Lemuel Todd

Lemuel Todd (July 29, 1817 – May 12, 1891) was an American lawyer, Civil War officer, and politician who served two nonconsecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, first as an Oppositionist representing the 16th congressional district from 1855 to 1857 and later as a Republican representing an at-large congressional district from 1873 to 1875. He was born in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where he spent most of his life. Todd received his early education locally and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, graduating in 1839. Following his graduation, he read law in the office of General Samuel Alexander, a prominent local attorney, and was admitted to the Cumberland County bar in 1841. He then established a law practice in Carlisle, building a professional reputation that would support his later political and military service.

In his personal life, Todd married Sarah Anna Watson of Adams County, Pennsylvania, in 1849. The couple had several children and maintained their home in Carlisle, which remained Todd’s principal residence throughout his legal, military, and political career. His growing prominence as a lawyer and community figure in south-central Pennsylvania helped position him for elective office during a period of intense political realignment in the 1850s.

Todd entered national politics in the midst of the fracturing of traditional party structures over the issue of slavery and sectional tensions. In 1854 he was elected as an Oppositionist to the 34th United States Congress, representing Pennsylvania’s 16th congressional district. During this first term in Congress, from 1855 to 1857, he served on the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee for Public Buildings and Grounds. His affiliation as an Oppositionist reflected the coalition of anti-Democratic and often anti-slavery elements that were coalescing into the emerging Republican Party. He ran for reelection in 1856 as a Republican but was an unsuccessful candidate, after which he returned to his law practice in Carlisle.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Todd took an active role in the Union war effort. He raised a company of volunteers from Cumberland County known as the Carlisle Guards, which was accepted into federal service as Company I of the 1st Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment, part of the Pennsylvania Reserves infantry division. Todd entered service as captain of Company I and was subsequently promoted to major, becoming third in command of the regiment. He saw combat with the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves in several major engagements, including the Battle of Gaines’s Mill, the Second Battle of Bull Run, and the Battle of South Mountain. At Gaines’s Mill, when Colonel Richard Biddle Roberts was assigned to brigade command, Todd briefly assumed command of the regiment. His active field service was cut short in 1862 when severe illness forced him to resign his commission.

Although no longer fit for front-line duty, Todd continued to support the Union cause in an administrative and organizational capacity. He assisted in managing the influx of drafted men in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, working principally in Philadelphia to help organize and process conscripts for the Union Army. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin appointed him inspector general of state troops on the governor’s staff, a position in which Todd bore responsibility for the organization, readiness, and oversight of militia and State Guard units. His role was especially important during the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania led by General Robert E. Lee in 1863, when state forces were mobilized in response to the threat that culminated in the Gettysburg Campaign. After the war, Todd resumed his law practice in Carlisle, continuing his involvement in public affairs and Republican politics.

Todd returned to national office in the postwar Reconstruction era. In 1872 he was elected as a Republican to the 43rd United States Congress, this time representing Pennsylvania’s at-large congressional district. Serving from 1873 to 1875, he sat on the Committee on Elections and the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department. His second term in Congress took place during a critical period of Reconstruction policy, economic adjustment following the Civil War, and the early stirrings of the Gilded Age. Todd chose not to be a candidate for renomination in 1874 and again resumed the practice of law in Carlisle after leaving Congress. Across his two terms in the House of Representatives, he contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his Pennsylvania constituents as both an Oppositionist and later as a Republican.

In his later years, Todd remained a respected figure in Carlisle, recognized for his long service as an attorney, his leadership as an officer in the Pennsylvania Reserves during the Civil War, and his contributions in Congress. He continued his legal work until declining health in old age. Lemuel Todd died in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on May 12, 1891, closing a life that had spanned the antebellum era, the Civil War, and the early decades of Reconstruction and industrial expansion in the United States.