On Nov. 20, 1862, James A. Seddon was appointed war secretary for the Confederacy.
It’s a position he would hold until January, 1865 shortly before the rebellion began to crumble.
Seddon held the post the longest. He was a successful lawyer who was praised for his diplomatic tact and for reining in disparate factions within the secessionist states.
Though a strong advocate of succession, he was a member of the 1861 peace convention held in Washington, D.C.
According to the Associated Press, wartime shortages in the south of food that sparked a deadly 1863 bread riot in Richmond prompted Seddon to call on the Virginia press not to publish accounts of the rioting. Word got out anyway and other riots in the South erupted weakening the home front morale.
He would face an immediate challenge, however. Just days before his appointment, the new commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, sent troops to take positions east of Fredericksburg, Va.
The move prompted alarm in the city and led to the evacuation of women and children.
The AP reported the Confederate immediately began to strengthen and defend the city.
In the coming weeks, tens of thousands of Union soldiers would move toward the city as Burnside opened a bloody but ultimately failed offensive in mid-December 1862.
Confederate Robert E. Lee vowed, informed of the Union troops near Fredericksburg, vowed in press reports to thwart any enemy incursion deeper into Virginia by fighting to the “last extremity.”