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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Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes (1823-1862), lawyer and Confederate congressman and military officer
Thomas D. Morris
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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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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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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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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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John D. Imboden. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-2142).
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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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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....
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Pike, Albert (1809-1891)
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Albert Pike. Photoprint, c. 1886. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-100590).
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Pillow, Gideon Johnson (1806-1878), soldier, lawyer, and planter
E. C. Bearss
Pillow, Gideon Johnson (08 June 1806–08 October 1878), soldier, lawyer, and planter, was born in a log cabin in Williamson (now Maury) County, Tennessee, the son of Gideon Pillow, a pioneer planter, and Annie Payne. Gideon graduated from the University of Nashville in 1827 and, after reading law for three years in the offices of two judges, was admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1830. He hung out his shingle in Columbia, and, possessed of a “quick mind and a powerful speaking voice,” his civil and criminal practice flourished. In 1831 Pillow married Mary Elizabeth Martin. The union was blessed with ten children. The Martins were an affluent Middle Tennessee family, and Mary was a good manager, capable of overseeing family and business interests during her husband’s long absences from home....
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Taliaferro, William Booth (1822-1898), lawyer, politician, and soldier
John Hennessy
Taliaferro, William Booth (22 December 1822–27 February 1898), lawyer, politician, and soldier, was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, the son of Warren T. Taliaferro, a prominent Eastern Shore attorney, and Frances Booth. After graduating from the College of William and Mary in 1841, Taliaferro attended Harvard then returned to Gloucester County to practice law. Since the age of sixteen Taliaferro had held a commission in the Virginia militia, and in 1847 he applied for and received a commission as captain in the Eleventh U.S. Infantry. As a company commander, he served at the siege of Veracruz and the battles that punctuated the advance on Mexico City. He ended the Mexican War as a major in the Ninth U.S. Infantry. In 1853 he married Sally N. Lyons; they had eight children. Taliaferro was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1850, serving until 1853, and rose to the rank of major general in Virginia state military service. In that capacity, in November 1859, he took command of the Virginia militia at Harpers Ferry after the failure of the raid led by ...
