Henry Clay Warmouth

Henry Clay Warmoth, Louisiana governor, 1868-1872, and later owner of Magnolia Plantation, was born in Illinois in 1842. During the American Civil War, he was lieutenant colonel of the 32nd Missouri Volunteers, assigned to the staff of General John A. McClernand. He was wounded in 1863 near Vicksburg, but returned to his command after being cleared of spreading false rumors about the strength of the Union Army.

Post-war, Warmoth was judge of Provost Count in New Orleans, and, in 1868 at age 26, was elected Republican governor of Louisiana. His governorship was dominated by such issues as civil rights, suffrage, election fraud, party factionalism, and corruption. In 1872, Warmoth faced impeachment charges for official misconduct, but his trial ended when his term as governor expired.

Warmoth served in the Louisiana legislature, 1876-1877, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1888. Warmoth was Collector of Customs for the Port of New Orleans, 1889-1893. Beginning in 1874, Warmoth owned Magnolia, a Plaquemines Parish sugar plantation where he modernized sugar refining. Warmoth published "War, Politics, and Reconstruction: Stormy Days in Louisiana" in 1930. In 1931, he died in New Orleans.

External links

* [http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/w/Warmoth,Henry_Clay.html Inventory of the Henry Clay Warmoth Papers, 1798-1953] , in the Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill.