Albert Rust (c. 1818 – April 4, 1870) was an American politician and slaveholder,[1] who served as a delegate from Arkansas to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1862.

He also served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War.

After Congress adjourned, on the day the Tribune reached Washington, Rust accosted Greeley on the Capitol grounds and felled him with his cane.

A supporter of Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 Presidential election and strong advocate for Union, Rust shifted his position after Lincoln's call for troops.

[6] On March 4, 1862, Rust was promoted to brigadier-general and transferred back to Arkansas, where he was assigned to Lieutenant-General Earl Van Dorn's Army of the West.

After the Battle of Pea Ridge, most Confederate States forces were removed from Arkansas and transferred east of the Mississippi River.

[6] After his active military service, he moved to Austin, Texas to reunite with his family, who had abandoned their home in Arkansas during the Federal occupation and spent considerable time with his brother Dr. George W. Rust in Virginia.

He returned to Washington as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and was even a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1869 before Congressional Reconstruction began and former Confederates were forbidden to hold elective office and he withdrew himself from candidacy.

On April 3, 1870, he died in Pulaski County, Arkansas, from a brain abscess, while his wife and children were away visiting family in Virginia.