Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/774

722 augurated at Frankfort, October 4. He held this office until the close of the war, though the position at Frank fort was not long maintained. In 1865 he returned to his devastated home at Paris, and was elected judge of the Bourbon county court in 1866, a position he held until his death, May 25, 1877.

Thomas Overton Moore came of good colonial stock. His maternal grandfather, Gen. Thomas Overton, was major under Light Horse Harry Lee in the days of 76. Born in North Carolina his family being so noted as to give their name to one of its counties he came to Louisiana to live the life of a cotton planter in Rapide Parish. The time was to come, however, when broader duties were to draw him from the repose of a country life. His strict integrity, purity in private life, and uncompromising attitude on the political issues of the day, placed him in the State senate. So satisfactory was his term as senator that, in 1860, he was elected governor on the Democratic ticket. Governor Moore was the most active leader in the official preliminaries of secession. His energy in calling the convention at Baton Rouge to decide the momentous issue before the people; his signing the ordinance of secession, when passed, and under it promptly seizing all military posts and garrisons within the state limits, are part of the war record of Louisiana. Not so well known, however, is his humane effort, by the opening of free markets, to relieve the starving poor of New Orleans. His active sympathy with the troops led to the establishment of a Relief association for the benefit of soldiers. His gubernatorial career throughout shows the influence of his intense admiration for the great Democrat, Andrew Jackson. Probably this trait was part of his family inheritance. His grandfather had stood, as second on the field of honor, at the side of Andrew Jackson; and an uncle, Walter H. Overton, acted as aide to the General at the battle of New Orleans. A trace of the Jacksonian traditions was seen in Governor Moore s com-