Louis Trezevant Wigfall was born on April 21, 1816 near Edgefield, S. C. , the son of Levi Durand Wigfall, a planter, and Eliza (Thompson) Wigfall. He was the great-grandson of Levi Durand, an Anglican clergyman who emigrated to South Carolina early in the eighteenth century.
He attended the University of Virginia the session of 1834-35 and in 1837 graduated from South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina.
Admitted to the bar in 1839, he was soon in bitter political feud, killing young Thomas Bird, and receiving and inflicting a wound in a duel with Preston Smith Brooks. He favored the secession of South Carolina in 1844 in protest against the protective tariff and defeat of the Texas annexation treaty. Meantime he married Charlotte Maria Cross, the daughter of George Warren Cross of Charleston. Three of their five children reached maturity. Removing to Texas Wigfall settled at Marshall in 1848. Early in the crisis of 1849-50 he again declared for separation from the North, hoping that South Carolina would strike the blow necessary to unite the South. As a member of the House of Representatives of Texas in 1850, he led the unsuccessful opposition to the cession of the disputed Santa Fé Territory. In 1857 he was elected to the state Senate, where he became the leader of the "Southern-rights" Democrats and was chosen to the federal Senate in December 1859 over the opposition led by his bitter enemy, Sam Houston. In the Senate he contended that it was the duty of the federal government to protect slave property in the territories. He supported Breckinridge in 1860, justifying secession upon the compact theory, upon the reservation of this right by three states, and upon international law affecting treaties. He was one of the authors of the Southern address signed December 14, 1860, urging secession and organization of the confederacy. By refraining from voting, Wigfall and five other Southerners enabled the Republicans on January 16, 1861, to deal the death blow to "Crittenden's compromise. " As the turbulent session drew to a close he challenged: "We have dissolved the Union; mend it if you can; cement it with blood . " The Senate at times went into uproar over his caustic language. He was a ready and commanding speaker, erect and powerful in physique, featured by "a straight, broad brow, a mouth coarse and grim, yet full of power, a square jaw eyes of wonderful depth and light, flashing, fierce, yet calm . " On hearing Lincoln's inaugural he predicted war and urged that the Confederacy take the forts, Sumter and Pickens, before reinforcements could reach them. He prolonged his stay in the Senate until March 23, remaining in the counsels of the enemy as a sort of confidential adviser to the Confederacy. Arriving in Charleston, his spectacular visit to Fort Sumter during the bombardment in order to demand its surrender advertised him as a military hero. He became a brigadier-general in the army and was placed in command of the troops in Virginia, known as "The Texas Brigade. " He resigned on Feburary 18, 1862, to accept a seat in the Confederate States Senate. Advocating strong military measures as necessary to success, he supported conscription and other legislation designed to strengthen the army. He upheld the power of impressment and ably defended the authority of Congress to suspend the writ of habeas corpus unimpeded by action of the state governments. Although a latitudinarian with reference to military powers, he adhered strictly to state sovereignty in regard to citizenship and the Confederate judiciary - opposing a Confederate supreme court with appellate jurisdiction over state courts. He early became bitter over President Davis' conduct of the war. He censured him for rejecting Joseph E. Johnston's proposals to concentrate for an offensive in the fall of 1861, and for the defense of Richmond in the spring of 1862. He attributed the loss of Vicksburg to Davis' malignant mismanagement and regretted that Johnston had not been allowed to unite the forces of the West, destroy the enemy, and reclaim the Mississippi Valley. "But the pig-headed perverseness of Davis willed it otherwise". He proposed that the chief executive be deprived of his power as commander-in-chief, and that this power be vested in an officer appointed and removable by the president and Senate. Bitterly denouncing the removal of Johnston from command, he led the movement that finally made Lee general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies. He was a leader of the Congressional opposition to the president, firing his hearers "with the electrical passion that would blaze in his seamed fierce face . " He entertained an exalted opinion of his own grasp of military science, which made the clash between him and Davis inevitable. After the war he escaped from Galveston to England. He returned to the United States in 1872 and reëstablished residence in Baltimore, Md. , with his daughter. Desiring to resume life in Texas, he went to Galveston in January 1874 and died there.
He was among a group of leading secessionists known as Fire-Eaters, advocating the preservation and expansion of an aristocratic agricultural society based on slave labor. He briefly served as a Confederate Brigadier General of the Texas Brigade at the outset of the American Civil War before taking his seat in the Confederate Senate. Wigfall's reputation for oratory and hard-drinking, along with a combative nature and high-minded sense of personal honor, made him one of the more imposing political figures of his time.
