John Benton Callis

John Benton Callis (born January 3, 1828 in Fayetteville , North Carolina , † September 24, 1898 in Lancaster , Wisconsin ) was an American politician ( Republican Party ).

John Benton Callis, around 1860

Career

His family moved to Tennessee in 1834 , where they first settled in Carroll County , and from there to Lancaster, Wisconsin in 1840. During this time John attended community schools. He studied medicine for three years but eventually gave up. Callis went to Minnesota in 1849 . He then moved to California in 1851 , where he was involved in mining and trading. Then he went to Central America in 1853 . In the autumn of the same year, however, he returned to Lancaster, where he returned to trading.

Callis signed up after the outbreak of the civil war in the Union Army , where he initially held the rank of lieutenant . On August 30, 1861, he was promoted to Captain in the 7th Regiment , Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and on January 5, 1863 to major . US President Lincoln appointed him military superintendent in the Department of War in Washington in 1864 . Callis was then promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on February 11, 1865 . After the end of the war he settled in Huntsville, Alabama in 1865 . He returned his officer license on February 4, 1868.

After Alabama was re-admitted to the Union, he was elected to the House of Representatives of the 40th US Congress , where he remained from July 21, 1868 to March 3, 1869. Callis decided not to run for re-election in 1868. Then he returned to Lancaster, where he did real estate business. He was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1874 . Then he retired from public life. He died in Lancaster in 1898 and was buried there in Hillside Cemetery .

Web links

• John Benton Callis in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)