Allen, Henry Watkins (29 April 1820–22 April 1866), Confederate soldier and governor of Louisiana, was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, the son of Thomas Allen, a physician, and Ann Watkins. Allen and his family moved from Virginia to Ray County, Missouri, when he was thirteen. His father secured him a position working in a store, but Allen found business distasteful and enrolled in Marion College at age fifteen. At seventeen he ran away from college and traveled to Grand Gulf, Mississippi, where he became a tutor on a plantation a few miles outside of town. After tutoring for two years, Allen moved to Grand Gulf to open his own school and to study law. On 25 May 1841 he received his license to practice law in Mississippi. In 1842, when Allen was becoming an established lawyer in Mississippi, President ...
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Allen, Henry Watkins (1820-1866), Confederate soldier and governor of Louisiana
Kathryn D. Snavely
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Benning, Henry Lewis (1814-1875), soldier and jurist
Edward G. Longacre
Benning, Henry Lewis (02 April 1814–10 July 1875), soldier and jurist, was born in Columbia County, Georgia, the son of Pleasant Moon Benning and Malinda Meriwether White, planters. In 1834 he graduated with honors from the University of Georgia, Athens. Soon afterward he moved to Columbus, where he was admitted to the bar. Barely two years after entering upon his profession, Benning was appointed solicitor general for his judicial circuit. In 1839 he married Mary Howard Jones, daughter of a prominent Columbus attorney with whom Benning formed a partnership. They had ten children....
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Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes (1823-1862), lawyer and Confederate congressman and military officer
Thomas D. Morris
Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes (10 April 1823–13 December 1862), lawyer and Confederate congressman and military officer, was born in Jefferson County, Georgia, the son of John Addison Cobb, a planter, and Sarah Robinson Rootes. His older brother, Howell Cobb—congressman, governor, and secretary of the treasury under ...
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Daniel, John Warwick (1842-1910), Confederate soldier, legal scholar, and U.S. senator
Thomas E. Gay
Daniel, John Warwick (05 September 1842–29 June 1910), Confederate soldier, legal scholar, and U.S. senator, was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, the son of William Daniel, Jr., a lawyer and judge, and Sarah Ann Warwick. He attended private schools in the Lynchburg area; after attending Lynchburg College from 1855 to 1859, he enrolled in a classical school administered by Dr. Gessner Harrison. When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, Daniel interrupted his education to enlist in the cavalry. He rose to major and fought in several battles, including Gettysburg. At the battle of the Wilderness in 1864 he received a wound that put him on crutches for the remainder of his life and earned him the sobriquet of the “Lame Lion of Lynchburg.”...
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Duke, Basil Wilson (1838-1916), Confederate general and lawyer
Lowell H. Harrison
Duke, Basil Wilson (28 May 1838–16 September 1916), Confederate general and lawyer, was born in Scott County, Kentucky, the son of Nathaniel Wilson Duke, a naval officer, and Mary Currie. After attending Centre College in 1854–1855, he received a law degree from Transylvania University. Admitted to the bar in 1858, Duke began a law practice in St. Louis but soon was involved in prosecessionist activities as the nation moved toward the Civil War. Charged with treason by a federal grand jury, Duke returned to Kentucky in June 1861, and that year he married Henrietta Morgan, the sister of ...
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Early, Jubal Anderson (1816-1894), lawyer, Confederate soldier, and author
Gary W. Gallagher
Early, Jubal Anderson (03 November 1816–02 March 1894), lawyer, Confederate soldier, and author, was born near Rocky Mount, Franklin County, Virginia, the son of Joab Early, a substantial holder of land and slaves, and Ruth Hairston. Educated as a youth at the best local schools, Early entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1833 and graduated eighteenth in the class of 1837. “I was not a very exemplary soldier,” he later wrote, “and went through the Academy without receiving any appointment as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer in the corps of cadets.” Joining the Third Artillery as a second lieutenant on 1 July 1837, he served in Florida against the Seminoles and was promoted to first lieutenant on 7 July 1838. Early never intended to make the military his permanent career, however, and resigned effective 31 July 1838. He returned to Rocky Mount to read law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, and practiced in Franklin County for the next twenty years....
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Fenner, Charles Erasmus (1834-1911), soldier, jurist, and education leader
Gordon Morris Bakken
Fenner, Charles Erasmus (14 February 1834–24 October 1911), soldier, jurist, and education leader, was born in Jackson, Tennessee, the son of Erasmus Darwin Fenner and Annie America Callier. Fenner’s father was a prominent physician in New Orleans and the founder of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal...
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Gary, Martin Witherspoon (1831-1881), lawyer, politician, and Confederate general
Orville Vernon Burton
Gary, Martin Witherspoon (25 March 1831–09 April 1881), lawyer, politician, and Confederate general, was born in Cokesbury, South Carolina, the son of Thomas Reeder Gary, a physician, and Mary Anne Porter. Thomas Gary was a wealthy, upcountry slave owner. In addition to practicing medicine, he farmed and represented Abbeville District for two terms in the state legislature. Martin Gary was a pupil at the Cokesbury Methodist Conference school. He attended South Carolina College but was expelled along with others in his junior class for rebelling against an unpopular teacher. He graduated from Harvard with honors in June 1854. In November of that year he went to Edgefield, South Carolina, to study law with Chancellor James P. Carroll and was admitted to the bar in May 1855. Until his death, Gary maintained a highly successful criminal law practice in Edgefield. Reared a Methodist, he joined the Trinity Episcopal Church in Edgefield and became a vestryman....
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Gholson, Samuel Jameson (1808-1883), jurist and general
Timothy S. Huebner
Gholson, Samuel Jameson (19 May 1808–16 October 1883), jurist and general, was born in Madison County, Kentucky. Little is known of his parents, but it is certain that the family moved to Russellville in northern Alabama in 1817. There Gholson studied law with Judge Peter Martin and gained admission to the bar in 1829. A year later, the young lawyer crossed the border into northeastern Mississippi, where he settled in Athens in Monroe County and established a law practice....
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Gregg, John (1828-1864), lawyer and Confederate general
D. Scott Hartwig
Gregg, John (28 September 1828–07 October 1864), lawyer and Confederate general, was born in Lawrence County, Alabama, the son of Nathan Gregg, one of the area’s first white settlers, and Sarah Pearsall. Gregg moved with his family to La Grange, Alabama, when he was about eight years old. In 1847 he graduated from La Grange College, after which he taught school and studied law in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1852 he moved to Centerville, Texas, where he remained a short time before moving to Fairfield, Texas, where he practiced law. Gregg married Mollie Winston (date unknown). Following her death, he married Mary Frances Garth in 1855. Both marriages were childless. In 1856 he was appointed judge of the Thirteenth District and served in that position until 1860. Gregg enthusiastically supported secession and was appointed to the convention of January 1861 that took Texas out of the Union. He subsequently was a member of the Texas delegation to the Provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Alabama....
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Hindman, Thomas Carmichael (1828-1868), general and congressman
Carl H. Moneyhon
Hindman, Thomas Carmichael (28 January 1828–27 September 1868), general and congressman, was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Thomas Carmichael Hindman and Sallie Holt. His father moved to Jacksonville, Alabama, in 1832 as an Indian agent of the federal government and then to Ripley, Tippah County, Mississippi, in 1841, where he operated a large plantation. As the son of a well-to-do family, Hindman attended a variety of local private schools and graduated in 1846 from the Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial Institute located near Princeton, New Jersey....
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Hindman, Thomas Carmichael (1828-1868)
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Imboden, John Daniel (1823-1895), army officer and lawyer
Steven E. Woodworth
Imboden, John Daniel (16 February 1823–15 August 1895), army officer and lawyer, was born near Staunton in Augusta County, Virginia, the son of George William Imboden and Isabella Wunderlich. Little is known of his parents except that his father fought in the War of 1812. He attended Washington College in 1841 and 1842. Later, in Staunton, he read law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced for some years. He served two terms in the state legislature. After the election of ...
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Imboden, John Daniel (1823-1895)
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Johnston, Albert Sidney (1803-1862), Confederate general
Wiley Sword
Johnston, Albert Sidney (02 February 1803–06 April 1862), Confederate general, was born in Washington, Kentucky, the son of John Johnston, a physician, and Abigail Harris. Raised by a stepmother following the death of his mother when he was three, Johnston aspired to follow in his father’s footsteps. He studied medicine at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he became a close friend of ...
