The Fate of the Confederate Governors

   As the war ground to a close, orders went out for the arrest of various political figures, including both sitting governors and former governors.

Alabama had three men who served as governors. Andrew B. Moore served from 1857 to 1861. The Alabama constitution did not allow Moore to run for a third term, although he remained active in the war effort. Moore was replaced by John G. Shorter, who served one term, and was replaced by Thomas H. Watts, then serving as Confederate Attorney General. Watts served as governor until the end of the war. US Secretary of War Edwin Stanton ordered Moore to be arrested on May 16, 1865. He was imprisoned at Fort Pulaski in Savannah until being released in August 1865. Shorter apparently avoided arrest, while Watts was arrested on May 1, 1865, and sent to Macon, but appears to have been released by mid-June 1865.

Arkansas had three men in the governor’s chair during the war years. Henry M. Rector served from November 16, 1860, until he resigned after losing an election on November 4, 1862; President of the Senate Thomas Fletcher served from November 4, 1862, until November 15, 1862, when Harris Flanagin was elected. Flanagin served until May 26, 1865, often as governor in exile. None of these men appear to have served jail or prison time after the end of the war.

Florida had two war-time governors. Madison S. Perry and John Milton. Perry could only serve two-terms, and following his second term, became colonel of the 7^th Florida Infantry. His health was poor, and he returned to Florida, dying at home in March 1865. John Milton, realizing that the war was over, took his own life on April 1, 1865.

Georgia had one war-time governor: Joseph E. Brown. He was in office from November 6, 1857 to June 17, 1865, when he resigned. Brown was arrested on May 23, 1865 and imprisoned at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. He was released after meeting with President Andrew Johnson. (The Atlanta Constitution, August 7, 1910)

Kentucky, as a border state, is complicated. George W. Johnson was the first Confederate governor. He was serving as an aide-de-camp on Breckinridge’s staff at Shiloh when his horse was shot from under him. Johnson continued on foot, attaching himself to the 4^th Kentucky Infantry (CS). Johnson was mortally wounded in the afternoon of April 7, 1862, dying two days later. Richard Hawes was selected by the state council as Johnson’s replacement, often making his headquarters with the Army of Tennessee. Hawes returned home after the end of the war.

Louisiana had two Confederate governors: Thomas O. Moore and Henry Watkins Allen. Moore could only serve two terms. He returned to his home near Alexandria, but after Federal troops burned his plantation, he fled to Mexico, and then Cuba. He eventually returned to Louisiana. Hawes also lost his home to fire, and with Moore, also went to Mexico. Allen, who was colonel of the 4^th Louisiana infantry, was wounded at Shiloh and Baton Rouge and died of his unhealed wounds in Mexico City on April 22, 1866.

Mississippi had John Pettus and Charles Clark. At war’s end, Pettus, wanted for questioning regarding the Lincoln assassination, went into hiding. He died of pneumonia in Lonoke County, Arkansas, on January 28, 1867. Clark was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski and was held until he took and signed the Oath of Allegiance in September 1865.

Missouri’s Claiborne F. Jackson took office on January 3, 1861, and after June 1861, was basically a governor in exile. Jackson was deposed by the General Assembly in July 1861, followed various Confederate military forces around on campaign, and died in Little Rock, Arkansas, December 7, 1862. Lieutenant Governor Thomas C. Reynolds assumed the role of governor, but really did not have a large role in political affairs. At the end of the war, he also went to Mexico, but returned to St. Louis.

North Carolina had three war-time governors. John W. Ellis led the state out of the Union in May 1861, only to die in July 1861. He was replaced by Speaker of the North Carolina Senate Henry T. Clark. Clark did not pursue election and stepped down at the end of the term in September 1862. Zebulon Baird Vance, colonel of the 26^th North Carolina, was elected as governor twice during the war years. At the end of the war, he attempted to surrender and was told to go home. In Statesville, he was arrested on his birthday, May 13, 1865, and imprisoned in Old Capital Prison. Vance was released after receiving his parole on July 6, 1865.

