{{Short description|American general and politician}} {{Distinguish|John C. Lee (Alabama politician)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = John Calvin Lee | image = John C. Lee.JPG | office = 9th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio | term_start = January 13, 1868 | term_end = January 8, 1872 | governor = Rutherford B. Hayes | preceded = Andrew McBurney | succeeded = Jacob Mueller | party = Republican | birth_date = {{birth date|1828|1|7}} | birth_place = Delaware County, Ohio, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1891|3|24|1828|1|7}} | death_place = Toledo, Ohio, U.S. | resting_place = Greenlawn Cemetery, Tiffin, Ohio | spouse = | children = | signature = | alma_mater = Western Reserve College | allegiance = United States of America<br />Union | branch = Union Army | service_years = 1861 - 1864 | rank = 35px Colonel<br />{{nowrap|35px Bvt. Brigadier general}} | commands = 55th Ohio Infantry<br>164th Ohio Infantry | battles = American Civil War }} '''John Calvin Lee''' (January 7, 1828 – March 24, 1891) was an American Republican politician and soldier who served as the ninth lieutenant governor of Ohio from 1868 to 1872.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lieutenant Governors Of The State Of Ohio: 1852 - Present |url=http://www.sos.state.oh.us/sos/elections/Research/electResultsMain/HistoricalElectionComparisons/Lieutenant%20Governors%20of%20the%20State%20of%20Ohio%201852%20-%20present.aspx |publisher=Ohio Secretary of State | access-date=2012-01-24}}</ref>
==Biography== Lee was born January 7, 1828, at Brown Township, Delaware County, Ohio. He received a public education and attended Central College Franklin County for one year, went to Western Reserve College, known now as Case Western Reserve University, in 1845 and graduated in 1848.<ref name=rep>Smith 1898 : 241</ref> He taught school for two years, then began study of law at Atwater, Ohio, where he was admitted to the bar July 6, 1852. He ran for Common Pleas Judge in 1857, but lost.<ref name=rep/>
==War years== Whitelaw Reid wrote this of Lee's service: {{blockquote|John C Lee was residing at Tiffin, at the beginning of the rebellion, engaged in successful practice of the law. On the 25th of November, 1861, he was commissioned Colonel of the Fifty-Fifth Ohio Infantry, and soon after was ordered to West Virginia. He served for a short time as president of a court-martial convened by order of General Rosecrans at Charleston, and then joined his regiment at Romney. Being the senior officer he was placed in command of the district of South Potomac by General Schenck. He marched under Schenck to the relief of Milroy at McDowell in May, 1862. He also participated in the Shenandoah Campaign which culminated in the Battle of Cross Keys. He was in the battles of Freeman's Ford, White Sulphur Springs, Warrenton, Bristow's Station, New Baltimore, New Market, Thoroughfare Gap, Gainesville, Chantilly, and the Second Bull Run, in all of which he received the special commendation of his superior officers. At Chancellorsville, in 1863, he was on the right when the enemy made such a furious assault on the eleventh corps, and by his determined efforts, aided by Orland Smith of the Seventy-Third Ohio and McGroarty of the Sixty-First, did much to stay the tide of Rebel success. On the account of severe illness in his family General Lee unwillingly tendered his resignation, which was received May 18, 1863. When the National Guard was called out he was commissioned Colonel of the One Hundred and Sixty-Fourth Ohio, which did service around the fortifications of Washington. He was mustered out August 27, 1864, and was brevetted Brigadier-General March 1865.|Whitelaw Reid|1895<ref name=war>Reid 1895 : 972</ref>}}
==Political career== In 1867, General Lee was nominated for lieutenant governor after Samuel Galloway declined the nomination. He won that year,<ref>1867 election Lee 243,468 Democrat Daniel S. Uhl 240,845 from Smith 1898 : 238</ref> and again in 1869.<ref>1869 election Lee 236,297 Thomas J. Godfrey 228,269 from Smith 1898 : 268</ref>
In 1868, Lee was Delegate-at-large to the Republican National Convention, and in 1872 Presidential Elector-at-large. In 1877 he was appointed United States District Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, for the term ending 1881.<ref name=rep/><ref name=USAttNDOH>{{cite web|title=U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Ohio |publisher=United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit |url=http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/usAttorneys/ohio/NDOHusatt.html |access-date=2012-01-19 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090513050320/http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/usAttorneys/ohio/NDOHusatt.html |archive-date=2009-05-13 }}</ref>
==Death== He died at Toledo on March 24, 1891.<ref>{{cite web|title=Center for Archival Collections : Northwest Ohio in the Civil War|publisher=Bowling Green State University|access-date=2012-02-07|url=http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/cac/cwar/055ovib.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610101648/http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/cac/cwar/055ovib.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-06-10}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{cite book|ref=smith98|title=History of the Republican Party in Ohio |editor-first=Joseph P |editor-last=Smith |year=1898 |volume=I |publisher=the Lewis Publishing Company |location=Chicago |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eaAFAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA241}} *{{cite book|ref=ohiowar|title=Ohio in the War Her Statesmen Generals and Soldiers |page=972 |first=Whitelaw |last=Reid |author-link=Whitelaw Reid|publisher=The Robert Clarke Company |year=1895 |volume=1 |location=Cincinnati |chapter=John C. Lee| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EJ94AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA972}}
{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{s-bef | before=Andrew McBurney}} {{s-ttl | title=Lieutenant Governor of Ohio | years=1868-1872}} {{s-aft | after=Jacob Mueller}} {{s-end}}
{{Governors of Ohio}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, John C.}} Category:1828 births Category:1891 deaths Category:Lieutenant governors of Ohio Category:People from Delaware County, Ohio Category:People from Tiffin, Ohio Category:Ohio Republicans Category:Ohio lawyers Category:Union army colonels Category:People of Ohio in the American Civil War Category:Case Western Reserve University alumni Category:United States attorneys for the Northern District of Ohio Category:1872 United States presidential electors Category:19th-century Ohio politicians Category:19th-century American lawyers