This is a list of U.S. counties named after prominent Confederate historical figures. The counties are named primarily for Confederate politicians and military officers. Most counties are located in Confederate States, whilst five counties are located in what was the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), a territory that was aligned and controlled by the Confederacy. Four further counties are in Border States (three in Kentucky and one in Missouri). Four counties are located in a Union State (Kansas) whilst two further counties are in New Mexico; which consisted of two territories, one of which was controlled by the Union and one by the Confederacy until the Union gained control of both. There are 120 counties in total.
The most common Confederacy-related county names are "Lee County" (for Robert E. Lee) with eight examples, and "Jeff Davis County" or "Jefferson Davis County" (for Jefferson Davis) with four examples. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar has three counties named after him whilst David Rice Atchison, Patrick Cleburne, Alexander Stephens, and Henry A. Wise, have two counties each named after them. There are also two "Johnson County" examples however one of them, in rural Southeast Georgia is named for Herschel V. Johnson and the other, in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex is named for Col. Middleton Tate Johnson Sr.
Place name | State | Named after |
---|---|---|
Adair County | Oklahoma | Colonel William Penn Adair of the First Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles, Cherokee Nation delegate |
Alcorn County | Mississippi | James L. Alcorn, Confederate brigadier general and Governor of Mississippi |
Allen Parish | Louisiana | Henry Watkins Allen, Confederate brigadier general and Governor of Louisiana |
Anderson County | Kansas | Joseph C. Anderson, member of a secret militant group "Southern League" which smuggled weapons south to the Confederacy, also famous for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the Union, Border Ruffian, Speaker pro Tempore of the Kansas Territorial Legislature |
Arlington County | Virginia | Named in honor of Arlington House, the home of General Robert E. Lee, originally named after Arlington Archeological Site where the family originated |
Atchison County | Kansas | David Rice Atchison, Confederate brigadier general of the Missouri Home Guard, U.S Senator and President pro tempore of the United States Senate |
Atchison County | Missouri | |
Bacon County | Georgia | Confederate soldier Augustus Octavius Bacon, speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives |
Baker County | Florida | Confederate Senator James McNair Baker |
Bamberg County | South Carolina | General Francis Marion Bamberg |
Bartow County | Georgia | Colonel Francis S. Bartow, killed at the First Battle of Manassas, the first brigade commander of the Confederate States Army to die in combat |
Beauregard Parish | Louisiana | General P.G.T. Beauregard, one of the designers of the Confederate Battle Flag |
Ben Hill County | Georgia | Benjamin Harvey Hill, member of the Confederate Senate, U.S Representative and U.S. Senator |
Benton County | Mississippi | Brigadier General Samuel Benton, 34th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, mustered from the same counties from which Benton County was formed in 1870 |
Bleckley County | Georgia | Confederate soldier Logan Edwin Bleckley, Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court |
Bradford County | Florida | Captain Richard Bradford, killed in the Battle of Santa Rosa Island, the first Confederate officer from Florida to die in the American Civil War |
Brantley County | Georgia | Confederate soldier Benjamin Daniel Brantley, Georgia state representative |
Brewster County | Texas | Colonel Henry Percy Brewster |
Brown County | Kansas | Albert G. Brown, member of the Confederate Senate, U.S Representative, U.S. Senator and Governor of Mississippi |
Bullock County | Alabama | Colonel Edward Bullock |
Camp County | Texas | Colonel John Lafayette Camp, Texas state senator |
Candler County | Georgia | First Lieutenant Allen Daniel Candler, U.S Representative, Georgia Secretary of State and Georgia Governor |
Catron County | New Mexico | First Lieutenant Thomas B. Catron, U.S Representative, U.S Senator and Mayor of Santa Fe |
Chambers County | Texas | Confederate soldier Thomas Jefferson Chambers, Texas state representative |
Chilton County | Alabama | William Parish Chilton, Alabama Supreme Court Justice and Confederate congressman |
Cleburne County | Alabama | Major General Patrick Cleburne |
Cleburne County | Arkansas | |
Coke County | Texas | Captain Richard Coke, U.S Senator and Governor of Texas |
Cook County | Georgia | General Philip Cook, U.S. Representative |
