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Milledge Bonham
1860s portrait of Bonham, byMathew Brady
Member of theSouth Carolina House of Representatives fromEdgefield County
In office November 27, 1865 – April 16, 1868
70thGovernor of South Carolina
In office December 17, 1862 – December 18, 1864
Lieutenant	Plowden Weston
Preceded by	Francis Wilkinson Pickens
Succeeded by	Andrew Gordon Magrath
Member of theConfederate House of Representatives from South Carolina's 4th District
In office February 18, 1862 – October 13, 1862
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	William Dunlap Simpson
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromSouth Carolina's4th district
In office March 4, 1857 – December 21, 1860
Preceded by	Preston S. Brooks
Succeeded by	James H. Goss (1868)
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives fromEdgefield district
In office November 23, 1840 – November 25, 1844
Personal details
Born	(1813-12-25)December 25, 1813 Redbank, South Carolina, US
Died	August 27, 1890(1890-08-27) (aged 76) White Sulphur Springs, North Carolina, US
Military service
Allegiance	United States Confederate States
Branch/service	US Army Confederate States Army
Years of service	1836, 1847–1848 (USA) 1861–1862, 1865 (CSA)
Rank	Colonel (USA) Major General (Militia) Brigadier General (CSA)
Commands	12th U.S. Infantry 1st Brigade,Confederate Army of the Potomac Bonham's Cavalry Brigade
Battles/wars	Seminole War Mexican–American War American Civil War First Battle of Manassas

Milledge Luke Bonham (December 25, 1813 – August 27, 1890) was an American politician andCongressman. He was later the 70thGovernor of South Carolina from 1862 until 1864, and aConfederateGeneral during theAmerican Civil War.

Bonham was born near Redbank (nowSaluda),South Carolina, the son of Maryland native Capt. James Bonham and Sophie Smith Bonham, the niece of Capt. James Butler, who was the head of an illustrious South Carolina family. Milledge was a 1st cousin once removed toAndrew Pickens Butler. He was a descendant of an Englishman named Thomas Butler, who arrived to the American colonies in the 1600s.^[1]

He attended private schools in theEdgefield District and atAbbeville. He graduated with honors fromSouth Carolina College atColumbia in 1834. He served as Captain andadjutant general of the South Carolina Brigade in theSeminole War in Florida in 1836. That same year, his older brotherJames Butler Bonham died at theBattle of the Alamo.

Bonham studied law and was admitted to the bar, in 1837, and commenced practice in Edgefield. During theMexican–American War, he waslieutenant colonel (from March 1847) andcolonel (from August 1847) of the12th US Infantry Regiment. Two other members of his regiment, MajorMaxcy Gregg and CaptainAbner Monroe Perrin, would also become generals in the Civil War. After he returned home, Bonham was themajor general of the South Carolina Militia. Entering politics, he served in the state house of representatives from 1840 to 1843. He married Ann Patience Griffin on November 13, 1845. Bonham was solicitor of the southern circuit of South Carolina from 1848 to 1857. He was elected as aDemocrat to theThirty-fifth United States Congress (succeeding his cousin,Preston Smith Brooks) and theThirty-sixth United States Congress, and served from March 4, 1857, until his retirement on December 21, 1860.

In early 1861, theSouthern states that hadseceded from theUnion appointed special commissioners to travel to those otherslaveholding Southern states that had yet to secede. A slaveowner,^[2] Bonham served as the Commissioner from South Carolina to theMississippi Secession Convention, and helped to persuade its members that they should also secede from the Union.

Bonham was appointed major general and commander of the Army of South Carolina by Gov.Francis W. Pickens in February 1861. He was appointedbrigadier general in the Confederate Army on April 19, 1861, and commanded the First Brigade of theConfederate "Army of the Potomac" underP.G.T. Beauregard. He fought in theFirst Battle of Manassas, commanding his brigade as well as twoartillery batteries and six companies ofcavalry in the defense of Mitchell's Ford onBull Run.

He resigned his commission January 27, 1862, to enter theConfederate Congress. On December 17, 1862, the South Carolina General Assembly elected Bonham as governor by secret ballot. He served until December 1864. During his term, the General Assembly enacted aprohibition against distilling in 1863 and also that year, it demanded that more land be used to grow food instead of cotton to increase the supply of food in the state. Bonham rejoined the Confederate Army as brigadier general ofcavalry in February 1865, and was actively engaged in recruiting when the war ended.

NearGreenville, South Carolina a group of troops positioned there, because of worry of federal invasion from North Carolina, named their emplacement, Camp Bonham, in his honor.

• Major General (South Carolina Militia), February 10, 1861
• Brigadier General, April 23, 1861
• Brigadier General, February 20, 1865

Bonham owned an insurance business in Edgefield and inAtlanta, Georgia, from 1865 to 1878. Returning to politics, Bonham was again a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1865 to 1866 and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868. He was a member of the South Carolina taxpayers' convention in 1871 and 1874. Retiring from public service, he resumed the practice of law in Edgefield and engaged in planting. He was appointed state railroad commissioner in 1878 and served until his death atWhite Sulphur Springs, North Carolina. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Columbia.^[3]

Two newspaper obituaries (Fisherman and Farmer,Edenton, North Carolina 12 September 1890 andSwain County Herald,Bryson City, North Carolina from 11 Sep 1890) report General Milledge L. Bonham, railroad commissioner, was found dead in his bed in his room at Hawood, White Sulphur Springs, North Carolina from hemorrhage during the night. WSS, North Carolina was a late-nineteenth resort in Surry County near Mount Airy, N.C.

• List of American Civil War Generals (Confederate)
• Bonham House
• Milledge Lipscomb Bonham, his son

• Eicher, John H., andDavid J. Eicher,Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Sifakis, Stewart.Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988.ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
• Warner, Ezra J.Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.

• United States Congress."Milledge Luke Bonham (id: B000616)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-02-13
• SCIway Biography of Milledge Luke Bonham
• NGA Biography of Milledge Luke Bonham

• 1813 births
• 1890 deaths
• 19th-century American lawyers
• People of South Carolina in the American Civil War
• People from Saluda, South Carolina
• University of South Carolina alumni
• South Carolina lawyers
• Democratic Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives
• United States Army officers
• American military personnel of the Mexican–American War
• Members of the Aztec Club of 1847
• South Carolina state solicitors
• American militia generals
• American people of English descent
• Confederate militia generals
• Confederate States Army brigadier generals
• Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from South Carolina
• Democratic Party governors of South Carolina
• University of South Carolina trustees
• Confederate States of America state governors
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina
• Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves
• United States Army personnel of the Seminole Wars
• 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives
• 19th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly

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