Edward Bates

U. S. Attorney General, March 1861 - November 1864

Born: September 4, 1793, Belmont, Goochland County, Virginia.

• Attended Charlotte Hall Academy, Maryland.
  
• Sergeant in a volunteer brigade during the War of 1812.
  
• Moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1814.
  
• Studied law, was admitted to the bar, 1817, and practiced law.
  
• Circuit prosecuting attorney in 1818.
  
• Member of the Missouri State constitutional convention, 1820.
  
• Missouri State's Attorney, 1820.
  
• Member of the Missouri State House of Representatives, 1822.
  
• U. S. District Attorney, 1821-1826.
  
• Elected as an Adams Anti-Democrat from Missouri to the Twentieth U. S. Congress, March 4, 1827 - March 3, 1829.
  
• Unsuccessful candidate for re-election, 1828, to the Twenty-first U. S. Congress.
  
• Resumed the practice of law.
  
• Member of the Missouri State Senate, 1830.
  
• Again a member of the Missouri State House of Representatives, 1834.
  
• Declined the appointinent as U. S. Secretary of War, 1850, in the Cabinet of President Fillmore.
  
• Judge of the St. Louis, Missouri, Land Court, 1853-1856.
  
• Presided at the Whig National Convention at Baltimore, Maryland, 1856.
  
• Appointed by U. S. President Lincoln as Attorney General of the United States, serving from March 5, 1861 - September 1864.

Died: March 25, 1869, St. Louis, Missouri.
Buried: Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri.

(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)