{{Short description|American politician (1818–1872)}} {{Use American English|date=March 2018}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = John Gill Shorter |image = John Gill Shorter.jpg |order = 17th |office = Governor of Alabama |term_start = December 2, 1861 |term_end = December 1, 1863 |predecessor = [[Andrew B. Moore]] |successor = [[Thomas H. Watts]] | office1 = Deputy from [[Alabama]]<br />to the [[Provisional Congress of the Confederate States|Provisional Congress<br />of the Confederate States]] | term_start1 = February 4, 1861 | term_end1 = December 2, 1861 | predecessor1= New constituency | successor1 = Constituency abolished |birth_date = April 23, 1818 |birth_place = [[Monticello, Georgia]], U.S. |death_date = May 29, 1872 (aged 54) |death_place = [[Eufaula, Alabama]], U.S. |resting_place= [[Shorter Cemetery]], [[Eufaula, Alabama]] |party = [[Alabama Democratic Party|Democratic]] }} '''John Gill Shorter''' (April 23, 1818 – May 29, 1872) was an American politician, lawyer, and slaveowner who served as the 17th [[governor of Alabama]] from 1861 to 1863 during the [[American Civil War]]. Before assuming the governorship, Shorter was a Deputy from [[Alabama]] to the [[Provisional Congress of the Confederate States]] from February 1861 to December 1861.
==Early life== John Gill Shorter was born on April 23, 1818, in [[Monticello, Georgia]].<ref name="EoAL">McKiven, Henry R. Jr. (November 22, 2010) "[http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1468 John Gill Shorter (1861-63)]". ''Encyclopedia of Alabama'' - accessed February 18, 2011</ref> He attended the [[University of Georgia]], graduating in 1837, then moved to [[Eufaula, Alabama]] where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1838.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gazzara-McKenzie |first=Caroline |date=2025-04-22 |title=ALABAMA GOVERNORS: John Shorter |url=https://www.alabamaheritage.com/blog/2025/04/22/alabama-governors-john-shorter/ |access-date=2026-04-05 |website=Alabama Heritage |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Yearns">{{cite book |editor-last1=Yearns |editor-first1=W. Buck |title=The Confederate Governors|url= |date=1985 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |page=21-30}}</ref>
In 1843 he married Mary Jane Battle, and established himself in [[Barbour County, Alabama|Barbour county]] as a prominent South Alabama attorney, with sizeable holdings of land and slaves.<ref name="Yearns" /> ==Political career== As a [[Democratic party (United States)|Democrat]], Shorter won a seat in the [[Alabama State Senate]] in 1845, then served in the lower house of the [[Alabama legislature|state legislature]] in 1851 before stepping down to become a [[United States circuit court|circuit judge]].<ref name="Yearns" /> An early supporter of secession, Shorter attended the 1850 [[Nashville Convention]] where delegates from nine Southern states met to consider leaving the United States due to the slavery debate. After Alabama seceded from the Union in 1861, Governor [[Andrew B. Moore]] sent Shorter as a commissioner to Georgia, where he urged the neighboring state to follow Alabama and secede.<ref name="Yearns" /><ref >{{cite book |last=United States War Department|author-link= |date=1895 |title=The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. 1 Serial 127 |location=Washington DC |publisher=Government Printing Office|page=55|url=https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/127/0055}}</ref>
Shorter was then chosen as one of Alabama's delegates to the [[Provisional Congress of the Confederate States]], where he established a reputation as a strong supporter of the [[Jefferson Davis|Davis administration]]'s policies.<ref name="Warner">{{cite book |last1=Warner |first1=Ezra J. |last2=Yearns |first2=W. Buck|date=1975 |title=Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Biographical_Register_of_the_Confederate/riBfDwAAQBAJ |location= |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |pages=219|isbn= |access-date=10 April 2026}}</ref><ref name="Yearns" /> He left his Congressional seat to run for governor in the [[1861 Alabama gubernatorial election|1861 election]], defeating Whig candidate [[Thomas H. Watts]] while public enthusiasm for the war was still high.<ref name="Yearns" />
Taking office on December 2, 1861, Shorter was soon faced with major reverses as Union troops pushed Confederate forces out of Tennessee and into North Alabama. Facing a naval blockade of Mobile bay and with a shortage of local manufacturing facilities, Alabama struggled to adequately arm its troops. Shorter's administration funded investments in local arms factories but production was slow and the state government was forced to seek out civilian-owned obsolete muskets to arm the Alabama troops.<ref name="Yearns" /> Law and order began to deteriorate, and anti-Confederate rebellions led by deserters broke out in North and Southeast Alabama.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weitz|first=Mark A.|orig-date=2005|title=More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army |location= |publisher=University of Nebraska Press|page=210,214|url=}}</ref> By August 1863 there were an estimated 8,000 [[desertion|deserters]] and rebels in the Alabama hill country.<ref name="Yearns" />
Shorter called on the state legislature to form a militia for local defense, as Alabama's regular army regiments were away in other states and conscription had thinned the reserves of manpower available to the state.<ref name="Yearns" /> The bill created County Reserves of teenage boys and State Reserves of older men to try to resolve the problem, but desertion from the ranks was still a major issue. Many soldiers returned home to Alabama without permission, seeking to support their families who were facing near-[[famine]] conditions by the mid-point of the war.<ref name="Yearns" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Weitz|first=Mark A.|orig-date=2005|title=More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army |location= |publisher=University of Nebraska Press|page=239|url=}}</ref>
Governor Shorter also made efforts to [[impressment|impress]] slaves to build fortifications and maintain critical railroads.<ref >{{cite book |last=United States War Department|author-link= |date=1895 |title=The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Volume 26, Serial 42 |location=Washington DC |publisher=Government Printing Office|page=136|url=https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/042/0136}}</ref> Thousands were sent to work at Mobile and other points across the state, and at least 500 enslaved people died laboring under harsh conditions.<ref name="Yearns" /> Many wealthy plantation owners resented the use of their slaves to serve the state or refused to supply them,<ref >{{cite book |last=United States War Department|author-link= |date=1895 |title=The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Serial 128 |location=Washington DC |publisher=Government Printing Office|page=106|url=https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/128/0106}}</ref> and Shorter later reflected that impressment of slaves was the main reason for his defeat when he ran for reelection.<ref name="Yearns" />
Shorter faced his same opponent from the last election, T.H. Watts, in the [[1863 Alabama gubernatorial election]], but this time the discontented Alabama populace vote for Watts by a 3-1 margin.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Flynt|first1=Wayne|title=Poor But Proud|date=February 5, 2016|publisher=University of Alabama Press|location=1222}}</ref> Leaving office in December, 1863, Shorter did not return to public life,<ref name="Warner" /> and died on May 29, 1872, in [[Eufaula, Alabama]].<ref name="EoAL" /><ref name="Yearns" />
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
== Further reading == * [http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/ebind2html.pl/reed_c04?seq=106 ''History of the University of Georgia'', Thomas Walter Reed, Imprint: Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia, ca. 1949 p.392]
== External links == * {{commons category-inline}} * {{Find a Grave|8025542}} * [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/shorten-shuja.html#978.83.35 John Gill Shorter] at ''[[The Political Graveyard]]''
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