Barlow, Francis Channing (19 October 1834–11 January 1896), lawyer and soldier, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of the Reverend David Hatch Barlow, a Unitarian minister, and Almira Penniman, who were divorced in 1849. Barlow was raised by his mother and spent his youth living in Massachusetts. Graduating first in the Harvard class of 1855, Barlow journeyed to New York City, working briefly as a private tutor. In 1856 he undertook the study of law and was admitted to the bar in April 1858....
Article
Barlow, Francis Channing (1834-1896), lawyer and soldier
Robert Garth Scott
Article
Birney, William (1819-1907), soldier, journalist, and lawyer
Edward G. Longacre
Birney, William (28 May 1819–14 August 1907), soldier, journalist, and lawyer, was born in Madison County, Alabama, the son of James Gillespie Birney, a lawyer, state legislator, and abolitionist leader, and Agatha McDowell. In 1818 his family had moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and in late 1835 they relocated to New Richmond, Ohio. Birney was educated at four colleges, including Yale University, and graduated from Cincinnati Law School in 1841. He began practicing law in that city and in 1845 married Catherine Hoffman. They would have nine children. For five years thereafter he resided on the Continent and in England. He contributed essays on the arts to English and American newspapers, and he upheld the activist reputation of his family by opposing French troops as a member of a Republican student battalion in Paris. In 1848 he accepted an appointment as professor of English literature at the lycée in Bourges....
Article
Bloomfield, Joseph (1753-1823), lawyer, soldier, and politician
Hermann K. Platt
Bloomfield, Joseph (18 October 1753–08 October 1823), lawyer, soldier, and politician, was born in Woodbridge, New Jersey, the son of Moses Bloomfield, a physician, and Sarah Ogden. The family was one of the most prominent in colonial New Jersey. His father had received a first-rate medical education in Edinburgh, Scotland, and had a thriving practice in Middlesex County by the time Joseph was born. Joseph’s mother was a member of a wealthy and influential family of Elizabethtown, which further assured Joseph’s upper-class pedigree. His education and choice of occupation were in line with his social standing. While in his early teens, he attended the Reverend Enoch Green’s classical academy in Deerfield, Cumberland County, at the opposite end of the province from Woodbridge. Upon graduation, Bloomfield returned to East Jersey, determined to be a lawyer. He entered the profession at the top, studying in Perth Amboy with Cortlandt Skinner, attorney general of New Jersey, and was admitted to the bar in November 1774. Setting up practice in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, he soon became known and respected in all of New Jersey’s southern counties. The future seemed secure, had not the American Revolution intervened....
Article
Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes (1823-1862), lawyer and Confederate congressman and military officer
Thomas D. Morris
Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes (10 April 1823–13 December 1862), lawyer and Confederate congressman and military officer, was born in Jefferson County, Georgia, the son of John Addison Cobb, a planter, and Sarah Robinson Rootes. His older brother, Howell Cobb—congressman, governor, and secretary of the treasury under ...
Article
Crittenden, Thomas Leonidas (1819-1893), lawyer and soldier
Lowell H. Harrison
Crittenden, Thomas Leonidas (15 May 1819–23 October 1893), lawyer and soldier, was born in Russellville, Kentucky, the son of John J. Crittenden, a lawyer and statesman, and Sarah “Sally” Lee. After unsuccessful business ventures in New Orleans and with a brother-in-law in Louisville, he studied law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1840. Appointed a commonwealth’s attorney in 1843, he occasionally opposed his famous father in courtroom appearances. Crittenden married his stepsister Kittie Todd, probably in 1840. Their only son, Lieutenant John J. Crittenden, was killed with ...
Image
Crittenden, Thomas Leonidas (1819-1893)
In
Thomas L. Crittenden. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1730).
Article
Denver, James William (1817-1892), soldier, governor of Kansas Territory, and lawyer
James A. Rawley
Denver, James William (23 October 1817–09 August 1892), soldier, governor of Kansas Territory, and lawyer, was born near Winchester, Virginia, the son of Patrick Denver and Jane Campbell, farmers of Irish extraction. In 1831 his family migrated to a farm near Wilmington, Ohio. After a grade school education, James taught briefly at Platte City, Missouri, graduated from Cincinnati College (now the University of Cincinnati) in 1844, and was admitted to the bar. He opened a newspaper and law office in Xenia, Ohio, but after less than a year, in 1845, returned to Platte City, where he continued to practice both professions. After the outbreak of the Mexican War on 4 March 1847, Denver was appointed captain in the Twelfth Regiment, U.S. Volunteers, commanding a company he had raised, and was ordered to Mexico. Sick much of the time, he was ordered home on 26 October 1847....
