Fitch, Graham N.
Born: 1809-12-05 Genesee County, New York
Died: 1892-11-29 Logansport, Indiana
Flourished: Logansport, Indiana
Graham N. Fitch was a physician, state legislator, U.S. representative, U.S. senator, and U.S. Army officer. Born in LeRoy, New York, Fitch attended Middlebury Academy and Geneva (NY) College. He received and completed his medical training at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Fitch commenced practicing medicine in Logansport, Indiana, in 1834. Taking an interest in politics, he won election to the Indiana House of Representatives, serving in that body from 1836 to 1837 and 1839 to 1840. From 1844 to 1848, Fitch was professor of anatomy at Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois. Fitch won election, as a Democrat, to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from March 1849 to March 1853. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1852, returning to his medical practice. The Indiana General Assembly elected Fitch to the U.S. Senate to fill an unexpired term that began in March 1855; he served in the Senate from February 1857 to March 1861. In January 1859, Fitch and Stephen A. Douglas became mired in a personal dispute that nearly extended to a duel before cooler heads prevailed. Fitch was not a candidate for reelection in 1860. Upon the commencement of the Civil War, he raised the Forty-Sixth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, which was mustered in for a three-year enlistment in December 1861 with Fitch as its colonel. From March to April 1862, he commanded the Second Brigade, Third Divison, Army of the Mississippi. Fitch participated in the battles of New Madrid and Island No. 10 and in the capture of Fort Pillow and Memphis. He also led an expedition up the White River in June 1862 that led to charges that he had two civilians murdered--a charge he denied. In August 1862, Fitch resigned his commission due to injuries received in action and returned to his medical practice.
Biographical Directory of the American Congress 1774-1996 (Alexandria, VA: CQ Staff Directories, 1997), 1032; Roger D. Hunt, Colonels in Blue: Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee: A Civil War Dictionary (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014), 49-50; Robert W. Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), 689-90; Gravestone, Mount Hope Cemetery, Logansport, IN.