Representative Alfred Burton Greenwood

Alfred Burton Greenwood (July 11, 1811 – October 4, 1889) was an American attorney, judge, and Democratic politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1853 to 1859, later held the post of Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President James Buchanan, and represented Arkansas in the Congress of the Confederate States during the Civil War. He was born in Franklin County, Georgia, on July 11, 1811, to Hugh B. Greenwood and Elizabeth (née Ingram) Greenwood. Raised in the antebellum South, he received his early education in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and pursued higher studies at the University of Georgia in Athens. Like many Southern politicians of his era, he was a slave owner, a fact that shaped and reflected the social and economic context in which he lived and worked.

Greenwood studied law after completing his formal education and was admitted to the bar in 1832. He began his legal career in Decatur, Georgia, where he established himself as a practicing attorney. In 1833 he married Sarah A. Hilburn of Union, South Carolina (1819–1884); the couple would have twelve children. His early professional life intersected with federal Indian policy when, in 1837, he was appointed a quartermaster in connection with the forced removal of the Cherokee people, a process later known as the Trail of Tears. In that capacity, Greenwood’s detachment led a group of approximately 1,000 Native Americans from Georgia and Tennessee to what is now Oklahoma, placing him in a direct administrative role in one of the most consequential and tragic episodes of U.S. Indian policy.

After traveling west in the course of this work, Greenwood resigned his commission in December 1838, having seen opportunities in the Arkansas frontier. He moved his family to Bentonville, Arkansas, where he became the town’s first attorney. His legal practice soon led him into public life. Greenwood was elected to the Arkansas General Assembly and served two terms from 1842 to 1845. He then advanced within the state’s legal system, serving as prosecuting attorney of the Fourth Judicial Circuit from 1845 to 1851 and as a circuit judge from 1851 to 1853. These positions established his reputation as a leading Democratic figure in Arkansas and prepared him for national office.

In 1852 Greenwood was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas, taking his seat in the 33rd Congress on March 4, 1853. He was reelected to the 34th and 35th Congresses, serving continuously until March 3, 1859. His tenure in the House coincided with a period of mounting sectional tension over slavery, territorial expansion, and the rights of states, and he participated in the legislative process on behalf of his Arkansas constituents during this critical era. In 1856, his renomination for a third term was the subject of a particularly bitter contest within the local Democratic convention; after 276 ballots, the convention finally selected Greenwood over his rival, Thomas C. Hindman. During his final term in Congress, he served as chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs, a role that drew on his earlier experience with Native American policy and placed him at the center of federal deliberations on relations with Indigenous nations.

While still serving in Congress, Greenwood’s expertise in Indian affairs brought him to the attention of the Buchanan administration. In 1858 he was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs by President James Buchanan, and he formally assumed the office on May 13, 1859, after leaving Congress. He held the post until April 13, 1861. As Commissioner, he oversaw federal policy toward numerous Native American tribes at a time when tensions over land, sovereignty, and treaty obligations were intensifying. When Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson resigned in the early months of 1861, Greenwood was offered the position of U.S. Secretary of the Interior, but he declined the appointment. His service in Washington ended as the nation moved rapidly toward civil war.

With the secession of Arkansas from the Union in 1861 and the formation of the Confederate States of America, Greenwood aligned with his state and the Confederacy. He was elected as a delegate from Arkansas to the Congress of the Confederate States and served in the Confederate Congress from 1862 to 1865. During his Confederate service, President Jefferson Davis called upon Greenwood to use his knowledge of Indian affairs to recruit members of the Cherokee and Choctaw nations into the Confederate Army, reflecting the Confederate government’s efforts to secure alliances with Native nations in Indian Territory. In 1864, Davis further appointed him tax collector for Arkansas, assigning him a key fiscal role within the Confederate administrative structure during the later stages of the war.

After the collapse of the Confederacy, Greenwood resumed his legal career in the postwar South. In 1873 he moved to Cassville, Missouri, where he practiced law and was elected as a judge, continuing his long association with the judiciary. He served on the bench in Missouri until June 1879, when he returned to Bentonville, Arkansas. In his later years he remained a respected, if controversial, figure whose public life had spanned the early national period, the antebellum Congress, the Confederate experiment, and Reconstruction.

Alfred Burton Greenwood’s personal life was closely tied to his public career. His marriage to Sarah A. Hilburn produced a large family of twelve children, and the Greenwoods were long-established residents of Bentonville. His prominence was recognized in the naming of both Greenwood, Arkansas, and Greenwood County, Kansas, in his honor, reflecting the regional impact of his legal and political work. Greenwood died in Bentonville on October 4, 1889. He was interred in Bentonville Cemetery, leaving behind a legacy intertwined with the legal, political, and sectional conflicts that shaped nineteenth-century American history.