Norwood, Thomas M. (Thomas Manson), 1830-1913

Confederate soldier and U. S. senator from Georgia.

Thomas Manson Norwood (1830-1913) was a lawyer, judge, Confederate soldier, and United States senator from Georgia.

Thomas Manson Norwood, lawyer, legislator, and author, was born 26 April 1830 in Talbot County, Georgia, and died 19 June 1913 in Savannah, Georgia. Norwood was admitted to the bar in Forsyth, Georgia (1852) and was elected to the Georgia Legislature (1861-1862), U.S. Senate (1871-1977), and U.S. House of Representatives (1884-1889). Norwood was the first Democrat from the South seated in the Senate after the Civil War. In between his legislative service he continued his law practice. Norwood was also the author of three books.

Thomas Manson Norwood, a Senator and a Representative from Georgia, was born in Talbot County, Ga., April 26, 1830. He pursued an academic course and graduated from Emory College, Oxford, Ga., in 1850. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1852 and commenced practice in Savannah, Ga. He was a member of the State house of representatives from 1861-1862, was a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1868, and was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate, serving from November 14, 1871, to March 3, 1877. He then resumed the practice of law in Savannah, Ga. and was elected as a Representative to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1889). He again resumed the practice of law and was appointed judge of the city court of Savannah in 1896, where he served twelve years. He then retired to his country home, "Hancock Hall," near Savannah, Ga., and died there June 19, 1913. The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=N000160 Retrieved 3/20/2009.

Rufus Bullock was the first Republican to be elected to Georgia's highest political office, serving as governor from 1868 to 1871. Bullock was a northern-born businessman who cooperated with the Confederacy, became the most hated man in the state during Reconstruction, was forced from office by the Ku Klux Klan, and recovered enough of his reputation to become president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and master of ceremonies at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895. Still, until the 1990s historians generally accepted the negative view of Bullock gleaned from the partisan politics of Reconstruction, agreeing with the novelist Margaret Mitchell, who painted him as a carpetbagger and scalawag who looted the state. The New Georgia Encyclopedia. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2892&hl=y Retrieved 3/20/2009.