Albert Rust

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American politician

title: "Albert Rust" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1810s-births", "1870-deaths", "19th-century-american-lawyers", "19th-century-owners-of-plantations-in-the-united-states", "19th-century-members-of-the-arkansas-general-assembly", "19th-century-united-states-representatives", "3d-arkansas-infantry-regiment-(confederate-states)", "american-civil-war-prisoners-of-war", "american-lawyers-admitted-to-the-practice-of-law-by-reading-law", "american-surveyors", "arkansas-lawyers", "confederate-states-army-brigadier-generals", "deaths-from-brain-abscess", "democratic-party-united-states-representatives-from-arkansas", "deputies-and-delegates-to-the-provisional-congress-of-the-confederate-states", "united-states-representatives-who-owned-slaves", "military-personnel-from-arkansas", "people-from-desha-county,-arkansas", "people-from-fauquier-county,-virginia", "people-from-union-county,-arkansas", "people-of-arkansas-in-the-american-civil-war", "people-pardoned-by-andrew-johnson", "speakers-of-the-arkansas-house-of-representatives"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Rust" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Albert Rust
image	Albert Rust (Arkansas Congressman).jpg
office	Delegate from Arkansas
to the [Provisional Congress
of the Confederate States](provisional-congress-of-the-confederate-states)
alongside
term_start	May 18, 1861
term_end	February 17, 1862
predecessor	New constituency
successor	Constituency abolished
office2	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas's 2nd District
term_start2	March 4, 1859
term_end2	March 3, 1861
predecessor2	Edward A. Warren
successor2	None (1861–1868)
James M. Hinds (Jun.–Oct. 1868)
term_start3	March 4, 1855
term_end3	March 3, 1857
predecessor3	Edward A. Warren
successor3	Edward A. Warren
office4	Member of the
Arkansas House of Representatives
from Union County
alongside4
term_start4	November 1, 1852
term_end4	November 6, 1854
predecessor4
successor4
office6	Member of the
Arkansas House of Representatives
from Union County
term_start6	November 7, 1842
term_end6	November 4, 1848
predecessor6	Hiram Smith
successor6
order5	7th
office5	Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives
governor5	Thomas S. Drew
term_start5	November 2, 1846
term_end5	November 4, 1848
predecessor5	John S. Roane
successor5	Edward A. Warren
birth_date
birth_place	Fauquier County, Virginia, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Pulaski County, Arkansas, U.S.
death_cause	Brain abscess
party	Democratic
relatives	Dr. George W. Rust (brother)
allegiance	Confederate States
branch	Confederate States Army
branch_label	Branch
rank	Brigadier-General
serviceyears	1861–1865
commands
battles
battles_label	Battles
::

American Civil War
- Battle of Cheat Mountain
- Battle of Hancock
- Action at Hill's Plantation
- Battle of Corinth | battles_label = Battles Albert Rust (April 4, 1870) was an American politician and slaveholder, who served as a delegate from Arkansas to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1862. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representative from (1859–1861). He also served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War.

Early life and career

Albert Rust was born circa 1818 in Fauquier County, Virginia, to William Rust and his wife Elizabeth; his exact birth date is not known. He was admitted to the bar in 1836 and the following year moved from Virginia to Arkansas, settling in Union County, Arkansas. He bought land and a store near the river in 1837. By 1838, he held the U.S. government contract to survey land in the new state. In 1839, the county seat was moved present day Champagnolle. His storehouse there, the only suitable building, became the courthouse.

Rust then read law and was admitted to the Arkansas bar. In 1842, he won a seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives, where he was re-elected twice, and also elected 1852–1854. He ran in a special election for an open congressional seat in 1846. He won fourteen counties, yet got only third place. In 1852 he was elected Speaker Pro-Tempore of the Arkansas House of Representatives, a very powerful position. Two years later. Democrats nominated him for United States Congress. He won the general election and went to Washington, D.C.

In 1856, Rust drew public attention for his efforts to oppose Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts, who appeared likely to become Speaker of the House. Banks opposed further extension of slave territory, unlike Rust and his constituents. Rust introduced a resolution inviting all current candidates for the Speakership to withdraw from the contest, which New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley attacked as a deceptive effort to force Banks out of the race. After the Tribune reached Washington, Rust accosted Greeley on the Capitol grounds, hitting him on the head, and later striking him with a heavy cane. According to longtime journalist Benjamin Perley Poore, Rust, at his arraignment in court, "appeared to glory in what he had done," after which Greeley's "more stalwart friends took care that he should not be unaccompanied by a defender when he appeared in public."

