Charles Ewing (March 6, 1835 – June 20, 1883) was an attorney and

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

general during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. He was the son of Interior Secretary

Thomas Ewing Thomas Ewing Sr. (December 28, 1789October 26, 1871) was a National Republican and Whig politician from Ohio. He served in the U.S. Senate as well as serving as the secretary of the treasury and the first secretary of the interior. He is als ...

, the brother of Thomas Ewing Jr. and Hugh Boyle Ewing, and the foster brother and brother-in-law of

William T. Sherman William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

. Ewing's sister and Sherman's wife was Ellen Ewing Sherman.

Early life and career

He was educated at St. Joseph's College in Perry County, Ohio, and at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. He studied law, was admitted to practice and was so engaged at

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, when the civil war broke out.

Civil War

He then joined the U.S. Army and was commissioned in May 1861 as a captain in the 13th Infantry, of which William T. Sherman, his brother-in-law, was colonel. He was appointed inspector-general on the staff of General Sherman, when in command of the western army. At the

Battle of Vicksburg The siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mis ...

he planted the flag of his battalion on the parapet of the Confederate fort, and received a severe wound. For this action he was brevetted major in 1863; for his action at Jackson, Colliersville and

Missionary Ridge Missionary Ridge is a geographic feature in Chattanooga, Tennessee, site of the Battle of Missionary Ridge, a battle in the American Civil War, fought on November 25, 1863. Union forces under Maj. Gens. Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, a ...

, in the Atlanta campaign he was made lieutenant-colonel by brevet in 1864, and for gallant conduct in the march to the sea and thence through the Carolinas to Washington he was brevetted colonel in 1865. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, March 8, 1865.

Postbellum career

In 1867 General Ewing resigned his commission in the army, and opened a successful law practice in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Beginning in 1874, he served as the Catholic Commissioner for Indian Missions (later known as the

Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions The Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions was a Roman Catholic institution created in 1874 by J. Roosevelt Bayley, Archbishop of Baltimore, for the protection and promotion of Catholic mission interests among Native Americans in the United States. Hi ...

), which involved defending Roman Catholic mission interests and Native American rights. Based on its prior missionary initiatives the Catholic Church felt justified in operating schools at 34 of the 72 agencies, but the administration of President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

allowed them at only seven. Ewing served as Catholic Commissioner until his death in Washington on June 20, 1883.

Notes

References

* ''The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans'' Vols. I-X (4). Boston, MA: The Biographical Society, 1904.

External links