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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Joseph Keifer Biography KEIFER,
Joseph Warren (1836-[1932]) American soldier and politician, born in
Clark Co., Ohio. He was educated at Antioch College and in 1856 settled in
Springfield. Ohio, where he began to study law. Two years later he was admitted
to the bar, but at the outbreak of the Civil War gave up his practice to accept
a commission as major of the Third Ohio Infantry, and rose to the brevet rank of
major general of volunteers in 1865. During Lee's last
campaign General Keifer's troops were among those which compelled the surrender
of Ewell's corps at Sailor's Creek, and General Keifer received the surrender of
Commodore Tucker and the Marine Brigade, which numbered about 2000 men. At the
close of the war he declined a commission as lieutenant colonel of the
Twenty-sixth United States Infantry. He served in
the Ohio State Senate in 1868-69, held a number of offices in the Grand Army of
the Republic, was chosen a delegate to the Republican National Convention in
1876, and the same year was sent to Congress, of which body he continued to be a
member until 1883. During the last two years he was Speaker of the House. In
1873 he was elected president of the Lagonda (Ohio) National Bank. At the
outbreak of the Spanish-American War he was commissioned a major general of
volunteers and for a time commanded the Seventh Corps, encamped near Havana. He
wrote Slavery and Four Years of War (2
vols., 1900). The New International
Encyclopaedia, Vol.
XIII
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920)
145-46. |