South Carolina had three men in the role of governor: Francis W. Pickens, Milledge L. Bonham, and Andrew G. Magrath. Pickens and Bonham were limited in the number of terms they could serve. Pickens retired to his plantation, and Bonham was reappointed a Confederate general and served in the Army of Tennessee. Magrath was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski, not being released until December 1865.

Tennessee had only one Confederate governor: Isham G. Harris. After the fall of Nashville, Harris served on the staffs of several Confederate generals, including Joseph E. Johnston, Braxton Bragg, and Albert S. Johnston. The US Congress issued a $5,000 reward for the capture of Harris at the end of the war. He fled to Mexico, then England, only returning to Tennessee once the bounty was removed.

Texas had Sam Houston, who was removed in March 1861; Edward Clark, the lieutenant governor, who lost the election in November 1861; Francis Lubbock who did not run for reelection and stepped aside in November 1863; and Pendleton Murrah.  Houston died in 1863. Clark served as colonel of the 14^th Texas Infantry but fled to Mexico at the end of the war. Lubbock was commissioned lieutenant colonel on the staff of Maj. Gen. John B. Marguder, and then aide-de-camp for Jefferson Davis. Lubbock was captured with Davis in Georgia and imprisoned at Fort Delaware for eight months.

Virginia had two governors. John Letcher and William Smith. Letcher’s arrest order was issued by U.S. Grant, and he was taken into custody on May 20, 1865, and imprisoned at Old Capital Prison. He was released forty-seven days later. Likewise, Smith turned himself in on June 8, 1865, and was paroled.

More information on these governors can be found in Years, editor, The Confederate Governors. For information on biographies on each governor, check out this link.  

Quantrill goes to Richmond

   In the 1860s, with a war going on, the theater of operation for William Quantrill was a long way from the Confederate capitol in Richmond. Some might even say they were worlds apart. Yet the famed Confederate leader took that long trip in January 1863.

   The war waged beyond the Mississippi was brutal, spanning back a decade prior to April 1861. “Bleeding Kansas” had spilled over into the surrounding areas between 1854 and 1859. There were instances of electoral fraud, raids, and violent clashes carried out. The violence continued into the 1860s, spreading over the entire country. William C. Quantrill arrived in Kansas in 1857, and in 1858, joined an army expedition headed to Utah. Quantrill served as a teamster, and most of the group died during the trip. Quantrill returned to Kansas, associated with the Free-Staters, then the proslavery group. At the start of the war, Kansas Jawhawkers, described as “antislavery Unionists,” crossed over into Missouri “to burn and plunder.” Quantrill and others in Missouri organized guerrilla bands to fight against the plunderers.[1] 

William Quantrill (LOC)

   Quantrill served in different groups at the beginning of the war, including Mayes’s 1^st Cherokee Regiment and then Sterling Price’s Missouri State Guard, fighting with the latter at Wilson’s Creek. When Quantrill’s enlistment expired, he was allowed to go home to wage war locally, including cutting telegraph lines, attacking foraging parties, Union garrisons, and disrupting Union activities whenever possible. He returned to Blue Springs, recruited ten men, and joined with others in an attempt to root out Federal forces from their home counties. Quantrill was commissioned a captain in Confederate service.[2]

   In the winter of 1862-1863, with his men in winter quarters, Quantrill set out to visit Richmond and Jefferson Davis, lobbying the Confederate president for a colonel’s commission. It was Quantrill’s argument that he was already commanding enough men to warrant the promotion. Quantrill made his way to Little Rock, catching a train toward Memphis. He was traveling with two fellow soldiers. Memphis was in Federal hands, and at some point, Quantrill moved overland to a train that took him to Jackson, Mississippi. Another train took him to Atlanta, then Columbia, South Carolina. Quantrill then entered North Carolina, passed through Petersburg, and eventually reached Richmond. (It is unclear why Quantrill followed this route, rather than the closer route through Knoxville and Bristol.)[3]

   Jefferson Davis was not in Richmond. He had left Richmond on December 9, reaching Chattanooga on December 11. He visited Murfreesboro, Atlanta, Montgomery, Vicksburg, Augusta, Charlotte, and Raleigh. Davis did not return to Richmond until January 4, 1863.[4]

