Page:Men of Mark in America vol 2.djvu/238

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
192
JOHN TYLER MORGAN

of Manassas, July 21, 1861. Major Morgan was advanced to lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. He was made colonel in April, 1862, and returned to Alabama, where he recruited the 51st Alabama cavalry, which he liberally aided in equipping. He reentered the army at the head of this regiment in the fall of 1862 and served in the Army of the Tennessee, General Braxton Bragg, and was in Wheeler's cavalry brigade and division in the battle of Stones river, December 31-January 3, 1862-63. Soon after this battle he was given charge of a conscription bureau in Alabama; and Lieutenant-Colonel Webb succeeded to the command of the 51st Alabama cavalry. After the battle of Chancellorsville, May 1-4, 1863, he was commissioned brigadier-general and at the request of General Robert E. Rhodes was assigned to the command of Rhodes' brigade in Hill's division, Jackson's second army corps, Rhodes having assumed command, first of the division and then of the corps after the death of "Stonewall" Jackson. On reaching Richmond to take command of the brigade, he learned of the death of Colonel Webb, of the 51st Alabama, resigned his commission and returned to the command of his old regiment in the 1st brigade, Martin's division, Wheeler's cavalry, and at the battle of Chickamauga, September 19-20, 1863, he commanded the 1st brigade. He was again promoted to brigadier-general in November, 1863, and placed in command of a brigade of Alabama cavalry; and after the siege of Knoxville, November 17-December 4, 1863, he commanded Martin's division in Wheeler's cavalry corps. He continued to serve in command of his brigade in Wheeler's cavalry corps in the Atlanta campaign and on detached service defending the flank of the Confederate army.

General Morgan resumed the practice of law in Selma, Alabama, in 1865; was a presidential elector on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket in 1876, and the same year was elected United States senator from Alabama to succeed Senator George Goldwaite, and took his seat March 5, 1877. He has been reelected continuously, his election in 1900 to his fifth term carrying his senatorial service to March 3, 1907. In the United States senate he was a member of the committee on Foreign Relations, and chairman in two congresses; of the committee on Public Lands, a member in nine congresses; of the committee on Indian Affairs, a member in ten congresses; on Claims Against Nicaragua, chairman in six congresses; on Pacific Railroads, a member in eight congresses; on Forest Reservations, a