Crisp County | Georgia | Confederate soldier Charles Frederick Crisp, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives |
Cross County | Arkansas | Confederate soldier David C. Cross, local politician |
Culberson County | Texas | Lieutenant Colonel David B. Culberson, U.S Representative |
Donley County | Texas | Confederate Soldier Stockton P. Donley and associate justice of the Supreme Court of Texas |
Ector County | Texas | Brigadier General Mathew D. Ector |
Elliott County | Kentucky | Congress of the Confederate States Representative John Milton Elliott, helped organised the Confederate government of Kentucky, U.S Representative |
Erath County | Texas | Major George Bernard Erath, raised a company of the Fifteenth Texas Infantry regiment, Texas state representative and Texas state senator |
Evans County | Georgia | Brigadier General Clement A. Evans, notably commanded infantry in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, later edited a 12-volume work on Confederate military history, so named, in 1899 and was president of the United Confederate Veterans |
Faulkner County | Arkansas | Captain Sandford C. Faulkner, composer and fiddler known for the "Arkansas Traveler" |
Florence County | South Carolina | Named for its county seat Florence, founded by General William Harllee, president of the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad and South Carolina Lieutenant Governor, who in turn named the town after his daughter Florence Harlee (as Harleesville already existed) |
Foard County | Texas | Major Robert L. Foard |
Forrest County | Mississippi | General Nathan Bedford Forrest |
Garland County | Arkansas | Augustus Hill Garland, member of the Confederate Senate, U.S. Senator, United States Attorney General and Governor of Arkansas |
George County | Mississippi | Colonel James Z. George, Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court and U.S Senator |
Glasscock County | Texas | Confederate soldier George Washington Glasscock, Texas state representative |
Graham County | North Carolina | William Alexander Graham, member of the Confederate Senate, U.S. Senator, United States Secretary of the Navy and Governor of North Carolina |
Gray County | Texas | Peter W. Gray, member of the Confederate House of Representatives for the Houston district |
Gregg County | Texas | Brigadier General John B. Gregg |
Greenwood County | Kansas | Congress of the Confederate States Representative Alfred B. Greenwood, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, U.S Representative |
Hale County | Alabama | Lieutenant Colonel Stephen F. Hale |
Hampton County | South Carolina | Lieutenant General Wade Hampton III, cavalry leader and later governor of South Carolina |
Hemphill County | Texas | Congress of the Confederate States Representative John Hemphill, U.S Senator |
Hendry County | Florida | Captain Francis A. Hendry, local politician |
Hoke County | North Carolina | General Robert Hoke |
Hood County | Texas | Lieutenant General John Bell Hood, commander of Hood's Texas Brigade |
Humphreys County | Mississippi | Benjamin G. Humphreys, Confederate brigadier general and Governor of Mississippi |
Jackson County | Oklahoma | Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson |
Jeff Davis County | Georgia | Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy |
Jeff Davis County | Texas | |
Jefferson Davis County | Mississippi | |
Jefferson Davis Parish | Louisiana | |
Johnson County | Georgia | Herschel V. Johnson, member of the Confederate Senate, U.S vice-presidential candidate in the 1860 United States presidential election, U.S. Senator and Governor of Georgia |
Johnson County | Texas | Colonel Middleton Tate Johnson Sr. |
Kenedy County | Texas | Mifflin Kenedy, known for successfully transporting cotton and other goods for the Confederacy along the Rio Grande river to avoid the Union blockade and allow exports from the Confederacy to Europe |
Lamar County | Alabama | Colonel Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, U.S Representative, U.S Senator, United States Secretary of the Interior and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States |
Lamar County | Georgia | |
Lamar County | Mississippi | |
Lanier County | Georgia | Confederate soldier Sidney Lanier, poet, musician and academic often known as the "poet of the Confederacy" |
Lea County | New Mexico | Confederate soldier and guerilla leader Joseph C. Lea, considered the "father of Roswell" |
Lee County | Alabama | General Robert E. Lee |
Lee County | Arkansas | |
Lee County | Florida | |
Lee County | Kentucky | |
Lee County | Mississippi | |
Lee County | North Carolina | |
Lee County | South Carolina | |
Lee County | Texas | |
Levy County | Florida | David Levy Yulee, U.S Representative and U.S Senator who resigned to support the Confederacy, Confederate congressman (according to some sources) and notably arrested and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski for treason after aiding the 1865 escape of Confederate President Jefferson Davis |
