Robert A. Toombs  "General And Politician"  July 2, 1810 - December 15, 1885

Robert Toombs was born into a wealthy Wilkes County, GA., plantation family, and after graduating in 1828 from Union College in Schenectady, NY., he practiced law in Washington, GA., where he owned a plantation with many slaves. After serving four years in the Georgia legislature, Toombs served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1844 to 1852. A Whig and a Unionist, he worked for the passage of the Compromise of 1850 and helped organize the Constitutional Unionist party in Georgia. It was on that ticket that Toombs was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1852, but he soon changed to the Democratic party and gradually came to realize that secession was the only way the South might retain its heritage.

Toombs was a delegate to Georgia's secession convention and to the convention of seceded states in Montgomery that formed the Confederacy. He was very disappointed that he was not selected president of the new country, but he was a member of the congress and he accepted Jefferson Davis's appointment to become secretary of state. He kept this job only a few months and on July 19, 1861, was appointed brigadier general in command of a Georgia brigade. He served during the Seven Days' battles and on through to the Battle of Antietam, where he was wounded, all the time retaining the congressional seat from which he continuously criticized Confederate military policy. Not being promoted as he thought he should, Toombs resigned his commission and spent the rest of the war harassing his government.

After the war Toombs fled to London, but in 1867 he returned to Georgia, where he again became very influential in state politics, though he was never allowed to hold an elective office because he refused to apply for a pardon. Late in his life he suffered from blindness and alcoholism, dying in Washington, GA., at the age of 75.

Fascinating Fact:  Toombs was the front-runner to be president of the Confederate States of America at the Montgomery convention. Alexander Stephens wrote that Toombs "got quite tight at dinner and went to a party in town tighter than I ever saw him- too tight for his character and reputation by far. I think that evening's exhibition settled the Presidency where it fell."


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