John Benton Callis

John Benton Callis Sr. (January 3, 1828 – September 24, 1898) was an American businessman, politician, Union Army officer, and Wisconsin pioneer. He served as a Union officer during the American Civil War and was then elected to the 40th U.S. Congress (1868–1869) as a Reconstruction-era U.S. Representative from Alabama. As a member of Congress, he was the author of the first Ku Klux Klan Act, though his version was defeated in the United States Senate. He later served one term in the Wisconsin State Assembly (1874), representing Grant County, Wisconsin. Over the course of his public life he was principally affiliated with the Republican Party, though his service in the Wisconsin legislature occurred while he was aligned with the short-lived Liberal Republican Party, which in Wisconsin formed part of the Democratic-backed Reform coalition.

Callis was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on January 3, 1828, the eldest child of Henry Callis and Christina (née Benton) Callis. He had two younger sisters. In 1834, when he was still a small child, his parents moved west to Carroll County, Tennessee, where the family lived until 1840. That year they continued farther west to the Wisconsin Territory and established a homestead near what is now Lancaster, in Grant County. Callis attended the local common schools around Lancaster, which were rudimentary in that early territorial period. As a young man he studied medicine under Dr. J. H. Higgins of Lancaster, but ultimately decided not to pursue a medical career.

In 1848 Callis left Wisconsin for Minnesota, where he was employed in the construction of Fort Ripley, a frontier military post on the upper Mississippi River. Drawn by new opportunities in the West, he joined the California Gold Rush in 1851 and engaged in both mining and mercantile pursuits. He abandoned these efforts in 1853 and returned to Wisconsin by way of Central America, a common but arduous route for travelers of the era. Upon his return to Lancaster he resumed mercantile business, establishing himself as a local businessman and community figure. During this period he married Martha “Mattie” Barnett of Brookville, Pennsylvania; the couple had five children. Through this marriage he became uncle by marriage to George Barnett, who later pursued a career in the United States Marine Corps and eventually became the 12th Commandant of the Marine Corps, serving from 1914 to 1920 during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Callis took a leading role in local mobilization for the Union cause. He helped organize a volunteer company from the Lancaster area known as the “Lancaster Union Guards.” Initially elected lieutenant of the company, he was commissioned captain when the unit was mustered into state service as Company K of the 7th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. The 7th Wisconsin Infantry entered federal service on September 2, 1861, and was assigned to the brigade of General Rufus King near Washington, D.C. There it joined the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry, the 6th Wisconsin Infantry, and the 19th Indiana Infantry in a formation that would become famous as the “Iron Brigade of the West,” or the “Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac,” noted for its discipline and heavy casualties in some of the war’s fiercest fighting.

During the Northern Virginia and Maryland campaigns of 1862, Callis rose to regimental command responsibilities. In the Battle of Gainesville (Brawner’s Farm) on August 28, 1862, the Iron Brigade earned its sobriquet for its stubborn stand, but the 7th Wisconsin suffered heavy officer casualties. As a result, Callis led the regiment through subsequent engagements in the Maryland Campaign, including the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, 1862, and the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. In recognition of his service and leadership, he was promoted to major on January 5, 1863. He continued with the regiment into the Gettysburg Campaign, where the Iron Brigade was among the first Union infantry to engage Confederate forces on the opening day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863. In the intense fighting west and north of the town, Callis was shot in the chest and left severely wounded. He lay on the field for three days while the battle raged and until Confederate forces withdrew. After being recovered and undergoing a long period of medical recuperation, he was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as a military superintendent of the War Department in Washington, D.C. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on February 11, 1865, and subsequently received a double brevet to brigadier general of volunteers for his wartime service.

Following the Civil War, Callis entered the Regular Army and was commissioned a captain in the 45th U.S. Infantry Regiment, one of the units organized for service in the postwar South. He was assigned to Reconstruction duty in Huntsville, Alabama, where he became involved in enforcing the new legal order following emancipation. On one notable occasion, he was called to a property where the owner continued to hold African Americans in bondage and to treat them as if slavery remained lawful. When Callis encountered the landowner preparing to whip a girl, he intervened and stabbed the man through the chest to prevent the assault. In gratitude for his actions, several citizens of Huntsville presented him with a gold watch with an inscribed case depicting scenes of the incident. He resigned his commission on February 4, 1868, but chose to remain in Alabama and soon entered politics.

Upon Alabama’s readmission to representation in the United States Congress during Reconstruction, Callis was elected as a Republican to the 40th Congress from Alabama’s 5th congressional district. He presented his credentials and took his seat on July 21, 1868, and served until March 3, 1869. During his brief tenure in the House of Representatives, he focused on issues related to Reconstruction and the protection of civil rights for freedpeople. He was the author of the first Ku Klux Klan Act, an early legislative attempt to curb the violence and intimidation perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations in the South. His bill passed the House of Representatives but was defeated in the United States Senate, foreshadowing later, more comprehensive enforcement legislation enacted in the early 1870s. Callis did not seek re-election at the end of his term and returned to private life.

After leaving Congress, Callis returned to Lancaster, Wisconsin, where he engaged in the real estate business and resumed his role as a local businessman. Remaining active in public affairs, he was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1874, representing Grant County. By this time he had aligned himself with the Liberal Republican movement, which in Wisconsin joined with Democrats and other reformers in the short-lived Reform coalition. He served a single one-year term in the Assembly, during which the coalition sought changes in railroad regulation and state administration. Although he had spent most of his political career as a Republican, this period reflected the fluid party alignments of the postwar era and the reform impulses of the 1870s.

In his later years, Callis gradually retired from active business and political pursuits, remaining in Lancaster with his family. He died there on September 24, 1898, and was interred in Hillside Cemetery in Lancaster, Wisconsin. His life spanned the era of westward expansion, civil war, and Reconstruction, and his career linked the frontier communities of the Upper Midwest with the turbulent politics of the postwar South. His family connections extended into the next generation of American military leadership through his nephew George Barnett, who rose to command the United States Marine Corps during World War I.