Loving County | Texas | Oliver Loving, known for being prevented from returning by the Union to Texas, before he successfully escaped and was commissioned by the Confederate States Army to produce beef and drive cattle along the Mississippi River; the Confederate Government later owed him between $100,000 and $250,000 |
Lubbock County | Texas | Colonel Thomas Saltus Lubbock |
Maverick County | Texas | Samuel Augustus Maverick, Confederate diplomat (negotiating the peaceful surrender of Union-aligned federal garrisons from Texas) and one of three commissioners appointed by the Texas Secession Convention |
Mayes County | Oklahoma | Confederate soldier Samuel Houston Mayes of the Second Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation |
McCreary County | Kentucky | Lieutenant Colonel James B. McCreary, U.S Representative, U.S Senator and Governor of Kentucky |
McCulloch County | Texas | Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch |
Ochiltree County | Texas | Colonel William Beck Ochiltree, 18th Texas Infantry, a prominent figure in the Republic of Texas |
Oldham County | Texas | William Simpson Oldham Sr., pioneer Texas lawyer and Confederate Senator |
Parker County | Texas | Confederate Soldier Isaac Parker, Texas state representative and Texas state senator |
Pasco County | Florida | Samuel Pasco, Confederate soldier and later U.S. Senator |
Pender County | North Carolina | William Dorsey Pender, Confederate soldier mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg |
Randall County | Texas | Brigadier General Horace Randal |
Reeves County | Texas | Colonel George R. Reeves |
Reagan County | Texas | John Henninger Reagan, postmaster general of the Confederacy |
Roberts County | Texas | Colonel Oran Milo Roberts, president of the Texas secession convention, Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court and Governor of Texas |
Roger Mills County | Oklahoma | Colonel Roger Q. Mills, U.S Representative and U.S. Senator |
Rogers County | Oklahoma | Confederate Soldier Clement Vann Rogers of the First Regiment of Cherokee Mounted Rifles, Cherokee judge, member of the Cherokee Senate and delegate to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention |
Schleicher County | Texas | Captain Gustav Schleicher, U.S Representative |
Scurry County | Texas | General William Read Scurry |
Starr County | Texas | James Harper Starr, director of the postal service of the Trans-Mississippi Department |
Stephens County | Georgia | Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy |
Stephens County | Texas | |
Stone County | Mississippi | Colonel John Marshall Stone, Governor of Mississippi |
Stonewall County | Texas | Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson |
Sutton County | Texas | Colonel John S. Sutton |
Terrell County | Texas | Brigadier General Alexander Watkins Terrell, Terrell's Texas Cavalry Regiment |
Tift County | Georgia | Captain Nelson Tift of the Confederate States Navy, U.S Representative and founder of Albany, Georgia |
Terry County | Texas | Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry, Terry's Texas Rangers |
Tom Green County | Texas | Brigadier General Thomas Green |
Toombs County | Georgia | General Robert Toombs, Secretary of State of the Confederacy |
Turner County | Georgia | Captain Henry Gray Turner, associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia and U.S Representative |
Tyler County | Texas | John Tyler, President of the United States, Confederate congressman, also noted for presiding over the Virginia Secession Convention and signing the Virginia Ordinance of Secession |
Upton County | Texas | Generals John C. and William F. Upton |
Vance County | North Carolina | Colonel Zebulon Baird Vance, twice governor of North Carolina |
Waller County | Texas | Edward Leonard Waller, delegate for Austin County at the Secession Convention, in the convention Waller supported Texas joining the Confederacy, and co-signed (as the only living signer of the Texas Deceleration of Independence) the Texas Ordinance of Secession, also approving the "Constitution of the Confederate States of America", Mayor of Austin |
Walthall County | Mississippi | General Edward C. Walthall |
Wheeler County | Georgia | Named for Joseph Wheeler, Confederate cavalry general, later joined the U.S. Army, serving in the Spanish–American War and Philippine–American War |
Winkler County | Texas | Colonel Clinton McKamy Winkler |
Winston County | Alabama | Colonel John A. Winston and Governor of Alabama |
Wise County | Texas | General Henry A. Wise and Governor of Virginia |
Wise County | Virginia | |
