University of Virginia Library

HENRY ALEXANDER WISE.

The ancient family of Wise deduces definitely from William Gwiss, or
Wise de Gaston, who located in County Devon, England, about A. D.
1100.[39] From Sir William Wise, of this lineage, knighted by Henry
VIII., sprang John Wise, who migrated to Virginia about the year 1650.
He was granted, March 24, 1655, 200 acres of land in Northampton
County, on "Nondrice's Creek," in consideration of the transportation
of four persons, one of whom was Hannah Wise, presumably his wife.
(State Land Records, Book No. 4, p. 52.) He also received, September
24, 1668, a grant of 1,060 acres in Accomac County (formed from
Northampton), "between Skiskanessok and Annancock Creeks." (No.
6, p. 176.) The tradition is that he also secured an Indian title and the
friendship of his aboriginal neighbors by the payment of "six Dutch
blankets," and from this circumstance his extensive plantation was
known as the "Dutch Blanket Tract." He was a Justice of the Peace

and a man of consideration and influence in the colony. He died in
1695, leaving issue three sons and two daughters: John, William, Richard,
Barbara (married Robins), and Hannah (married Scarburgh). The
eldest son, John Wise, married Matilda, daughter of Colonel Edmund
Scarburgh, a member of the Council. He died in 1717, leaving issue
three sons and three daughters: John, Thomas, Samuel, Mary Cave,
Eliza, and Hannah, of whom John Wise, the eldest son, married Scarburgh,
daughter of Colonel Tully Robinson, of Welsh descent; was a
Justice of the Peace, and died in 1767, leaving issue: John, Tully Robinson,
Cassey, and Mary, of whom John Wise, the eldest son, Colonel
and County Lieutenant of Accomac and Justice of the Peace (died
1770), married Margaret, daughter of Colonel George Douglas, lawyer—a
native of Scotland, and of the family of ("Black Douglas") the
Earl of Angus—and had issue: John, Tully,[40] Cassey, Elizabeth, and
Mary, of whom Major John Wise, the eldest, educated a lawyer, Clerk
of Accomac County, served two terms in Virginia Senate as Speaker
(died 1812), married twice—first, Mary (died August 9, 1796), daughter
of Judge James Henry, and, secondly, Sarah Corbin (died 1813),
daughter of Colonel John Cropper,[41] of "Bowman's Folly," a gallant
officer of the Revolution, and President of the Virginia branch of the
Order of Cincinnati. Had issue by the first marriage five children, and
by the second five: Margaret Douglas Pettit, married her cousin Tully
Robinson Wise;[42] James Henry; Henry Alexander; John Cropper;
Tully Robinson Scarburgh, of whom Henry Alexander Wise, the subject
of this sketch, was born at Drummondtown, Accomac County, December
3, 1806. Left an orphan at the age of seven years, he was educated
by his father's relatives, and, in 1822, was sent to Washington
College, Pennsylvania, where he was distinguished as a debater, and
whence he graduated in 1825. Attended the law school of Hon. Henry
St. George Tucker, at Winchester, from the autumn of 1825 to that of
1828, when he returned home, and cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson
as President. He was married the same year, on the 8th of October,
to Ann Eliza, daughter of Rev. Obadiah Jennings, D. D., of Washington
College, who was subsequently pastor of a Presbyterian Church in
Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. Wise moved to Nashville, soon after his
marriage, to reside, and formed a law copartnership with Thomas Duncan,
Esq. In 1831 he returned to Accomac County. In 1832 he was
a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, Maryland,
where he advocated the nomination of Jackson as President, but
refused to acquiesce in the nomination of Van Buren as Vice-President.
During the Nullification excitement he published an address to the
electors of York district, in which he declared himself opposed, on the
one hand, to the measures adopted by South Carolina, and, on the
other, to the Force bill and the President's proclamation maintaining
the doctrines of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, "that each State for
itself is the judge of the infraction of the Constitution and of the mode
and manner of redress." In 1833 he was nominated by the Jackson
party of the Eastern Shore of Virginia for Congress, in opposition to
the Nullification candidate, and was elected by 400 majority. His
opponent, Richard Coke, of Williamsburg, challenged him after the
election, and, in the duel resulting, the right arm of Mr. Coke was
fractured. On the removal of the Government deposits from the Bank
of the United States by President Jackson in 1833, Mr. Wise, together
with sixteen other Democrats in the House of Representatives, went
over to the opposition. He was re-elected to Congress in 1835, and
again in 1837, as a supporter of the principles of Hugh Lawson White
and John Tyler, who, in 1836, had been candidates for President and
Vice-President, in opposition to the regular Democratic candidates—
Van Buren and Johnson. He was at this time opposed to the President's
pet bank scheme to the Sub-Treasury, to the reference of abolition
petitions to any committee, and to a protective tariff; and he was a zealous
advocate for the admission of Texas to the American Union. His wife
dying in 1837, he married secondly, in November, 1840, Sarah, daughter
of Hon. John Sergeant, of Philadelphia. In 1837 he acted as the second
of Wm. J. Graves, of Kentucky, in a duel with Jonathan Cilley, of
Maine—both members of Congress—in which the latter was killed: an
occurrence that created a deep feeling in the country, and led to much
denunciation of Mr. Wise, on whom for a time the chief opprobium of
the affair rested. The nomination of John Tyler in 1840, by the Whigs,
as a candidate for Vice-President, in conjunction with General Harrison
as President, was largely due to the management of Mr. Wise; and on
the accession of Mr. Tyler to the Presidency, after the death of General
Harrison, his influence on the policy of the administration was very great,
especially with reference to the Bank question and the annexation of
Texas. In 1842 Mr. Tyler appointed him Minister to France, but the
nomination was rejected by the Senate. He was subsequently appointed
Minister to Brazil, and in that capacity resided at Rio Janeiro from
May, 1844, till October, 1847. In the Presidential canvass of 1848
he supported the Democratic candidate, General Lewis Cass, and was
chosen an Elector. He was a member of the Convention of 1850, which
revised the Constitution of Virginia, and in 1852 was again chosen a
Presidential Elector, and cast his vote for Franklin Pierce.

