Charles Harvey Denby

During his early youth, Denby's father, a Virginia ship-owner and interested in European trade, was appointed to a post at Marseilles, France.

Evansville was then a town of six thousand inhabitants, which, from its position on the Ohio River, at the terminus of the Wabash and Erie Canal, seemed destined to a great development.

With the attack on Fort Sumter marking the outbreak of the American Civil War, Denby raised a company of volunteer soldiers and guarded the powder magazine near Evansville, Indiana.

On September 12, 1861, Denby was commissioned as the Lieutenant Colonel (second-in-command) of the 42nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment and mustered in at that rank on October 10, 1861.

In a letter to the army dated January 12, 1863, Colonel Denby resigned his commission, stating: I suffer habitually in riding with a very severe cramp in my left leg - walking affords no relief.

After the war, Denby was elected as a First Class Companion of the Indiana Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Denby was active in the Democratic Party, and upon the election of Grover Cleveland as President, he was put forward for a post in the diplomatic service and on May 29, 1885, he was appointed Minister to China.