Crawford, George W.

Born: 1798-12-22 Columbia County, Georgia

Died: 1872-07-27 Richmond County, Georgia

George W. Crawford graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1820 before studying law in Augusta. He was admitted to the bar in 1822 and appointed attorney general of Georgia in 1827. A Whig, he served in the Georgia state legislature between 1837 and 1842 before winning a seat in the U. S. House of Representatives in 1843. That same year, Crawford began his two terms as governor of Georgia (he only served in Congress for three months). In 1849, Zachary Taylor appointed him secretary of war and Crawford served in that capacity until the mass cabinet resignation following Taylor's death in 1850. Crawford presided over Georgia's secession convention in 1861, after which he retired from public life. He died on his plantation in Richmond County.

"Crawford, George W.," James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, Appleton’s Cyclopædia of American Biography (New York: D. Appleton, 1888), 2:4; Lee Gibson Cleveland, "George W. Crawford of Georgia, 1798-1872" (Ph. D. diss., University of Georgia, 1974).