Edward Warren Moïse

Edwin Warren Moïse (May 21, 1832 – December 8, 1902) was a Jewish-American lawyer, Confederate officer, and Adjutant-General from South Carolina.

Early life Moïse was born on May 21, 1832, in Charleston, South Carolina. His aunt was poet Penina Moïse and his cousin was Louisiana physician, lawyer, politician, and Confederate judge Edwin Warren Moïse. His parents were Abraham Moïse and Caroline Moses. He was the descendant of Sephardic Jews who came from Alsace and the French Caribbean.

Moïse attended the common schools in the county and the Academy of John S. Cripps and Sachtleben & Miles in Charleston. Cripps later became Consul to Mexico. Moïse left school when he was fifteen due to his father's lack of means. He initially worked in a wholesale grocery in Charleston. He then spent two years in a registry office and studied law.

In 1854, when Charleston was hit with epidemics of yellow fever and smallpox, he worked as a volunteer nurse for the Howard Association until the diseases were under control. He began a small mercantile business in 1852 that lasted until 1855, when a great storm destroyed the business on Vendue Range and his cabin on Sullivan's Island. Afterwards, he accepted an invitation from his uncle Raphael J. Moses to move to his plantation in Columbus, Georgia, and run the flour mill, keep the books, and finish reading law. He was admitted to the bar shortly afterwards and began practicing in an established firm.

Civil War A Douglas Democrat, Moïse opposed secession and campaigned against it across Georgia. But when Georgia seceded and the American Civil War began, he joined the Confederacy. In January 1861, before he officially joined the Confederate military, he was a volunteer in the capture of Fort Pulaski in the mouth of the Savannah River. In June 1862, he raised a company of partisan rangers of 120 men, fifty of whom were mounted with his own $10,000 fortune. The company, named the Moise Company, later became Company A of the 7th Confederate Cavalry. When the company was formed, he was unanimously selected as its captain.

Moïse also fought in the Battles of Yellow Tavern, Brandy Station, Five Forks, Averysboro, and the Mine. He helped build the dams in Hetch's Run near Petersburg with 200 men to protect General Lee's left flank from General Grant. He was wounded while fighting in Gettysburg. In the 1892 United States House of Representatives election, he unsuccessfully ran as a Democratic candidate in South Carolina's 7th congressional district, losing to Republican George W. Murray, an African American. Moise appealed the loss before the State Board of Canvassers. He was an opponent of Benjamin Tillman, and as a majority of the Board were Tillmanites, they supported the black Republican Murray over the conservative anti-Tillman Moïse. He retired from his law practice in 1891, after which he served as judge of agricultural products in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and as commissioner of the 1901 South Carolina Exposition.