Edward W. Gantt

Edward W. Gantt (1829 – June 10, 1874) was an American politician and Confederate soldier who defected to the Union in the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, he was an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau.

Born in Maury County, Tennessee, in 1829, Gantt was a delegate to the 1850 Nashville Convention, which considered secession. Later in the decade, he moved to Arkansas, which he felt allowed him more opportunities to gain prominence. He spread secessionist rhetoric after the 1860 United States presidential election, at which he had been elected to the United States House of Representatives but did not take his seat. After the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Gantt became the colonel of the 12th Arkansas Infantry Regiment. He was wounded in an artillery duel while his regiment was in reserve at the Battle of Belmont, and in April 1862 was captured when the Confederate defenses of Island Number Ten fell.

Imprisoned at Fort Warren for several months, Gantt returned to Arkansas but failed to receive another command appointment amid rumors of alcoholism and womanizing. He defected to the Union in 1863, becoming an opponent of slavery, secession, and the Confederacy. From late 1865 to 1866, he was an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in southwest Arkansas. After moving to Little Rock, he was a regional prosecuting attorney from 1868 until he resigned in 1870. At the time of his death in 1874, Gantt was working on a compilation of Arkansas state law.