Francis B . Spinola Francis Barretto Spinola ( March 19 , 1821 – April 14 , 1891 ) was the first Italian American to be elected to the United States House of Representatives , serving as a representative from New York from 1887 to 1891 . He also served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War . Biography . Spinola was born in Old Field , near Stony Brook , Brookhaven , Suffolk County , Long Island , New York . He attended Quaker Hill Academy in Dutchess County and then passed the bar exam before establishing a law practice in Brooklyn . He was elected alderman of the Second Ward in Brooklyn in 1846 and 1847 , and was reelected in 1849 and served for four years . By 1854 , when he joined a special force known as " Special Police " to keep order in the streets of New York , he was already one of the " most respected and influential citizens " of the city . Politically a Democrat , he was a member of the New York State Assembly ( Kings Co . , 2nd D . ) in 1856 . He was a member of the New York State Senate ( 3rd D . ) from 1858 to 1861 , sitting in the 81st , 82nd , 83rd and 84th New York State Legislature s . He was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention . He was commissioner of New York Harbor when the Civil War erupted . Spinola joined the volunteer army in a New York regiment and was commissioned as an officer . He was appointed brigadier general of Volunteers on October 2 , 1862 . He commanded two relief efforts to lift the Confederate siege of Washington , North Carolina . In July / October 1862 he recruited and organized a brigade of four regiments , known as Spinola ' s Empire Brigade . Spinola assumed command of the New York " Excelsior Brigade " ( the Second Brigade , Second Division , Third Army Corps ) , on July 11 , 1863 , following the Battle of Gettysburg as the Army of the Potomac strove to fill open command slots created by battle casualties . Spinola ' s brigade led the Union troops on July 23 at the Battle of Wapping Heights near Warrenton , Virginia , suffering 18 men killed , including two officers . Spinola was wounded in the fighting , along with dozens of his men . He was honorably discharged from the service in August 1865 . Following the war , Spinola was a banker and insurance agent , and became an influential figure among the rapidly growing Italian immigrant community in the New York City area . He was again a member of the State Assembly ( New York Co . , 16th D . ) in 1877 , 1881 and 1883 . He was a U . S . Representative from New York ' s 10th District from 1887 to 1891 . He died in office in Washington , D . C . He was buried at Green - Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn , New York . His estate , valued at over $ 1 , 000 , 000 in 1897 , was left to his wife ( d . 1896 ) , and a nephew , Ferdinand McKee . In 1897 his sister Annie Douglass contested his will . Family . Spinola had his country seat at Crane Neck , Long Island . It was menaced by a fire in 1887 . Francis Barretto Spinola was the son of João Leandro Spinola ( b . 1782 , Madeira Island ) , later Anglicised as John Leander Spinola , a merchant from Madeira Island , and Elizabeth Phelan ( 1790 , Long Island – 1873 ) , daughter of Captain John Phelan ( 1747 , Waterford , Ireland – 14 Sep 1827 , Baltimore , Maryland ) , who served in the American Revolutionary War , and his wife Susanna Davis ( b . Long Island , d . 1857 ) . João Leandro Spinola married Eliza Phelan in 18 Jun 1808 , at Trinity Church parish , New York . Frank W . Alduino , in his book " Sons of Garibaldi in Blue and Gray : Italians in the American Civil War " ( p . 180 ) , refers his father John as a " prosperous farmer and oysterman " who migrated to the United States from Madeira Island , Portugal , whose family had originally hailed from the city of Genoa . The Spinolas , of noble Genoese origin , moved into Madeira Island in the late 15th , early 16th century , as merchants . John Leander Spinola is recorded travelling between Funchal and New York on board of the brig Pomona in 1821 . He is also recorded travelling to Havana and Rio Grande . He was buried in the Meadow Avenue of Green - Wood Cemetery , Brooklyn , New York . His grandfather John Phelan was a lieutenant in Wigglesworth ' s 13th Massachusetts Regiment , and his grand uncles Edward and Patrick were respectively captain and lieutenant at the same time . He was a member of the Order of the Cincinnati . His grand uncle Phillip Phelan joined the American forces during the Revolution War , where he served as lieutenant , and died at the Battle of Eutaw Springs in 22 May 1781 . John Phelan ' s mother was Mary Heron Phelan , from Waterford , Ireland . One of her descendants , Mrs . Regina M . Knott , was one of the earliest members of the Daughters of the American Revolution . He had an older brother , John Leander Spinola ( b . 1818 ) who worked as a druggist , an younger brother , Douglas A . Spinola ( b . 1830 ) , an older sister , Angelina Spinola , seamstress ( b . 1814 ) , and two younger sisters , Ann Eliza ( b . 1829 ) and Louisa ( b . 1825 ) . Gen . Spinola provided for his sister Ann Douglass until his death in 1891 . She supported herself teaching music until her eyesight failed , and by 1903 , with over seventy years of age , she was living on charity , on an allowance of $ 120 a year by the Society of the Cincinnati . This motivated a newspaper article , pleading for help and referring her family , the Spinolas , as New York aristocrats , a " distinguished family " . Gen . Francis Spinola married Elizabeth Nancy Glazebrook , from Kings , Saratoga , New York , at 7 May 1855 , in New York City . Eliza N . Spinola , as she was known , survived her husband for five years , dying in 1896 .