Alexander Robert Chisolm was an American soldier, financier, and editor.
Background
Alexander Robert Chisolm was the son of Edward Newfville Chisolm of Beaufort and Chisolm’s Island, South Carolina, who married, December 14, 1831, Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Major William Wigg Flazzard of Hazzard’s Neck, Port Royal, South Carolina. Alexander Robert was born on November 19, 1834 at Beaufort, South Carolina, United States, but both parents died while he was still a child, and his youth was passed in New York City under the guardianship of relatives. His father was the owner of an extensive estate on the coast near Charleston, which had descended to him through four generations from his ancestor, Alexander Chisholm, a lowland Scot, who emigrated to Carolina in 1717.
Education
Chisholm studied for a short time at Columbia College but in 1852 returned to South Carolina.
Career
In 1852 Chisolm took up his residence on Chisolm’s Island a short distance from Charleston and assumed charge of the plantations which he had inherited from his father, together with the 250 slaves thereon. When the Civil War became imminent he joined the South Carolina forces, being commissioned lieutenant-colonel by Governor Pickens, March 2, 1861. Because of his intimate knowledge of the approaches by water to Charleston, he became personal aide to General Beauregard who was in command of the troops in that neighborhood.
He was the bearer of the first communication from Beauregard, March 26, to Major Robert Anderson, commanding Fort Sumter, relative to the impending evacuation of that post, and, April 11, personally conveyed to Anderson Beauregard’s demand for its surrender. The following day he was present when the first gun of the war was discharged— some accounts stating that he personally gave the order to open fire upon the fort. Thenceforth, throughout the war, he remained on Beauregard’s personal staff.
At Bull Run campaign he was conspicuous by reason of taking part, though a staff officer, in the Black Horse Cavalry charge, and during the battle of Shiloh all Beauregard’s orders were transmitted through him. He “was seldom at a loss for resources in an emergency, ” and at all times he enjoyed the complete confidence and friendship of his chief.
At the close of the war he signed at Greensboro, North Carolina, on behalf of General Joseph E. Johnston the parole of the latter’s troops east of the Mississippi. On returning to private life, he established a cotton and shipping firm in Charleston in partnership with Major Edward Willis, but in 1869 he moved to New York City where he entered into the stock brokerage business, trading as A. R. Chisolm & Company, and being one of the promoters of the New York Consolidated Stock Exchange.
In March 1877 he founded the Mining Record, a weekly paper devoted to the mining resources of the country, with General Thomas Jordan, a former army colleague, as editor, becoming himself co-editor in December 1882. The scope of the paper was subsequently enlarged to cover the financial, railway, and petroleum fields and its name changed to the Financial and Mining Record, novel features being the creation of assay and law departments—the latter expressly stated to be “in the interests of the capitalists who are willing to invest their money for the development of the mines. ”
Later Chisolm was the subject of adverse criticism, the suggestion being that his position as proprietor of an ostensibly impartial financial publication was incompatible with that of an active member of the stock exchange, and in July 1890 he disposed of his interest in the Record and retired from the editorship. He contributed to Battles and Leaders of the Civil War the following articles, “Notes on the Surrender of Fort Sumter”, “The Shiloh Battle-Order, and the Withdrawal Sunday evening”, and “The Failure to Capture Hardee”.
Achievements
Alexander Robert Chisolm was recognized for his military service during the American Civil War. He was actively engaged in the battles of Bull Run, Shiloh, and Drury’s Bluff, and in the sieges of Charleston and Petersburg. He was also known as well as the founder of the newspaper called the Mining Record.
Connections
On April 7, 1875, Chisolm was married to Helen Margaret, widow of William Irving Graham and daughter of General Richard L. Schieffelin.
