Robert Eden Scott

Robert Eden Scott (April 23, 1808 – May 3, 1862) was a prominent Virginia lawyer and politician. Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, Scott survived three wives. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates 1835–1842 and 1845–1852. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1850–1851. He also represented the state in the Provisional Confederate Congress from 1861 to 1862. Scott is mentioned prominently in the autobiography of noted abolitionist Moncure D. Conway (1904). Conway recalls Scott's pre-Civil War political orientation, "The Hon. Robert E. Scott charmed me by his fine personality and manners, but he was the leading Whig." Conway admired Scott for opposing the "fire eaters" and for publicly predicting that secession would end in ruin. Despite not personally fighting in the Civil War, Scott was killed by Union deserters when he confronted them for abusing his land. His son R. Taylor Scott, likewise became a Virginia lawyer, serving in the Confederate army during the Civil War and later as Attorney General of Virginia.