CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  W. H. BURGESS - Seguin, TX

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Submitted by Peggy Brannon - peggybrannon@hotmail.com
17 November 2001
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

W. H. BURGESS

William H. Burgess, of Seguin, was born in Madison county, Tenn., January 8, 
1838. His father was a Virginian and his mother was originally Miss Penner 
of the well-known North Carolina family. He was educated in the West 
Tennessee College at Jackson, and at the age of seventeen came to Texas. He 
studied law in Seguin in the office of Judge John P. White, and in 1859 was 
admitted to the bar by Judge Thos J. Devine, and then continued his studies 
in the office of Hon. Charles E. Fenner in New Orleans, graduating a year 
later from the law department of the University of Louisiana. In 1861 Mr. 
Burgess went to Virginia with Co. D of the 4th Texas Infantry, commanded by 
Col.(afterward General) John B. Hood, and fought with this famous regiment 
until it laid down arms at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. He was in 
the battles of Elthaw's Landing, Seven Pines, second Manassas, Sharpsburg, 
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Wilderness, second Cold Harbor, 
siege of Petersburg, and a great number of smaller engagements. At 
Sharpsburg, Sept.17,1862, he was severely wounded. After the war he began 
the practice of law. In 1866 he was county attorney for Guadalupe, but was 
removed by Federal authority. In 1872 he was elected and served four years 
as district attorney for the second judicial district. He was in 1876 
presidential elector on the Tilden ticket. For many years he was a 
distinguished member of the Texas senate, being president pro tempore of 
that body for one term. For the ten years preceding his death he and Gov. 
John Ireland were law partners. He was married at Seguin Dec. 13, 1866, to 
Miss Bettie Rust, of the well-known Virginia family. They had born to them 
three sons: Hon. William H. Burgess, a prominent lawyer in El Paso; Alfred 
R. Burgess, an attorney of San Angelo, who was captain in the Fourth Texas 
U. S. Volunteers during the war with Spain; and Richard Fenner Burgess, the 
city attorney of El Paso.