Elijah Webb CHASTAIN, Congress, GA (1813-1874)
CHASTAIN, Elijah Webb, a Representative from Georgia; born near Pickens, Pickens County, S.C., September 25, 1813; moved with his parents to Habersham, Ga., in 1821; attended the common schools; served as captain and colonel in the Seminole Indian War; located on a farm in Union County, Ga.; served in the State senate 1840-1850; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1849 and practiced in Blairsville, Union County, Ga.; elected as a Unionist to the Thirty-second Congress and as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress (March 4, 1851-March 3, 1855); chairman, Committee on Militia (Thirty-third Congress); delegate to the secession convention at Milledgeville, Ga., in 1860; during the Civil War served in the Confederate Army as lieutenant colonel of the First Georgia Regiment; Stateâs attorney for the Western & Atlantic Railroad in 1860 and 1861; died near Dalton, Murray County, Ga., April 9, 1874; interment in the family cemetery near Morganton, Fannin County, Ga.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
