Louis Wigfall | |
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Confederate States Senator from Texas | |
In office February 18, 1862 – May 10, 1865 | |
Preceded by | Constituency established |
Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
Member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from Texas | |
In office February 4, 1861 – February 17, 1862 | |
Preceded by | Constituency established |
Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
United States Senator from Texas | |
In office December 5, 1859 – March 23, 1861 | |
Preceded by | Matthias Ward |
Succeeded by | James Flanagan (1870) |
Member of the Texas Senate from the 8th district | |
In office November 7, 1857 – December 7, 1859 | |
Preceded by | William Scott |
Succeeded by | E. A. Blanch |
Personal details | |
Born | Louis Trezevant Wigfall April 21, 1816 Edgefield, South Carolina, U.S. |
Died | February 18, 1874 Galveston, Texas, U.S. | (aged 57)
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse |
Charlotte Cross (m. 1841) |
Children | 3 |
Education | University of Virginia University of South Carolina (BA) |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Confederate States |
Branch/service | Confederate States Army |
Years of service | 1861–1862 |
Rank | Brigadier general |
Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Louis Trezevant Wigfall (April 21, 1816 – February 18, 1874) was an American politician who served as a Confederate States Senator from Texas from 1862 to 1865.[1] He was among a group of leading secessionists known as Fire-Eaters, advocating the preservation and expansion of an aristocratic agricultural society based on slave labor. He briefly served as a Confederate Brigadier General of the Texas Brigade at the outset of the American Civil War before taking his seat in the Confederate Senate. Wigfall's reputation for oratory and hard-drinking, along with a combative nature and high-minded sense of personal honor, made him one of the more imposing political figures of his time. He was also an enslaver.[2][3]