Years of service 1861–1865 Role Politician | Name Augustus Wright Battles/wars American Civil War Unit Army of Northern Virginia | |
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Born June 16, 1813
Wrightsboro, Georgia ( 1813-06-16 ) Allegiance Confederate States of America Service/branch Confederate States Army Commands held Georgia 38th Infantry Regiment Died March 31, 1891, Rome, Georgia, United States Education Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Place of burial Myrtle Hill Cemetery, Rome, Georgia, United States | ||
Battles and wars American Civil War | ||
Augustus Romaldus Wright (June 16, 1813 – March 31, 1891) was an American politician and lawyer, as well as a colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
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Early life
Augustus Wright was born in Wrightsboro, Georgia and attended public school in Appling. Wright attended the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, the founding college of the University of Georgia in Athens where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society. Wright studied law at the Litchfield Law School in Connecticut and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1835—becoming a practicing attorney in Crawfordville, Georgia, the same year. From 1842 until 1849, Wright served as judge of the superior court of the Cherokee circuit and from 1855-57 as a judge of the superior court of Georgia.
Political career
In 1856, Augustus Wright was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served one term from 1857–59. He later served as a delegate to the Georgia Secession Convention and the Confederate Secession Convention.
President Abraham Lincoln offered Wright the position of provisional governor of Georgia but Wright declined. Wright subsequently served in the First Confederate Congress. Augustus Wright organized "Wright’s Legion" of Georgia volunteers and served as a colonel in the Georgia 38th Infantry Regiment for the Confederate States Army in the Army of Northern Virginia.
After the war, Wright served as a member of the Georgia constitutional convention in 1877. He died in 1891 at his home near Rome, Georgia, and was buried in Rome's Myrtle Hill Cemetery.