Gholson, Samuel Jameson, 1808-1883

Samuel J. Gholson was a U.S. representative, U.S. district judge, and Confederate general. Born in Richmond, Kentucky, on May 19, 1808, Gholson spent much of his boyhood in Alabama. He began practicing law in Russellville, Alabama, in 1829 and shortly afterwards opened a law office in Athens, Mississippi. In 1835, he won election to the Mississippi House of Representatives. The following year, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Mississippi as a Democrat. He served until 1838, when his seat was declared vacant. In 1839, he received an appointment to a joint seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District and for the Southern District of Mississippi. Gholson served in that capacity until 1861, when Mississippi seceded. He had been a delegate to the state’s secession convention, following Abraham Lincoln’s electoral victory as president.

Gholson volunteered for Confederate military service. Although enlisting as a private, due to his age and standing as a public official, he was quickly promoted, eventually rising to major general of Mississippi state troops in 1863. Gholson campaigned in the field during his military service, being present at the battles of Fort Donelson, Iuka, and Corinth in 1862. In 1864, he received a commission as a brigadier general in the Confederate army and placed in command of cavalry troops. He was badly wounded in the arm and captured during the Battle of Egypt Station in December 1864. His injuries were so severe that Union officers reported him to be mortally wounded. In fact, Gholson survived the wound, but his arm had to be amputated.

Gholson was released by Union forces in May 1865, after the war had ended. He immediately returned to state politics, winning a seat in the legislature that year. He served as the speaker of the house from 1865 to 1866, and then agitated against Republican Reconstruction over the next several years. He won election to the state legislature one more time, in 1878. Gholson died in 1883 and is buried in Odd Fellows Rest Cemetery in Aberdeen, Mississippi. He had been married to Margraten Ann Ragsdale, but the couple had no surviving children. (Wikipedia; FindaGrave; Christopher Losson, “Samuel Jameson Gholson,” Mississippi Encyclopedia)