Page:Autobiographies and portraits of the President, cabinet, Supreme court, and Fifty-fifth Congress (IA autobiographiesp02neal).pdf/223

 GEORGE LAIRD SHOUP

, of Boise, was born at Kittanning, Armstrong County, Pa., June 15, 1836; was educated in the public schools of Freeport and Slate Lick; moved with his father to Illinois in June, 1852; was engaged in farming and stock raising near Galesburg until 1858; removed to Colorado in 1859; was engaged in mining and mercantile business until 1861; in September, 1861, enlisted in Captain Backus’s independent company of scouts, and was soon thereafter commissioned second lieutenant; during the autumn and winter of 1861; was engaged in scouting along the base of the Rocky Mountains; was ordered to Fort Union, N. Mex., in the early part of 1862; was kept on scouting duty on the Canadian, Pecos, and Red Rivers until the spring of 1863, and during this time was promoted to a first lieutenancy; was then ordered to the Arkansas River; had  been assigned in 1862 to the Second Regiment Colorado Volunteer Infantry, but was retained on duty in the cavalry service; was assigned to the First Colorado Regiment of Cavalry in May, 1863; in 1864 was elected to the constitutional convention to prepare a constitution for the proposed State of Colorado, and obtained leave of absence for thirty days to serve as a member of said convention; after performing this service he returned to active duty in the Army; was commissioned colonel of the Third Colorado Cavalry in September, 1864, and was mustered out in Denver with the regiment at the expiration of term of service; engaged in the mercantile business in Virginia City, Mont.,