Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar
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Formal seated portrait
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| Born | August 1, 1824 Savannah, Georgia
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| Died | April 16, 1865 |
Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar (born August 1, 1824 – died April 16, 1865) was an American businessman from Savannah, Georgia. He is known for investing in a ship called the Wanderer. In 1858, this ship secretly brought over 400 people from the Congo region of Africa to the United States to be sold as slaves. This happened many years after bringing enslaved people from Africa was made illegal.
The Wanderer was later taken by authorities. Even though Lamar and others were put on trial for this, no one was found guilty. This was one of the last known ships to bring a large group of enslaved people to the U.S. before the Civil War. Another ship, the Clotilda, brought about 110 enslaved people in 1860.
Lamar was born and grew up in Savannah, Georgia. His father, Gazaway Bugg Lamar, was a businessman and banker. In 1838, a terrible accident happened when the steamship Pulaski exploded and sank. Charles, his father, and 57 other people survived. Sadly, his mother, all five of his brothers and sisters, and a niece were lost in the disaster.
During the American Civil War, Lamar first led the 7th Georgia Battalion. After this group joined another, he went back to working with his father. They ran a company that helped bring supplies to the Southern states during the war, often by using blockade runners. Near the end of the war, Lamar rejoined the army as a Colonel. He was the last Confederate soldier killed in the Civil War, during the Battle of Columbus.
Early Life and Family
Charles Lamar was born in Savannah in 1824. His parents were Jane Meek Cresswell Lamar and Gazaway Bugg Lamar. He was named Lafayette after the famous Revolutionary War hero, Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette even attended Charles's baptism.
In June 1838, Charles and his father were traveling with their family on the steamship Pulaski. The ship was going from Savannah to Baltimore, Maryland. While off the coast of North Carolina, a boiler on the ship exploded. The ship was destroyed and sank very quickly. Only Charles and his father survived from their immediate family. Many other people were lost in the accident.
Later, his father married again to Harriet Cazenove. Charles and his father lived in Alexandria, Virginia, for a year before returning to Savannah. His father and stepmother had six more children together. In 1846, Charles's father moved his new family to New York City to expand his businesses.
Marriage and Children
Around 1846, Charles Lamar married Caroline Agnes Nicoll (1825-1902) in Savannah, Georgia. Caroline was the daughter of John Cochran Nicoll, who was a U.S. District judge in Savannah. Charles and Caroline had many children together. However, only six of their children lived to be adults. Their names were Ann Cazenova, Eliza Anderson, Jane Cresswell, Caroline Nicoll, Georgia Gilliam, and Mary Stites Lamar. Sadly, several of their other children died when they were very young.
Business and Politics
When Charles Lamar was 22, his father put him in charge of many of his business dealings in Savannah and Augusta. Charles worked in insurance, banking, and other financial areas. He also became interested in politics. He was active in the Know Nothing party in 1856. Later, he strongly supported the "Southern Rights party." He even told young men in Chatham County to join the military before South Carolina left the United States.
Lamar was one of many Southerners who wanted to bring back the practice of bringing enslaved people from Africa. This practice had been illegal since 1808. By 1857, he led a group of investors to pay for a trip by the ship Wanderer. This ship was built in Setauket, New York. It was secretly prepared to bring enslaved people from Africa. The ship was fitted with large water tanks and other things needed for this illegal trade. However, it passed inspection in New York as a pleasure yacht. It even flew the flag of the New York Yacht Club when it left the harbor.
Lamar's father did not agree with these actions. He wrote a letter saying that Charles was "so impulsive & so crazy on that Negro question."
The Wanderer sailed to the Congo-Angola border, an area where enslaved people had been traded for a long time. The captain bought over 500 people to be enslaved. In November 1858, the ship returned across the Atlantic from Africa. It unloaded about 400 people who had survived the journey at Jekyll Island near Savannah. Many of these people were hidden at a plantation called Montmillon. Others were given to the investors.
Because of their filed teeth and tattoos, these new arrivals were recognized as people from Africa. This showed that a ship had recently broken the law against the Atlantic slave trade. Many people in the North were very upset when news of the ship and its large cargo spread. On December 16, 1858, the U.S. Senate asked President Buchanan for information about the Wanderer. The ship was taken by federal officials, and several trials took place. Lamar was put on trial as one of the main investors. His father-in-law, Judge John Nicoll, was the federal district judge. He did not oversee Lamar's case. No direct link was found between Lamar and the Wanderer. None of the people on trial were found guilty.
Civil War Service
After the Civil War began, Charles Lamar organized and became a leader of the 7th Georgia Battalion. When this group joined the 61st Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Lamar lost his leadership role. He felt this was unfair.
His father had moved back to Savannah in 1861. From then until late in the war, Lamar worked with his father in their businesses. They helped supply the Southern states, including through risky blockade-running trips. Charles Lamar was sent to England to try and buy boats for running guns. There, he worked with a famous ship captain named John Newland Maffitt.
Their goal was to use cotton to get money and supplies from the North, England, and France. They wanted to keep trade open for the South.
As the war was ending, Lamar rejoined the Confederate army as a colonel. He worked for General Howell Cobb. Lamar was accidentally shot and killed after the last battle of the Civil War at Battle of Columbus (1865). This happened seven days after General Robert E. Lee had surrendered. General Sherman reported that Lamar's death was caused by a stray bullet. The Savannah Morning News newspaper wrote that Lamar was "the last man who fell in organized struggle for Southern independence." He was first buried at Linwood Cemetery in Columbus. A year later, his family moved his remains to Laurel Grove Cemetery.
