James Chesnut Jr.

James Chesnut, Jr.
Allegiance	United States of America Confederate States of America
Rank	Brigadier General

James Chesnut, Jr. (January 18, 1815 – February 1, 1885) of Camden, South Carolina, was a United States Senator, a signatory of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America, and a Confederate Army general. His wife was the well known Mary Boykin Chesnut, whose diary reveals valuable observations of Southern life in the American Civil War.

Chesnut was a wealthy Southern planter, a defender of slavery, and a staunch secessionist. He graduated from the law department of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1837, and initially rose to prominence in South Carolina state politics. Admitted to the bar in 1837, he commenced practice that year in Camden and was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives (1842–54) and the South Carolina Senate (1854–58). He had also been a delegate to the southern convention at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1850.

Chesnut was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat in 1858 to replace Josiah J. Evans, and served there for two years before withdrawing on November 10, 1860, and participating in the South Carolina secession convention. (He was expelled from the Senate the next year.) When the Civil War broke out, he served the Confederate army as a colonel, brigadier general, and an aide to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After the war, he returned to the practice of law in Camden.

Marriage, family and death

On April 23, 1840, James Chesnut, Jr. married Mary Boykin Miller, the daughter of U.S. Senator Stephen Decatur Miller. She later became famous for her diary of life during the Civil War.

He died in Camden in 1885; interment was in Knights Hill Cemetery, near Camden. He was a first cousin of fellow Confederate general Zachariah C. Deas.

External links

• United States Congress. "James Chesnut Jr. (id: c000348)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.