Charles Burton Mitchel

Charles Burton Mitchel (September 19, 1815 – September 20, 1864) was an American politician and physician who represented Arkansas in the United States Senate in 1861 and later served as a Confederate States senator from 1862 until his death in 1864. A member of the Democratic Party, he served one brief term in the U.S. Senate during a critical period in American history and subsequently represented Arkansas in the legislature of the Confederate States of America.

Mitchel was born on September 19, 1815, in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee. He pursued a formal education at a relatively young age, graduating from the University of Nashville in 1833. Intending to enter the medical profession, he continued his studies at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1836. Shortly after completing his medical training, he moved to Washington, in Hempstead County, Arkansas, where he established a medical practice. He practiced medicine there for approximately twenty-five years, becoming a well-known local physician. During this period he was also a slave owner, a fact that reflected both his personal circumstances and the broader social and economic structure of the antebellum South.

Mitchel’s public career began at the state level in Arkansas. He entered politics as a Democrat and was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives, serving in that body in 1848. His work in the state legislature marked his emergence as a figure in Arkansas public life. From 1853 to 1856 he held the federal appointment of receiver of public monies, a position that involved the handling and oversight of government funds related to public lands and other federal financial matters in the region. Seeking higher office, he ran unsuccessfully in 1860 as a Democratic candidate for election to the Thirty-seventh Congress of the United States, an effort that nevertheless underscored his growing prominence within Arkansas’s Democratic Party.

With the secession crisis intensifying, Mitchel was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate from Arkansas and took his seat on March 4, 1861. His service in Congress occurred during a significant and tumultuous period in American history, as Southern states were seceding and the nation stood on the brink of civil war. As a member of the Senate, Charles Burton Mitchel contributed to the legislative process and participated in the democratic governance of the country, representing the interests of his Arkansas constituents. However, his open support for the Confederacy soon brought his tenure in the U.S. Senate to an abrupt end. On July 11, 1861, after only a few months in office, he was expelled from the Senate for his support of the Confederate cause, joining the list of United States senators expelled or censured during the Civil War era.

Following his expulsion from the United States Senate, Mitchel continued his political career within the Confederate States of America. He was elected to the Confederate States Senate at the first session of the Arkansas General Assembly, taking his seat as a senator from Arkansas on February 18, 1862. In this capacity, he served in the upper chamber of the Confederate legislature throughout much of the Civil War, participating in debates and legislation that shaped Confederate policy. His service in the Confederate Senate continued until his death, and he was counted among the group of Confederate States senators who represented their states in Richmond during the conflict.

Mitchel died in office on September 20, 1864, in Washington, Arkansas, one day after his forty-ninth birthday. His death brought to a close a career that had spanned medicine, state politics, federal office, and service in the Confederate government. He was interred in the Presbyterian Cemetery in Washington, Arkansas, where his grave marks the resting place of a figure who occupied significant roles in both the United States Congress and the Confederate States Senate during one of the most consequential periods in American history.