• Born in Maryland
• Studied law and was admitted to the bar in Caroline County, Maryland, 1811
• Admitted to practice before the Louisiana Supreme Court, July 1, 1813
• Private, Captain Peter V. Ogden’s Company of Orleans Dragoons, Battle of New Orleans, 1814-1815
• Married Marie Camille Arnoult, whose family owned sugar plantation Tchoupitoulas, 1818
• Louisiana Secretary of State, 1830–1832
• In 1831, Waggaman defeated Henry Carleton in the election for U.S. Senator from Louisiana. Senator Edward Livingston had resigned his seat to serve as President Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of State. Livingston’s brother-in-law, Henry Carleton, the Jacksonian candidate, lost to Waggaman, a National Republican. An Ohio newspaper noted that Jackson, “the Hero sustained a civil defeat on the very field of his military glory!” He served as United States Senator from Louisiana, 1831–1835
• Louisiana State Senator, Jefferson Parish, 1840–1843
• Senator Waggaman died in New Orleans on March 23, 1843, after receiving fatal injuries in a duel fought with Denis Prieur, a former Mayor of New Orleans and a veteran of the Battle of New Orleans. Prieur was head of the Democratic Party and a supporter of President Andrew Jackson. Waggaman was a Whig. Though initial reports in newspapers indicated the wound was not serious, he eventually had to have his leg amputated - but even that did not stop his death from coming, less than 2 weeks after the duel. The fatal duel between Waggaman and Denis Prieur took place
near Cypress Grove cemetery, located at City Park Avenue and Canal Street.
• Daughter Isabelle Mathilde (c. 1828-1899) married Hon. Henry D. Ogden, Fifth Judicial District Court, son of Captain Peter V. Ogden, October 18, 1847
• Son Eugene (1826-1897) served as colonel of the 10th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry, Confederate Army, during the Civil War and
surrendered the Louisiana troops at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on April 9, 1865
• Waggaman, Louisiana, located in Jefferson Parish, is named for him
• Avondale, Louisiana, located in Jefferson Parish, is named for his plantation
Top left image: Courtesy of U.S. Senate Historical Office.
Top right image: Courtesy of Jefferson Historical Society of Louisiana.
Bottom left image: The Times-Picayune, published as The Daily Picayune, March 11, 1843.
Bottom right image: Norman, Benjamin M. Norman’s New Orleans and Environs. New Orleans 1845: 105.
