Gustavus Adolphus Henry

Gustavus Adolphus Henry (born October 4, 1804 in Scott County , Kentucky , †  September 10, 1880 in Clarksville , Tennessee ) was an American politician . He represented the state of Tennessee during the Civil War as a Senator in the Confederate Congress .

Before the Civil War

Gustavus Henry was a grandson of Patrick Henry , the first governor of Virginia . After school he attended Transylvania University in Lexington ; then he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He then worked as a lawyer in Hopkinsville , then after moving to Tennessee in Clarksville. There he was one of the founders of Marine Fire Insurance, Life and Trust Company and Clarksville Insurance Company ; In 1848 he was founding curator of Masonic University in La Grange .

Henry's political career began in Kentucky, where he was a member of the state parliament from 1831 to 1833. In the presidential elections of 1840 , 1844 and 1852 he sat for the Whigs in Electoral College . In 1842 he applied unsuccessfully for a seat in the House of Representatives of the United States , in 1853 he was only barely defeated by future US President Andrew Johnson in the election for governor of Tennessee . From 1851 to 1853 he represented Montgomery County in the state parliament of Tennessee.

Politicians in the Confederation

When the Civil War broke out, Henry, who owned cotton plantations in Mississippi and Arkansas , joined the Democrats . He had been friends with Jefferson Davis , President of the Confederation , and had some influence in their government since they were college students . From 1862 until the end of the war in 1865 he was one of the two representatives of Tennessee in the Confederate Senate, along with Landon Carter Haynes , where he was a member of the finance and military committees. Because of his talent as a speaker, he became known as the Eagle Orator of Tennessee . A fort built at the beginning of the war to protect the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River was named Fort Henry in recognition of its services .

Henry was hardly active in politics after the war. In 1874 he chaired the Tennessee Democratic Party. He died six years later at his country estate, Emerald Hill , which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places .

Web links

• Biography (English).