William Lowndes Yancey

Newspaperman and politician William Lowndes Yancey (1814-1863), shown here in an 1857 portrait by Edward Billings, originally opposed Alabama's secession from the United States after the election of Abraham Lincoln. But he soon became one of the most ardent supporters of the establishment of the Confederate States of America. He represented Alabama in the Confederate Senate from 1861 until his death in 1863.

Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History