Charles Christopher Sheats (April 10, 1839 – May 27, 1904) was an attorney and politician, elected as a

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. He previously had served as the consul to Elsinore,

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, as the United States worked to expand trade in the Baltic Sea area.

Early life, education and career

Born to a planter family in

Walker County, Alabama Walker County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama."ACES Walker County Office" (links/history), Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), 2007, webpageACES-Walker As of the 2020 census, the population wa ...

, Sheats was educated in a local school for the gentry. Becoming involved in politics, at the age of 21, Sheats was elected as a member of the secession convention in 1860 but he refused to sign the ordinance of secession. He was elected as a member of the

Alabama House of Representatives The Alabama House of Representatives is the lower house of the Alabama Legislature, the state legislature (United States), state legislature of state of Alabama. The House is composed of 105 members representing an equal number of districts, with ...

in 1861.SHEATS, Charles Christopher, (1839 - 1904), Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, accessed May 1, 2016 at bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000314

Civil War

Sheats was expelled from the Alabama House in 1862 for his adherence to the Union after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

had begun. In his Free State of Winston speech he urged Alabama Unionists to secede from the Confederacy and sparked the surge of enlistments that led to the founding of the 1st Alabama Cavalry. His estimated audience of 2,000 to 3,000 mountain farmers was perhaps the largest antiwar rally held by patriotic Southerners. He was subsequently imprisoned on a charge of treason by the Confederate authorities, but could not obtain a trial. He was not released until after the close of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

. In 1864 he was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Thirty-ninth Congress. After the end of the war, Sheats was chosen to serve as a member of the state constitutional convention in 1865. He went on to study law and was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

in 1867. He started his practice in

Decatur, Alabama Decatur () is the largest city and county seat of Morgan County, Alabama, Morgan County (with a portion also in Limestone County, Alabama, Limestone County) in the U.S. state of Alabama. Nicknamed "The River City," it is located in North Alabam ...

. On May 31, 1869, Sheats was appointed by President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

as US

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states thro ...

at Helsinger (often called Elsinore in English-speaking countries), Denmark. After signing of an 1857 treaty with Denmark that permitted the United States to have

tariff A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...

-free passage in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

, the US was working in the postwar years to increase its trade in the area."The U.S. Consulate in Reval, 1859-1870"
Histories, Department of State, accessed 28 August 2013 Sheats served in Denmark until elected to Congress but regularly returned to the US. In 1872 he was elected as a Republican to the Forty-third Congress, serving from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1875. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1874. Sheats died in Decatur on May 27, 1904. He was interred in McKendree Cemetery, near Decatur.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheats, Charles Christopher 1839 births 1904 deaths Politicians from Decatur, Alabama People from Walker County, Alabama Alabama Secession Delegates of 1861 Republican Party members of the Alabama House of Representatives People expelled from United States state legislatures Southern Unionists in the American Civil War Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Alabama 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century members of the Alabama Legislature