Active in the Democratic Party, he became Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives; while serving in this post he was alleged to have embezzled congressional funds; some charges were subsequently dismissed, and he was acquitted of the others.
"[1] Born in West Middletown, Washington County, Pennsylvania, McNulty graduated from Jefferson College, and moved to Zanesville, Ohio, and then to Mount Vernon.
Though he had previously served in the militia and attained the rank of colonel, at the start of the Mexican–American War he joined the 1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a private.
Rob Roy MacGregor McNulty Converse become a nationally prominent Episcopal priest and U.S. scholar, and a chaplain with the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Returned to the field for the Battle of the Wilderness, McNulty's brigade was captured by Confederates, and he was held as a prisoner of war at Andersonville from May to December, 1864.