Lieber, Francis

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Francis Lieber
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Disputed
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    Family
    Frederick William Lieber (father), Matilda Oppenheimer (wife), Oscar Montgomery Lieber (son), Hamilton Lieber (son), Guido Norman Lieber (son) 
    Education
    Other
    Other Education
    University of Jena, University of Dresden
    Occupation
    Military
    Diplomat
    Attorney or Judge
    Educator
    Writer or Artist
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Church or Religious Denomination
    Episcopalian
    Political Parties
    Republican
    Other Affiliations
    Other
    Other Affiliation
    Turnverein
    Government
    Lincoln Administration (1861-65)
    Johnson Administration (1865-69)
    Military
    Foreign military

    Francis Lieber (American National Bibliography)

    Scholarship
    Sensing the pending breakup of the Union and tired of suppressing his sympathies for the nation and against slavery, Lieber left South Carolina in 1856 and moved to New York. He accepted Columbia College's offer of a chair as well as the honor of titling it. By his own design he became professor of history and political science, thereby becoming the first officially named political scientist in America. He made clear in his inaugural address that he took his field to be "the very science for nascent citizens of a republic." During the Civil War he advised the U.S. government in legal matters and organized the voluminous output of the Loyal Publication Society. He also wrote an important pamphlet on Guerilla Parties Considered with Reference to the Laws and Usages of War (1862) as well as A Code for the Government of Armies in the Field, as Authorized by the Laws and Usages of War on Land (1863). Solicited by General Henry Halleck, Lieber's code was turned into a set of instructions issued by President Abraham Lincoln as General Orders No. 100. These instructions were later influential on the accords that emerged from The Hague Conference of 1899 and 1907.
    James Farr, "Lieber, Francis," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/14/14-00365.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Lieber, Francis," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/35127.