Louis Wigfall Louis Trezevant Wigfall ( April 21 , 1816 – February 18 , 1874 ) was an American politician from Texas who served as a member of the Texas Legislature , United States Senate , and Confederate Senate . Wigfall was among a group of leading secessionist s known as Fire - Eaters , advocating the preservation and expansion of an aristocratic agricultural society based on slave labor . He briefly served as a Confederate Brigadier General of the Texas Brigade at the outset of the American Civil War before taking his seat in the Confederate Senate . Wigfall ' s reputation for oratory and hard - drinking , along with a combative nature and high - minded sense of personal honor , made him one of the more imposing political figures of his time . Early life and career . Youth . Wigfall was born on a plantation near Edgefield , South Carolina , to Levi Durant and Eliza Thomson Wigfall . His father , who died in 1818 , was a successful Charleston merchant before moving to Edgefield . His mother was of the French Huguenot Trezavant family . She died when young Louis was 13 . An older brother , Hamden , was killed in a duel . Another , Arthur , became a bishop in the Episcopal Church . Tutored by a guardian until 1834 , he then spent a year at Rice Creek Springs School , a military academy near Columbia , South Carolina , for children of elite aristocrats . He then entered the University of Virginia . A perceived insult by another student prompted the first of many duel ing challenges he would make , but the affair was resolved peaceably . In 1836 he entered South Carolina College ( now the University of South Carolina ) to complete his studies , but his attendance was erratic . He developed an interest in the law , participated in debating clubs , and wrote epistles on student rights . Most of his time however , was spent at off - campus taverns rather than at his studies . He abandoned academics altogether for three months to fight in the Third Seminole War in Florida , achieving the rank of Lieutenant of volunteers . Despite these distractions he managed to graduate in 1837 . A fellow graduate considered to be his closest friend was John Lawrence Manning , who would later become a governor of South Carolina . In 1839 Wigfall returned to Edgefield and took over his brother ' s law practice . Having squandered his inheritance , and with a proclivity for drinking and gambling , he accumulated debts . He borrowed from friends to maintain a freewheeling lifestyle , including from his second cousin and future bride , Charlotte Maria Cross , whom he married in 1841 . She was the daughter of the prominent Charlestown lawyer and former South Carolina State Controller Col . George Warren Cross . But " mere office business " as an upcountry lawyer did not suit his temperament and sense of purpose , nor prove to be as profitable as he had hoped . Violence and politics . In the South Carolina gubernatorial election of 1840 , Wigfall actively supported the candidacy of John Peter Richardson over the more radical James Henry Hammond , which led to public exchanges of arguments and insults . In a five - month period , Wigfall managed to get into a fistfight , two duels , three near - duels , and was charged , but not indicted , for killing a man . This outbreak of political violence culminated in 1840 on an island in the Savannah River near Augusta , Georgia , where Wigfall took a bullet through both thighs while dueling with future Congressman Preston Brooks . Although Hammond lost the race for Governor , he attempted to mediate the dispute between the two hot - headed young men . Wigfall received an aide - de - camp and Lieutenant Colonelcy on Governor Richardson ' s staff , but never was completely satisfied with the outcome of the Brooks affair . This initial foray into politics and the Brooks affair destroyed his law practice . He was elected delegate to the South Carolina Democratic convention in 1844 , but his violent temperament and behind - the - scenes meddling had already doomed his youthful political ambitions . He piled up medical bills because of a sickly infant son who eventually died . Sheriff sales followed , swallowing up his Edgefield estate . A Texas cousin , James Hamilton , Jr . , a former governor of South Carolina , arranged for him a fresh start and a law partnership . Wigfall ' s reputation as a duelist , often exaggerated , followed him his entire life , even though he gave up the practice entirely after his marriage . However , he would continue to claim the code duello was an important " factor in the improvement of both the morals and manners of the community . " Gone to Texas . Arriving in Texas in 1848 , Wigfall joined William B . Ochiltree ' s law practice at Nacogdoches , Texas , then settled in Marshall , Texas . He quickly dove back into politics , serving in the Texas House of Representatives from 1849 to 1850 , and in the Texas Senate from 1857 to 1860 . He became a staunch political opponent of Sam Houston . When Houston ran for governor in 1857 , Wigfall followed him on the campaign trail , attacking his congressional record at each of Houston ' s stops , and accused Houston of being a traitor to the South . He