Postbellum Career and Legacy
After the war, Pettus returned to Alabama and resumed his law practice in Selma. On March 4, 1897, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and was re-elected in 1903. Pettus was serving this term when he died at Hot Springs, North Carolina, in the summer of 1907. His body was brought back to Alabama and was buried in Live Oak Cemetery located in Selma.
Pettus has been described by military historian Ezra J. Warner as "a fearless and dogged fighter and distinguished himself on many fields in the western theater of war." and after his promotion to a general officer "he followed with conspicuous bravery every forlorn hope which the Confederacy offered..." Likewise historian Jon L. Wakelyn summed up his military career by saying "..he volunteered for service in the Confederate Army and distinguished himself in the western command."
As a U.S. Senator, Pettus was "the last of the Confederate brigadiers to sit in the upper house of the national Congress."
The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma 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. This event has since been called Bloody Sunday.
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