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Edmond Noel

2025-08-24T18:28:47Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:5C0D:5B6:6644:9A5:

{{Short description|37th Governor of Mississippi (1856–1927)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2011}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name= Edmund Noel
|image name = Gov._E.F._Noel,_Mississippi,_Washington_(LOC).jpg
|caption= Noel c. 1908
|party= [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|order1= 37th
|title1= [[Governor of Mississippi]]
|term_start1= January 21, 1908
|term_end1= January 16, 1912
|lieutenant1= [[Luther Manship]]
|predecessor1= [[James K. Vardaman]]
|successor1= [[Earl L. Brewer]]
|office2= Member of the [[Mississippi Senate]]
|term2=1895-1899 1920
|office3= Member of the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]]
|birth_name=Edmund Favor Noel
|birth_date= {{birth date|1856|3|4|mf=y}}
|birth_place= near [[Lexington, Mississippi]]
|death_date= {{death date and age|1927|7|30|1856|3|4|mf=y}}
|death_place= [[Lexington, Mississippi]]
|profession= Lawyer
|spouse= Loula Hoskins (m. 1890) Alice Tye Neilson (m. 1905)
|signature = Signature of Edmond Favor Noel.png
}}
[[File:Edmond Noel.jpg|thumb|Noel's Governors portrait]]
'''Edmund Favor Noel''' (March 4, 1856 – July 30, 1927) was an American attorney and progressive<ref>[https://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=jmh Nash, Jere (2019) "Edmund Favor Noel (1908-1912) and the Rise of James K. Vardaman and Theodore G. Bilbo," Journal of Mississippi History: Vol. 81: No. 1, Article 3. Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/jmh/vol81/iss1/3 , P.7 ]</ref> politician who served as [[List of Governors of Mississippi|governor]] of [[Mississippi]] from 1908 to 1912. The son of an early planter family in Mississippi, he became a member of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]].

Noel was elected to the state house, as a district attorney, and to the state senate before winning an election as governor in 1907. As governor, he achieved gains in support for farmers,<ref>Mississippi A History by Westley F. Busbee, 2015, P.209-210</ref> labor legislation,<ref>[https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/bulletin-united-states-bureau-labor-3943/november-1909-477652/review-labor-legislation-1908-1909-504589 P.648-650 Review of Labor Legislation of 1908 and 1909, P.648-650]</ref> and public education, while also establishing a state charity hospital. After his tenure, he was re-elected to the state senate.

==Early life, family and education==
Edmund Favor Noel was born on March 4, 1856, on his family's farm in [[Holmes County, Mississippi]].{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=4}} Edmund was named after his paternal grandfather, Edmund Faver Noel.{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=3}}{{efn|There is a lack of consistency in how Noel's first name is spelled in both records and media during his lifetime and in posthumous commemorative displays, with some sources styling it as "Edmund"—like his grandfather—or as "Edmond".{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=3}}}}

During the [[American Civil War]], Noel's father served in the [[Confederate States Army]] and was eventually imprisoned. After the war, Noel moved to [[Louisville, Kentucky]], to live with his maternal uncle, attorney David Sanders. After finishing high school, Noel read law under Sanders before returning to Mississippi in 1877. He passed the state bar and opened law practice in [[Lexington, Mississippi|Lexington]].{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=4}}

==Political career==
In 1881, Noel was elected to a seat in the [[Mississippi House of Representatives]]. In 1887, he was elected as a district attorney.{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=4}}

In 1890 the Democratic-dominated legislature passed a new constitution with provisions that [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised most African Americans]] by raising barriers to voter registration. White Democrats maintained this exclusion of blacks from politics through much of the 1960s in the state. These actions crippled the Republican Party in the state, whose members had been primarily made up of newly enfranchised African-American [[freedmen]] after the Civil War.

In 1895 Noel was elected to the [[Mississippi State Senate]].{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=4}} He served in the U.S. Army in the [[Spanish–American War]] (1898).{{cn|date=August 2023}} He was re-elected to the state senate in 1899.{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=4}} By the turn of the 20th century, Mississippi was a ''de facto'' [[one-party state]] under the firm control of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. With no meaningful opposition in general elections from the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], who held public office was effectively determined by who was nominated by the Democratic Party. Such nominations were decided in party conventions, which tended to be dominated by wealthy planters, bankers, and traders. Upon joining the State Senate, Noel began advocating for a law requiring party's to employ [[Partisan primary|primary election]]s to select their candidates, as such a reform would ensure more popular participation in the political process.{{sfn|Nash|2019|pp=6–7}} He also later stated that he feared public discontent with the convention system would destabilize [[white supremacy]] in Mississippi's political system.{{sfn|Nash|2019|pp=8–9}}

In 1899, [[Andrew H. Longino]] was elected [[governor of Mississippi]]. He advocated for the adoption of a primary law in 1900, and while a bill to that effect passed the Senate, it did not succeed in the House. At the beginning of the 1902 legislative session, Noel introduced a bill which required all party nominations to be determined by primary elections, and called for a run-off contest to be held in the instance of no contender garnering a majority of the votes on the first ballot. The bill was successful and signed into law in March.{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=7}} The law also allowed a party's leadership to determine who was eligible to vote in their primaries, and in 1903, the [[Mississippi Democratic Party]]'s Executive Committee voted to restrict eligibility to include [[white primary|only white voters]].{{sfn|Nash|2019|pp=7–8}} Accordingly, the law led to the exclusion of blacks from meaningful input in Mississippi's politics while also driving future candidates to appeal more to regular white voters.{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=9}}

In 1903, Noel retired from the State Senate and launched a campaign for the office of governor.{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=9}} In the Democratic primary he faced F. A. Critz, a Civil War veteran, and [[James K. Vardaman]], a newspaper editor.{{sfn|Nash|2019|pp=9–10}} Vardaman and Critz advanced to the primary run-off, which the former won.{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=11}}

In 1907, Noel won the Democratic primary and was elected Governor of Mississippi. He achieved numerous progressive reforms, including in education. These reforms included consolidation of the state's rural school districts, the establishment of agricultural high schools for whites, and the founding of a teacher's college in [[Hattiesburg, Mississippi|Hattiesburg]] (restricted to white students). Noel's administration also gained passage of laws regulating [[child labor]], establishing statewide [[prohibition]] of alcohol,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=36500646cf307010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD |title=Mississippi Governor Edmund Favor Noel |access-date=2008-09-25 |publisher=[[National Governors Association]]}}</ref> founding of a state charity hospital, and establishing pure food laws.<ref name="MiHist"/>

The business community in Jackson had recommended that both the 66-year-old [[Mississippi Governor's Mansion|Governor's Mansion]] and the [[Old Mississippi State Capitol|Old Capitol]] be demolished and the sites redeveloped for commercial use. Noel and his wife Alice worked together to promote the preservation and renovation of the mansion. Through their efforts, it received its first major renovation and was updated for continued use.<ref name="MiHist"/>

After the end of his term, Noel continued to be active in state politics. In 1918, he was unsuccessful in his run for the [[United States Senate]], which was newly based on popular voting. Since the adoption of the 17th Amendment in 1913, U.S. senators were elected for the first time that year by popular vote rather than by state legislatures. Noel ranked third; both he and the incumbent, populist U.S. Senator [[James K. Vardaman]], lost to [[Pat Harrison]]. Blacks were still effectively disenfranchised and excluded from voting.

In 1920, Noel was elected again to the Mississippi State Senate, serving until he died in 1927.

==Personal life and death==
Noel married Loula Hoskins in 1890. They had children together, including sons, before her death.

He married again in 1905 to Alice Josephine Tye Neilson, who had two sons from a previous marriage.{{sfn|Nash|2019|p=4}} She served as First Lady when Noel was governor. She aided him in working to preserve and renovate the Governor's Mansion.<ref name="MiHist">[http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/265/index.php?s=extra&id=138 David G. Sansing, "Edmond Favor Noel: Thirty-seventh Governor of Mississippi: 1908-1912"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912213645/http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/265/index.php?s=extra&id=138 |date=September 12, 2015 }}, Mississippi History Now, 2004, accessed 28 December 2015</ref>

After his death in July 1927, Noel was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in [[Lexington, Mississippi]]. His wife, Alice Noel, was buried there after her death in 1933.

