BIOGRAPHY: W. W. Belknap
From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875

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      General W. W. BELKNAP Graduated from the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, in the 
class of 1848.  He studied law with H. Caperton, Esq., at Georgetown, D. C., and was the 
partner of the Honorable Ralph F. Lowe, afterwards Governor of Iowa, and Judge of the 
Supreme Court, and practiced his profession successfully at Keokuk, Iowa, where he located 
in 1851.  He was elected to serve one term—that of 1857 and 1858—in the Iowa Legislature 
as a Democrat.  Being unwilling to give countenance to the "Lecompton Swindle." He 
separated from the radical wing of his party, and was known as a "Douglas Democrat," up to 
the outbreak of the rebellion.
	He entered the army as Major of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, commanded by Colonel 
(afterwards General) Hugh T. Reed, about the 19th of October, 1861, and engaged in his first 
battle at Shiloh, in the Army of the Tennessee.
	He served on General McPherson's staff as Provost Marshal Seventeenth Army 
Corps. And in other capacities. He figured in the campaigns in Tennessee under both 
General Sherman and Grant, and y the latter his services were very highly esteemed.
	At the battle of Atlanta, on the 22d July, 1864—where General McPherson was 
killed—he distinguished himself as highly as a commander, that he was promoted to be 
Brigadier General of Volunteers.
	After the capture of Atlanta he marched with Sherman to the sea, and Finally in 
Washington taking a prominent part in all the actions of the brilliant campaigns of Sherman.
 	Since his appointment as Secretary of War, he has served in the Cabinet of President 
Grant with great acceptation, both to the Administration and the country; and his 
administration of the affairs of the War Office is regarded, both by the officers of the 
army—who experience its practical results—and by the country at large, as one of the most 
successful of the Secretaries of War.
	At the commencement of the second presidential term of General Grant, General 
Belknap was re-appointed Secretary of War, and still holds the portfolios of that office.