However, South Carolina's secession and the subsequent outbreak of the Civil War delayed his plans to establish a law practice.

Enlisting in the Confederate Army in April 1861, Kennedy became captain of Company E, 2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment, under fellow Camden resident Col. Joseph Brevard Kershaw.

Kennedy's first action in command of a regiment occurred at a skirmish on the Nine-Mile Road near Richmond, Virginia, in June 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign.

However, he fell painfully wounded in the first charge, struck in the instep and Achilles tendon while crossing a wooden fence along the Hagerstown Pike.

Once again recovering in time for a major battle, Kennedy led the 2nd and 8th South Carolina to the support of Gen. Howell Cobb at Marye's Heights, the focus of the hottest fighting at Fredericksburg.

He took part in the Carolinas Campaign against William T. Sherman, including the Battle of Bentonville, and surrendered with Johnston's army at Greensboro.

In 1911, Camden officials erected the Confederate Memorial Fountain, a six-sided structure with tablets on each column commemorating Kennedy and five other generals born in Kershaw County.