   Outside of “Christmas time,” it is unclear just when Quantrill arrived. Davis was not present, and Quantrill met with Secretary of War James A. Seddon. There is no really good account of the meeting, but one biographer reported that Quantrill asked Seddon for a colonel’s commission under the Partisan Ranger Act. A much later account had Quantrill stating that he would “cover the armies of the Confederacy all over with blood. I would invade. I would reward audacity. I would exterminate. I would break up foreign enlistments [in indiscriminate massacre. I would win the independence of my people or I would find them graves.” When it came to prisoners, Quantrill stated that he would take no prisoners. “Do they take prisoners from me?” he reportedly questioned Seddon.[5]

   Quantrill was soon on his way back to his command in the Trans-Mississippi department. There is no documentation that the Confederate War Department ever promoted Quantrill to the rank of colonel. However, as Petersen pointed out, several of Quantrill’s men affirmed he was promoted to colonel, something that Quantrill’s commander, Sterling Price, had the authority to do.[6]

   For the next couple of years, Quantrill fought his war. Neither side in the Missouri – Indian Territory-Texas theater took many prisoners. Accounts paint a picture of some of the most vicious violence of the conflict. Quantrill met his end in Kentucky in June 1865, attempting to reach Confederate lines. His trip to Richmond in December 1862 to meet with Jefferson Davis is little documented, both then and today.

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[1] Fellman, “William Clarke Quantrill,” Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, 3:1289.

[2] Peterson, Quantrill in Texas, 49, 52; William E. C. Quantrill, CMSR, NA.

[3] Paterson, Quantrill in Texas, 72-75.

[4] Cooper, Jefferson Davis, American, 417-18.

[5] Schultz, Quantrill’s War, 130-31.

[6] Petersen, Quantrill in Texas, 74-77.

Torn Families – the Merrimans

   We often say that the war was fought “brother vs. brother.” Here is another example, the Merriman family (You can read about two other families here – the Gibbon family and the Flusser family.)

   Eli T. Merriman was born in Bristol, Connecticut, in 1815, graduating from Yale University in 1833, and then studying medicine in Pennsylvania and Vermont. He married another Connecticut native, Jenette Bartholomew. In the 1830s, the family moved to Texas, and Merriman became the first doctor to open a practice in San Marcos, Texas. Merriman served in the Mexican-American War, lived in Brownsville, then Banquette, Corpus Christi, and had six children with Jenette before they divorced. He also served in the Texas Legislature, and during the war, he became a Confederate doctor. He served at hospitals in Texas. His own ranch at Banquette served as a hospital “for the contagious.”[1]

   At least three of Merrimans’ sons served in the war. Two fought for the South, and one for the North.

   Walter Merriman (1835-1911), born in Connecticut, enlisted on January 1, 1863, in Rio Grande Station, in Company D, Duff’s Partisan Corps, which later became the 33^rd Texas Cavalry. He brought his own horse and equipment and was mustered in as a corporal. The only other muster roll in his file is dated July 31, 1863, but he did survive the war. The 33^rd Texas Cavalry was involved in the battle of Nueces and did patrol duty along the Rio Grande.[2]  

   James E. Merriman (1843-1931), born in Connecticut, enlisted in Company K, 8^th Teas Infantry on May 4, 1862, in Corpus Christi. He was mustered in as a private. In October 1862, he was reported on detached service, but he appeared back with his command by the end of year. Merriman appeared present or accounted for through the end of 1864, although he was out sick or in a hospital for part of that time. The 8^th Texas Infantry was involved in the battles of Corpus Christi, Fort Esperanza, and the Red River Campaign.[3]

   Henry E. Merriman (1837-1921), like his brothers, was born in Connecticut and went with the family to Texas. However, Henry returned to Connecticut where he was working in a store when the war began. On August 11, 1862, he enlisted in Company K, 16^th Connecticut Volunteers.  The 16^th Connecticut was involved in the battle of Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Siege of Norfolk, and the battle of Plymouth, North Carolina. At the latter, Merriman was captured and subsequently imprisoned at Andersonville, Florence, and Macon.[4]

   A 1904 newspaper article praised Henry Merriman for sticking it out in prison and not writing to his father asking for assistance in getting released. Given that Doctor Merriman was in localized Texas hospitals, and not the “high ranking” Confederate the post-war newspaper made him out to be, it is unlikely that the doctor could have done anything for Henry. Given the distance and time, one has to wonder if the different members of the Merriman family even knew who was in what army.

