Mahlon Dickerson Manson

Mahlon Dickerson Manson (February 20, 1820 – February 4, 1895) was a druggist, Indiana politician, and a Union general in the American Civil War. Although most contemporary and later sources, including his tombstone, give 1820 as his year of birth, other evidence, including a family Bible and an 1894 article in the Indiana Weekly Argus, indicates that he was actually born in 1818. He was born in Piqua, Miami County, Ohio, to David Manson Jr. and Sarah Cornwall, and was a descendant of David Manson, who served as an aide to General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. When he was still young, his family moved west to Crawfordsville, Indiana, which would remain the center of his personal and professional life.

Manson received his early education in the schools of Indiana and worked as a schoolteacher in Montgomery County, Indiana. Drawn to the study of medicine, he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he pursued medical studies and later gave medical lectures in New Orleans, Louisiana. Returning to Crawfordsville, he established himself as a druggist, a profession that combined his medical training with commercial activity and placed him among the town’s leading citizens. His growing prominence in the community led him into public affairs, and he became a member of the Indiana Legislature, beginning a long association with Democratic Party politics in the state.

Manson first saw military service during the Mexican–American War. He served with the 5th Indiana Volunteers as a captain, gaining experience in command and field operations that would prove important two decades later. After the war he resumed his business as a druggist in Crawfordsville and continued to build his political career. By the eve of the Civil War he was recognized as a significant local leader, combining legislative experience, military service, and professional standing in the community.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Manson offered his services to the Union. He was appointed a captain in the 10th Indiana Infantry at the beginning of the conflict and was promoted to colonel in less than a month, reflecting both his prior military experience and his political influence. Serving in the Army of the Ohio, he commanded a brigade at the Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky in January 1862, one of the early Union victories in the Western Theater. For his conduct in that engagement he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on March 24, 1862. Later that year, at the Battle of Richmond, Kentucky, he again led troops in the field, where he was wounded in the thigh and captured by Confederate forces. He was exchanged after about two months and returned to active duty.

Following his exchange, Manson took part in operations against Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan during Morgan’s raid into Ohio in 1863. Over a brief span of two months, he advanced rapidly through higher levels of responsibility, moving from brigade command to division command and then to command of the XXIII Corps in the Army of the Ohio. As corps commander he participated in the Knoxville Campaign in East Tennessee, seeing action at the Battle of Campbell’s Station and in the defense of Knoxville. Subsequently he returned to brigade command in the Army of the Ohio during the Atlanta Campaign. In May 1864, during the Battle of Resaca, Georgia, he was seriously wounded, effectively ending his front-line combat service.

After the Civil War, Manson transitioned fully into political life as a Democrat representing Indiana. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives and served one term in the Forty-second Congress from 1871 to 1873. In Congress he participated in the legislative process during a significant period of Reconstruction-era politics, representing the interests of his Indiana constituents and contributing to national debates as a member of the Democratic Party. Following his congressional service, he remained active in state affairs, serving as state auditor of Indiana, a position that placed him at the center of the state’s fiscal administration.

Manson’s political career culminated in his election as the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Indiana. He held that office from 1885 to 1886, serving under Governor Isaac P. Gray. In addition to his elected positions, he was appointed a commissioner for the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in downtown Indianapolis, contributing to the planning and oversight of what became one of the state’s most prominent memorials to its veterans. His prominence as a Civil War general and state leader was recognized in various commemorations, including later artistic depictions such as a mural featuring his likeness in Campbellsville, Kentucky, near the sites of his wartime service.

In his later years, Manson remained a respected figure in Indiana public life, associated both with his long record of military service and his extensive career in state and national politics. He died on February 4, 1895, in Frankfort, Indiana. Manson was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Crawfordsville, Indiana, returning in death to the community that had been his home for most of his life and the base from which he had risen to prominence as a soldier, legislator, and lieutenant governor.