April 20

Alfred Colquitt had an imposing resume: Ivy League graduate, Mexican War veteran, Confederate general, congressman, governor and senator.

Born in Walton County in 1824, Colquitt graduated from Princeton, then practiced law in Monroe until he fought in the Mexican War, rising to the rank of major. He was elected to the U.S. Congress during the sectional crisis of the 1850s, then to the Georgia Legislature.

A staunch states’ righter, Colquitt won a seat at the Georgia Secession Convention. Joining the Confederate Army, he rose from captain to major general, commanding a brigade of Georgians through the major campaigns in the Eastern Theater. Poor service under Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville got him sent South, but he redeemed himself at the Battle of Olustee in Florida.

After the war, Georgians elected Colquitt governor and U.S. Senator. Colquitt, John B. Gordon, and Joseph E. Brown, known as the Bourbon Triumvirate, dominated Georgia politics after the war.

Alfred Colquitt, who served Georgia for a half century, was born April 20, 1824, Today in Georgia History.