Willard Warner

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Willard Warner (September 4, 1826 – November 23, 1906) was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was a U.S. senator from the state of Alabama after the war.

Warner was born in Granville, Ohio, and graduated from Marietta College. He founded the Newark Machine Works in Newark, Ohio.

In December 1861, Warner joined the volunteer army as major of the 76th Ohio Infantry. He served in several battles in the Western Theater, including the Battle of Fort Donelson, the Siege of Corinth, and the Vicksburg Campaign. In 1863 he became lieutenant colonel of the regiment, which he led from Vicksburg to Chattanooga. He served on the staff of William T. Sherman during the Atlanta Campaign as the inspector general.

On October 1864, he was named as colonel of the 180th Ohio Infantry and was promoted to brigadier general commanding a brigade. He received a brevet rank of major general of volunteers in 1865 and mustered out in July of that year.

He served one term in the Ohio state senate immediately after the war, removed to the south in 1867, where he engaged in cotton-planting, was a member of the Alabama legislature in the succeeding year. Elected upon readmission of Alabama to the Union, the Republican served as a Senator from July 13, 1868, to March 3, 1871. He did not win reelection, turned down Grant's tendered appointment as Governor of New Mexico^[1], and returned to Alabama and later to Tennessee to pursue various business interests.

He was collector of customs at Mobile, Alabama, from July 1871 until February 1872, when he declined the appointment of Governor of New Mexico, as he did the diplomatic post of Minister to Argentina. He was a member of the Republican National Convention of 1868. In 1873 he organized the Tecumseh Iron Company and in 1887 he was elected president of the Nashville Iron, Steel, and Charcoal Company.

He died in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Newark, Ohio.

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[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.

Preceded by vacant[2]

United States Senator (Class 2) from Alabama 1868–1871 Served alongside: George E. Spencer

Succeeded by George Goldthwaite

1. ^ Journal of the executive proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, 1871-1873 Wednesday, December 6, 1871, page 116
2. ^ Note: Clement C. Clay occupied the seat before Alabama's secession from the Union in 1861.