Gholson, Samuel Jameson

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Samuel Jameson Gholson
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    South
    Origins
    Slave State
    No. of Spouses
    1
    Family
    Margaret Ragsdale (wife, 1838)
    Occupation
    Politician
    Military
    Attorney or Judge
    Relation to Slavery
    Slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Other
    Other Affiliations
    Fire-Eaters (Secessionists)
    Government
    Federal Court
    US House of Representatives
    State legislature
    Military
    Confederate Army

    Samuel Gholson (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    Gholson's career in many respects typified that of the nineteenth-century southern statesman. His rise within the legal profession opened the door to political opportunities throughout his lifetime, and his high standing within the community made him an ideal candidate for a position of military leadership during the war. Gholson was certainly a better general and politician than he was a judge, as he was more committed to the causes of slavery, secession, and the Democratic party than he was to the abstractions of the law.
    Timothy S. Huebner, "Gholson, Samuel Jameson," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/11/11-00322.html.

    Samuel Gholson (Congressional Biographical Directory)

    Reference
    GHOLSON, Samuel Jameson, a Representative from Mississippi; born near Richmond, Madison County, Ky., May 19, 1808; moved with his father to Franklin County, Ala., in 1817; attended the common schools; studied law; was admitted to the bar at Russellville, Ala., in 1829; moved to Athens, Monroe County, Miss., and commenced the practice of law; member of the State house of representatives in 1835, 1836, and 1839; elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of David Dickson and served from December 1, 1836, to March 3, 1837; presented credentials as a Democratic Member-elect to the Twenty-fifth Congress and served from July 18, 1837, until February 5, 1838, when the seat was declared vacant; appointed United States district judge in 1839 and served until 1861, when Mississippi seceded from the Union; member of the State secession convention in 1861; during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army as a private, captain, colonel, brigadier general, and major general of State troops; became brigadier general of the Confederate States Army in June 1863, and was placed in command of a brigade of Cavalry; again a member of the State house of representatives in 1865, 1866, and 1878; continued the practice of law in Aberdeen, Miss., until his death there October 16, 1883; interment in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
    "Gholson, Samuel Jameson," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000149.
    How to Cite This Page: "Gholson, Samuel Jameson," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/5727.