  

[1] https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/merriman-eli-t; Hughes, Yale’s Confederates, 143.

[2] Walter Merriman Compiled Service Record, M323, Roll 0163, Record Ground 109, National Archives.

[3] James E. Merriman, Compiled Service Record, M323, Roll 0325, Record Group 109, National Archives.

[4] Hartford Courant, June 14, 1904.

Southern Lighthouses and the War

    While we view lighthouses as interesting pieces of history, they also served a vital role in commerce in the 19^th century. These lighthouses helped guide vessels in and out of ports and away from dangerous areas along the coast. Most commerce was transported by ships. Cotton grown in the South was loaded onto ships and moved to Northern ports, or ports in Europe, for the manufacture of cloth. At times, these finished products were then loaded back onto ships and shipped back to the South. Foodstuffs from foreign ports, iron products from foundries up North, coffee from South America—they were all shipped into Southern ports.

   Federal forts and armories are often mentioned in histories as being captured and surrendered to the Southern states as they withdrew from the Union. Lighthouses were also surrendered or captured. There were approximately 106 lights in the Southern states. Some of those were traditional tall lighthouses that we normally picture on the coast, while others were range lights, light ships, or beacons in rivers and harbors. For example, Fort Sumter, in Charleston, South Carolina, had a range light, completed in 1857. This was considered the front range light, while the steeple of St. Phillip’s Church was the rear light. Fort Sumter was pretty much a pile of rubble after the war ended, and the light was lost.[1]

Mobile Point (AL) Lighthouse (National Archives) 

    After various Southern states took control of the lights, and the North declared war, many of the lenses were removed from the lights and stored for safe keeping. Some lenses wound up in the interior of a state. Others were secreted away close by. The lens and machinery from the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse were buried in an orange grove nearby. The last thing Southern forces wanted to do was aid the Federals in their attempts to blockade Southern ports.[2]

   Many of these towers became observation posts for Confederates, such as the Morris Island Lighthouse in Charleston Harbor, the Sabine Pass Light (Louisiana), the Point Isabel Light (Texas), and the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse (Florida). At the latter, Confederate forces not only observed from the darkened lighthouse, but used torches to signal waiting blockade runners when no Federal vessels were around.[3]

   Some of the towers were destroyed during the war. These include the Morris Island Lighthouse (Charleston); Bald Head Lighthouse (North Carolina); Mobile Point Lighthouse at Fort Morgan (Mobile); Sand Island Lighthouse (Mobile); and Hunting Island (Georgia), (but it’s unclear if the War or erosion destroyed the tower). Bruce Roberts writes that some of the towers that were made out of metal were salvaged by Confederate forces and melted for more important war-time needs. This apparently happened to the Bolivar Point Light near Galveston, Texas.[4]

Others were simply damaged. The Tybee Lighthouse (Georgia) had its lens removed and the top of the tower burnt by state forces. Likewise, the Bayou Bon Fouca Lighthouse was burned by Confederates. Confederate soldiers placed kegs of gunpowder inside the St. Marks Lighthouse (Florida), in an attempt to blow it up, but only damaged the tower. Likewise Confederates used the same method with the Matagorda Light (Texas). While unable to actually take the tower down, they did damage it so badly that it was dismantled in 1867.[5]

Egmont Key Lighthouse (FL) 

   Once the Federals reoccupied an area, they put the lighthouses back in working order. This is true with the lights on Amelia Island (Florida); Cape Henry (Virginia); Hatteras (North Carolina); Cape Lookout (North Carolina); Cape St. George Light (Florida)– (Confederates did hit this tower with a few artillery rounds); and the Skip Island Light (Mississippi – the Federals used the lens captured in a warehouse on Lake Ponchartrain).[6]

   There were, of course, lighthouses that never fell into Confederate hands, such as those around Key West (Florida).

