Hampton's Legion came under the command of General Longstreet and was active in the battles of Virginia through mid-1863 before being transferred to help the Army of Tennessee in the latter part of the year.

[3] The Brigade was transferred to the Cavalry Corps, Army of Northern Virginia in January 1865, but Gary refused to surrender with General Lee at Appomattox.

Instead he led 200 men of his brigade to escort President Davis and his cabinet from Greensboro, North Carolina, to his mother's house in Cokesbury, where he ended his service as a Confederate soldier.

"[citation needed] Gary worked with white paramilitary groups, rifle clubs and the Red Shirts, who organized in 1874 to suppress black voting in the state.

[1] In the summer of 1876, Matthew Calbraith Butler wrote to his former commander, Wade Hampton III, urging him to seek the governorship in the upcoming election.

It called for the bribery or intimidation of African-American Republican voters by local Democratic "rifle clubs" or "Red Shirts," formed ostensibly to attend campaign events and to ensure order at polling places.

[1] The Red Shirts conducted parades and rode openly at political gatherings with the overt goal of overturning the Republicans.

Gary's tactics helped Hampton to win, as black Republican voting was deeply suppressed in Aiken and Edgefield counties.

In return, he ordered the withdrawal of Federal troops from South Carolina and Louisiana, ending the formal Reconstruction era.