USA > Alabama > Memorial record of Alabama. A concise account of the state's political, military, professional and industrial progress, together with the personal memoirs of many of its people. Volume II pt 2 > Part 57
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Hood's movement to Sherman's rear, and when that officer advanced into Tennessee, Wheeler hastened to place his troops in front of Sherman, who was advancing with 65,000 men upon Macon, Augusta and Savannah. With his meager force. Macon and Augusta were successfully defended, and when Savannah was besieged by Sherman, Wheeler defended the Union causeway, the only avenue of escape for the Confederate army. In the "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government," Vol. 2, page 571, Wheeler's services are thus commended by Mr. Davis:
"With his small force Gen. Wheeler daringly and persistently har- assed, and when practicable delayed the enemy's advance. attacking and defeating exposed detachments, deterring his wagons from venturing far from the main body. defending the cities and towns along the railroad lines and affording protection to depots of supplies, arsenals and other important government works. The report of his operations from Novem- ber 14 to December 20th, displays a dash, activity. vigilance and consum- mate skill, which justly entitle him to a prominent place on the roll of great cavalry leaders. By his indomitable energy, operating on all sides of Sherman's columns, he was enabled to keep the government and com- manders of our troops advised of the enemy's movements, and by pre- venting foraging parties from leaving the main body. he saved from spoliation all but a narrow tract of country, and from the torch millions worth of property which would otherwise have been certainly con- sumed."
In 1865 Wheeler constantly engaged Sherman's advance through the Carolinas, successfully defending Augusta and Aiken, receiving the thanks of the state of South Carolina. On March 10, at Johnsonville, he defeated Kilpatrick, capturing his equipages and 400 prisoners with their horses and arms. Together with Hardee. he fought the battle of Averys- boro, and at Bentonville, by hard fighting, drove back Sherman's right wing, which had seized Johnston's only line of retreat.
, On the 15th of April, Gen. Wheeler fought his last battle, and on the 29th he issued the following address to his command :
HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY CORPS.
April 29th, 1865. "GALLANT COMRADES :- You have fought your fight; your task is done. During a four years' struggle for liberty, you have exhibited courage, fortitude and devotion. You are the sole victors of more than two hun- dred severely contested fields; you have participated in more than a thous- and conflicts of arms; you are heroes, veterans, patriots; the bones of your comrades mark the battle fields upon the soil of Kentucky, Tennes- see, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama . and Mississippi; you have done all that human exertion could accomplish. In bidding you adieu. I desire to tender my thanks for your gallantry in battle, your fortitude under suffering, and devotion at all times to the holy cause you have done so much to maintain. I desire to express my gratitude for the kind feeling you have seen fit to extend toward myself, and to evoke upon you the blessing of our Heavenly Father, to whom we must always look for support in the hour of distress.
"Brethren in the cause of freedom, comrades in arms. I bid you farewell.
"J. WHEELER."
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Gen. Wheeler successfully devoted himself to the practice of law and planting until elected to congress, where, by his long service, he has become one of the senior and one of the most distinguished members of that body. His speeches have attracted great attention and won for him marked and wide celebrity. His effective defense of Fitz John Porter was by far the ablest of the many arguments made during the discussions which finally terminated in the vindication of that officer. His reply to Hepburn of Iowa, his speech upon the judiciary and his speeches upon the force bill were most elaborate discussions of the history and growth , of the principles upon which our government is founded, the latter most forcibly illustrating the theory of government sought to be established by the framers of our constitution. His speeches upon the tariff rank with the ablest efforts ever made in congress upon that subject, and were used throughout our country as the basis of discussion upon that impor- tant subject. His advocacy of pure, honest and practical methods in the administration of the government naturally placed him in line with the ideas so ably promulgated by President Cleveland.
