- Winfield S. Featherston
thumb|right|150 px|Winfield S.FeatherstonWinfield Scott Featherston "Old Swet" (August 8 ,1820 –May 28 ,1891 ) was anantebellum two-term U.S. Representative fromMississippi and a brigadier general in theConfederate States Army during theAmerican Civil War . He was later a state politician and acircuit court judge.Early life and career
Winfield S. Featherston was born near
Murfreesboro, Tennessee , the youngest of seven children of Charles and Lucy Featherston, who had recently emigrated fromVirginia . Featherston completed his preparatory studies, but left high school in 1836 to enroll in a localmilitia group to fight Creek Indians during theCreek War . He later moved toMississippi and settled in Houston, where he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1840 and established a successful law practice.Featherston was elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses (
March 4 ,1847 –March 3 ,1851 ). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1850 to the Thirty-second Congress, being defeated byJohn Allen Wilcox . He returned home to Houston and resumed his law practice.He moved to
Holly Springs, Mississippi , in 1856 and began a new law practice in that town. Two years later, he married Elizabeth McEwen, the daughter of the town's leading merchant. The couple would raise a large family in Holly Springs.Civil War
With the
secession of Mississippi, Featherston was appointed to visit neutralKentucky to try to influence GovernorBeriah Magoffin into also leading his state from the Union. With the start of the Civil War in early 1861, Featherston raised aregiment of infantry (17th Mississippi) and became its colonel. He fought at theFirst Battle of Manassas and was cited for gallantry at theBattle of Ball's Bluff . He was commissioned as a brigadier general onMarch 4 ,1862 . He led abrigade in theArmy of Northern Virginia during thePeninsula Campaign and was wounded during theSeven Days Battles . He then participated in the fighting at theSecond Battle of Manassas , as well as at Antietam and Fredericksburg. He was among a number of generals thatRobert E. Lee removed from command or reassigned when he reorganized his army, along withNathan G. Evans ,Thomas F. Drayton ,Roger Pryor , and several others.Transferred to Mississippi in early 1863, Featherston assumed command of a brigade of Mississippians in Loring's Division in the army of
Joseph E. Johnston . He fought in several major campaigns in the Western Theater, including theVicksburg Campaign in 1863 and theAtlanta Campaign the following year. Loring's men accompanied theArmy of Tennessee duringJohn Bell Hood 's Tennessee Campaign.In early 1865, he participated in the
Carolinas Campaign and surrendered with Johnston's army atBennett Place in North Carolina. He was paroled inGreensboro, North Carolina , onMay 1 ,1865 .Postbellum career
With the war over, Featherston returned to his home and family in Holly Springs. Later that same year, he was an unsuccessful candidate for
United States Senator from Mississippi. Featherston returned to his law practice and later served as president of the state taxpayer's convention which protested against high taxes and wasteful government spending ofcarpetbagger GovernorAdelbert Ames . He was elected to the State House of Representatives in 1876, where he continued his battle against the former Union general. Featherston's wife Elizabeth died at their home ofyellow fever in 1878, as did some of their children (four survived).Featherston was elected to another term in the state legislature in 1880, where he chaired the Judiciary Committee. He was a delegate to the 1880
Democratic National Convention . In 1882, he became judge of the second judicial circuit of Mississippi. He was member of the State constitutional convention in 1890.Featherston died from
paralysis at his home in Holly Springs, Mississippi on May 28, 1891. He was interred in the town's Hill Crest Cemetery.References
*CongBio|F000055
* Warner, Ezra J., "Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders", Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.External links
* [http://www.lib.usm.edu/~archives/m041.htm?m041text.htm~mainFrame University of Southern Mississippi biography of Featherston]
* [http://hstourism.powweb.com/load_window.php?e=6 Featherston Place today]
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