Halbart Eleazer Paine – Major General, United States Army Member of Congress & Government Official

Courtesy of the U.S. House of Representatives:

Representative from Wisconsin; born in Chardon, Geauga County, Ohio, February 4, 1826; attended the common schools; was graduated from the Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio, in 1845; taught school for a season in Mississippi; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1848 and commenced practice in Cleveland, Ohio; moved to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1857 and continued the practice of law; entered the Union Army in May 1861 as colonel of the Fourth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers; promoted to the rank of brigadier general on March 13, 1863, and in the following June lost a leg at Port Hudson; breveted major general on March 13,
1865, and resigned on May 15, 1865; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Congresses (March 4, 1865-March 3, 1871); chairman, Committee on Militia (Fortieth Congress), Committee on Elections (Forty-first Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1870; continued the practice of  law in Washington, D.C.; through his efforts the taking of    meteorological observations in the interior was inaugurated; appointed Commissioner of Patents by President Grant and served from November 1, 1878, to May 7, 1880; died in Washington, D.C., April 14, 1905; interment in Arlington National Cemetery.

Halbert Eleazar Paine, soldier, born in Chardon, Ohio, 4 February, 1826. After his graduation at Western Reserve in 1845 he studied law, was admitted to the bar of Cleveland in 1848, and removed to Milwaukee in 1857. He entered the National army in May, 1861, as colonel of the 4th Wisconsin regiment, and became brigadier general of volunteers on 13 March, 1863. He served mainly in the Army of the Gulf, and lost a leg in the last assault on Port Hudson, Louisiana, where he commanded the 3d division of the 19th corps. He defended Washington during General Jubal A. Early’s raid in 1864, was  breveted major general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865, and resigned on 3 May of that year. He was afterward elected to congress from Wisconsin as a Republican, serving from 4 December, 1865, till 3 March, 1871, and was instrumental in the passage of a bill, dated 19 December, 1869, that provided for taking meteorological observations in the interior of the continent. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists’ convention of 1866, and after the expiration of his third term in congress practiced law in Washington, D. C., where he was United States commissioner of patents from 1879 till 1881. He is the author of ” Paine on Contested Elections” (Washington, 1888).

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard