Marshall H. Twitchell
Encyclopedia
Marshall Harvey Twitchell (February 29, 1840–August 21, 1905) was a Union Army
soldier from Vermont
who became a carpetbagger
Republican
state senator
from Red River Parish
in northwestern Louisiana
during the era of Reconstruction.
in Windham County
in southeastern Vermont, to Harvey Daniel Twitchell (died 1864) and the former Elizabeth Scott (died 1899). He was educated in common schools there and the Leland Seminary, not to be confused with the John Leland Center for Theological Studies
. Young Twitchell taught school during the winters and worked on a farm and attended the seminary during the remainder of the year. In 1861, at the outbreak of the American Civil War
, Twitchell enlisted with the Fourth Regiment of Vermont Volunteers and fought in fourteen battles. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness
, when he was in command of his company. In the winter of 1863-1864, he was made a captain of Company H, 109th Colored
Infantry. In 1865, he was part of the column which broke through the lines of Confederate
General
Robert E. Lee
at Petersburg
, south of Richmond
, Virginia. He was also at Appomattox Court House
when Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, to General U.S. Grant.
and agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, a Reconstruction agency aimed at assisting the freedmen in the transition from slavery
to freedom. In 1866, he married the former Adele Coleman, daughter of a large cotton
planter. From this union, he had one son, the physician
Marshall Coleman Twitchell (1871–1949), who is interred at Lakeview Cemetery in Burlington
, Vermont, along with his half-brother, Emmus George Twitchell (1880–1961), also a doctor.
Twitchell's initial headquarters were at the former community of Sparta in Bienville Parish
south of Arcadia
. In this isolated area, "political boss
" Twitchell acted in the capacity of legislator, judge, jury, and sheriff
though he had no previous experience in civil government. However, he was quickily elected to the 1868 Louisiana Constitutional Convention. That same year, he was elected to the first of two four-year terms in the state senate, having won critical African American
support because of his having championed their causes and befriended individual freedmen. He was the principal force behind the creation of Red River Parish and the establishment of the parish seat of Coushatta
, located on the Red River. He was also influential in the organization of then segregated
public schools in Bienville, Red River, and De Soto
parishes, all within his senatorial district. He further stressed the education of blacks. Twitchell's life was constantly in danger, but he felt protected by a contingent of colored troops.
On May 2, 1876, an assassin attempted to kill Twitchell. He received six bullets, which required the amputation of both arms above the elbow. He would have died had he not pretended to be dead already. His brother-in-law, George A. King, was killed during this same attack. Twitchell's only brother, Homer J. Twitchell (1849–1874), and two other brothers-in-law, Clark Holland and Monroe Willis, had been murdered two years earlier in what is known as the Coushatta massacre
.
Had Twitchell's assassin succeeded, the partisan balance in the Louisiana State Senate would have placed Redeemer Democrats
in the majority by a single vote. A Democratic senate would have recognized a different state House of Representatives, rejected carpetbagger Governor Stephen B. Packard
, who was deposed in 1877 anyway, and also elected a different U.S. senator.
In 1868, Twitchell had purchased a cotton
plantation on Lake Bistineau
at the junction of Bienville, Bossier
, and Webster
parishes. In 1869, his father-in-law transferred to Twitchell the operation of two plantations. In 1870, Twitchell purchased the "Starlight" plantation on the Red River. He steadily added to his properties and owned two stores, two mills, a hotel, and a newspaper. His property was abandoned after the attempted assassination in 1876. The remaining Twitchells stayed for a time in Indianapolis
, Indiana
, where Helen T. Willis, the third Twitchell sister, died before the family returned to Vermont. Reportedly, his neighbors had been jealous of his economic success. Adele died of tuberculosis
in 1873, leaving behind her husband and toddler son. She is interred at Starlight, as are Homer Twitchell, George King, Clark Holland, and Monroe Willis, and two Twitchell sisters who died from yellow fever
. Adele had refused to move to Vermont; so Twitchell had brought some of his northern relatives to Red River Parish. In 1876, having returned to New England
, Twitchell married a girlhood sweetheart, the former Henrietta Cushman Day of Hampden
, Massachusetts
, by whom he had his second son, Emmus, a veteran of World War I
.
named former Senator Twitchell consul at Kingston in Ontario
province in Canada
, a position that he held for the remainder of his life, having been retained in the post during the two Democratic administrations of President Grover Cleveland
. Twitchell died in Kingston at the age of sixty-five. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic
and the Masonic lodge
. Late in life he prepared a draft of his memoirs, but died before he could finish the work. Edited by Ted Tunnell, the manuscript was published in 1989 as Carpetbagger from Vermont. Tunnell followed the autobiographical project with Edge of the Sword: The Ordeal of Carpetbagger Marshall H. Twitchell.
