Civil War Union Officer, Louisiana Governor. Leader in Louisiana Politics. He was one of the 10 children born to a white Mississippi planter and a former slave freed before the boy's birth. When the father died in 1848 the family fled to Ohio, fearing that white relatives might attempt to re-enslave them. Pinchback found work as a cabin boy on a canal boat and worked his way up to steward on the steamboats plying the Mississippi, Missouri, and Red Rivers. After war broke out between the states in 1861, he ran the Confederate blockade on the Mississippi to reach Federal-held New Orleans. There he raised a company of Black volunteers for the North called the Corps d'Afrique. When he encountered racial discrimination in the service, however, he resigned his captain's commission. Returning to New Orleans after the war, Pinchback organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club and served as a delegate to the convention that established a new constitution for Louisiana. He was elected to the state senate in 1868 and then was named its president pro tempore, as such he became lieutenant governor upon the death of the incumbent in 1871. From December 9,1872 to January 13,1873, he served as acting governor while impeachment proceedings were in progress against Henry Clay Warmoth. In the meantime he went into business and acquired control of a Republican paper, the New Orleans Louisianians. At the age of 50 he decided to take up a new profession and entered Straight College, New Orleans to study law, he was subsequently admitted to the bar.

Civil War Union Officer, Louisiana Governor. Leader in Louisiana Politics. He was one of the 10 children born to a white Mississippi planter and a former slave freed before the boy's birth. When the father died in 1848 the family fled to Ohio, fearing that white relatives might attempt to re-enslave them. Pinchback found work as a cabin boy on a canal boat and worked his way up to steward on the steamboats plying the Mississippi, Missouri, and Red Rivers. After war broke out between the states in 1861, he ran the Confederate blockade on the Mississippi to reach Federal-held New Orleans. There he raised a company of Black volunteers for the North called the Corps d'Afrique. When he encountered racial discrimination in the service, however, he resigned his captain's commission. Returning to New Orleans after the war, Pinchback organized the Fourth Ward Republican Club and served as a delegate to the convention that established a new constitution for Louisiana. He was elected to the state senate in 1868 and then was named its president pro tempore, as such he became lieutenant governor upon the death of the incumbent in 1871. From December 9,1872 to January 13,1873, he served as acting governor while impeachment proceedings were in progress against Henry Clay Warmoth. In the meantime he went into business and acquired control of a Republican paper, the New Orleans Louisianians. At the age of 50 he decided to take up a new profession and entered Straight College, New Orleans to study law, he was subsequently admitted to the bar.

Bio by: Cinnamonntoast4