Legrand W. Perce
Legrand 'Winfield Perce' was a U.S. representative from Mississippi.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Perce completed preparatory studies.
He attended Genesee College in Lima, New York, and graduated from Albany Law School in 1857.
He was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced practice in Buffalo, New York. In 1859, he travelled to St. Louis, Missouri intending to live there, but he decided that, due to his anti-slavery views, he could never live in a slave state and instead settled in Chicago, Illinois. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he volunteered his services to Governor Yates of Illinois and served for 4 months on General Prentiss's staff in Cairo, Illinois, with the rank of captain.
In August 1861, he accepted an offer to join the Sixth Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry and was commissioned a second lieutenant.
He was promoted to the rank of captain in June 1862.
He was appointed captain in the United States Volunteers in August 1863 and was brevetted lieutenant colonel and colonel in 1865.
He settled in Natchez, Mississippi.
He was appointed register in bankruptcy in June 1867.
Upon readmission of the State of Mississippi to representation, Perce was elected as a Republican to the Forty-first Congress.
He was reelected to the Forty-second Congress and served from February 23, 1870, to March 3, 1873.
He served as chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor.
He was not a candidate for reelection in 1872.
He engaged in the practice of law and also in the real estate business at Chicago, Illinois, where he died March 16, 1911.
He was interred in Rosehill Cemetery.
External resources
- Memorials of Deceased Companions of the Commandery of the State of Illinois, Chicago, 1912, p. 639-44.
Category:1911 deaths
Category:Burials at Rosehill Cemetery
Category:Union army colonels
Category:Albany Law School alumni
Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Mississippi
Category:19th-century United States representatives