Civil War Union Brigadier General. Governor of Texas. Edmund Davis was born to a respected family in St Augustine, Florida. He started his education there, moving in January of 1848 with his family to the boom town of Galveston, Texas where he studied law and worked as a clerk. The following year he moved to Corpus Christi and was admitted to the bar, then transferred to Laredo where he worked as a deputy customs collector until he was elected district attorney of the Twelfth Judicial District of Brownsville in 1853. He was named judge of the district in 1856, married Anne Britton in April 1858 and served as a state judge until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861; when he refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy, he was removed from office. Because of his stand with the Union, he was forced to flee the state in May 1862 and made his way through New Orleans to Washington DC where he personally appealed to Abraham Lincoln to provide arms and troops to recapture Texas. Not only was he successful, but he received the position and rank of colonel and commander of the new First Texas Cavalry unit. He led his men through many battles: the fight at Galveston in January, 1863, where his unit barely escaped; his capture by the Confederates in Matamoros until the Mexican government intervened; fighting alongside General Nathaniel Banks during the Rio Grande campaign. After his unit successfully targeted the cotton trade along the border by seizing supplies and releasing slaves, he was promoted to brigadier general on November 4, 1864. From that point forward he commanded the cavalry in the Division of Western Mississippi. On June 2, 1865, he was one of the generals who accepted the terms of surrender of the Confederate forces in Texas. He returned to state politics after the war, representing the border district and attending the Constitutional Conventions of 1866, 1868 and 1869. In fall of 1869 he ran and won the position of Texas governor, implementing re-constructionist policies to help repair the damage that the Civil War had brought. He restored the state militia, reorganized the public school system, created the bureau of immigration and set up forts along the western frontier. All of these changes, though necessary, were very unpopular and he was not reelected when his term expired in 1874. From 1875 until his death, Davis was the head of the state Republican party, trying several times to gain reelection as governor or election to Congress, but to no avail. He was hoping for a cabinet position under President Chester A Arthur when he died in Austin; in recognition of his service, he was laid to rest with full honors in the Texas State Cemetery. His monument, erected by his brother, is the tallest and most massive of all.