Miami Union - Veteran

KEIFER, GEN. JOSEPH WARREN - Some persons having made the inquiry, "Who is Gen. Keifer"? we insert the following sketch. In addition to his brilliant military record he has a high reputation as a civilian. Joseph Warren Keifer, of Springfield, was born in Bethel Township, Clarke County, Ohio, January 30, 1836; was reared on a farm; educated in common schools and at Antioch College; commenced the study of law in Springfield in 1856; was admitted to practice January 12, 1859, and practiced his profession at the last-named place until April 19, 1861, when he volunteered in the Union Army; was commissioned Major of the Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry April 27, 1861; was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel of the same regiment February 12, 1862; was appointed Colonel of One hundred and tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry September 30, 1862; was severely wounded at the battle of the Wilderness May 5, 1864, after having served in campaigns in the field in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia; was appointed Brigadier-General by brevet November 30, 1864, "for gallant and meritorious services in the battles of Opequa, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek, Virginia": was assigned to duty by President Lincoln as Brigadier-General December 29, 1864; was appointed, July 1, 1865, Major-General by brevet "for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign ending in the surrender of the insurgent army under General R. E. Lee"; was mustered out of service June 27, 1865, having been in the Union Army four years and two months, and four time wounded; resumed practice of the law at Springfield, Ohio, In July 1865; was appointed, with solicitation, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Twenty-sixth United States Infantry November 30, 1866, but declined the appointment; was a member of the Ohio State Senate in the years 1868-69; was Commander of the Department of Ohio Grand Army of the Republic, for the years 1868-70, and was elected Vice-Commander-in-Chief of that organization May 8, 1872; was Trustee of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home from its organization under State authority, April 16, 1870 to March 5 1878--when he resigned; has been a Trustee of Antioch College since June 30, 1873; was a Delegate of Large from Ohio to the National Republican Convention at Cincinnati in June 1876; was a Representative from Ohio in the Forty-fifth Congress, and was re-elected to the Forty-sixth Congress as a Republican, receiving 15,895 votes against 10,805 votes for W. Vance Marquis, Democrat, 900 votes for William A. Hance, Republican-Greenbacker, and 482 votes for Rev. S. K. Spahr, Prohibitionist.