Minutemen Reprised: South Carolina 1860

With the presidential election less than three weeks away the tension in the country keeps on building:

From The New-York Times., October 18, 1860:

MINUTE MEN IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
The Charleston Mercury thus notices a new movement in the “Carolina State: ”
” We are glad to see the people of our State everywhere preparing for the crisis which is at hand.  As an offset to the ‘Wide Awakes ‘ of the North, ‘Minute Men’ are organizing in all the Principal districts
of South Carolina. Their object is to form an armed body of men, and to join in with our fellow-citizens, now forming in this and our sister States as ‘ MinuteMen, ‘ whose duty is to arm, equip and drill, and be ready for any emergency that may arise in the present perilous position of the Southern States. In Kershaw, Abbeville and Richland Districts the organization is already complete and powerful, embracing the flower of the youth,  and led on by the most influential citizens. The badge adopted is a blue rosette, two and a half inches in diameter, with a military button in the centre, to be worn upon the side of the hat. Let the important work go bravely on, and let every son of Carolina prepare to mount the blue cockade.”
The correspondent of the Savannah Republican writes from Columbia, S. C. :
” An association of ‘ Minute Men’ was formed here last week, which already numbers about three hundred members. They have meetings nearly every night,and I learn that more than sixty men were initiated last night. Similar associations are being formed in various parts of the State, and the movement is spreading rapidly. I cannot better describe its objects than by copying the preamble to the constitution:
” We, the undersigned citizens of South Carolina, in view of the impending crisis, necessarily incident upon the election of a Black Republican to the Presidency of these United States; and in view of our duties to our section, ourselves and our dearest interests, which must fall in the event of the triumph of Northern fanaticism, hereby form ourselves into an association, under the name and style of the ‘Minute Men ;’ and do further solemnly pledge ‘ our lives our fortunes, and our sacred honor,’ to sustain Southern constitutional equality in the Union, or, failing in that, to establish our independence out of it ” –
The members are required to wear a blue cockade on the left side of the hat ; and, also, as soon as possible, to procure a Colt’s revolver, a rifle, or some other approved firearm. A public demonstration is to be made on Friday night ; and, if one may be permitted to judge from the blue cockades seen about the streets, the demonstration will be an important one, not only in numbers, but in the character of the men composing it. In public procession, the members are required to “carry a lantern, flambeau, or other demonstrative implement” appropriate to the occasion.

• For a scholarly analysis of how the Minute Men in South Carolina’s Upcountry were involved in the secession movement check out this article from The Journal of Southern History at BNET
• Paramilitary organizations seem to have been widespread throughout the United States in 1860. The Seneca Falls, New York newspaper in 1860 mentioned a “Jackson Guard”. It also reported on a company of Zouaves that was being formed locally.
• Confederate Secession Cockades reviews the history of cockades (including the meaning of macaroni in “Yankee Doodle Dandy”) and has some Civil war era photos of people wearing cockades.
• Fannie A. Beers was a woman from the North who married a Southerner. She nursed Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Project Gutenberg publishes her Memories, which does mention Minute Men and blue cockades
• As always I’d appreciate any comments

The original Minutemen ca. 1775