Gen. James Willie
Independence, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born in Georgia Jan. 5, 1822; died in Houston, Texas 1863; Attorney General of Texas 1856-7; officer in the Confederate army.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
James Willie was a Georgia-born lawyer who rose in the young state of Texas to become its Attorney General in 1856–57, helping shape the legal footing of a state barely a decade removed from its own republic. When secession came, he cast his lot with the Confederacy, serving as an officer until his death in Houston in 1863. His life traces the arc from antebellum statecraft to the Civil War that consumed it.
Why it matters
His career links the early legal institutions of Texas statehood to the Confederate cause, embodying how a generation of Southern public men moved from courthouse to battlefield.
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