Civil War Union Brigadier General, US Congressman. He served as Mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1848 and was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of J. Glancy Jones, serving 1858 to 1859. In 1861 he was commissioned General of the Pennsylvania Militia and was sent by order of the governor to defend the towns of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Hagerstown, Maryland, Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and the upper Potomac. He was promoted Brigadier General of US Volunteers in December, 1861, joining the army under General McClellan and commanded a Pennsylvania brigade in the peninsular campaign until his death as to the result of camp fever.