Ruth Douglas Currie of Warren Wilson College
in Swannanoa
, North Carolina
, who reviewed Tunnell's Edge of the Sword writes:
"Twitchell did not possess the conscience of a Yankee
schoolteacher or other carpetbagger whose primary mission was the freed-people. He loved matching wits with the southern whites he considered his inferiors, yet one can at least understand the resentment they must have felt with their neighbor's success. Twitchell may not have 'looted the public treasury,' but he understood the principle of 'honest graft'", having amassed wealth of $100,000 in land alone, 'by modern standards a millionaire' -- and all by the age of forty-two."
In recent years, Reconstruction historians have been drawn to the Twitchell story as depicted by Shoalmire and Tunnell. He is depcited as "an idealistic carpetbagger who braved ferocious reactionary violence in postbellum Louisiana. Honest, courageous, and committed, Twitchell was not the stereotypical northern opportunist of southern lore, and he has, as a result, surfaced in studies by Eric Foner
. . . and other historians who have revised the old Dunning
-school interpretation of the carpetbaggers."
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
soldier from Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
who became a carpetbagger
Carpetbagger
Carpetbaggers was a pejorative term Southerners gave to Northerners who moved to the South during the Reconstruction era, between 1865 and 1877....
Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
state senator
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
from Red River Parish
Red River Parish, Louisiana
Red River Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its seat is Coushatta. It was one of the newer parishes created in 1871 by the state legislature under Reconstruction...
in northwestern Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
during the era of Reconstruction.
Early years and military service
Twitchell was born in TownshendTownshend, Vermont
Townshend is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for the Townshend family, powerful figures in British politics...
in Windham County
Windham County, Vermont
Windham County is a county located in the U.S. state of Vermont. As of 2010, the population was 44,513. Its shire town is Newfane.-Geography:According to the U.S...
in southeastern Vermont, to Harvey Daniel Twitchell (died 1864) and the former Elizabeth Scott (died 1899). He was educated in common schools there and the Leland Seminary, not to be confused with the John Leland Center for Theological Studies
John Leland Center for Theological Studies
The John Leland Center for Theological Studies is a Christian institution of higher education, comprising a seminary and a school of ministry. The center offers classes in Falls Church, Virginia, and at several satellite locations throughout Virginia...
. Young Twitchell taught school during the winters and worked on a farm and attended the seminary during the remainder of the year. In 1861, at the outbreak of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Twitchell enlisted with the Fourth Regiment of Vermont Volunteers and fought in fourteen battles. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness
Battle of the Wilderness
The Battle of the Wilderness, fought May 5–7, 1864, was the first battle of Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Virginia Overland Campaign against Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Both armies suffered heavy casualties, a harbinger of a bloody war of attrition by...
, when he was in command of his company. In the winter of 1863-1864, he was made a captain of Company H, 109th Colored
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
Infantry. In 1865, he was part of the column which broke through the lines of Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
at Petersburg
Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States located on the Appomattox River and south of the state capital city of Richmond. The city's population was 32,420 as of 2010, predominantly of African-American ethnicity...
, south of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, Virginia. He was also at Appomattox Court House
Appomattox Court House
The Appomattox Courthouse is the current courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia built in 1892. It is located in the middle of the state about three miles northwest of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, once known as Clover Hill - home of the original Old Appomattox Court House...
when Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865, to General U.S. Grant.
Louisiana carpetbagger
In the fall of 1865, the 25-year-old Twitchell was named provost marshalProvost Marshal
The Provost Marshal is the officer in the armed forces who is in charge of the military police .There may be a Provost Marshal serving at many levels of the hierarchy and he may also be the public safety officer of a military installation, responsible for the provision of fire, gate security, and...
and agent of the Freedmen's Bureau, a Reconstruction agency aimed at assisting the freedmen in the transition from slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
to freedom. In 1866, he married the former Adele Coleman, daughter of a large cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
planter. From this union, he had one son, the physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
Marshall Coleman Twitchell (1871–1949), who is interred at Lakeview Cemetery in Burlington
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....
