Early Life and Civil War
Abraham Jefferson Seay was born to Cam and Lucy J. Seay at Amherst Court House, Amherst County, Virginia on November 28, 1832. Seay’s family descended from English ancestry, with Seay able to trace his family to settlers who came to North America during the landing at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1642. At the age of three, Seay’s father moved his family to Osage County, Missouri, where Seay’s father started a farm and experimented in agriculture. During the winter of 1853 to 1854, Seay, at the age of 21, began working on the construction of Missouri Pacific Railroad. Seay used the money he earned from the railroad towards gaining an education.
In the spring of 1855, Seay enrolled at the Steelville Academy. His time at the academy was cut short when his father’s death forced him to return home and assist his mother in caring for the farm and raising his eleven other brothers and sisters. Despite this, Seay’s time was alternated between teaching a public school and working on the farm. During his brief time at Steelville, Seay found an interest in law. He would spend years reading law materials at irregular intervals until in August, 1860, Seay moved to Cherryville, Missouri where he entered a law office. Within months of the move, Seay, in April, 1861 at the age of 29, was admitted to the Missouri bar association.
Seay would not have much time to enjoy his new position. The same month Seay passed the bar exam, fighting began in the American Civil War. Immediately Seay enlisted as a volunteer in the Union army. As a private, Seay assisted in the enlistment of 200 men, which become part of the 32nd Missouri Infantry commanded by Colonel John C. Phelps. Seay’s work during the Civil War earned him several promotions. Seay was promoted successively to captain, major, and lieutenant colonel. Seay would serve the Union army well, fighting in the Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, Battle of Vicksburg, Battle of Jackson, Battle of Chattanooga, Battle of Lookout Mountain, Battle of Missionary Ridge, Battle of Atlanta, Battle of Savannah, Battle of Bentonville, and the Battle of Columbia. Seay last service came at Raleigh, North Carolina, while general Joseph E. Johnston surrendered. At the conclusion of the war, Seay left the army at the rank of colonel of his regiment.
Read more about this topic: Abraham Jefferson Seay
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, early, life, civil and/or war:
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 14:25.
“The law is only one of several imperfect and more or less external ways of defending what is better in life against what is worse. By itself, the law can never create anything better.... Establishing respect for the law does not automatically ensure a better life for that, after all, is a job for people and not for laws and institutions.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman’s soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Stiller ... took part in the Spanish Civil War ... It is not clear what impelled him to this military gesture. Probably many factors were combined—a rather romantic Communism, such as was common among bourgeois intellectuals at that time.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)