Hovey

his service (1854-55), he rendered a decision,
speaking for the court, which declared uncon-
stitutional a part of the new law establishing the
Indiana public school system. This decision was
condemned by the friends of the schools and
Hovey was characterized by them as narrow-
minded and reactionary (Esarey, post, II, 702).
During this period of his life he was an ardent
Democrat and he served as president of the Dem-
ocratic state convention in 1855. In 1856 he was
appointed United States district attorney by
President Pierce, but was removed in 1858 by
President Buchanan for his support of Stephen
A. Douglas. In that year he ran for Congress
as a Republican, but was defeated.

At the opening of the Civil War he was made
colonel of the ist Regiment of the Indiana Le-
gion, and later colonel of the 24th Indiana Infan-
try. He was advanced to the rank of brigadier-
general, Apr. 28, 1862, for gallantry at the bat-
tle of Shiloh, and in General Grant's official re-
port of the Vicksburg campaign, was credited
with winning the key battle, that of Champion's
Hill, where his brigade lost one third of its
strength in killed and wounded (War of the Re-
bellion: Official Records, Army, i sen XXIV, pt
i, pp. 44 ff,). In July 1864 he was brevetted
major-general of volunteers and directed to raise
10,000 recruits. This he did by asking for the en-
listment of unmarried men only, and as a result
this command came to be known as "Hovey's
Babies." In 1864-65 he was placed in command
of the district of Indiana, then considered a diffi-
cult post because of the supposed danger from
the "Sons of Liberty" and "Knights of the Golden
Circle" who were thought at the time to be nu-
merous in Indiana.

After the war he was appointed (December
1865) minister to Peru, and held that post until
1870, when he returned to his law practice at
Mount Vernon, Ind. In 1872 he refused the
Republican nomination for governor, but in
1886 was elected to Congress and two years later
was chosen to the governorship. In this cam-
paign he was accused of being exclusive, aristo-
cratic, and unpopular. It was said that he claimed
to be the reincarnation of Napoleon, and it was
his custom to retire to solitary contemplation on
the anniversary of Napoleon's death (Dunn,
post, I, 481-82). He died in office.

Hovey was a man of distinguished appearance
and soldierly bearing, and maintained a reputa-
tion throughout his life for integrity and public
spirit. He was married on Nov. 24, 1844, to
Mary Ann James, a native of Baton Rouge, La.,
the daughter of Col. E. R. James. She was the
mother of five children of whom only two lived

Hovey

to maturity. After her death, which occurred in
1863, he married Rosa Alice, daughter of Caleb
Smith and widow of Maj. William F. Carey.

[Sketch by Hovey's son, Charles J* Hovey, in Ind.
Hist. Bull. (Extra No.), Dec. 1925; Logan Esarey, A
Hist, of Ind. (1918), vol. II; J. P. Dunn, Indiana and
Indianans (1919), vol. I; C. M. Walker, Lives of Gen.
Alvin P. Hovey and Ira /. Chase (1888); Battles and
Leaders of the Civil War, vol. Ill (1888); Personal
Memoirs of U. S. Grant, vol. I (1885); Catherine Mer-
rill, The Soldier of Indiana in the War for the Union
(2 vols., 1866-69) ; Biog. Dir. Am. Cong. (1928); The
Hovey Book (1913); Indianapolis Sentinel, Nov. 24,
1891J W.W.S.

HOVEY, CHARLES EDWARD (Apr. 26,
i827-Nov. 17, 1897), educator, Union soldier,
was born in Thetford, Orange County, Vt, the
son of Alfred and Abigail (Howard) Hovey,
and a brother of Alvah Hovey [q.v.]. At the age
of twenty-five he graduated from Dartmouth Col-
lege, having taught in the district schools during
the vacation periods in order to replenish his
meager funds. From 1852 to 1854 he was princi-
pal of the free high school at Framingham, Mass.,
and spent some of his time in the study of law.
In the latter year he moved to Peoria, 111., where
he was first, principal of the boys' high school
(1854-56), and later (1856-57), superintendent
of the public schools. An able administrator and
an energetic, progressive educator, he soon made
his influence felt throughout the state. He placed
the Peoria schools upon a firm foundation and
acquired an enviable reputation as a popular lec-
turer on educational topics. In 1856 he was
elected president of the Illinois State Teachers'
Association and in 1857 became a member of the
first Illinois board of education. From 1856 to
1858 he was also editor of the Illinois Teacher,
a monthly magazine established as the organ of
the Teachers' Association.

In order to provide properly trained teachers
for the common schools, the Illinois legislature
on Feb. 18, 1857, authorized the establishment
of a state normal university. Hovey was ap-
pointed principal and, after visiting the normal
schools of the East, in October 1857, with one
assistant and forty-three students, began to lay
the foundation at Normal, two miles north of
Bloomington, of what was to become one of the
leading institutions of this type in the United
States. His first report demonstrated his peda-
gogical and administrative ability. By 1861 the
University had completed the construction of one
of the finest normal school buildings in the coun-
try.

The outbreak of the Civil War interrupted
Hovey's career as an educator. A regiment large-
ly composed of the students and teachers of the
University was organized and Hovey on Aug.

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