George Henry Craig

George Henry Craig (December 25, 1845 – January 26, 1923) was a U.S. Representative from Alabama, a Confederate Army veteran, and a long-serving jurist and federal attorney. He was born in Cahaba, Dallas County, Alabama, on December 25, 1845. Raised in the Black Belt region of the state, he attended the local Cahaba Academy, receiving the foundational education that prepared him for both military service during the Civil War and his later professional training.

In 1862, during the American Civil War, Craig entered the Confederate States Army as a private in Colonel Byrd’s regiment of Alabama Volunteers at Mobile. The following year, in 1863, he attended the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa as a cadet, reflecting the institution’s dual role at that time as both an academic and military training center. He was promoted to first lieutenant of Infantry and in 1863 again entered the Confederate service, in which he remained until the end of the war in 1865. After the cessation of hostilities, he resumed his studies at the University of Alabama in 1865, turning his attention to the law.

Craig studied law following his return to civilian life and was admitted to the bar in December 1867. He commenced the practice of law in Selma, Alabama, an important commercial and political center in Dallas County during Reconstruction. His legal ability and growing reputation quickly led him into public office. In 1868 he was elected solicitor of Dallas County, assuming responsibility for prosecuting criminal cases on behalf of the state. His career advanced rapidly: in March 1869 he was appointed sheriff of Dallas County, and in March 1870 he was elected judge of the criminal court of Dallas County, marking his transition from law enforcement to the judiciary.

Craig’s judicial responsibilities expanded when he was appointed by the Governor of Alabama in July 1874 as judge of the first judicial circuit to fill an unexpired term. He was subsequently elected to this position on November 4, 1874, and served as circuit judge until 1880. During these years he presided over a broad range of civil and criminal matters in a period marked by the political and social upheavals of Reconstruction and its aftermath. At the conclusion of his service on the bench, he returned to private legal practice in Selma, continuing to build his standing in the legal and political life of the state.

Craig entered national politics as a member of the Republican Party at a time when Republicans in Alabama were in the minority but still influential in certain districts. He successfully contested the election of Democrat Charles M. Shelley to the Forty-eighth Congress, arguing irregularities in the original result. As a consequence of this contest, he was seated as a Representative and served from January 9, 1885, to March 3, 1885. His tenure in Congress was brief, and he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1884 to the Forty-ninth Congress, as the Democratic Party consolidated its control over Alabama’s congressional delegation.

In addition to his congressional service, Craig held important federal appointments. He was appointed United States attorney for the middle and northern districts of Alabama by President Chester A. Arthur, a role in which he represented the federal government in significant civil and criminal matters in those jurisdictions. Later, in 1894, President Grover Cleveland appointed him a member of the Board of Visitors to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, a body charged with inspecting the Academy and reporting on its condition, curriculum, and needs. These appointments reflected his continued prominence in legal and political circles at both the state and national levels.

After completing his federal service, Craig resumed the practice of law in Selma, Alabama, where he continued to live for the remainder of his life. He remained a respected figure in the community, his career spanning the antebellum era, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the early decades of the twentieth century. George Henry Craig died in Selma on January 26, 1923. He was interred in Live Oak Cemetery, a historic burial ground in Selma that is the resting place of many of the city’s leading citizens.