Joseph Roswell Hawley Joseph Roswell Hawley ( October 31 , 1826March 18 , 1905 ) was the 42nd Governor of Connecticut , a U . S . politician in the Republican and Free Soil parties , a Civil War general , and a journalist and newspaper editor . He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and was a four - term U . S . Senator . Early life and career . Hawley , a direct descendant of Joseph Hawley ( Captain ) , first of the name in America , through Ebenezer , Joseph and Samuel , was born in Stewartsville , near Laurinburg , North Carolina , where Hawley ' s father , a native of Connecticut , was pastor of a Baptist church . His father returned to Connecticut in 1837 and Joseph attended and graduated from Hamilton College in New York in 1847 . He was admitted to the bar in 1850 and practiced law in Hartford , Connecticut for six years . An ardent opponent of slavery , Hawley became a Free Soil er , was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated John Parker Hale for the presidency in 1852 , and subsequently served as chairman of the party ' s State Committee and editor of the party ' s newspaper , the " Charter Oak " . In 1856 , he took a leading part in organizing the Republican Party in Connecticut , and in 1857 became editor of the " Hartford Evening Press " , a newly established Republican newspaper . Civil War . Hawley served in the Federal army with distinction throughout the Civil War , rising from the rank of captain to that of brevet major general of volunteers . In April 1861 , Hawley helped recruit and organize an infantry company . He was mustered into the three - month 1st Connecticut Infantry with the rank of captain of Company A on April 22 . He first saw combat at the First Battle of Bull Run in July , receiving praise from his brigade commander , General Erasmus D . Keyes . After mustering out , he then assisted Col . Alfred H . Terry in raising the 7th Connecticut Infantry , a three - year regiment , and was named as lieutenant colonel . He participated in the Port Royal Expedition in November , and commanded the forces assigned to garrison two captured forts . He was a part of the four - month siege that culminated in the capture of Fort Pulaski in April 1862 . Again , he commanded the garrison force . With Colonel Terry ' s promotion to brigade command , Hawley succeeded him as commander of the 10th Connecticut , leading the regiment in the battles of James Island and Pocotaligo . He was in Brannan ' s expedition to Florida in January 1863 , and commanded the post at Ferandina , near Jacksonville . In April , he participated in an unsuccessful expedition to capture Charleston , South Carolina . In the summer , he commanded a brigade on Morris Island during the siege of Charleston , and was involved in the attacks on Fort Wagner in September . During the autumn , he procured enough Spencer breech - loading rifles to outfit his regiment with the rapid - fire weapon . The following year , Hawley commanded a brigade under General Truman Seymour in the Battle of Olustee in Florida . He and his men were reassigned to the front lines in Virginia as a part of Terry ' s Division , X Corps , Army of the James . He was in the battles of Drewry ' s Bluff , Deep Run , Derbytown Road , and other actions near Bermuda Hundred and Deep Bottom . With openings created by battlefield losses and reassignments , Hawley commanded a division during the Siege of Petersburg and was promoted in September 1864 to brigadier general of volunteers . Concerned over keeping the peace during the November elections , Hawley commanded a hand - picked brigade shipped to New York City to safeguard the election process . In January 1865 , Hawley succeeded his mentor Alfred Terry as divisional commander when Terry was sent to command troops in the attacks on Fort Fisher . Hawley later joined him in North Carolina as Chief of Staff for the X Corps . After the capture of Wilmington , North Carolina , Hawley took over command of the forces in southeastern North Carolina . In June , following the surrender of the Confederate armies , Hawley rejoined Terry and served as Chief of Staff for the Department of Virginia , serving until October when he returned home to Connecticut . He was breveted as a major general in September 1865 , and mustered out of the army on January 15 , 1866 . Postbellum . After the war , Hawley served as governor of Connecticut from April 1866 to April 1867 , but was not re - elected . A few months after stepping down from that office , he bought the " Hartford Courant " newspaper , which he combined with the " Press " . Under his editorship , this became the most influential newspaper in Connecticut and one of the leading Republican papers in the country . Hawley was the permanent chairman of the Republican National Convention in 1868 , was a delegate to the conventions of 1872 , 1876 and 1880 . He represented Connecticut in the U . S . Congress from December 1872 until March 1875 and again in 1879 – 81 , having lost the two elections in between . From 1873 to 1876 , he served as president of the United States Centennial Commission , which planned and ran the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia . He was also a trustee of Hamilton College and received his LL . D . degree in 1875 ( and another one from Yale in 1888 ) . Hawley was a United States Senator from 1881 to 1905 , being one of the key Republican leaders both in the House and the Senate . He was chairman of the committee on civil service , and vigorously promoted civil service reform legislation . He also chaired a special committee called to investigate the production of military ordnance and warships . In this capacity , he wrote a detailed report on the heavy steel industry and gun making in the United States and England . He died in Washington , D . C . , two weeks after stepping down from the Senate . Hawley has a battery named his honor at Fort Baldwin , in Phippsburg , Maine .