   An interesting comparison study would be the number of ships that grounded out near some port because they had no lights to guide them in. We’ll save that for another post in the future. Another interesting study would be a claim by Mary Clifford. She writes that “Some lights during the Civil War had women keepers paid by the Confederate government.”[7]

  

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[1] https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=1770

[2] Carr, Cape Canaveral, 19-21.

[3] Itkin, “Operations of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron in the Blockade of Florida,” 198.

[4] Roberts, Southern Lighthouses, 90.

[5] Jones, Gulf Coast Lighthouse, 43, 86.

[6] Jones, Gulf Coast Lighthouses,  63.

[7] Clifford, Women Who Kept the Lights, 35.

Federal Prisoner of War Camps in the South

 

   Prisoners of war were an inconvenient reality of the war years. When the first batches arrived in Richmond following the battle of first Manassas, no one really knew what to do with them. Almost 1,300 Federal soldiers were brought to the Confederate capital. Brig. Gen. John H. Winder quickly impressed the John L. Ligon and Sons Tobacco Factory building and converted it into a prison. That was the beginning of the system of military prisons across the South.  

   There were at least 118 military prisons in the South. Many of them were opened for only a short amount of time. For example, the prisons in Alexandria, VA; Boerne, TN; Camp Groce, TX; Camp VanDorn, TX; Charlotte, NC; Dalton, GA; Galveston, TX; Greensboro, NC; Houston, TX; Huntsville, TX; Jackson, MS; Marietta, GA; Millen, GA; St. Augustine, FL; San Antonio Springs, TX; San Pedro Springs, TX; and, Savannah, GA were all open for a year or less, sometimes much less.

      No one is sure how many Union and Confederate soldiers were taken prisoner during the war. Numbers range from 400,000 to 674,000 men. One historian believes that 409,000 of these prisoners were captured Federal soldiers.  

   Major prisons of the South included Camp Sumter in Andersonville, Georgia, with 39,899 prisoners; Camp Lawton in Millen, Georgia, with 10,000 prisoners, many of them transfers from Camp Sumter; Belle Island, Virginia, with 10,000 prisoners; 15,000 in other various Richmond establishments; Danville, Virginia, with 4,000 prisoners; Salisbury, NC, with 10,321 prisoners, Savannah, Georgia, with 6,000 prisoners.

Camp Sumter

   The prison system was a complex operation during the war, and it leads to many different topics for exploration: just how did the system grow during the war years? What types of prisoners were housed at different facilities? What types of soldiers constituted the guard units at prisons? How were prisoners transported between prisoner of war camps? How many escaped? Who were the men responsible for overseeing prisoner of war camps? Was Henry Wirz any more of a war criminal than Albin Francisco Schoepf? How did local churches work with the prisoners in their communities? Were some local citizens sympathetic with the prison population? How brutal were prisoners towards each other? How many Federal prisoners galvanized and joined Confederate regiments? What were the medical situations like not only for the prisoners, but for the guards as well? How did the exchange system break down? What became of the prison sites after the war?

   While there are books on various prisons, I feel the best overview to date is Lonnie R. Speer’s Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War (1997). Over the course of the next few months, my plan is to try and explore many of the topics listed above. I actually have already started with this post a couple of weeks ago. Check out that post here.

Confederate judge impeached by the US – Tennessee’s West Humphreys

Impeachments of judges and justices don’t really happen all that much in our history. By 1862, only three impeachments had been successful – those of Judge John Pickering (1803), Associate Justice Samuel Chase (1804), and Judge James H. Peck (1830). It was probably with a degree of excitement that the trial of District Judge West H. Humphreys began in the US Senate in 1862.

Established by the Constitution in 1878 and the Judiciary Act of 1789, the Federal judicial system has three tiers – district, circuit, and supreme court. District courts lie (usually) within one state, and the judge for that court usually comes from that state. District courts can only hear cases that deal with federal statutes, the Constitution, or treaties. District court judges are appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and are lifetime appointments. 