ALBURTO MARTIN .- Extraordinary men have extraordinary fates; and there is a mysterious something that controls their lives-something which their life-long friends and acquaintances never find out or understand. There is a touch of the remarkable in all they think, say or do, and yet they never fill the measure we set for them. They either overflow or lack in filling it up. They constantly disappoint our expectations. They may win great reputations, and they may live and die in obscurity, their environments and their education directing the course of their lives. They indeed seem to be under the spell of a "possession." Such was the life of Alburto Martin. Born in the early years of our century under the influence of the peculiar conditions of those years; in a land where every child was branded, so to speak, in his cradle with the badge of individu-) ality as evidence of a strange birth-right; nursed with ideas of haughty independence; reared with notions of superiority and educated to the idea of being a master of others; fitted by special professional preparation for a walk through high places. among the rulers of men; thus environed and trained, Col. Martin, like many of his compeers of the south, was a young man of great expectations. To reach the measure of these he had a splendid outfit. He was well educated in its best sense. He had wealth and a host of friends. A chevalier by birth, possessed of a charming presence, tall, lithe and graceful; innately brave and generous; amiable and courteous in manner and reality; open as the noon-day; he was dis- liked by none but the mean and envious, and admired and loved by all others. A true southerner, his patriotism and honor were synonyms. To say he plunged into the army vortex with his people is almost a waste of words. Being what he was, he could do nothing else. and he never desired a brighter fate than to be numbered among those who stood for the right, as he and all his people saw it. That he was brave and gallant
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in action, patient and forbearing in camp, full of fortitude and endurance where duty called him, goes without saying. At Drainesville he was severely wounded in the foot, which lamed him for life. After the war he stood on the front line demanding equal rights for the south and giving his time, energy and money liberally for bis political conviction. That he was a democrat, not to be impeached as a suarler or scratcher, none ever doubted. He bowed submissive to the will of the many as expressed by delegates to conventions, and was too magnanimous to forget his trust in any private or public agreement. As a lawyer, according to his oppor- tunities, he was fast pressing to the front in the higher plane of his pro- fession. As a citizen, generously studying the general outcome of his country, he presented an admirable example of unselfishness. All those things whose success accrue to the upbuilding of the fortunes of his people and to the amelioration of their hard lot were his heart studies,' and to them he gave his patriotic nerves. As a friend and social com- panion he shone still brighter and more charmingly than as a public citi- zen. His house was always open to the stranger, and his helping hand to the worthy helpless. Hospitality grew fat in his hall and home, and while a sharp money-making man in matters of business, he was ever lavish in matters of sentiment. A more admirable citizen Alabama never knew; a truer friend and a more magnanimous foe no man could ask. Col. Martin died early in the year 1879, just as the south was beginning to emerge from the pall that for years had been hanging over her. His fortune, most of which was wrecked at the close of the war, he had care. fully invested in Birmingham and other Alabama cities, and a few years after his death his estate had grown to be one of the largest in the entire south. Possessed as he was with all the attributes of success, had Col. Martin's life been spared a few years, he would have shown in public life even more conspicuously, as the best of his years were spent in helping to resurrect his beloved country from the horrors of war. As it was, however, there is no name more beloved, and no memory sweeter to Alabamians, than that of Alburto Martin.
JAMES S. PINCKARD, attorney-at-law of Montgomery, Ala .. was born at Forsyth, Ga., August 4, 1859. His parents were Col. James S. and Martha W. (Herbert) Pinckard, the former of whom was a prominent lawyer for forty years, dying in Forsyth in 1879. The Pinckards are a prominent family, and it may be noted that Mr. James S. Pinckard's grandfather was foreman of the first grand jury called in Monroe county, Ga. Mr. Pinckard's father was a man of high character and great ability. He served with distinction through the Seminole, Mexican and Confederate wars, and frequently held positions of public trust and importance in his state. James S. Pinckard received his education in the town of his birth, read law there, and was admitted to the practice of his profession in 1882. He was not long content to remain in Forsyth, and he removed to Alabama, and in a short while took up his residence
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in Montgomery, the capital. The bar of the capital city was at that time one of the ablest in the state, but by strict attention to business, by energy and fidelity. Mr. Finckard succeeded in early establishing a good and growing clientage. In 1884 he formed a business connection with Mr. B. K. Collier, and he was later associated with Judge John M. Chil- ton. He is now alone in the practice of his profession, and his engage- ments make him a very busy man. In addition to his regular practice Mr. Pinckard represents a large number of American and foreign loan companies. He has possibly been instrumental in bringing more capital into the state of Alabama than any other one man in the state. As presi- dent of the State Abstract company, with the really remarkable collec- tion of records that they have made, Mr. Pinckard has peculiar facilities for making abstracts of titles and for loaning money on real estate. He is now doing what is perhaps the largest business of this kind in Ala- ' bama. Mr. Pinckard is yet a young man, as the world goes, and the future, it may confidently be predicted, has still higher rewards in store for his energy, his sobriety, his high intelligence, and his devotion to his profession.
