Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/39

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James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831–September 19, 1881) was the twentieth President of the United States. He had also served as a major general in the United States Army, and as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield was the second U.S. President to be assassinated — Abraham Lincoln was the first. Garfield had the second shortest presidency in U.S. history, after William Henry Harrison's. In office for six months and fifteen days, President Garfield, a Republican, served for less than four months before being shot and fatally wounded on July 2, 1881. He is the only member of the House of Representatives to have been in office when elected President.

With the start of the Civil War, Garfield enlisted in the Union Army, and was assigned the task of driving Confederate forces out of eastern Kentucky in November 1861. He later served as a brigade commander at the Battle of Shiloh and during in the subsequent Siege of Corinth. His most notable service to the field was as Chief of Staff for William S. Rosecrans, commander of the Army of the Cumberland.