Background
Edmund was born on July 6, 1821, in Limestone County, Alabama, United States. He was the youngest child of John and Alice Winston Pettus. At an early age, death deprived him of his father.
Edmund was born on July 6, 1821, in Limestone County, Alabama, United States. He was the youngest child of John and Alice Winston Pettus. At an early age, death deprived him of his father.
Edmund attended common schools, Clinton College in Tennessee, studied law under William Cooper of Tuscumbia, Alabama.
In 1842 Edmund Pettus was licensed to practice his law profession. He selected Gainesville, Alabama, as the seat of his efforts. In 1844 he was elected solicitor of the 7th judicial circuit.
During the Mexican War, he served as a lieutenant in the United States Army and shortly thereafter went to California. Failing to find a fortune in the distant West he returned to Alabama and in 1851 settled at Carrollton in Pickens County. Two years later he was again made solicitor and in 1855 was elected judge of the 7th circuit. Resigning this office in 1858 he removed to Cahaba, Dallas County, and practiced law there until the outbreak of the Civil War.
During the struggle over the question of secession, Pettus was sent as commissioner from Alabama to Mississippi, of which state his brother, John J. Pettus, was governor at the time. Shortly afterward he assisted in the organization of the 20th Alabama Infantry and was elected a major in that command. He was soon promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and in this capacity, he served in General Kirby-Smith's Kentucky campaign and later in the defense of Vicksburg.
Edmund Pettus was taken captive at the fall of Port Gibson but escaped. During the campaign, he succeeded to the command of his regiment, and he acquired military distinction by leading a desperate and successful assault upon a part of the works that had been captured by the Federals. He was again made captive when Vicksburg fell, but he was exchanged, promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and assigned to Stevenson's division at Chattanooga. He took part in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. After the retreat upon Atlanta, he followed Hood into Tennessee and participated in the battle of Nashville. He later joined Johnston on his retreat through the Carolinas and finally laid down his arms when his commander surrendered to Sherman.
Returning to Alabama at the close of the conflict Pettus took up his residence in Selma and resumed the practice of law. Though he refrained from seeking public office, he represented his state in the National Democratic Convention from 1876 until 1896, and in that year he became a candidate for the United States Senate. He was elected without difficulty on the Democratic ticket and at the end of his term was chosen to succeed himself. He served from March 4, 1897, until his death at Hot Springs, North Carolina.
In 1896, at the age of 75, Pettus ran for United States Senate as a Democrat and won, beating incumbent James L. Pugh. His campaign relied on his successes in organizing and popularizing the Alabama Klan and his virulent opposition to the constitutional amendments following the Civil War that elevated former slaves to the status of free citizens.
Edmund possessed a vigor of character that was more common in the South than is generally supposed. As he sat in the Senate during his old age, he still exhibited manly independence of spirit, a ready, fervid, and stilted oratory, a somewhat rustic and old-fashioned style of dress.
Pettus has been described by military historian Ezra J. Warner as "a fearless and dogged fighter and distinguished himself on many fields in the western theater of war."
Quotes from others about the person
"His fanaticism is borne of a kind of pro-slavery belief that his civilization cannot be maintained without slavery. He lives in an area full of people who oppose secession. He is going against the grain. He's not a reluctant pragmatist, brought to secession to go along with the people. He’s a true believer." - Wayne Flynt
"In the antebellum period, he was a living symbol of the laws and customs and beliefs about slavery." - John Giggie
"I would be very surprised if a man of his social standing actually went out with guns and masks on, but the fact that he knew what was happening is almost inevitable. There’s really no way of excluding Edmund Pettus of responsibility from the violence. He helps organize it, he helps protect it, and he does not seek to prosecute anyone who did it." - Wayne Flynt
"Pettus became for Alabama's white citizens in the decades after the Civil War, a living testament to the power of whites to sculpt a society modeled after slave society." - John Giggie
On June 27, 1844, Edmund married Mary Lucinda Chapman. They had six children.