Charles D. Pennebaker

Charles D. Pennebaker
Member of the Kentucky Senate
from the 16th district
In office
August 1, 1859 – July 1862
Preceded byGibson Mallory
Succeeded byIsaac P. Miller
Member of the
Kentucky House of Representatives
from Louisville's 4th district
In office
January 4, 1858 – August 1, 1859
Preceded byPeter B. Muir
Succeeded byU. C. Sherrill
Member of the Louisville Common Council
In office
April 1854 – April 1856
Personal details
Born
Charles David Pennebaker

November 3, 1825
Nelson County, Kentucky, US
DiedJune 21, 1888(1888-06-21) (aged 62)
Washington, D.C., US
Resting placeCave Hill Cemetery
Political partyOpposition Party (Southern U.S.)
ProfessionLawyer
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Years of serviceMarch 21, 1862 – April 10, 1864
RankColonel
Unit27th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment

Charles David Pennebaker (November 3, 1825 – June 21, 1888) was an American politician, attorney, and soldier. He served in the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives and played an important role in convincing Kentucky to stay in the Union during the American Civil War. He was a Union colonel during the Civil War and was also Kentucky's military agent in Washington, D.C.

Early life

Pennebaker was born in Nelson County, Kentucky on November 3, 1825.[1][2][3] He was of German ancestry.[4]

Career

Pennebaker was a private and second lieutenant with General John Stuart Williams in the 4th Regiment of the Kentucky Volunteers the Mexican–American War from 1846 to July 1848.[3][5][6][7] He became an attorney in Nelson County, Kentucky, in 1850.[2] Later, he moved his law practice to Louisville, Kentucky.[2] By 1859, he had established the firm Boone & Pennebaker with William P. Boone.[8][9] However, that firm dissolved in 1861 when both men were elected to the Kentucky Senate.[10]

In March 1854, Pennebaker ran for the Louisville common council from the eighth ward and was elected in April.[11][12][13] He was re-elected to the common council in April 1855.[14][15][13] He declined to run for re-election in 1856.[16] In January 1856, the Kentucky Legislature approved his appointed as a notary for Jefferson County.[17]

During a special election to fill a vacancy, Pennebaker was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1857, representing Jefferson County from January 4, 1858, to 1859.[2][18][19] He ran for the Kentucky Senate in 1859 under the Opposition Party ticket.[20] He was elected and served from 1859 to 1861, again representing Jefferson County.[2][21] He was a member of the senate's judiciary committee.[22]

Pennebaker opposed Kentucky's secession from the Union.[6][10] In January 1861, he was chairman of a meeting convened to determine Kentucky's position in the Civil War.[23] Pennebaker was important in getting Kentucky to remain part of the Union.[3][24]

At the start of the American Civil War in 1861, Pennebaker resigned from the Kentucky Senate.[6][25] He organized a regiment of at least 700 men by November 1861 as part of the Kentucky State Guard.[5][26] This regiment was mustered in as the 27th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) in on January 21, 1862, with Pennebaker being elected its colonel.[27] The Louisville Journal noted, "Col. Pennebaker will make an admirable officer; he is a skillful disciplinarian and has endeared him to his soldiers."[27] During the Siege of Knoxville, Pennebaker worked with General James M. Shackleford and Col. Frank Lane Wolford to break the enemy line by charging with the 8th and 11th Texas, the 3rd Arkansas, and Dibrell's Tennessee brigade.[28] His horse during the war was Bob, later the subject of the poem "My War-Horse Bob".[29] He was its colonel until April 10, 1864.[2]

In April 1864, Governor Thomas E. Bramlette appointed Pennebaker to be the Kentucky claim agent in Washington, D.C.[30][31] Despite the newspaper editorial consensus the he should remain in the military and allow a civilian to fill the position,[30][31] Pennebaker became the Kentucky claim agent or military agent, starting in April 1864.[2][26][32] In this capacity, he sought compensation for supplies taken for commissary stores, horses taken for quartermaster stores, and damages in Kentucky that were cause by military action.[33][33] He also completed applications and presented any claims of soldiers or their heirs for no charge.[32]

