William Preston was an American soldier. He was a congressman from Kentucky and diplomat.
Background
William Preston was born on October 16, 1816, near Louisville, Kentucky, United States. He was the great-grandson of John Preston who emigrated from County Derry, Ireland, to Augusta County, Virginia, about 1740 and became there a large landowner. He was the grandson of William and Susannah Smith Preston. William's parents were William Preston, a major in the regular army under Gen. Anthony Wayne, and of Caroline Hancock Preston, the daughter of George Hancock, a colonel in the Revolution and a member of the Third and Fourth congresses. His parents removed to Kentucky in 1815 and settled near Louisville on a large estate his father had inherited.
Education
William Preston attended Augusta College, in Bracken County, Kentucky, and then St. Joseph's College at Bardstown. He entered Harvard University in 1836 and received a Bachelor of Laws in 1838.
William Preston was admitted to the bar in Louisville, where much of his time was taken up with legal business concerning the family estate. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, he obtained in Louisville loans to the state for $50, 000. Soon he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Kentucky Infantry under Gen. William O. Butler.
On his return from the war, he was elected one of three delegates from Louisville to the constitutional convention of 1849. In 1850 he became a member of the lower house of the state legislature. The next year he was elected to the state Senate. In 1852 he was elected to Congress as a Whig to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Humphrey Marshall. Reelected, he served from December 6, 1852, to March 3, 1855. He was defeated in 1854 by Marshall.
In 1858 he was appointed a minister to Spain. In Madrid, he opposed the designs of the Spaniards at Saman Bay and actively promoted the interests of the United States in other respects. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he resigned and returned to Kentucky to aid in inducing that state to join the Confederacy. In September 1861, in company with John C. Breckinridge, he joined the command of Albert Sidney Johnston at Bowling Green and served on his staff as colonel until Johnston's death at Shiloh.
On January 7, 1864, President Davis appointed him to minister to Maximilian's government in Mexico with the hope that a treaty of friendship and commerce might be affected. He left for Havana with many misgivings as to the success of his mission. In his efforts to reach Maximilian, he found it convenient to go to Europe. Then, unsuccessful in his mission and unable to run the blockade either at Wilmington or Charleston, he landed in Matamoras and crossed the Rio Grande into Texas. He soon joined E. Kirby-Smith's command and was elevated to a major-generalship.
With the war over Preston recrossed the Rio Grande into Mexico, but conditions there soon forced him and many others from the Confederacy to leave. He then went to the West Indies and on to England. He soon turned up in Canada to join his family, which had been exiled there by the federal government. In 1866 he returned to Kentucky with his family and settled in Lexington, now impoverished by the confiscation of his property by the federal government. In 1868 and 1869 Fayette County made him a representative in the state legislature. His only other political activities were recorded in his attendance as a delegate at the Democratic national conventions in 1868 and in 1880.
Achievements
Politics
On the break-up of the Whig party, Preston joined the Democrats and was strenuously opposing his former associates. In 1856, as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention at Cincinnati, he supported the candidacy of James Buchanan.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"Preston was one of Kentucky's leading citizens on the antebellum era and was a prominent member of the Confederate military and government." - Civil War Book Review
Connections
William married in 1840 Margaret Wickliffe, the daughter of Robert Wickliffe of Lexington, who bore him one son and five daughters.