South Carolina legislator and judge (1814–1897)
Alfred Proctor Aldrich (June 14, 1814 – February 12, 1897) was a South Carolina state legislator, South Carolina state judge, pronounced advocate for secession from the Union, member of the state constitutional convention of 1865, a delegate to the 1874 taxpayers' convention, and a practicing Confederate during military reconstruction in the state (refusing to call freedmen for jury duty, very mad the U.S. Army prohibited corporal punishment of convicts, etc.)[1]
Raised and educated in Charleston, he passed the bar at age 18.[2] He served as a regimental staff officer in the Seminole War.[2] He served 12 years in the South Carolina state legislature and was Speaker of the Confederate South Carolina House of Representatives during the American Civil War. He served for a time in the war under Maxcy Gregg but broke his shoulder in a rail accident and retired with a disability. He served as a chief of staff or aide-de-camp to Governor Milledge Bonham during the war.[2] He was removed from the bench in 1867 by U.S. military governor Edward Canby.[1] Aldrich then worked as a lawyer in Augusta, Georgia.[1] He was re-elected to the South Carolina bench in 1878.[1]
His son Robert Aldrich also became a South Carolina legislator. Their cousin James Aldrich was also a South Carolina legislator and judge. Their cousin T. Bailey Aldrich was a noted poet and editor.[2] Alfred P. Aldrich's wife and daughter both wrote notable accounts representing the experiences of white female Confederates during the American Civil War.[3][4][5]
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