In July 1866, Pennebaker, L. B. Grigsby of Kentucky, and John McGraw of Ohio were charged by the U.S. House of Representatives with witnessing and participating in a premeditated assault by Hon. Lovell Rousseau of Kentucky of the Hon. Josiah B. Grinnell of Iowa.[34][35] In October 1866, Pennebaker accompanied Governor Bramlette, General Edward H. Hobson, General George W. Monroe, and Col. Wake Holman on a tour of New York and New Jersey to make political speeches to before 10,000 soldiers and civilians in favor of a return to the former Union.[36]

Although some sources indicated his role as a military agent ended in 1865,[2] he was still working as the state's agent in June 1867 when he procured $121,000 ($2,722,212 in 2024) for the Kentucky treasury.[37][38] In October 1867, he was working on bounties that were still due to soldiers from Kentucky.[39] The Kentucky Senate reaffirmed Pennebaker's position as state claim agent in Washington, D.C. in March 1868; he worked in this capacity for many years.[40][24]

In 1864, Pennebaker established a law firm in Washington, D.C.[41] His son Charles became a partner in the firm in 1877.[41] In 1883, Pennebaker established the law firm C. D. Pennebaker & Sons with his sons John Speed Pennebaker and Charles D. Pennebaker Jr.[42] The firm specialized in prosecuting claims against the federal government.[42] John left the firm in 1887. However, the brothers ended up in court over the firm and its assets in December 1888.[42]

Personal life

Pennebaker married Anne Eliza Elliott on November 8, 1851, in Nelson County, Kentucky.[2][43] She was the daughter of a doctor from New Haven, Kentucky.[6] Their children included Charles Darwin Pennebaker, Lulie Pennebaker, Boone Pennebaker, Elliott Pennebaker, and John Speed Pennebaker.[2][6] He enslaved one person in 1860.[2] When he was sent to Washington, D.C. for work in 1866, the family moved there.[3][6][42]

In May 1857, Pennebaker helped organize a citizen military unit called the Falls City Guard and was elected its captain.[44][45][46] However, he resigned from the citizen guard in December 1857.[47] Pennebaker served on the national central executive committee of The State and the National Convention of Union Soldiers and Sailors, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio on February 22, 1868.[48] In 1879, he served on the committee that helped organize the 11th annual reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland in Washington, D.C.[49]

In January 1852, Pennebaker was on the committee that invited Lajos Kossuth, the exiled Hungarian freedom fighter, to Louisville.[50] In April 1884, he was elected as one of the founding secretaries of the National Protective League.[51][52] He was a member of Calvary Episcopal Church in Louisville.[53]

He was "dangerously ill" in July 1869; he recovered but was sick again in early May 1888 with an illness he contracted during the Mexican-American War.[54][55][24] Pennebaker died on June 21, 1888, at his home on Corcoran Street in Washington, D.C.[1][53][3] He was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.[1][53][24]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Charles D. Pennebaker's Memorial". Veterans Legacy Memorial. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Retrieved 2025-08-13.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Charles David Pennebaker". Civil War Governors of Kentucky. Kentucky Historical Society. Retrieved 2025-08-13.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Death of Col Pennebaker". Evening Star. Washington, D.C. 1888-06-21. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Pennypacker, Samuel Whitaker (1872). Annals of Phoenixville and Its Vicinity: From the Settlement to the Year 1871, Giving the Origin and Growth of the Borough with Information Concerning the Adjacent Townships of Chester and Montgomery Counties and the Valley of the Schuylkill. Philadelphia: Bavis & Pennypacker Printers. pp. 276–277 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b "Col. Charles D. Pennebaker". The Louisville Journal. 1861-11-13. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Col. Charles D. Pennebaker". The Kentuckian-Citizen. Paris, Kentucky. 1888-06-23. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Gardner, Charles Kitchell (1860). A Dictionary of All Officers: Who Have Been Commissioned, Or Have Been Appointed and Served, in the Army of the United States, Since the Inauguration of Their First President, in 1789, to the First January, 1853 (2nd ed.). New York: D. Van Nostrand. p. 549 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Tanner, Henry, ed. (1859). The Louisville Directory and Business Advertiser for 1859-1860. Louisville: Maxwell & Company. p. 34 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Johnston, Josiah Stoddard (1896). Memorial History of Louisville from Its First Settlement to the Year 1896. Vol. 1. Chicago: American Biographical Publishing Company. p. 185 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ a b Boone, William Pennebaker (April 1889). "William P. Boone and J. Rowan Boone". Magazine of Western History. 9 (6): 715 – via Google BOoks.
  11. ^ "The Municipal Campaign". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1854-03-28. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "City Election". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1854-04-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b Strattan, Oliver H.; Vaughn, John M. (1857). A Collection of the State and Municipal Laws: In Force, and Applicable to the City of Louisville, Ky. Louisville: C. Settle, Printer. p. 7 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ "The New City Government". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1855-04-09. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Board of Aldermen". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1855-04-12. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Declined". The Louisville Journal. 1856-04-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Kentucky Legislature". Louisville Evening Bulletin. 1856-01-15. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Capt. Charles D. Pennebaker". The Louisville Journal. 1858-01-04. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "House of Representatives". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1858-01-05. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Opposition State Ticket". The Louisville Journal. 1859-07-30. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Johnston, Josiah Stoddard (1896). Memorial History of Louisville from Its First Settlement to the Year 1896. Vol. 1. Chicago: American Biographical Publishing Company. p. 135 – via Google Books.
  22. ^ "Message from the House". Tri-Weekly Kentucky Yeoman. Frankfort, Kentucky. 1861-09-07. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Great Union Meeting in Kentucky". Weekly Oregon Statesman. Salem, Oregon. 1861-01-07. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ a b c d "Kentucky's Military Agent at the Capital is Dead". The Washington Post. 1888-06-22. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "The Cincinnati Papers State". The Louisville Journal. 1862-08-01. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ a b "Charles D. Pennebaker, Esq". Louisville Journal. 1864-04-22. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13.
  27. ^ a b "Organizing the Twenty Seventh Kentucky Regiment". The Louisville Journal. 1862-01-23. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ Evans, Clement Anselm (1899). Confederate Military History: Tennessee. Vol. 8. Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company. p. 124.
  29. ^ Armistead, Gene C. (2013). Horses and Mules in the Civil War: A Complete History with a Roster of More than 700 War Horses. Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-7864-7363-2. Retrieved August 9, 2025.
  30. ^ a b "Miscellaneous Items". The St Louis Republic. 1864-04-07. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ^ a b "It is State". Louisville Journal. 1864-04-04. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13.
  32. ^ a b "Circular No. 4". Louisville Weekly Journal. 1865-10-31. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ^ a b "Indemnity for Military Trespasses". Louisville Journal. 1864-05-18. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ^ "House of Representatives pt. 2". The Pittsburgh Commercial. 1866-07-16. pp. 1, pt.2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  35. ^ "XXXIXth Congress. First Session". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1866-07-18. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  36. ^ "From Washington". The Louisville Daily Journal. 1866-10-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  37. ^ "Personal". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1867-06-21. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  38. ^ "News Items". The Evansville Daily Journal. 1867-06-27. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  39. ^ "Important to Soldiers". The Maysville Republican. 1867-10-12. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  40. ^ "Frankfort". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1868-03-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  41. ^ a b Illustrated Washington: Our Capital, 1890. New York: American Publishing and Engraving Company. 1890. p. 125 – via Googe Books.
  42. ^ a b c d "A Family Dispute in Court". The Washington Post. 1888-12-25. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  43. ^ "Married". The Louisville Journal. 1851-11-20. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  44. ^ "Military Organization". Louisville Evening Bulletin. 1857-05-25. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  45. ^ "The Gentlemen Intenting to Organize a New Military Comany". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1857-05-25. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  46. ^ "Military and Civic Ball to be Given by the Falls City Guards". The Louisville Journal. 1857-08-18. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  47. ^ "At a Meeting of the Citizen Guard". The Louisville Daily Courier. 1857-12-10. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  48. ^ "City Notices". Daily National Intelligencer and Washington Express. Washington, D.C. 1868-02-22. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  49. ^ Society of the Army of the Cumberland Eleventh Reunion, Washington, D.C. 1879. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke Company. 1880. p. 14 – via Google Books.
  50. ^ "Kossuth Call". The Louisville Journal. 1852-01-31. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  51. ^ "For Personal Rights, As They Are Understood by a Large Number of Citizens". The Critic and Record. Washington, D.C. 1884-04-10. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  52. ^ "A Protective League". Evening Star. Washington, D.C. 1884-04-10. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  53. ^ a b c "Col. Pennebaker's Remains". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. 1888-06-23. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  54. ^ "Personal". Republican Banner. Nashville, Tennessee. 1869-07-23. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
  55. ^ "Col. Charles D. Pennebaker". The Courier-Journal. 1888-05-09. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-13 – via Newspapers.com.
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