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Edward Sparrow

American politician (1810-1882)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ1293703
Source-derived summary

Edward Sparrow (December 29, 1810 – July 4, 1882) was an American politician who served as a Confederate States Senator from Louisiana from 1862 to 1865.

Biography

Sparrow was born in Dublin, Ireland. He married Minerva Parker of Natchez, served as sheriff of Concordia Parish, Louisiana, and during the Mexican War he raised a company of soldiers. In 1834 he began making land purchases from the federal government very near the Mississippi River across from Natchez with Edward Whittelsey. He represented Louisiana in the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1862. Sparrow was educated at Kenyon College and trained in the law, being admitted to the Ohio bar. He was a Senator from Louisiana in both the First and the Second Confederate States congresses, serving from 1862 to 1865. He was one of just eight men to be members of the Confederate Congress from its beginning to its end. For the entire war he was chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs.

He was the wealthiest man in the Confederate Government and one of the wealthiest in the entire South.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Edward Sparrow” as american politician (1810-1882). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Edward, Sparrow and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1810, 1882, 1862, 1865—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1810-12-29. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Edward, Sparrow and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Edward Sparrow”, the useful work is to connect “american politician (1810-1882)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1293703. VIAF identifies the subject as 63400640. The Library of Congress control number is n2004063237. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1810, 1882, 1862 and 1865.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. 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.

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  • Building a first chronology
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Edward Sparrow”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Edward Sparrow primary sources, Edward Sparrow archive and Edward research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Edward Sparrow” 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.