Charles Magill Conrad

Charles Magill Conrad (December 24, 1804 – February 11, 1878) was a Louisiana politician who served in the United States Senate, United States House of Representatives, and Confederate Congress. He was Secretary of War under President Millard Fillmore and, briefly, Franklin Pierce, from 1850 until 1853. Conrad also briefly acted as the United States Secretary of State following the tenure of Daniel Webster.

Biography Charles Magill Conrad was born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1804, moved to Mississippi with his family as a boy, and later moved to Louisiana. He was educated under a Dr. Huld in New Orleans. He served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1839–1840. He was appointed to the U.S. Senate in April 1842 to fill the unexpired term of Alexandre Mouton, serving to March 1843, and was defeated for reelection in his own right. He later served in the House of Representatives from 1849 to 1850, resigning to accept appointment as Secretary of War in Fillmore's cabinet. Conrad remained in charge of the War Department from August 15, 1850, to March 7, 1853. He was a leader of the secession movement in Louisiana in December 1860. During the American Civil War, under the Confederate States of America, he served as a delegate to the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States as a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, and as a representative from Louisiana to the Confederate Congress, 1862–1864. Following the war, he resumed the practice of law. He died in New Orleans in 1878.