Henry H. Wells

Henry H. Wells

Henry Horatio Wells (born September 17, 1823 in Rochester , New York , †  February 13, 1890 in Palmyra , New York) was an American politician and from 1868 to 1869 governor of the state of Virginia .

Early years and advancement as an officer

Henry Wells was born in Rochester, New York State, but grew up in Michigan . He studied law and became a lawyer. Between 1854 and 1856 he was an MP in the Michigan House of Representatives ; he became a member of the Republican Party .

During the Civil War he was a lieutenant colonel in a Michigan unit. This unit was assigned to the Union-controlled part of Virginia as an occupation force. There Wells was first head of the military police in Alexandria and soon thereafter throughout the Union-controlled area south of the Potomac River . After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, Wells played a major role in the prosecution and apprehension of the assassin John Wilkes Booth , who was found in a barn in Virginia on April 26th. In return for his help in the capture of Booth Wells became the Brevet - Brigadier promoted.

Political career

After the war, Wells settled in Richmond as a lawyer. In 1868, John Schofield , commanding general of the Union Army in Virginia , appointed him under the Reconstruction Act of 1867 to succeed Francis Harrison Pierpont as the new Provisional Governor of Virginia . He held this office between April 4, 1868 and September 21, 1869. During this time in Virginia was working on a new constitution. In its original form, this constitution would have given African Americans the right to vote, which also corresponded to the new federal law. On the other hand, former soldiers of the Confederate States should be excluded from the right to vote. This passage was deleted through the intervention of President Ulysses S. Grant . This allowed the soldiers of the Confederation in Virginia to exercise their right to vote.

Governor Wells was injured in an accident at the Virginia State Capitol when a balcony collapsed due to the crowds during a court hearing. The courtroom floor also collapsed, falling into the Virginia House of Delegates room . There were over a hundred injured and several dozen dead.

Wells failed in his attempt to be elected governor for another term in 1869 and resigned on September 21, before the end of his term of office, which actually ran until January 1870.

Another résumé

Until 1872, Wells was a federal attorney for the eastern part of Virginia. He then worked as a lawyer. He later moved to Washington , where he became a federal attorney for the District of Columbia . In 1880 he finally retired from the public service and worked again as a lawyer. He died in February 1890. Henry Wells was married to Millicent Leib, with whom he had several children.

Web links

• Henry H. Wells in the National Governors Association (English)