Thomas Marshall Miller, known as Marshall, son of William Trigg Miller and Emily Van Dorn, who was the youngest sister of Confederate Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn. Attorney General (Democrat) of Mississippi from Jan 1886 to Jan 1893. Born at Port Gibson, MS, 19 Jan 1847, m. Anna Letitia Dabney 11 Apr 1872, d. 31 Aug 1920, buried at Live Oak Cemetery in Pass Christian, MS.

Educated at Elliott’s Academy and other schools and under tutors in France, he held an LLB (1869) from the University of Virginia Law School, which awards the Thomas Marshall Miller Prize annually to outstanding students. Settled in Vicksburg and admitted to the MS Bar Nov 1869. He was long a member of the firm of Miller, Smith & Hirsch in Vicksburg. After serving as Attorney General in Jackson, he moved to New Orleans in Apr 1894 to practice law with Eugene D. Saunders, and later as a partner in the law firms of Miller, Smith & Hirsch, and then Miller, Miller & Fletchinger, which included his son John. His mother’s book, A Soldier’s Honor, mentions that Marshall, at age 15, during the Civil War, wanted to join the Confederate Army with his older brother Earl, who had been sent to Maj. Gen Van Dorn’s headquarters as a cadet. His mother wrote, “Marshall would go to the wars too if I would consent. He is as witty and funny as ever.” According to Emily’s sister Octavia, Marshall indeed enlisted in the summer of 1862, at age 15-1/2, when Port Gibson was being threatened, but “Emily succeeded in getting him discharged.” A Soldier’s Honor also includes an address made by the “Hon. T. Marshall Miller” in 1885 in Vicksburg on the occasion of a memorial to Gen. U. S. Grant. Grant apparently treated the citizens of Vicksburg with respect during the Civil War, and they didn’t forget it. Further, President Grant ruled against sending federal troops to Vicksburg during an unsettling time in 1875. The book Memorials of a Southern Planter by Letitia’s cousin Susan Smedes, includes a letter from her father to “T. Marshall Miller, Esq.” on politics.

Marshall’s son Philip recalled that by 1915 his father’s eyesight was almost gone due to glaucoma. Philip read law to him in his office. And Marshall would dictate while Philip wrote down and then typed letters and briefs. His daughter Emily recalls that her father was a incorrigible gambler; her impression was that the family would be quite well off if he hadn’t gambled so much. She remembered occasions when her mother would send a servant out at 2 am to the Boston Club on Canal Street in New Orleans to tell “Judge Miller” (as he was called by his legal friends) that he was needed at home. She said that he once very nearly lost the family home in a poker game. Philip had to drop out of Tulane Law School one year because Miller had lost so much money gambling. Emily recalled the family move from Vicksburg to New Orleans by carriage, when she was 6 and holding her baby brother Philip on her lap part of the way. The New Orleans house gave them their first exposure to electricity, where it was used solely to run fans on the first floor of the house; electricity was considered too dangerous for other purposes, and only later did they have electric lights. Emily said that her father was always helping people, regardless of race, religion, or economic status. She remembers that the Episcopal cathedral in New Orleans was filled to overflowing for his funeral in 1920.

Marshall and Letitia Miller had 7 children: (1) Frederick Dabney Miller, 4 Jul 1874 – aft 1945; (2) Thomas Marshall Miller, Jr., 28 Jul 1877 – 2 Sep 1902; (3) John Dabney Miller, 3 Nov 1878 – 3 Jul 1949; (4) Earl Van Dorn Miller, 23 Jan 1882 – aft 1941; (5) Raymond Dabney Miller, 14 Mar 1887 – Jun 1958; (6) Emily Van Dorn Miller, 8 Jul 1888 – Aug 1982; (7) Philip Augustine Lee Miller, 28 Aug 1894 – 10 Aug 1981.

Marshall Miller argued two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: GRANT v. BUCKNER, 172 U.S. 232 (1898) and CAUSEY v. U S, 240 U.S. 399 (1916).

Our family connection is through the son Earl Van Dorn Miller. There were two other persons of that name in the family: Marshall’s brother Earl and his brother’s son. Two of Marshall’s children named sons Thomas Marshall Miller.

The letter shows Miller’s nearly illegible handwriting, no doubt made worse by his failing eyesight; it is from Miller to his wife Letitia, who was visiting Jackson and Vicksburg, MS. It is postmarked 3 May 1917. It begins, “My Precious,” and in six enumerated paragraphs describes a bridge game, a dinner party with daughter-in-law Eliza (Mrs. John Dabney Miller), and home management matters. “The inmates of 1002” refers to his home at 1002 Jackson Av. in New Orleans.

Below, left, a 1961 photograph of the Miller home in Vicksburg, MS. It once had a grander façade, which outline is still visible on the brick front. Below, right, Live Oak Cemetery, Pass Christian, MS, across from Trinity Episcopal Church on Church Street.

Sources: The Van Doorn Family by A. V. D. Honeyman (Honeyman’s Publishing House, Plainfield, NJ, 1909, reprinted in 1991), which includes much family information provided by Thomas Marshall Miller’s mother Emily Van Dorn Miller. A Soldier’s Honor, by His Comrades (Abbey Press, New York, 1902) assembled by Emily Van Dorn Miller. Memorials of a Southern Planter by Susan Dabney Smedes (Cushings and Bailey, Baltimore, 1887). Also, Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form, Vol. 3, Ed. Alice E. Fortier (Century Historical Association, 1914), p. 783. Photographs from Van Dorn Miller’s son Thomas Marshall Miller, and Philip A. L. Miller, Muriel Miller Henriques, and Adair Miller Burlingham; letter from PALM.