South Carolina College Cadets

South Carolina College Cadets
Flag of South Carolina
Active	Mar. 13 1825 to Nov. 19 1856 Dec. 3 1860 to Dec. 10 1861
Allegiance	South Carolina Confederate States of America
Type	Militia
Nickname(s)	Lafayette Guards, S.C.C. Cadets
Motto(s)	Juncta Juvant (Strength in unity) Ducit Amor Patriae (Led by Love of Country)
Engagements	Battle of Fort Sumter
Commanders
Spring 1861	Captain John H. Gary
Mid 1861	Captain Charles Scott Venable
Fall 1861	Captain E. Dawkins Rodgers

The South Carolina College Cadets were students at South Carolina College who formed a militia company during antebellum South Carolina and during the Civil War to fight for the South. They offered their company three times for service in the Confederate army, but were denied each time by Governor Pickens.

The company was first organized as a ceremonial unit to honor and commemorate General Lafayette during his visit to Columbia in March 1825. Called the Lafayette Guards, they were authorized by Governor Richard Irvine Manning I and were provided with arms from the state armory. The dress uniform worn by the company was a dark grey swallowtail coat, white lafayette pants and chapeau for the head dress. The cadets so distinguished themselves that the company was made a permanent organization of the college. However, the company was disbanded in 1856 when a riot between the students and the Columbia police almost descended into bloodshed.

After John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859, the students unsuccessfully petitioned for the reorganization of the cadet company. As the secession movement picked up pace after the election of Abraham Lincoln in the fall of 1860, the Board of Trustees voted to allow the students to reorganize the cadet company on December 3, 1860. They were placed under the strict supervision of the faculty and were only able to be called out for service with the approval the college president.