Woodruff County | Arkansas | Confederate Soldier William E. Woodruff, the first Treasurer of Arkansas and founder of the state's first newspaper the Arkansas Gazette |
Young County | Texas | Colonel William Cooke Young, 11th Texas Cavalry Regiment |
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which had been formed by states that had seceded from the Union. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or the South, was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy comprised eleven U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War. The states are South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
Jefferson F. Davis was an American politician who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party before the American Civil War. He was the United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857.
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces to win the independence of the Southern states and uphold and expand the institution of slavery. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Davis was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War. He had also been a United States senator from Mississippi and U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. On March 1, 1861, on behalf of the Confederate government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at Charleston, South Carolina, where South Carolina state militia besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, held by a small U.S. Army garrison. By March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress expanded the provisional forces and established a more permanent Confederate States Army.
Stephen Russell Mallory was a Democratic senator from Florida from 1851 to the secession of his home state and the outbreak of the American Civil War. For much of that period, he was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs. It was a time of rapid naval reform, and he insisted that the ships of the U.S. Navy should be as capable as those of Britain and France, the foremost navies in the world at that time. He also wrote a bill and guided it through Congress to provide for compulsory retirement of officers who did not meet the standards of the profession.
In the American Civil War (1861–65), the border states were slave states that did not secede from the Union. They were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, and after 1863, the new state of West Virginia. To their north they bordered free states of the Union, and all but Delaware bordered slave states of the Confederacy to their south.
The Second Battle of Sabine Pass was a failed Union Army attempt to invade the Confederate state of Texas during the American Civil War. The Union Navy supported the effort and lost three gunboats during the battle, two captured and one destroyed.
The Confederate States Congress was both the provisional and permanent legislative assembly of the Confederate States of America that existed from 1861 to 1865. Its actions were, for the most part, concerned with measures to establish a new national government for the Southern proto-state, and to prosecute a war that had to be sustained throughout the existence of the Confederacy. At first, it met as a provisional congress both in Montgomery, Alabama, and Richmond, Virginia. As was the case for the provisional Congress after it moved to Richmond, the permanent Congress met in the existing Virginia State Capitol, a building which it shared with the secessionist Virginia General Assembly.
The Hampton Roads Conference was a peace conference held between the United States and representatives of the unrecognized breakaway Confederate States on February 3, 1865, aboard the steamboat River Queen in Hampton Roads, Virginia, to discuss terms to end the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward, representing the Union, met with three commissioners from the Confederacy: Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, and Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell.
The U.S. state of West Virginia was formed out of western Virginia and added to the Union as a direct result of the American Civil War, in which it became the only modern state to have declared its independence from the Confederacy. In the summer of 1861, Union troops, which included a number of newly formed Western Virginia regiments, under General George McClellan drove off Confederate troops under General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Philippi in Barbour County. This essentially freed Unionists in the northwestern counties of Virginia to form a functioning government of their own as a result of the Wheeling Convention. Before the admission of West Virginia as a state, the government in Wheeling formally claimed jurisdiction over all of Virginia, although from its creation it was firmly committed to the formation of a separate state.
