Chapter One Hundred and Forty
Standing on the Right Platform – Part II: Senators and Governors
From "The Great Constitutional Crisis" by Dr. Lee M. King
Carlotta 1962
“Perhaps the greatest piece of legal legerdemain was the Republican Administration’s success in convincing the masses that a Governor owed his fealty, not to his state first and last, but to the Federal Government first and his state a distant second…”
From "The Fallen Idols" by Teddy Braddock
Grosvenor 2003
Virginia
“Of the two Virginians John Letcher, Governor from 1860-1864, was the most complicated. He had in his youth suggested partial emancipation of Virginia’s slaves west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. As governor he had sought to avert secession and had been a primary mover in organizing the Peace Conference. However he had also sustained the ordinance of secession once passed. His ambivalence to both slavery and secession was perhaps what saved him. Though convicted of treason by a Federal Military Commission, President Lincoln commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.
John Letcher of Virginia
William “Extra Billy” Smith was a more direct character. Elected governor by little more than the armed forces of Virginia, he was in effect a governor in exile throughout his tenure in office. It was not his governorship that would convict him but rather his actions in Congress to support and encourage secession prior to his resignation from the House of Representatives in 1861. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to hang…"
North Carolina
“Henry Toole Clark was that rare creature, a governor who oversaw the early stages of secession who was not convicted of treason. His deceased predecessor, John Willis Ellis, had endorsed secession and had called Lincoln “wicked” in a direct reply to his call for troops. Clark himself however had avoided direct treason...
Clark was cleared of all charges but his proscription as an “
undesirable expatriated person” soon followed…
It is easy to underestimate the popularity Zebulon B. Vance enjoyed during his governorship. His firm belief in states-rights had caused him to oppose Jeff Davis’ administration at every turn. His one period of serious co-operation with Confederate authorities, prior to Lee’s Campaign in the Shenandoah and the North, had resulted in his state being stripped of vital troops and supplies he had released only for the defense of the state. This further increased his distrust of the administration and central authority generally...
Further Vance presented his Military Tribunal with a quandary as his defense argued he was covered by the Chantilly terms having been serving on Longstreet’s staff as a volunteer aide during the siege of Charlotte. Ultimately the Tribunal accepted that argument so, while convicting him of treason, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Vance would however not end his defense following his sentence and ultimately his opposition to conviction by a Military Tribunal would go to the Supreme Court in
Re: Vance and others in 1868…"
South Carolina
“
Any man who bore the title Governor of South Carolina is as good as dead” to quote Daniel Sickles. It certainly came true in practice. Francis William Pickens refused to waste the Tribunal’s time even with a defense. He believed in secession, he had always believed in the right to secede, he had proclaimed secession, and he had made secession a practical fact. If the “
minions of the Black Republican Administration believe that secession is treason then I am surely guilty” he said. Truly the cousin of John C. Calhoun could have proclaimed no other position. His tribunal agreed and he was sentenced to hang.
General Milledge L. Bonham did not trouble the Tribunal though his conviction of treason and murder (arising during the Charleston Massacre) was inevitable. However Bonham’s injuries, sustained during his capture alongside General Beauregard, festered and he died awaiting trial…”
Georgia
Governor Joseph E. Brown had come close to escaping Federal forces during Magruder’s March. However he had the misfortune to be taken by Joseph Hooker’s troops at the Battle of Laurel…
Brown was another states-right secessionist fanatic who could not expect mercy simply because of his inveterate opposition to Jeff Davis’ administration. His military tribunal, sitting in Columbus, was quick to convict him of treason and sentenced him to hang…”
Florida
John Milton’s service on the Florida political scene was of long standing. In 1848, he served as a presidential elector for the state, then in 1850 was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. As a strong supporter of states' rights, he was an early advocate for secession of Florida from the Union. He was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention from Florida and in the same year ran for the office of governor. A convention was called for to take up the issue of secession and on January 10, 1861, the measure passed. He took the oath of office on October 7, 1861…
As the war drew to a close and the Confederacy was close to defeat, he became worn down by the stress of his office. Following his arrest and imprisonment his state of mind deteriorated and six months after the Confederate surrender he took his own life by hanging himself. “
He has saved us the trouble” was Senator Ben Wade’s conclusion… "
Alabama
For his involvement in seizing several Federal arsenals both in his state and in Florida, the otherwise comparably moderate Andrew Barry Moore, had become a marked man. His conviction for treason was secured and the sentenced of death duty carried out…
The tale of John Gill Shorter’s prosecution is short indeed. He was shot and killed by elements of the 1st Corps de Afrique cavalry resisting capture 5 days before the surrender of Confederate forces in Texas…"
Mississippi
John J. Pettus was characterized by one of his judges, William S. Rosecrans, as one of the "
blackest knaves of the slaveocracy". Pettus was a fire-eating secession of the first water. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to hang by the commission sitting in Columbus. However execution of his sentence was stayed so that he might be tried in Mississippi, for murder. Specifically his part in promoting the Black Flag in Mississippi – war without mercy, resulting in the execution of scores of negro prisoners of war...