T. M. BARBOUR, member of the state legislature from Tuscaloosa, is a native of that city, and was born in February, 1830. He was well edu- cated at the city schools until the age of seventeen, entered the army in Mexico and was honorably discharged in 1848, and after the close of said war, he entered the house of Chancellor & Sheldon as clerk, and con- tinued with the firm about ten years; the next two years he was employed in the cotton mill at Tuscaloosa, when he was called to arms in defense. of the Confederacy, entering, in April, 1862, the Forty-third Alabama infantry as captain of company D. and serving with that rank until the latter part of 1863. when he reached the rank of major of the regiment, and held the position until the close. He fought at Fort Morgan, Perry- ville, Drewry's Bluff ( where he commanded the regiment) and Peters- burg and Richmond. On the restoration of peace he began farming, and this has been his business calling since. In 1864 he was ordained a min- ister of the Baptist church. and has since labored earnestly and faithfully in the vineyard of the Lord, and has now (1893) charge of three congre- gations in Tuscaloosa county. In 1892 he was nominated on the demo- cratic ticket for the state legislature, and was elected, in reality, by the populists. His marriage took place in 1851 to Miss Caroline Atkins, a native of South Carolina, and the union has been blessed by the birth of twelve children, of whom six survive, as follows: Cullen; Dollie, wife H. W. Reynolds; Emma, married to Malone Hill; Lee; Carrie, wife of W. H. Beatty, and Benjamin. The father of T. M. Barbour was Richard W. Barbour, a native of Virginia, who married Miss Priscilla Lee, a native of Tennessee, and were both descended from old and highly respected families.
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W. G. B. PEARSON, state senator from the Tuscaloosa district, Ala., was born in Fayetteville, N. C., April 17, 1836. He is a son of John Stokes and Anna B. (Beatty) Pearson, and of distinguished North Carolina ancestry. He is a nephew of ex-Chief Justice Pearson, who was one of of the most eminent jurists North Carolina ever produced, and a relative on his father's side of Montfort Stokes, so prominently indentified with the history of the Old North State. The senator was educated at the university of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), and was a member of the Dialectic society. He did not graduate, being one half term before graduation, and in 1858, came to Tuscaloosa and engaged in the drug bus- iness, in which he was quite prosperous until April, 1861, when, although exempt from military duty, he entered the Confederate service as a member of the Warrior Guards, which were assigned to the Fifth Ala- bama infantry as company G. He was not actively engaged at the first battle of Manassas, but served as a private until the spring of 1862; when he was discharged on account of injuries, and later detailed to the quartermaster's department at Tuscaloosa, in which he remained until the close of the trouble. He then engaged in farming, which has been his vocation ever since. In 1878 Mr. Pearson was elected a member of the legislature, and in 1892 was elected to the state senate on the reform ticket by a majority of six hundred or seven hundred. The marriage of Senator Pearson took place in 1859 to Miss Julia Penn Snow, daughter of Dr. Charles Snow, a lineal descendant of President James Adams, while Mrs. Charles Snow was descended directly from William Penn. To the happy union of Mr. and Mrs. Pearson have been born seven children, as follows: Lizzie S., wife of Patrick H. Eddins; John S., William B., Vir- ginia P., Charles P., Henry and Anna B. The senator is a member of Rising Virtue lodge, No. 4, F. & A. M., of Tuscaloosa, and of the Episcopal church. He maintains in full the credit of his ancestors. many of whose names are inscribed on the rocks of old Mecklinburg in Davie and Rowan county, and are woven into the net work of North Carolina history and stored away in its archives as leaders in every department of life as orators, statesmen, politicians and members of the learned professions. Senator Pearson is a stanch, conservative Jeffersonian democrat, has always voted the democrat ticket, and has been called from his private affairs three different times to harmonize differences and disagreements in the party. He has always responded cheerfully. This shows conclu- sively how popular Senator Pearson is and in what high esteem he is held by the democratic party in his state.
