Notable WA Civil War Veterans

Hiram Randall Gale

Washington State's last veteran of the Civil War, and last member of the G.A.R.'s Department of Washington and Alaska. Born November 8, 1846 in Waterbury, VT, died March 15, 1951 at age 104. A printer by profession, Gale served in the 46th Wisconsin Infantry. He was Department Commander in 1914-15, and again as its last commander from 1943 until his death. Comrade Gale also served at the highest level of the G.A.R. as its national Commander-in-Chief in 1945-46.

Major General Robert Huston Milroy

Robert H. Milroy was born in 1816. He trained at a private military school, and later commanded a company of the 1st Indiana in the Mexican War. He served as a judge before entering the Union army, commanding a "three-months" regiment. He was Colonel of the 9th Indiana Infantry in 1861. He was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers Sept. 3, 1861 and to Major General of Volunteers in November 1862 or March 10, 1863. Milroy took part in McClellan's western Virginia campaign. He led one of two Union brigades against Stonewall Jackson. He fought at 2nd Bull Run. He commanded the Cheat Mountain district for a time and then was engaged in the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862. The following June, in command of some 6,000 to 8,000 men at Winchester, he was outmaneuvered by Ewell's 2nd Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, while enroute to Gettysburg. He lost 3,400 as prisoners, all 23 pieces of his artillery, and many dead and wounded. Milroy himself, with 200 or 300 cavalrymen, made good his escape to Harpers Ferry. He later served under General George H. Thomas at Nashville organizing militia regiments. He resigned his commission July 26, 1865 and worked as an Indian agent. Milroy was a member of George H. Thomas G.A.R. Post #5 of Olympia, Washington, served as Post Jr. Vice Cmdr. 1888, and Sr. Vice Cmdr. 1889, before his death May 4, 1890. General Robert Huston Milroy Circle #21 of Olympia, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, was named in his honor. General Milroy was one of the highest ranking Union officer to reside in Washington after the Civil War.

Major General John Wilson Sprague

Major-General J. W. Sprague, that whom no name is more intimately associated with the development of Tacoma, justly deserves mention in the History of Washington, which State he helped to create.Sprague, John W., brigadier-general, was born in White Creek Washington County, N. Y. April 4, 1817. He was an attendant at the district school of his neighborhood and entered the Rensselaer polytechnic institute at Troy, N. Y., when thirteen years of age. He left school before graduation to engage in business, and in 1845 removed to Milan, Erie county, Ohio, where he continued the business of a merchant. He afterward settled in Sandusky and was for one term (1851-52) treasurer of Erie county. Upon the outbreak of the Civil war he raised a company of militia, was made its captain and with it joined the 7th Ohio infantry. He was rapidly promoted and in 1863 was colonel of the 63rd Ohio Infantry, brigadier-general of volunteers on July 21, 1864, and on March 13, 1865, was brevetted major-general of volunteers. He was mustered out of the service on Aug. 24, 1865. During his service as a volunteer officer he declined a lieutenant-colonelcy in the regular army. After the war he was appointed manager of the Winona & St. Paul railway. In 1870 he was general manager of the western division of the Northern Pacific railway and with Capt. Ainsworth established the city of Tacoma, Wash. In 1883 he had the honor of driving the golden spike on the completion of his division and soon afterward resigned on account of impaired health. He was active in building up the new city of Tacoma and was president of the board of trade and of various banks and corporations. Gen. Sprague died at his home in Tacoma, Wash., Dec. 27, 1893. General Sprague's whole life has been marked by responsibility, power, energy and ability, and he has left his impress indelibly upon the history of the State of Washington.

The following biography of Salomon is from a contemporary San Francisco newspaper article. Thanks to Barbara Lacy of Columbia City, Indiana for passing along this information. (Barbara is the great-great-grandaughter of Edward Salomon's half-brother Martin Salomon.) Edward S. Salomon, from a photograph of the officers of the 82nd Illinois taken in Atlanta in October 1864, shortly before the commencement of Sherman's March to the Sea.

