Devens, Charles, Jr.

Devens, Charles, Jr.

(1820–91) soldier, jurist; born in Charlestown, Mass. An 1838 Harvard graduate, he practiced law and took a keen interest in the militia. Commanding Union volunteers, he fought on the Peninsula and at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville and led the advance on Richmond in April 1865. After the war, he served on the Massachusetts Superior Court (1867–73) and Supreme Court (1873–77; 1881–91) with time out to serve as Rutherford B. Hayes's attorney general (1877–81).