Assistant Secretary of War, C.S.A.
War Date Autographed Letter Signed to South Carolina Governor M.L. Bonham
(1811-89) Born near Washington, Ga., he was the son of Colonel Duncan G. Campbell for whom Campbell County was named. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1825, then attended the U.S. Military Academy for three years when the death of his father caused him to resign. Returning to Georgia, he read law with former Georgia Governor John Clark, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He later moved to Alabama and commenced practice in Montgomery. He was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1836, and again in 1843. Earning a brilliant national reputation, Campbell was recommended in 1853 by the sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justices to President Franklin Pierce to fill a vacancy in the court. This is one of the few times that sitting justices have made a recommendation for a new nomination. Campbell was confirmed by the senate three days later. In the famous Dred Scott case, he ruled that since Scott was still a slave he was not a citizen and did not have the right to sue before a state or national court. He opposed secession, and in early 1861 served as a mediator between William H. Seward, Simon Cameron, and three Confederate commissioners; Martin Crawford, Andre Roman, and John Forsyth, Jr. Campbell had been instructed that the Lincoln administration's policy was for peace and reconciliation, not war, but during the meetings he learned that the Federal government was reinforcing Fort Sumter and Lincoln had requested 75,000 volunteers, and felt that he had been lied to. Consequently, he resigned as U.S. Supreme Court Justice on April 26, 1861. In 1862, he was named Assistant Secretary of War by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, a position he held through the end of the war. In early 1865, he was one of the three Confederate peace commissioners that were sent to meet with President Lincoln and Secretary of State, William H. Seward, in the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. After the fall of Richmond in April 1865, Campbell was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski, Ga., for six months. After his release, he resumed his law practice in New Orleans, La. He argued a number of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court including the Slaughterhouse Cases and a number of other cases designed to obstruct Radical Reconstruction in the South. During the Tilden-Hayes presidential election dispute, he was one of Tilden's legal advisors. War Date Autographed Letter Signed: 4 5/8 x 7 3/4, in ink, on imprinted letter sheet. Confederate States of America, War Department, Richmond, Va., May 13, 1864. His Excellency, M.L. Bonham, Governor of S.C. Sir: Your letter of the 2nd March last relative to abuses in the Commissary department, in the execution of the act of Congress & orders of the department, was referred to the Commissary General for explanation. The return of the C.[ommissary] G.[eneral] has been rec'd & the answers of two of the persons charged are enclosed, as containing the explanation submitted. Very Respectfully, Your obt. Svt., J.A. Campbell, Asst. Secy. of War. Light vertical fold and even age toning. Excellent. Biographical sketch of Milledge L. Bonham, the recipient of this letter: (1813-90) A lawyer by profession, he graduated from South Carolina College, (now the state university), and fought in both the Seminole uprising of 1836 and the Mexican War. His political career began with election to the South Carolina state house of representatives in 1840. The secession of his state from the Union found him a member of the Federal Congress to which he had been elected in 1857 to fill the unexpired term of his cousin, Preston Brooks, who had resigned following his notorious physical assault on Senator Charles Sumner. Immediately resigning upon the secession of South Carolina in December 1860, Bonham was appointed major general and commander of the South Carolina army, and on April 23, 1861, was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. Bonham resigned his commission in January 1862 to take his seat in the First Regular Confederate Congress, a post which he also resigned upon his election as governor of South Carolina in January 1863. At the expiration of his term, he once again donned a military uniform, and was reappointed a Confederate brigadier general and joined General Joseph E. Johnston's army during the 1865 Carolina's campaign. |
