Louis Wigfall
Louis Wigfall | |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Died | February 18, 1874 (aged 57) Galveston, Texas, U.S. |
| Party | Democratic |
| Spouse |
Charlotte Cross (m. 1841) |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of Virginia University of South Carolina (BA) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States Confederate States |
| Branch/service | US Volunteers Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1837 1861–1862 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Brigadier general |
| Battles/wars | Second Seminole War American Civil War |
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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. A slaveowner (or 'enslaver', slave master), 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.