Lincoln's Rail-splitter

Lincoln's Rail-splitter
Author :
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
Total Pages : 278
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0252026497
ISBN-13 : 9780252026492
Rating : 4/5 (97 Downloads)

Synopsis Lincoln's Rail-splitter by : Mark A. Plummer

Like Lincoln, Oglesby was born in Kentucky and spent most of his youth in central Illinois, apprenticing as a lawyer in Springfield and standing for election to the Illinois legislature Congress, and U.S. Senate. Oglesby participated in the battles of Cerro Gordo and Vera Cruz during the Mexican-American War and made a small fortune in the gold rush of 1849. A superlative speaker, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in a campaign that featured the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, then was elected to the Illinois senate as Lincoln was being elected president.