Campbell, William Bowen

CAMPBELL, William Bowen, (cousin of Henry Bowen), a Representative from Tennessee; born near Hendersonville, Sumner County, Tenn., February 1, 1807; attended private schools; studied law in Abingdon and Winchester, Va.; was admitted to the bar in 1829 and commenced practice in Carthage, Smith County, Tenn.; also engaged in agricultural pursuits and banking; elected district attorney in 1831; member of the State house of representatives in 1835 and 1836; captain of a company in Trousdale’s regiment of Tennessee Mounted Volunteers in the Florida War; mustered out January 14, 1837; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1843); declined to be a candidate for reelection to the Twenty-eighth Congress; elected colonel of the First Tennessee Volunteers in the Mexican War June 3, 1846, and was mustered out May 25, 1847; unanimously elected judge of the fourth circuit of Tennessee and served from 1847 to 1850; served as Governor of Tennessee from 1851 to 1853; declined renomination; elected judge of the circuit court in 1857; appointed by President Lincoln brigadier general of Volunteers June 30, 1862; resigned January 26, 1863, on account of ill health; upon the readmission of the State of Tennessee to representation was elected as a Unionist to the Thirty-ninth Congress and served from July 24, 1866, to March 3, 1867; resumed banking and agricultural pursuits; died near Lebanon, Wilson County, Tenn., August 19, 1867; interment in Cedar Grove Cemetery.