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 two terms as a representative from New York from 1887 to 1891.
He was elected alderman of the Second Ward in Brooklyn in 1846 and 1847, and was reelected in 1849 and served for four years. By 1854, when he joined a special force known as "Special Police" to keep order in the streets of New York, he was already one of the "most respected and influential citizens" of the city.[4] Politically a Democrat, he was a member of the New York State Assembly (Kings Co., 2nd D.) in 1856. He was a member of the New York State Senate (3rd D.) from 1858 to 1861, sitting in the 81st, 82nd, 83rd and 84th New York State Legislatures. He was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention.[5]
He was commissioner of New York Harbor when the Civil War erupted.
Civil War
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 "Excelsior Brigade" (the Second Brigade, Second Division, Third Army Corps), on July 11, 1863, following the Battle of Gettysburg as the Army of the Potomac strove to fill open command slots created by battle casualties. Spinola's brigade led the Union troops on July 23 at the Battle of Wapping Heights in Linden, Virginia, suffering 18 men killed, including two officers. Spinola was wounded in the fighting, along with dozens of his men. He was honorably discharged from the service in August 1865.[5]
After the war
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.
Congress
He was a U.S. Representative from New York's 10th District from 1887 to 1891.[5]
Death and burial
He died in office in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1891,[3] from pneumonia.[7]
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 Crane Neck, Long Island. It was menaced by a fire in 1887.[10]
Portrait of Mrs. Eliza Spinola, mother of Gen. Spinola, commissioned to William Sidney Mount by her son in 1853
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 13th Massachusetts Regiment, and his grand-uncles Edward and Patrick were respectively captain and lieutenant at the same time.[11] He was a member of the Order of the Cincinnati.[18] His grand uncle Phillip Phelan joined the American forces during the Revolutionary War, where he served as lieutenant, and died at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on May 22, 1781. John Phelan's mother was Mary Heron Phelan, from Waterford, Ireland. One of her descendants, Mrs. Regina M. Knott, was one of the earliest members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.[19]
He had an older brother, John Leander Spinola (b. 1818) who worked as a druggist,[20] a younger brother, Douglas A. Spinola (b. 1830), an older sister, Angelina Spinola, seamstress (b. 1814), and two younger sisters, Louisa (b. 1825) and Ann Eliza (b. 1829).
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]
^"GEN. SPINOLA DEAD. ― Pneumonia and La Grippe Too Much For the Veteran". The Dodge City Times. Dodge City, Kansas: Newspapers.com. April 17, 1891. Retrieved September 17, 2022. WASHINGTON, April 14.—Gen. Spinola died at 1:25 o'clock this morning. He had been ill for over a week from pneumonia attributed to la grippe, and his life had hung in the balance for some days.
^"Gen. Spinola's Funeral. The Body In New-York And Services To Be Held This Morning". The New York Times. April 16, 1891. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved May 26, 2011. The body of Congressman Francis B. Spinola arrived in New-York yesterday afternoon in charge of Deputy Sergeant at Arms of the House Kavanaugh and two or three assistants. It was taken at once to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Fourteenth Street and Avenue A, where funeral services will be held at 10:30 o'clock this morning. ...
^Noronha, Henrique Henriques de (1700), Nobiliário Genealógico das Famílias aparentadas com Henrique Henriques de Noronha, vol. III, Câmara Municipal do Funchal
^Green-wood, a directory for visitors, Nehemiah Cleaveland, Pudney & Russell, printers, 1857, p. 116
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