{{short description|American politician}} {{Infobox military person |name= Augustus Romaldus Wright |birth_date= {{Birth date|1813|6|16}} |death_date={{death date and age|1891|3|31|1813|6|16}} |image= Augustus Romaldus Wright.jpg |birth_place= [[Wrightsboro, Georgia]] |death_place= [[Rome, Georgia]] |burial_place= [[Myrtle Hill Cemetery]] |burial_label= Place of burial |allegiance= {{Flag|Confederate States of America}} |branch= {{army|CSA}} |service_years= 1861–1865 |rank=[[File:Confederate States of America Colonel.png|35px]] [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] |unit= [[Army of Northern Virginia]] |commands=Georgia 38th Infantry Regiment |battles= [[American Civil War]] }} '''Augustus Romaldus Wright''' (June 16, 1813 – March 31, 1891) was an American politician and lawyer, who briefly served against the United States as a colonel in the [[Confederate States Army]] during the [[American Civil War]]. He resigned his commission to serve in the Confederate Congress.
==Early life== Augustus Wright was born in [[Wrightsboro, Georgia]] and attended [[State school|public school]] in [[Appling, Georgia|Appling]]. Wright attended the [[Franklin College of Arts and Sciences]], the founding college of the [[University of Georgia]] in [[Athens, Georgia|Athens]] where he was a member of the [[Phi Kappa Literary Society]]. Wright studied law at the [[Litchfield Law School]]<ref name="lfhsarw"/> in [[Connecticut]] and was admitted to the [[State Bar of Georgia]] in 1835—becoming a practicing attorney in [[Crawfordville, Georgia]],<ref name="lfhsarw">[http://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/ledger/students/2873 Augustus Romaldus Wright]. litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org. Retrieved July 22, 2013.</ref> the same year.<ref name="conbio"/> From 1842 until 1849, Wright served as judge of the superior court of the Cherokee circuit and from 1855 to 1857 as a judge of the [[superior court]] of Georgia.<ref name="lfhsarw"/>
Wright [[Slavery in the United States|owned slaves]].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Weil |first1=Julie Zauzmer |last2=Blanco |first2=Adrian |last3=Dominguez |first3=Leo |title=More than 1,800 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/congress-slaveowners-names-list/ |access-date=2023-02-20 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en}}</ref>
==Political career== In 1856, Augustus Wright was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] and served one term from 1857 to 1859.<ref name="lfhsarw"/> He ran as an anti-secession delegate for a seat at the Georgia Secession Convention but lost to his son in law, Francis Shropshire. He was one of ten Georgia delegates to the Confederate Constitution Convention in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1861.<ref name="conbio">[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=W000755 WRIGHT, Augustus Romaldus, (1813 - 1891)]. congress.gov. Retrieved July 22, 2013.</ref>
Wright served in the [[First Confederate Congress]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dixon|first1=David T.|title=Augustus R. Wright and the Loyalty of the Heart|journal=Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=2010|volume=94|issue=3|pages=342–371|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=54613495&site=eds-live&scope=site|accessdate=14 February 2018}}</ref> Augustus Wright organized "Wright’s Legion" of Georgia volunteers and served as a [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]]<ref>[http://38thga.com/drupal/node/80 Col. Augustus Wright - Commander]. 38thga.com. Retrieved July 22, 2013.</ref> in the {{anchor|Georgia 38th Infantry Regiment}}Georgia 38th Infantry Regiment for the [[Confederate States Army]] in the [[Army of Northern Virginia]].<ref>[http://www.researchonline.net/gacw/unit89.htm Georgia 38th Infantry Regiment]. researchonline.net. Retrieved July 22, 2013.</ref> U.S. President Abraham Lincoln offered Wright the position of provisional governor of Georgia in 1864 if the state withdrew from the Confederacy, which did not happen.
After the war, Wright served as a member of the Georgia constitutional convention in 1877. He died in 1891 at his home near [[Rome, Georgia]], and was buried in Rome's [[Myrtle Hill Cemetery]].<ref name="conbio"/>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==See also== * [[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 signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession]]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{succession box| before=[[John H. Lumpkin]]| title=[[Georgia's congressional delegations#House of Representatives|U.S. Representative of Georgia's 5th congressional district]]| years=March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1859| after=[[John W. H. Underwood]]}} {{s-end}} {{Navboxes |title=Articles related to Augustus Romaldus Wright |list1= {{CSProvisionalConstitutionSig}} {{Confederate States Constitution signatories}} }} {{Portal bar|American Civil War|Biography|Georgia (U.S. state)|Politics}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Augustus Romaldus}} [[Category:1813 births]] [[Category:1891 deaths]] [[Category:Confederate States Army officers]] [[Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:Deputies and delegates to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States]] [[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers]] [[Category:Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:Signatories of the Constitution of the Confederate States]] [[Category:Signatories of the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States]] [[Category:Signatories of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession]] [[Category:University of Georgia alumni]] [[Category:19th-century Georgia (U.S. state) state court judges]] [[Category:19th-century American lawyers]] [[Category:Litchfield Law School alumni]] [[Category:United States representatives who owned slaves]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]