Alfred Moore Waddell (September 16, 1834 – March 17, 1912) was an American politician and white supremacist. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. representative from North Carolina between 1871 and 1879 and as mayor of Wilmington, North Carolina from 1898 to 1906. Waddell was a leader of the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, in which a violent, coordinated mob of about 2,000 white men massacred up to 300 African-Americans, destroyed the property and businesses of African-Americans, and overthrew the elected Fusion government of the city of Wilmington, North Carolina; and Waddell became mayor of Wilmington after holding his predecessor at gunpoint and forcing him to resign. This event is considered to be the only successful coup d'état to have taken place on U.S. soil, and helped to initiate an era of severe racial segregation and disenfranchisement of African-Americans throughout the South. Family and education Waddell was born in Hillsboro, North Carolina, to Hugh Waddell, a prominent lawyer and president of the North Carolina Senate in 1836, and Susan Moore. He was the great-great-great-grandson of General Hugh Waddell, and great-grandson of both Brigadier General Francis Nash and U. S. Supreme Court Justice Alfred Moore. He attended Bingham's School and Caldwell Institute before enrolling in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1853. After being admitted to the bar, he began practicing law in Wilmington in 1855. While he was a good lawyer, he was said to have not liked being one. In 1857, he married Julia Savage. They had two children – Elizabeth and Alfred Jr. Following Julia's death, he married her sister, Ellen Savage. Waddell also wedded a third time, marrying Gabrielle de Rosset, in 1896. Publisher In July 1860, Waddell purchased the most influential Whig newspaper in the Cape Fear region, the Wilmington Daily Herald, and used it as a platform to promote his views opposing secession. He left publishing about a year later; however, he returned in 1881 and 1882, as editor of the Charlotte Journal. He left publishing for good, and returned to practicing law, in 1883. However, he would go on to author, and publish, several books including a biography of his great-great-grandfather, a historical work on the Cape Fear Region, and an autobiography published in 1908, "Some Memories of My Life." Military career During The Civil War, Waddell joined the Confederacy as an adjutant, in 1861, rising to