Edmund Winston Pettus (July 6, 1821 – July 27, 1907) was a lawyer and politician who represented Alabama in the United States Senate from 1897 to 1907. He served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army, commanding infantry in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. After the war, he was politically active in the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

, serving as a Grand Dragon. The Edmund Pettus Bridge across the

Alabama River The Alabama River, in the U.S. state of Alabama, is formed by the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which unite about north of Montgomery, near the town of Wetumpka. The river flows west to Selma, then southwest until, about from Mobile, it un ...

in Selma, built in 1940, was named after him. According to ''Smithsonian'', "The bridge was named for him, in part, to memorialize his history, of restraining and imprisoning African-Americans in their quest for freedom after the Civil War". In 1965, the bridge became a landmark of the civil rights movement.

Early life and career

Edmund Pettus was born in 1821 in Limestone County, Alabama. He was the youngest of nine children of John Pettus and Alice Taylor Winston, a brother of

John J. Pettus John Jones Pettus (October 9, 1813January 25, 1867) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 23rd Governor of Mississippi, from 1859 to 1863. Before being elected in his own right to full gubernatorial terms in 1859 and 1861, he ...

, and a distant cousin of

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

. Pettus was educated in local public schools, and later graduated from Clinton College located in Smith County, Tennessee.Warner, p. 238. Pettus then studied law under William Cooper in Tuscumbia, Alabama and was admitted to the bar in 1842. Shortly afterward he settled in Gainesville and began practicing as a lawyer. On June 27, 1844, Pettus married Mary L. Chapman, with whom he had three sons, two of whom died in infancy, and two daughters. Also that year he was elected solicitor for the seventh Judicial Circuit of Alabama.Wakelyn, p. 344. During the Mexican–American War in 1846–48, Pettus served as a lieutenant with the Alabama Volunteers, and after the end of hostilities he moved to California.Eicher (2), p. 427. By 1853, he returned to Alabama, serving again in the seventh circuit as solicitor. He was appointed a judge in that circuit in 1855 until resigning in 1858. Pettus then relocated to the now extinct town of Cahaba in Dallas County, Alabama, where he again took up work as a lawyer.

American Civil War

In 1861, Pettus, an enthusiastic champion of the Confederate cause and of slavery, was a Democratic Party delegate to the secession convention in Mississippi, where his brother John was serving as governor. Pettus helped organize the 20th Alabama Infantry, and was elected as one of its first officers. On September 9, he was made the regiment's

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

, and on October 8, he became its

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

. Pettus served in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. During the Stones River Campaign, he was captured by Union soldiers on December 29, 1862, and exchanged a short time later for Union soldiers. Pettus was captured again on May 1, 1863, while part of the surrendered garrison that had been defending

Port Gibson Port Gibson is a city in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 1,567 at the 2010 census. Port Gibson is the county seat of Claiborne County, which is bordered on the west by the Mississippi River. It is the site of th ...

in Mississippi. He managed to escape and return to his own lines. Pettus was promoted to colonel on May 28, and given command of the 20th Alabama. During the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign, Pettus and his regiment were part of the force defending Confederate control of the Mississippi River. When the garrison surrendered on July 4, Pettus was again a prisoner until his exchange on September 12. Six days later he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, and on November 3 he was given brigade command in the Army of Tennessee. Pettus and his brigade participated in the Chattanooga Campaign, posted on the extreme southern slope of Missionary Ridge on November 24, and fought during the action the following day. Pettus and his command took part in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, fighting in the battles of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, Atlanta on July 22, and Jonesborough from August 31 to September 1. Beginning on December 17, he temporarily led a division in the Army of Tennessee. During the 1865

Campaign of the Carolinas The campaign of the Carolinas (January 1 – April 26, 1865), also known as the Carolinas campaign, was the final campaign conducted by the United States Army (Union Army) against the Confederate States Army in the Western Theater. On January 1 ...

, Pettus was sent to defend Columbia, South Carolina, and fought at Bentonville from March 19–21. Pettus was wounded in this fight, hit in his right leg during the battle's first day. On May 2 he was paroled from

Salisbury, North Carolina Salisbury is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, United States; it has been the county seat of Rowan County since 1753 when its territory extended to the Mississippi River. Located northeast of Charlotte and within its metropolita ...

, and, four months after the Confederacy surrendered, Pettus was pardoned by U.S. President

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Dem ...

on October 20.

Later life and career

After the war, Edmund Pettus returned to Alabama and resumed his law practice in Selma. Pettus served as chairman of the state delegation to the Democratic National Convention for more than two decades. In 1877, during the final year of Reconstruction, Pettus was named Grand Dragon of the Alabama

. With earnings from his law practice, he bought farm land. In 1896, at the age of 75, Pettus ran for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat and won, beating incumbent

James L. Pugh James Lawrence Pugh (December 12, 1820March 9, 1907) was a U.S. senator from Alabama, as well as a member of the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War. Biography Pugh was born in Burke County, Georgia, and moved to Alabama in 18 ...

. The state legislature, rather than state voters, elected United States senators at that time. His campaign relied on his successes in organizing and popularizing the Alabama Klan and his prominent opposition to the constitutional amendments following the Civil War that elevated former slaves to the status of free citizens. On March 4, 1897, he began service in the U.S. Senate. The state legislature re-elected him on January 26, 1903, and January 22, 1907. This term would begin two years later in 1909. Pettus died at Hot Springs, North Carolina, in the summer of 1907, at age 86, while still in office and elected for the next term. He is buried in

Live Oak Cemetery Old Live Oak Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Selma, Alabama that was founded in 1829 and expanded in 1877. The newer portion is sometimes called New Live Oak Cemetery and the cemetery is collectively known as Live Oak Cemetery. It contains ...

in Selma.

Legacy

Military historian Ezra J. Warner wrote that Pettus was "a fearless and dogged fighter and distinguished himself on many fields in the western theater of war" and after his promotion to a general officer "he followed with conspicuous bravery every forlorn hope which the Confederacy offered..." Likewise historian Jon L. Wakelyn summed up his military career by saying " … he volunteered for service in the Confederate Army and distinguished himself in the western command." As a U.S. senator, Pettus was "the last of the Confederate brigadiers to sit in the upper house of the national Congress." In 1940, a bridge across the Alabama River in Selma was named after him. In 1965, it became a civil rights movement landmark when 525 to 600 civil rights marchers on their way from Selma to Montgomery tried to cross the bridge, but were turned back and attacked by Alabama state troopers and members of the

. This event has since been called Bloody Sunday. In 2020, Pettus’ great-great-granddaughter Caroline Randall Williams, Vanderbilt University writer-in-residence, proposed renaming the bridge after John Lewis because "We name things after honorable Americans to commemorate their legacies. That bridge is named after a treasonous American who cultivated and prospered from systems of degradation and oppression before and after the Civil War." Writing in the ''New York Times'', Williams argued: At least one other Pettus descendant, Dave Pettus supports renaming the bridge Bloody Sunday Bridge.

Notes

References

* Eicher (1), David J., ''The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War'', Simon & Schuster, 2001, . * Eicher (2), John H., and David J. Eicher, ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. . * Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. . * Wakelyn, Jon L., ''Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy'', Greenwood Press, 1977, . * Warner, Ezra J. ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. . * Wright, Marcus J.
''General Officers of the Confederate Army: Officers of the Executive Departments of the Confederate States, Members of the Confederate Congress by States''
Mattituck, NY: J. M. Carroll & Co., 1983. . First published 1911 by Neale Publishing Co.

External links

*
Edmund Pettus and John Tyler Morgan, late senators from Alabama, Memorial addresses delivered in the House of Representatives and Senate frontispiece 1909
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pettus, Edmund 1821 births 1907 deaths 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century American politicians Alabama lawyers American Civil War prisoners of war American Fire-Eaters American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law American militia officers American military personnel of the Mexican–American War American white supremacists Burials in Alabama Clinton College (Tennessee) Circuit court judges in the United States Confederate States Army brigadier generals Deaths in North Carolina Democratic Party United States senators from Alabama Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragons Military personnel from Alabama People from Athens, Alabama People of Alabama in the American Civil War Pettus family Recipients of American presidential pardons