06/13/1865
William Lewis Sharkey was a veteran Mississippi jurist who had resigned his offices during the Confederacy but remained in the state as a staunch Unionist. President Johnson appointed him as provisional governor of the state and he served until October 1865, when former Confederate General Benjamin Humphreys was elected as as a Democrat and inaugurated controversially. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation:
Chronicles of the Great Rebellion Against the United States of America (Philadelphia, PA: A. Winch, 1867), 108