His father, William Henry Houghton, practiced law, but moved to Alabama in the run-up to the American Civil War.
Houghton enlisted in the Confederate Army; he joined the Columbus Guards and served with the Second Georgia Regiment.
After the war was over, he studied law, passed the bar in 1866, and started a practice in Hayneville, Alabama.
[1] His younger brother, Mitchell Bennett, was born in 1844 or 1845, attended Dover Academy, and signed up with the Glenville Guards of Barbour County, which became attached to the Fifteenth Alabama regiment.
He also fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run and was in Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley campaign.