Van Vleck, Carter

Born: 1830-XX-XX Madison County, New York

Died: 1864-08-23 Atlanta, Georgia

Carter Van Vleck studied law in Springfield, Illinois, and practiced law in Beardstown before moving to Macomb around 1854. In 1857, Van Vleck worked as the clerk of Macomb. In January 1858, Van Vleck was involved in a case in the U.S. Circuit Court, Southern District of Illinois, in which Abraham Lincoln was one of the attorneys. Governor Richard Yates appointed Van Vleck a lieutenant colonel of the Seventy-Eighth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers in 1862, and he later advanced to colonel. During his service in the Civil War, Van Vleck received a serious injury at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 but returned to service. He was mortally wounded in Atlanta by a Confederate sharpshooter in 1864.

Van Vleck married Patty L. Carter in 1851.

Macomb Weekly Journal (IL), 2 September 1864, 3:1; S. J. Clarke, History of McDonough County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: D. W. Lusk, 1878), 199, 616; Johnson, Byrne, & Johnson v. Graham, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137558; Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993, 25 June 1851, Summit County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); Gravestone, Oakwood Cemetery, Macomb, IL.