EDWARD R. ROBERTS, Circuit Clerk, was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, in 1843; came to Springfield in 1857, with his parents, which has been his home since, save while he was in the army. Upon the inauguration of the civil war, he enlisted in April, 1861, as a private in Company I, Seventh Illinois Infantry; received several promotions; was made First Lieutenant at the battle of Fort Donelson, and in 1864, became Captain of Company C. At the expiration of his first term of enlistment he veteranized; was brevetted Lieutenant colonel of United States Volunteers, March 3, 1865, and was mustered out in July of that year. On March 7, 1864, Captain Roberts was captured at Florence, Alabama, and was in prison at Macon, Georgia, Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, and Mobile, Alabama. On the 26th of November, 1864, he escaped from Columbia prison, and reached General Sherman's lines, about the middle of Georgia, December 5th following. At the battle of Corinth, Mississippi, October 4, 1862, he was wounded by a gunshot in his right hand, resulting in the loss of the index finger and stiffening the next one. After returning from the army, Colonel Roberts was clerk in the Adjutant General's office for a time. In 1868, he was elected City Comptroller, and three times re-elected, filling that office four consecutive terms. He was then made Superintendent of the Capital Coal Company for two years, at the end of which he became the bookkeeper at the rolling mills store, and held that position until elected Circuit Clerk, in 1879, for four years, by a majority of one thousand four hundred, leading all other candidates on the Democratic ticket. Mr. Roberts is a Mason, a member of St. Paul Lodge No. 500, Springfield Chapter No. 1, and Elwood Commandery No. 6, is Captain General of the latter.