15 Facts About Charles Devens

Charles Devens served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Charles Devens was admitted to the bar in Franklin County, Massachusetts, where he practiced law from 1841 to 1849.

From 1849 to 1853, Devens was United States Marshal for Massachusetts, in which capacity he was called upon in 1851 to remand the fugitive slave, Thomas Sims, to slavery.

Charles Devens practiced law at Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1853 until 1861.

Charles Devens was appointed as colonel of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry in July 1861 and wounded at the Battle of Ball's Bluff in Virginia in October.

Charles Devens was wounded a second time at the Battle of Seven Pines and spent most of the summer recovering.

Charles Devens's brigade was not heavily involved in the Maryland Campaign.

In January 1863, Charles Devens was given command of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, VI Corps.

Steward L Woodford, who served with him, Devens remounted his horse, stayed with his men and did not go to the hospital until his men had bivouacked.

Charles Devens's troops were the first to occupy Richmond after its fall in April 1865.

Charles Devens later served as the fifth Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic from 1873 to 1875 and was a veteran companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Charles Devens was a key figure in the investigation into the unlawful execution of Confederate veteran Calvin Crozier by soldiers of the 33rd Regiment, US Colored Troops, at Newberry, South Carolina in September 1865 following an altercation.

Charles Devens was a judge of the Massachusetts superior court, from 1867 to 1873, and was an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1873 to 1877, and again from 1881 to 1891.

Charles Devens was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1878.

Charles Devens died of heart failure in Boston, Massachusetts in 1891, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.