Milledge Luke Bonham Milledge Luke Bonham ( December 25 , 1813August 27 , 1890 ) was an American politician and Congressman who served as the 70th Governor of South Carolina from 1862 until 1864 . He was a Confederate General during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Milledge L . Bonham was born near Redbank ( now Saluda ) , South Carolina , the son of Virginia native Capt . James Bonham and Sophie Smith Bonham , the niece of Capt . James Butler , who was the head of an illustrious South Carolina family . Milledge was a 1st cousin once removed to Andrew Pickens Butler . He attended private schools in the Edgefield District and at Abbeville . He graduated with honors from South Carolina College at Columbia in 1834 . He served as Major ( United States ) and adjutant general of the South Carolina Brigade in the Seminole War in Florida in 1836 . That same year , his older brother James Butler Bonham perished at the Battle of the Alamo . Bonham studied law and was admitted to the bar , in 1837 , and commenced practice in Edgefield . During the Mexican - American War , he was lieutenant colonel and colonel of the Twelfth Regiment , United States Infantry . After he returned home , Bonham was the major general of the South Carolina Militia . Entering politics , he served in the state house of representatives from 1840 – 1843 . He married Ann Patience Griffin on November 13 , 1845 . Bonham was solicitor of the southern circuit of South Carolina from 1848 – 1857 . He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty - fifth United States Congress ( succeeding his cousin , Preston Smith Brooks ) and the Thirty - sixth United States Congress , and served from March 4 , 1857 , until his retirement on December 21 , 1860 . Civil War . In early 1861 , the Southern states that had seceded from the Union appointed special commissioners to travel to those other slaveholding Southern states that had yet to seceded . Bonham served as the Commissioner from South Carolina to the Mississippi Secession Convention , trying to persuade their politicians to vote to join in seceding from the Union . Bonham was appointed major general and commander of the Army of South Carolina by Gov . Francis W . Pickens in February 1861 . He was appointed brigadier general in the Confederate Army on April 19 , 1861 , and commanded the First Brigade of the Confederate " Army of the Potomac " under P . G . T . Beauregard . He fought in the First Battle of Manassas , commanding his brigade as well as two artillery batteries and six companies of cavalry in the defense of Mitchell ' s Ford on Bull Run . He resigned his commission January 27 , 1862 , to enter the Confederate Congress . On December 17 , 1862 , the South Carolina General Assembly elected Bonham as governor by secret ballot . He served until December 1864 . During his term , the General Assembly enacted a prohibition against distilling in 1863 and also that year , it demanded that more land be used to grow food instead of cotton to increase the supply of food in the state . Bonham rejoined the Confederate Army as brigadier general of cavalry in February 1865 , and was actively engaged in recruiting when the war ended . Postbellum activities . Bonham owned an insurance business in Edgefield and in Atlanta , Georgia , from 1865 - 1878 . Returning to politics , Bonham was again a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1865 – 1866 and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868 . He was a member of the South Carolina taxpayers ’ convention in 1871 and 1874 . Retiring from public service , he resumed the practice of law in Edgefield and engaged in planting . He was appointed state railroad commissioner in 1878 and served until his death at White Sulphur Springs , West Virginia . He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Columbia .