Rust showed little interest other than in military matters. He was not renominated; Edward A. Warren succeeded him. After working to regain his political reputation, Rust once again won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1858. His interest in military affairs continued in his second term. A supporter of Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 Presidential election and strong advocate for Union, Rust shifted his position after Lincoln's call for troops. In May 1861 Arkansas seceded from the Union, and he was named a delegate to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States.

American Civil War

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/3rd_Arkansas,_Army_of_Northern_Virginia_Flag.jpg" caption="Third Arkansas]] (1862–1863)"] ::

Returning to Arkansas, Rust received a commission as colonel on July 5, 1861, and assisted Van H. Manning in recruiting and organizing the 3d Arkansas Infantry Regiment. The Third Arkansas would become Arkansas's most celebrated Civil War regiment and the only Arkansas regiment to be permanently assigned to General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. In the fall of 1861, Rust and the Third Arkansas traveled to Western Virginia and took part in the Battle of Cheat Mountain under Lee. During that winter, he and the regiment were under the command of General Stonewall Jackson. They would go on to serve in almost every major battle fought in the east, including the Battle of Gettysburg, although mostly after Rust's promotion and transfer from the regiment.

On March 4, 1862, Rust was promoted to brigadier-general and transferred back to Arkansas, where he was assigned to Lieutenant-General Earl Van Dorn's Army of the West. He led troops at the Battle of Hill's Plantation in July 1862. After the Battle of Pea Ridge, most Confederate States forces were removed from Arkansas and transferred east of the Mississippi River.

Rust fought at the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi in October. In April 1863, he was once again transferred back to Arkansas and placed under Major-General Sterling Price in the Trans-Mississippi Department. He later served under Major-Generals Thomas C. Hindman in Arkansas and John Pemberton and Richard Taylor in Louisiana. After his active military service, he moved to Austin, Texas to reunite with his family, who had abandoned their home in Arkansas during the Federal occupation and spent considerable time with his brother Dr. George W. Rust in Virginia.

Later life and death

After the war Rust moved from his home in El Dorado, Arkansas, across the Arkansas River from Little Rock. He returned to Washington as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and was even a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1869 before Congressional Reconstruction began and former Confederates were forbidden to hold elective office and he withdrew himself from candidacy. On April 3, 1870, he died in Pulaski County, Arkansas, from a brain abscess, while his wife and children were away visiting family in Virginia. His burial place is the subject of some dispute. Contemporary accounts state that he was buried at the historic Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock; his old Congressional biography reports his "interment in the Old Methodist Cemetery." A new Congressional Biography reports he is buried in the Oakland and Fraternal Cemetery at Little Rock.

Personal life

Rust married Jane Carrington (1824-1847) of Charlotte County, Virginia, on April 17, 1844, but she soon died, and was buried in Hervey Cemetery in Hempstead County, Arkansas. He then married Anne Bouldin Cabell, and at least three of their children (raised in Virginia during the American Civil War) would survive to adulthood: Julia Rust Tutwiler (1854-1923), Breckenridge Cabell Rust (1855-1892) and author Pauline Carrington Rust Bouve (1860-1928).

References

(20 January 2022). "More than 1,700 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation.". [[Washington Post]].
McPheeters, William M.. (2005). "I Acted From Principle: The Civil War Diary Of Dr. William M. Mcpheeters, Confederate Surgeon In The Trans-Mississippi". [[University of Arkansas Press]].
Bridges, Kenneth. (April 18, 2017). "Albert Rust (1818–1870)". [[Central Arkansas Library System.
Glyndon G. Van Deusen, ''Horace Greeley: Nineteenth-Century Crusader'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1953), 201.
[https://archive.org/details/perleysreminisce00poor/page/n464/mode/1up?view=theater Poore, Ben. Perley, ''Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis'', Vol.1, p.455 (1886)].
(1899). "Confederate Military History: A Library of Confederate States History". Confederate Publishing.
Eicher, David J.. (2001). "The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War". Simon & Schuster.
[https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=R000544 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774-present]
[https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/R000544 Congressional Biography Albert Rust 2023]

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