Background
Pettus was born in Tennessee, but his family moved to Kemper County, Mississippi while he was a child. On April 4, 1837, he married his cousin, Permelia Virginia Winston, a daughter of William Winston and Mary Cooper, in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
Career
Born in Wilson County, Tennessee, he was the governor of the state of Mississippi from January 5, 1854 to January 10, 1854, the shortest term of governor in the state’s history. Pettus was later elected to a full term and served from 21 November 1859 - 16 November 1863 during which time he took Mississippi out of the Union. In 1846, Pettus represented Kemper County in the Mississippi House of Representatives.
In 1848, he was then elected to the Mississippi State Senate and was named President of the Senate in 1854.
In 1853, while lame-duck Governor Henry South. Foote was waiting for the January 11 inauguration of John Jay McRae, Foote grew bitter and angry, addressing the legislative session by announcing that he had considered resigning in protest once the election results came in. At noon at January 5, 1854, Foote"s resignation was received by the state senate.
The Mississippi Constitution of 1832 had abolished the office of lieutenant governor. Pettus, as President of the State Senate, was next in seniority and was sworn at noon on January 7, 1854.
Pettus held the governorship until McRae was sworn in on January 10, 1854.
His only record act during these 120 hours was to order a special session in Noxubee County to fill the office of a deceased state representative, Francis M. Irby. On January 11, McRae was inaugurated as Governor and Pettus returned as senate president During the 1850s, he became identified as "the Mississippi Fire-eater," a term referring to southerns supporting secession,
In 1859, he was elected Governor.
In his inaugural address, he said that the south"s only way to maintain slavery was secession and called for the establishment of a southern confederacy.
Following President Abraham Lincoln"s election, on November 26, 1860, Pettus called for a Special Session of the Legislature and urges the Legislature to call for a convention to withdraw Mississippi from the Union. The Legislature called for a Secession Convention which convened in Jackson on January 7, 1861.
They voted succession and on January 9, 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union. On February 4, 1861, along with five other slave states, the Confederate States of America was established at Montgomery, Alabama.
Pettus was re-elected in the fall of 1861.
Pettus was succeeded by General Charles Clark. When his second term expired in October 1863, Pettus joined the Confederate Army. Although General Robert East. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox, Pettus refused to surrender and became a fugitive.
His family later claimed he was planning to go to flee to Mexico with Jefferson Davis but Davis was captured before they could meet.
The manhunt for him continued until his death in Pulaski County, Arkansas on January 28, 1867.
Membership
Pettus was a member of the Democratic party.