Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/783

Rh gate to the convention which made the ordinance of secession, and while still a member of that body was appointed to the staff of Governor Pickens. Under the Confederate government he returned to the bench, and was called upon to decide many grave and important questions growing out of the war. In November, 1864, he was elected governor, and in the following December was inaugurated, with a great popular demonstration, in range of the enemy’s shells. In April, 1865, he was arrested by order of the Federal government, and with distinguished companions sustained an imprisonment. Subsequently he resumed his professional practice at Charleston, where, after over half a century of distinction as a jurist, he died April 9, 1893.

Isham G. Harris, war governor of Tennessee, was born near Tullahoma, Tennessee, February 10, 1818. At nineteen years of age he settled in Tippah county, Mississippi, where he engaged in mercantile business. He studied law during the night hours for two years and meanwhile was successful in trade, when, through a bank failure, he was left penniless. He resumed business at Paris, Tenn., and soon recouped his losses, manifesting, throughout this most arduous part of his career, a remarkable business ability, and indomitable courage. In 1841 he was admitted to the bar, and subsequently he was elected to Congress, where he served two terms with distinction. Subsequently he made his home at Memphis, and widened his practice as an attorney. He was chosen presidential elector in 1856, and was elected and 1861. Although his State was overrun, its capital taken, and its government compelled to retreat with the Confederate armies, he took care of the State s interests in every particular. He offered his services to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, and was actively employed as