Edwards, James L.

Born: 1786-XX-XX Virginia

Died: 1867-09-18 Washington, D.C.

James L. Edwards enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1814 and retired as a lieutenant in 1816. He served as a clerk in the War Department as early as 1818 and was appointed first commissioner of pensions by Andrew Jackson in 1833. He remained in that office until 1850. During that time, he lived in Georgetown and Washington, DC. He was a Mason and a member of the Episcopal Church. In 1850, he and his wife, Ann, owned $13,500 in real property. By 1860, Edwards had amassed $13,000 in real property, with a personal estate of $20,500.

James T. McIntosh, ed., The Papers of Jefferson Davis: June 1841 - July 1846 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1974), 2:417; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 1, Washington, DC, 61; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 1, Washington, DC, 196; Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, DC), 20 September 1867, 3:4.