Background
Hovey, Charles Edward was born on April 26, 1827 in Thetford, Vermont, United States. Son of Alfred and Abigail (Howard) Hovey.
Hovey, Charles Edward was born on April 26, 1827 in Thetford, Vermont, United States. Son of Alfred and Abigail (Howard) Hovey.
He graduated from Dartmouth in 1852, spending his summer vacations teaching school to help pay for his education. He briefly studied law and taught school in Framingham, Massachusetts, before moving to Illinois, where he served as principal and then superintendent of schools in Peoria.
He assisted in the organization of Illinois State University, teaching the first classes and serving as president from 1857 to 1861. Their son Richard Hovey became a well-known poet, artist, and college professor When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Hovey resigned from the university at the end of the school year and raised the 33rd Illinois Infantry, a regiment organized in McLean County and largely comprising teachers and former students from his school.
Hovey insisted that the students graduate before enlisting.
He was commissioned colonel on August 15, 1861, and took the regiment to Missouri, where it saw service in a number of small actions during the winter. At the Battle of Cotton Plant in July 1862, Hovey"s badly outnumbered Illinois and Wisconsin infantry repeatedly repulsed a series of poorly organized attacks by Confederate Colonel
William H. Parsons"s two Texas cavalry regiments. Hovey was appointed a Brigadier General of Volunteers to rank from September 5, 1862.
However, the United States. Senate did not to act upon his nomination within the statuary period, and it expired by law March 4, 1863.
In the interim, he played a key role in the capture of Arkansas Post in January 1863, where William T. Sherman reported that Hovey had been "wounded in his arm by a shell, but continued and still continues to command his Brigade." Suffering lingering effects from his injury, Hovey soon left the field service. With the close of the war, he was given a brevet promotion to major general "for gallant and meritorious conduct in battle, particularly at Arkansas Post, January 11, 1863."
Having once briefly studied law, he became a successful pension lobbyist and practicing attorney. He died in Washington District of Columbia and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
A building at Illinois State University was renamed "Hovey Hall" in 1959 in honor of Charles East. Hovey.
lieutenant houses administrative offices, including the Office of the President.
He became President of the State Teacher"s Association and a member of the first Illinois State Board of Education.
Married Harriette Spofford, October 9, 1854, 3 children including Richard.