Background
MAHONE, William was born on December 1, 1826 in Monroe, Southampton County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Colonel Fielding J. Mahone and his wife Martha (Drew).
senator army officer state political leader
MAHONE, William was born on December 1, 1826 in Monroe, Southampton County, Virginia, United States, United States. Son of Colonel Fielding J. Mahone and his wife Martha (Drew).
Graduate Virginia Military Institute, 1847.
He attended Littletown Academy and graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1847. Mahone was a Democrat and an ardent secessionist and attended the Episcopal church. By his marriage to Otelia Butler on February 8, 1855, he had thirteen children, only three of whom reached maturity.
He taught at Rappahannock Military Academy from 1847 to 1851 and was chief engineer from 1851 to 1861 for the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, of which he was also president in 1861. He lived in Petersburg, Virginia. When Virginia seceded, he was appointed quartermaster general for the state army.
He became colonel of the 6th Virginia Infantry at the beginning of the war, and he helped to capture the Norfolk Navy Yard and supervised the construction of the defenses at Drewry's Bluff. He was promoted to brigadier general on November 16, 1861. After fighting at Seven Pines and the Seven Days, he was wounded during the battle of Second Manassas but recovered sufficiently to participate in such major battles as Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania, all with the Army of Northern Virginia.
On July 30, 1864, he was promoted to major general, following his heroic action at the battle of the Crater where he captured Warren's Corps. Lee ) considered him an excellent general. There is no record of his having surrendered.
After the war, he returned to the railroad and joined the Readjuster party in Virginia. He was president of the Norfolk and Tennessee Railroad Company from 1867 until 1877, prior to losing a bid for the governorship of Virginia in 1878. In 1880, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, but he lost a subsequent bid for reelection six years later.
Mahone dominated Republican party politics in his state after the war. He was also friendly to the Populists in the last years of his life.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Member North Carolina Senate, 1863-1865. Member United States Senate (Republican, from Virginia, 1881-1887.
Married Ortelia Butler, February 1855, 3 children.