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22 J. S. Legal Hist. 187 (2014)
Gray Jackets and Rifles to Black Robes and Gavels: Confederate Veterans in the U.S. Federal Courts from Ulysses S. Grant to William H. Taft

handle is hein.journals/jslh22 and id is 199 raw text is: Gray Jackets and Rifles to Black Robes and Gavels: Confederate Veterans in the U.S. Federal Courts from Ulysses S. Grant to William H. Taft By Zachary Newkirk * I. Introduction r3~wenty-seven Confederate veterans of the Civil War sat on .. the federal bench of the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Four were justices of the Supreme Court. Among them was Charles H. Simonton. Simonton's death in 1904 prompted colleagues and friends to gather in Richmond, Virginia in his memory. John Rose, a Maryland federal attorney, described Simonton's transition from Confederate officer to leading American judge: His becoming and being a Federal judge was a very significant thing .... Here was a man who had been a prominent member of the legislature of South Carolina for the four years immediately preceding the war; had served in the Confederate army; had always been throughout life, and was at the time of his death, in touch with the people of his State, and yet for eighteen years he presided in the courts of the Government against which for four years he was arrayed in arms. His case, of course, was not peculiar. There are others who have been, and who now are, on the bench of United States Courts, whose history in this respect has been substantially the same, and yet the more you think of it the more striking and significant it all is.' While former Confederates on the bench were not peculiar, they were simultaneously striking and significant. Who were * Zachary Newkirk graduated from Cornell University in 2012. He would like to thank Edward Baptist, Richard Bensel, and TJ Hinrichs for their academic support and guidance. He also would like to thank Meaghan Cassin for her loving support and optimism.