Article
Doniphan, Alexander William (1808-1887), soldier and lawyer
William E. Parrish
Doniphan, Alexander William (09 July 1808–08 August 1887), soldier and lawyer, was born near Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky, the son of Joseph Doniphan and Anne Smith, farmers. His father died when Doniphan was not quite five years old. He attended a private school at Augusta, Kentucky, graduating from Augusta College at the age of nineteen. After two years of studying law in the office of Martin Marshall, Doniphan was admitted to the bar in Kentucky and Ohio. He moved to Missouri in 1830, settling initially at Lexington. Three years later, he reestablished his law practice at Liberty in Clay County, where he shared a law office with ...
Image
Doniphan, Alexander William (1808-1887)
In
Alexander William Doniphan. Daguerreotype from the studio of Mathew B. Brady. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-109945).
Article
Donovan, William Joseph (1883-1959), lawyer, soldier, and intelligence official
Thomas F. Troy
Donovan, William Joseph (01 January 1883–08 February 1959), lawyer, soldier, and intelligence official, was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Timothy Patrick Donovan, a railroad yardmaster, and Anna Letitia Lennon. After starting college at Niagara University, Donovan transferred to Columbia University from which he received an A.B. in 1905 and an LL.B. in 1907. He joined the law firm of Love and Keating in Buffalo. In 1912 he and Bradley Goodyear formed a partnership that merged with Buffalo’s leading firm, O’Brian and Hamlin, to become O’Brian Hamlin Donovan and Goodyear. Hamlin’s withdrawal led to the firm’s dissolution in 1920. Meanwhile, in 1914, Donovan married socially prominent Ruth Rumsey. They had two children....
Image
Donovan, William Joseph (1883-1959)
In
William J. Donovan. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-109385).
Article
Duke, Basil Wilson (1838-1916), Confederate general and lawyer
Lowell H. Harrison
Duke, Basil Wilson (28 May 1838–16 September 1916), Confederate general and lawyer, was born in Scott County, Kentucky, the son of Nathaniel Wilson Duke, a naval officer, and Mary Currie. After attending Centre College in 1854–1855, he received a law degree from Transylvania University. Admitted to the bar in 1858, Duke began a law practice in St. Louis but soon was involved in prosecessionist activities as the nation moved toward the Civil War. Charged with treason by a federal grand jury, Duke returned to Kentucky in June 1861, and that year he married Henrietta Morgan, the sister of ...
Article
Early, Jubal Anderson (1816-1894), lawyer, Confederate soldier, and author
Gary W. Gallagher
Early, Jubal Anderson (03 November 1816–02 March 1894), lawyer, Confederate soldier, and author, was born near Rocky Mount, Franklin County, Virginia, the son of Joab Early, a substantial holder of land and slaves, and Ruth Hairston. Educated as a youth at the best local schools, Early entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1833 and graduated eighteenth in the class of 1837. “I was not a very exemplary soldier,” he later wrote, “and went through the Academy without receiving any appointment as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer in the corps of cadets.” Joining the Third Artillery as a second lieutenant on 1 July 1837, he served in Florida against the Seminoles and was promoted to first lieutenant on 7 July 1838. Early never intended to make the military his permanent career, however, and resigned effective 31 July 1838. He returned to Rocky Mount to read law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, and practiced in Franklin County for the next twenty years....
Article
Ewing, Thomas, Jr. (1829-1896), soldier, lawyer, and congressman
William E. Parrish
Ewing, Thomas, Jr. (07 August 1829–21 January 1896), soldier, lawyer, and congressman, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, the son of Thomas Ewing (1789–1871), a lawyer, and Maria Boyle. His foster brother was William T. Sherman, who had been raised by the Ewings. Ewing attended Lancaster Academy and later had a year of schooling in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, at the home of his cousin ...
