BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Charles E. Nash
Charles Edmund Nash | |
---|---|
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 6th district | |
In office March 4, 1875 - March 3, 1877 | |
Preceded by | District created |
Succeeded by | Edward White Robertson |
Personal details | |
Born | May 23, 1844 Opelousas, Louisiana |
Died | June 21, 1913 (aged 69) New Orleans, Louisiana |
Political party | Republican |
Charles Edmund Nash (May 23, 1844 – June 21, 1913) served a single two-year term in the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana.
He was Louisiana's first African American Congressman and would remain the state's only black U.S. Representative for more than a century — until 1991, when William J. Jefferson's tenure in the 2nd Louisiana District began.[1]
Biography
Nash was born in Opelousas (the seat of St. Landry Parish) in south Louisiana. He attended the common schools and was abricklayer by trade. During the American Civil War, he enlisted in 1863 as a private in the Eighty-second Regiment, United States Volunteers, and was promoted to the rank of sergeant major. (This regiment is listed in the U.S. Colored Troops in the Mobile Campaign Union order of battle.) Nash was severely wounded near the end of the war, at the Battle of Fort Blakely in Alabama, April 1865; he lost part of his leg.[2]
After the war Charles Nash was a businessman and was appointed night inspector of U.S. customs.
Nash was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1877). He was unsuccessful as a candidate for reelection in 1876, as Redeemers regained control of Louisiana politics. He served briefly as postmaster at Washingtonin St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, during the Chester A. Arthur administration, only from February 15 to May 1, 1882.[3]
Charles Edmund Nash died in New Orleans at the age of sixty-nine. He was interred there in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 3.[4]
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