Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States, During Its First Century
By Charles Lanman, 1876
Page 189

He was born in Norwich, Connecticut, October 29, 1816; graduated at Trinity College, Hartford, in 1841; studied law in Connecticut with Governor Isaac Toucey; was admitted to the bar in Virginia in 1842, and during that year commenced the practice of his profession in Petersburg, Menard County, Illinois. In 1845 he was chosen School Commissioner for his county; and in 1846 he raised and commanded a company, and joined the Fourth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, to serve in the war with Mexico; he was afterwards elected Major of the regiment, and owing to the sickness of his superior officers, was chief in command during most of the campaign. He was at the taking of Vera Cruz, and served in the navy battery with a detachment during the day of its terrible fire; was also at Cerro Gordo, and after the wounding of General Shields, took command of the regiment, and was honorably mentioned in government dispatches for placing a twenty-four pounder battering cannon on the heights of Cerro Gordo, during the night preceding the battle. While absent in the army in 1846, he was elected a Senator in the Illinois Legislature, and in 1848 was chosen a Representative in Congress, serving through the Thirty-first and was re-elected to the Thirty-fifty Congress; during his second term he officiated as Chairman of the Committee on Elections. He took a special interest in the election in Illinois when he was re-elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress; and it is supposed that owing to his declining health, the efforts he made to attend the polls were the more immediate cause of his death, which occurred at Springfield, Illinois, November 24, 1858. His disease was pulmonary consumption.

Contributed by Kristin Vaughn