Thomas Glascock Bacon was born in Edgefield Village of English
ancestry on the 24th of June, 1812. He was the youngest son of Major
Edmund Bacon, the eloquent and distinguished member of the Edgefield
Bar, and author of the humorous "Georgia Scenes," written under the
nom de plume of Ned Brace. Colonel Bacon's mother was a sister of
Brigadier General Thomas F. Glascock, of Georgia, a gallant and
distinguished officer of the Revolutionary War, and after whom Colonel
Bacon was named. He received the early rudiments of education at the
Edgefield Academy, and when at the proper age he was sent for his
classical education to the Pendleton English and Classical Institute,
under the tutilage of that profound scholar and educator, Prof. S.M.
Shuford. Colonel Bacon was fond of the classics, and had acquired rare
literary attainments, and had he cultivated his tastes in that line
assiduously, he no doubt would have become the foremost scholar of the
State, if not the South. He was passionately fond of manly sports and
out-door exercise. He was a devotee of the turf, and this disposition
led him early in life to the development of fast horses and a breeder
of blooded stock. He was a turfman of the old school, and there were
but few courses in the South that had not tested the mettle of his
stock. But like his brother in arms, Colonel Cash, of the Eighth, and
brother turfman, he became disgusted with the thievery and trickery of
later day sports and quit the turf, still owning at his death some
of the most noted racers of the times, Granger Lynchburg, John Payne,
Glengary, Father Ryan, Ned Brace, and others of lesser note.

He paid much attention to military matters, and held several offices
in the State militia before the war. He, with his friend and superior,
General M.L. Bonham, enlisted in the "Blues" and served in the
Palmetto Regiment in the war with the Seminoles. At the breaking out
of the Civil War he, with Elbert Bland, afterwards Colonel of the