Samuel A'Court Ashe

Samuel A'Court Ashe (September 13, 1840 – August 31, 1938) was a Confederate infantry captain in the American Civil War and celebrated editor, historian, and North Carolina legislator. Prior to his death in 1938, he was the last surviving commissioned officer of the Confederate States Army. Samuel's father, William Shepperd Ashe (1814–1862), served in the North Carolina state senate and as a United States Congressman. The United Confederate Veterans conferred the title of Brigadier General upon Samuel A. Ashe in 1936 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ashe is also noted for his booklet on the war titled A Southern View of the Invasion of the Southern States and War of 1861-65.

For other people named Samuel Ashe, see Samuel Ashe (disambiguation).

Samuel A'Court Ashe
Born(1840-09-13)September 13, 1840
Wrightsville Sound, near Wilmington, North Carolina
DiedAugust 31, 1938(1938-08-31) (aged 97)
North Carolina
Place of burial
Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, North Carolina
Allegiance Confederate States of America
Service/branch Confederate States Army
Years of service1861-1863
Rank Captain
Spouse(s)
Hannah Emerson Willard
​
​
(m. 1871)​
Signature

Early life
Samuel A'Court Ashe Memorial in Raleigh, NC

Born in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, in 1840, Ashe grew up near Wilmington and spent much of his life in Raleigh. He attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he met future naval historian and lifelong friend Alfred Thayer Mahan.[1]

Occupations

When the war erupted, Ashe enlisted in the Confederate Army and served for its duration, rising to the rank of captain. Among his duty assignments was serving at Fort Caswell, on the eastern end of Oak Island.[1]

After the war, Samuel married Hannah Emerson Willard in 1871 and had nine children (one of whom was William Willard Ashe, the noted botanist and associate of the United States Forest Service). Samuel studied law in Wilmington, later establishing a law practice there. Active in the Democratic Party, Ashe worked for several government departments and ultimately served in the North Carolina House of Representatives. As a legislator, Ashe revised North Carolina tax laws concerning the resolution of state debts.[1]

Ashe became editor of the Raleigh Daily News, and subsequently purchased the Raleigh Daily Observer, merging the two to become editor of both publications. A prolific writer, he wrote many materials between the period of 1908 and 1935 on the subjects of North Carolina history, the Civil War, and the post-war South. Perhaps Captain Ashe's most renowned publication is his booklet on the war published in 1935 and titled A Southern View of the Invasion of the Southern States and War of 1861-65, in which he addressed the subject of the constitutionality of the South's secession from the United States and other similar topics pertaining to the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln, and the war.[1]

Noted works

The contents of A Southern View... are as follows:

  1. The Slave Trade;
  2. Steps Leading to War;
  3. Nullification, North and South;
  4. The States Made the Union;
  5. The Right of Secession;
  6. Virginia's Ratification of the Constitution;
  7. Motion of Thursday, the 26th of June, 1788;
  8. Ratification by New York and Rhode Island;
  9. Secession, Insurrection of the Negroes, and Northern Incendiarism;
  10. The Modern Case of John Brown;
  11. Why South Carolina Seceded;
  12. Secession of the Cotton States;
  13. President Lincoln's Inaugural;
  14. Lincoln and the Constitution;
  15. Lincoln, The Lawyer;
  16. Lincoln, The Usurper;
  17. Abraham Lincoln, The Citizen;
  18. Lincoln as a Strategist;
  19. Conditions Just After the War;
  20. The War Between the Northern States and the Southern States;
  21. The Patriotic Address of Jefferson Davis;
  22. Postscript A Letter to a Boston Newspaper.

Death

He died on August 31, 1938 at age 97 and was buried at the Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh.[2] On September 13, 1940, a memorial in his honor was unveiled on Capitol Square in Raleigh. This monument denotes that he was "a patriot, soldier, historian, legislator, editor, and Christian citizen."[3]

References
  1. Brown, David William (1979). "Samuel Acourt Ashe". Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  2. "Captain Ashe is Dead at 97". The Charlotte Observer. Raleigh. AP. September 1, 1938. p. 1. Retrieved August 5, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Ashe monument". Archived from the original on November 3, 2006. Retrieved March 15, 2019.

Bibliography

Media related to Samuel A'Court Ashe at Wikimedia Commons

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