Marcus F. Wright's Civil War Bios (c) 1907 - General Chester A. Arthur
                                      
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                                   ARTHUR
   p.76 c
   ARTHUR, GENERAL CHESTER A., twenty-first President of the United
   States, born in Fairfield, Franklin County, Vt., October 5, 1830; died
   in New York City, November 18, 1886. He was prepared for college at
   Union Village, in Greenwich, and at Schenectady, and in 1845 he
   entered the sophomore class of Union. While in his sophomore year he
   taught school for a term at Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, and a
   second term at the same place during his last year in college. He
   joined the Psi-Upsilon Society, and was one of six in a class of one
   hundred who were elected members of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the
   condition of admission being high scholarship. He was graduated at
   eighteen years of age, in the class of 1848. While at college he
   decided to become a lawyer, and after graduation attended for several
   months a law school at Ballston Spa; returned to Lansingburg, where
   his father then resided, and continued his legal studies. During this
   period he fitted boys for college, and in 1851 he was principal of an
   academy at North Pownal, Bennington County, Vt. In 1853 Arthur, having
   accumulated a small sum of money, decided to go to New York City. He
   there entered the law office of Erastus D. Culver as a student, was
   admitted to the bar during the same year, and at once became a member
   of the firm of Culver, Tooker, & Arthur. Mr. Arthur became a Henry
   Clay whig, and cast his first vote in 1852 for Winfield Scott for
   President. He participated in the first Republican State Convention in
   Saratoga, and took an active part in the Fremont Campaign of 1856. On
   January 1, 1861, Governor Edwin D. Morgan, who on that date entered
   upon his second term, and between whom and Mr. Arthur a warm
   friendship had grown up, appointed him on his staff as
   engineer-in-chief, with the rank of brigadier general. He had
   previously taken part in the organization of the State militia, and
   had been judge-advocate of the second brigade. When the Civil War
   began, his active services were required by Governor Morgan, and he
   became acting quartermaster general, and as such began in New York
   City the work of preparing and forwarding the State's quota of troops.
   In December, 1861, he was called to Albany for consultation concerning
   the defenses of New York Harbor. On December 24, 1861, he summoned a
   board of engineers, of which he became a member, and on January 18,
   1862, he submitted an elaborate report on the condition of the
   national forts, both on the sea-coast and inland border of the State.
   On February 10, 1862, he was appointed inspector general, with the
   rank of brigadier general, and in May he inspected the New York troops
   in Fredericksburg and on the Chickahominy. In June, 1862, Governor
   Morgan ordered his return from the Army of the Potomac, and he acted
   as Secretary of the Meeting of the Governors of the loyal States,
   which was held at the Astor House, New York City, June 28. The
   governors advised President Lincoln to call for more troops, and on
   July 1 he called for three hundred thousand volunteers. At Governor
   Morgan's request, General Arthur resumed his former work, resigned as
   inspector general, and on July 10 was appointed quartermaster general.
   He went out of office, December 31, 1862, when Horatio Seymour
   succeeded Governor Morgan, and his successor, Quartermaster General S.
   V. Talcott, in his report of December 31, 1863, spoke of the previous
   administration as follows: "I found, on entering on the discharge of
   my duties, a well-organized system of labor and accountability, for
   which the State is chiefly indebted to my predecessor, General Chester
   A. Arthur." Between 1862 and 1872 General Arthur was engaged in
   continuous and active law practice. On November 20, 1871, he was
   appointed by President Grant Collector of the Port of New York, and
   assumed the office on December 1. On December 17, 1875, he was
   niminated for another term, and by the Senate confirmed the same day.
   He was commissioned December 18, and retained the office until July
   11, 1878, making his service about six and two-third years. General
   Arthur was elected Vice President of the United States, and took the
   oath of office, March 4, 1881. President Garfield died September 19.
   His Cabinet announced his death to the Vice President, then in New
   York, and at their suggestion he took the oath of President on the
   20th at his residence, 123 Lexington Avenue, before Judge John R.
   Brady, of the New York Supreme Court. On the 22d the oath was formally
   administered again, in the Vice President's room in the Capitol,
   Washington, by Chief Justice Waite.