{{short description|American politician}} {{Use American English|date=May 2020}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Alfred H. Colquitt | office = [[United States Senator]] from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] | image = Alfred H. Colquitt, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right LCCN95502438.jpg | image_size = | caption = Colquitt in 1866 | state1 = [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] | term_start1 = March 4, 1883 | term_end1 = March 26, 1894 | predecessor1 = [[Middleton P. Barrow]] | successor1 = [[Patrick Walsh (Southern U.S. politician)|Patrick Walsh]] | order2 = 49th [[Governor of Georgia]] | term_start2 = January 12, 1877 | term_end2 = November 4, 1882 | predecessor2 = [[James Milton Smith|James M. Smith]] | successor2 = [[Alexander H. Stephens]] | state3 = [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] | district3 = [[Georgia's 2nd congressional district|2nd]] | term_start3 = March 4, 1853 | term_end3 = March 3, 1855 | preceded3 = [[James Johnson (Georgia)|James Johnson]] | succeeded3 = [[Martin J. Crawford]] | office4 = Member of the [[Georgia State Legislature]] | birth_name = Alfred Holt Colquitt | birth_date = {{birth date|1824|4|20}} | birth_place = [[Monroe, Georgia]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1894|3|26|1824|4|20}} | death_place = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S. | resting_place = [[Rose Hill Cemetery (Macon, Georgia)|Rose Hill Cemetery]],<br />[[Macon, Georgia]] | party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] | allegiance = {{flag|United States of America|1848}}<br />{{nowrap|{{flag|Confederate States of America}}}} | branch = [[United States Army]]<br />{{army|CSA}} | service_years = 1846–1848<br />1861–1865 | rank = [[File:Union army maj rank insignia.jpg|35px]] [[Major (United States)|Major (USA)]]<br />[[File:Confederate_States_of_America_General-collar.svg|35px]] [[Brigadier General (CSA)]] | commands = [[6th Georgia Volunteer Infantry|6th Georgia Infantry Regiment]]<br />Colquitt's Brigade | battles = [[Mexican–American War]]<br />[[American Civil War]] | signature = Signature of Alfred Holt Colquitt (1824–1894).png }} '''Alfred Holt Colquitt''' (April 20, 1824{{spaced ndash}}March 26, 1894) was an American lawyer, preacher, soldier, and politician. Elected as the [[List of governors of Georgia|49th governor of Georgia]] (1877–1882), he was one of numerous Democrats elected to office as white conservatives took back power in the state at the end of the [[Reconstruction era]]. He was elected by the Georgia state legislature to two terms as [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]], serving from 1883 to 1894 and dying in office. He had served as a United States officer in the [[Mexican-American War]] and in the [[Confederate States Army]] during the [[American Civil War]], reaching the rank of [[Major general (United States)|major general]].

==Early life== [[File:Alfred H. Colquitt.jpg|thumb|left|Colquitt as Confederate Brigadier General during the Civil War]] Alfred Colquitt was born in [[Monroe, Georgia]]. His father, [[Walter T. Colquitt]], became a United States Representative and Senator from Georgia. The younger Colquitt graduated from [[Princeton College]] in 1844, studied law and passed his [[bar examination]] in 1846. He began practicing law in Monroe.

During the [[Mexican–American War]] (1848-1849), Colquitt served as a paymaster in the [[United States Army]] at the rank of [[Major (United States)|major]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=Felice Flanery|title=Trailing Clouds of Glory : Zachary Taylor's Mexican War Campaign and His Emerging Civil War Leaders|date=2010|publisher=University of Alabama Press|location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=9780817316785|page=177}}</ref> After the war, Colquitt was elected as a member of the [[United States House of Representatives]], serving one term from 1853 to 1855. He next was elected to and served in the Georgia state legislature. Colquitt was a delegate to The Georgia Secession Convention of 1861: he voted in favor of secession and signed Georgia's [[Ordinance of Secession]] on January 19, 1861.

Colquitt was a [[United States Electoral College|presidential elector]] in [[1860 United States presidential election in Georgia|1860]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=13JMAAAAYAAJ|title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography|publisher=James T. White & Company|year=1898|volume=I|location=New York, N.Y.|pages=291|language=en|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

