William Bacon Wright

William Bacon Wright (born July 4, 1830 in Columbus , Georgia , † August 10, 1895 in San Antonio , Texas ) was an American lawyer and politician for both the United States and the Confederate States . He belonged to the Democratic Party . He also served as an officer in the Confederate Army .

Career

William Bacon Wright, son of John Wright and a relative of George Walton (1741-1804), a signer of the Declaration of Independence , was born in Muscogee County approximately seven years before the economic crisis of 1837 . Nothing is known about his youth. He graduated from Princeton University at the age of 17, according to his obituary in the San Antonio Daily Express , but there are no records of his visit there. After receiving his license to practice law, he opened his own law firm in Georgia in 1849. Then for a short time he lived in Eufaula ( Alabama ) before moving in 1854 to Texas. He opened his own law firm in Paris ( Lamar County ), where he became one of the most outstanding prosecutors. In 1857 he co-founded an academy for boys in Paris.

In the presidential election of 1860 he served as the Democratic substitute elector. In December 1860 he was appointed chairman of the committee that was supposed to work out a plan for secession of the state. In November 1861 he was elected to the Sixth Constituency of Texas in the First Confederate Congress, where he served from February 18, 1862 to February 17, 1864. During his time there, he sat on the Committee on Patents, the Committee on Claims, the Committee on Enrolled Bills, and the Committee on Indian Affairs. Although he was an opponent of tax policy, he generally supported the policies of the Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) administration. His most significant contribution to Confederate legislation was the exemption of all conscripts in the militia in the border guard and all slaves used in grain cultivation before the forced recruitment. In his re-election in 1864, he suffered a defeat against Simpson Harris Morgan (1821-1864). The remainder of the Civil War he then served as a major on the staff of General Edmund Kirby Smith (1824-1893) in the Quartermaster Corps .

After the end of the war, he resumed his practice as a lawyer for a short time in Clarksville ( Red River County ) before returning to Paris in 1873. During his time there, he is said to have represented 93 murder trials without losing a single one. He continued to be active in politics. In the Constituent Assembly of Texas in 1875, he sat in the Judiciary Committee. In 1885 Wright moved to San Antonio, Bexar County , where he worked in banking when he died in 1895. He was buried there in Dignowity Cemetery .

family

Wright was married twice. He married Miss Greer from Georgia in 1849. The couple had four children. After the death of his first wife, he married Pink Gates from Mississippi in 1868 . The couple had six children.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Confederate States almanac and repository of useful knowledge: for the year 1863 , Gale Cengage Learning, ISBN 9781432804930 , pp. 33f.
2. ↑ First Confederate Congress - William Bacon Wright ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• William Bacon Wright on the Texas State Historical Association website
• William Bacon Wright on The Political Graveyard website