John Wallace Comer (13 June 1845 – 20 September 1919) was a businessman, slave owner, mine operator and planter in Alabama during the Reconstruction Era and the early 1900s. The brother of Alabama Governor B. B. Comer, John Wallace Comer operated the Comer family plantation in Barbour County, Alabama. J. W. Comer served from 1863 until 1865 in the 57th Alabama Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. J. W. Comer also operated the Eureka Iron Works throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Biography
Early life
J. W. Comer was born on the Comer family's plantation in Spring Hill, Barbour County, Alabama. His father, John Fletcher Comer, died when John Wallace was 13 years old. Wallace, as he was known in his family, was educated primarily in private schools and through the use of private tutors. in 1861, when he was 16, the Civil War broke out. J. W. would enlist two years later in 1863.
Civil War service
John Wallace enlisted on 1 April 1863 in Troy, Alabama to serve in the 57th Alabama Infantry Regiment. J. W. Comer achieved the rank of 1st Sergeant and was stationed in Mobile and Pollard until 1864. Comer joined the Alabama 27th Infantry Regiment as a Lieutenant in 1864 and followed them to Demopolis where they joined with the Army of the Tennessee. Comer served under Captain B. M. Talbot in Company H of the 57th Alabama Infantry Regiment for the majority of his service.
Comer was injured during the Battle of Atlanta and was rescued from the battlefield by his body servant, Burrell. Body servants were slaves who were often brought into battle by those who claimed their ownership. Burrell, who was only 16 at the time, took Comer to a bateau and rowed him down the Chattahoochee River to Columbus, Georgia, a distance of almost 260 miles. Comer's mother met them there and took Comer and Burrell to Spring Hill where Comer recuperated. Comer maintained throughout the war that Burrell was a "Negro", not a Confederate soldier. Modern historians have described the relationship between black soldiers in the Confederacy and their masters as complex, but "...clearly was not a soldier-soldier relationship." Following the war, Burrell received a pension from the State of Alabama.
Following his recuperation, Comer rejoined his company in North Carolina. Comer was the last officer left in his company when it surrendered to Union forces. He had been promoted to Captain shortly before the surrender, but the commission was not processed before the war ended.
Election riot of 1874
Comer played a prominent role in the Election Riot of 1874. The White League, a paramilitary group opposed to equal rights for newly emancipated African Americans in the southern United States, attacked a polling place in Spring Hill. The son, Willie Kells, of the Republican Federal Judge presiding over the elections, Judge Elias M. Kells, was shot and killed in a melee that took place in the county courthouse. The White League was attempting to prevent any more Republican candidates from being elected into office by the majority black, Republican electorate of Barbour County.
Following their invasion of nearby Eufaula, the White League stormed the polling place in Spring Hill and destroyed the ballot box. The League effectively led a coup d'etat in Barbour County as they removed all Republican officials from public office and installed Democrats instead.
Legend holds that Comer, who was involved in the assault on the Spring Hill polling place, spared the life of Judge Kells, who, rather than his son, was the intended target of the mob, after the judge made the Masonic sign to Comer.
Business Interests
Agriculture
Comer had a stake in a multitude of agricultural and mineral interests. He owned and operated a plantation in Barbour County, known as Spring Hill. Additionally, he and his older brother, Hugh Moss Comer, established the Cowikee Mills at Eufala. Comer assisted his younger brother, Edward Trippe Comer, in the administration of his seven plantations in Milhaven, Georgia. Comer also had a stake in the firm of Comer and McCurdy which bred Hambletonian horses in Lowndesboro, Alabama. Comer also assisted in the administration of the Eureka Mines.