Louis Trezevant Wigfall The Disintegration of the Union and Collapse of the Confederacy

by Cooper, Edward S.

• ISBN13: 9781611475647
• ISBN10: 1611475643
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-08-31
• Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Summary

Wigfall was a violent, mercurial man. He participated in multiple duels wounding one and killing another. In an outburst on the floor of the United States Senate, Wigfall called upon a Brutus to assassinate Texas Governor Sam Houston. During the bombardment of Fort Sumter, Wigfall rowed out to the fort and arranged its surrender. While still in the U. S. Senate, Wigfall committed treason by operating a station to recruit soldiers for the Confederacy, by supplying arms to seceded states, and by forwarding information on Federal decisions and movements. Wigfalls oratorical skills convinced the Southern ruling classes there was nothing to fear by seceding. He assured them that the North would not fight, that they could not blockade southern ports, that Europe needed Southern cotton, and that England would aid the Confederacy. As far as a war bankrupting the South, Wigfall assured everyone that they have their cotton and, every time a negro touches a cotton pod with his hand, he pulls a piece of silver out of it. Wigfall was believed, the states seceded, and the Union disintegrated. Expelled from the U. S. Senate, Wigfall was named to the Confederate Senate. The same incendiary paranoia that served the South so well as a uniting force, proved destructive to the Confederacy. The slaveholding states had, at best, a slim chance of surviving as a nation. Wigfall had made a colossal strategic blunder. England had no intention of supporting a nation of slaveholders. The Confederacy was greatly outnumbered by the Union and any chance for success was dependent on a southern populace willing to sacrifice and by having a unified faith in their generals and political leaders. But Wigfall set about to depose President Davis and members of his cabinet. Wigfall had his own set of favorite generals and pitted them against generals supported by Davis. Wigfall supported a draft that allowed the upper class to buy their way out of service, the confiscation of cotton and other goods, the abolishment of habeas corpus, the impressment of slaves as laborers not soldiers. A Confederacy, disheartened by Wigfall, and pressured by the Union, collapsed.

Author Biography

Edward S. Cooper is an independent scholar and the author of several other biographies of nineteenth-century Americans.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
The Early Years	p. 1
Code Duello	p. 9
Texas	p. 23
United States Senator	p. 33
Treason	p. 47
Secession	p. 57
Last Chance	p. 67
Fort Sumter	p. 77
The First Texas Regiment	p. 87
Confederate States Senator	p. 97
Bad Times	p. 109
Worse Times	p. 121
Collapse	p. 133
Flight	p. 145
Prison, Escapes, Reconstruction	p. 157
Exile and Return	p. 165
Bibliography	p. 179
Index	p. 189
About the Author	p. 197
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