Louis Trezevant Wigfall

The Disintegration of the Union and Collapse of the Confederacy

Edward S. Cooper

Louis Trezevant Wigfall was a violent, mercurial man. He participated in multiple duels, wounding one opponent and killing another. In an outburst on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Wigfall called upon a Brutus to assassinate Texas governor Sam Houston. During the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861, Wigfall rowed out to the fort and arranged its surrender. While still in the U.S. Senate, Wigfall committed treason by operating a station to recruit soldiers for the Confederacy by supplying arms to seceded states and by forwarding information on Union decisions and movements. Wigfall’s oratorical skills convinced Southern ruling classes there was nothing to fear by seceding. He assured them that the North would not fight, that they could not blockade southern ports, that Europe needed Southern cotton, and that England would aid the Confederacy. Wigfall was able to convince Southern states to secede.

In this succinct biography of Wigfall, Edward S. Cooper discusses how this violent and mercurial man contributed to the disintegration of the Union and why he was a primary factor in the collapse of the Confederacy.

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 212 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-61147-564-7 • Hardback • August 2012 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-61147-565-4 • eBook • August 2012 • $99.50 • (£77.00)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical, Biography & Autobiography / Political, History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)

Louis Trezevant Wigfall

The Disintegration of the Union and Collapse of the Confederacy

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Louis Trezevant Wigfall was a violent, mercurial man. He participated in multiple duels, wounding one opponent and killing another. In an outburst on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Wigfall called upon a Brutus to assassinate Texas governor Sam Houston. During the bombardment of Fort Sumter in 1861, Wigfall rowed out to the fort and arranged its surrender. While still in the U.S. Senate, Wigfall committed treason by operating a station to recruit soldiers for the Confederacy by supplying arms to seceded states and by forwarding information on Union decisions and movements. Wigfall’s oratorical skills convinced Southern ruling classes there was nothing to fear by seceding. He assured them that the North would not fight, that they could not blockade southern ports, that Europe needed Southern cotton, and that England would aid the Confederacy. Wigfall was able to convince Southern states to secede.

In this succinct biography of Wigfall, Edward S. Cooper discusses how this violent and mercurial man contributed to the disintegration of the Union and why he was a primary factor in the collapse of the Confederacy.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 212 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-1-61147-564-7 • Hardback • August 2012 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-61147-565-4 • eBook • August 2012 • $99.50 • (£77.00)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical, Biography & Autobiography / Political, History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)

Author

Edward S. Cooper is an independent scholar and the author of several other biographies of nineteenth-century Americans.

Reviews

A masterful work of seminal scholarship, Louis Trezevant Wigfall:The Disintegration of the Union and Collapse of the Confederacy is enhanced with the inclusion of an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index, making it a very highly recommended contribution to academic library Civil War Studies and 19^th-Century American History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

— Midwest Book Review

Ably written and well researched, Cooper's biography of Wigfall takes a fairly straight-forward, chronological approach to its subject as the author guides the reader, in a way that is both engaging and entertaining, through the major events of Wigfall's life, beginning with this birth in 1816 at his father's plantation in the community of Edgefield and concluding in 1874 with his death from a stroke at age fifty-seven in Galvestion, Texas. Of particular interest is chapter 2, 'Code Duello,' in which Cooper recounts the events surrounding Wigfall's 1840 duel with Preston Brooks. . . .Cooper is to be commended for shedding light upon this noteworthy, yet often overlooked, episode.
— South Carolina Historical Magazine