The Confederate Secret Service refers to any of a number of official and semi-official secret service organizations and operations conducted by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Some of the organizations were under the direction of the Confederate government, others operated independently with government approval, while still others were either completely independent of the government or operated with only its tacit acknowledgment.
Louisville in the American Civil War was a major stronghold of Union forces, which kept Kentucky firmly in the Union. It was the center of planning, supplies, recruiting and transportation for numerous campaigns, especially in the Western Theater. By the end of the war, Louisville had not been attacked once, although skirmishes and battles, including the battles of Perryville and Corydon, Indiana, took place nearby.
Texas declared its secession from the Union on February 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States on March 2, 1861, after it had replaced its governor, Sam Houston, who had refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. As with those of other states, the Declaration of Secession was not recognized by the US government at Washington, DC. Some Texan military units fought in the Civil War east of the Mississippi River, but Texas was more useful for supplying soldiers and horses for the Confederate Army. Texas' supply role lasted until mid-1863, when Union gunboats started to control the Mississippi River, which prevented large transfers of men, horses, or cattle. Some cotton was sold in Mexico, but most of the crop became useless because of the Union's naval blockade of Galveston, Houston, and other ports.
The American state of Virginia became a prominent part of the Confederacy when it joined during the American Civil War. As a Southern slave-holding state, Virginia held the state convention to deal with the secession crisis and voted against secession on April 4, 1861. Opinion shifted after the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, and April 15, when U.S. President Abraham Lincoln called for troops from all states still in the Union to put down the rebellion. For all practical purposes, Virginia joined the Confederacy on April 17, though secession was not officially ratified until May 23. A Unionist government was established in Wheeling and the new state of West Virginia was created by an act of Congress from 50 counties of western Virginia, making it the only state to lose territory as a consequence of the war. Unionism was indeed strong also in other parts of the State, and during the war the Restored Government of Virginia was created as rival to the Confederate Government of Virginia, making it one of the states to have 2 governments during the Civil War.
The general officers of the Confederate States Army (CSA) were the senior military leaders of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. They were often former officers from the United States Army before the Civil War, while others were given the rank based on merit or when necessity demanded. Most Confederate generals needed confirmation from the Confederate States Congress, much like prospective generals in the modern U.S. armed forces.
Jefferson Davis Memorial Historic Site is a 12.668-acre (5.127 ha) state historic site located in Irwin County, Georgia that marks the spot where Confederate States President Jefferson Davis was captured by United States Cavalry on Wednesday, May 10, 1865. The historic site features a granite monument with a bronze bust of Davis that is located at the place of capture. The memorial museum, built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration, features Civil War era weapons, uniforms, artifacts and an exhibit about the president's 1865 flight from Richmond, Virginia to Irwin County, Georgia.
The conclusion of the American Civil War commenced with the articles of surrender agreement of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, at Appomattox Court House, by General Robert E. Lee and concluded with the surrender of the CSS Shenandoah on November 6, 1865, bringing the hostilities of the American Civil War to a close. Legally, the war did not end until a proclamation by President Andrew Johnson on August 20, 1866, when he declared "that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquillity, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States of America."
Confederate monuments and memorials in the United States include public displays and symbols of the Confederate States of America (CSA), Confederate leaders, or Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War. Many monuments and memorials have been or will be removed under great controversy. Part of the commemoration of the American Civil War, these symbols include monuments and statues, flags, holidays and other observances, and the names of schools, roads, parks, bridges, buildings, counties, cities, lakes, dams, military bases, and other public structures. In a December 2018 special report, Smithsonian Magazine stated, "over the past ten years, taxpayers have directed at least $40 million to Confederate monuments—statues, homes, parks, museums, libraries, and cemeteries—and to Confederate heritage organizations."
More than 160 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America and associated figures have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.