Elijah Webb Chastain

Elijah Webb Chastain (September 25, 1813 – April 9, 1874) was an American politician, soldier, and lawyer who represented Georgia in the United States House of Representatives. He was born near Pickens, South Carolina, on September 25, 1813. In 1821 his family moved to Habersham County, Georgia, where he was raised on the expanding frontier of the state. Details of his early formal education are not extensively documented, but his later professional career indicates that he pursued legal studies and military service that prepared him for public life.

Chastain’s early adulthood was marked by military involvement during the Seminole Wars, in which he served first as a captain and later attained the rank of colonel. This experience contributed to his reputation as a soldier and helped establish his standing in Georgia public affairs. After reading law, he was admitted to the Georgia state bar in 1849. Following his admission to practice, he established a law practice in Blairsville, Georgia, where he built a career as a lawyer and became increasingly active in local and state politics.

By the early 1850s, Chastain had emerged as a significant political figure. Initially aligned with the Unionist faction in Georgia, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Unionist to represent Georgia’s 5th congressional district in the Thirty-second Congress. He subsequently won reelection as a Democrat to the Thirty-third Congress. As a member of the Democratic Party representing Georgia, Elijah Webb Chastain contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a period of growing sectional tension in the United States. His service in Congress extended from March 4, 1851, to March 3, 1855, a significant period in American history that included debates over slavery, states’ rights, and the future of the Union.

After leaving Congress, Chastain continued his legal and public service career in Georgia. By 1860 he had become Georgia’s attorney for the Western and Atlantic Railroad, a major state-owned line that was economically and strategically important on the eve of the Civil War. He held this position in 1860 and 1861, providing legal counsel to the railroad at a time when the state was moving rapidly toward secession. Around this period, he moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, then the state capital, further embedding himself in the political and legal life of Georgia.

Chastain played a direct role in the secession crisis. In 1861 he served as a delegate to the Georgia secession convention in Milledgeville, which adopted the Georgia Ordinance of Secession and formally withdrew the state from the Union. Listed among the signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession, he aligned himself with the Confederate cause as the nation descended into civil war. During the American Civil War, he served as a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate States Army, attached to the First Georgia Regiment. His wartime service, combined with his earlier experience in the Seminole Wars, underscored his long-standing identity as a soldier as well as a public official.

In the postwar years, Chastain appears to have resumed private life in Georgia, returning to his legal and agricultural interests as the state underwent Reconstruction and political realignment. He remained a figure associated with Georgia’s antebellum and Civil War-era leadership until his death. Elijah Webb Chastain died near Dalton, Georgia, on April 9, 1874. He was buried in his family cemetery near Morganton, Georgia, closing a life that spanned the early national period, the rise of sectional conflict, and the upheaval of the Civil War.