Charles Van Wyck Charles Henry Van Wyck ( May 10 , 1824October 24 , 1895 ) was a Representative from New York , a Senator from Nebraska , and a Union Army Brigadier general in the American Civil War . Early life and political career . Van Wyck was born in Poughkeepsie , New York . He completed preparatory studies and graduated from Rutgers College , New Brunswick , New Jersey , in 1843 . Van Wyck studied law , and was admitted to the bar in 1847 and commenced the practice of law . He then moved to Bloomingburg , New York , where he was a district attorney 1850 - 1856 . Van Wyck was elected to the U . S . House of Representatives as a Republican from New York to the Thirty - sixth and Thirty - seventh Congresses ( March 4 , 1859 – March 4 , 1863 ) . He served as chairman , Committee on Mileage ( Thirty - sixth Congress ) and on the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions ( Thirty - seventh Congress ) . Assassination attempt . Van Wyck delivered a harsh anti - slavery speech on the House floor on March 7 , 1860 , which denounced the Southern states for the " crime against the laws of God and nature . " The speech was widely reported . On February 22 , 1861 , Van Wyck was assaulted near the Capital building by three men in an assassination attempt , an attack which was reported as related to the prior year ' s speech . Van Wyck fought off the attack , surviving only because of a book and congressional records which he had kept in the breast pocket of his coat had blocked the blade of a Bowie knife . The three men fled and were never identified . This was also the same night as an alleged attempt was made to assassinate president - elect Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore , Maryland . Civil War . Van Wyck entered the Union Army as colonel of the 56th Regiment , New York Volunteers , and commanded it during the American Civil War . Part of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign , Van Wyck was wounded in the knee at the battle of Fair Oaks . Much of the war was then spent in South Carolina taking part in the Siege of Charleston Harbor and the battle of Honey Hill . He was brevetted brigadier general for services during the war . Postbellum career . Van Wyck was elected to the Fortieth Congress ( March 4 , 1867 – March 4 , 1869 ) ; successfully contested the election of George Woodward Greene to the Forty - first Congress and served from February 17 , 1870 , to March 4 , 1871 . He moved to Nebraska in 1874 , where he settled on a farm in Otoe County , and engaged in agricultural pursuits . Van Wyck was a delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1875 . He was elected to the State senate 1877 , 1879 , 1881 . That year , he was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate from Nebraska and served from March 4 , 1881 , to March 4 , 1887 . He served as chairman , Committee on the Mississippi River and Its Tributaries ( Forty - seventh Congress ) and on the Committee on the Improvement of the Mississippi River and Tributaries ( Forty - eighth and Forty - ninth Congresses ) . Van Wyck was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection . In 1892 , he was an unsuccessful Populist candidate for Governor of Nebraska . Van Wyck then retired from political life and active business pursuits . He died in Washington , D . C . , and was interred in Milford Cemetery , Milford , Pennsylvania .