Gilman Marston was born on August 20, 1811, in Orford, New Hampshire, to Jeremiah and Theda Marston. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1837 and the law department of Harvard University three years later. He began his legal practice in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1841, and served in the New Hampshire legislature from 1845 to 1849. He joined the Republican Party in the 1850s, and New Hampshire voters elected him to Congress in 1858. By 1860, he owned $3,000 of real estate and $12,000 of personal property.

 

He was reelected to Congress two years later, and he staunchly supported President Abraham Lincoln and the Union war effort. He accepted a commission as colonel of the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry and mustered in on June 10, 1861. His arm was shattered in the First Battle of Bull Run, but he refused an amputation.

 

He eventually recovered and rejoined his regiment, and he participated in the Peninsula campaign, the Second Battle of Bull Run, and the Battle of Fredericksburg. He was promoted to brigadier general on November 29, 1862. The army reassigned him to the defenses of Washington, D.C., in the spring of 1863, and he helped establish the Point Lookout prison camp in Maryland later that year. He took part in the Bermuda Hundred campaign, the Battle of Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. He resigned from the army on April 20, 1865.

 

He served another term in Congress from 1865 to 1867, and in 1870, he turned down the position of territorial governor of Idaho. He returned to his legal practice in Exeter, and by 1870, he owned $10,000 of real estate and $5,000 of personal property. He spent most of the 1870s serving in the New Hampshire legislature, and he filled a vacancy in the United States Senate from March until June 1889. He died in Exeter on July 3, 1890.

 

Image: Gilman Marston (courtesy Library of Congress)

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