Thomas G. Shackelford (died December 19, 1877)
["Death of Judge Thos. Shackelford", ''Vicksburg Weekly Commercial Herald'' (December 28, 1877), p. 1.] was chief justice of the
Supreme Court of Mississippi
The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in the first constitution of the state following its admission as a State of the Union in 1817 and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appe ...
from 1868 to 1870.
[ Leslie Southwick]
Mississippi Supreme Court Elections: A Historical Perspective 1916-1996
18 Miss. C. L. Rev. 115 (1997-1998).
He graduated from the law school at
Transylvania University
Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1780 and was the first university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is accredited by the Southern ...
and settled in Mississippi. He was appointed to the bench in 1868 by General
Adelbert Ames
Adelbert Ames (October 31, 1835 – April 13, 1933) was an American sailor, soldier, and politician who served with distinction as a Union Army general during the American Civil War. A Radical Republican, he was military governor, U.S. Senato ...
, military commandant. On February 25, 1868, General
Alvan Cullem Gillem
Alvan Cullem Gillem (July 29, 1830 – December 2, 1875) was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Although Southern-born, he remained loyal to the Federal government and fought in several battles in the Western Theater befor ...
, who had been given post-Civil War command over a region including Mississippi, named Shackelford to the state supreme court, along with
Elza Jeffords
Elza Jeffords (May 23, 1826 – March 19, 1885) was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi's 3rd congressional district.
Jeffords was born near Ironton in Lawrence County, Ohio, on May 23, 1826. He grew up in Portsmouth, Ohio, where he att ...
and
Ephraim G. Peyton.
["Latest by Telegraph", ''Natchez Democrat'' (February 27, 1868), p. 2.]
Elza Jeffords, of Issaquena County, also sat by appointment under military rule in 1868. The opinions of this tribunal are found in the forty-second volume of the Mississippi reports. Later justices criticized a case cited in that volume, ''Lusby v. Railroad Co.'', describing them "utterances of a tribunal appointed by a military
satrap
A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires.
The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with consid ...
who then ruled in a prostrate commonwealth, and have no other binding authority upon us than that each case therein must be regarded as
res adjudicata!"
[Thomas H. Somerville, "A Sketch of the Supreme Court of Mississippi", in Horace W. Fuller, ed., '' The Green Bag'', Vol. XI (1899), p. 511.]
He was circuit judge for several years after his retirement from the supreme bench. He died at the
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, home of his son-in-law, Colonel George Mooreman, and his body was returned by special train car to
Canton, Mississippi
Canton is a city in Madison County, Mississippi, Madison County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 13,189 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat of Madison County, and situated in the northern part of th ...
, for burial.
References
19th-century American politicians
Justices of the Mississippi Supreme Court
Year of birth missing
1877 deaths
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