In December, 1854, he was nominated by the Democrats as their
candidate for Governor, and immediately entered into a most animated
canvass against the "Know-Nothing" party, which had just been organized
in Virginia. Mr. Wise conducted the contest untiringly, and
was brilliantly successful. From January to May he traversed the State
in all directions, travelling more than 3000 miles, and making fifty
speeches, and such was the enthusiasm he created that persons would
travel fifty miles to hear him. He was elected Governor by upwards
of 10,000 majority. In 1850 his second wife died, and in November,
1853, he was married (a third time) to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Dr.
James Lyons, a sister of the late Hon. James Lyons, and a granddaughter
of Hon. Peter Lyons, a native of Ireland, the opponent of Patrick
Henry in the famous "Parson's Cause," and a Judge of the Court of
Appeals of Virginia. During the administration of Governor Wise the
Lecompton controversy of 1857-8 occurred, and though personally attached
to President Buchanan, whose election he had advocated in 1856,
he warmly joined with Senator Douglas in opposing that "schedule of
legerdemain," as he termed the Lecompton Constitution. In 1859, Governor
Wise published an elaborate historical and constitutional treatise
on Territorial Government, and the admission of new States into the
Union, in which he upheld the doctrine of Congressional protection of
slavery in all the Territories.

Near the close of Governor Wise's term occurred the seizure of Harper's
Ferry by John Brown and his followers, and the execution of Brown
at Charlestown, December 2, 1859, was one of the last acts of his administration.
Governor Wise was a member of the State Convention which
met at Richmond, February 13, 1861, to consider the relations of Virginia
to the Federal Government, and was one of the Committee on
Federal Relations, to whom the principal business of the Convention
was referred. The Committee made three reports March 10th. The
majority report affirmed the doctrine of States Rights, demanded a fair
partition of the Territories and equal rights therein, expressed the hope of
a restoration of the Union, recommended amendments to the Constitution,
recognized the right of secession, and advised a conference of the
border States. Mr. Wise presented another report, giving the list of
demands, requiring both the General Government and the seceded
States to abstain from hostilities in the hope of a peaceable adjustment
of difficulties, and insisting that the President should only maintain a
sufficient number of men in the forts, arsenals, etc., to preserve the

