CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: JOHN H. REAGAN - Anderson County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
28 August 2001
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

JOHN H. REAGAN

John H. Reagan, of Palestine, was born in Sevier County, Tenn., 
Oct. 3, 1818.  He was educated in Maryville College, Tenn.,  In the 
early part of 1838 he removed to the Repubjic of Texas. He was in the 
two battles against the Indians in July 1839, and. for his gallantry 
Gen. Albert Sidney Johns­ton, the Secretary of War of the young republic 
tendered him a commission as lieutenant in the regular army which he 
declined.  From 1839 to 1843 he was surveyor of public lands; and for 
four years later was a member of the legisla­ture.  He was admitted to 
the bar in 1846; elected district judge in 1852, and then in 1857 
elected to the U. S. congress of which he was a member when in 1861 he 
was chosen a member of the Texas secession convention.  Later he was 
elected a member of the provisional congress of the Con­federacy and 
aided in forming that government's con­stitution.  In March 1861 
President Jefferson Davis called him to his cabinet as Postmaster-
General, and during the last few months of the Confederate government 
he was also Secretary of the Treasury. May 10, 1865, he was made a 
pris­oner of war along with Mr. Davis, Gov. Lubbock and others. Upon 
his release in October he went to his farm near Pales­tine, hired some 
hands and went to work in the field with them.  He soon resumed the 
practice of law, and in 1874 was again elected to U. S. congress 
continuing there until chosen in 1887 United States Senator.  He 
resigned in 1891 to be­came chairman Texas Railroad Commission.  Judge 
Reagan was truly a great statesman, and the whole South mourned his 
death in 1905.