Felix Ives Batson

Felix Ives Batson (born September 6, 1819 in Dickson County , Tennessee , † March 11, 1871 in Clarksville , Arkansas ) was an American lawyer and politician .

Career

Felix Ives Batson was born in Dickson County about four and a half years after the end of the British-American War . Nothing is known about his youth. Batson studied law . He moved to Arkansas and settled in Clarksville, Johnson County , where he opened his own law firm. He was admitted to the bar in 1841 and was one of Johnson County's first attorneys . The following years were overshadowed by the economic crisis of 1837 and the Mexican-American War . Between 1853 and 1858 he was a district judge in the fourth judicial district of Arkansas. Batson became a judge on the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1858 - a position he held until his resignation in 1860. In 1861 he took part as a delegate to the Arkansas Secession Convention, where he voted for secession in his home state. In November 1861 he was elected to the First Confederate Congress for the first constituency of Arkansas , where he took up his post on February 18, 1862. He defeated Hugh French Thomason (1826-1893). During his first term, he sat on the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, the Committee on Military Affairs, the Committee on Territories, and the Committee on Public Lands. In 1863 he was re-elected to the second Confederate Congress and served there until the end of the Confederation. During his second term, he sat on the Judiciary Committee and on special committees that informed the governors about granting exemptions from conscription and increasing the number of Confederate troops in each state. After the end of the Civil War he returned to Clarksville, where he resumed his practice as a lawyer. He is believed to have lost 75 percent of his fortune during the war. Batson died in Clarksville in 1871 and was buried there in Oakland Cemetery .

According to the United States Census Slave Schedule of 1860, Batson owned 14  slaves between the ages of 35 and 1 year.

family

With his wife Charmeley Jean (1821–1868) he had an only daughter: Emma (1849–1923). She married Jordan E. Cravens (1830-1914), who was a Colonel in the Confederate Army and served in the US Congress between 1877 and 1883 . In 1898 Emma founded the United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter 221 and named it after her father.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Langford, Ella Molloy: Johnson County, Arkansas, the first hundred years, Clarksville, AR: Clarksville Historical Society, 1921, p. 173
2. ↑ The Confederate States almanac and repository of useful knowledge: for the year 1863 , Gale Cengage Learning, ISBN 9781432804930 , p. 33
3. ^ Warner, Ezra: Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1975, ISBN 0-8071-0092-7 , pp. 18f
4. ↑ Felix Ives Batson on The Political Graveyard website
5. ^ Wakelyn, Jon L .: Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0837161242 , 1977, p. 92
6. ↑ Woods, James M .: Devotees and Dissenters: Arkansans in the Confederate Congress, 1861-1865 , The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, 1979, pp. 227-247
7. ↑ Thomas B. Alexander and Richard E. Beringer: The Anatomy of the Confederate Congress, Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1972, ISBN 0-8265-1175-9 , p. 357
8. ↑ Charmeley Jean Batson in the database of Find a Grave . Retrieved January 17, 2015.
9. ↑ Emma Batson Cravens in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 17, 2015.
10. ↑ Jordan E. Cravns in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
11. ↑ Jordan E. Cravns in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 17, 2015.
12. ↑ Gill, Jennifer: Arkansas Secession Delegates: Felix Batson, Stephens Media, Southwest Times Record, 2011
13. ^ Clarksville Confederate Monument : Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System, 2014

Web links

• Felix Ives Batson in the database of Find a Grave (English)