Brigadier General John Franklin Farnsworth Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

John Franklin Farnsworth (1820-1897), a Chicago lawyer, represented Illinois' 2nd District in the US Congress (1857-1861, 1863-1873). At the beginning of the Civil War he organized the 8th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, serving as its colonel. He participated in the Peninsula campaign and skirmished with General Stuart's cavalry in northern Virginia. Brevetted a brigadier general in December 1862, he resigned is commission when returned to Congress. Farnsworth, a Radical Republican, supported strong Reconstruction measures and the impeachment of President Johnson. As the political winds shifted, he was denied re-nomination in 1872. His son Lt. Elon John Farnsworth, died in an heroic cavalry charge at Gettysburg (July 3, 1863), and is alleged to haunt the inn named in his honor there.