Preceded by Moses Bledso Corwin Governor David Tod Resting place Greenwood Cemetery Succeeded by Samuel Shellabarger Role Former Ohio State Senator | Preceded by Moses Bledso Corwin Name Benjamin Stanton Succeeded by Matthias H. Nichols Preceded by Robert C. Kirk | |
 | ||
Died June 2, 1872, Wheeling, West Virginia, United States Previous office Ohio State Senator (1841–1843) Political party Whig Party, Opposition Party, Republican Party | ||
Benjamin Stanton (June 4, 1809 – June 2, 1872) was an American politician who served as sixth Lieutenant Governor of Ohio from 1862 to 1864.
Contents
Biography
The son of Elias & Martha (Wilson) Stanton, he was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, Stanton pursued academic studies, and learned the tailor's trade. Stanton studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1834, and began practicing law in Bellefontaine, Ohio.
Career
Stanton served as a member of the Ohio Senate from 1841 to 1843, and as delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1850.
Stanton was elected as a U.S. Representative from Ohio twice. He served as a Whig to the Thirty-second Congress, from 1851 to 1853.
From 1855 to 1861, he served as an Opposition Party candidate to the Thirty-fourth Congress and reelected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses. Stanton served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs (Thirty-sixth Congress).
Stanton served as lieutenant governor of Ohio in 1862, during the American Civil War. After the battle of Shiloh, in April 1862, at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, Stanton visited the Union Army and soon published a statement critical of the Union generals. He opined that Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin M. Prentiss, both appointed from Illinois, should be court-martialed and shot. General William Tecumseh Sherman, appointed from Ohio, published a sharp rebuttal. This led to Stanton's criticizing Sherman as well.
Stanton moved to Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1865, and practiced law. He moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1867 and continued the practice of law.
Death
Stanton died in Wheeling on June 2, 1872, and was interred in Greenwood Cemetery in Wheeling, West Virginia.