Article
Gary, Martin Witherspoon (1831-1881), lawyer, politician, and Confederate general
Orville Vernon Burton
Gary, Martin Witherspoon (25 March 1831–09 April 1881), lawyer, politician, and Confederate general, was born in Cokesbury, South Carolina, the son of Thomas Reeder Gary, a physician, and Mary Anne Porter. Thomas Gary was a wealthy, upcountry slave owner. In addition to practicing medicine, he farmed and represented Abbeville District for two terms in the state legislature. Martin Gary was a pupil at the Cokesbury Methodist Conference school. He attended South Carolina College but was expelled along with others in his junior class for rebelling against an unpopular teacher. He graduated from Harvard with honors in June 1854. In November of that year he went to Edgefield, South Carolina, to study law with Chancellor James P. Carroll and was admitted to the bar in May 1855. Until his death, Gary maintained a highly successful criminal law practice in Edgefield. Reared a Methodist, he joined the Trinity Episcopal Church in Edgefield and became a vestryman....
Article
Grayson, William (1736-1790), lawyer, soldier, and statesman
K. R. Constantine Gutzman
Grayson, William (1736–12 March 1790), lawyer, soldier, and statesman, was born in Prince William County, Virginia, the son of Susanna Monroe and Benjamin Grayson, a merchant and factor. He attended the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), graduating in 1760. Some controversy exists concerning whether he next proceeded to Oxford or to Edinburgh, but the absence of his name from the rolls at Oxford, coupled with his great devotion to the teachings of Adam Smith, seems to militate in favor of the Scottish university. According to tradition, he then received legal training at the Inns of Court. He married Eleanor Smallwood....
Image
Grayson, William (1736-1790)
In
William Grayson. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-98918).
Article
Gregg, John (1828-1864), lawyer and Confederate general
D. Scott Hartwig
Gregg, John (28 September 1828–07 October 1864), lawyer and Confederate general, was born in Lawrence County, Alabama, the son of Nathan Gregg, one of the area’s first white settlers, and Sarah Pearsall. Gregg moved with his family to La Grange, Alabama, when he was about eight years old. In 1847 he graduated from La Grange College, after which he taught school and studied law in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1852 he moved to Centerville, Texas, where he remained a short time before moving to Fairfield, Texas, where he practiced law. Gregg married Mollie Winston (date unknown). Following her death, he married Mary Frances Garth in 1855. Both marriages were childless. In 1856 he was appointed judge of the Thirteenth District and served in that position until 1860. Gregg enthusiastically supported secession and was appointed to the convention of January 1861 that took Texas out of the Union. He subsequently was a member of the Texas delegation to the Provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Alabama....
Article
Hardin, Martin D. (1780-1823), lawyer, soldier, and U.S. senator
Thomas E. Stephens
Hardin, Martin D. (21 June 1780–08 October 1823), lawyer, soldier, and U.S. senator, was born near the Monongahela River in southwestern Pennsylvania, the son of John Hardin, a revolutionary war soldier and Indian fighter, and Jane Daveiss. The Hardins were a somewhat prosperous Virginia family of French Huguenots who immigrated in 1706 and settled beyond the Virginia border on the Pennsylvania frontier about 1765. In 1786 John Hardin moved the family to Nelson County in the Kentucky District (now Washington County, Ky.) along Pleasant Run, a branch of Beech Fork, near the present-day county seat of Springfield. John Hardin was murdered by Shawnee Indians in May 1792, near present-day Hardin, Ohio, while serving as a peace emissary; he became a celebrated martyr and the namesake of counties in Kentucky and Ohio....
Article
Houstoun, John (1750?–20 July 1796), lawyer, soldier, and politician
Harvey H. Jackson
Houstoun, John (1750?–20 July 1796), lawyer, soldier, and politician, was born in St. George’s Parish, Georgia, the son of Sir Patrick Houstoun, a baronet, registrar of grants and receiver of quit rents for the colony, and Priscilla Dunbar. He studied law in Charleston and practiced in Savannah, where he early became involved in the protests against Great Britain prior to the Revolution and was probably a member of the Sons of Liberty. In 1775 he married Hannah Bryan, the daughter of Jonathan Bryan, a prominent planter, a former member of the governor’s council, and one of the leaders of Georgia’s Whig movement; they apparently had no children. In July 1774 he joined ...