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Works cited ==
* {{cite journal| last = Nash| first = Jere| title = Edmund Favor Noel (1908–1912) and the Rise of James K. Vardaman and Theodore G. Bilbo| journal = The Journal of Mississippi History| volume = LXXXI| issue = 1–2| pages = 3–22| date = 2019| url = https://www.mississippihistory.org/sites/default/files/spring_summer_2019_final.pdf| issn = 0022-2771}}

==Further reading==
*[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ajac/msholmes.htm "Holmes County, Mississippi/ Largest Slaveholders from 1860 Slave Census Schedules"], Transcribed by Tom Blake, 2003, Rootsweb/Ancestry.com
*[http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/race-and-voting.html "Race and Voting in the Segregated South"], Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2015

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{{s-bef|before=[[James K. Vardaman]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[List of Governors of Mississippi|Governor of Mississippi]]|years=[[1907 Mississippi gubernatorial election|1907]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Earl L. Brewer]]}}
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{{succession box
|before=[[James K. Vardaman]]
|title=[[List of Governors of Mississippi|Governor]] of [[Mississippi]]
|after=[[Earl L. Brewer]]
|years=1908–1912
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Mississippi}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noel, Edmond}}
[[Category:1856 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Lexington, Mississippi]]
[[Category:Baptists from Mississippi]]
[[Category:19th-century Baptists]]
[[Category:Democratic Party governors of Mississippi]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Democratic Party Mississippi state senators]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Mississippi]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Mississippi Legislature]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Mississippi Legislature]]

William W. Brandon

2025-08-24T18:05:07Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:5C0D:5B6:6644:9A5:

{{Short description|American politician (1868–1934)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name= William Woodward Brandon
|image = Governor_William_W._Brandon.jpg
|caption = Official portrait, 1923
|title= [[Governor of Alabama]]
|order=37th
|party= [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|term= January 15, 1923 – January 17, 1927
|lieutenant= [[Charles S. McDowell]]
|preceded= [[Thomas Kilby]]
|succeeded= [[Bibb Graves]]
|birth_date= {{birth date|1868|6|5|mf=y}}
|birth_place= [[Talladega, Alabama]], US
|death_date= {{death date and age|1934|12|7|1868|6|5|mf=y}}
|death_place= [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama]], US
|restingplace = Tuscaloosa Memorial Park, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, US
|occupation = Lawyer
|spouse= Elizabeth "Lizzie" Andrews Nabors
|branch= [[United States Army]]
|battles= [[Spanish–American War]]
}}

'''William Woodward Brandon''' (June 5, 1868{{spaced ndash}}December 7, 1934) was an American [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic]] politician who was the [[List of Governors of Alabama|37th governor of Alabama]] from 1923 to 1927.

== Biography ==

Born June 5, 1868, in [[Talladega, Alabama]], the son of a minister, Rev. Frank T. J. Brandon, and his wife Carrie (Woodward) Brandon, Brandon grew up in [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama]]. He attended Cedar Bluff Institute and [[Tuscaloosa High School]] and studied law at the [[University of Alabama]] from 1891 to 1892. While still a law student, the colorful Brandon was elected City Clerk of Tuscaloosa. He set up a law practice in Tuscaloosa in 1892 and was appointed a justice of the peace the same year. Brandon was a Methodist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9CXMvfjLgEoC&dq=William+Woodward+Brandon&pg=PA266|title = Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical|last1 = Dubose|first1 = Joel Campbell|year = 1904}}</ref> He believed that the United States should maintain a "warm and close relationship" with the [[United Kingdom]].<ref>Platform of Gen. W.W. Brandon, Candidate for Governor by William Woodward Brandon · 1922</ref> He was known as one of the most "eloquent and brilliant campaign speakers in" Alabama. In 1892 he published a military journal titled ''The Citizen Soldier'' in Tuscaloosa.<ref>Notable Men of Alabama: Personal and Genealogical, Volume 1 edited by Joel Campbell DuBose pg. 266</ref>

As a member of the Warrior National Guard from 1886, Brandon eventually led the unit as a major of the U.S. Army in the [[Spanish–American War]]. Appointed Adjutant General of the [[Alabama National Guard]] in 1899 by Governor [[William J. Samford]], he was later reappointed by Governor [[William D. Jelks]].

Brandon was a member of the [[Alabama House of Representatives]] from 1896 to 1901. In 1906 he was elected [[State Auditor of Alabama]]. From 1911 until 1923, he was a probate judge in Tuscaloosa County.

Judge Brandon was a candidate for governor twice, losing in 1918 to [[Thomas E. Kilby]] but defeating [[Bibb Graves]] (who later succeeded him) in 1922 with a platform calling for an economy in government and no new taxes. As governor, he kept his campaign promise to levy no new taxes but was instrumental in rescinding the tax exemption of the [[Alabama Power Company]]. On leaving office, he left the state treasury with a surplus.