, Vermont, along with his half-brother, Emmus George Twitchell (1880–1961), also a doctor.
Twitchell's initial headquarters were at the former community of Sparta in Bienville Parish
Bienville Parish, Louisiana
Bienville Parish is a parish located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Arcadia and as of the 2000 census, the population is 15,752....
south of Arcadia
Arcadia, Louisiana
Arcadia is a town in and the parish seat of Bienville Parish in north Louisiana, United States. The population was 3,041 at the 2000 census....
. In this isolated area, "political boss
Political boss
A boss, in politics, is a person who wields the power over a particular political region or constituency. Bosses may dictate voting patterns, control appointments, and wield considerable influence in other political processes. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves...
" Twitchell acted in the capacity of legislator, judge, jury, and sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
though he had no previous experience in civil government. However, he was quickily elected to the 1868 Louisiana Constitutional Convention. That same year, he was elected to the first of two four-year terms in the state senate, having won critical African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
support because of his having championed their causes and befriended individual freedmen. He was the principal force behind the creation of Red River Parish and the establishment of the parish seat of Coushatta
Coushatta, Louisiana
Coushatta is a town in and the parish seat of rural Red River Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is situated on the east bank of the Red River. The community is approximately forty-five miles south of Shreveport on U.S. Highway 71...
, located on the Red River. He was also influential in the organization of then segregated
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
public schools in Bienville, Red River, and De Soto
De Soto Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 26,656 people, 9,691 households, and 6,967 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 11,204 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...
parishes, all within his senatorial district. He further stressed the education of blacks. Twitchell's life was constantly in danger, but he felt protected by a contingent of colored troops.
On May 2, 1876, an assassin attempted to kill Twitchell. He received six bullets, which required the amputation of both arms above the elbow. He would have died had he not pretended to be dead already. His brother-in-law, George A. King, was killed during this same attack. Twitchell's only brother, Homer J. Twitchell (1849–1874), and two other brothers-in-law, Clark Holland and Monroe Willis, had been murdered two years earlier in what is known as the Coushatta massacre
Coushatta massacre
The Coushatta Massacre was the result of an attack by the White League, a paramilitary organization composed of white Southern Democrats, on Republican officeholders and freedmen in Coushatta, the parish seat of Red River Parish, Louisiana...
.
Had Twitchell's assassin succeeded, the partisan balance in the Louisiana State Senate would have placed Redeemer Democrats
Redeemers
In United States history, "Redeemers" and "Redemption" were terms used by white Southerners to describe a political coalition in the Southern United States during the Reconstruction era which followed the American Civil War...
in the majority by a single vote. A Democratic senate would have recognized a different state House of Representatives, rejected carpetbagger Governor Stephen B. Packard
Stephen B. Packard
Stephen Bennett Packard , a native of Maine, emerged as an important Republican politician in Louisiana during the era of Reconstruction...
, who was deposed in 1877 anyway, and also elected a different U.S. senator.
In 1868, Twitchell had purchased a cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
plantation on Lake Bistineau
Lake Bistineau
250px|right|thumb|Lake Bistineau south of [[Doyline, Louisiana|Doyline]], [[Louisiana]]Lake Bistineau is a long, narrow waterway of , wide and long located in Webster, Bossier, and Bienville parishes in northwestern Louisiana. The lake is fed by Dorcheat Bayou, Clark’s Bayou, and other smaller...
at the junction of Bienville, Bossier
Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Bossier Parish is named for Pierre Bossier, a 19th-century Louisiana state senator and U.S. representative from Natchitoches Parish.Bossier Parish was spared fighting on its soil during the American Civil War...