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Kershaw, Joseph Brevard (1822-1894), lawyer, soldier, and politician
Rod Paschall
Kershaw, Joseph Brevard (05 January 1822–13 April 1894), lawyer, soldier, and politician, was born in Camden, South Carolina, the son of John Kershaw, a judge, and Harriette Du Bose. The Kershaws were a distinguished South Carolina family. Joseph was named for his paternal grandfather, who had immigrated to America from England in 1748 and was prominent in the American Revolution. Joseph’s father was mayor of Camden for several years and served one term in the U.S. Congress. Joseph studied for a career in law in the offices of the distinguished South Carolina lawyer John M. De Saussure and passed the South Carolina bar at age twenty-one. In 1844 he married Lucretia Douglas; the couple had one son and four daughters. After practicing for several years, beginning in June 1844, he participated in the Mexican War as a volunteer, serving as a lieutenant in South Carolina’s Palmetto Regiment. In Mexico, he saw action in several battles but became ill and was evacuated back to the United States in June 1847. Kershaw was elected to the South Carolina state legislature in 1852 and 1854, and he was a member of the state’s 1860 secession convention that met in Charleston, South Carolina....
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Maney, George Earl (1826-1901), soldier, lawyer, and diplomat
Thomas Schoonover
Maney, George Earl (24 August 1826–09 February 1901), soldier, lawyer, and diplomat, was born in Franklin, Tennessee, the son of Thomas Maney and Rebecca Southall, occupations unknown. Maney attended the Nashville Seminary and graduated from the University of Nashville in 1845. He served in the Mexican War as a second lieutenant in the First Tennessee Infantry from 28 May 1846 until honorably discharged on 7 September 1846 and as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Infantry and the Third U.S. Dragoons from 6 March 1847 until honorably mustered out on 31 July 1848. The Third Dragoons participated in General ...
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Morgan, John Hunt (1825-1864), soldier and Confederate general
R. B. Rosenburg
Morgan, John Hunt (01 June 1825–04 September 1864), soldier and Confederate general, was born in Huntsville, Alabama, the son of Calvin Cogswell Morgan, a wholesale merchant and planter, and Henrietta Hunt, the daughter of an entrepreneur. When Morgan was six years old, his family relocated to Fayette County, Kentucky, near Lexington. He attended Transylvania University but was suspended for dueling and never completed his studies. During the Mexican War he served in a volunteer cavalry regiment that distinguished itself at Buena Vista in 1847. Desiring a career in the military but denied the opportunity, Morgan became a businessman, investing in hemp manufacturing and the woolen industry, as well as the slave trade. He also was active for several years in the Kentucky militia, forming a sixty-man company known as the “Lexington Rifles.” In 1848 Morgan had married Rebecca Bruce. After giving birth to a stillborn child, she lingered as an invalid for eight years prior to her death in July 1861. Seventeen months later, Morgan married twenty-one-year-old Martha Ready of Murfreesboro, Tennessee....
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Morgan, John Hunt (1825-1864)
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Pike, Albert (1809-1891), lawyer, soldier, and Masonic scholar
Mark C. Carnes
Pike, Albert (29 December 1809–02 April 1891), lawyer, soldier, and Masonic scholar, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Benjamin Pike, a cobbler, and Sarah Andrews. The boy was torn between his father, whose irreverence and drinking scandalized neighbors, and his mother, who read the Bible to her only son daily and planned on his entering the ministry. In 1813, seeking to supplement his income by farming, Benjamin Pike moved the family to Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 1825 Albert was sent to live with his uncle, a teacher at Framingham Academy, who soon learned that Pike had a prodigious memory that enabled him to digest large volumes and recall their contents at will; the boy learned Hebrew, Latin, and Greek almost effortlessly. Eight months after his arrival in Framingham, Pike passed the entrance examination for Harvard College. He could not afford the tuition, however, so, instead of enrolling at Harvard, he taught common school at Gloucester. The following year Harvard agreed to admit him as a junior, but school officials insisted that he pay the first two years’ tuition. Outraged, Pike abandoned his dreams of a formal education....