Brandon was a much less activist governor than the energetic Kilby (he did little for education). Still, he continued Kilby's ambitious road construction and improvement program of Mobile's dock facilities, funding the latter with a $10 million bond issue. He also strengthened child labor laws and created the [[Alabama Forestry Commission]]. Brandon left the state for 21 days in 1924; under the 1901 state constitution, the lieutenant governor becomes acting governor if a governor is out of the state for more than 20 days. Thus, [[Charles S. McDowell|Charles McDowell]] became Governor of Alabama on July 10 and 11, 1924.

Known as "Plain Bill," Brandon led the Alabama delegation to the [[1924 Democratic National Convention]], the first such convention to be broadcast via radio. The convention was marked by a deadlock between the supporters of the Irish Catholic New York Governor [[Al Smith]] and former Secretary of the Treasury [[William Gibbs McAdoo]] (the son-in-law of former President [[Woodrow Wilson]]) whose candidacy was backed by the anti-Catholic [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Neither candidate was able to get the required two-thirds of the delegates as critical delegations, including Alabama's, clung to their "[[favorite son]]" candidates. In Alabama's case, the favorite son was Senator [[Oscar Underwood]].

The Convention became the longest continually running convention in history, as 103 ballots were taken before a compromise candidate, [[John W. Davis]], was nominated. As the first state alphabetically, Alabama led every ballot, and Brandon, reporting the state's unanimous vote tally ballot after ballot, became the symbol of the convention's deadlock. For a time, his booming southern drawl heard on the radio, repeatedly declaring, "Alabama casts twenty-four votes for Oscar W. Underwood," became one of the most recognizable voices in the country.

After leaving the governorship in 1927, Brandon was appointed to his former office of Probate Judge of Tuscaloosa County by his onetime political opponent Governor Graves. Brandon married Elizabeth Andrews Nabors, a widow with two daughters, on June 27, 1900. He died in Tuscaloosa aged 66 on December 7, 1934, and is interred at Tuscaloosa Memorial Park.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1535|title=William W. Brandon (1923-27)|publisher=Encyclopedia of Alabama|access-date=December 14, 2013|archive-date=December 15, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215043259/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1535|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/g_brando.html Biography from the Alabama Department of Archives and History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023857/http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/g_brando.html |date=March 4, 2016 }}

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{{s-bef|before=[[Thomas Kilby]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee for [[List of Governors of Alabama|Governor of Alabama]]|years=[[1922 Alabama gubernatorial election|1922]]}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Bibb Graves]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | before = [[Thomas Kilby]] |title=[[List of Governors of Alabama|Governor of Alabama]] | years = 1923–1927 | after = [[Bibb Graves]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governors of Alabama}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandon, William Woodward}}
[[Category:1868 births]]
[[Category:1934 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Talladega, Alabama]]
[[Category:Methodists from Alabama]]
[[Category:Alabama lawyers]]
[[Category:Politicians from Tuscaloosa, Alabama]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War]]
[[Category:Democratic Party governors of Alabama]]

Ashley Wilkes

2025-08-24T17:43:11Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:5C0D:5B6:6644:9A5:

{{Short description|Fictional character in Gone with the Wind}}
{{Essay-like|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox character
| name = Ashley Wilkes
| image = Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind trailer.jpg
| image_size = 250px
| caption = Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in the ''Gone With the Wind'' film trailer
| first = ''[[Gone with the Wind (novel)|Gone with the Wind]]''
| last = ''[[Rhett Butler's People]]''
| creator = [[Margaret Mitchell]]
| portrayer = [[Leslie Howard]] [[Stephen Collins]]
| occupation = [[Aristocrat]]
| spouse = '''[[Melanie Hamilton|Melanie Wilkes née Hamilton]]''' (deceased)
| gender = Male
| children = '''Beau Wilkes''' (son, with Melanie) '''Unborn child''' (second child with Melanie; deceased)
| relatives = '''John Wilkes''' (father; deceased) '''Mrs Wilkes''' (mother; deceased) '''India Wilkes''' (sister) '''Honey née Wilkes''' (sister; not in the film) '''Brother-in-law''' (Honey's husband; not in the film) '''Henry Hamilton''' (uncle; not in the film) '''Sarah Jane "Pittypat" Hamilton''' (aunt) '''William R. Hamilton''' (father-in-law and uncle; deceased) '''Mrs Hamilton''' (mother-in-law and aunt; deceased) '''Charles Hamilton''' (cousin and brother-in-law; deceased) '''[[Scarlett O'Hara|Scarlett Hamilton née O'Hara]]''' (sister-in-law; Charles wife) '''Wade Hampton Hamilton''' (nephew; via Scarlett and Charles)
}}

