GENERAL LEVIN H. COE Carl Robert Coe By 1850 his fame and popularity had spread so far and wide a major newspaper declared "There was probably no office in the gift of the Democratic party . . . which he could not have commanded . . . ." Two years prior he had been nominated for Vice President of the United States. He was Levin H. Coe, born in 1806 in Guilford County, North Carolina. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, Coe became a favorite of the Tennessee political machine. Of those who carried the Democratic banner during those tumultuous times, few were as colorful, as magnanimous in the line of duty, diligent in the pursuit of lofty goals, or as fearsome when offended. The political biography of Levin Coe sheds new light on the ideas and beliefs that motivated party activists as they fought the bitter political contests of the 1830s and 1840s. As a political warrior, Coe had few peers in either party. His determined stand for Democratic principles reflects the depth of passion and partisanship that characterized politics in antebellum Tennessee. Coe's father, Major Joseph Coe, was born on the family plantation known as "Coe's Addition" in Worcester County, Maryland. In 1811 he moved the family to Maury County, Tennessee, from their former home in North Carolina. In 1829 he moved Somerville, in Fayette County, where he built a large plantation on Muddy Creek and was justice of the peace. Major Coe, who served Tennessee in the War of 1812, was later a state senator in both the Alabama and Tennessee state legislatures. On friendly terms with President Polk, he once wrote to ``Young Hickory'' and asked him to pick him up a subscription to the Washington Globe. Major Coe's father, John Coe, who was born on the family plantation in 1744, served as captain of the Sinapuxent Battalion during the American Revolution. He took the family to North Carolina in 1784, settling at Pleasant Garden, ten miles south of Greensboro, where Levin Coe was born. Maury County, where the Coe family first settled in Tennessee, proved to be a seedbed of rising political stars. Moving to the county seat of Columbia at about the same time as the Coes was the family of fellow North Carolinian Samuel Polk. Among Polk's children was future U.S. President James Knox Polk, who was ten years older than Levin Coe. The two formed a lifelong friendship that helped launch the younger of the two on a meteoric political career that was constantly clouded by controversy, applauded by friend and feared by foe. In August 1837 Levin H. Coe was elected to the 22nd Tennessee General Assembly, representing Fayette, Hardeman and Shelby Counties. Winning the district by 241 votes over veteran Whig politician Adam R. Alexander, he served two years as a state senator. On August 16, 1839, he was elected to a second term, defeating Whig rival E.R. Belcher of Bolivar. Future president Andrew Johnson joined the senate from Greene County on the same date. Coe was chosen speaker of the senate, while former speaker James Knox Polk was seated as governor. During the 1840 presidential campaign, Coe's efforts on President Van Buren's behalf were anything but colorless. On June 1, 1840, he spoke at Raleigh, denouncing the Whigs as Federalists, Abolitionists and tariff mongers. At La Grange, Tennessee, he debated General Thomas T. Polk, one of the few Polk relatives to side with the Whigs. During Coe's speech he charged William Henry Harrison's father -- a signer of the Declaration of Independence -- with being, among other things, a Virginia aristocrat. Coe continued his crusade, becoming more impassioned at every stop. Back home in Somerville, he debated recent Whig convert Phineas T. Scruggs, who had left the Democrats during the campaign because of their opposition to a national bank. During their rhetoric Coe drew a pistol and shot his antagonist! As Scruggs recovered, Coe continued his campaign. In 1842 Coe and others formed a strategy to get James K. Polk's name placed on the national Democratic ticket as vice president. At the 1844 Democratic National Convention, held in May in Baltimore, the Tennessee contingency pushed a Van Buren/Polk ticket. As Van Buren's support began to wane, fellow Maury Countian Gideon J. Pillow, seizing the opportunity, began to push Polk for president. With Andrew Jackson's support, Polk was nominated on the eighth ballot. When "Young Hickory" assumed the reigns of power in early 1845, Tennessee political boss Adam Huntsman wrote to Polk about filling his cabinet positions, "It having been nearly a uniform rule for the president to select some confidential friend from his state, in the making of his cabinet. . . ." Huntsman had three recommendations: Cave Johnson, Aaron Vail "Fat" Brown and Levin H. Coe. Huntsman expressed concern, however, because Tennessee Democrats were in the process of selecting a candidate for governor and he felt any one of the three were equally qualified for that office. Johnson was appointed US Postmaster General. Brown, who married Gideon Pillow's daughter Cynthia, was elected governor. Levin Coe was appointed inspector general of the Tennessee Militia. In early July President Polk offered Coe the rank of major as quartermaster in the Army of Occupation in Mexico. He gave the rank of general, which Coe had anticipated, to Colonel Pillow. Immediate howls of protest gushed forth from West Tennessee Democrats. Memphis newspapers vociferously complained, declaring Coe should have, without question, been granted the rank of brigadier general. One of them called the man whom the president chose for the higher rank, "Col. Gid Pillow, the jockey." The Memphis Eagle declared "it is further said on all hands [Coe] is ten times better fitted for the office." Of Pillow they lamented, ". . . a more unfit, unmerited, or unpopular appointment . . . could not possibly be made." Future Union General and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant later concluded Pillow was at best conceited. Pillow went on to lead an ignominious career. Constantly harangued for incompetence during the Mexican War, in February 1862 he was second in command at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River when it was surrendered to a Union force that was, at best, equal to the Confederates holding the fort. Pillow infamously slipped out of the fort under cover of darkness and escaped with his life, leaving his men behind. Suspended from command, he was found guilty by Confederate secretary of war George W. Randolph of "grave errors of judgment." Although Pillow may have won Polk's favor in procuring the appointment as commander of Tennessee Volunteers, it was a great disappointment to the troops, who held the warmest feelings of respect and admiration for General Coe. Forming an assembly, they adopted a resolution of thanks and forwarded it to Coe, expressing their appreciation for all he had done for them: "Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be tendered to General Levin H. Coe, for the prompt and impartial manner in which he has discharged the arduous duties entrusted to him in organizing and inspecting the Regiment of Tennessee Cavalry, and that we hereby, tender to him our heart-felt thanks and gratitude for the kindness and generosity he has invariably shown to each and every one of the members of our Regiment, both officers and privates, and for the care and attention he has always evinced to procure and add to our comfort in camp." The winds of notoriety continued to blow for General Coe despite the disappointment. In 1848 he was offered the Tennessee gubernatorial nomination. He refused, perhaps having his sights set on higher goals. Fellow North Carolinian William Trousdale, the "War Horse of Sumner County," accepted the nomination, defeated Whig incumbent Neil S. "Thin" Brown, and served as governor until 1851. In the mean time, Levin Coe's fame was being whipped to religious proportions by the common folk of Tennessee. At the 1848 Democratic National Convention Coe gained national attention; his name was placed in nomination for vice president of the United States, much the same as Polk had been four years earlier and had so unexpectedly been nominated for president instead. The magic failed to work for Coe, however. The Democrats selected Michigan Indian fighter Lewis Cass. William O. Butler was his running mate. Zachary Taylor became president; Millard Fillmore, vice president. Coe's fidelity and determination as a public servant remained unshakable. Late in 1849, while Coe was serving as attorney general of Memphis, feelings were intense on both sides of a question of whether plebeian Memphis should annex patrician South Memphis, another town running southward from Union Street. At a town meeting, words became heated to the point of blows: General Coe drew a pistol and shot Jeptha Fowlkes, president of the Memphis Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, later president of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Fowlkes was slightly wounded on the hand. Other wounds ran deeper. Coe's standing in the community remained unscathed, however. A merger of the two towns was accomplished in 1850, making Levin Coe a local hero; he was the leading figure in the conciliation. On Thursday, May 30, 1850, the city held a formal dinner in his honor, at which he was presented with a silver tea service. On June 4, 1850, the Memphis Eagle ran an article praising his accomplishments. Just eight days later he was gunned down in the streets of Memphis. Controversy and heated debate had become a way of life for Coe. Protesting a move by a group of businessmen to gain control of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Memphis, Coe found himself again in the center of contention. The maneuver, in Coe's opinion, was an attempt to defraud the creditors and shareholders of the local institution, and intended to take the matter to a court of law. Set for Saturday morning, June 8, 1850, the hearing was to be held in the Exchange Building at Front and Poplar Streets. On Friday evening, General Coe received a letter signed by E.W.M. King (former attorney general of Fayette County, judge of the Commercial and Criminal Court of Memphis and president and professor of Law of the Memphis Institute) and Alanson Trigg, declaring that if he persisted in the matter "they would take action." Trigg also threatened to "thrash" Major William Connell, who was scheduled to appear in court on Coe's behalf. Fearless to the threat, Coe proceeded to the hearing as scheduled. After an exchange of arguments, Judge Turley declared a recess and scheduled a continuance at a later date. Before leaving the courtroom, Coe showed the judge Trigg and King's correspondence, which was filed with E.M. Yeager, Esquire. Coe confided to Turley and others lingering in the clearing courtroom that he fully expected an assassination attempt on his life. Upon leaving the building about eleven o'clock, Coe, accompanied by Major Connell, made his way to the corner of Main and Poplar Streets. There they were approached by five men: Alanson Trigg, Major P.G. Gaines, Mr. Arrington (Trigg's overseer), Colonel Tompkins and Joseph C. Williams. Trigg, seeming