Lester, William W.

From Mississippi, Lester lived in Washington, DC at different times, serving as acting chief clerk of the Department of the Interior in 1849 and clerk in 1858. In 1861, he was acting chief clerk of the Department of the Interior, before leaving to serve the Confederate government as chief clerk of the Treasury Department and later chief clerk of the Patent Office.

"Apportionment of Clerks and Messengers in the Government Departments," 17 May 1858, Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives, Made during the First Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress (Washington, DC: James B. Steedman, 1858), 12; Kenneth W. Munden and Henry Putney Beers, Guide to Federal Archives relating to the Civil War (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1962), 501; Henry Putney Beers, Guide to the Archives of the Government of the Confederate States of America (Washington, DC: National Archives, 1968), 108, 402.