WALTER L. BRAGG .- The future historian of Alabama, when he comes to chronicle the achievements of men who have played a leading part in the regeneration of Alabama, will have to place the name of Walter L. Bragg in a foremost. if not the very foremost, place. Walter Lawrence Bragg was born in 1835, in Lowndes county, Ala., near Bragg's Store, the eldest son of Newport and Martha W. Bragg. The Bragg
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family are of English descent. three brothers, members of the family, having come over to America with Sir Christopher Newport about the middle of the seventeenth century. One of these settled in Virginia, and in Fauquier county, that state, was born the grandfather of Walter L. Peter Bragg was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, serving in Greene's army. At the close of the struggle he settled in South Carolina, and there Newport Bragg was born, grew to manhood, and was married to Martha W. Crooke, a lady with many distinguished connections in South Carolina and other states. In 1829, Newport Bragg removed to Lowndes county, Ala. In 1843, the family again removed, locating in Ouachita county, Ark. They continued to live in Arkansas until the spring of 1861. Newport Bragg was a gentleman of high character and great refinement of manners. The family cherished one saying of his as characteristic of his admiration for the English race and language: "You may show me," he would say. "the genius of all authors and the power and beauty of all other languages, and I will show you where they are all surpassed by the great writers and orators of England." He died March 7th, 1855, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. His widow, the mother of Walter L. Bragg, long survived her husband, to the last animating by her beauti- ful example her own immediate family and a large circle of friends. To his mother, Capt. Bragg was accustomed to refer in language of the deepest and most affectionate homage. He profoundly revered her, and her character was to him not merely the touchstone of all true womanli- ness, but of what is highest and best in human nature. Walter Bragg was educated at the common schools and proceeded later to Harvard uni- versity. He was then associated, among others, with John W. Foster, of Indiana, late minister to Spain, and the successor of James G. Blaine as secretary of state under Harrison's administration. Young Bragg left Harvard because of the strained condition of opinion among the students from the different sections. Returning home, he completed the study of the law. begun at Harvard, under the tuition of Judge Chris- topher C. Scott, of the supreme court of Arkansas. He was admitted to the bar in 1856 and located at Camden, in that state. In 1860 he formed a partnership with John R. Fellows. now a distinguished lawyer, orator, and member of congress from the city of New York. In 1861 Mr. Bragg promptly volunteered as a soldier in the Confederate army. He joined the army as a private in the Sixth Arkansas regiment, and proceeded to make a career as a fighter and an officer of which any man might be proud. He had no illusions about the sternness of the struggle before the southern people, and never believed in the extreme states' rights doctrine of Yancey and his school. He had no hesitation, however, in shouldering his musket when war became imminent. He was first with Gen. Hardee in Missouri, but early in the fall of 1861 he proceeded to Kentucky, and shared there the fortunes of the western army until the close of the war. He took part in the battles of Woodsonville, Shiloh,
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Corinth, Murfreesboro, Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold Gap. Dug's Gap, Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, Pump- kin Vine Creek, Lost Mountain, Pine Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek. Atlanta, Jonesboro, Decatur, and Bentonville. During the last two years of the war he was in command of the sharpshooters of Cleburne's division, and was in every way a worthy companion of that. most daring and intrepid of soldiers. Bragg's sharpshooters became familiar characters in an army that has been somewhat overshadowed by the army of Virginia, not because, however, it was any the less brave, but because the struggle about Richmond resounded more loudly in the ear of the world. "Capt. Bragg," as he liked to be called, was in his ele- ment in command of his sharpshooters. He was a crack shot; like Nel- son, he did not know fear; he had never seen him; and no feat was too daring for him and his men to attempt. The war being over, he settled in Marion, Ala. He had there married in January, 1864, Susan W. Lockett, the eldest daughter of Napoleon Lockett, a prominent lawyer of that place. He practiced law in Marion with his father-in-law until 1867, and later with Judge Bailey until 1871, when he removed to Montgomery. Here he formed a partnership with Gen. John T. Morgan and William S. Thorington, under the firm name of Morgan, Bragg & Thorington. Gen. Morgan removed his residence and practice in Selma, where he was liv- ing when the partnership was formed. In Montgomery, Capt. Bragg speedily took rank among the very ablest lawyers in the state. His maxim in the practice seemed to be that of Strafford, a policy of "thorough." He was a man of tireless energy, and when he had business on hand he would work night and day in the preparation of his cases. His colleagues or associates might cry for rest, but there was no rest for him until he had done every possible thing, down to the minutest detail, to equip for the con- test in court. The qualities he had displayed in the practice of his pro- fession were soon to be exhibited in a cause that, when carried to a brilliantly successful issue. made him one of the most distinguished men in the south. In 1872, the democratic party had suffered a defeat at the hands of the republicans that overwhelmed the white people of the state. When, in 1874, preparations were made to renew the contest and wring victory, if possible, from the politicians who had made themselves hated and despised, the leaders of the democracy determined. to make no mistake in their choice of an organizer. At the state convention held in Jnly, 1874, without his solicitation, and, in fact, without his knowledge, his name was brought forward as the genius for the crisis. He protested, but was constrained to take up the load. Once committed to the undertaking laid out for him there was no rest, and no rest for any other man in the state whose services he felt he had a right to command, until the cam- paign was over. Mr. Tilden's campaign of 1876 is written down as one of the most marvelous in the perfection of its organization in American history. It might well have been modeled on the campaign conducted by
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Capt. Bragg in Alabama two years earlier. Starting with practically no organization, and with but a short while in which to perfect one, he quickly raised up, by the magic of his methods and influence, leaders in every county and beat in the state. Committees were appointed, clubs formed, public meetings organized and in the shortest conceivable time the state was shaken, as with the agony of death, from the mountain to seaboard, every muscle strained, every nerve tense, in the giant effort to cast off the fetters that bound her. Capt. Bragg had the proud satis- faction of seeing his patriotic and unselfish devotion to his people rewarded by a signal victory that swept the opposition out of power and into obscurity. The thousands and tens of thousands of citizens who gathered in Montgomery, to witness the inauguration of Gov. Houston, testified to the deep impression the work of Capt. Bragg had made upon the state. On July 12, 1876, the citizens of Alabama presented to him a beautiful silver service as a testimonial of their gratitude for what he had done for them in the memorable campaign of 1874. Capt. Bragg evinced in a most signal way how thoroughly unselfish had been his efforts to redeem the state. He declined any official reward for his serv- ices and shortly resigned his position as chairman of the state executive committee, to resume active work in his profession. In 1881, a commis- sion was established to regulate and control the railroads in the state of Alabama. and by a common consensus of opinion he was named as the fittest man in the state to take charge of the public business involved in the creation of the new body. He was nominated by Gov. Cobb as a member of the commission, he was promptly confirmed by the senate and entered upon the discharge of his duties. The. commission had little power .in fact, but such was the force of his will and his character that the Alabama commission at once took a first rank among similar bodies in the United States. In 1884, there was a bill pending before congress providing for the creation of a national railroad commission. The mem- bers of congress who were interested in the measure, were especially indebted to the suggestions of Commissioner Bragg, looking to the per- fection of the measure. When the bill actually became the law, it was but natural that he should be considered in connection with the appoint- ments to be made under it. In 1887, he received his appointment as a member of the national railroad commission, and at once entered upon the discharge of his duties as such. He displayed here the same zeal, intel- ligence and untiring industry that had characterized his whole life. He worked hard and he worked incessantly. The result was, that after con- tributing much to the substantial value of the work of the commission, he found his health giving way under the strain he had put upon it. In August, 1891, he left Washington for a while, with a view to recovering his health, already much shattered. His hopes, however, were doomed to disappointment, and at Spring Lake, N. J., on the 19th day of Septem- ber, 1891, he breathed his last. Loving hands brought his body to Mont-
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