Albert Rust

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For the French football (soccer) player, see Albert Rust (footballer).

Albert Rust

Albert Rust (1818–1870) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Arkansas and a Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Albert Rust was born in 1818 in Fauquier County, Virginia. He moved to Union County, Arkansas, around 1837 and studied law there. Rust was admitted to the bar and won election to the Arkansas House of Representatives where he served from 1842 to 1848, and then again from 1852 to 1854. Rust was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1854. He was defeated for reelection in 1856, but regained his seat in 1858. He served until March 3, 1861, when he resigned his seat.

Returning to Arkansas he recruited the 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment and was elected colonel of that unit. The 3rd Arkansas would become Arkansas's most famous 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. In addition to his military duties, Rust was a delegate to the Confederate Congress from Arkansas during 1861 and 1862.

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 Battle of Corinth. In April of 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.

After the war Rust moved from his home in El Dorado, Arkansas across the Arkansas River from Little Rock.

Albert Rust died on April 4, 1870, near Little Rock. 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. A memorial marker to General Rust is located in the Confederate section of the Little Rock National Cemetery.