Biography of Major F. Charles Hume

From "The Encyclopedia Of The New West"
United States Bio Pub Co., Marshall Tex. - 1881

Major F. Charles HUME

"F. Charles HUME was born in Walker county, Texas, February 17, 1843, the son of John HUME, a native of Culpepper County Virginia a planter, who immigrated to Texas in 1839, and resided in Walker county until his death in 1864. His mother, Margaret J. SMITH, is the daughter of Samuel SMITH, late of Mississippi, and was reared in the neighborhood of Edwards, Hinds county, in that state, and now resides in Huntsville, Texas, aged sixty-three.

Mr. HUME received a liberal education. At the age of eighteen he left his native state, immediately after the first battle of Manassas, in a company of volunteers known as Company D, 5th Texas Regiment, organized in Virginia, and placed under thin thee command of Colonel J. J. ARCHER, of Maryland. This regiment, together with the lst and 4th Texas, at one time the 18th Georgia, and subsequently the 3rd Arkansas, constituted the famous command known in history as "Hood's Texas Brigade," of which General Louis T. WIGFALL was the first and General John B. HOOD the second commander. Its first winter was spent in the snows about Dumfries, on the Potomac. He participated in Johnson's celebrated retreat from the Peninsula, and entered his first battle at Eltham's Landing, (West Point,) near the York River. He was in the battle of Seven Pines, and shortly afterwards, near the same ground, was wounded in the right leg while participating in an assault on the enemy's works, led by Captain D. V. BARZIZA in command of one hundred and fifty men chosen for the purpose from the three Texas regiments. Confined in the hospital at Richmond by this wound until after McClellan had been defeated and driven to Harrison's Landing, he did not rejoin his regiment until the beginning of the lighter engagements that culminated in the second battle of Manassas. Seven flag-bearers of the 5th regiment were wounded in the battle, Mr. HUME being the sixth, receiving a bullet in the left thigh. He was mentioned in complimentary terms in the official report of the battle made by the colonel of the regiment. J. B. ROBERTSON, afterwards commander of the brigade.

After the healing of his wound, Mr. HUME rejoined the army at Culpepper court house, and participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, late in 1862. Shortly after this he was promoted from the ranks to a first-lieutenancy in the Confederate States army, and assigned to duty on the Peninsula as adjutant of the 32d battalion of Virginia cavalry. In this capacity he served until the battalion, with another, was merged into a regiment, when he was assigned to command a picked detail of scouts on the lower Peninsula. With this command Lieutenant HUME operated for several months near Williamsburg, experiencing all the perils of that peculiar service and becoming familiar with its ceaseless ambuscades and surprises.

General M. W. GARY, of South Carolina, in 1864, assumed command of the cavalry in the Peninsula, and attached Lieutenant HUME to his staff. Shortly after this a bloody battle was fought at Riddle's Shop on the Charles City road, in which General Gary engaged troops under General Hancock, the latter having been sent to threaten Richmond to cover Grant's crossing to the south side of the James. In this action Lieutenant HUME had the honor of being assigned on the field to the command of the 7th South Carolina regiment of cavalry. The last considerable battle in which he took part was the engagement of Tilghman's Farm, on James river, the Confederate commander being General Gary. Here he received his third and last wound, having been shot through the body. The Richmond papers published his name in the dead list of that action. When sufficiently recovered to travel he went to Texas on a furlough, reaching there in October, 1864. Recovering health he was requested by General J. G. Walker to inspect troops and departments about Tyler, which he did. Soon afterwards he accepted an invitation from General A. P. Bagley to serve on his staff in Louisiana, and remained with that officer as assistant adjutant-general with the rank of major.

When the great civil war ended, Major HUME began to prepare in earnest for the important battle of civil life. He completed his preparations for the bar, and was admitted to practice by the district court of Walker county, at Huntsville, in 1865, and followed his calling there for about one year. From Huntsville he went to Galveston, and rapidly took rank as an able lawyer. His patient industry, fidelity and attainments soon gave him prominence at a bar that has no superior in the state of Texas. He was admitted to practice in the supreme court in 1866, and in 1877 was enrolled as an attorney of the supreme court of the United States, at Washington.

Then only twenty-three, in 1866, he was elected to represent Walker county in the eleventh Texas legislature, and served one term. He was city attorney for Galveston for the municipal year of 1877.

Major HUME has been twice married. Belle HARLAN, his first wife, to whom he was married in 1867, was the daughter of Joseph HARLAN, of Sumner county, Tennessee. She died at her father's home in 1870, leaving no children. July 3, 1873, he married Marie Kate LEA, daughter of Colonel Vernal LEA and Catherine DAVIS, daughter of General James DAVIS. Her father was a planter. She was born September 20, 1853, in San Jacinto (then Polk) county. By this marriage Major HUME has three children: Francis Charles, born June 7, 1874; Lea, born October 19, 1875; Kate born July 17, 1877.

Major HUME was educated at Austin College, Texas, and subsequently spent a year at the University of Virginia. He has always been a Democrat in his political views, but has not aspired to position in the world of politics, his ambition being wholly professional. To his business he has devoted himself patiently and faithfully. He has no rule but to do his duty with unfaltering fidelity. Courteous, affable and honorable, he is held in the highest esteem by his professional brethren, who are best able to judge his merits. Whatever he does he delights in doing well; prepares his cases with great care and study, and is never taken by surprise. He looks at both side with a true judicial judgment, and hence is very successful in the prosecution of his profession. He never descends to the arts of the pettifogger or charlatan, but aspires to the highest professional standard.

In form Major HUME is six feet high, is lithe and slender and weighs one hundred and sixty pounds. Dark hazel eyes, dark whiskers and mustache, thin hair almost gray, an independent carriage and expression mark the outlines of the man. He would anywhere be recognized as a man of talent. As a speaker he is argumentative and logical, sometimes rhetorical and eloquent. His great reliance is on the merits of his case, and he appeals rather to the judgment of men than to their sympathies and passions."


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