Humphrey Marshall (General)

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Humphrey Marshall

Humphrey Marshall (born January 13, 1812 in Frankfort , Kentucky , †  March 28, 1872 in Louisville , Kentucky) was an American officer and politician . Between 1849 and 1852 and again from 1855 to 1859 he represented the state of Kentucky in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Humphrey Marshall was a grandson of the US Senator of the same name Humphrey Marshall (1760-1841). After a good elementary school education, he graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1832 . After studying law and being admitted to the bar in 1833, he began to practice this profession first in Frankfort and then from 1834 in Louisville. He also became a member of the Kentucky State Militia. During the Mexican-American War , he was colonel in a volunteer unit. After the war, he farmed in Henry County .

Politically, Marshall became a member of the Whig Party . In the congressional election of 1848 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the seventh constituency of Kentucky , where he succeeded Garnett Duncan on March 4, 1849 . After a re-election in 1850, he was able to run a second legislative term in Congress on March 4, 1851 . After he was appointed American envoy to the Empire of China as the successor to John Wesley Davis , he resigned his seat on August 4, 1852. Marshall held his diplomatic post in China until 1854. On his return to the United States, after the Whigs dissolved, he joined the short-lived American Party .

In the elections of 1854 he was again elected to Congress in the Seventh District of Kentucky. There he replaced William Preston on March 4, 1855 . After a re-election in 1856, he was able to complete two further terms in the US House of Representatives until March 3, 1859. These were shaped by the discussions and events leading up to the civil war . In 1858, he declined a new nomination for Congress.

In the 1860 presidential election, Marshall supported John C. Breckinridge's candidacy . At the beginning of the Civil War he advocated Kentucky's neutrality. When Union troops invaded his state, Marshall joined the Confederation Army , where he rose to Brigadier General. Two of his cousins, William Birney and David B. Birney , were also generals in the opposing Union army . With one interruption, he remained in the army until 1863. He then moved to Richmond , Virginia , where he practiced as a lawyer. In the fall of 1863 he was elected to the Confederate Congress.

After the war ended, Humphrey Marshall moved to New Orleans , Louisiana . He later returned to Louisville, where he worked as a lawyer until his death in 1872. He was buried in his native Frankfort.

Web links

Commons : Humphrey Marshall  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Humphrey Marshall in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)