John Allen Wilcox

John Allen Wilcox ( born April 18, 1819 Greene County, North Carolina; † February 7, 1864 in Richmond, Virginia ) was an American politician. Between 1851 and 1853 he represented the second electoral district of the state of Mississippi in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

John Wilcox was born in North Carolina, but grew up in Tennessee, where he attended the public schools. He later moved to Aberdeen, Mississippi. He was the administrative head of the State Senate ( Secretary of the State Senate ) in his new home. During the Mexican- American War was Wilcox soldier of the U.S. Army, in whose ranks he rose to lieutenant colonel. After the war he worked as a lawyer in Aberdeen.

In 1850 he was elected as a Unionist in the second district of Mississippi against incumbent Winfield Scott Featherston in the U.S. House of Representatives. There he was able to complete a term of between 4 March 1851 to 3 March 1853. After he was not confirmed at the elections in 1852 drew Wilcox to San Antonio in Texas. There he was a member of the Know-Nothing Party for a short time. In 1858, he joined the Democratic Party.

Wilcox was an advocate of the rights of the individual States, and served as a delegate to the conference, which decided to exit the State of Texas from the Union in 1861. He designed even the text of the notice of resignation. In November 1861 he was elected to the Congress of the Confederate States. He supported the policy of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He was a member of various congressional committees and helped in the establishment of a military brigade of soldiers from Texas. In the meantime, he also joined the army of the Confederacy, where he was on the staff of General John B. Magruder. In the rank of Colonel, he participated among others in the Battle of Galveston.

After he was re-elected to the Congress of the Southern States, he traveled back to the capital city of Richmond. But he died before the new Congress could convene for its first session, and was buried in Richmond. His wife and two children came afterwards into the custody of his brother Cadmus M. Wilcox, who was a general in the Confederate Army.