Wigfall, Louis

The early years

Louis Wigfall was born on a plantation near , South Carolina , in the family of Levy Duran and Eliza Thompson Wigfall. His father, who died in 1818, was a successful merchant in Charleston before moving to Edgfield. His mother was from the French Huguenot family of Trezewan. She died when Louis was 13 years old. Louis's elder brother, Hamden, was killed in a duel, and the other, Arthur, became bishop of the Episcopal Church. ^[1]

Until 1834, Wigfall worked as a private teacher, after which he studied for a year at the Rice Creek Springs School , a military school for the children of aristocrats near Columbia . Then Wigfall entered the University of Virginia , where he challenged a student to insult him, but the conflict was resolved by the world ^[2] .

In 1836, Wigfall went to college in South Carolina (now the University of South Carolina ) to complete his education, but often missed classes. He showed interest in jurisprudence, took part in discussion clubs, and wrote messages on the rights of students. However, Wigfall spent more time in taverns rather than in class ^[3] . To take part in the Third Seminole War in Florida , he left school for three months. In this war, Wigfall rose to the rank of volunteer lieutenant. However, despite poor schooling, he managed to graduate from college in 1837 ^[4] . During his studies, Wigfall's best friend was , who later became Governor of South Carolina ^[4] .

In 1829, Wigfall returned to Edgfield, where he began to lead his brother's law office. However, he soon squandered the entire inheritance and, having a penchant for drunkenness and gambling, got into debt ^[4] . To support this lifestyle, Wigfall hired money from his friends, including his second cousin and future bride Charlotte Maria Cross, whom he married in 1841. She was the daughter of Colonel George Warren Cross, a well-known lawyer and former South Carolina State Inspector. However, working as a simple clerk did not suit the temperamental and purposeful Wigfall, and also was not as profitable as he had hoped ^[4] .

Beginning of a Political Career

In the 1840 governorship in South Carolina, Wigfall actively supported the candidacy of in the fight against the more radical , which led to public debate and insults. For five months, Wigfall had to participate in a fight, two duels, and he was also accused of murder. This outbreak of political violence ended in 1840 on an island in the middle of the Savannah River near Augusta , Georgia, where Wigfall was wounded in both hips during a duel with future Congressman Preston Brooks. ^[5] Although Hammond lost the election, he tried to reconcile two hot young people. Wigfall eventually became an adjutant and lieutenant colonel in the office of Governor Richardson, but was never completely satisfied with the outcome of the Brooks incident ^[6] .

This beginning of political activity and the conflict with Brooks ruined Wigfall's legal practice. In 1844, he was elected a delegate to the Congress of the Democratic Party of South Carolina, but his explosive nature and backroom games nullified his political ambitions. Wigfall has accumulated a lot of medical bills for the treatment of his sickly young son, who eventually died. Debt confiscated his property in Edgefield. His cousin from Texas , former Governor of South Carolina, , made Wigfall a partner in the new law firm ^{[7] [8]} .

Wigfall's reputation as a duelist is often exaggerated, and haunted him all his life, even when he stopped participating in fights after his marriage. Nevertheless, he continued to consider the dueling code an important “factor in improving the mores and customs of society” ^[9] .

Relocation to Texas

Arriving in Texas in 1848, Wigfall became a partner of at a law firm in Nakodoches , and then settled in Marshall . Wigfall soon returned to politics: from 1849 to 1850 he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives, and from 1857 to 1859 - a Texas senator. Wigfall became Sam Houston 's constant political adversary. When Houston ran for governor in 1857, Wigfall followed him on a campaign trip, criticizing his appearances in the state senate at every stop in Houston and accusing him of betraying the South . He claimed that Houston intends to run for president of the United States and sought the support of the northern abolitionists. ^[4]

US Senator

In 1859, the Texas Legislature elected Wigfall to the US Senate to end the term of deceased James Pinckney Henderson . After Henderson's death, Matthias Ward was appointed to the Senate, who served there from September 27, 1858 until the election of Wigfall and swearing him on December 5, 1859. ^[10] Wigfall resigned from the Senate on March 23, 1861. In the same year, he was a member of the delegation from Texas at the Interim Congress of the United States , which formed the interim government, and Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederation.

Civil War

A few days before the outbreak of hostilities, Wigfall called for an attack on Fort Sumter and in Florida to encourage Virginia and the other northern states of the South to join the Confederation. He arrived in Charleston when the siege of Fort Sumter began. As adjutant to General Boregar during the bombing of Fort Sumter , Wigfall, not informing the leadership, sailed in a boat to the island on which the fort was located, and demanded surrender from Major ^{[11] [12]} . This incident was widely covered in newspapers and made him a celebrity, but one important detail was not mentioned - Wigfall did not talk with Beauregard for two days. When the authorized emissaries arrived at the fort, they were shocked to learn that Wigfall presented Anderson with conditions that Beauregard had already rejected ^[12] .

Thanks to his fame, Wigfall was appointed colonel , and soon became a brigadier general of the Texas Brigade . He settled next to his brigade's camp in a tavern in , Virginia , where he lived during the winter of 1861-1862. At night, he often called for arms, as he dreamed of an invasion of the federation troops ^[13] . His nervousness was due to addiction to whiskey and strong cider. He repeatedly appeared in the service and in unofficial time in front of his subordinates while intoxicated ^{[14] [15]} . In February 1862, Wigfall resigned to become a Confederate Senator , and John Bell Hood was appointed in his place ^[16] .

Post-war activities

After the end of hostilities, Wigfall, in the company of Texas soldiers with fake parole documents, fled to Texas. In 1866, he left for London , where he was engaged in intrigues, trying to provoke a conflict between Britain and the United States. Returning to the United States in 1870, Wigfall bought the mine at ^[17] He lived for some time in Baltimore , Maryland , and in January 1874 he moved to Galveston , Texas ^[18] . A month later, Wigfall died of a stroke and was buried in a local episcopal cemetery ^[19] .

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• Louise Wigfall Wright. A Southern Girl in '61: The War-Time Memories of a Confederate Senator's Daughter. - New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1905.
• David J. Eicher. Dixie Betrayed: How the South Really Lost the Civil War. - University of Nebraska Press, 2007 .-- ISBN 0-8032-6017-2 .
• JB Polley. Hood's Texas Brigade: Its Marches, Its Battles, Its Achievements. - Morningside Bookshop, 1988 .-- ISBN 0-89029-037-X .
• Harold B. Simpson. Hood's Texas Brigade: Lee's Grenadier Guard. - Texas Press, 1970. - ISBN 1-56013-009-1 .
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• Carolyn S. Billups, Richard Thomas Zarvona. Lady Louise founder of the Maryland Division United Daughters of the Confederacy: a compilation of official records, newspaper articles and book references on the lives of Louise Wigfall Wright and Daniel Giraud Wright and their descendants as well as David Gregg McIntosh and Virginia Johnson ... - CS Billups, 2000.

• Wigfall, Louis Trezevant . Biographical Directory of the US Congress. Date of treatment October 12, 2012. Archived December 14, 2012.
• Alvy L. King. Wigfall, Louis Trezevant ( Neopr .) (HTML). Handbook of Texas Online . Texas State Historical Association. Date of treatment October 12, 2012. Archived December 14, 2012.