William Wallace Screws

William Wallace Screws (1839–1913) served as the 19th Secretary of State of Alabama from 1878 to 1882. Biography He was born on February 25, 1839, at Jernigan, Barbour, now Russell County, Alabama to Benjamin Screws and Mourning Jones Drake. He received his education in the village schools in Glenville, Alabama until he was sixteen. He did not go to college and instead read law under Thomas H. Watts. He was admitted to the Montgomery County Bar on June 15, 1859, and entered the practice of law. Civil War He opposed the secession but enlisted as a volunteer into Hilliard's Alabama Legion at the outbreak of the American Civil War. He served in Tennessee and Kentucky and took part in the Battle of Chickamauga. In November 1963 he was commissioned as the first lieutenant in the 59th Alabama Infantry Regiment. Screws ended the war as major serving on the staff of Gen. James T. Holtzclaw. He published letters from the front in the Montgomery Advertiser describing his war experiences.