Mann, William B.

Born: 1816-11-26 Mount Holly, New Jersey

Died: 1896-10-17 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Flourished: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

William B. Mann was an attorney, Union army officer, and district attorney for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He moved with his parents from his native state to Philadelphia in 1821. He received his early education at his father's school, and served as a teaching assistant while he read law. In 1838, he earned admission to the Philadelphia bar, and soon became one of the most prominent attorneys in the city. Entering Philadelphia politics, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of the Northern Liberties area on the Whig ticket in 1844. In 1850, he was living in Northern Liberties Ward Four and owned real estate valued at $2,500. From 1850 to 1856, he served as assistant district attorney of Philadelphia, and in 1856, he won election as district attorney on a fusion Republican/American party ticket. He secured reelection in 1859, 1862, and 1865, serving as district attorney for twelve years. In 1860, he was living in the Twelfth Ward and owned real estate valued at $47,500 and had a personal estate of $8,000. At the onset of the Civil War, Mann helped recruit volunteers for the Second Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment, of which he became colonel, and he accompanied the regiment to training near Easton, Pennsylvania. Mann continued to command the regiment after Pennsylvania officials mustered it into active service as the Thirty-First Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, and led the regiment in the early campaigns of 1861. He resigned his commission in November 1861 to return to his duties as district attorney. When the Confederate Army threatened Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863, he recruited an independent company of militia to defend the state, receiving a commission as captain. Mustered into service on June 17, he mustered out on July 24.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Northern Liberties Ward 4, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA, 232; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Division 1, Ward 12, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA, 201; John W. Jordan, ed., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania: Genealogical and Personal Memoirs (New York and Chicago: Lewis, 1911), 3:1474-75.