William Worth Belknap: Iowa Time Machine September 22, 1829

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On September 22, 1829, William Worth Belknap was born in Newburgh, New York, but the life that carried him to a Civil War general’s uniform and President Ulysses S. Grant’s Cabinet was forged largely in Iowa. Belknap became one of the state’s most celebrated Union officers, then ultimately left Washington under a cloud of scandal that tested the nation’s faith in public office.

Belknap arrived in Keokuk in 1851, the same year he was admitted to the bar after studying law at Georgetown University. Keokuk, perched at the foot of the Des Moines Rapids on the Mississippi River, was then one of Iowa’s key commercial gateways, where law, trade, migration, and politics met. He practiced law with Ralph P. Lowe, who would later serve as Iowa governor and chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court. Belknap also entered public life, winning election to the Iowa General Assembly in 1857.

When war came in 1861, Belknap joined the Union cause as a major in the 15th Iowa Infantry. His record carried Iowa's name into some of the war’s central campaigns, including Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, the Atlanta Campaign, and Sherman’s March to the Sea. He gained a reputation for bravery, advanced to command troops in the Seventeenth Corps, and received a brevet promotion to major general near the war’s end.

After returning to Keokuk, he served as collector of internal revenue for Iowa’s First District from 1865 to 1869. Grant then appointed him secretary of war in 1869, a striking ascent for the lawyer who had made his name in Iowa’s southeastern river city. In 1876, investigations revealed that money connected to the Fort Sill post-trader system had reached Belknap through an arrangement involving Caleb P. Marsh, a New York businessman. Belknap resigned on March 2, 1876, shortly before the House impeached him. The Senate tried him later that year and failed to convict by the required two-thirds margin, even though the proceedings produced a lasting constitutional debate over whether a former official could be impeached after resignation. #Iowa #OTD #History #CivilWar #Government