Wigfall, Louis Trezevant 1816-1874
Legislator; born in Edgefield district, S. C., April 21, 1816; took a partial course at the College of South Carolina; left to enter the army for the Indian War in Florida; was admitted to the bar; Texan State Senator in 1857-58 and 1859-60; United States Senator from Jan. 4, 1860, till his formal expulsion, July 11, 1861.Commenting on Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address, Senator Wigfall said: “It is easy to talk about enforcing the laws and holding, occupying, and possessing the forts. When you come to do this, bayonets, and not words, must settle the question. . . . Fort Pickens and the administration will soon be forced to construe the inaugural. . . .The Confederate States will not leave Fort Sumter in possession of the Federal government. . . . Seven States have formed a confederation, and to tell them, as the President has done, that the acts of secession are no more than blank paper is an insult. . . . There is no Union left. . . . The seceded States will not live under this administration. Withdraw your troops. Make no attempt to collect tribute, and enter into a treaty with those States. Do this and you will have peace. Send your flag of thirty-four stars thither and it will be fired into, and war will ensue. Divide the public property; make a fair assessment of the public debt; or will you sit stupidly and idly till there shall be a conflict of arms because you cannot compromise with traitors? Let the remaining States reform their government, and, if it is acceptable, the Confederacy will enter into a treaty of commerce and amity with them. If you want peace, you shall have it; if you want war, you shall have it. . . . No compromise or amendment to the Constitution, no arrangement you may enter into, will satisfy the South, unless you recognize slaves as property and protect it as any other species of property.”
Senator Wigfall, when he left the halls of legislation at Washington, hastened to Charleston and became a volunteer on the staff of General Beauregard. He was on Morris Island when the bombardment of Fort Sumter began, and on April 13 he went in a boat to Sumter, accompanied by one white man and two negroes. He carried a white handkerchief on the point of a sword as a flag of truce. Landing, he hastened to an embrasure and asked permission to enter. The soldiers would not let him. “I am General Wigfall.” he said; “I wish to see Major Anderson.” “Wait till I see the commander,” said the soldier. [363] “For God's sake, let me in!” cried Wigfall; “I can't stand it out here in the firing.” He ran to the sally-port, and was confronted by burning timbers. He ran around the fort, waving his handkerchief to induce his fellow-Confederates to cease firing. But the missiles fell thick and fast, and he was permitted to crawl into an embrasure, after he had given up his sword to a private soldier. There he met some of the officers. Trembling with excitement, he said: “I am General Wigfall; I come from General Beauregard, who wants to stop this bloodshed. You are on fire, and your flag is down; let us stop this firing.” One of the officers said, “Our flag is not down.” And the Senator saw it where Peter Hart had planted it. He tried to get the officers to display his handkerchief above the fort or out of the embrasure; but all refusing, he said, “May I hold it, then?” One of them coolly replied, “If you wish to.” Wigfall sprang into the embrasure and waved the white flag several times. Frightened away by shots, he said to one of the officers, “If you will wave this from the ramparts they will cease firing.” “It shall be done,” was the reply, “if you request it for the purpose, and that alone, of holding a conference with Major Anderson.”
They met. Wigfall said he came from General Beauregard, who wished to stop the fighting. “Upon what terms will you evacuate the fort?” “General Beauregard knows the terms upon which I will evacuate on the 15th. Instead of noon on the 15th, I will go now.” “I understand you to say,” said Wigfall, eagerly, “that you will evacuate the fort now, sir, upon the same terms.” Anderson answered in the affirmative. “Then,” said Wigfall, inquiringly, “the fort is to be ours?” “Yes, sir.” “Then I will return to Beauregard,” said Wigfall, and he departed. Believing Wigfall's story, Anderson allowed a white flag to be raised over the fort. Soon afterwards several gentlemen (one of them directly from Beauregard at Fort Moultrie) came to Sumter, and, when they were informed of Wigfall's visit, assured Major Anderson that Wigfall had not seen Beauregard in two days. The indignant Anderson was about to haul down the white flag, when they begged him to let it remain until they could see Beauregard. An arrangement for the evacuation was soon after made. After the war Wigfall resided for several years in England, and in 1873 settled in Baltimore. He died in Galveston, Tex., Feb. 18, 1874.
