Edmund Pettus

Edmund Winston Pettus (July 6, 1821 - 1907), for whom the civil rights landmark Edmund Pettus Bridge was named, was born in Alabama. He earned his fame as a Confederate brigadier general. Pettus was a lawyer and judge and served throughout the western theater during the Civil War. He resumed his law practice after the war and went on to serve in the U.S. Senate. Pettus died while in his second term in Congress. The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, became a civil rights landmark when on March 7, 1965, a band of civil rights marchers on their way to Montgomery crossed the bridge, only to be attacked by state troopers on the other side.