Henry Dickerson McDaniel

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Henry Dickerson McDaniel (September 4, 1836 – July 25, 1926) was governor of Georgia from 1883 to 1886.

Born in Monroe, Georgia, to Ira McDaniel, one of the first professors of Mercer University, McDaniel graduated at the head of his class in law at Mercer and established a practice in his home town. He was the youngest delegate to Georgia's succession convention in 1861, and later served in the Confederate Army. He first attracted attention during the American Civil War for taking command of the 11th Georgia Infantry after the death of his officers at the Battle of Gettysburg. Eight days after the battle, he was shot by a Union soldier at Funkstown, Maryland, and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp.

He was a member of the Democratic Party and after the war entered Georgia state politics, serving in its House and Senate, ultimately becoming governor at the death of Alexander Stephens in 1883. He served out Stephens' term and won a two year term of his own in 1884. During his administration, he established the Georgia Institute of Technology^{[citation needed]} and began construction of the new State Capitol.^{[citation needed]}

After his political career, he returned to Monroe to practice law. His home, the McDaniel-Tichenor House, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1980.