Robert Porter Caldwell

"For the Missionary Bishop of South India, see Robert Caldwell"

Robert Porter Caldwell was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for the 7th congressional district of Tennessee. He was born in Adair County, Kentucky on December 16, 1821. He moved with his parents to Henry County, Tennessee and a few years later moved to Obion County. He attended the public schools of Troy and Lebanon, studied law at Troy, was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Trenton in 1845.

Robert Caldwell served in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1847 and 1848. He was a member of the Tennessee Senate in 1855 and 1856. He was elected attorney general for the sixteenth judicial circuit of Tennessee in 1858. During the Civil War, he was a major in the Twelfth Regiment, Tennessee Infantry, of the Confederate Army. He was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-second Congress, but was not a successful candidate for re-election to the Forty-third Congress. He served from March 4, 1871 to March 3, 1873. He resumed the practice of law in Trenton, Tennessee. He died in Trenton on March 12, 1885. He was interred in Oakland Cemetery.