FREDERICK WILLIAM MACKEY HOLLIDAY was born in Winchester, Virginia. He graduated from Yale in 1847 and went on to study at the University of Virginia School of Law. He was elected Commonwealth Attorney for Winchester County and nearby, serving in that capacity until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he attained the rank of Colonel in the Confederate Army, commanding Company D of the Thirty-third Virginia Infantry in the Stonewall Brigade and losing his right arm at the Battler of Cedar Run. He was elected to the Confederate Congress, serving in that body until the Civil War ended. He then resumed the practice of law and later served as the Commonwealth’s Representative of the 1876 Centennial Exposition Commission in Philadelphia. Holliday was elected governor without opposition. After leaving office, Holliday expressed the difficult issue of state debt during a period of financial crisis.