Charles E. Phelps

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Charles Edward Phelps (May 1, 1833 – December 27, 1908) rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the U.S. Army in the Civil War, served as a city councilman, a U.S. Congressman from the third district of Maryland, and received the Medal of Honor.

Phelps was born in Guilford, Vermont on May 1, 1833. At the age of 5, he moved with his parents to Pennsylvania, and at the age of 8 to Maryland. He matriculated at Princeton University, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, graduating in 1853. He subsequently sought a career in law, and joined the Maryland bar in 1855. He admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1859. In 1860, he was elected to the Baltimore city council.

In 1861, he was commissioned a major of the Maryland Guard, and, in 1862, he was raised to Lieutenant Colonel of the Seventh Maryland Volunteers, fighting for the Union. He was honorably discharged on account of wounds in 1864, and was shortly thereafter elected as congressman from the 3rd district of Maryland to the Thirty-Ninth Congress. He was subsequently given commission as brevet Brigadier General, and received the Medal of Honor for valor at the Battle of Spotsylvania.