Thomas Overton Moore

Thomas Moore

Duke University Digital Collections

Quick Facts

Significance:

Wartime governor of Louisiana (1860-64)

Place Of Birth:

Sampson County, NC

Date Of Birth:

April 10, 1804

Place Of Death:

near Alexandria, LA

Date Of Death:

June 25, 1876

Place Of Burial:

Pineville, LA

Cemetery Name:

Mount Olivet Cemetery

Thomas Overton Moore was a plantation owner and politician who was Governor of Louisiana from 1860 to 1864. His government gradually retreated into the interior as Federal forces destroyed the Confederate navy on the lower Mississippi, captured New Orleans and subsequently occupied most of Louisiana. Moore's own plantation was destroyed by advancing Federal troops in May of 1864. After the war, Moore fled to Mexico and then to Havana, where he applied for a pardon. It was granted in 1867 and Moore returned to Louisiana and his plantation, which had been restored to him, in part through the influence of William Tecumseh Sherman. He never reentered politics.