Alan:
Cherokee County, S.C. was not created out of Spartanburg, Union, and York Counties until about 1900. The context of the letter is that he was living in Cherokee County at the time he wrote the letter. The names of the men who were casualties are for the most part men from the "Dark Corner" of old Edgefield Diostrict, around what is now Plum Branch and Parksville, in present day McCormick County (created in 1916). Its a fascinating letter. There was one other Freeman in the company, William W. Freeman, the son of Charles Freeman, a major planter who lived about three miles west of Plum Branch, at the intersection of the old Augusta to Willington Road and Ferguson Ferry Road going into Georgia. The old Freeman home, built in about 1835, still stands. I assume that he was either the son of Charles or a nephew, probably the latter. He writes to his parents and family, mentioning names of men who were obviously from Alabama (or at least not from old Edgefield). I suspect that he had recently moved to Alabama, and hence he came home to enlist with his former neighbors and relatives, a not uncommon occurrence.
I have a feeler out to see if I can't locate him in Alabama. All of the news articles are from Alabama newspapers.
I will keep you posted.
Lee