somewhat agitated, approached the pair, reaching out his had as though to lay it on Connell's shoulder. Perceiving that his life was in immediate danger, Coe drew one of four pistols he was carrying and shot Trigg through the heart. He fell instantly dead. Coe then aimed a large dueling pistol at Williams and fired, without effect. Williams and the remaining members of Trigg's party advanced. Coe drew another pistol and fired again. The fighting continued -- four men against two. Gaines closed in on Connell, shooting him through the hip. Connell then drew a Bowie knife, with which he stabbed his assailant six or seven times. Both men lay helpless in the street, covered with blood. Standing alone, General Coe emptied his pistols in the direction of the attackers left standing. He stood dauntless until he reached for his fourth gun -- a "Colt repeater," which was caught in the lining of his coat. Defenseless against the determined trio, he retreated to a nearby house where he found a temporary lair in an open doorway. As Arrington and Tompkins ducked into a neighborhood grocery to reload their guns, Williams slipped unnoticed through the building in which Coe was hiding, pushed the muzzle of his gun to the General's back and squeezed the trigger. On Monday, June 10, 1850, the Memphis Eagle had the sad duty of reporting the melee: "Fatal Affray -- On last Saturday morning, at about 11 o'clock, our city was startled by the report that an affray had occurred in the neighborhood of Exchange Buildings in which Mr. Alanson Trigg had been killed, and General Coe and Majors Connell and Gaines severely wounded. On flocking to the scene hundreds of our citizens met melancholy attestation to the truth of the report, in the sight of the corpse of Alanson Trigg and the prostrate forms of Gen. Coe and Majors Gaines and Connell." Williams' bullet pierced Coe's spinal column, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Everyone expected his immediate death. The Nashville Union erroneously reported his murder the following day. After sixty-three days of terrible suffering through the heat of the Memphis summer, General Levin H. Coe died, August 10, 1850, at the age of 44. On August 13 the Eagle offered the following eulogy: ". . . Gen. Coe occupied a very prominent position as a citizen, lawyer, and politician, in this state . . . In 1848 it offered him to the national convention of the Democratic party as a suitable candidate for the Vice Presidency; and shortly after, it unsuccessfully solicited him to accept a gubernatorial nomination. In the practice of law he had won a brilliant and enviable reputation as a sound counsellor and an able advocate. In the practice of his profession, a remarkable and characteristic feature was his zealous and unpaid prosecution of any one whom he conceived guilty of public wrong. . . . As a citizen, few men were as influential in creating and giving direction to public sentiment . . . . To no one more than Gen. Coe is Memphis largely indebted . . . But we need not indicate how promi-nently General Coe stood forward in his community, to aid, by liberal contributions and zealous advocacy, every reasonable project of improvement. We sincerely believe that Memphis will long seek another champion of her true interests, of law and order, as firm of purpose, as resolute of will, as energetic of action, and as eminently capable of execution. . . ." The Nashville Union added: ". . . For many years, Gen. Coe has been a prominent and distinguished member of the Democratic party of Tennessee. Possessed of talents of no ordinary character, and a firmness of purpose rarely surpassed, he drew around him many devoted friends, personally and politically, and as a matter of course, some violent enemies. . . ." Large marble monuments at the Somerville Cemetery mark the final resting places of Coe, his father, mother Margaret (Covey) and brothers Joseph, who died as a child, and John Greene Coe, who fell at the massacre of Goliad, Texas, March 27, 1836. Coe's legacy lived on in a sense. His son Levin Jr. served under legendary Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Civil War. General Coe's granddaughter Lucille became the encouraging and supportive wife of Malcolm Rice Patterson, district attorney of Memphis (1894), judge of the First Circuit Court of Shelby County (1923-24), U.S. Congressman (1901-06) and Tennessee governor (1907-11). Longtime Memphis School Board luminary Frances Coe was the wife of the last of the General's Memphis Coe descendant's, Rufus Lawrence Coe, who died in the city in 1983. Very much the common man's hero, not unlike Tennessee Democratic champions who had risen before him, who knows what destiny was aborted by that ill-fated bullet in June 1850. Although Coe had previously turned down appointments offered by Polk, lamenting that he would "withdraw entirely from public life," his later activities showed that he was indeed a consummate politician at heart. Magnanimous though he might have been, his disappointment at not receiving the generalship he felt he deserved in 1846 proved he had not worked for years, at great personal sacrifice, totally without hope of personal and professional gain. Considering his abilities, popularity, and prior service to the Democratic party, high political office was certainly within his grasp. At the very least, he would have left an indelible mark as a daring, gallant and courageous officer during the Civil War. (The above is an excerpt from "The Coe Families of Maryland and Virginia.") Carl Robert Coe Marysville, OH 43040-9012 carlrcoe@compuserve.com