Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Conrad, Charles Magill

CONRAD, Charles Magill, statesman, b. in Winchester, Va., in 1804; d. in New Orleans, La., 11 Feb., 1878. He went with his father to Mississippi, and thence to Louisiana while an infant, received a liberal education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1828, and practised in New Orleans. He served several years in the state legislature, was elected to the U. S. senate as a whig in the place of Alexander Mouton, who had resigned, and served from 14 April, 1842, till 3 March, 1843. In 1844 he was a member of the state constitutional convention. He was elected to congress in 1848, and served till August, 1850, when he was appointed secretary of war by President Fillmore, serving from 13 Aug., 1850, till 7 March, 1853. He was one of the leaders of the secession movement in Louisiana in December, 1860, a deputy from Louisiana in the Montgomery provisional congress of 1861, a member of the 1st and 2d Confederate congresses in 1862-'4, and also served as a brigadier-general in the Confederate army.