Edward White ROBERTSON, Congress, LA (1823-1887)

ROBERTSON, Edward White, (father of Samuel Matthews Robertson), a Representative from Louisiana; born near Nashville, Davidson County, Tenn., on June 13, 1823; moved with his parents to Iberville Parish, La., in 1825; attended the country schools and the preparatory department of Centenary College, Jackson, La.; attended Augusta College, Kentucky, in 1842; entered Nashville (Tenn.) University and commenced the study of law in 1845; served in the War with Mexico in 1846 as orderly sergeant in the Second Regiment, Louisiana Volunteers; member of the State house of representatives 1847-1849; was graduated from the law department of the University of Louisiana in 1850; was admitted to the bar the same year and practiced in Iberville and East Baton Rouge Parishes; again elected to the State house of representatives in 1853; State auditor of public accounts 1857-1862; entered the Confederate service in March 1862 as captain of a company which he had raised for the Twenty-seventh Regiment, Louisiana Infantry; resumed the practice of law in Baton Rouge; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, and Forty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1883); chairman, Committee on the Mississippi Levees (Forty-fifth Congress), Committee on Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River (Forty-sixth Congress); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress; elected to the Fiftieth Congress and served from March 4, 1887, until his death in Baton Rouge, La., on August 2, 1887, before the Congress assembled; interment in Magnolia Cemetery.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present