry Regiment was assembled at Columbia, South Carolina, during the spring of 1861 and moved to Virginia in June. After fighting in Bonham’s Brigade at First Manassas, the unit served under Generals Kershaw, Kennedy, and Conner. It participated in the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days’ Battles to Gettysburg, then accompanied Longstreet to Georgia. The 7th was active at Chickamauga and Knoxville, returned to Virginia, and saw action at The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. It continued the fight in the Shenandoah Valley with Early and ended the war in North Carolina. This regiment totalled 581 officers and men in April, 1862 and sustained 82 casualties at Savage Station and 40 at Malvern Hill. During the Maryland Campaign, there were 13 killed and 100 wounded of 466 at Maryland Heights and 23 killed and 117 wounded of the 268 at Sharpsburg. It lost 4 killed, 57 wounded, and 61 missing at Fredericksburg, twenty-seven percent of the 408 engaged at Gettysburg, and 2 killed and 12 wounded at Bentonville. On March 23, 1865, there were 222 present for duty, and it surrendered in April. The field officers were Colonels D. Wyatt Aiken and Thomas G. Bacon; Lieutenant Colonels Elbert Bland, Robert A. Fair, Elijah J. Goggans, and Emmet Seibels; and Majors John S. Hard and William C. White.

National Park Service

The 7th South Carolina is known as “the Bloody Seventh”
because of its bloodshed in numerous Civil War battles as part of Kershaw�s Brigade.

ehistory.os.edu

He was severely injured at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Benjamin Roper- Born about 1833. Farmer. Elected at
re-organization on 4/13/62.
Wounded in hip at Fredericksburg on 12/13/62.
Wounded at Chickamauga 9/20/63.
Collected tax collector for Edgefield
District on 10/11/64. Resigned on 12/19/64. 

ehistory.osu.edu

The two clippings below detail the casualties at the Battles of Chickamauga and Gettysburg:

He wrote a letter of condolence to the family of one of his soldiers killed at Gettysburg.

At the end of the war, he resigned from the army and was elected tax collecter.

In the census of 1880, he lists his occupation as farmer.

Benjamin P. Roper

great great grandfather

3rd great grandfather

4th great grandfather