To Governor Pettus’ horror his judge, the clerk of the Court, and 10 of his jurors who served in the Courthouse in Jackson in 1869 were black. For a second time Governor Pettus was sentenced to death by hanging. He has the distinction of being the only Confederate prisoner executed by a former slave, Nathan Best who was employed by the state as his hangman…
Nathan Best 92, recalls his role as state executioner
Charles Clark had no hand in secession though he had served as a volunteer commissioned officer. Unlike his predecessor Clark has eschewed the Black Flag, though whether out of principle or a sense of self-preservation is unclear. He was held briefly by the Federal Government but was not charged with any crime. Instead in late 1866 he was transported by rail to Brownsville, Texas and discharged into Mexico as a proscribed person…”
Louisiana
"Thomas Overton Moore had clearly sensed what capture by Federal forces might have in store for him. He was one of several leading Louisiana Democrats who secured passage on a blockade runner and willingly sought exile in Havana, Cuba. Unreconciled to the Mexican exile of many of his colleagues he became a prosperous trader in sugar in Cuba before his death in 1874 from yellow fever… "
Texas
"Francis Lubbock had done well out of his political and business career. Fleeing Texas in advance of the Union hosts he had already ensured ready funds would be available in Mexico City. He parleyed those funds into power and influence both among the Mexican Conservatives and the Exilado Grise community. Lubbock would play a significant role in the politics of the Confederate exile community for years to come, though he could not leave his tenure as governor entirely behind. He was shot and injured in 1873 by a former Hessian immigrant to West Texas whose Unionist brothers had been shot at Lubbock’s order for resisting the state’s draft…
Pendleton Murrah might have become a pariah in the Exilado Grise community had he lived beyond 1865. As matters stood he left his wife, Sue Ellen Taylor-Murrah, one of the richest widows in the community and, as a result, much in demand from the many penniless former planters and gentlemen then in exile in Mexico. The fact that his wealth was largely derived from the state treasury seemed to trouble these suitors not at all…”
Arkansas
"Henry Massey Rector is one of the great mysteries of the Reconstruction era. Governor of Arkansas from 1860 to 1862 he oversaw secession. Indeed he was a very well connected and prominent figure in the Confederate leadership in the West. Yet at some point in early 1865 he loaded up his family and possessions into two wagons and is then lost to subsequent history. It is generally agreed that he likely took on an assumed name and passed himself and his family off as ordinary homesteaders somewhere in the West…
As a New Jerseyman and a Quaker, Harris Flanagin was an unlikely figure to be honored with governorship of a rebel state. It is then perhaps not unsurprising that, notwithstanding his manly efforts to have Arkansas sustain its part in the war, he was not found guilty of any crime and was simply proscribed. Exiled to Mexico he founded Longhall Private School in what would become the city of Carlotta…”
Harris Flanagin founded Longhall, still considered one of the pre-eminent schools of the American continent with an unparalleled reputation in Mathematics
Tennessee
"Isham G. Harris was a sorry figure when he was ultimately captured by General Hooker’s troops. He had not set foot in his own state for almost 6 months. Like several other former governors he was tried by military tribunal and found guilty of treason. Like several others his sentence was stayed so he could be tried in his own state for murder. William Brownlow, editor of the Knoxville Whig, and significant figure in the state’s National Unionist movement had lobbied for Harris to be tried for the deaths of Unionist East Tennesseans whose attempts to secede from Tennessee had been brutally put down on Harris’ orders by General Felix Zollicoffer early in the war. Tried in Knoxville he was later hung there to the obvious satisfaction of William Brownlow and indeed most East Tennesseans…”
Kentucky
"A sad figure, Richard Hawes had not been elected to the governorship. He had merely been appointed by the Confederate Government. In practice his governorship only ever briefly extended to a small part of Kentucky during Bragg’s 1862 campaign there. Having had no real power it would have been difficult to find him guilty of the abuse of power. Hawes was proscribed and exiled to Mexico…”
From “Viva Magruder! – The Early Days of the Anglo Community in Mexico” by D. Foster Wilkins
University of Vancouver 1985
“Their clash of personalities, of ideology and of their hopes for their countrymen in exile meant that Senators Herschel V. Johnson and Louis T. Wigfall continued their feuding in Mexico…
Senator and later Deputy Herschel Vespasian Johnson and Senator Louis T. Wigfall
After his release from gaol and his subsequent proscription and exile, Johnson would become a leading supporter of the Imperial project in Mexico. He preached a gospel of integration and active participation in Mexican business and political life. He was considered by Emperor Maximilian’s administration as one of their closest friends in the exilado grise community…
Louis T. Wigfall remained a fire-eater to his very bones. He espoused a creed of separation from the Mexican populace. He was a firm believer in the Carlotta settlement experiment. Ultimately he held a wild belief that somehow, if the Confederate exiles remained true to their culture, their principles and their ideals, they could remake their portion of Mexico in the image of Wigfall’s idea of the ideal Confederacy…
Initially popular the movement was largely responsible for the swift and early growth of the town, and more generally for the concentration of former Confederates in Carlotta and the surrounding land grants. That popularity largely began to wane after the community became established and prosperity grew. Wigfall’s 1873 campaign for the position of deputy for the department of "Coat ‘n’ Peg" or Coatepec included the slogan “The South will rise again!”. It did not meet with universal approval and he lost the election to Johnson…”
