Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/640

600 appointed secretary of State, which portfolio he held until the end of the government, when he made his way through Florida to the Bahamas, and thence sailed to England. He was there admitted to the practice of law in 1867; a year later published a treatise on the sale of personal property; was made queen s counsel in 1872; and presently was so famous as to appear solely before the House of Lords and privy council. He was given a farewell banquet in 1883, and died at Paris, May 8, 1884.

Thomas Hill Watts, of Alabama, served as attorney-general from April 9, 1862, until October i, 1863. He was born in Butler county, Alabama, January 3, 1819. His family was not wealthy, and it was only by the sacrifice of his patrimony that he was enabled to complete his education at the university of Virginia, in 1840. He was admitted to practice of the law in 1841, and in 1842, 1844 and 1845 held a seat in the State legislature. Removing to Montgomery, he was elected from that city to the lower branch of the legislature and subsequently to the senate. In politics he was an earnest Whig and opposed the policy of secession while it was an unrealized theory. But when no other course was open, he aided the movement to withdraw Alabama from the union, and was one of the members of the constitutional convention at Montgomery in 1861 which adopted the ordinance of secession. In this body he was chairman of the judiciary committee. In the summer of 1861 he organized and became colonel of the Seventeenth Alabama infantry, and served at Pensacola and Corinth. In March, 1862, he was called to Richmond by President Davis to assume the duties of attorney-general of the Confederate States. While holding this office he was elected, in August, 1863, governor of Alabama, and on December 1st was inaugurated. The Federal occupation terminated this official trust in April, 1865, and Mr. Watts resumed the practice of his profession and rendered great service during the