KEITT, LAURENCE MASSILLON, a Representative from South Carolina; born in Orangeburg District,
S.C., October 4, 1824; pursued classical studies and was graduated from South
Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1843;
studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1845 and commenced practice in
Orangeburg; member of the state house of representatives, 1848-1853; elected as
a Democrat to the Thirty-third and to the succeeding Congress (March 4,
1853-July 16, 1856); censured by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 15,
1856, for his role in the assault made upon Senator Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts on May 22, 1856; resigned on July 16, 1856; elected in a special
election to the Thirty-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by his own
resignation, and reelected to the two succeeding Congresses (August 6,
1856-December 1860); chairman, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds
(Thirty-fifth Congress); delegate to the secession convention of South
Carolina; member of the provisional congress of the Confederacy in Montgomery,
Ala., in February 1861 and in Richmond, Va., in July 1861; raised the Twentieth
South Carolina Regiment of Volunteers and was commissioned its colonel on
January 11, 1862; subsequently promoted to the rank of brigadier general;
wounded in the Battle of Cold Harbor, near Richmond, Va., and died as a result
of his wounds the following day, June 4, 1864; interment in the family
cemetery, near St. Matthews, S.C.
