Edward A. Perry
Confederate Army general, lawyer and judge (1831–1889); Governor of Florida 1885–1889

Edward Aylesworth Perry (March 15, 1831 – October 15, 1889) was a Confederate general who was primarily known for serving under Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War and also later became the 14th Governor of Florida.
Early life
He was a descendant of Arthur Perry, one of the earliest settlers of New England. His parents were farmers, Asa and Philura Perry, and he was the fourth of five children.
Born in Richmond, Massachusetts, Perry briefly attended Yale University before moving to Greenville, Alabama in 1853. In Alabama, he taught and studied law with Hilary Herbert, who later served as a colonel in the Confederate States Army, a U.S. congressman from Alabama, and Secretary of the Navy under President Grover Cleveland. Perry soon moved to Pensacola, Florida, and passed the bar exam. He served as a judge for Escambia County, Florida, from 1857 through 1861. He married Wathen Virginia Taylor of Greenville, Alabama, on February 1, 1859, the daughter of Hubbard Bonner Taylor and Marjorie Catherine Herbert Taylor, and a granddaughter of Dr. Hilary Herbert, one of the earliest settlers of Butler County, Alabama. Mrs.
“Edward A. Perry” enters the record as confederate Army general, lawyer and judge (1831–1889); Governor of Florida 1885–1889. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Edward, Perry and Confederate can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Edward A. Perry” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Edward, Perry and Confederate provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q362723. VIAF identifies the subject as 952156919246454970004. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1831, 1889, 1853 and 1857.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Edward A. Perry”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Edward A. Perry primary sources, Edward A. Perry archive and Edward research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Edward A. Perry”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Edward A. Perry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.