'''George Ashley Wilkes''' is a fictional character in [[Margaret Mitchell]]'s 1936 novel ''[[Gone with the Wind (novel)|Gone with the Wind]]'' and the 1939 [[Gone with the Wind (film)|film of the same name]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/43470492|title=Gone With the Wind, and Good Riddance|author=Beye, Charles Rowan |year=1993|journal=Southwest Review|volume=78|issue=3|pages=366–380}}</ref> The character also appears in the 1991 book ''[[Scarlett (Ripley novel)|Scarlett]]'', a sequel to ''Gone with the Wind'' written by [[Alexandra Ripley]], and in ''[[Rhett Butler's People]]'' (2007) by [[Donald McCaig]].

==Fictional biography==
[[File:Olivia de Havilland Leslie Howard Vivien Leigh Gone With the Wind.png|left|thumb|Ashley with wife [[Melanie Hamilton]] (left) and sister-in-law [[Scarlett O'Hara]] (right)]]
Wilkes was born in 1840, being twenty-one at the start of the novel. He is the man with whom [[Scarlett O'Hara]] is obsessed. Gentlemanly yet indecisive, he loves Scarlett but finds he has more in common with [[Melanie Hamilton|Melanie]], his first cousin and later his wife. However, he is tormented by his attraction to Scarlett. Unfortunately for him and Scarlett, his failure to deal with his true feelings for her ruins any chance she has for real happiness with [[Rhett Butler]]. Wilkes is a complicated character. He is not sympathetic to the cause of the North. However, he isn't an ardent [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] patriot, either. What he loves about the South is the serene, peaceful life that he and his dear ones know at [[Twelve Oaks]] and similar plantations. At one point after the war he comments to Scarlett that "had the war not come he would have spent his life happily buried at Twelve Oaks."

In short, Wilkes loves the South, but not necessarily the Confederacy. He hates war, telling his friends at the beginning of the book that "most of the misery in the world has been caused by war", though he fights because of his loyalty to the above-mentioned peaceful life he had in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Ashley serves as an officer in [[Cobb's Legion]].

There is a sense in which the end of Ashley's life (as he knew it) is more than just the burning of Twelve Oaks. The four Tarleton brothers (Boyd, Tom, Brent and Stuart) are all killed, three of them at [[Battle of Gettysburg|Gettysburg]]. Cade Calvert returns home terminally ill from tuberculosis. Little Joe Fontaine is killed in battle, and Tony Fontaine has to flee forever to [[Texas]] after killing a Yankee (specifically, Scarlett's family's former slave overseer, Jonas Wilkerson, during [[Reconstruction Era of the United States|Reconstruction]]; after Wilkerson encouraged a former slave to attempt to rape Tony's sister-in-law). These were Wilkes' childhood friends, all represented in the happy scene at the barbecue, close to the beginning of the book. When the "family circle" of the county is decimated, the life he loved is gone.
[[File:Leslie Howard & Olivia de Havilland in Gone With The Wind.jpg|left|thumb|Ashley and Melanie]]
At one point in the book Wilkes pleads, in vain, with his wife Melanie to move to the North, after he comes back from fighting in the [[American Civil War|war]]. This isn't, however, because of any affection for the North, but because he wants to be able to stand on his own as a man, something he will never again be able to do in Georgia now that his plantation is gone and his home burned. However, he ends up working for Scarlett due to her manipulative entreaties and Melanie's naive support of her. Melanie also states that if they move to New York, Beau will not be able to go to school. This is because in New York black children are allowed to attend class, and they could not permit Beau to attend class with black children. In Georgia the schools were segregated by race, so Beau would be able to attend school if they remained in the South.

==Role==
Wilkes is the character best personifying the tragedy of the Southern upper class after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Coming from a privileged background, he is an honorable and educated man. This is in clear contrast to [[Rhett Butler]], who is decisive and full of life. Rhett is both ruthless and practical, and willing to do whatever he must to survive. In contrast, Wilkes is often impractical (even Melanie admits this on her deathbed) and would resist doing many things Rhett would do because they aren't "proper" or "gentlemanly".
Wilkes fights in the Civil War, but he does it out of love for his homeland and not a hatred of the Yankees, who he actually hopes will just leave the South in peace. As a soldier he shows enough leadership to be promoted to the rank of [[Major (rank)|Major]], and survives being imprisoned at the [[Rock Island Arsenal]] in [[Illinois]] (a notorious prisoner-of-war camp) for several months. He eventually returns home, still able-bodied.
[[File:Leslie Howard GWTW.jpg|thumb|261x261px|[[Leslie Howard]] as Ashley Wilkes]]
Ashley could have lived a peaceful and respectable life had the War never taken place. The War that changed the South forever has turned his world upside down, with everything he had believed in 'gone with the wind', a phrase composed by the poet [[Ernest Dowson]].

