American soldier, born in Franklin, OH, on the 4th of October 1809; graduated at Miami University; studied law and practiced at Dayton, OH. After holding a seat in the state legislature, he served in Congress from 1843 to 1851, and in the latter year was appointed United States minister to Brazil. Afterward he was employed on diplomatic missions to Buenos Ayres, Montevideo and Paraguay. Schenck was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers in May 1861. He commanded a brigade at the first battle of Bull Run, July 31, 1861; subsequently he served in western and northern Virginia. In April 1862, he engaged in the battle of Cross Keys, and maintained the ground that he had won until he was ordered to retire. At the second battle of Bull Run he commanded a division, and had his right arm shattered by a rifle-ball. On September 18, 1862, he was promoted major-general, and appointed to the command of Baltimore, which he protected during Lee’s invasion. In December 1863, he resigned from the army and resumed his seat in Congress, to which he had been re-elected, and where he remained until 1869. He was chairman of the committee on military affairs, and in 1868 was at the head of the committee of ways and means. In 1871 Schenck was sent as United States minister to England. He resigned this post in 1876, as the result of a charge that he had promoted in England the sale of mining-stock in which he was interested, and which afterward proved worthless. Returning to the United States, he resumed the practice of law in Washington, DC, where he died March 23, 1890.