 
Many Southern states were divided into more than one district. In Alabama, there was a northern and Southern District. William G. Jones was the judge (appointed by James Buchanan in 1850) of both districts within the state of Alabama. With the creation of the Confederate States of America, Jones resigned his judgeship, effective January 12, 1861, and went on to be appointed a district judge for the Confederate States by Jefferson Davis, serving until the end of the war. It seems that most of the Federal district judges resigned and were later appointed to the same post in the Confederate States by Jefferson Davis: Daniel Ringo (Arkansas); McQueen McIntosh (Florida); John C. Nicoll (Georgia); Theodore H. McCaleb and Henry Boyce (Louisiana – resigned US, neither served as Confederate judges); Samuel J. Gholson (Mississippi); Asa Biggs (North Carolina); Andrew G. Magrath (South Carolina); and James D. Halyburton and John W. Brockenbrough (Virginia). However, Judge William Marvin, Southern District of Florida, and Judge Thomas H. Duval, Texas, did not resign and continued to serve as Federal judges throughout the war years. 

 
Judge West H. Humphreys, Federal judge for both districts in Tennessee, also became a Confederate judge for the state of Tennessee. But it appears that Humphreys missed an important step. He did not actually resign his former job, and the Federal government impeached and convicted him for it.

Humphreys was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee in 1806. His father was a state judge. He attended Transylvania University and then read law. Humphreys was in private practice in Clarksville and Somerville from 1828 until 1839. In 1834, he was a member of the state constitutional convention. He was a member of the General Assembly from 1835 to 1838, Attorney General of Tennessee 1839 to 1851, and reporter for the Tennessee Supreme Court those same years. In 1853, Humphreys was nominated to fill the judge’s seat for the United States District Court for Tennessee by President Franklin Pierce.

On July 25, 1861, Jefferson Davis submitted to the Confederate senate the names of two men to be judges, including West H. Humphreys. Nothing really seems to come of Davis’s nomination of Humphreys. On March 26, 1862, Thomas Bragg again submitted the name of Humphreys to Jefferson Davis to be a district court judge. It appears that the senate confirmed Humphreys on March 29.

Word made its way back to Washington, D.C., that Humphreys had taken the position of a Confederate District Judge. The US House impeached Humphreys and appointed managers on May 7, 1862, to go to the Senate to try Humphreys for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

On May 8, 1862, the notification of Humphrey’s impeachment reached the US Senate. The Senate convened as a jury on May 22, with Vice President Hannibal Hamlin presiding. There were seven articles of impeachment. Those articles included public speaking “to incite revolt and rebellion” in Nashville, Tennessee, December 29, 1860; that in early 1861 Humphreys “together with other evil-minded persons within said State, openly and unlawfully support, advocate, and agree to an act commonly called an ordinance of secession”; in 1862 he “unlawfully, and in conjunction with other persons, organized armed rebellion against the United States and levy war against them”; disregarded his duties as a Federal judge by refusing to hold district court; deprived Andrew Johnson and John Catron of their property; and had William G. “Parson” Brownlow arrested. The Secretary then issued a summons that Humphreys appear before the Senate to answer these charges on June 9. The Senate then moved to postpone the trial until June 26. With that, the court adjourned.

The sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, George T. Brown, made his way to Nashville, but was unable to find Humphreys. (Chicago Tribune, June 14, 1862) The Senate published ads in three Washington, D.C., and one Nashville, Tennessee, newspapers, summoning Humphreys to the US Senate. The House managers presented their case, including a list of witnesses that included Jacob McGavock, William H. Polk, Horace Maynard, and William G. Brownlow. The witnesses were examined, and the articles of impeachment were gone through. Humphreys never made an appearance, and the Senate impeached him. Humphreys was removed from office and was disqualified from ever holding an office under the United States again.

Information on Humphreys for the remainder of the war is kind of sparse. There are a few mentions in Robinson’s Justice in Grey regarding a couple of cases, but Humphreys, like most Confederate judicial personnel, slips out of the pages of history. We do know that Humphreys was indicted for conspiracy against the government of the United States. Humphreys was able to resume his law practice in 1866, and continued to practice until 1882. He died on October 16, 1882, and is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee.