EDMUND WINSTON PETTUS
PETTUS, EDMUND WINSTON, United States senator since 1897, was born in Limestone county, Alabama, July 6, 1821. His parents were John and Alice T. (Winston) Pettus. Before locating in Limestone county his father had been a soldier in the war with the Creek Indians.
Edmund Winston Pettus obtained his preparatory education in schools near his home. He then entered Clinton college, Tennessee, and later studied law at Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1842 he was admitted to the bar and entered into a law partnership with the Honorable Turner Reavis, at Gainesville, Alabama. Two years later he was elected solicitor for the seventh circuit of the state, but when war with Mexico was declared he enlisted in the United States volunteer army in which he served as lieutenant. He returned to his home; but in 1849 he resigned the office of solicitor and with a party of his neighbors made a horseback trip to California where the "gold fever" was then at its height. After about two years in the gold fields, he returned to Alabama and resumed his law practice. In 1855 he was elected judge of the seventh circuit, which office he resigned three years later, removing to Selma, Dallas county, Alabama, where he continued the practice of his profession.
During the Civil war Mr. Pettus served in the Confederate States army, which he entered in 1861 as major of the 20th Alabama infantry, a regiment which he had been largely instrumental in raising. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel, and when the colonel of the regiment was killed at Vicksburg he succeeded to its command. He participated in many battles, won high praise for daring leadership in a desperate charge at Vicksburg, and was taken prisoner; but he was promptly exchanged. For a time he was in the Army of the Tennessee. In the Atlanta campaign he was in command of a brigade in General Stevenson's division; in the Carolina campaign he led the same force in the corps of General S. D. Lee; and with his troops he was with General Johnston when he surrendered in North Carolina. At the close of the war he returned to Selma and once