, and Webster
Webster Parish, Louisiana
Webster Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. In 2010, its population was 41,207....
parishes. In 1869, his father-in-law transferred to Twitchell the operation of two plantations. In 1870, Twitchell purchased the "Starlight" plantation on the Red River. He steadily added to his properties and owned two stores, two mills, a hotel, and a newspaper. His property was abandoned after the attempted assassination in 1876. The remaining Twitchells stayed for a time in Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, where Helen T. Willis, the third Twitchell sister, died before the family returned to Vermont. Reportedly, his neighbors had been jealous of his economic success. Adele died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in 1873, leaving behind her husband and toddler son. She is interred at Starlight, as are Homer Twitchell, George King, Clark Holland, and Monroe Willis, and two Twitchell sisters who died from yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
. Adele had refused to move to Vermont; so Twitchell had brought some of his northern relatives to Red River Parish. In 1876, having returned to New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, Twitchell married a girlhood sweetheart, the former Henrietta Cushman Day of Hampden
Hampden, Massachusetts
-Transportation:Hampden is one of sixteen towns in Massachusetts that has no numbered highways or state routes. Of these, half are on the islands, and one is the North Shore town of Nahant. Of the rest, Hampden is the easternmost town to have this distinction. In fact, the town does not even have...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, by whom he had his second son, Emmus, a veteran of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Later years
In April 1878, U.S. President Rutherford B. HayesRutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
named former Senator Twitchell consul at Kingston in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
province in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, a position that he held for the remainder of his life, having been retained in the post during the two Democratic administrations of President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
. Twitchell died in Kingston at the age of sixty-five. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic
Grand Army of the Republic
The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army, US Navy, US Marines and US Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. Founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, it was dissolved in 1956 when its last member died...
and the Masonic lodge
Masonic Lodge
This article is about the Masonic term for a membership group. For buildings named Masonic Lodge, see Masonic Lodge A Masonic Lodge, often termed a Private Lodge or Constituent Lodge, is the basic organisation of Freemasonry...
. Late in life he prepared a draft of his memoirs, but died before he could finish the work. Edited by Ted Tunnell, the manuscript was published in 1989 as Carpetbagger from Vermont. Tunnell followed the autobiographical project with Edge of the Sword: The Ordeal of Carpetbagger Marshall H. Twitchell.
Death and legacy
Twitchell is interred at Oakwood Cemetery in Townshend, Vermont beside his parents and his second wife Henrietta, who died in Canada in 1902. There is also a marker at Oakwood commemorating Adele.Ruth Douglas Currie of Warren Wilson College
Warren Wilson College
Warren Wilson College is a private four-year work college in the Swannanoa Valley, North Carolina, United States near Asheville. It is known for its curriculum of work, academics, and service, called "the Triad," which requires every student to work an on-campus job, perform at least one hundred...
in Swannanoa
Swannanoa, North Carolina
Swannanoa is a census-designated place in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 4,526 in 2007. The community is named for the Swannanoa River, which flows through the settlement. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area.Swannanoa is located between...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, who reviewed Tunnell's Edge of the Sword writes:
"Twitchell did not possess the conscience of a Yankee
Yankee
The term Yankee has several interrelated and often pejorative meanings, usually referring to people originating in the northeastern United States, or still more narrowly New England, where application of the term is largely restricted to descendants of the English settlers of the region.The...
schoolteacher or other carpetbagger whose primary mission was the freed-people. He loved matching wits with the southern whites he considered his inferiors, yet one can at least understand the resentment they must have felt with their neighbor's success. Twitchell may not have 'looted the public treasury,' but he understood the principle of 'honest graft'", having amassed wealth of $100,000 in land alone, 'by modern standards a millionaire' -- and all by the age of forty-two."
In recent years, Reconstruction historians have been drawn to the Twitchell story as depicted by Shoalmire and Tunnell. He is depcited as "an idealistic carpetbagger who braved ferocious reactionary violence in postbellum Louisiana. Honest, courageous, and committed, Twitchell was not the stereotypical northern opportunist of southern lore, and he has, as a result, surfaced in studies by Eric Foner
Eric Foner
Eric Foner is an American historian. On the faculty of the Department of History at Columbia University since 1982, he writes extensively on political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African American biography, Reconstruction, and historiography...
. . . and other historians who have revised the old Dunning
William Archibald Dunning
William Archibald Dunning was an American historian who founded the Dunning School of Reconstruction historiography at Columbia University, where he had graduated in 1881. Between 1886 and 1903 he taught history at Columbia, and was named a professor in 1904. Born in Plainfield, N...
-school interpretation of the carpetbaggers."