Appendix E: Biographies

Robertson

William Robertson (2 April 1819 – 17 February 1890) was born in Blount County, Tennessee, and appointed from that state to the United States Military Academy, which he attended from 1 July 1835 to 1 July 1840, when he graduated and was promoted in the Army to brevet second lieutenant, Second Dragoons. He served at the Cavalry School for Practice in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1840 – July 1841. He became a second lieutenant, Second Dragoons, on 1 February 1841. He served in the Florida War against the Seminole Indians from July 1841 – October 1842, and in garrison at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from October 1842 – July 1843, when he resigned from the Army (10 July 1843).1 “Since which time,” he wrote to Cullum, “I have been living at this place [New Iberia, LA] and engaged mostly in agricultural pursuits.”2 On 16 May 1844, he married Eliza Ann Marsh (Petit Anse Island, LA 20 September 1825 – New Iberia, LA 9 October 1878).3

In London, England, on 15 July 1844, Robertson was issued a passport by the American Embassy with New York indicated as his place of residence, “Diploma West Point” as the voucher for his identity, and Russia as his destination.4 Anna Whistler’s diary entry for Tuesday, 20 August 1844, indicates that Robertson visited them once, on the Peterhof Road, early in the morning “last week,” i.e., between Monday, 12 August and Friday, 16 August, and had breakfast with them. He left Russia on Saturday, 5/17 August, for England and the United States. However, on 31 August 1844, at the American Embassy in London, he was issued Passport 1269 for travel to Egypt through Prussia and Austria.5 I have not been able to ascertain why Robertson was in Europe and Russia. From Eliza Robertson’s diary/scrapbook (1849–1856), however, it appears that her husband “travelled often, leaving [her] at home with the servants and children.”6 In fact, he took a trip two months after his marriage. He may have been a special agent working for the U.S. government.

After their marriage in 1844, the Robertsons lived for two years in Bolivar, Tennessee, and then moved permanently to New Iberia.7 They had four children, born between 1845 and 1864, the last of whom died in 1943.8

For more than forty years, Robertson ran the Robertson Insurance Agency.9 He was mayor of New Iberia in 186010 and a prominent citizen.11 Little information can be found in Eliza Robertson’s diary about her husband’s business interests, but “entries in 1855 indicate that William Robertson was a member of the ‘know-nothings,’ and attended meetings of this secret society.”12

Notes