Person

Richard James Oglesby (Fourteenth governor of the State of Illinois, soldier, attorney, and politician.)

b. 1824-07-25 d. 1899-04-24

Fourteenth governor of the State of Illinois, soldier, attorney, and politician. Oldham County, Kentucky, native. Son of Jacob Oglesby and Isabella Watson Oglesby. Married to Anna E. White Oglesby. Father of Richard Oglesby, Anna Oglesby, Olive Oglesby, and Robert Oglesby. Read law with Silas W. Robinson in Springfield, Illinois, in 1844. Served in the 4th Illinois Regiment (U.S.A.) as a first lieutenant in the U.S.-Mexican War. Attorney in Macon County, Illinois, in 1847. Attended law school in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1848. Trader in Yuba County, California, in 1850. Attorney in Macon County, Illinois, in 1860. Member of the Senate of the United States from the State of Illinois in 1860. Served in the 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) as a colonel. Served in the United States Army as a brigadier general and major general. Wounded at the Siege of Corinth, Alcorn County, Mississippi, in 1862. Commanded the 16th Army Corps (U.S.A.) in 1863. Governor of the State of Illinois from January 16, 1865, to January 11, 1869.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, California, Yuba County, Nevada City, p. 313B.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Illinois, Macon County, Decatur Ward 2, pp. 606-7.

Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Illinois, Macon County, Decatur, p. 334B.

"Oglesby Dead," The Daily Republican (Decatur, IL), April 24, 1899, p. 1.

John H. Eicher and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), 9, 408-409, 725.

John Moses, ed., Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of the Representative Men of the United States: Illinois Edition, vol. II (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1896), 537-44.

Mark A. Plummer, Lincoln's Rail-Splitter: Governor Richard J. Oglesby (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001).

Franc B. Wilkie, A Sketch of Richard J. Oglesby (1884).

"Anna 'Little Sissie' Oglesby (1861-1862)," Find A Grave, Memorial 41042166, accessed September 15, 2023, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41042166.

Citation

Oglesby, Richard James. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32207232 (November 12, 2026).

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