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VITAL STATISTICS
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BORN: 1821 in Limestone County, AL
DIED: 1907 in Hot Springs, NC.
CAMPAIGNS: Port Gibson, Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, All of the 1864 Campaigns of the Army of Tennessee, Nashville, Kinston, Bentonville.
HIGHEST RANK ACHIEVED: Brigadier General
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BIOGRAPHY
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| Edmund Winston Pettus was born in Limestone County, Alabama, on July 6, 1821. He obtained a basic education in local common schools, then studied at Clinton College in Tennessee. He studied law in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. After setting up a practice in Gainesville, he was elected solicitor for the 7th Circuit Court. Pettus served in the Mexican War, then left the army and went to California, returning to Alabama two years later. During the secession crisis, he was appointed a commissioner to Mississippi, while his brother John J. Pettus was governor of that state, to discuss the state's plans for secession. He joined the Confederate military, and took part in the defense of Fort Gibson. Captured when the garrison fell, he escaped before he could be exchanged. After fighting in the Siege of Vicksburg, he was again captured, but soon exchanged. He was promoted to brigadier general as of September 18, 1863, after his service at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. As part of the Army of Tennessee, he fought in all its campaigns up through 1864, including the fighting at Nashville, Kingston and Bentonville. Wounded at Bentonville, he surrendered at Durham Station, and went home. Pettus settled in Selma, Alabama, and established his law practice there. Representing Alabama at the national Democratic convention from 1876 to 1896, he was elected twice to the US Senate, in 1896 and 1902. Pettus died on July 27, 1907, in Hot Springs, North Carolina.; while serving his second senatorial term. |
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