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.