Joseph Brown Heiskell (November 5, 1823 – March 7, 1913) was a prominent

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

politician who served in the

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during the

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Biography

Heiskell was born in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

, the son of newspaper publisher Frederick S. Heiskell (1786–1882) and Eliza (Brown) Heiskell. He served in the

Tennessee State Senate The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the U.S. state of Tennessee , Tennessee's state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly. The Tennessee Senate has the power to pass resolutions concerning essentially any ...

during the 32nd General Assembly from 1857 to 1859, representing

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, Hawkins, and

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counties as a member of the Whig Party. Following the state's

ordinance of secession An Ordinance of Secession was the name given to multiple resolutions drafted and ratified in 1860 and 1861, at or near the beginning of the Civil War, by which each seceding Southern state or territory formally declared secession from the United ...

and the outbreak of the Civil War, he represented Tennessee 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

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from 1862 to 1864. After being captured by

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soldiers in 1864, Heiskell was incarcerated. He remained in prison until the end of the war. Following his release, he established a practice in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, and was active in local politics. He was Tennessee's

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

from 1870 to 1878. Heiskell died in Memphis on March 7, 1913. Interment was in the city's Elmwood Cemetery.politicalgraveyard.com Heiskell was a nephew of

William Heiskell William Heiskell (1788 – September 9, 1871) was an American politician, active primarily in Tennessee, in the mid-19th century. He served a tumultuous term as Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives in the months following the Civ ...

, the post-Civil War Speaker of the

Tennessee House of Representatives The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee. Constitutional requirements According to the state constitution of 1870, this body is to consis ...

Notes

References

* Robert M. McBride and Dan M. Robinson, eds., ''Biographical Directory of the Tennessee General Assembly'', Volume I, 1796–1861. (Nashville: Tennessee State Library and Archives and Tennessee Historical Commission, 1975).

External links

politicalgraveyard.com
1823 births 1913 deaths Democratic Party Tennessee state senators Tennessee Attorneys General Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from Tennessee 19th-century American politicians Tennessee lawyers Politicians from Knoxville, Tennessee 19th-century American lawyers {{Tennessee-politician-stub