Martin Maginnis

He moved to Minnesota with his family in 1852 and was a printer and student at Hamline University, Red Wing, MN at the start of the War. He enlisted in Company F, First Minnesota Infantry on 18 April 1861 and was appointed First Sergeant. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 8 January 1862.

He was with his Company on the Campaign and was promoted First Lieutenant, Company H on 17 September 1862.

He was in command of his Company by 26 September as senior officer present. He was promoted to Captain, Company K on 22 September 1863. He mustered out with the Regiment on 4 May 1864. He was again commissioned, as Quartermaster of the 11th Minnesota Infantry on 13 August 1864. He was appointed Major on 13 September 1864, and mustered out on 26 June 1865 in St. Paul.

About a year after the War he moved to Helena, MT and was in mining and operated newspapers, and later in the real estate business. He was elected to the US House of Representatives for 5 terms (1873-1885) and was the state commissioner of mineral land (1890-93). He was appointed US Senator when William A. Clark resigned under corruption charges in 1900, but was not seated - Clark was later seated after all. He moved to California in about 1915 and died in Los Angeles, of gangrene from an infected foot, in 1919.

Service information from Minnesota.1 His picture from a photograph posted by Wayne Jorgenson on his excellent First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry website/database. Wayne is also source for other details, from service and pension records. Political and postwar information from his Congressional Biography.1 His gravesite is online on Findagrave.

See much more about Senator Clark and Maginnis' appointment in an article from the US Senate Historical Office.

10/27/1841; Palmipa, NY

03/27/1919; Los Angeles, CA; burial in Resurrection Cemetery, Helena, MT