Cassius Peck
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Cassius Peck
| image = Cassius Peck (Union Army Medal of Honor recipient).jpg
| caption = From 1903's Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1842|3|3|df=y}}
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1913|7|12|1842|3|3|df=y}}
| birth_place = Brookfield, Vermont, US
| death_place = Burlington, Vermont, US
| placeofburial_label = Place of burial
| placeofburial = Brookfield Cemetery, Brookfield, Vermont{{cite web|url=https://www.ourherald.com/articles/new-book-tells-story-of-civil-war-soldiers/|title=New Book Tells Story Of Civil War Soldiers - The Herald of Randolph|website=www.ourherald.com}}
| allegiance = {{flagicon|USA|1861}} United States
Union
| branch = {{army|USA}}
Union Army
| rank = 25px Second Sergeant
| unit = Company F, 1st U.S. Sharpshooters
| battles = American Civil War
| awards = {{Flagicon image|Medal of Honor ribbon.svg}} Medal of Honor{{cite web|url=http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/1044/peck-cassius.php|title=CMOHS.org - Private PECK, CASSIUS, U.S. Army|website=www.cmohs.org}}
| spouse = Luna Arnold Sprague (m. 1868 d. 1901), Alice Gaylor (m.1905 d.1912)
| children = 11
}}
Cassius Peck (3 March 1842 – 12 July 1913) was a Medal of Honor recipient and member of the Vermont legislature who served in the American Civil War.
Early life
Peck was born on 3 March 1842 to Reuben Peck and Hannah G. Peck. He had a brother, Marshall Reuben Peck, born in 1846. He was educated at the Montpelier seminary and West Randolph Academy.{{cite web|url=https://vermontcivilwar.org/get.php?input=25816|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013050614/http://vermontcivilwar.org/get.php?input=25816|url-status=usurped|archive-date=13 October 2014|title=Vermont Civil War, Lest We Forget|website=vermontcivilwar.org}}
Civil War
Peck entered Company F of the 1st United States Sharpshooters as a private in Brookfield, Vermont on 12 September 1861.{{cite web|url=https://www.fold3.com/document/282536534/|title=Peck, Cassius Reuben (1880) › Page 1 - Fold3.com}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Cr5seuiQ2wC&q=Cassius+Peck&pg=PA272|title=Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation|first=Hiram|last=Carleton|date=1 October 1903|publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com|isbn=9780806347943|via=Google Books}} He was honorably discharged on 12 September 1864.
=Medal of Honor=
He was awarded the Medal of Honor on 12 October 1892 for his actions on 19 September 1862.{{cite web|url=http://antietam.aotw.org/moh.php?citation_id=75|title=MoH: Cassius Peck|website=antietam.aotw.org}} He was a private then, leading a small group of sharpshooters which he used to drive away a much larger of Confederate infantry, capturing two artillery pieces.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUjDdl0YyzUC&q=Cassius+Peck&pg=PT334|title=Something Abides: Discovering the Civil War in Today's Vermont|first=Howard|last=Coffin|date=6 May 2013|publisher=The Countryman Press|isbn=9781581577778|via=Google Books}}
{{blockquote|The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Private Cassius Peck, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 19 September 1862, while serving with Company F, 1st U.S. Sharpshooters, in action at Blackburn's Ford, Virginia. Private Peck took command of such soldiers as he could get and attacked and captured a Confederate battery of four guns. Also, while on a reconnaissance, he overtook and captured a Confederate soldier.{{Cite web|url=https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/320|title=Cassius Peck - Recipient - Military Times Hall Of Valor|website=valor.militarytimes.com|language=en|access-date=2018-04-22}}}}
Later life
In 1867, he married Luna Arnold Sprague. He served as a member of both the Vermont House of Representatives and Vermont Senate. He represented Brookfield in the House in 1882 and 1886, and served as chairman of the House committee on highways, bridges, and ferries. Peck represented Orange County in the Senate in 1896, and was chairman of its committee on military affairs.{{Cite news|title=Honorable Cassius Peck Dead|date=July 18, 1913|work=Middlebury Register}} Selling his three farms, totaling 271 acres, Peck moved himself and his family to Burlington.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wn5DAQAAMAAJ&q=Cassius+Peck&pg=PA20|title=Good Homes in Vermont: A List of Desirable Farms for Sale|first=Vermont State Board of|last=Agriculture|date=28 April 1893|publisher=Press of the Watchman Publishing Company|via=Google Books}} He was a trustee of the University of Vermont as well as the Vermont Soldiers' Home, and maintained a farm up until his death. His wife died in 1901 in Burlington. Peck's son, Cassius R. Peck, was born on 1 July 1880, and would go on to serve as a major during the First World War.{{cite web|url=http://www.onlinebiographies.info/or/peck-cr.htm|title=Major Cassius R. Peck - Oregon biographies|website=www.onlinebiographies.info}} Peck had ten other children, five of whom died before 1912.
Peck was a Freemason, and was treasurer and master of the Brookfield lodge, also known as Mystic Star Lodge No. 97.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S0E8AQAAMAAJ&q=Cassius+Peck&pg=PA207|title=Proceedings of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Vermont|first=Freemasons Grand Lodge of|last=Vermont|date=28 April 1883|publisher=The Lodge|via=Google Books}} He worked in the Grand Army of the Republic, the Order of the Eastern Star, and was appointed by the Governor of Vermont to select and place the state monument that would be displayed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.{{Cite news|url=https://brookfieldhistoricalsociety.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/brookfield_history_e-book_pages_245-258_family_histories_i-r.pdf|title=History of Brookfield, Vermont}}
See also
{{Portal|Biography|American Civil War}}
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Peck, Cassius}}
Category:People from Brookfield, Vermont
Category:People from Burlington, Vermont
Category:American Civil War recipients of the Medal of Honor
Category:People of Vermont in the American Civil War
Category:Republican Party members of the Vermont House of Representatives