General William P. Miles,  Ascension Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller

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General William Porcher Miles 
          Ascension Parish, Louisiana 
    Gen. William Porcher Miles.  Many of the best known planters of
Louisiana have been born outside its confines, and this is the case with
General Miles, who was born in Walterboro, Colleton county, S. C., in
1822, where he grew to healthful and vigorous boyhood.  He pursued his
studies in Charleston (S. C.) college and at the early age of eighteen
graduated from that institution as valedictorian of his class.
Immediately succeeding this he began the study of law in Charleston, and
while thus engaged was elected tutor of mathematics in his alma mater,
and later became assistant professor, discharging the duties of each
position with ability and ease and winning golden opinions for himself
as an educator in the estimation of the citizens of Charleston.  His
popularity won for him the position of mayor of that city, in which
capacity he served from 1855 to 1857, and during the latter part of his
term he was chosen a congressman from his district and served on the
committees of commerce and foreign affairs.  He resigned his seat in
congress upon the secession of South Carolina in 1860, and was then
elected a delegate to the secession convention and later to the
provisional congress and confederate congress, in which he was chairman
of the committee on military affairs.  His sympathies were warmly
enlisted in the cause of the South, and with the enthusiasm which
characterized the action of so many Southern gentlemen, he threw his
influence on the side of his section and was on General Beauregard's
staff in the first battle of Manassas and in the siege and destruction
of Fort Sumter.  He did not uselessly repine after the termination of
the war, but bent all his energies to the building up of his fortune,
and his efforts have been abundantly rewarded.  For two years after the
reopening of the University of South Carolina at Columbia he was its
president, and ably discharged the-numerous duties of the position.  For
the past ten years his home has been in the Pelican state in the parish
of Ascension, where he has entered heart and soul into the culture of
sugar cane to the culture of which he has devoted 7,000 acres of his
extensive plantations, thirteen in number, producing 18,000,000 pounds
of sugar, to be increased in the near future, it is safe to say, to
20,000,000 pounds per annum.  He is president of the Miles Planting &
Manufacturing company, is a shrewd, far-seeing and practical planter and
is an enthusiastic admirer of this branch of agriculture.  During the
great Civil war he led to the altar Miss Betty Beirn, by whom he
eventually became the father of five daughters and one son.  General
Miles, during his presidency of the South Carolina university, delivered
numerous addresses on education which attracted much attention, and
devoted himself con amore to the cause of higher education in the state.
He has, since his residence in Louisiana, been  several times called on
to deliver addresses on various occasions to graduates of law and
medical schools, etc.  He is the president of the "Ascension Branch of
the Sugar Planters Association of Louisiana."
 
 From Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, volume 2, pp.
253-254. 
Submitted by Mike Miller