public property therein. A third report advised the immediate secession
of the State. Upon the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, he
entered heartily into the war. He was appointed a Brigadier-General
in the Confederate Army, June 5th, 1861, and ordered to Western
Virginia. There he served in conjunction with General John B. Floyd
until September, when he was ordered to report at Richmond. Thence
he was sent to Roanoke Island, North Carolina, with instructions to
defend it. At the time of the attack upon the island by General Burnside
and Commodore Goldsborough, February 7th, 1862, he was sick at
Nag's Head, but the greater part of his brigade (known as Wise's
Legion) took part in the action, and his son, Captain O. Jennings Wise,
commanding the Richmond Light Infantry Blues, was killed. During
the remainder of the winter, General Wise remained in Richmond,
being in feeble health. Upon his restoration, he was placed with his
brigade in 1863 in command of the district between the Mattaponi
and James rivers. His brigade consisted of the 24th, 34th, and 46th
Virginia Regiments of infantry, one battalion of artillery, and a few
companies of cavalry, with head-quarters at Chaffins Farm. During
the period of his command over this district there were some gallant
attacks upon the enemy, including a highly successful reconnoissance
behind Williamsburg, where the enemy were in force, and the final recapture
of that city from the Federals under the command of General
Dix. He was relieved at Chaffins Farm by General Eppa Hunton, and
sent with his brigade to Charleston, South Carolina, under the command
of General Beauregard. While in Carolina his command drove
the enemy from John's Island, in the rear of Charleston, and served
gallantly and efficiently in Florida in two severely contested battles.

From Carolina General Wise returned to Virginia, and was put in
command of the defences of Petersburg. He participated in the battle
of Drewry's Bluff, his brigade driving the enemy before them, and pursuing
them until withdrawn by his superior commander, General Whiting,
who feared to uncover Petersburg. At this point too, on the 15th
of June, his brigade alone kept at bay for a whole day the corps of
General A. J. Smith, until Lee had crossed with his army to the south
side of the James. From that time onward its history was that of
General Lee's army at Petersburg, with its horrible monotony of rags,
starvation and blood, ended at last by the surrender at Appomattox.
After the war, General Wise made Richmond his residence, engaging
in the practice of law, his son John S. Wise being associated with him.
He published in 1860 several disquisitions on slavery, and in 1873 the
"Seven Decades of Union," which is still a highly popular work. He
served also as one of the State Commissioners on the Boundary Line
between Virginia and Maryland, the final report on which was submitted
to the General Assembly and published in 1874. General Wise died at

VIEW IN WEST VIRGINIA.

Richmond, September 14th, 1876, and is interred in Hollywood
Cemetery. He had issue by his first marriage:

• i. Mary Elizabeth, married Dr. A. Y. P. Garnett, a highly successful
  physician of Washington, D. C., and lately a surgeon in the
  Confederate States Army.

• ii. Obadiah Jennings, lawyer and editor of the Richmond Enquirer;
  Captain Richmond Light Infantry Blues; died February 8th,
  1862, from effects of wounds received at Roanoke Island.

• iii. Henry Alexander, Clergyman Protestant Episcopal Church; died
  August, 1868; married Harriet, daughter of Richard Barton
  Haxall, merchant miller of Richmond, and has issue: Barton.

• iv. Ann Jennings, married Frederick Plumer Hobson (now deceased),
  and has issue: John Cannon, Henry Wise.

Issue by the second marriage:

• v. Richard Alsop, M. D., Professor of Chemistry, William and Mary
  College; married a daughter of William F. Peachy; now Superintendent
  of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum at Williamsburg, Va.

• vi. Margaret Ellen, married Wm. C. Mayo, of Richmond, son of Edward
  C., and grandson of Col. John Mayo, who built Mayo's bridge across
  James River, connecting the cities of Richmond and Manchester.

• vii. John Sergeant, born at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, December 25th, 1845;
  was educated at the Virginia Military Institute and the University
  of Virginia; lawyer; Lieutenant of Infantry of Confederate
  States Army; Captain Richmond Light Infantry Blues; late
  United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia,
  from May, 1882, to March, 1883, and now Congressman
  at large from Virginia; married Eva Douglas, of Nashville.

• viii. Spencer Sergeant, died in infancy.

General Wise had no issue by his third marriage.

A county of Virginia was named in honor of Governor Wise. There
is a portrait of him in the State Library at Richmond.