R. Barnwell Rhett Jr.

"Confederate Chieftains," including R. Barnwell Rhett, engraved by J.C. Buttre (Library of Congress Digital) R. Barnwell Rhett Jr. (February 25, 1828 – January 29, 1905) was a Confederate-American thought leader who edited the pro-secession Charleston Mercury newspaper owned by his father, the Fire-Eater politician Robert B. Rhett. He was later a Reconstruction-era editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He killed a New Orleans judge in a duel in 1873.

Biography After Rhett graduated from Harvard University, class of 1849, he became an attorney in South Carolina. He also assisted in running the family's South Carolina rice plantations, "managing successfully 350 negroes." She died in 1860. he was a pro-Democrat, pro-Redeemer editor of the Times-Picayune, "holding up to public contempt and ignominy, the leaders of the Carpet-baggers and Scallawags in the reconstruction days." "over a controversy that grew out of the heated Issues brought into public affairs by the atrocities of carpetbagger rule." Rhett oversaw (or wrote) a vicious editorial, Cooley challenged him to a duel, they met at Bay St. Louis on a gloomy day, and Cooley lost. He died after a long and painful illness,