Sen. Francis Cockrell (D-MO)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Cockrell

Francis Marion Cockrell (October 1, 1834 – December 13, 1915) was a Confederate military commander and American politician from the state of Missouri. He served as a United States Senator from Missouri for five terms. He was a prominent member of the famed South–Cockrell–Hargis family of Southern politicians.

Early life

Cockrell was born in Warrensburg, Missouri. His older brother was Jeremiah Vardaman Cockrell, who was a congressman from Texas in the 1890s. Francis Cockrell attended local schools and became a lawyer as a young man, practicing law in Warrensburg.

Civil War

At the beginning of the American Civil War in 1861, Cockrell joined the Confederate Army as a captain. He was an important leader in the Vicksburg Campaign and was wounded in the hand by an exploding shell during the Siege of Vicksburg. He was promoted to brigadier general on July 18, 1863. In April 1865, shortly before the end of the war, Cockrell was captured in Alabama, but was paroled after a few weeks. He returned to his law practice in Missouri.

Postbellum career

In 1874, Cockrell, who became a member of the United States Democratic Party, was elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri by the state legislature. He served in the Senate from 1875 to 1905, when he retired. He held several committee chairmanships, including the chairmanships of the Claims Committee, Engrossed Bills Committee and Appropriations Committee during his senate career.

He was appointed to the Interstate Commerce Commission by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905. He served on the Commission until 1910. Cockrell then became part of a commission which negotiated the boundaries between the state of Texas and the New Mexico Territory, which was about to become a state. In 1912, he became a director of ordnance at the War Department. He remained in that job until his death in Washington, D.C.

Info added per DAR's "Lineage Book of the Charter Members" by Mary S Lockwood and published 1895