Baldwin-Mobile County AlArchives Biographies.....Tunstall, Thomas Tate April 8, 1823 - June 8, 1918
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Michelle Woodham mw4au1@gmail.com January 17, 2007, 4:51 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)

   THOMAS TATE TUNSTALL	was born in Baldwin county, Ala., April 8, 1823. His 
father was George Tunstall, a native of Virginia, who died at Montgomery Hill, 
Baldwin county, Ala., July 28, 1842. He was a newspaper man by profession, and 
once editor of the Nashville Whig, and was the first man to publish an American 
newspaper in the state of Florida. The paper was the Floridian, and published 
in Pensacola. The father of George Tunstall was Edmund Savage Tunstall, a 
native of Virginia, who died in the state of Kentucky, wither he had gone at an 
early day. The Tunstall family are lineal descendants of Sir Brian Tunstall, 
who was killed at the battle of Flodden Field in 1573, in the war between 
England and Scotland, so graphically described in Scott's Marmion, where he is 
styled "Tunstall of the white plume, Tunstall the undefiled." The mother of 
Thomas T. Tunstall was Elouisa Tate, daughter of David Tate (of Tate's Shoals, 
of the Alabama River), who was the son of Col. Tate of the British army, who 
was a native of Scotland. She was the niece of the celebrated Creek warrior, 
Weatherford,  the hero of the Massacre of Ft. Mims, who fought with Gen. 
Jackson, the battles of Talledega, Tallushatchee, Emukfau and Tohopaka, and is 
the hero of Alexander B. Meek's poem, The Red Eagle. She died in 1878, at an 
advanced age. Thomas Tate Tunstall completed his education at Chapel Hill 
college, North Carolina. He then studied law, and distinguished himself, at the 
age of twenty-three, by an address to the legislature of Alabama in advocacy of 
the claim of citizens of Indian blood to the right of suffrage. He removed to 
Texas in 1851, where he practiced law several years and returned to Alabama in 
1854. In 1856, he was appointed United States consul at Cadiz, Spain, by 
President Pierce, where he resided until 1861, when he was removed by President 
Lincoln.  He was subsequently arrested at Tangier, Morocco (February, 1862), at 
the instigation of the Federal consul, and confined for days in irons till 
called for and carried to sea on the United States corvette, Ino. He was 
transferred a few days after to a merchant ship bound to Boston, where he was 
finally landed, the irons removed from his limbs after fifty-seven days, by a 
blacksmith in the United States marshal's office, and then committed to Fort 
Warren by order of Secretary Seward. He was subsequently released 
unconditionally, by order of Mr. Seward.  He repaired to Washington, and after 
a lapse of several months, obtained a permit from Mr. Stanton, the secretary of 
war, to return to his home in the south.  His southern blood and sympathies 
soon, however, got him into another dilemma.  He procured a pass to run the 
blockade from the Confederate secretary of war, with a view to render some 
service to the now lost cause,  when he was captured in the Federal lines and 
taken to the Old Capitol prison in Washington, where he was confined for six 
months as a spy, but was finally released upon condition that he would go to 
Europe and remain till  the war was over.  He honorably abided by his parole 
and returned to Alabama in 1866, having been absent two years.  In 1867, he 
went to Texas, where he remained two years, returning to Alabama in 1869, and 
his residence since has been divided between Baldwin county and Mobile. Since 
1869, he has devoted his time and attention to life insurance and has ranked as 
a first-class agent.  Early in President Cleveland's administration he was 
appointed consul to Ascension, Paraguay, but declined the position.  In 1888, 
he was appointed consul to San Salvador, Central America, and remained there 
till 1890, when he was removed by President Harrison.  He is a master Mason, 
initiated at Gilbralter in 1857.  He was married January 24, 1871, to Miss 
Josephine Crossland, who is his present wife.  They have two sons -- Thomas 
Tate, Jr., and Bryan, named after the gallant knight slain at the battle of 
Flodden. His home is now permanently in Mobile, where he is at present engaged 
in the government service in deepening the harbor.

Additional Comments:
"Memorial Record of Alabama", v.2  pp.610-611


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