AG George Davis, CSA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Davis_(politician)

George Davis, Confederate senator and attorney general, was born on March 1, 1820 in Pender County, the son of Thomas F. and Sara Eagles Davis. As a young boy, Davis was sent to Pittsboro where he entered W. H. Harden’s boarding school. An extremely intelligent young man, Davis entered the University of North Carolina at the age of fourteen, and graduated as valedictorian of the Class of 1838. After graduation he studied law with his brother, and opened his first law office in Wilmington in 1839.

Throughout the 1840s Davis served a variety of positions in Wilmington, first as the director of the Bank of Wilmington and then as general counsel for the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad. A former Whig turned Constitutional Unionist, Davis was an ardent opponent of secession. After Lincoln’s election, Davis gave numerous public lectures against seceding from the United States. In January 1861 he was appointed to the Washington Peace Conference as a North Carolina representative. The mission completely changed his opinion after having seen Constitutional amendments opposing slavery discussed. He returned a secessionist.

Davis was elected to the Confederate Senate on behalf of North Carolina later that year; however, upon the conclusion of his two-year term in 1863, he was defeated by William A. Graham. Nevertheless, Davis had developed a strong relationship with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In December 1863, Davis appointed him Attorney General of the Confederacy. He held the position until the fall of the Confederacy. Davis attempted to flee Union forces with Jefferson Davis’s cabinet. He accompanied the refugee train as far as Charlotte, but then attempted to reach England by way of Florida. Captured in Key West, he was taken to New York, where he was held until January 2, 1866.

Davis was a leading Democrat after the war in North Carolina, although he never again held elected office. In 1878 Governor Zebulon Vance offered Davis the chief justiceship of the state supreme court, but he turned it down on the grounds that he could not live on the salary. He remained a practicing attorney and businessman until his death on February 23, 1896 in Wilmington, D-36.

References: William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, II, 32-33—sketch by Buck Yearns Henry Groves Connor, George Davis (1911) Fletcher M. Green, “George Davis, North Carolina Whig and Confederate Statesman,” North Carolina Historical Review (October 1946): 449-470

Birth: Mar. 1, 1820, USA Death: Feb. 23, 1896, USA

CSA Senator, Confederate Cabinet Secretary. He served on the Peace Commission, attempting to bring the North and South together before the Civil War. When the War began, he served as a Senator from North Carolina in the Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1864. He was then made a member of President Jefferson Davis' cabinet as Attorney General of the Confederacy from 1864 to 1865. As the War ended, he and other Confederate officials attempted to leave the country. But in Key West, Florida, but turned himself. He was held for eight months in Fort Hamilton prison before being pardoned in 1866. His obituary said that he was on of the most prominent lawyers of the State, famed for his oratory, and was universally beloved.

http://www.cfhi.net/GeorgeDavisChristianSenatorAttorneyGeneral.php

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CSA Senator, Confederate Cabinet Secretary. He served on the Peace Commission, attempting to bring the North and South together before the Civil War. When the War began, he served as a Senator from North Carolina in the Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1864. He was then made a member of President Jefferson Davis' cabinet as Attorney General of the Confederacy from 1864 to 1865. As the War ended, he and other Confederate officials attempted to leave the country. But in Key West, Florida, but turned himself. He was held for eight months in Fort Hamilton prison before being pardoned in 1866. His obituary said that he was on of the most prominent lawyers of the State, famed for his oratory, and was universally beloved.

Bio by: Evening Blues