Felix Ives Batson (September 6, 1819 – March 11, 1871) was a prominent

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

lawyer and politician from

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

. Born in

Dickson County, Tennessee Dickson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,315. Its county seat is Charlotte. Dickson County is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropoli ...

, he later moved to

Clarksville, Arkansas Clarksville is a city in Johnson County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 9,178, up from 7,719 in 2000. As of 2018, the estimated population was 9,743. The city is the county seat of Johnson County. It is nestled ...

and established a law practice. He was admitted to the bar in 1841 and was one of the first attorneys in Johnson County. From 1853 to 1858 he was a circuit judge for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Arkansas. In 1858 he served as a justice of the

Arkansas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Arkansas is the highest court in the state judiciary of Arkansas. It has ultimate and largely discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all state court cases that involve a point of state law, and original jurisdiction o ...

, a position he resigned in 1860. Batson as a delegate to Arkansas Secession Convention prior to the Civil War in 1861 and voted for secession. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, he represented the First Congressional District of northwest Arkansas in the

First Confederate Congress The 1st Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from February 18, 1862, to February 17, 1864, during the first two years of Jefferson Davis's presidency, a ...

and the

Second Confederate Congress The 2nd Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from May 2, 1864, to March 18, 1865, during the last year of Jefferson Davis's presidency, at the Virginia ...

House of Representatives. Batson defeated well known Arkansas politician

Hugh French Thomason Hugh French Thomason (February 22, 1826 – July 30, 1893) was an American politician who served as Arkansas state representative from Crawford County from 1887 to 1889 and as Arkansas state senator from 1881 to 1885. He previously served in t ...

to win election in November 1861. In the first Congress, Batson served on the Inauguration, Military Affairs and Territories and Public Lands committees. During the second Congress he served on the Judiciary Committee and on select committees whose purpose was to inform state governors to lessen the granting of exemptions and to increase the number of Confederate troops in each state. After the war Batson returned to Clarksville to practice law. It is estimated he lost 75 percent of his fortune during the war years. In Batson died in Clarksville, Arkansas at age of 51 and was buried in Oakland Cemetery. The 1860 United States Census Slave Schedule states that Batson owned 14 slaves, ranging from 1 to 35 years old. His only daughter, Emma, married

Jordan Edgar Cravens Jordan Edgar Cravens (November 7, 1830 – April 8, 1914) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Arkansas. From 1877 to 1883, he served three terms in Congress, first as an Independent Democrat, then as a ...

, a Colonel in the Confederate Army who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1877–1883. In 1898 Emma Batson Cravens organized Chapter 221 of the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

and named the chapter after Felix I. Batson.

References

External links

*
Felix Ives Batson
at

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations o ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batson, Felix 1819 births 1871 deaths 19th-century American politicians Arkansas lawyers Justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court Burials in Arkansas Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from Arkansas People from Clarksville, Arkansas People from Dickson County, Tennessee 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers