urn:taro:utexas.cah.01869 A Guide to the Louis Trezevant Wigfall Papers, 1839-1874 Original EAD encoding by Jessi Fishman according to TARO 2 EAD 2002 Editing Instructions. August 2010 Finding aid written in English. Descriptive Summary Wigfall, Louis T. (Louis Trezevant), 1816-1874 Wigfall (Louis Trezevant) Papers 1839-1874 Materials are written in English. 1934; 1935 5 in. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin A secessionist and staunch believer in slavery and the chivalric code, Louis Trezevant Wigfall was active in Texas politics, taking part in the Galveston County Democratic convention, 1848, and serving in the Texas House of Representatives, 1850-1857. Photostats and transcripts of correspondence, a speech, legal documents, genealogy and family history, newspaper accounts, and literary productions comprise the papers. Biographical Sketch

Louis Trezevant Wigfall (1816-1874), educated at South Carolina College and the University of Virginia, became involved in controversial political arguments, culminating in his killing of another man. He and his family moved to Galveston in 1846 and then to Nacogdoches, where he worked in a law firm with Thomas J. Jennings and William B. Ochiltree. He relocated once more to Marshall to open his own law practice.

A secessionist and staunch believer in slavery and the chivalric code, Wigfall was active in Texas politics, taking part in the Galveston County Democratic convention, 1848, and serving in the Texas House of Representatives, 1850-1857. He was best known for his vocal opposition to Sam Houston and may have played an important role in Houston’s loss in the gubernatorial race of 1857. Also in 1857 Wigfall was elected to the Texas Senate and one year later took an active role in the Democratic convention that stressed states’ rights. In 1859 he became a member of the United States Senate, where he supported slavery, states’ rights, and limiting the power of the national government.

Wigfall helped author the Southern Manifesto, urging the need for the secession of the slave states and the creation of a Southern Confederacy. After Texas’s secession, he remained in his position in the Senate, spying on the Union, raising troops to send to South Carolina, and providing arms to Texas Confederates. He acted as an aide to President Jefferson Davis and was a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy before being formally expelled from the U.S. Senate in July 1861. Later that year he became a colonel in the First Texas Infantry and a brigadier general in the Provisional Army. Additionally, he led the Texas Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia until 1862 when he resigned to join the Confederate Congress. He eventually withdrew his support for President Davis and conspired to strip Davis of his power. After the Confederacy fell, Wigfall returned to Texas for a time before moving to England in 1866 to try to stir up a war between England and the United States, thinking it could also restart a U.S. Civil War. He returned to the states, settling in Baltimore in 1872 for two years before moving once more to Texas, where he died in 1874.

Source:

"Wigfall, Louis Trezevant," Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed August 4, 2010. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/WW/fwi4.html.

 Scope and Contents

Photostats and transcripts of correspondence, a speech, legal documents, genealogy and family history, newspaper accounts, and literary productions comprise the Louis Trezevant Wigfall Papers, 1833-1874. The papers pertain to Wigfall’s activities as a Confederate Senator during the Civil War, his political philosophy of states’ rights, his support of slavery, and his advocacy of the admission of Texas as a slave state (1845). Additionally, the records document Wigfall’s leadership in the Secession movement, the Confederate government, and the Civil War, as well as his exile in England after the Civil War. Included in the collection is a brief sketch of Wigfall’s career published in the Galveston News, 1874, as well as a piece by J. L. Bagwell entitled The Life and Services of L. T. Wigfall of Marshall, Texas, 1849-1860.

 Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

 Index Terms Subjects (Persons) Wigfall, Louis T. (Louis Trezevant), 1816-1874 -- Archives. Bagwell, J. L. Beauregard, G. T. (Gustave Toutant), 1818-1893 Bonham, Milledge L. (Milledge Luke), 1813-1890 Breckinridge, John C. (John Cabell), 1821-1875 Brooks, Preston S. (Preston Smith), 1819-1857 Brooks, Whitfield, 1790-1851 Burt, A. (Armistead), 1802-1883 Clay, C. C. (Clement Claiborne), 1816-1882 Hampton, Wade, 1818-1902 Houston, Sam, 1793-1863 Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875 Lee, Robert E. Longstreet, James, 1821-1904 Lyons, James, 1801-1882 McCulloch, Ben, 1811-1862 Ochiltree, William B. (William Beck) Preston, William, 1816-1887 Reagan, John H. (John Henninger), 1818-1905 Seddon, James A. (James Alexander), 1815-1880 Wigfall, Arthur Wigfall, Halsey Woodson, Hortense Subjects (Organizations) Confederate States of America. Congress. Senate United States. Congress. Senate -- History -- 19th century. Subjects Legislators -- United States -- History -- 19th century. Legislators -- Texas -- History -- 19th century. Lawyers -- Texas -- History -- 19th century. Politicians -- Texas -- History -- 19th century. States' rights (American politics) -- History -- 19th century Slavery -- United States -- History -- 19th century--Congresses Secession -- Texas Exile (Punishment) -- England Places Confederate States of America -- History -- Sources United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century. Texas -- Politics and government -- 19th century. Washington (D. C.) Manchester (England) Paris (France) Edgefield County (S. C.) Richmond (Va.) Austin (Tex.) Harrison County (Tex.) Preferred Citation

Louis Trezevant Wigfall Papers, 1839-1874, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

 Related Material

See also the Crusemann (Paul C.) Collection, (1788-1898) 1932.

See also the Lord (Clyde Willis) Essays, 1925-1931.

 Processing Information

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project, 2009-2011.

 Detailed Description of the Papers Inventory 2H369 Letters [Photostats], 1855-1873 2R299 Family papers, 1860-1862 2R299 Speech delivered in the Confederate States Senate, On Resolution in Respect to the Right of Congress to Suspend the Privilege of the Write of Habeas Corpus May 10, 1864 2R299 The Life and Services of L. T. Wigfall of Marshall, Texas, 1849-1860 by J. L. Bagwell 2R299 Death of General Lewis (sic) T. Wigfall, brief sketch of his career, Galveston News, February 19, 1874 2R299 Letters to John L. Manning, 1839-1860 2R299 Letters of General Joseph Eggleston Johnston to Louis T. Wigfall, 1862-1868 2R300 Papers, 1839-1860