Background
WIGFALL, Louis Trezevant was born on April 21, 1816 in Edgefield District, South Carolina, United States, United States. Son of the planter Levi Durand Wigfall and his wife Eliza (Thompson).
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Louis Trezevant WIGFALL
Edit ProfileEducation
Private school, southern university.
Career
He attended the University of Virginia in 1834-1835 and graduated from South Carolina College in 1837. In 1835, he fought in the Seminole War as a volunteer lieutenant. After studying law at the University of Virginia, he was admitted to the Edgefield, South Carolina, bar in 1839.
Wigfall was an Episcopalian and a Democrat. He had five children by his marriage to Charlotte Maria Cross. Wigfall fought political duels with Thomas Bird and Preston Brooks, as a result of which he moved to Marshall, Texas, in 1848.
The following year, he was elected to the Texas House, and in 1850, he advocated secession in Texas, as he had when he was a “Bluffton Boy” in his native South Carolina. From 1857 to 1860, he served as a Southern Rights Democrat in the Texas Senate, and from 1859 to 1861, he served as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate, where he delivered his famous Southern Address in December 1860. Wigfall was a bitter enemy of Sam Houston.
He resigned from the Senate in March 1861 and volunteered for service in the Confederate Army. He had previously urged the Confederate government to take Fort Sumter. Upon his resignation he went to Charleston for the bombardment of Fort Sumter.
On October 21, 1861, he was commissioned a brigadier general commanding the “Texas Brigade" of the Confederate Army. He resigned his commission in early 1862 to enter the provisional Congress. As a Confederate senator from Texas from 1862 to 1865, he believed in strong military measures, supported conscription, upheld impressment, and voted to suspend the writ of habeas corpus.
Although he was legalistic in outlook, he opposed the formation of the Confederate States Supreme Court. He became a bitter opponent of President Davis and supported the military cause of General Joseph E. Johnston. He was a member of the AbingdonColumbia bloc and a supporter of General P.G.T. Beauregard for commander of the Army in the West.
Scholars maintain that he supported the western bloc because of his fierce hostility to the blunders of the Davis administration. In the Senate, he served on the Foreign Affairs, Military Affairs, Territories, and Joint Committees. He was one of the most powerful politicians in Congress.
From 1865 to 1872, Wigfall lived in London. In 1873, he moved to Baltimore and, in 1874, to Galveston, Texas.
Religion
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Politics
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
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Born
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Died
February 18, 1874 (aged 57) -
Nationality
United States