Charles Lewis Scott was once a prominent citizen of Wilcox County

I recently finished reading a book that I think many Wilcox County history buffs will want to check out, “The Adventures of Charles L. Scott, Esq.”

Published in 1997 by the Monroe County Heritage Museum and Samuel F. Crook Jr., this 168-page book details the eventful life and career of Charles Lewis Scott, who was once a prominent citizen of Wilcox County. Edited by former museum director Kathy McCoy, this book presents Scott’s personal accounts of life in antebellum Virginia, his sea voyage around South America’s Cape Horn and his work in the gold fields of 1840s California. The book also details Scott’s work as a pioneer lawyer, as a politician in frontier California and as the nation’s minister to Venezuela in the late 1880s.

Scott had strong ties to Wilcox County, especially in his later years. When the Civil War kicked off in 1861, he served as a major in the Fourth Alabama Infantry but got put out of the war after being severely wounded at the First Battle of Manassas. Scott moved to Wilcox County after the war, and he quickly became very active in county affairs.

In 1869, he became the editor of a newspaper in Camden called “The Vindicator,” which he published until 1879. Scott was also a prominent planter in those days and “took an active part in public questions.” Sources say that he was a “forcible writer, an effective speaker and an interesting companion.”

Scott was also instrumental in having a monument erected in memory of the county’s Confederate dead in 1880. On April 26 of that year, the monument was unveiled and dedicated in front of a large crowd at the historic Camden Cemetery. Scott was the keynote speaker that day and delivered a speech at noon so emotionally stirring that folks in the crowd, just 15 years removed from the war’s end, began to weep openly.

Later that afternoon, Scott, along with other veterans and members of the Dale Masonic Lodge, gathered at the base of the monument, where a few minutes later the veil was withdrawn from the statue of a lone Confederate soldier with his rifle “at rest,” that is, with the muzzle turned down. Eventually the crowd dispersed, but this unnamed rebel soldier made of Alabama granite has maintained his watch over his post every day since the veil was dropped by Scott and others.

The above is just a small taste of what you’ll learn about Scott’s life between the covers of “The Adventures of Charles L. Scott, Esq.” One interesting aspect of the book is that it’s based largely on his personal accounts of his life, but several chapters are “missing.” Those “missing” chapters include chapters on some of his Civil War experiences as well as chapters on his life during Reconstruction and during his service as minister to Venezuela.

In the end, I highly recommend this book about Charles L. Scott to all local history buffs in the reading audience. You probably won’t find this book in large book stores, but you’ll probably be able to find it in some libraries and online. If you do manage to get your hands on a copy, I assure you that you won’t be disappointed.