Francis B. Spinola

Francis Barretto Spinola (March 19, 1821 – April 14, 1891) was an American politician and military leader often considered to have been the first Italian American^[1] to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, serving as a representative from New York from 1887 to 1891. He also served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Biography

Spinola was born in

He was commissioner of New York Harbor when the Civil War erupted. Spinola joined the volunteer army in a New York regiment and was commissioned as an officer. He was appointed brigadier general of Volunteers on October 2, 1862. He commanded two relief efforts to lift the Confederate siege of Washington, North Carolina. In July–October 1862 he recruited and organized a brigade of four regiments, known as Spinola's Empire Brigade.^[6]

Spinola assumed command of the New York "

Following the war, Spinola was a banker and insurance agent and became an influential figure among the rapidly growing Italian immigrant community in the New York City area. He was again a member of the State Assembly (New York Co., 16th D.) in 1877, 1881 and 1883. He was a U.S. Representative from New York's 10th District from 1887 to 1891.^[5]

He died in office in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1891,^[3] from pneumonia.^[7]

His funeral was held at the Immaculate Conception Church on April 16, 1891, and he was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.^[8]

His estate, valued at over $1,000,000 in 1897, was left to his wife (d. 1896), and a nephew, Ferdinand McKee. In 1897 his sister Annie Douglass contested his will.^[9]

Family

Spinola had his country seat at

Francis Barretto Spinola was the son of João Leandro Spinola (b. 1782), later

Frank W. Alduino, in his book Sons of Garibaldi in Blue and Gray: Italians in the American Civil War (p. 180), refers to his father John as a "prosperous farmer and oysterman" who migrated to the United States from Madeira Island, Portugal, whose family had originally hailed from the city of Genoa, Liguria.^[2][14][15] The Spinolas, of noble Genoese origin, moved into Madeira Island in the late 15th, early 16th century, as merchants.^[16] John Leander Spinola is recorded travelling between Funchal and New York on board of the brig Pomona in 1821. He is also recorded travelling to Havana and Rio Grande. He was buried in the Meadow Avenue of Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.^[17]

His grandfather John Phelan was a lieutenant in Wigglesworth's

Gen. Spinola provided for his sister Ann Douglass until his death in 1891. She supported herself teaching music until her eyesight failed, and by 1903, at over seventy years of age, she was living on charity, on an allowance of $120 a year from the Society of the Cincinnati. This motivated a newspaper article, pleading for help and referring her family, the Spinolas, as New York aristocrats, a "distinguished family".^[11]

Gen. Francis Spinola married Elizabeth Nancy Glazebrook, from Kings, Saratoga County, New York, at May 7, 1855, in New York City. Eliza N. Spinola, as she was known, survived her husband for five years, dying in 1896.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of American Civil War generals (Union)
• List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899)

References