Henry H. Bingham

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Henry Harrison Bingham (December 4, 1841 – March 22, 1912) was a Union officer in the American Civil War, winning the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of the Wilderness. He was a postbellum long-time Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

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[edit] Early life

Henry H. Bingham was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1862 and from the law department of Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania.

[edit] Civil War

Bingham enlisted in the Union Army and received a commission as a first lieutenant in the 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry on August 22, 1862. During the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, he was serving as Captain and Judge-Advocate on the staff of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock's II Corps.[1] During the battle he witnessed Pickett's Charge, and was near the "Angle" where the Confederates reached the "High Water Mark". He received the personal effects from the mortally wounded Confederate Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead and carried the news to General Hancock, Armistead's friend from before the war.[2]

During the Battle of the Wilderness during the Virginia Overland Campaign, on May 6, 1864, as captain of Company G, 140th Pennsylvania Infantry, he "rallied and led into action a portion of the troops who had given way under fierce assaults of the enemy."[3] He was awarded a Medal of Honor on August 26, 1893, for these actions.

Bingham eventually became a brevet brigadier general of volunteers on April 9, 1865, as the war was winding down. He mustered out of the service and returned home to Philadelphia in mid-1865.

[edit] Postbellum

Henry Bingham was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia by President Andrew Johnson in March 1867 and served until December 1872, when he resigned to accept the clerkship of the courts of oyer and terminer and quarter sessions of the peace in Philadelphia. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1872 though 1900. He was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1878, and served until his death. In Congress, he served as Chairman of the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, and on the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department.

[edit] Trivia

  • Bingham County, Idaho, is supposedly named in his honor. However, according to the Bingham County website, an alternative story for the naming of the county includes a footrace won by an Elisha Bingham.[4]
  • Henry Bingham was a Mason (Charties Lodge #297), and the story of how he provided assistance to the dying fellow Mason, General Armistead, was used in Masonic literature.[5]
  • Bingham was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity.

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Order of battle
  2. ^ Brother's War description
  3. ^ Medal of Honor citation
  4. ^ Bingham County website
  5. ^ Masons at the Battle of Gettysburg
Preceded by:
Chapman Freeman		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district
1879 - 1912		 Succeeded by:
William S. Vare
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