On Thursday I listened to the Supreme Court arguments in the case of Trump v. Colorado. I guess, being a recovering attorney, I was particularly interested in the back and forth between the lawyers and the Supreme Court justices.
In the discussion the point was raised that the article under review was originally directed at preventing former Confederate soldiers from holding any federal office unless pardoned for their service against the United States.
I could not help but recall the story of the law firm of Lamar, Mott and Autry. It was a group of lawyers whose lives and associations traced the story of America in the 1800s. All three, L.Q.C. Lamar, C.H. Mott and James Autry, served as Confederate officers during the Civil War.
Mott and Autry died in battle, while Larmar survived the war.
Lamar was a figure whose sense of honor and character built a long-lasting respect and a national reputation even with those he had once fought. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar was one of President John F. Kennedy’s heroes. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Profiles in Courage,” Kennedy presents biographies of eight particularly courageous U.S. senators, including John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Sam Houston, and Lamar.
Like so many men of note, by hard work and associating with men of character, Lamar laid a solid foundation for his future. In the 1850s he practiced law in Holly Springs with two other men of great intellect and courage. Both his law partners were very respected in their profession and throughout the state. Their law firm thrived in antebellum north Mississippi. The three of them and their families were also close friends with another Mississippi lawyer of note, Gen. E.C. Walthall.
However, their law firm did not survive the Civil War. When Union troops occupied Holly Springs their law office sign, “Lamar Mott and Autry,” was torn down. Union soldiers carried it to the Mississippi River where they threw it into the muddy waters. It was later found washed up on the riverbank downstream. The members of the firm had been fascinating people.
When Autry was only 6 years old, his father died with Crockett, Bowie and Travis at the Alamo. His mother moved to Holly Springs where he attended St. Thomas Hall, an Episcopal school. Even as a child, he was noted for his wonderful wit. At age 22, he was elected to the state legislature and at age 28 became speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives. When war broke out he joined the Confederate service rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before losing his life at the battle of Murfreesboro.
Mott’s career was even more distinguished. His family also moved to Holly Springs when he was a child. He, too, attended St. Thomas Hall, as did Gen. E.C. Walthall, an attorney in Coffeeville, who was a close friend of the three partners.
At the age of 20 Mott served as a lieutenant in the 1st Mississippi Rifles during the Mexican War where he was twice cited for bravery by Jefferson Davis. After entering law practice with Lamar and Autrey, Mott served in the state legislature and as probate judge. In 1858 he was appointed by congress as a special commissioner to investigate Indian affairs in the Oregon and Washington territories. When the Civil War erupted, he was a general in the state militia but resigned to raise a regiment with Lamar and go to the front in Virginia. Mott became colonel commanding the 19th Mississippi Regiment and Lamar became lieutenant colonel of the 19th. The regiment was in Virginia from the beginning of the conflict. In the spring of 1862, Mott was designated for promotion to brigadier general but died in the Battle of Williamsburg before receiving the orders.
Walthall served as a district attorney and he, too, enlisted when the Civil War started. He entered the Confederate Army as a lieutenant in 1861 and quickly rose through the ranks. By 1864 he was a major general. Confederate general J.E. Johnston considered him to be one of the most able generals in Confederate service. After the war he served for 12 years in the U.S. Senate.
Lamar’s career is without parallel. Prior to the Civil War he practiced law in Holly Springs, was a professor of mathematics at the University of Mississippi and served in Congress. During the Civil War he was lieutenant colonel of the 19th Mississippi Infantry Regiment under Mott. After Mott’s death, he assumed command of the 19th and distinguished himself as a military leader. With the end of the war and the onset of reconstruction, he received national recognition as a promoter of reconciliation of the North and South.
After the war, Lamar pursued an unbelievable career, including being one of the first former Confederate officers to win election to a major political office after actively campaigning for African American support. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a U.S. senator, as secretary of the interior under President Grover Cleveland and on the U.S. Supreme Court. He is one of only two people who have ever served in the House of Representatives, the Senate, as a presidential cabinet member and a Supreme Court justice.
These four men were not just business and political associates, they were close personal friends. Their friendships extended to their families.
After the death of her husband, Sally Mott maintained her friendship with Lamar and Walthall. In 1867 Sally moved to Columbus where she married John M. Billups. Though she and John had children and a long happy marriage, Mott remained the love of her life, and she preserved many of his letters, papers and photographs.
Sally’s legacy survives in the Billups-Garth Archives of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library where those documents and photographs were placed by the Billups Garth Foundation. One of the items preserved by Sally was the Mexican War flag of the 1st Mississippi Rifles, which the foundation gave to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and is on display in the Museum of Mississippi History in Jackson.
In 1896, Edward Mayes published a biography of L.Q.C. Lamar. Gen. Walthall presented a copy to Sally Billups with the inscription, “For Mrs. Sally Billups from her life long friend E.C. Walthall Apl 4 ’96.”
Those four friends were extraordinary men of potential and accomplishment. Mott and Autry also exhibit the haunting reality that many of the North’s and South’s best and brightest leaders died 156 years ago in the bloody Civil War.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
