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| - James Andrew Seddon (July 13, 1815 - August 19, 1880) is best remembered to history for being one of the men who served as Secretary of War of the Confederate States (1862-1865) during the American Civil War. James Seddon was born in Falmouth, Virginia, on July 13, 1815. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1835 he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Richmond. A member of the Democratic Party, Seddon was elected to the U.S. Congress and served for two spells (4 March 1845-3 March 1847 and 4 March 1849-3 March 1851).
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abstract
| - James Andrew Seddon (July 13, 1815 - August 19, 1880) is best remembered to history for being one of the men who served as Secretary of War of the Confederate States (1862-1865) during the American Civil War. James Seddon was born in Falmouth, Virginia, on July 13, 1815. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1835 he was admitted to the bar and practiced law in Richmond. A member of the Democratic Party, Seddon was elected to the U.S. Congress and served for two spells (4 March 1845-3 March 1847 and 4 March 1849-3 March 1851). Seddon was a member of the peace convention held in Washington, DC in 1861 that attempted to devise a means of preventing the American Civil War. Seddon also attended the Provisional Confederate Congress in 1861. President Jefferson Davis appointed Seddon as his Secretary of War in November 1862 and he held the position until January 1865. When the United States Army arrived in Andersonville, Georgia in May 1865, photographs of the prisoners were taken and the following month they appeared in Harper's Weekly. The photographs caused considerable anger and calls were made for the people responsible to be punished for these crimes. It was eventually decided to charge Seddon, General Robert E. Lee, and several other Confederate generals and politicians with "conspiring to injure the health and destroy the lives of United States soldiers held as prisoners by the Confederate States". In August 1865, President Andrew Johnson ordered that the charges against Seddon and the Confederate generals and politicians should be dropped. James Seddon died in Goochland County on August 19, 1880.
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