Perry County AlArchives History - Letters .....Letter To Pres. Jefferson Davis From William M. Brooks May 13, 1861
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J. Hugh LeBaron hlebaron@ms.metrocast.net November 10, 2006, 10:16 am

Letter Dated May 13, 1861, from William M. Brooks to President Jefferson Davis 
Regarding Twelve Months Volunteers from Perry County, Alabama

Marion, Ala., May 13, 1861

His Excellency Jefferson Davis, 
		President, &c.:
Sir: I learn that under the policy recently adopted the Confederacy will not 
accept the services of any more volunteer companies, unless for the war, and 
that under its operation the twelve-months’ volunteers not yet mustered into 
service will be rejected.  The convictions I have, arising from circumstances 
not perhaps within your knowledge, impel me to regret the extension of this 
policy to twelve-months’ volunteers raised under your former requisition.  
Instead of going into an elaborate argument and trespassing upon your valuable 
time, I will state a few facts as they exist in our (Perry) county.
	We have some 20,000 slaves in this county, but much the greater number 
of our white population own no slaves.  The political controversies as 
heretofore conducted have had the effect of exciting in the minds of some of 
the non-slave-holders improper and unfounded jealousies, and to impress them 
with the belief that noting is now in peril in the prevailing war but the title 
of the master of slaves.  And having no sympathy with the slave-holder, numbers 
of men in our country taking a grossly erroneous views of the subject, have not 
unfrequently (sic) declared that they will “fight for no rich man’s slaves.”  
As a consequence of this sentiment, the two companies of volunteers from this 
county, and now in actual service, include in their ranks but few of the non-
slave-holding working class.  By some care and diligence we have partially 
succeeded in correcting these treasonable sentiments and exciting amongst the 
laboring classes a desire to take up arms in defense of their country.  And 
within the last two weeks three other companies, embracing from 80 to 100 men 
each, have been raised in our country and their services been tendered to and 
accepted by the Governor under the twelve-months’ requisition.  These companies 
are composed almost entirely of men from “the hills”—poor laboring men, who own 
no slaves and live in non-slave-holding communities in our county.  Expecting 
to go to the war they abandoned the service in which they were engaged and went 
into camp in order to drill and qualify themselves for the duties of a 
soldier.  Their ardor being cooled, and in some instances giving way to 
impatience by reason of the delay of being mustered into service, they suddenly 
find their offer to serve for twelve months rejected.
	In addition to this it is traitorously whispered into their ears that 
the slave-holders can enter the Army and quit it at the end of twelve months, 
but if they enter it, it must be for the war, however long its duration.  I 
leave you to imagine the consequences.  While I assure you it is with the 
greatest difficulty we can keep them from disbanding immediately, I attach no 
blame to you or to the Government, but it is, as you can see, most 
unfortunate.  The men composing these companies are stout, brave, and able-
bodied—the very bone and sinew of the land.  Their acceptance into the service 
of the Confederate States upon the terms originally proposed and under which 
they were raised would not only secure the aid of some of the best fighting men 
in our county, but it would enlist in favor of the war and our Government the 
warm sympathies of all their relatives and friends behind, and would enable 
them to say with just pride “This war is our war; the cause is our cause.”  But 
I will not enlarge.  If the facts stated by me are not sufficient to induce you 
to accept these volunteers companies from the operation of the policy resolved 
upon, I shall conclude that the considerations by which you may be actuated, 
though unknown to me, are entirely sufficient, and my confidence in your 
ability and patriotism will not in the slightest degree be abated.  I present 
these matters to you not with any purpose to intimate to you that your policy 
should be changed, but simply that you may have all the facts before you in 
coming to your final determination.  
	I have the honor to be, very respectfully, yours, 
					WILLIAM M. BROOKS

Additional Comments:
WILLIAM MACLIN BROOKS was born on October 15, 1814, in Sumter District, South 
Carolina.  Brooks was educated at South Carolina College at Columbia and read 
law in Alabama, entering the legal profession officially in 1838.  He opened a 
law office in Linden, Alabama in Marengo County where he associated himself 
with the county’s most notable lawyers.  In 1840 and 1844, he was elected 
solicitor for that judicial district.  In 1842, Brooks successfully convicted 
William H. Jones for murdering his slave Isabel.  In 1846, Brooks moved to 
Mobile, but left that city during the yellow fever epidemic of 1853, moving to 
Marion, Alabama.  Shortly after arriving in Perry County, he was appointed 
Circuit Judge.  He was active in politics and, in 1856, became a law partner of 
Isham W. Garrott and together Brooks and Garrott became the premier law firm in 
Alabama.  Brooks belonged to the Southern wing of the Democratic Convention, 
led the Alabama secession movement and a leader in the establishment of a 
Southern Confederacy.  He supported Breckinridge for President but Lincoln won 
leading to secession.  When the Secession Convention assembled in 1861 to 
decide if Alabama would remain in the Union or leave, Brooks was elected as the 
President of the Convention.  When the Convention voted to secede from the 
Union on January 11, 1861, Brooks declared that Alabama was a “free and 
independent commonwealth.”  In 1861, he was the chairman of a committee to 
provide food and other support to the families of soldiers in the Confederate 
Army.  He also was chairman of a committee to provide sustenance for the 
support of Confederate soldier’s families.  He entered the military in 1864 and 
served as Captain of Company H and Colonel of the 3rd Infantry Regiment of 
Alabama Reserves.  He was paroled from the army on May 16, 1865, at Marion, 
Alabama.  At the time of his parole, he was Captain of Company H of the 3rd 
Alabama Reserves.  After the war, he moved, in 1866, to Selma, Alabama where he 
practiced law with John Harellson.  In 1886, he moved to Birmingham, Alabama 
where he formed the law firm of Brooks, Bush and Vary. [Lovelace, Siloam 
History, p. 18; England, Hospital in Marion, p. 32; Harris, Heritage, v I, pp. 
130-131, 176-177, 206 and 210; 1860 Slave Census, Perry County, Alabama; Owen, 
Alabama Biography, v III, p. 242; Muster Roll of the 3rd Alabama Reserves; 1880 
Census of Selma, Dallas County, Alabama, p. 458A]

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