John Marshall Harlan I

[David Ireland]

John Marshall Harlan I was perhaps the greatest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He was born into a slaveholding family in Kentucky, and decided to fight for the Union. He would later write some of the most powerfully persuasive dissents in the history of our law in the Civil Rights Cases, Lochner (here he is much more persuasive imho than the greatly overrated Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr,), Pollock, E.C. Knight, and Plessy. Had the court adopted his understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment, Jim Crow would have been ruled unconstitutional 60 years earlier.

I know very little about his war record, and I'm hopeful that someone here can enrich my understanding.

 

[RedRover]

I understand he was colonel of the 10th Kentucky Infantry, USA. Here's a report he gave regarding actions against Morgan's late 1862 raid into Kentucky:

 

[Sheltowee]

Served until 1863- resigned upon the death of his father. Became the state attorney general.
Opposed the emancipation proclamation and the 13th amendment- supported McClellan in 1864.
Not so familiar with him, but he's an intriguing subject.