Albert Rust Albert Rust ( 1818 – April 4 , 1870 ) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas , and a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress . He is also known for being a Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Early life and political career . Albert Rust was born in 1818 in Fauquier County , Virginia ; his exact birth date is not known . In 1837 , he moved from Virginia to Arkansas , settling in Union County , Arkansas . After arriving he bought land and a store near the river . He was admitted to the bar in 1836 and , by 1838 , was contracted by the U . S . government to survey land in the new state . In 1839 , the county seat was moved present day Champagnolle after 1839 . As Rust owned the only building suitable , it was decided that his storehouse would be used for the courthouse . He then started studying law and was admitted to the bar . In 1842 , Rust won a seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives , one of four that he would serve . Rust ran in a special election for an open congressional seat in 1846 . He won fourteen counties , yet got only third place . In 1852 he was elected Speaker Pro - Tempore of the Arkansas House of Representatives a very powerful position . Then two years later Rust was nominated by the Democrats for United States Congress . He won the general election and went to Washington , D . C . . In 1856 , Rust became the center of attention in his efforts to make a compromise over the election of a new speaker . The single candidate who was shown as the most possible favored was Nathaniel P . Banks of Massachusetts . Banks was well known for his opposition to the further extension of slave territory . According the Rust family history , while writing for the " New York Tribune " , newspaperman Horace Greeley quickly “ characterized Rust ’ s resolution as an attempt to make it appear that the contest over the speakership was one of personal rivalries among the candidates and not of principles , and its true purpose to ride the opposition of the powerful candidate , Banks . After the adjournment of Congress on the day The Tribune reached Washington , Rust accosted Greeley on the Capitol grounds and felled him with his cane . ” A few days later , Rust struck Greeley again on the streets of Washington . Rust began to show little interest in many things other than military matters . He was not renominated and his seat was taken by Edward A . Warren . After working to gain his political future back Rust once again one a seat in the House of Representatives in 1858 . Rust continued his interest in military affairs in his second term . A supporter of Stephen A . Douglas in the 1860 Presidential election and strong advocate for Union , Rust shifted his position after Lincoln ’ s call for troops . In May 1861 Arkansas seceded from the Union , and Rust was named a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress . When elections for the Confederate Congress were held later in 1861 , Rust resigned from his post . Civil War service . Returning to Arkansas , Rust assisted Van H . Manning in the organization of the 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment , and was appointed colonel of that unit . The 3rd Arkansas would become Arkansas ' s most celebrated Civil War regiment and the only Arkansas regiment to be permanently assigned to General Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . In the fall of 1861 , Rust and the 3rd Arkansas took part in the Battle of Cheat Mountain under Lee . During the winter of that year he and the regiment were under the command of General Stonewall Jackson . They would go on to serve in almost every major battle fought in the east , including the Battle of Gettysburg , most occurring after Rust was transferred from the regiment . Rust was raised to the rank of brigadier general on March 4 , 1862 , and was transferred back to Arkansas , where he was assigned to General Earl Van Dorn ' s Army of the West . Rust led Confederate troops at the Battle of Hill ' s Plantation in July 1862 . After the Battle of Pea Ridge , most Confederate forces were removed from Arkansas and transferred east of the Mississippi River . Rust fought at the Battle of Shiloh and the Second Battle of Corinth . In April 1863 , Rust was once again transferred back to Arkansas and placed under Maj . Gen . Sterling Price . He later served under General Thomas C . Hindman in Arkansas and General John Pemberton and Richard Taylor in Louisiana . Rust eventually lost his command based upon questions regarding his loyalty to the Confederate cause . Giving up active military service , he moved to Austin , Texas to be with his family , who had abandoned their home in Arkansas , during the Federal occupation of the place . According to a biographical sketch of Gen . Rust , near the end of the war he became quite outspoken and bold critic of the Confederate government , regularly expressing Unionist sentiments . After the war . After the war Rust moved from his home in El Dorado , Arkansas across the Arkansas River from Little Rock . He returned to Washington as a member of the US House of Representatives and was even a Republican candidate for the US Senate in 1869 before he withdrew himself from candidacy . On 3 April 1870 , Rust died near Little Rock , Arkansas of an inflammation of the brain , while his wife and children were away visiting family in Virginia . His burial place is the subject of some dispute . Contemporary accounts state that he was buried at the historic Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock , but other accounts indicate that he was buried in an unmarked grave next to the Confederate monument in Oakland Cemetery . His Congressional biography states that he is buried in " Old Methodist Cemetery . " A memorial marker to General Rust is located in the Confederate section of the Little Rock National Cemetery .