Alfred Moore Waddell (16 September 1834 - 17 March 1912) was a Democratic U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1871 and 1879 and later mayor of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Born in Hillsboro, North Carolina, Waddess attened Bingham’s School and Caldwell Institute before enrolling in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1853. He was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1855.

A delegate to the Constitutional Union National Convention in Baltimore in 1860, Waddell entered the newspaper business in North Carolina; he edited the Wilmington Daily Herald in 1860 and 1861. He fought in the American Civil War and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Third Cavalry, Forty-first North Carolina Regiment.

In 1870, Waddell was elected to the 42nd United States Congress ; he was re-elected three times, his final term in Congress serving as the chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. He was defeated for re-election in 1878 and returned to law and the newspaper business in North Carolina, serving as editor of the Charlotte Journal-Observerin 1881 and 1882.

Waddell remained active in politics and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880 and 1896, and in 1898, was elected mayor of Wilmington and and served in that post for six years. Waddell died in Wilmington in 1912.

References