Louis Trezevant WIGFALL, Congress, TX (1816-1874)

WIGFALL, Louis Trezevant, a Senator from Texas; was born near Edgefield, Edgefield District, S.C., April 21, 1816; pursued classical studies; attended the University of Virginia and graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1837; served as a lieutenant of Volunteers in the Seminole War in Florida in 1835; attended the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville; admitted to the bar in 1839 and commenced practice in Edgefield, S.C.; moved to Marshall, Tex., in 1848; member, State house of representatives 1849-1850; member, State senate 1857-1860; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of J. Pinckney Henderson and served from December 5, 1859, until March 23, 1861, when he withdrew; expelled from the Senate on July 11, 1861, for support of the rebellion; served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War; represented the State of Texas in the Confederate Congress; after the war moved to London, England; returned to the United States in 1873 and settled in Baltimore, Md.; died in Galveston, Tex., February 18, 1874; interment in the Episcopal Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; King, Alvy. Louis T. Wigfall: Southern Fire-Eater. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1970; Ledbetter, Billy. “The Election of Louis T. Wigfall to the United States Senate, 1859: A Reevaluation.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 77 (October 1973): 241-54.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present