Background
Thomas Neville was born on January 5, 1813, in Sumter District, South Carolina, United States. He was the son of Thomas and Anna Mulcahy Waul.
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Thomas Waul
Gallery of Thomas Waul
Columbia, SC 29208, United States
Waul attended South Carolina College (now University of South Carolina) until his junior year.
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Columbia, SC 29208, United States
Waul attended South Carolina College (now University of South Carolina) until his junior year.
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Thomas Neville Waul
Edit ProfileEducation
Waul attended South Carolina College (now University of South Carolina) until his junior year. After teaching school for a time in Florence, Alabama, he studied law in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Career
In 1832, Waul headed west, where he taught school in Florence, Alabama, and studied law with Sargeant Prentiss in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Admitted to the Mississippi bar in 1835, he became a district attorney for the Vicksburg area the same year.
Waul also was elected a circuit judge in Vicksburg and practiced law in Grenada, Mississippi, and in Louisiana. Having made his fortune as a lawyer and cotton planter, he moved to Gonzales County, Texas, in 1850. Sometime during the 1850s, he moved to New Orleans, but by 1860, he had returned to Texas, where he was elected to serve in the provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery.
Waul participated little in congressional affairs but he served on the Commerce and Indian Affairs Committees. He rejected candidacy to the first Confederate House of Representatives in order to join the army. "Waul's Legion" fought at Corinth and participated in Pemberton's retreat and the defense of Yazoo, Mississippi, in 1863, which temporarily saved Vicksburg for the Confederacy.
He was captured at Vicksburg in 1863, and upon his exchange, he was promoted to brigadier general in 1864. During the Red River campaign in March 1864, he fought at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill to defend Texas from General N. P. Banks. He was sent to Arkansas, where he fought in the battle of Jenkins' Ferry, in April 1864.
After the war, Thomas was a delegate to the first Texas Reconstruction convention in 1865. Having lost his fortune during the war years, he moved to Galveston to practice law.
There, he recouped his losses. He later retired to a farm in Hunt County, Texas.
Achievements
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Thomas Neville Waul recruited and supplied the well known Waul’s Texas Legion in 1862, and was commissioned its colonel. He surrendered his command in 1863 with the fall of Vicksburg and was promoted brigadier general, September 18, 1863. In the Red River campaign of 1864, he commanded a brigade in Gen. John G. Walker’s division at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. Later he was transferred to Arkansas to opposed Steel and fought at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry.
Politics
Waul opposed the African slave trade as a diplomatic effort and restrictions on the cotton trade. He supported the establishment of the central government, free trade, and local defense.
Connections
Thomas Neville Waul married Mary America Simmons on November 25, 1837. They had no children.
References
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Born
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Died
July 28, 1903 (aged 90) -
Resting place
Oakwood Cemetery Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, United States -
Nationality
American -
Religion
Baptist -
Political Party
Democratic party
Career
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1861 - 1865
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February 4, 1861 - February 17, 1862