XIV. The Campaign of 1856, 155 XV. John Brown's Raid, 169 XVI. The Charleston Convention, 175 XVII. Toombs as a Legislator, 186 XVIII. Election of Lincoln, 199 XIX. Farewell to the Senate, 205 XX. Toombs and Secession, 209 XXI. Toombs as Premier of the Confederacy, 222 XXII. Brigadier-General in Army of Northern Virginia, 236 XXIII. With the Georgia Militia, 277 XXIV. Toombs as a Fugitive, 286 XXV. Without a Country, 308 XXVI. Commencing Life Anew, 315 XXVII. Days of Reconstruction, 324 XXVIII. His Last Public Service, 337 XXIX. Domestic Life of Toombs, 353 XXX. His Great Fault, 364 XXXI. His Last Days, 369 * * * * * ROBERT TOOMBS. CHAPTER I. FAMILY, BOYHOOD, LIFE AT COLLEGE. Gabriel Toombs was one of General Braddock's soldiers who marched against Fort DuQuesne in 1755. He was a member of the sturdy Virginia line which protested against the dangerous tactics of the British martinet, and when the English regulars were ambushed and cut to pieces, Gabriel Toombs deployed with his men in the woods and picked off the savages with the steady aim and unerring skill of the frontiersman. Over one hundred years later Robert Toombs, his grandson, protested against the fruitless charge at Malvern Hill, and obliquing to the left with his brigade, protected his men and managed to cover the retreat of his division. This was a family of soldiers. They were found in the old country fighting Cromwell's army of the rebellion. Robert Toombs of Georgia was fond of tracing his lineage to the champions of the English king who defended their sovereign at Boscobel. But the American family was made up of lovers of liberty rather than defenders of the King. It was one of the anomalies in the life of the Georgia Toombs, who resisted all restraint and challenged authority in every form, that he should have located his ancestry among the sworn royalists of the seventeenth century.