James B. Morgan

Who was James B. Morgan?

James Bright Morgan was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi.

He was born near Fayetteville, Tennessee and moved with his parents to De Soto County, Mississippi in 1840, settling in Hernando. He was given an academic education and studied law, after which he was admitted to the bar in 1857, practising in his home town.

In 1857 he was elected probate judge of De Soto County and served until 1861, the outbreak of the Civil War. During the war he enlisted in the Confederate States Army, initially as a private. During the war he progressed through the ranks, becoming major of the Twenty-ninth Mississippi Infantry and eventually reached the rank of colonel. At the end of the war he returned to his law practice and was once again elected probate judge of De Soto County.

Morgan was elected as a member of the State senate in 1876, serving until 1878 when he became Chancellor of the third chancery district, a post he held until 1882. He was then elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses.

After retiring from his political career he resumed the practice of law, until June 18, 1892, when he died near Horn Lake, Mississippi. He was interred in Hernando Baptist Cemetery.