Charles Harvey Denby Colonel Charles Denby ( June 16 , 1830 – January 13 , 1904 ) was a U . S . Union officer in the Civil War and diplomat . He was the father of Edwin C . Denby , a U . S . Representative from Michigan , and later Secretary of the Navy , and Charles Denby , Jr . , a diplomat . Family and early life . Denby was born in Mount Joy in Botetourt County , Virginia to Nathaniel Denby and Sarah Jane Harvey . Denby ' s maternal grandfather , Mathew Harvey , was a soldier in Lee ' s Legion during the American Revolutionary War . Denby received his early education at the Tom Fox Academy , Hanover County , Virginia . During his early youth , Denby ' s father , a Virginia ship - owner and interested in European trade , was appointed to a post at Marseilles , France . His functions there were similar to those of a consul - general , but the post was then known as Naval Agent of the United States . On taking up his post , Nathaniel Denby took his son with him , where attended the College Royal at Marseilles and became fluent in the French language . Denby later attended Georgetown College , Washington , D . C . , and the Virginia Military Institute , from which he graduated with high honors in 1850 . After graduating , Denby went to Selma , Alabama , where he taught school for three years . In 1853 , he removed to Evansville , Indiana , which remained his home until his death . Evansville was then a town of six thousand inhabitants , which , from its position on the Ohio River , at the terminus of the Wabash and Erie Canal , seemed destined to a great development . At Evansville , Denby devoted himself to the study of law and to newspaper work . He represented his county in the Indiana House of Representatives during the session of 1856 - 57 . While in the legislature , Mr . Denby became acquainted with Martha Fitch , daughter of U . S . Senator Graham N . Fitch , of Indiana , and they were afterward married . Military service . With the attack on Fort Sumter marking the outbreak of the American Civil War , Denby raised a company of volunteer soldiers and guarded the powder magazine near Evansville , Indiana . On September 12 , 1861 , Denby was commissioned as the Lieutenant Colonel ( second - in - command ) of the 42nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment and mustered in at that rank on October 10 , 1861 . On October 1 , 1862 , Indiana Governor Oliver P . Morton commissioned Denby as Colonel of the newly formed 80th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment . Denby was not mustered in at his new rank until October 21 , 1862 , so he was still serving with the 42nd Indiana when it took part in the Battle of Perryville Kentucky on October 8 , 1862 . It was there that Denby was twice wounded and had his horse killed under him . Colonel Denby officially took command of the 80th Indiana on or before November 22 , 1862 . In a letter to the army dated January 12 , 1863 , Colonel Denby resigned his commission , stating : " I suffer habitually in riding with a very severe cramp in my left leg - walking affords no relief . The cramp is caused by an accident which happened many years ago and the side effects whereof were scarcely felt by me until after I entered the service . I have consulted various medical advisors who uniformly say there can be no remedy . I have therefore no recourse left but to return to a sedentary life " . His resignation was accepted effective January 17 , 1863 , and he left the army based on a surgeon ' s certificate of disability . Political career . After resignation , he resumed the practice of law in Evansville . Denby was active in the Democratic Party , and upon the election of Grover Cleveland as President , he was put forward for a post in the diplomatic service and on May 29 , 1885 , he was appointed Minister to China . Denby remained at the post through 1898 , through the administrations of Cleveland ' s first term , Republican Benjamin Harrison , Cleveland ' s second term . He resigned a little more than a year into the administration of Republican William McKinley , and would be succeeded by Edwin H . Conger . Upon his return to the U . S . in September 1898 , Denby was appointed a member of the commission to inquire into the conduct of the Spanish - American War . Even before the adjournment of that commission , he was made a member of the first commission to the Philippines ( the Schurman Commission ) , together with Admiral George Dewey , General Elwell Stephen Otis , Jacob Gould Schurman , the President of Cornell University , and Professor Dean Conant Worcester , of the University of Michigan . Later life . After retirement from official life , Denby settled down at his old home at Evansville , Indiana , and devoted himself to literary labors , study , and the pleasures of home life . He died suddenly of heart failure , at the age of seventy - four years , at Jamestown , New York , to which city he had gone to deliver a lecture .