Background
WRIGHT, Marcus Joseph was born on June 1, 1831 in McNairy County, Tennessee, United States, United States. Son of Major Benjamin Wright and his wife Martha Ann Harwell (Hicks) and brother of John Vines Wright.
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WRIGHT, Marcus Joseph was born on June 1, 1831 in McNairy County, Tennessee, United States, United States. Son of Major Benjamin Wright and his wife Martha Ann Harwell (Hicks) and brother of John Vines Wright.
Private school.
He attended the academy of McNairy County at Purdy, studied law, and moved to Memphis in the 1850s, where he was a clerk in the common law and chancery court before the war. He was a Wbig and an Episcopalian. He was married to Martha Spencer Elcan and, after her death, to Pauline Womack.
He had three sons and three daughters. When the Civil War began, Wright entered the service of the Confederacy as a lieutenant colonel of the 154th Tennessee Militia. He fought at the battle of Belmont, Missouri, in November 1861 and was wounded at the battle of Shiloh.
In February 1862, he was military governor of Kentucky, and he later distinguished himself at the battle of Perryville, where he served under General Benjamin F. Cheatham. He was promoted to brigadier general on December 20, 1862, and was given command of Daniel S. Donelson’s Brigade, which he led in the battles of Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Missionary Ridge in 1863. During the defense of Atlanta in 1864, he commanded the district post.
After the fall of Atlanta, he commanded the district post at Macon, Georgia, and in 1865, the entire District of North Mississippi and West Tennessee. He surrendered at Grenada, Mississippi, and he was later paroled. After the war, he was sheriff of Shelby County and practiced law in Memphis.
He also edited the Columbia, Tennessee, Journal for some years and was an agent for the Confederate Archives in Washington, D.C. He helped to compile the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, and he wrote profusely on the history of the war.
"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.