Background
Zachariah Cantey Deas was born on October 25, 1819 in New York City, New York, United States. He moved with his parents from Charleston to Mobile, Alabama, in 1835 when the “flush times” spirit in the state was rife.
Zachariah Cantey Deas was born on October 25, 1819 in New York City, New York, United States. He moved with his parents from Charleston to Mobile, Alabama, in 1835 when the “flush times” spirit in the state was rife.
Deas was educated in Columbia, South Carolina, and at Caudebec, France.
Great developments were in prospect and with certain transportation improvements Mobilians expected to see Mobile become the commercial exchange for a vast hinterland, including all of Alabama and portions of Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Thus Mobile seemed an ideal place for one who was interested in commercial pursuits. Deas became a cotton broker and acquired considerable wealth.
Deas had seen service in the Mexican War, and when the Civil War began he promptly enlisted with the Alabama volunteers. He fought in some of the most stubborn engagements of the war and was wounded several times.
His first duty was that of aide-de-camp to General J. E. Johnston.
In the fall of 1861 he was commissioned colonel and with the assistance of Major Robert B. Armistead recruited the 22nd Alabama Infantry which he equipped with Enfield rifles at a cost to himself of $28, 000 in gold. He was reimbursed by the government in Confederate bonds.
At Shiloh he commanded his brigade after his superior officers had fallen, was badly wounded himself, but recovered in time to lead his regiment through Kentucky with General Bragg. Commissioned brigadier-general on December 13, 1862, in the battle of Murfreesboro, he superseded Gen. Gardner.
He returned to Nashville with General Hood and took a conspicuous part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville.
After the latter engagement he was transferred to the East to assist in the opposition to Sherman’s march through the Carolinas. At Raleigh he became ill and turned his command over to Colonel H. T. Toulmin.
After the war he removed to New York City and reentered the cotton trade. He became a cotton broker again and a prominent member of the stock exchange, but in New York, as formerly in Mobile, he lived the life of “a quiet and modest citizen. ”
Deas married on May 16, 1853, Helen Gaines Lyon, the daughter of Francis Strother Lyon, one of the state’s most favorably known citizens who had distinguished himself by saving the state from financial bankruptcy and discredit after the collapse of the state bank.
