I'll cast my vote for William Mahone. Not to the manor born, Mahone was a
scholarship student at VMI, a fairly successful railroad engineer in the
Antebellum era, brigade and division commander during the Civil War (the
"Hero of the Crater") and possibly Robert E. Lee's choice to succeed him in
command of the Army of Northern Virginia in case Lee miscarried.
Mahone is most important as a post-War figure: prominent leader and
financier of the Conservatives during Reconstruction and an extremely
wealthy railway magnate: Mahone went on to create the most massive
interracial political alliance in 19th century America. His imperious
charisma broke the "solid South" for a period, promising a democratic
revolution to white yeomen, freedpeople, manufacturers, and their workers
organized within the Knights of Labor. Mahone generated a large white
following by propelling former Confederates into the leadership of the
liberal movement, which called Readjusters, merged with the Republican Party
in 1885. Black people rallied to the movement because it promised and
produced a series of legal and institutional reforms that made Virginia
modern. (Having read deeply in Mahone's personal letters received at Duke
University, I can assert with certainty that even in the privacy of intimate
communication, these former veterans of the CSA almost never uttered the "N"
word in discussing politics with Mahone.)
Mahone's vision of a dynamic capitalist and democratic Virginia in the
Gilded Age was (and may still not be) to everyone's taste but there was
certainly no other figure in the South, 1865-1895, to match Mahone for
vision, political boldness, or effectiveness.
Harold S. Forsythe
Visiting Fellow (2005-2006)
Program in Agrarian Studies
Yale University
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brent Tarter" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 8:02 AM
Subject: Great/Important Virginians, 19th Century
Last week we had some interesting suggestions and comments about
greatest or most important 20th century Virginians.
This week, let's hear from folks about greatest or most important 19th
century Virginians.
NB: One of my colleagues suggested that I should phrase that, "greatest
or most important 19th century Virginians not named Robert E. Lee."
Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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