Henry Dickerson McDaniel

Born in Monroe, Georgia, to Ira McDaniel, one of the first professors of Mercer University, McDaniel graduated at the head of his class in law at Mercer and established a practice in his home town. He was the youngest delegate to Georgia's secession convention in 1861, and later served in the Confederate Army.

McDaniel first attracted attention during the American Civil War for taking command of the 11th Georgia Infantry after the death of his officers at the Battle of Gettysburg.[1] Eight days after the battle, he was shot by a Union soldier at Funkstown, Maryland, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.

McDaniel was a member of the Democratic Party and after the war entered Georgia state politics, serving in its House and Senate, ultimately becoming governor at the death of Alexander Stephens in 1883. He served out Stephens' term and won a two-year term of his own in 1884. During his administration, the Georgia School of Technology was established, and construction began on the new State Capitol. He signed the General Local Option Liquor Law into effect on September 18, 1885[2] as part of the Temperance Movement in Georgia.

After the war, McDaniel returned to Monroe, where he married Hester Felker. Felker's father did not approve of the marriage, but Henry and Hester McDaniel were married for sixty years. The couple had two children, Sanders and Gipsy.[3] His home, the McDaniel-Tichenor House,[4] was listed with the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

• List of signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession

• McDaniel-Tichenor History - Page at the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation

Davis, Jefferson. "Davis, Jefferson, to Georgia Governor Henry McDaniel". Henry D. McDaniel Family and Business Papers, ac. 1966-0400M. Georgia Archives. Retrieved 3 June 2016.

• Georgia, and Henry D. McDaniel. Message of Gov. Henry D. McDaniel, to the General Assembly of Georgia, November 1884. Atlanta, Ga: Jas. P. Harrison & Co. [State Printers], 1885.
• Herringshaw, Thomas William. McDaniel, Henry Dickerson. Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography : Contains Thirty-Five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States; Illustrated with Three Thousand Vignette Portraits. v4.
• McDaniel, Henry D., Hester Felker McDaniel, and Anita B. Sams. With Unabated Trust: Major Henry McDaniel's Love Letters from Confederate Battlefields As Treasured in Hester McDaniel's Bonnet Box. [s.l.]: Historical Society of Walton County, 1977.
• "McDaniel, Henry Dickerson: Thirty-Fourth Governor of Georgia". National Cyclopedia of American Biography. 1. 1898.
• McDaniel, Henry D. Henry Dickerson McDaniel Letter. 1894.
• McDaniel, Henry D., et al. Henry Dickerson McDaniel Directorship Records. 1870.
• McDaniel, Henry D., et al. Henry Dickerson McDaniel Family Papers. 1838.
• University of Georgia, and Henry D. McDaniel. Statement from Ex-Governor McDaniel, Chairman, of the Board of Trustees of the University of Georgia, As to Questions between That Board and the G.N. and I. College. Atlanta: Foote & Davies, 1917.