==Civil War== [[File:Brigadier-General Alfred Holt Colquitt.png|thumb|left|Portrait of Colquitt from a Richmond newspaper in 1863]] At the beginning of the civil war, Colquitt was appointed captain in the [[6th Georgia Volunteer Infantry|6th Georgia Infantry]]. Eventually rising to colonel, he led his regiment in the Peninsula Campaign. At [[Battle of Seven Pines|Seven Pines]], he assumed brigade command after Brig. Gen [[Gabriel Rains]] was wounded, and led it through the Seven Days Battles.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Burton |first1=Brian K.|title=Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles|date=2001|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=978-0253222770|page=113 }}</ref> He led his brigade under [[Stonewall Jackson]] in the [[Battle of South Mountain]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hartwig|first1=D. Scott|title=To Antietam Creek : The Maryland Campaign Of September 1862|date=2012|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=9781421406312|page=301}}</ref> [[Battle of Antietam]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Toney|first1=B.|title=Horrors of the Bloody Lane|journal=America's Civil War|date=1997|volume=10|issue=4|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fth&AN=9709065398&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=3 June 2016}}</ref> the [[Battle of Fredericksburg]], and the [[Battle of Chancellorsville]]. Colquitt survived Antietam unscathed although nearly every other officer in the brigade was killed or wounded. After the battle, he was immediately promoted to brigadier general, to rank from September 1.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sears|first1=Stephen W.|title=Chancellorsville|date=1996|publisher=Houghton-Mifflin Co.|location=Boston|isbn=0395634172|page=[https://archive.org/details/chancellorsville00sear/page/240 240]|url=https://archive.org/details/chancellorsville00sear/page/240|access-date=3 June 2016|url-access=registration}}</ref> By the end of the war, he had been promoted to major general.<ref name="NGA"/>

After Chancellorsville, some questions arose about Colquitt's performance during that battle,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Phalen|first1=Anne Howard|title=In Defense of My Great Grandfather|journal=American Heritage|date=1991|volume=42|issue=1|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=khh&AN=9810299&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=3 June 2016}}</ref> and he was transferred to North Carolina in exchange for Brig. Gen [[Junius Daniel]]'s brigade. His brigade was transferred again in the summer of 1863 to protect [[Charleston, South Carolina]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wise|first1=Stephen|title=Gate of Hell : Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863|date=1994|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|location=Columbia |isbn=9780872499850|page=87}}</ref> In February 1864, Colquitt marched his brigade south to help defend against the Union invasion of [[Florida]], and was victorious in the [[Battle of Olustee]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Howland|first1=Chris|title=Rebel rally in the Sunshine State|journal=America's Civil War|date=2014|volume=26|issue=6|page=38 |url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fth&AN=91558935&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=3 June 2016}}</ref> After this battle, Colquitt's brigade rejoined [[Robert E. Lee]]'s [[Army of Northern Virginia]]. Late in the war the brigade returned to defend North Carolina, where Colquitt surrendered in 1865.

==Political life== After returning to political life and near the end of the Reconstruction era, Colquitt defeated Republican candidate [[Jonathan Norcross]] for governor of Georgia in [[1876 Georgia gubernatorial election|1876]]. He was one of a number of Democrats elected to office as white conservatives regained power in the state, in part by an overt effort by paramilitary insurgents to disrupt and suppress Republican voting, especially by [[freedmen]]. Around that time, several thousand "friends" asked for about 30 open government patronage jobs. Those who did not get one of the jobs tried to turn voters against Colquitt. There were rumors that Colquitt was involved in illegal dealings with the Northeastern Railroad. A legislative committee found the governor innocent. During this time he was a part of the [[Bourbon Triumvirate]].

Colquitt was reelected in [[1880 Georgia gubernatorial election|1880]] to serve two years under the new [[Georgia (U.S. state) Constitution|state constitution]], which reduced the term of governor from four years to two.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Perman|first1=Michael|title=The Road to Redemption: Southern Politics, 1869-1879|date=1984|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill|isbn=0807841412|page=[https://archive.org/details/roadtoredemption0000perm/page/207 207]|url=https://archive.org/details/roadtoredemption0000perm/page/207|access-date=3 June 2016}}</ref> Under his term, debt was reduced.

In [[1882–83 United States Senate elections|1883]], Colquitt was elected by the state legislature as a Democrat to the US Senate from Georgia (this was the practice before an amendment for popular election of senators was ratified in the 20th century). He was re-elected to a second term in [[1888–89 United States Senate elections|1888]].

In 1892, Colquitt suffered a stroke and became partially paralyzed. He recovered enough to resume his duties as a senator, but in March 1894, he suffered another stroke that left him mostly incapacitated. He died two weeks later.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Welsh|first1=Jack D.|title=Medical Histories of Confederate Generals|date=2013|publisher=Kent State University Press|location=Kent, Ohio|isbn=9781306303101|page=45}}</ref> His body was returned to Georgia, where he was buried in [[Rose Hill Cemetery (Macon, Georgia)|Rose Hill cemetery]] in Macon.

