Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/185

 JOHN T. MORGAN

, of Selma, was born at Athens, Tenn., June 20, 1824; received an academic education, chiefly in Alabama, to which State he emigrated when nine years old, and where he has since resided; studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1845, and practiced until his election to the Senate; was a presidential elector in 1860 for the State at large and voted for Breckinridge and Lane; was a delegate in 1861 from Dallas County to the State convention which passed the ordinance of secession; joined the Confederate army in May, 1861, as a private in Company I, Cahaba Rifles, and when that company was assigned to the Fifth Alabama Regiment, under Col. Robert E. Rodes, he was elected major, and afterwards lieutenant-colonel of that regiment; was commissioned in 1862 as colonel and raised the Fifty-First Alabama Regiment; was appointed brigadier-general in 1863 and assigned to a brigade in Virginia, but resigned to join his regiment, whose colonel had been killed in battle; later in 1863 he was again appointed brigadier-general and assigned to an Alabama brigade, which included his regiment; after the war he resumed the practice of his profession at Selma; was chosen a presidential elector for the State at large in 1876 and voted for Tilden and Hendricks; was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat, to succeed George Goldthwaite, Democrat; took his seat March 5, 1877; was reëlected in 1882, in 1888, and again in 1894. His term of service will expire March 3, 1901.