Charles Edward Hovey

Charles Edward Hovey (April 26, 1827 – November 17, 1897) was an educator, college president, pension lobbyist and a brevet major general in the United States Army during the American Civil War.

Early life Hovey was born in Thetford, Vermont, on April 26, 1827, to Alfred and Abigail Hovey (nee Howard). At the age of fifteen, he began teaching in Vermont before becoming a lumberjack for a short time. In 1848, he enrolled in Dartmouth to pursue his college degree, teaching during the summer to help pay for his education. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1852.

Hovey moved to Illinois after his time at the Framingham Academy, where he served as principal and then superintendent of schools in Peoria. He became president of the Illinois State Teacher's Association and a member of the first Illinois State Board of Education. He was commissioned colonel on August 15, 1861, and took the regiment to Missouri, where it saw service in a number of small actions during the winter. At the Battle of Cotton Plant in July 1862, Hovey's badly outnumbered Illinois and Wisconsin infantry repeatedly repulsed a series of poorly organized attacks by Confederate Col. William H. Parsons's two Texas cavalry regiments. In the interim, he played a key role in the capture of Arkansas Post in January 1863, where William T. Sherman reported that Hovey had been "wounded in his arm by a shell, but continued and still continues to command his Brigade." Suffering lingering effects from his injury, Hovey soon left the field service. It houses administrative offices, including the Office of the President.

A major street going through Bloomington-Normal is named "Hovey Avenue" after him.