Members of Henry Casey Camp 92 Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War place a Memorial Day wreath at the grave site of Brig. General James W. Denver in the Sugar Grove Cemetery. Left to right: Charles Rose, Camp Senior Vice Commander; Steven Powell, Camp Chaplain; Kelly Hopkins, Camp Commander; and Christopher Grim.
Submitted photo
WILMINGTON — Kelly Hopkins, commander of Henry Casey Camp 92 Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), recently conducted a Memorial Day wreath laying ceremony at the grave site of Civil War Brigadier Gen. James W. Denver, who is buried in the Sugar Grove Cemetery.
During the ceremony, Commander Hopkins described the life of General Denver, who is one of the most interesting and fascinating persons to live in Clinton County. He arrived in Wilmington from Virginia with his parents at the age of 13. At the age of 25, he opened a law office in Xenia. Before the Civil War he served with General Winfield Scott as a captain in the Mexican War.
Following the discovery of gold in California in 1849, he headed west to California and set up a trading post. He soon became involved in California politics and was elected to the California Senate in 1851. In 1853, he was appointed California Secretary of State and was soon elected to the United States House of Representatives. In 1856, he married Louise Rombach, whose father was a prominent Wilmington banker.
Before the Civil War he served as United States Commissioner of Indian Affairs and as governor of the Kansas Territory. Colorado was still part of the Kansas Territory at that time and Denver, Colorado is named in his honor.
In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him a brigadier general in the Union Army and placed him in command of all Union troops in Kansas, and later he served as a combat brigade commander under Gen. William T. Sherman in Tennessee and finished his military service in Mississippi.
After the Civil War, Denver became a successful lawyer in Washington D. C. and in Wilmington. He represented the Choctaw Indian Tribe in a lawsuit against the United States government that resulted in a $3 million judgment in favor of the Indians. He died Aug. 9, 1892 in Washington D. C. at the age of 74. In 2006, he was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.
Members of Henry Casey Camp also placed Memorial Day wreaths at the grave site of Civil War Brig. Gen. Azariah W. Doan and the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Civil War memorial commonly called Soldiers Point in the Sugar Grove Cemetery.
In addition to the wreath laying ceremonies held at the Sugar Grove Cemetery, the Henry Casey Camp members placed a wreath at the grave site of Thomas Benton Baldwin, who was the last surviving Clinton County Union Civil War veteran and is buried at the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Blanchester.
