United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
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ZOLLICOFFER, Felix Kirk

1812–1862

Office

Representative

State/Territory

Tennessee

Party

American, Whig

Congress(es)

33rd (1853–1855), 34th (1855–1857), 35th (1857–1859)

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Biography

ZOLLICOFFER, Felix Kirk, A Representative from Tennessee; born in Bigbyville, Maury County, Tenn., May 19, 1812; attended the "old field" schools and Jackson College, Columbia, Tenn.; became a printer; engaged in newspaper work in Paris, Tenn., 1828-1830, Knoxville, Tenn., in 1831 and 1832, and Huntsville, Ala., 1835-1843; elected State printer of Tennessee in 1835; served as a lieutenant in the war against the Seminoles in Florida in 1836; owner and editor of the Columbia Observer and the Southern Agriculturist in 1837; editor of the Republican Banner, the State organ of the Whig Party, in 1843; comptroller of the State treasury 1845-1849; served in the State senate 1849-1852; delegate to the Whig National Convention in 1852; elected as a Whig to the Thirty-third Congress and reelected as an American to the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1859); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1858; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army as brigadier general; died from wounds received near Mill Springs, Ky., January 19, 1862; interment in the Old City Cemetery, Nashville, Tenn.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

The Filson Historical Society

Louisville, KY
Papers: 1832-1855, 3 items. The papers include a 30 Dec. 1832 letter from General Zollicoffer's father, John Jacob Zollicoffer, congratulating Felix Zollicoffer for doing so well in his work. Another letter from 11 Aug. 1852 letter from Felix Zollicoffer to John Netherland contains discussion of plans of the Whig Party in Tennessee for the presidential campaign of General Winfield Scott. The final letter written on 27 May 1855 is from Felix Zollicoffer to W. M. Morrison asking for information about payment on a debt owed him by Carl E. Zollicoffer.

The Morgan Library
Department of Literary and Historical Manuscripts

New York, NY
Papers: n.d., 1 item. A signature of Felix Zollicoffer, cut from the register of Brown's Hotel, Washington, D.C.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Myers, Raymond E. The Zollie Tree: General Felix K. Zollicoffer and the Battle of Mill Springs. With a foreword by Robert Emmett McDowell. Louisville, Ky.: Filson Club Press, [1964]. Revised, Introduction by Lowell H. Harrison; Essay on Filson Club Historical Society Civil War materials by Mark V. Wetherington Louisville, Ky.: Filson Club Historical Society, 1998.

Parks, Edd Winfield. "Zollicoffer: Southern Whig." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 11 (December 1952): 346-55.

Reid, Richard J. Death Rides the Zollie Trail. Photographs by Lynn Reid. Olaton, Ky.: R.J. Reid, 1996.

Stamper, James C. "Felix K. Zollicoffer: Tennessee Editorand Politician." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 28 (Winter 1969): 356-76.

Zollicoffer, Felix Kirk. Organization of the House. [Washington: Printed at the Congressional Globe Office, 1855].

------. State of political parties. Speech of Hon. F. K. Zollicoffer, of Tennessee, in the House of Representatives of the United States, April 8, 1856. [Washington: Printed at the American Organ, 1856].

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