ANDERSON — To celebrate its 25th anniversary on Oct. 25, the Anderson County Museum has borrowed pieces of our area’s history for display.

When the museum opens on Oct. 25, three new displays will be available for the first time at the museum — Barnard E. Bee’s sword, on loan from the South Carolina State Museum, the Orr Rifles flag and the 371st flag are on loan from Confederate Relic Room and Miltary Museum in Columbia, SC; Manse Jolly’s family letters, on loan from the Anderson University Library.

Each of the displays provides insight to Anderson County and its place in South Carolina and United States history, if not world history. The Independent-Mail will look at one exhibit per week between now and the museum’s anniversary.

The Orr Rifles flag and the 371st flag are symbolic not in what company they belonged to, but who belonged to company.

Orr’s Rifles company was the company of James L. Orr, said Alison Hinman, curator of the Anderson County Museum.

Orr spoke out for years against secession, but when it appeared that secession could not be avoided, Orr joined with those from his home state and formed the first South Carolina regiment to the Confederate States of America.

Of the 1,521 men in the unit, at the end of the war, when the flag was brought home, 334 officers and men had been killed, 201 were dead from disease and 791 had been wounded, leaving less than 13 percent of their original number.

Orr went on to become the first governor of South Carolina during reconstruction, Hinman said.

For the 371st Regiment, little remains of the group of African Americans who served as infantrymen for France.

“The regiment was just disbanded at the end of the war,” Hinman said. “The members took their things home, if they came home, and little of the regiment remains.”

But one member of the regiment, Freddie Stowers, remains a hero in America, even though he is buried in France.

Stowers was awarded the medal of honor for his service during World War I, even though it was awarded posthumously.

During the battle of Cote 188 in 1918, near Ardeuil, France, the 371st was among a group fighting the Germans.

“The German troops raised the white flag in surrender,” Hinman said. “But it was a ruse. Instead they attacked the regiments.”

Stowers found himself in command and led his troops into battle.

Even though he was shot twice, he continued to lead his men, until he succumbed to his wounds.

Shortly after his death, his commander recommended him for the Medal of Honor, Hinman said.

“But the paperwork was lost,” she said.

In 1990, the Department of the Army conducted a review of his record and awarded him the medal, some 73 years after he was killed in action.

Stowers is buried, however, in Meuse-Argonne Cemetery Romagne-Meuse, France.

The flags will be on display until March 30, 2009.