William B. Campbell

Template:Infobox officeholder William Bowen Campbell (February 1, 1807 – August 19, 1867) was an American politician and soldier. He served as the 14th governor of Tennessee from 1851 to 1853, and was the state's last Whig governor. He also served four terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1837 to 1843, and from 1866 to 1867.<ref name=tehc>John Thweatt, "William Bowen Campbell," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, 2009. Retrieved: 2 October 2012.</ref>

During the Mexican–American War, Campbell commanded the First Regiment Tennessee Volunteers, known as the "Bloody First" for its high casualty rate.<ref name=langsdon>Phillip Langsdon, Tennessee: A Political History (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), p. 125.</ref> At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Campbell opposed secession, and briefly served as a general in the Union Army.<ref name=tehc />

Early life

Campbell was born on Mansker's Creek in Sumner County, Tennessee, to David and Catherine Bowen Campbell. He studied law at Abingdon, Virginia, with his father's cousin, Virginia Governor David Campbell, and attended lectures at Winchester Law School.<ref name=allison>John Allison, "William Bowen Campbell," Notable Men of Tennessee, Vol. 1 (Atlanta: Southern Historical Association, 1905), pp. 82–84.</ref> He returned to Tennessee in 1829 in order to establish a law practice at Carthage, in Smith County. He was admitted to the bar in 1830. In 1831, he was appointed attorney general for a state circuit, and moved to Sparta, Tennessee.<ref name=allison />

Military and political career

In 1835, Campbell moved back to Carthage, and was elected to Smith County's seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives. He resigned his seat in 1836, however, in order to fight in the Second Seminole War. He served as a captain under Colonel William Trousdale.<ref name=tehc />

In 1837, Campbell successfully ran against Trousdale for the state's 6th District seat in the United States House of Representatives.<ref name=tehc /> The campaign was "spirited," though there was no bitterness between the two candidates.<ref name=allison /> In 1839, Campbell ran for reelection, again defeating Trousdale. He ran unopposed in 1841. Near the end of his third term in 1843 he resigned and returned to his law practice in Carthage.<ref name=allison /> That same year, he was appointed major-general of the Tennessee militia.<ref name=allison />

Upon the outbreak of the Mexican–American War in 1846, Campbell answered Tennessee Governor Aaron V. Brown's call for volunteers. He was elected colonel of the First Regiment Tennessee Volunteers on June 3, 1846, and arrived with his regiment in Texas the following month.<ref name=thm>St. George L. Sioussat, "Mexican War Letters of Col. William Bowen Campbell, of Tennessee, Written to Governor David Campbell, of Virginia, 1846-1847," Tennessee Historical Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2 (June 1915), pp. 129–135.</ref> At the Battle of Monterrey later that year, this company lost one-third of its men in an assault on the town's citadel, earning the nickname, the "Bloody First."<ref name=allison /><ref name=langsdon /> Campbell's company also saw action at the Siege of Veracruz and the Battle of Cerro Gordo in 1847.<ref name=tehc />

After the war, Campbell was appointed by the legislature to a state circuit court judgeship.<ref name=allison /> In 1851, he received the Whig nomination for governor. His opponent was William Trousdale, his old Seminole War superior, who had been elected in a close election in 1849.<ref name=langsdon /> Trousdale had endorsed the Nashville Convention of 1850, in which southern states threatened to secede if the federal government attempted to ban slavery in newly acquired territories, and blasted the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California as a free state. He accused Campbell of being "too favorable to northern views." Campbell on the other hand called the Compromise a "work of wisdom,"<ref name=folmsbee1>Stanley Folmsbee, Robert Corlew, and Enoch Mitchell, Tennessee: A Short History (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1969), pp. 230–232.</ref> and derided the Nashville Convention as treasonous. Running with the campaign slogan, "Boys, follow me!" which he had yelled at the Battle of Monterrey, Campbell edged Trousdale by a vote of 63,333 to 61,673.<ref name=folmsbee2>Philip Hamer, Tennessee: A History, 1673–1932, Vol. 1 (New York: American Historical Society, Inc., 1933), pp. 482–485.</ref>

As governor, Campbell called for a more rational approach to resolving sectional strife, and demanded an end to the "insane" talk of secession.<ref name=folmsbee1 /> After his initial term in 1853, he did not run for reelection, instead choosing to accept a position as President of the Bank of Middle Tennessee in Lebanon, Tennessee.<ref name=allison /> The Whigs nominated Gustavus A. Henry, who was defeated by the Democratic candidate Andrew Johnson in the general election.<ref name=folmsbee1 />

