Edmund Pettus

Edmund Winston Pettus (born July 6, 1821 in Limestone County , Alabama , † July 27, 1907 in Hot Springs , North Carolina ) was an American politician ( Democratic Party ). He represented the state of Alabama in the US Senate and was a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan .

Edmund Pettus was the youngest of John Pettus and Alice Taylor Winston's nine children and a distant relative of Southern President Jefferson Davis . John J. Pettus , governor of Mississippi, was an older brother.

After completing his schooling in Alabama and Tennessee , Pettus studied law , passed the bar exam in 1842 and practiced as a lawyer in Gainesville . In 1844 he was elected Solicitor for the Seventh District Court . He served as a lieutenant in the Mexican-American War . From 1855 to 1858 he worked as a judge in the seventh judicial district.

After the outbreak of the Civil War , Pettus joined the Confederate Army . First he was operations staff officer of the 20th Alabama Infantry Regiment with the rank of major , one month later deputy regimental commander and in May 1863 as a colonel its regimental commander. He took part in the second Vicksburg campaign and was eventually promoted to brigadier general.

When the war ended, Pettus returned to Alabama and worked as a lawyer in Selma , Alabama. From 1877 he headed the Ku Klux Klan as the "Grand Dragon of the Realm of Alabama" . As a Democrat, he was a member of the US Senate from March 4, 1897 until his death on July 27, 1907.

A great-great-granddaughter is the African American writer Caroline Randall Williams .

In Selma, the Edmund Pettus Bridge was named after him. This gained national fame on March 7, 1965, when a protest march of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King led over it and its members were brutally attacked by the local police after crossing the bridge.

Web links

Edmund Pettus in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

Edmund Pettus in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

^ John H. Eicher, David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1 , p. 427 (preview on Google Books) .
Jon L. Wakelyn, Frank E. Vandiver: Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy. Greenwood Press, Westport (Connecticut), 1977, ISBN 0-8371-6124-X , p. 344.
^ Susan Lawrence Davis: Authentic history, Ku Klux Klan, 1865–1877 . American Library Service, 1924, pp. 45, 56 ( google.com [accessed March 3, 2013]).
↑ Caroline Randall Williams: Opinion: You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument. In: NYTimes.com . June 26, 2020, accessed on July 6, 2020 . Gernot Kramper: Settlement: It is black and yet comes from the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. In: stern.de . July 5, 2020, accessed July 6, 2020 .

personal data
SURNAME	Pettus, Edmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Pettus, Edmund Winston (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American politician
DATE OF BIRTH	July 6, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH	Limestone County , Alabama
DATE OF DEATH	July 27, 1907
Place of death	Hot Springs , North Carolina

[1] John H. Eicher, David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1 , p. 427 (preview on Google Books) .
Jon L. Wakelyn, Frank E. Vandiver: Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy. Greenwood Press, Westport (Connecticut), 1977, ISBN 0-8371-6124-X , p. 344.

[Davis1924-2] Susan Lawrence Davis: Authentic history, Ku Klux Klan, 1865–1877 . American Library Service, 1924, pp. 45, 56 ( google.com [accessed March 3, 2013]).

[3] Caroline Randall Williams: Opinion: You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument. In: NYTimes.com . June 26, 2020, accessed on July 6, 2020 . Gernot Kramper: Settlement: It is black and yet comes from the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. In: stern.de . July 5, 2020, accessed July 6, 2020 .