William Meade Fishback

William Meade Fishback (November 5, 1831February 9, 1903) was the 17th Governor of Arkansas and U.S. Senator-elect for Arkansas. Early life Fishback was born in Jeffersonton, Virginia, in Culpeper County, Virginia, the son of Sophia Ann (Yates) and Frederick Fishback. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1855. Career In 1857, Fishback moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he was admitted to the bar and briefly practiced law. During his time in Springfield, he came into contact with Abraham Lincoln and handled foreclosure proceedings for his firm, Lincoln & Herndon. He moved to the frontier region of Sebastian County, Arkansas in 1858 and began practicing in Greenwood shortly thereafter. In 1861, Fishback was elected to the Arkansas Secession Convention as a pro-Union delegate. After the convention voted in favor of secession, he fled to Missouri and took an oath of allegiance to the Union. Fishback followed the Union army back into Arkansas in 1863 and was appointed Colonel of the 4th Arkansas Cavalry (USA). He raised 900 soldiers, although his efforts to restore Arkansas into the Union prevented him from leading the regiment. Upon his return to Arkansas, Fishback established a pro-Union newspaper called The Unconditional Union, urging voters to ratify the new state constitution that abolished slavery and repudiated secession. In December 1863, he represented 17-year-old David Owen Dodd, who was convicted of spying. Fishback and Elisha Baxter were selected to represent Arkansas in the United States Senate in 1864, but their admission was blocked in February 1865 as Arkansas had not yet been readmitted into the Union. After serving as a federal treasury agent following the conclusion of the Civil War, Fishback returned to Sebastian County, reopened a law office in Fort Smith and spent the next decade building his practice into one of the most prosperous in western Arkansas.