== Portrayals ==
Wilkes was portrayed by [[Leslie Howard]] in the critically acclaimed [[Gone with the Wind (film)|1939 film adaption]] of the novel. It would become Howard's most famous role.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zamet |first=Isaac |date=2023-10-31 |title=Gone With the Wind: 80 Years since the quintessential English gentleman Leslie Howard was mysteriously shot down over the Atlantic |url=https://www.tatler.com/article/gone-with-the-wind-80-years-since-leslie-howard-was-mysteriously-shot-down-over-the-atlantic |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=Tatler |language=en-GB}}</ref>{{Gone with the Wind}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkes, Ashley}}
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1936]]
[[Category:Fictional characters involved in incest]]
[[Category:Fictional slave owners]]
[[Category:Fictional Confederate military personnel]]
[[Category:Fictional soldiers]]
[[Category:Gone with the Wind characters]]
[[Category:Male characters in literature]]
[[Category:Male characters in film]]
[[Category:Fictional characters from Georgia (U.S. state)]]

Cyrus Smith

2025-08-24T17:29:48Z

2A02:8012:227B:0:5C0D:5B6:6644:9A5:

{{About|the fictional character|the mayor of Brooklyn|Cyrus P. Smith|Cyrus Rowlett Smith, CEO of American Airlines|C. R. Smith}}

{{Infobox character
| name = Cyrus Smith
| series = [[Voyages Extraordinaires]]
| image = Nemo s death.jpg
| caption = Cyrus Smith blessing [[Captain Nemo]] on his death bed in ''[[The Mysterious Island]]''
| creator = [[Jules Verne]]
| occupation = Engineer, USA Army Officer
| gender = Male
| nationality = American
}}
'''Cyrus Smith''' (named '''Cyrus Harding''' in some English translations) is one of the protagonists of [[Jules Verne]]'s 1875 novel ''[[The Mysterious Island]]''. He is an officer in the [[Union Army]] during the [[American Civil War]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.j-verne.de/verne19_7.html |first=Andreas |last=Fehrmann |title=The Fascination of the Mysterious Island |work=Die Welt Jules Vernes: Sein Leben und sein Werk |access-date=13 May 2015}}</ref> He is a very skilled man and a fine literary example of a 19th-century [[engineer]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Butcher |first=William |title=Jules Verne: The Definitive Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VgpzAgAAQBAJ&dq=jules+verne+Cyrus+Smith&pg=PA212 |date=14 May 2006 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-1-56025-854-4 |page=212 |access-date=13 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Taves |first=Brian |title=Hollywood Presents Jules Verne: The Father of Science Fiction on Screen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1bNdCAAAQBAJ&dq=jules+verne+Cyrus+Smith&pg=PT324 |date=22 April 2015 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-6113-6 |pages=324 |access-date=13 May 2015}}</ref>

Cyrus Smith is also a man possessed of the kind of high moral qualities common in Verne's protagonists. He is selfless, noble, honest, courageous, and utterly devoted to his companions. His practical knowledge of [[physics]], [[chemistry]], [[botany]], [[navigation]], and many other fields enables the Mysterious Island's colonists to quickly establish a thriving mini-civilization in isolation from the rest of the world. Smith is, however, annoyed and secretive regarding the fact that the colony has been mysteriously saved many times by a benefactor who refuses to reveal himself, causing his own achievements to seem less significant.

In the 2002 novel ''[[Captain Nemo: The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius]]'' by [[Kevin J. Anderson]], he is one of the officials captured by Robur (another Verne creation, from the novels ''[[Robur the Conqueror]]'' and [[Master of the World (novel)|''Master of the World'']]) during the [[Crimean War]], along with [[Captain Nemo]] and [[Jean Passepartout|Passepartout]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Jules Verne}}
{{The Mysterious Island}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Cyrus}}
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1874]]
[[Category:Jules Verne characters]]
[[Category:Fictional Union military personnel]]
[[Category:Fictional military engineers]]
[[Category:Fictional soldiers]]
[[Category:Fictional castaways]]