In 1825 Benjamin entered the Military Academy at West Point, from which, however, with a number of other frolicsome cadets, he was dismissed, following a student riot on Christmas Eve in 1826.
In 1825 Benjamin entered the Military Academy at West Point, from which, however, with a number of other frolicsome cadets, he was dismissed, following a student riot on Christmas Eve in 1826.
Benjamin Grubb Humphreys was an American army officer and governor of Mississippi. He was a member of Mississippi Legislature from Claiborne County from 1838 to 1840 and Mississippi Senate from 1840 to 1844.
Background
Humphreys was born in Claiborne County in the territory of Mississippi, on August 28, 1808. His father, George Wilson Humphreys, son of Col. Ralph and Agnes Wilson Humphreys, was a planter and attained some prominence in the civil and military life of this frontier region. His mother was Sarah, daughter of Major David Smith. Benjamin was apparently the ninth of her sixteen children, of whom only six survived childhood.
Education
Benjamin attended school at Russellville, Kentucky, and Morristown, New Jersey, and in 1825 entered the Military Academy at West Point, from which, however, with a number of other frolicsome cadets, he was dismissed, following a student riot on Christmas Eve in 1826.
In the spring of 1827, Benjamin Grubb Humphrey served as overseer on his father's plantation, studied law. In 1838 and 1839 he was a representative of Claiborne County in the legislature and from 1840 to 1844 he was a state senator. In 1846 he removed to Sunflower County, where the outbreak of the Civil War found him living the life of a planter. Humphreys, an antebellum Whig, had opposed secession, but when war came he raised a company, which was later assigned to the 21st Mississippi; he was commissioned captain on May 18, 1861. On September 11 he became colonel of the regiment and he led it through the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, except Second Manassas, until Gettysburg, when, after Brigadier General William Barksdale was mortally wounded, he was given command of the brigade. Barksdale's brigade and the 21st Mississippi gained notable distinction at Fredericksburg. From September 1863 until the following spring, the brigade served under Longstreet in Georgia and Tennessee, and was in Virginia at the end of the war, although Humphreys, wounded at Berryville in September 1804, was then in command of a military district that included his native section. He was frequently commended in official reports and was, without doubt, a gallant and capable officer.
Humphreys was the first elected governor of Mississippi after the war. The convention of August 1865, called by the provisional governor, William L. Sharkey, nominated for the governorship, "in a sort of unofficial way," Judge Ephraim S. Fisher, an old-line Whig who had had no part in the war. Humphreys had taken the amnesty oath and applied for a special pardon, but had no assurance at the time of the election (October 2, 1865) that it would be granted. His victory by a plurality of more than 3, 000 over Fisher and of more than 8, 000 over William S. Patton seems to have been due chiefly to his military record. The question of admitting negro testimony to the courts, which he favored and which many of his supporters opposed, was the main issue in the campaign, though the real division of opinion on the subject was not made clear. President Johnson was disappointed at the defeat of Fisher, but, on Sharkey's recommendation, proceeded to pardon Humphreys. The latter was inaugurated on October 16; he was recognized in some part by Johnson by November 17, but not until December 14 was Sharkey fully relieved.
Humphreys remained in office until June 15, 1868, when he was ruthlessly ejected by federal military authority and the "restored government" of Mississippi was brought to an unhappy end. His problems were essentially similar to those faced by other Southern governors elected under the presidential plan; they proved insoluble not merely because of their inherent difficulty but also because of the pressure of Northern opinion. National attention was focused on Mississippi as a result of the enactment of the famous "Black Code" of 1865, a well-intentioned but hasty attempt to define the legal status of the freedmen which was interpreted in the North as an effort to re-establish slavery in another form. Even in the North, the recommendations of Humphreys were regarded at the outset as reasonable, although he was felt to be insufficiently submissive in spirit. He later urged the rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment, though suggesting a relaxation of the negro code of 1865. He saw no necessity for the presence of Federal troops and sought vainly to secure permission to disarm the freedmen, but in general, he heartily cooperated with the military authorities and accepted successive humiliations with all the grace that could have been expected. Because of his opposition to many legislative measures that he deemed unconstitutional, he was called "Old Veto."
On July 10, 1868, when the constitution of that year was rejected, Humphrey was triumphantly reelected governor by a majority of 8, 000. It was no fault of the electorate as then constituted that he was retired to private life. For a time he was an insurance agent at Jackson and Vicksburg, but for several years before his death in 1882, he lived on his plantation, "Itta Bena," in Leflore County.
Achievements
Politics
Humphreys was a Whig before the Civil War and opposed secession, but when the war began, he organized the Sunflower Guards and was soon afterward elected colonel of the Twenty-first Mississippi Regiment.
In 1865 Humphreys was elected as a Democrat but was not immediately recognized as the Governor of Mississippi during a most difficult and confusing period. Mississippi and other southern states were expected to voluntarily reconstruct themselves and extend the rights of citizenship to their former slaves.
Views
Humphreys criticized state legislators' efforts to return African Americans to peonage and to deny them access to the courts and other Black Codes.
Connections
In 1832 married Mary, daughter of Dugald McLaughlin, who, before her death three years later, bore him two children. In December 1839 he married Mildred Hickman, daughter of James H. Maury; she became the mother of twelve, among whom the mortality was excessive.