Secession and the Civil War

Following the collapse of the Whig Party in the mid-1850s, Campbell threw his support behind the American Party ("Know Nothings"), which many Tennessee Whigs had joined. He was again appointed to a circuit court judgeship in 1859, and continued campaigning against secession. In 1860, he supported Constitutional Union Party candidate and fellow Tennessee Whig John Bell for president.<ref name=tehc />

In May 1861, as a wave of pro-secession sentiment swept through Middle Tennessee in the wake of the attack on Fort Sumter, Tennessee's ex-Whigs and others opposed to secession convened in Nashville, and nominated Campbell to oppose Isham Harris in the gubernatorial election later that year. Campbell declined this offer, however.<ref name=temple>Oliver Perry Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War (Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 1995), pp. 227–228.</ref> Governor Harris offered him a command in the Confederate Army, but he declined this, as well.<ref name=allison />

In early 1862, after the Union Army occupied Middle Tennessee, Assistant Secretary of War Thomas A. Scott recommended Campbell for military governor, but the appointment went to Andrew Johnson.<ref name=folmsbee1 /> On May 12, 1862, Campbell chaired a convention of Tennessee Unionists that mapped out a plan to bring the state back into the Union.<ref name=folmsbee3>Philip Hamer, Tennessee: A History, 1673–1932, Vol. 2 (New York: American Historical Society, Inc., 1933), p. 573.</ref> Shortly afterward, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him brigadier general in the Union Army. He accepted this commission, but resigned in January 1863, in part for health issues, and in part because he did not want to fight against his friends and neighbors.<ref name=tehc /><ref name=langsdon />

In 1864, Campbell aligned himself with the Democratic Party, and supported George B. McClellan for the presidency.<ref name=langsdon /> Though he disagreed with Johnson over several issues, namely election regulations Johnson had installed as military governor,<ref name=langsdon /> he generally supported the Johnson presidency's Reconstruction policies.<ref name=tehc /> After the war, Campbell was elected as a Conservative to represent the state's fifth congressional district in the House of Representatives, but was prevented by Radical Republicans from taking his seat for several months.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=tehc /> Campbell defended Johnson during his impeachment hearings in the House in 1867, and served as an advisor during his trial in the Senate.

Death

Camp Bell, Campbell's family home.

Campbell died on August 19, 1867, at his family home of Camp Bell.<ref name="npsform">Template:Cite web</ref> He is interred at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Lebanon, Tennessee.<ref name=tour>Template:Cite web</ref>

Family

William Bowen Campbell was a great-grandson of two early Scots-Irish Virginia pioneers, "Black" David Campbell (b. 1710) and "White" David Campbell (b. 1706). His paternal grandfather, a son of "Black David" known as Captain David Campbell (1753–1832), was an early Knox County pioneer who built Campbell's Station, which has evolved into modern Farragut, Tennessee. Captain David Campbell was married to Margaret Campbell, a daughter of "White David." Her brothers (i.e., William B. Campbell's great-uncles) included Colonel Arthur Campbell (1743–1811) and Judge David Campbell (1750–1812), and her nephews included Governor David Campbell (1779–1859) and Colonel John B. Campbell (1777–1814). She was a cousin of General William Campbell of Kings Mountain fame.<ref>Margaret Campbell Pilcher, Historical Sketches of the Campbell, Pilcher and Kindred Families (Nashville: Marshall and Bruce Company, 1911).</ref>

Campbell's mother, Catherine Bowen, was a granddaughter of General William Russell (1735–1793), who had helped draft the Declaration of Independence.<ref name=allison /> The house built in 1787 by Campbell's maternal grandfather, Captain William Bowen (1742–1804), still stands in modern Goodlettsville, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Bowen-Campbell House.<ref name=vanwest>David Calease, Layton Carr, Keith Shumann, Carroll Van West, The War of 1812 in Tennessee Driving Tour: Possible Sites to be Included Template:Webarchive, January 2011, p. 5.</ref> A house built by Campbell's uncle, John Henry Bowen (1770–1822), still stands in Gallatin, and is listed on the National Register as the Trousdale Place. After his uncle's death, the house was, ironically, purchased by William Trousdale, Campbell's future gubernatorial opponent.<ref name=vanwest />

Campbell married Frances Owen in 1835. They had seven children: Mary, Margaret, Fanny, William, Joseph, John Owen, and Lemuel.<ref>William Bowen Campbell, TNGenWeb.org, 5 August 2012. Retrieved: 2 October 2012.</ref>

Honors and awards

Fort Campbell, Kentucky, is named in his honor.<ref name=ftcampbell>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of American Civil War generals (Union)
• List of governors of Tennessee

External links

• Template:Find a Grave
• State of Tennessee, Department of State, Tennessee State Library and Archives Template:Webarchive
• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress