Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/655

Rh boy, woodsman, book-keeper, and boatman, preparing himself well for the active and useful life which followed. Before the age of twenty he went to Natchez, in Mississippi, and in 1839 he moved to Texas, where he enlisted in the campaigning against the Indians, and meanwhile engaged in surveying in the Indian country. In 1845 he began the study of law and was licensed to practice in 1848. But while a law student he was elected captain of militia and justice of the peace, and in 1847 was chosen to the legislature. He was elected district judge in 1852, in which office he routed the gamblers and roughs of the border towns, thus winning a reputation upon which he was elected to congress, on the democratic ticket, in 1856, and re-elected in 1859. In January, 1861, he was elected as a delegate in the Texas convention, and resigning his seat in Congress took his place in the convention of his State. He was a member of the Provisional Congress, and on March 6, 1861, was appointed by President Davis postmaster-general under the provisional government. To this office he was reappointed in February, 1862, under the permanent government, and was also acting secretary of the treasury in the last months of the Confederacy. Mr. Reagan was with President Davis at the time of his capture and, being made a prisoner, was confined at Fort Warren until October, 1865. On his return he foresaw and advocated a policy in the course of the South toward the negro race, of which he wrote an open letter to the Texas people, which was misunderstood and subjected him to severe criticism. Seeking no position he devoted his time for ten years to his law practice and farming interests. Subsequently called again into public life he became a member of the Texas constitutional convention of 1875, was then sent continuously to the United States Congress as a representative, until 1887, when he was elected to the Senate of the United States. His course in Congress distinguished him for ability in the details of business, and for the clearness and force