Christmas Day in the year 1836, witnessed the birth of this distinguished citizen, in the city of Schleswig, in the German province of the same name. The family's ancestral history has been traced back over four hundred years, constituting a lineage of which he may be justifiably proud. His father Salomon M. Salomon was maried to Caroline Samuels, who also was the representative of a fine old family of Schleswig-Holstein. He died in 1869, at the age of fifty-eight years, leaving a family of five sons and six daughters, all of whom but one of the former, now deceased, being now residents and citizens of the United States. Edward S. Salomon was educated in the public school and later in the college at Schleswig. At the age of seventeen years he came to America, stopping in NewYork for about six months, and then removing to Chicago, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits for about three years. He then took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. He immediately engaged in practice, and was very successful, so that after a year his recognized ability caused his election to the city council in 1860, when he was only twenty-four years of age. He was the youngest member of the council.

In 1861, the outbreak of the great Civil War changed the whole trend of his life, and Lincoln's call for troops found a willing patriot in him. It has been said that our citizens of German birth are more deeply patriotic than any others of foreign birth or lineage, and whether this be true or not, it is certain that the race displayed that characteristic to a remarkable degree by the manner in which its representatives took part in the war to preserve the Union. Edward S. Salomon enlisted on May 6, 1861, in Company H, Twenty-Fourth Illinois Infantry. For gallantry and military ability -- the latter due in large measure perhaps, to the blood of centuries of soldiers that flowed in his veins -- he was rapidly promoted, being successively second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain and major. In the fall of 1862, Captain Salomon and nineteen other officers organized the Eighty-second Illinois, or the "Second Hecker regiment," which became one of the most famous in the army. In this regiment, Captain Salomon became Lieutenant Colonel, and early in 1864, on the resignation of Colonel Hecker, he succeeded him in command. General Hecker being wounded, General Salomon took command at the battle of Gettysburg, and remained in command until the close of the War, when he was brevetted brigadier general for "distinguished gallantry and meritorious service."

The war over, General Salomon retired to Chicago and was elected county clerk, serving in that position for four years. In 1869 he was appointed governor of Washington territory by President Grant, and on his departure was presented with a costly silver table service in recognition of his fine record of service and high qualities as a citizen and as a friend. At the head of this delegation which thus bade him a god-speed was General Phil Sheridan, the hero of Winchester. General Salomon served as governor of Washington for four years and then resigned and came to San Francisco, where he engaged in the practice of law in the year 1875. In this he was uniformly and continuously successful, and had an active part in the upbuilding of the great city. In 1898 he was appointed assistant district attorney for the city and county. General Salomon has had a conspicuous part in public life, both in service to the state and in military affairs. In 1887 he was elected commander for the department of California and Nevada of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was one of the organizers and for eight years served as commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy Republican League of San Francisco. He was favored by a large number of prominent veterans for the post of brigadier-general of volunteers in the Philippine campaign in 1898, which was given to General Harrison Grey Otis of Los Angeles. He is president of the Volunteer Officers' Retired List, an organization of retired army officers. He was elected to the state assembly in 1888 and distinguished himself as a lawmaker and as an orator, being recognized as a leader in the legislature and the ablest speaker in the lower house. For the past thiry years he has taken an active part in the presidential campaigns and is counted a strong and effective political speaker. He is prominent in the Masonic order, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree.

General Salomon was married at Peoria, Illinois, on February 20, 1860, to Sophia Greenhut, a daughter of Benedict and Minnie (Pollock) Greenhut of Peoria. To them were born three sons and three daughters; Emil, who died at the age of three years in Chicago; Minnie, who passed away at the age of twenty-two years in San Francisco; Ben I., who is deputy tax collector and president of the Civil Service League; Max, a distinguished physician and graduate of Cooper Medical College and Heidelberg University, for nine years city physician and for over ten years cheif surgeon of the German Hospital and physician for the Benevolent Society of San Francisco; Carrie, who married M.M. Stern, general passenger agent of the Central Pacific Railroad Company at San Francisco; and Annie. Mrs. Salomon died in the year 1893.

Samuel Clarence Hyde

Samuel Clarence Hyde, 1842-1922 HYDE, Samuel Clarence, a Representative from Washington; born in Fort Ticonderoga, Essex County, N.Y., April 22, 1842; moved to Wisconsin; attended the common schools; served in the Seventeenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War; spent several years as surveyor in northern Wisconsin and Michigan; studied law at the University of Iowa at Iowa City; was admitted to the bar in 1876 and commenced practice at Rock Rapids, Iowa; moved to the Territory of Washington in 1877 and practiced law at Puget Sound; moved to Spokane in 1880 and continued the practice of law; prosecuting attorney of Spokane County 1880-1886; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1895-March 3, 1897); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1896 to the Fifty-fifth Congress; justice of the peace from 1904 until his death in Spokane, Wash., March 7, 1922; interment in Fairmount Cemetery.

