William Barksdale (August 21, 1821 – July 3, 1863) was a lawyer, newspaper editor, US Representative, and Confederate general in the American Civil War. He served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1853 to 1861.
A staunch secessionist, he was mortally wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg while he led his brigade's attack on Union forces not far from Cemetery Ridge.
Early life
William Barksdale was born in Smyrna, Tennessee, the son of William Barksdale and Nancy Hervey Lester Barksdale. He was the older brother of Ethelbert Barksdale, who would serve in both the antebellum U.S. Congress and then the Confederate States Congress during the Civil War. He was of English ancestry which came to America during the 1600s.
Barksdale graduated from the University of Nashville and practiced law in Mississippi from the age of 21, but gave up his practice to become the editor of the Columbus [Mississippi] Democrat, a pro-slavery newspaper.
He enlisted in the 2nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment and served in the Mexican War as a captain and quartermaster, but often participated in the infantry fighting as well.
Congress
After the war, he became active in political causes, making a name for himself as an advocate of the Compromise of 1850. His political visibility and recent military service gave him a strong profile for a political candidate. In 1852, he successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He would win re-election three times, serving four terms from 1853 to 1861.
Tenure
Representing one of the South’s largest slaveholding states, Barksdale quickly immersed himself in the national debates over state’s rights and slavery, weighing in on the side of the segregationists. He was also a strong supporter of low tariffs, another hotly debated issue of the day.
Temperament and controversies
He was considered to be one of the most ferocious of all the "Fire-Eaters" in the House, become known as one who would quickly resort to fisticuffs when the temperature of the debate grew hotter. He allegedly stood by the side of Representative Preston S. Brooks as Brooks attacked Massachusetts abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber with a cane, although he was not one of the members that the House tried to censure after the incident.
Before the start of the Civil War, Barksdale inadvertently helped stop one of the most notorious incidents of violence in U.S. legislative history. On February 5, 1858, a brawl between pro and anti-slavery legislators started on the House floor. During the melee, Barksdale swung at Illinois congressman Elihu Washburne, and Washburne's brother Cadwallader, who was a congressman from Wisconsin, grabbed at Barksdale such that it knocked his wig off, and an embarrassed Barksdale put it back on backwards, causing both sides to break out laughing and stopping the fight.
Personal wealth as slaveholder
Barksdale was a slaveholder. The combination of his legal and newspaper work, in addition to his marriage into a wealthy family, made Barksdale relatively wealthy himself. Contemporary reports indicate that by 1860, he had accumulated ownership of 36 slaves and a large plantation.
Civil War
After the state of Mississippi seceded just before the start of the Civil War, Barksdale resigned from Congress to become adjutant general, and then quartermaster general, of the Mississippi Militia, at the rank of brigadier general, with date of rank March 1, 1861. On May 1, he was appointed colonel in the Confederate States Army of the 13th Mississippi Infantry, a regiment that he led in the First Battle of Bull Run that summer, and the Battle of Ball's Bluff in October. The following spring, he took his regiment to the Virginia Peninsula and fought in the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles. When his brigade commander, Brig. Gen. Richard Griffith, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Savage's Station on June 29, 1862, Barksdale assumed command of the brigade and led it in an heroic, but bloody and futile, charge at the Battle of Malvern Hill. The brigade became known as "Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade." He was promoted to brigadier general on August 12, 1862.