Robert Desha

Robert Desha (January 14, 1791 – February 6, 1849) was an American politician who represented Tennessee's 5th Congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.

Biography

Desha was born near Gallatin, Tennessee on January 14, 1791, to Robert Desha and Elinor Wheeler. He attended the public schools and engaged in mercantile business at Gallatin.

On March 12, 1812, Desha was appointed as a captain in the Twenty-fourth Regiment of the United States Infantry in the War of 1812. He also served as a brevet major before being honorably discharged on June 15, 1815. He married Eleanor Shelby in 1816. They had two daughters, Caroline and Phoebe Ann. Through his daughter Phoebe, he is an ancestor of Alva Erskine Smith, Consuelo Vanderbilt, and the 10th, 11th and 12th Dukes of Marlborough.

Elected as a Jacksonian to the Twentieth and Twenty-first Congresses, Desha served from March 4, 1827 to March 3, 1831. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1830 for the Twenty-second Congress, moved to Mobile, Alabama and continued to engage in mercantile pursuits there.

Desha died on February 6, 1849 (age 58 years, 33 days). He was interred in Magnolia Cemetery. He was the brother of U.S. Representative and Kentucky governor Joseph Desha.