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][2][1]

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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