Lauderdale-Lawrence-Limestone County AlArchives Biographies.....Pickett, Richard O. 1823 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 21, 2011, 2:21 am Source: See below Author: Smith & De Land, publishers RICHARD O. PICKETT, Attorney-at-law, Florence, Ala., son of Steptoe and Sarah O. (Chilton) Pickett, natives of Virginia and descended from French and English ancestry respectively, was born in Fauquier County, Va., August 22, 1823. The family came into Alabama in 1829, and settled in Limestone County, where the old people spent the rest of their lives. They reared a family of six sons and three daughters, and the subject of this sketch is the second son. He was educated at the common schools of his neighborhood; began the study of law in 1843 in the office of James Irvine, at Florence; was admitted to the bar in 1845, and began the practice of law at once at Moulton, where he remained until the out-break of the war. In 1862, he raised a company in Lawrence County of twelve-months' men for the State's service. Owing to a change in the law, requiring enlistments to be for three years, or during the war, the company was refused admission into the service; so they were immediately disbanded, and Pickett proceeded to raise a company of volunteers, which became Company H, Thirty-fifth Alabama Infantry. In November, 1863, he was commissioned Colonel of the Tenth Alabama Cavalry: served to the close of the war, and was mustered out at Pond Springs, in May, 1865. While with the Thirty-fifth Regiment, Captain Pickett participated in the battles at Baton Rouge, Champion Hill, and a number of skirmishes; in the Tenth Cavalry, as colonel, he led that regiment under General Roddy, through the various battles in which that General's command participated in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Colonel Pickett was captured at Corinth, Miss., in May, 1862, upon the evacuation upon that place, and was held until the September following, when he was exchanged at Vicksburg. His regiment was not captured, and he fell into the hands of the enemy because of his illness which rendered it impossible for him to get away, or to be removed with the sick. At the close of the war, he returned to Moulton, resumed the practice of law, and in December, 1867, removed to Florence. Mr. Pickett was elected Judge of Lawrence County away back in 1846, and was in the Legislature from that county, sessions of 1853, 1855, 1857 and 1861, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention from Lauderdale County, 1875. He was again in the Legislature (from this county) sessions of 1884-5, and 1886-7. Judge Pickett is an active Democratic worker at all times; is a forcible political speaker, and, as a lawyer, is regarded among the best in North Alabama. The Legislature of 1801 unanimously elected him adjutant-general under Governor Shorter, but he declined it to enter the Confederate service. He was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated Seymour, and took a prominent part in the ensuing campaign. Before the war he was a man of wealth, a large planter and slave-holder, but, like most others, the dawn of peace found him with but little left else than honor. He was married at Florence, when about twenty years of age, to Miss Fannie L. Boggs, and, of the nine children born to him, three only are living: Mrs. Chas. H. Patton, Mrs. Paul King and Mrs. S. E. Rice. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land 1888 PART IV. MONOGRAPHS OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALABAMA, TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF MANY OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVE PEOPLE. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/lauderdale/bios/pickett146nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/alfiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb