Warren, Fitz Henry

Born: 1816-01-11 Hampden County, Massachusetts

Died: 1878-06-21 Hampden County, Massachusetts

Fitz Henry Warren was a clerk, journalist, editor, Post Office official, diplomat, and Union Army officer. After receiving his education in his hometown of Brimfield, Massachusetts, Warren began his business career in New York City, where he worked as a clerk in a mercantile establishment. He subsequently lived and worked in Petersburg, Virginia, and Chicopee, Massachusetts. From 1835 to December 1843, he manufactured leather goods alongside his father and brother in Brimfield. Warren became involved in local and state military affairs, helping to raise a rifle company in Brimfield, of which he was chosen captain in June 1837. In 1840, he received promotion to colonel of the Tenth Regiment of the Massachusetts Militia. In 1838, Warren married Sophia H. Bartlett, with whom he would have four children. In 1844, he moved to Burlington, Iowa Territory, where he found work in business and as a journalist and editor with the Burlington Hawkeye. Warren was also an active member of the Whig Party, serving as chairman of the Whig State Committee. In 1849, President Zachary Taylor appointed him second assistant postmaster general, and Warren moved to Washington, DC. He subsequently became first assistant, serving in that office until 1852. During the presidential campaign of 1852, Warren was chairman of the Whig National Committee. After the election, he returned to Iowa, engaging in banking and the steamboat business on the Mississippi River. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Warren moved back to Washington, DC to serve as an assistant editor for the New York Tribune. He was the author of the "On to Richmond" correspondence. In June 1861, he resigned from the Tribune to become colonel of the First Iowa Cavalry. Warren spent most of 1861 and 1862 fighting in Missouri. In July 1862, he received promotion to brigadier general. Warren spent the reminder of the war leading Union troops in the Department of the Gulf. In August 1865, the War Department awarded Warren the rank of brevet major general, and he mustered out of the army. Warren's postwar activities included stints as a member of the Iowa Senate and as U.S. minister to Guatemala. He also contributed to the New York Sun and the New York Tribune.

Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Pres, 1964), 540-41; John H. Eicher and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), 554; Historical Celebration of the Town of Brimfield, Hampden County, Mass. Wednesday, October 11, 1876 (Springfield, MA: Clark W. Bryan, 1879), 204-6; Gravestone, Brimfield Cemetery, Brimfield, MA.