1.
There is no formal definition of the term “secession commissioner.” For
purposes of this list, it means those individuals who were appointed as
commissioners by their home state for the sole purpose of advocating
secession in another state. This can present certain problems.
Individuals such as James H. Adams, Robert W. Barnwell, John Alfred
Calhoun, Thomas Butler King, Christopher G. Memminger, Judge John
Robertson, A. R. Russell, Peter B. Starke, and Alexander H. Stephens
are sometimes identified as secession commissioners. Some of these men
were prominent legislators or government officials in their home
states. Some were assigned diplomatic tasks by their home states, but
not in the sense described in this note. In some cases, the names of
these men have simply been confused with actual secession
commissioners. John Alfred Calhoun is sometimes mistaken for James
Martin Calhoun or Andrew Pickens Calhoun. A. R. Russell was identified
as a secession commissioner in The Secession Movement by Dwight Lowell
Dumond, but the actual person was Daniel R. Russell. Or the mission was
different. Two examples: In January 1861, Thomas Butler King was
appointed by Governor Brown as Georgia’s commissioner to the courts of
Europe. Also in January 1861, Judge John Robertson was appointed as a
commissioner from Virginia to several seceded states, but his task was
to urge them to respect federal property pending peace negotiations.
2.
Walker Brooke was appointed along with Fulton Anderson but did not
serve as a secession commissioner. On January 23, 1861, he was elected
to serve as part of the Mississippi delegation to the Provisional
Congress of the Confederate States, which convened on February 4, 1861
in Montgomery, Alabama.
3.
Milledge Luke Bonham was elected as the South Carolina commissioner to
Mississippi but was excused and replaced by Armistead Burt.
4.
Henry Rootes Jackson was initially put forth as a commissioner but
declined. He went on to serve as a Major General in the Confederate
States Army.
5.
John W. A. Sanford was named as Commissioner from Georgia to Texas and
submitted a report describing his visit there. He was also introduced
as Georgia’s commissioner to Alabama during that state’s convention
held in January 1861.
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