Gen. James Pinckney Henderson
(b. 31 Mar 1808 - d. 4 Jun 1858)

{Congressional Cemetery, DC: Range 60 Site 91 -- Removed to Austin, TX, 1930)

A Senator from Texas. Graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; served as aide-de-camp to Major General Dorrett of the Carolina Militia in 1830 and subsequently was elected colonel. Studied law; and practiced. Recruited a company for service in behalf of the Republic of Texas. Appointed by President Houston as Attorney General of the Republic of Texas in 1836, and as Secretary of State in 1837. Visited Europe as the diplomatic representative of the Republic of Texas in 1838, and in 1844 visited the United States as special minister to negotiate annexation. Elected the first Governor of Texas in 1846. Commissioned major general in the United States Army and served in the Mexican War. Appointed as a State Rights Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Thomas J. Rusk and served from 1857, until his death. Reinterred in 1930 in the State Cemetery, Austin, Tex. (Cenotaph and Range 60 Site 91, Congressional Cemetery, DC.)


The Evening Star, January 7, 1859
Death of Senator Henderson
We have again to record an instance of the visitation of our legislative halls by the fell destroyer. Another member of that body has been stricken by the hand of death, and has fallen beneath the blow, after a protracted season of suffering. We refer to the Hon. J. Pinckney Henderson, U.S. Senator from Texas, who died at his lodgings in this city, last evening, of a pulmonary disease, with which he has been so greatly afflicted for months past as to prevent his regular attendance to his duties in the councils of the nation.

Senator H. was a North Carolinian by birth, having emigrated to Texas in the year 1836, and participated in the revolutionary difficulties and early formation of the government, when an independent republic. He afterwards filled numerous high positions of trust and honor, and on the admission of Texas into the Union, was its first Governor as a State of the Confederacy. He was unanimously chosen by the Legislature last year to succeed the lamented Thomas J. Rusk in the U.S. Senate. He was a lawyer, statesman and orator, of the highest order of talent, and his demise will deprive the nation, as well as the State of Texas, of invaluable services.