claimed that Houston had ambitions for a presidential nomination and courted the support of Northern abolitionists . He organized state Democrats to resist the Know Nothing party , but with their defeat his radical views descended in the estimation of Democratic moderates . John Brown ' s Raid on Harpers Ferry propelled him and his radical views back to prominence in the state . United States Senator . The Texas legislature elected Wigfall to the United States Senate in 1859 as a Democrat to the 36th United States Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Pinckney Henderson . Matthias Ward was appointed to the Senate following Henderson ' s death and served from September 27 , 1858 until Wigfall was elected and sworn in on December 5 , 1859 . Wigfall served until March 23 , 1861 , when he withdrew . He was expelled from the Senate on July 11 , 1861 for support of the rebellion . He also served as a member of the Texas delegation to the Provisional Confederate Congress , which formed the provisional government of the Confederacy , and which selected Jefferson Davis as its president . Wigfall had continued to hold his seat after Texas had seceded on February 1 , 1861 and was admitted to the Provisional Confederate Congress on March 2 , 1861 , exhorting the rightness of the Southern cause and berating his Northern colleagues whether on the floor of the Senate or in Capitol Hill saloons . During this time in Washington , he spied on Federal preparations for the coming conflict , secured weapons for delivery south , and upon expulsion by his fellow Senators , he went to Baltimore , Maryland and recruited soldiers for the new Confederacy before traveling to the Confederate capital at Richmond , Virginia . Civil War . A new nation to serve . In the days leading up to the start of hostilities , Wigfall advocated an attack on Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens in Florida to prompt Virginia and other upper southern states to join the Confederacy . He arrived in Charleston , South Carolina , as the siege of Fort Sumter commenced . According to diarist Mary Chesnut , he was the only " thoroughly happy person I see . " While serving as an aide to General Beauregard during the bombardment of Fort Sumter , and without authorization , he rowed a skiff out to the island fort and demanded its surrender from Major Robert Anderson . The incident was widely reported in the newspapers furthering his celebrity , but the story redacted the important detail that Wigfall had not spoken to Beauregard in two days . When the " authorized " emissaries arrived at the fort , they were dismayed upon learning that Wigfall had granted terms to Anderson which Beauregard had already rejected . Brigade commander . With his newfound celebrity Wigfall secured an appointment to full Colonel of the 1st Texas Infantry Regiment , and a rapid promotion thereafter to Brigadier General of the " Texas Brigade " in the Confederate Army . He took up residence near his encamped troops in a tavern at Dumfries , Virginia , during the winter of 1861 – 1862 , where he would frequently call the men to arms at midnight , imagining a Federal invasion . His nervousness was blamed on his fondness for whiskey and hard cider . He appeared visibly drunk , on and off - duty , in the presence of his men on more than one occasion . He resigned his commission in February 1862 to take a seat in the Confederate Senate , and was replaced by John Bell Hood . Confederate States Senator . At the beginning of the war Wigfall was a close friend of Confederate President Jefferson Davis . Like political alliances throughout his career , he would first support then split with Davis as the war progressed . Davis supported an increasingly strong national government , while Wigfall , forever an advocate of states rights , moved to block the creation of the Confederate Supreme Court , fearing Davis ' appointments would rule against the states . Wigfall also challenged Davis , a West Point graduate and former United States Secretary of War , on many of his military - related policies , ridiculously citing his own military experience in the Seminole Wars . Wigfall was a close friend of Confederate General Joseph E . Johnston and frequently proposed legislation on the general ' s behalf . He was also an early proponent of making Robert E . Lee commander of all Confederate armies . Postbellum activities . At the conclusion of hostilities , Wigfall escaped back to Texas in the company of Texas troops with a forged parole , then went to London , England , in 1866 as an exile where he intrigued to foment trouble between Britain and the United States . He bought a mine in Clear Creek , Colorado , returning to the United States in 1870 . He lived for a while in Baltimore , Maryland , and was in Galveston , Texas , in January , 1874 . He died a month later of " apoplexy " and is buried there in the Episcopal cemetery . Posthumous Legacy . In Popular Culture . In the 1994 alternative history / science fiction novel Guns of the South , Senator Wigfall serves as the running mate to Nathan Bedford Forrest in the 1867 Confederate Presidential Election opposing Robert E . Lee and Albert Gallatin Brown .