==Family life== Colquitt's brother, Col. [[Peyton H. Colquitt]], was killed at age 31 at the Battle of Chickamauga.

Colquitt was married twice: first to the former Dorothy Elizabeth Tarver (1829-1855), and after her death to her brother's widow, the former Sarah Bunn Tarver (1832-1898).<ref name="NGA">{{cite web |title=Alfred Holt Colquitt |url=https://www.nga.org/governor/alfred-holt-colquitt/ |website=National Governors Association |date=January 12, 2015 |access-date=21 September 2019}}</ref> He was the father of three children with his first wife and seven children with his second wife.

==See also== {{Portal|State of Georgia|American Civil War|Biography}} * [[List of signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession]] * [[Confederate States of America#Causes of secession|Confederate States of America]], causes of secession, [[Confederate States of America#"Died of states' rights"|"Died of states' rights"]] * [[List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)]] * [[List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1790–1899)]]

==References== {{Reflist}} {{CongBio|C000647}} Retrieved on 2008-02-13 * Eicher, John H., and [[David J. Eicher]], ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-8047-3641-1}}. * Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-8160-1055-4}}. * [[Ezra J. Warner (historian)|Warner, Ezra J.]] ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-0823-9}}.

==External links== {{commons category}} * [http://battleofolustee.org/colquitt.html General Alfred Colquitt at the Battle of Olustee] * {{cite web|last1=Holt|first1=Alfred H.|title=Letter to Wiley B. Burnett, Aug. 20, 1890|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/harg/turningpoint/id:harg2345-010-091|website=America's Turning Point: Documenting the Civil War Experience in Georgia. E. Merton Coulter manuscript collection II. MS 2345. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=3 June 2016}} * {{cite web|title=Alfred Holt Colquitt Residence|url=http://collectionsdev.atlantahistorycenter.com:2011/cdm/ref/collection/athpc/id/686|website=Atlanta History Photograph Collection, Atlanta History Center|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=3 June 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617022830/http://collectionsdev.atlantahistorycenter.com:2011/cdm/ref/collection/athpc/id/686|archive-date=17 June 2016}} * {{cite web|title=International Cotton Exposition|url=http://collectionsdev.atlantahistorycenter.com:2011/cdm/ref/collection/athpc/id/994|website=Atlanta History Photograph Collection, Atlanta History Center|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=3 June 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617033034/http://collectionsdev.atlantahistorycenter.com:2011/cdm/ref/collection/athpc/id/994|archive-date=17 June 2016}} * {{cite web|title=Memorial addresses on the life and character of Alfred Holt Colquitt : Delivered in the Senate and House of Representatives, fifty-third congress, third session|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/georgiabooks/do-pdf:gb5016|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=3 June 2016}} * {{cite web|title=Newspaper clipping about Alfred H. Colquitt published March 29, 1894|url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/gordonobits/do:gco-ac-00011603|website=Calhoun-Gordon County Library Obituary File, Calhoun-Gordon County Library, as presented in the Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=3 June 2016}} * [http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/bibb/alfred-holt-colquitt Alfred Holt Colquitt] historical marker *[https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/alfred-h-colquitt-1824-1894 Alfred H. Colquitt, ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'']

{{S-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=[[James Milton Smith]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[List of Governors of Georgia|Governor of Georgia]]|years=1876, 1880}} {{s-aft|after=[[Alexander H. Stephens]]}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box |state = Georgia |district = 2 |before= [[James Johnson (Georgia)|James Johnson]] |after= [[Martin J. Crawford]] |years=March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1855 }} {{S-off}} {{Succession box|title=[[Governor of Georgia]] |before=[[James Milton Smith|James M. Smith]]|after=[[Alexander H. Stephens]]| years=1877–1882}} {{S-par|us-sen}} {{U.S. Senator box|state=Georgia|class=2|before=[[Middleton P. Barrow]]|after=[[Patrick Walsh (Southern U.S. politician)|Patrick Walsh]]|alongside=[[Joseph E. Brown]], [[John Brown Gordon|John B. Gordon]]|years=1883&ndash;1894}} {{S-end}}

{{Governors of Georgia}} {{USSenGA}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colquitt, Alfred H.}} [[Category:1824 births]] [[Category:1894 deaths]] [[Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War]] [[Category:Confederate States Army brigadier generals]] [[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:Democratic Party governors of Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:People from Monroe, Georgia]] [[Category:People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War]] [[Category:Signatories of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession]] [[Category:United States Army officers]] [[Category:1860 United States presidential electors]] [[Category:United States senators who owned slaves]] [[Category:United States representatives who owned slaves]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:19th-century United States senators]]