Preston, William Ballard

Life Span
to
    Full name
    William Ballard Preston
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    South
    Origins
    Slave State
    No. of Spouses
    1
    Family
    Lucinda Redd (wife)
    Education
    University of Virginia
    Other
    Other Education
    Hampden-Sydney College
    Occupation
    Politician
    Attorney or Judge
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Whig
    Government
    Taylor Administration (1849-50)
    Confederate government (1861-65)
    US House of Representatives
    State legislature

    William Ballard Preston (Congressional Biographical Dictionary)

    Reference
    PRESTON, William Ballard (nephew of Francis Preston), a Representative from Virginia; born in Smithfield, Va., November 25, 1805; graduated from Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, Va., 1824; studied law and graduated from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in 1826; member of the Virginia state house of delegates, 1830-1832, 1844-1845; member of the Virginia state senate, 1840-1844; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1849); appointed Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Zachary Taylor and served from March 8, 1849, to July 22, 1850; delegate to the Virginia state constitutional convention, 1861; served in the Confederate States Congress; died in Smithfield, Va., on November 16, 1862; interment in Preston Cemetery on the former Smithfield Plantation, Blacksburg, Va.
    “Preston, William Ballard,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000518.
    How to Cite This Page: "Preston, William Ballard," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/6431.