John Gill Shorter

John Gill Shorter
17th Governor of Alabama
In office
December 2, 1861 – December 1, 1863
Preceded byAndrew B. Moore
Succeeded byThomas H. Watts
Deputy from Alabama
to the Provisional Congress
of the Confederate States
In office
February 4, 1861 – December 2, 1861
Preceded byNew constituency
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
BornApril 23, 1818
Monticello, Georgia, U.S.
DiedMay 29, 1872 (aged 54)
Eufaula, Alabama, U.S.
Resting placeShorter Cemetery, Eufaula, Alabama
PartyDemocratic

John Gill Shorter (April 23, 1818 – May 29, 1872) was an American politician, lawyer, and slaveowner who served as the 17th governor of Alabama from 1861 to 1863 during the American Civil War. Before assuming the governorship, Shorter was a Deputy from Alabama to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from February 1861 to December 1861.

Early life

John Gill Shorter was born on April 23, 1818, in Monticello, Georgia.[1] He attended the University of Georgia, graduating in 1837, then moved to Eufaula, Alabama where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1838.[2][3]

In 1843 he married Mary Jane Battle, and established himself in Barbour county as a prominent South Alabama attorney, with sizeable holdings of land and slaves.[3]

Political career

As a Democrat, Shorter won a seat in the Alabama State Senate in 1845, then served in the lower house of the state legislature in 1851 before stepping down to become a circuit judge.[3] An early supporter of secession, Shorter attended the 1850 Nashville Convention where delegates from nine Southern states met to consider leaving the United States due to the slavery debate. After Alabama seceded from the Union in 1861, Governor Andrew B. Moore sent Shorter as a commissioner to Georgia, where he urged the neighboring state to follow Alabama and secede.[3][4]

Shorter was then chosen as one of Alabama's delegates to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, where he established a reputation as a strong supporter of the Davis administration's policies.[5][3] He left his Congressional seat to run for governor in the 1861 election, defeating Whig candidate Thomas H. Watts while public enthusiasm for the war was still high.[3]

Taking office on December 2, 1861, Shorter was soon faced with major reverses as Union troops pushed Confederate forces out of Tennessee and into North Alabama. Facing a naval blockade of Mobile bay and with a shortage of local manufacturing facilities, Alabama struggled to adequately arm its troops. Shorter's administration funded investments in local arms factories but production was slow and the state government was forced to seek out civilian-owned obsolete muskets to arm the Alabama troops.[3] Law and order began to deteriorate, and anti-Confederate rebellions led by deserters broke out in North and Southeast Alabama.[6] By August 1863 there were an estimated 8,000 deserters and rebels in the Alabama hill country.[3]

Shorter called on the state legislature to form a militia for local defense, as Alabama's regular army regiments were away in other states and conscription had thinned the reserves of manpower available to the state.[3] The bill created County Reserves of teenage boys and State Reserves of older men to try to resolve the problem, but desertion from the ranks was still a major issue. Many soldiers returned home to Alabama without permission, seeking to support their families who were facing near-famine conditions by the mid-point of the war.[3][7]

Governor Shorter also made efforts to impress slaves to build fortifications and maintain critical railroads.[8] Thousands were sent to work at Mobile and other points across the state, and at least 500 enslaved people died laboring under harsh conditions.[3] Many wealthy plantation owners resented the use of their slaves to serve the state or refused to supply them,[9] and Shorter later reflected that impressment of slaves was the main reason for his defeat when he ran for reelection.[3]

Shorter faced his same opponent from the last election, T.H. Watts, in the 1863 Alabama gubernatorial election, but this time the discontented Alabama populace vote for Watts by a 3-1 margin.[10] Leaving office in December, 1863, Shorter did not return to public life,[5] and died on May 29, 1872, in Eufaula, Alabama.[1][3]

References

  1. 1 2 McKiven, Henry R. Jr. (November 22, 2010) "John Gill Shorter (1861-63)". Encyclopedia of Alabama - accessed February 18, 2011
  2. ↑ Gazzara-McKenzie, Caroline (April 22, 2025). "ALABAMA GOVERNORS: John Shorter". Alabama Heritage. Retrieved April 5, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Yearns, W. Buck, ed. (1985). The Confederate Governors. University of Georgia Press. p. 21-30.
  4. ↑ United States War Department (1895). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. 1 Serial 127. Washington DC: Government Printing Office. p. 55.
  5. 1 2 Warner, Ezra J.; Yearns, W. Buck (1975). Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress. Louisiana State University Press. p. 219. Retrieved April 10, 2026.
  6. ↑ Weitz, Mark A. More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army. University of Nebraska Press. p. 210,214.
  7. ↑ Weitz, Mark A. More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army. University of Nebraska Press. p. 239.
  8. ↑ United States War Department (1895). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Volume 26, Serial 42. Washington DC: Government Printing Office. p. 136.
  9. ↑ United States War Department (1895). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Serial 128. Washington DC: Government Printing Office. p. 106.
  10. ↑ Flynt, Wayne (February 5, 2016). Poor But Proud. 1222: University of Alabama Press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

Further reading

  • Wikimedia Commons logo Media related to John Gill Shorter at Wikimedia Commons
  • John Gill Shorter at Find a Grave
  • John Gill Shorter at The Political Graveyard
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