for its defense. With them he took part in the operations around
Fairfax, Vienna, Centerville, and the first battle of Manassas.

Afterwards, in consequence of a disagreement with the Department of
War, he resigned from the army. Soon thereafter he was elected to the
Confederate Congress, in which body he served until he was elected
Governor of this State in December, 1862. It was a trying time to fill
that office, and President Davis, in letters, bears witness to the
fact that no one of the Governors of the South gave him more efficient
aid and support than did Governor Bonham. At the expiration of his
term of office, in January, 1865, he was appointed to the command of
a brigade of cavalry, and at once set to work to organize it, but the
surrender of Johnston's army put an end to the war.

Returning from the war broken in fortune, as were all of his people,
he remained for a year or more on his plantation on Saluda River, in
Edgefield County. He then moved to Edgefield Court House, again to
take up his practice, so often interrupted by calls to arms. He was
elected to the Legislature in 1866, just preceding Reconstruction, but
with the coming of that political era he, in common with all the white
men of the State, was debarred from further participation in public
affairs. In the movement known as the Tax-payers Convention, which had
for its object the relief of the people from Republican oppression
and corruption, he took part as one of the delegates sent by this
convention to Washington to lay before President Grant the condition
of the people of the "Prostrate State." He took an active interest and
part in the political revolution of 1876 and warmly advocated what was
known as "the straightout policy" and the nomination of Wade Hampton
as Governor.