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J.F. Farnsworth

J.F. Farnsworth

Federal (USV)

Colonel

John Franklin Farnsworth

(1820 - 1897)

Home State: Illinois

Command Billet: Commanding Brigade

Branch of Service: Cavalry

Unit: 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division

Before Antietam

He was admitted to the bar in 1841, was a lawyer in St. Charles, Kane County, IL, and was US Congressman from Illinois from 1857 to 1861. He recruited the 8th Illinois Cavalry and was commissioned their Colonel on 18 September 1861.

On the Campaign

He commanded of the Second Brigade of Brigadier General Pleasonton's Cavalry Division in Maryland.

The rest of the War

On 29 November 1862 he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers and continued in command of the brigade at Fredericksburg, VA in December. He was re-elected to the US House of Representatives and resigned his commission on 4 March 1863.

After the War

He was reelected to the Congress four times, serving to 1873. He was a lawyer in Chicago to 1880, then practiced in Washington, DC.

References & notes

His service basics from Heitman.1 Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, and his Congressional Biography. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the Library of Congress.

He married Mary Ann Clark (1820-1900) in October 1846 and they had 3 children.

Birth

03/27/1820; Eaton , Quebec, CANADA

Death

07/14/1897; Washington, DC; burial in North Cemetery, Saint Charles, IL

Notes

1   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 413  [AotW citation 29527]