Colin J. McRae

The Honorable
Colin J. McRae
Member of the Provisional C.S. Congress
from Alabama
In office
February 4, 1861  February 18, 1862
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Position abolished
Personal details
Born Colin John McRae
(1812-10-22)October 22, 1812
Anson County, North Carolina, U.S.
Died February, 1877
Puerto de Caballos, British Honduras
(present-day Puerto Cortés, Belize)
Nationality American
Political party Democratic
Relations
Occupation Merchant

Colin J. McRae (October 22, 1812 – February 1877) was an American politician. He served as a member of the Provisional C.S. Congress from Alabama, 1861 to 1862.[1][2][3]

Early life

Colin John McRae was born on October 22, 1812 in Anson County, North Carolina.[4] His brother, John, served as the 21st Governor of Mississippi (1854–1857).[1]

Career

Before the American Civil War, McRae was a merchant from Mobile, Alabama.[1] He co-owned a foundry in Selma, Alabama, which made ordnance and iron plate for gunboats.[5] Some of these gunboats were used during the war.[6] He served as Confederate States Financial Agent in Europe from 1862 to 1865.[1][2][3] In 1867, McRae moved to Puerto de Caballos, British Honduras (present-day Puerto Cortés, Belize), where he purchased land, ran a plantation and mercantile business.[1][1][2]

Later life

McRae died in February 1877.[4] He bequeathed the plantation and mercantile business to his sister and her husband.[1] They leased the plantation to tenants until 1894.[7] In October 2011, a college student at the University of New Hampshire found relics of his Belize plantation house on an archeological expedition in the middle of the Belize Valley.[2] His records were found in Monterey Place in Mobile, Alabama.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 The Colin J. McRae Papers, Columbia: South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lori Wright, Uncovering History: Student Helps Discover Confederate Soldier's Homestead in Belize,The College Letter: Newsletter of the College of Liberal Arts, October 2011
  3. 1 2 Andrew Lambert, Colin J. McRae, Confederate Financial Agent: Blockade Running in the Trans-Mississippi South as Affected by the Confederate Government's Direct Procurement of European Goods Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalties and Illicit Trade in the North East, 1783–1820, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, August 2009
  4. 1 2 The Political Graveyard
  5. William F. Donnelly, American Economic Growth: The Historic Challenge, Ardent Media, 1973, 152
  6. Edwin Layton, Colin J. McRae and the Selma Arsenal, Alabama Review, XVIII (1966), 132-133
  7. Donald C. Simmons, Jr., Confederate Settlements in British Honduras, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2001, p. 91

Further reading

Political offices
Preceded by
Position established
Member of the Provisional C.S. Congress
from Alabama

1861–1862
Succeeded by
Position abolished
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