Jesse Johnson Finley

Jesse Johnson Finley

Jesse Johnson Finley (born November 18, 1812 in Lebanon , Tennessee , † November 6, 1904 in Lake City , Florida ) was an American politician , lawyer and brigadier general of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War .

Political rise

Finley was born in Wilson County , Tennessee in 1812 , where he grew up and went to school. In 1836 he took part in the Seminole War as captain of mounted volunteers . He then finished his law studies and was admitted to the bar in 1838. He then moved to Mississippi County in Arkansas in 1840 , where he settled as a lawyer, worked in politics and was elected to the Arkansas Senate for the following year . In 1842 he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, continued to practice law and became mayor of the city in 1845. A year later he moved on to Marianna , Florida, where he lived in the 1850sState Senate was elected. From 1853 to 1861, Finley was a judge for the Florida Western Judicial District.

Officer and congressman

When the Civil War broke out, Finley was elected Justice of the Confederate Supreme Court for the Florida District. In March 1862 he resigned and initially served as a simple soldier in the Army of the Southern States . After several promotions, he was appointed Brigadier General on November 16, 1863.

After the war, he went back to Florida, settled in Lake City and practiced as a lawyer again. In 1871 Finley moved to Jacksonville . On April 19, 1876, he entered the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat for the first time , after successfully contesting the election of Josiah T. Walls . He resigned on March 3, 1879 from the Congress , in which he returned on February 20, 1879 for twelve days after he had again appealed against an election result and this time took the place of Horatio Bisbee . In 1880 Finley won the election in the second congressional district , but then had to cede the mandate to Bisbee after an objection on June 1, 1882.

In 1887, Finley was named to succeed US Senator Charles W. Jones . However, he was refused to exercise his mandate because of a procedural error.

See also

• List of Confederate Generals in the Civil War

literature

• David J. Eicher: The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography. University of Illinois, 1997, ISBN 0-252-02273-4 .
• Richard N. Current: Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. 1993 (4 vol.), ISBN 0132759918 .
• John H. Eicher & David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 .
• Ezra J. Warner: Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Louisiana State University Press 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5 .

Web links

• Jesse Johnson Finley in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Jesse Johnson Finley in the database of Find a Grave (English)