United States Senator from Louisiana

Confederate officer during the War Between the States

(1801-70) Born near Bordeaux, France, he studied law, and practiced in Paris. His father was a lieutenant general under Napoleon. He engaged in journalism and was imprisoned for publishing revolutionary articles in 1825, but he escaped to England, and eventually to the United States ending up in New Orleans, La., where he practiced law. He was a member of the Louisiana State Senate in 1846, and then served as a U.S. Senator, from 1847-53. He was the chairman, of the Committee on Agriculture. He served as Minister to Spain from 1853-55, and authored the famous Ostend Manifesto, a declaration of American expansionism. Although opposed to secession, he backed Louisiana when she seceded from the Union. When New Orleans was captured in April 1862, he earned the wrath of General Benjamin F. Butler, and was arrested and confined at Fort Lafayette, N.Y., for several months. He was then sent to Boston on parole. While there he escaped, and ran the blockade back into the Confederacy. He became part of the inner circle of General P.G.T. Beauregard, and served on his staff during the 1863 siege of Charleston. Beauregard made him a brigadier general, but his appointment was never officially confirmed by Jefferson Davis. The Confederate president, a confirmed enemy of Beauregard, was not about to reward one of Beauregard's intimate associates with a general's commission. However, Soule carried the title of general throughout the remainder of the war. (Soule is listed as a general in the reference book, "More Confederate Generals.") Late in the war he left the Confederacy, and ran the blockade to Havana, Cuba, where he was when the Confederacy collapsed. After the war he tried to organize a Confederate Veteran's colony in Sonora, Mexico, but subsequently returned to New Orleans where he died on March 26, 1870. He is buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, in New Orleans.

Signature: 7 x 2 1/8, in ink, Pierre Soule. Louisiana has been added above in another hand. Very nice, large autograph.