George Turner, 1850-1932 Years of Service: 1897-1901; 1901-1903 Party: Silver Republican; Democrat TURNER, George, a Senator from Washington; born in Edina, Knox County, Mo., February 25, 1850; attended the common schools; served as United States military telegraph operator with the Union forces during the Civil War 1861-1865; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1869 and commenced practice in Mobile, Ala.; United States marshal for the southern and middle districts of Alabama 1876-1880; associate justice of the supreme court for the Territory of Washington 1885-1888; resumed the practice of law in Spokane, Wash., in 1888; also interested in mining; member of the Territorial convention in 1889 that framed the constitution of the new State of Washington; unsuccessful candidate for election as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1889 and 1893; elected on a fusionist ticket with Silver Republicans, Democrats, and Populists to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1897, to March 3, 1903; was not a candidate for reelection; resumed the practice of law in Spokane, Wash.; member of the Alaska Boundary Tribunal in 1903; unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor in 1904; counsel for the United States at The Hague in the northeastern fisheries arbitration with Great Britain in 1910; appointed by President William H. Taft as a member of the International Joint Commission, created to prevent disputes regarding the use of boundary waters between the United States and Canada 1911-1914; counsel for the United States before the International Joint Commission 1918-1924; practiced law in Spokane, Wash.; died in Spokane, January 26, 1932; interment in Greenwood Cemetery.

William Henry Calkins, 1842-1894 CALKINS, William Henry, a Representative from Indiana; born in Pike County, Ohio, February 18, 1842; studied law; was admitted to the bar and practiced; during the Civil War served in the Union Army from May 1861 to December 1865, except three months in 1863, attached to the Fourteenth Iowa Infantry and the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry; took up his residence in La Porte, Ind.; State's attorney for the ninth Indiana judicial circuit 1866-1870; member of the State house of representatives in 1871; elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1877, to October 20, 1884, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Elections (Forty-seventh Congress); moved to Tacoma, Wash., and resumed the practice of law; appointed United States associate justice of the Territory of Washington in April 1889 and served until November 11, 1889, when the Territory was admitted as a State into the Union; died in Tacoma, Wash., on January 29, 1894; interment in Tacoma Cemetery.

William Thompson, 1813-1897 THOMPSON, William, a Representative from Iowa; born in Fayette County, Pa., November 10, 1813; attended the common schools; moved to Iowa and settled in Mount Pleasant; member of the Territorial house of representatives in 1843; secretary of the State constitutional convention in 1846; elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1849); presented credentials as a Member-elect to the Thirty-first Congress and served from March 4, 1849, to June 29, 1850, when the seat was declared vacant; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Thirty-first Congress); served in the Union Army during the Civil War; commissioned captain in the First Iowa Volunteer Cavalry on July 31, 1861; promoted to major on May 18, 1863, and colonel on June 20, 1864; brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers on March 13, 1865, recommissioned captain in the Seventh Cavalry, Regular Army, on July 28, 1866, and retired from the Army on December 15, 1875; editor of the Iowa State Gazette; died in Tacoma, Pierce County, Wash., on October 6, 1897; interment in Tacoma Cemetery.

William Hall Doolittle, 1848-1914 DOOLITTLE, William Hall, a Representative from Washington; born near North East in Erie County, Pa., November 6, 1848; moved with his parents to Portage County, Wis., in 1859; attended the district school; early in 1865, enlisted as a private in the Ninth Wisconsin Battery; went to Pennsylvania in 1867 and pursued an academic course; studied law in Chautauqua County, N.Y., and was admitted to the bar in 1871; moved to Nebraska in 1872 and commenced practice in Tecumseh, Johnson County; member of the State house of representatives 1874-1876; assistant United States district attorney 1876-1880; moved to Washington Territory in 1880 and settled in Colfax, Whitman County; engaged in the practice of law; moved to Tacoma in 1888; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1897); unsuccessful for reelection in 1896 to the Fifty-fifth Congress; resumed the practice of law; died in Tacoma, Wash., February 26, 1914; interment in Tacoma Cemetery.

John Beard Allen, 1845-1903 Years of Service: 1889-1893 Party: Republican ALLEN, John Beard, a Delegate from the Territory of Washington and a Senator from Washington; born in Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Ind., May 18, 1845; attended the public schools and Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind.; during the Civil War served as a private; moved to Rochester, Minn., in 1865 and engaged in business as a grain dealer; graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was admitted to the bar in 1869; moved to Washington Territory in 1870 and commenced the practice of law in Olympia; appointed United States attorney for the Territory of Washington by President Ulysses Grant and served from April 1875 to July 1885; reporter for the supreme court of the Territory 1878-1885; moved to Walla Walla in 1881; elected as a Republican Delegate to the Fifty-first Congress (March 4, 1889-November 11, 1889); when the Territory was admitted as a State, elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, and served from November 20, 1889, to March 3, 1893; the legislature failing to elect a Senator, was appointed by the Governor to serve in the Senate until March 20, 1893; presented his credentials as a Senator-designate in 1893, but was not permitted to qualify; moved to Seattle and resumed the practice of law; died in Seattle, Wash., January 28, 1903; interment in Lakeview Cemetery.

William Farrand Prosser, 1834-1911 PROSSER, William Farrand, a Representative from Tennessee; born in Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pa., on March 16, 1834; received a limited schooling; taught school; studied law but never practiced; moved to California in 1854; engaged in mining; returned to Pennsylvania in 1861; entered the Union Army November 30, 1861, promoted through the ranks to colonel, and served throughout the Civil War; after the war settled on a farm near Nashville, Tenn.; elected to the State house of representatives, 1867-1869; elected as a Republican to the Forty-first Congress (March 4, 1869-March 3, 1871); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1870 to the Forty-second Congress; postmaster of Nashville 1872-1875; a director of the Tennessee, Edgefield & Kentucky Railroad; appointed in 1872 as one of the State commissioners to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876 and sent on a special mission in 1873 to assist in arranging participation of European countries in the exposition; published the Nashville Republican for several years; appointed by President Hayes in 1879 as special agent of the Interior Department for Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and moved to Washington in the same year; delegate to the first State constitutional convention of Washington; chairman of the State harbor line commission; mayor of North Yakima; city treasurer of Seattle 1908-1910; died in Seattle, Wash., September 23, 1911; interment in Lakeview Cemetery.

Watson Carvosso Squire 1838-1926 Years of Service: 1889-1897 Party: Republican. SQUIRE, Watson Carvosso, a Senator from Washington; born in Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, N.Y., May 18, 1838; attended the public schools, Falley Seminary, Fulton, N.Y., and Fairfield Seminary, Herkimer County, N.Y.; graduated from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., in 1859; principal of the Moravia (N.Y.) Institute; during the Civil War enlisted in Company F, Nineteenth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, in 1861; promoted to the rank of first lieutenant, and was mustered out the same year; graduated from the Cleveland Law School in 1862; was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Cleveland, Ohio; raised a company of sharpshooters, of which he was commissioned captain; made judge advocate of the district of Tennessee, with headquarters in Nashville; discharged with the rank of captain in 1865 and subsequently brevetted major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel; subsequently employed with the Remington Arms Co.; purchased large holdings in the Territory of Washington in 1876 and moved to Seattle in 1879; Governor of the Territory of Washington 1884-1887; upon the admission of Washington as a State into the Union in 1889 was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate; reelected in 1891, and served from November 20, 1889, to March 3, 1897; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1897; chairman, Committee on Coast Defenses (Fifty-second and Fifty-fourth Congresses), Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (Fifty-second Congress); retired from the practice of law and devoted his time to management of his properties in Seattle; organizer and president of the Union Trust Co. and the Squire Investment Co.; died in Seattle, Wash., June 7, 1926; interment in Washelli Cemetery.

Marshall F. Moore. (1829-1870) Born in Binghamton, N.Y., February 12, 1829. Common pleas court judge; general in the Union Army during the Civil War; Governor of Washington Territory, 1867-69; candidate for Delegate to U.S. Congress from Washington Territory, 1868. Died in Olympia, Wash., February 26, 1870. Burial location unknown.

John Philo Hoyt (1841-1926) Born near Austinburg, Ohio, October 6, 1841. Served in the Union Army during the Civil War; member of Michigan state house of representatives, 1873-76; secretary of Arizona Territory, 1876; Governor of Arizona Territory, 1877-78; justice of Washington territorial supreme court, 1879-87; delegate to Washington state constitutional convention, 1889; justice of Washington state supreme court, 1890-97. Died in Seattle, Wash., August 27, 1926. Interment at Washelli Cemetery.

William Smart Mrs. John B. Dodd, of Washington, first proposed the idea of a "father's day" in 1909. Mrs. Dodd wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife (Mrs. Dodd's mother) died in childbirth with their sixth child. Mr. Smart was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington state. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent. The first Father's Day was observed on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington. At about the same time in various towns and cities across America other people were beginning to celebrate a "father's day." In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a national Father's Day. Finally in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day. Father's Day has become a day to not only honor your father, but all men who act as a father figure. Stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, and adult male friends are all be honored on Father's Day. Roses are the Father's Day flowers: red to be worn for a living father and white if the father has died.

Simon Manly Preston 1Lt. in the 15th IL Inf. and Colonel of the 58th US Colored Infantry. Buried in Lake View Cemetery, Seattle Washington. Obituary follows:

AGED CIVIL ENGINEER SUCCUMBS Railroad Builder, Veteran of War Between States, and Professor, passes away in Seattle, aged 99. Slips away quietly while in his sleep. Illness of last few weeks seemed to have taken turn for better when end came suddenly. Brig. General Simon M. Preston, railroad builder, veteran of the Civil War, professor and civil engineer, died this morning in his ninety-ninth year in his apartment at the Lincoln Hotel. So quietly did the end come that watchers believed the general to be sleeping. His illness of the last few weeks seemed to have taken a turn for the better last night and it was believed that he would yet see the accomplishment of his desire to live 100 years. General Preston was born April, 1821 at Norfield, Va. After his graduation from the Norwich University, he accepted a chair as professor of mathematics, a position he held but for a short time, because he desired a more active life in the open air. He moved South and took up the profession of engineering. Later he moved to Illinois. When plans were made for the first railroad in the State of Illinois, the young civil engineer was asked to make a survey of the proposed course. The road was first called the "Chicago & Galena Railway". Later it became part of the great Illinois Central system. Trained Illinois Recruits While a professor in the Norwich University, General Preston was a the head of the college's military department. For that reason he was called upon to whip Illinois' raw recruits into shape at the outbreak of the Civil War. He fitted two regiments for soldiers for service at the front and himself went to the battle lines at the head of the 52nd Mississippi Regiment, with the rand of colonel. During the war he made a splendid record and at the end of hotilities was honorably discharged with the rand of brigadier general. President U.S. Grant, as reward for General Preston's splendid war record appointed him to the position of United States internal revenue collector to the Mississippi district. He remained in this position for nine years, when he accepted a position as chief engineer for the Nachez, Jackson & Columbia Railroad. He held this position for many years, then moving to Iowa, where he practiced his profession as civil engineer, moving to Seattle twenty years ago. Helped High School Students General Preston was often spoken of as one of Seattle's most remarkable men. Despite his advanced age his mind was clear and his health excellent. At the Lincoln Hotel, he made many friends, his chief diversion being helping high school students with their problems in algebra and geometry. Until the physician ordered him to stop, he took daily exercises with his Indian clubs. During the last few months, however, he was forced to content himself with walks about the hotel corridor. General Preston lived to see his sons, grandsons and greatgrandsons achieve success. One of his three children, Harold Preston has long been a prominent attorney in Seattle. His other son, Clarence S. Preston is equally successful in San Diego, Cal. Mrs. Alice Carr, his only daughters is well known in Seattle. Besides his sons and daughters, General Preston leaves three grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren, one brother, S.S. Preston of Los Angeles, Cal. and two sisters, Mrs. Charlotte B. Newman and Mrs. Finette Kendall, both of San Diego.

Born Jun. 25, 1825, Wood served in the Civil War first as Colonel and commander of the 22nd Ohio Infantry, then as Colonel and commander of the 4th United States Veteran Volunteer Infantry. At age 40 he was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers on March 13, 1865 for "meritorious services during the war." He died Jun. 25, 1893, on his 68th birthday. Gen. Wood is buried in Block 74, Lot 6 at Laurel Grove Cemetery, Port Townsend, Jefferson County.