Alexander Robert Lawton

Background

Alexander Robert Lawton was born in St. Peter's Parish, Beaufort District, South Carolina, United States. His parents were Alexander James and Martha Mosse Lawton.

Education

At sixteen Alexander was appointed to the United States Military Academy, where he graduated in 1839. Later he entered the Harvard Law School and graduated in 1842.

Career

Alexander Lawton served as a second lieutenant in the 1st United States Artillery until he resigned in 1841. In 1843 he settled permanently in Savannah, Georgia, where he practiced the law, with certain interludes, until his death.

In 1849-1854 he was president of the Augusta and Savannah Railroad; in 1855-1856, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, and in 1860, a state senator. Before the ordinance had passed, as colonel of the 1st Volunteer Regiment, acting under the orders of Governor Brown, he seized Fort Pulaski, thus committing the first overt act of war in Georgia.

Commissioned brigadier-general in 1861, he was placed in charge of the Georgia coast. He organized a brigade and in June 1862 was transferred with 5, 000 men to Virginia, where, under Jackson, he took part in the Valley campaigns and distinguished himself in the Seven Days' fight around Richmond. In the second battle of Manassas, when Ewell fell wounded, Lawton took charge of his division and commanded it during the advance into Maryland. At the battle of Sharpsburg, he was seriously wounded and was disabled until May 1863. In August of that year, against his own strenuous objection, he was made quartermaster-general of the Confederacy. His management of this most difficult branch of the army was highly successful.

Returning to Savannah at the close of the war, Lawton resumed his practice of law and became an important factor in politics. He entered the lower house of the legislature and served from 1870 to 1875, was chairman of the state electoral college in 1876, member and president pro tempore of the state constitutional convention of 1877, and leader of the Georgia delegation to the National Democratic Convention in 1880 and 1884. In 1880 he was a candidate for the United States Senate but was defeated in a spectacular campaign by former Governor Joseph E. Brown, who had become a Republican and a supporter of the congressional reconstruction policies.

Brown's election was a foregone conclusion; Lawton consented to be sacrificed in order that the conservative principles for which his element stood should not appear to be acquiescing, without a struggle, in the new régime. A contemporary writer regarded this contest as "the last close struggle for supremacy between the spirit that ruled the old South and the spirit of the new South."

Alexander was elected president of the American Bar Association in 1882. His last public service was performed in the capacity of a minister to Austria from 1887 to 1889, a post to which he was appointed by President Cleveland.

Achievements

• Alexander Robert Lawton served with distinction in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and was appointed the Confederacy's second Quartermaster-General. He led his brigade effectively during Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign, the Seven Days Battles, and the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was also important as a political figure in Georgia, serving in various administrative posts.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Brief Record of the Proceedings of the Corporation and People of Savannah in Honor of the Late General Robert Edward Lee, Together With a Eulogy on his Life, Character and Services
  • The Negro in the South and Elsewhere: Annual Address to the Alumni Society of the University of Georgia
  • Corporation and People of Sauannah
  • The Supreme Court in History of the United States and Georgia 1923

Politics

Lawton was a leading advocate of secession, and as a member of the state, Senate supported a resolution favoring immediate withdrawal from the Union.

Personality

Alexander's erect, well-set-up figure, his intellectual force, the culture and good breeding that were evident to all, his ability as a soldier, businessman, and lawyer, marked him as an eminent member of the ruling aristocracy of his time. He stood in the front rank of Southern lawyers. His high professional standing in his own state was attested by impressive tributes at the time of his death.

Connections

On November 5, 1845, Lawton married Sarah Hillhouse Alexander. They had four children, and celebrated their golden wedding in 1895.

Father:

Alexander James Lawton

1790-1876

Mother:

Martha Mosse Lawton(Mosse) Lawton

1788-1836

Wife:

Sarah Gilbert Alexander Lawton

1826-1897

Brother:

Joseph Benjamin Lawton

unknown-1841

Sister:

Adeline Elizabeth Lawton Robert

1810-1866

Brother:

Edward Payson Lawton

1832-1862

Brother:

William Seabrook Lawton

1824-1893

Sister:

Amanda M. Lawton Miller

1816-1838

Daughter:

Corinne Elliott Lawton

1846-1877

Daughter:

Louisa Frederika Lawton Mackall

1849-1925

Daughter:

Nora Lawton Cunningham

1855-1943

Son:

Alexander Rudolph Lawton

1858-1936

References

• Civil War High Commands
  2002
• Who Was Who in the Civil War
  1988
• Generals in Gray Lives of the Confederate Commander
  1959
• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977