The Autauga Citizen – February 1862
A Company for the War - We are pleased to learn that Bolling Hall, Jr., son of Maj. Bolling Hall of this county, has just returned from his regiment in Virginia, duly authorized by the Secretary of War to raise a company for the war, and is now in our midst using every effort to raise a company....The commander of his regiment, Col. J.J. Seibles, recommended him to the Secretary....there is to be a War Meeting held at Kingston on Monday the 24th of this month, on which occasion there will be given a splendid barbeque....
Colonel Bolling Hall, Jr.
War Meeting - There will be a meeting of the citizens of Autauga County at Kingston on Monday the 24th inst., for the purpose of forming a Volunteer Company for the war. Come one, come all, and respond to the calls of your bleeding country....
The Autauga Citizen – March, 1862. After successfully recruiting 125 men, Hall camped with his company at Robinson Springs where, as the Citizen reports, this scene took place – On Monday last, Capt. Hall’s Company, then encamped at Robinson Springs, unanimously named their Company “The Fitzpatrick Blues” in honor of their distinguished county man, Hon. Benjamin Fitzpartrick. On the next day, the Governor visited the camp and made a most stirring and patriotic speech, thrilling the men with increased ardor and zeal for the cause of our country. His speech was cheered enthusiastically. After he retired, Capt. Hall stepped forward and said to the Company that the modesty of the Governor had caused him to omit in his remarks one very interesting fact which he felt bound in justice to both parties to state, and that was that he had prefaced his remarks by taking him aside and quietly depositing in his hands five hundred dollars for their benefit, and this act of liberality had its fellow in a contribution of five hundred dollars more for the benefit of the families of soldiers now enlisting, made by him a few days ago at the Regimental Muster at Pine Flat. By the first he aids in caring for your families while you are absent; by the last he provides for you, should you be sick or wounded, or in want of any of the comforts of a soldier.
Three cheers were then proposed for Governor Fitzpatrick, which were given with a hearty good will.
Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick
BENJAMIN FITZPATRICK was born in Green County, Georgia, to William and Anne Fitzpatrick. At the age of seven he was orphaned, and he moved to Alabama with his brothers, where he attended public schools, receiving a limited education. Fitzpatrick also managed land that his brothers owned on the Alabama River.
He read law in the Montgomery office of Nimrod E. Benson, where he was admitted to the bar before he turned 20. He was elected solicitor of the Montgomery circuit in 1819 and reelected in 1822. He retired from the practice of law in 1827 due to ill health and became a successful planter on his estate "Oak Grove" in Autauga County. That same year, Benjamin married Sarah Terry Elmore, the daughter of Revolutionary War Veteran John Archer Elmore. Elmore County was named in his honor.
John Archer Elmore
In 1840, Fitzpatrick campaigned for Martin Van Buren, and was awarded with the Democratic Party's nomination for the governorship of Alabama. He was elected in 1841, and served two terms. During his tenure, the state taxation was restored, Howard College was chartered, and the towns of Troy and Tuskegee were incorporated. His major concern was the state banking system - local abuse and mismanagement had caused substantial bank debts, and the state found itself on the brink of financial ruin because it was liable for the bank's indebtedness.
In 1844, he retired once again to his Oak Grove plantation, but reentered politics when called upon to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Dixon Lewis, who died in 1848. In 1853, he was once again appointed to fill a U.S. Senate seat, this time that of William Rufus DuVane King, and he was elected for a full term in 1855.
In 1860, he was nominated by the National Democratic Convention in Baltimore for vice-president on the Douglas ticket. He refused this nomination. When Alabama seceded from the Union in 1861, Fitzpatrick left the Senate, returned to Alabama, and supported the Confederacy. He was arrested as a traitor after the Civil War and placed in a northern prison. He was released in time to serve as a member of the 1865 Alabama Constitutional Convention, where he was elected President of the Convention.
Fitzpatrick returned to his plantaion and died there on Novemeber 25, 1869. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.
Governor Benjamin Fitzpatrick Burial Obelisk Oakwood Cemetery Montgomery, Alabama
Benjamin Fitzpatrick had several children with Sarah Elmore: Elmore Joseph, Phillips, Morris, James Madison, and John Archer.
In 1837, Sarah died, and in 1846, Fitzpatrick married Aurelia Rachel Blassingame. Their only surviving child was Benjamin Fitzpatrick, Jr. (1854-1892).
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000174
