Solon BORLAND, Congress, AR (1808-1864)

BORLAND Solon , a Senator from Arkansas; born near Suffolk, Nansemond County, Va., September 21, 1808; attended preparatory schools in North Carolina; studied and afterwards practiced medicine; settled in Little Rock, Ark.; served throughout the Mexican War as a major in the Arkansas Volunteer Cavalry; was appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ambrose H. Sevier and served from March 30, 1848, to April 11, 1853, when his resignation became effective; chairman, Committee on Printing (Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses), Committee on Public Lands (Thirty-third Congress); served as United States Minister to Nicaragua and to the other Central American Republics 1853-1854; declined an appointment as Governor of the Territory of New Mexico; returned to Arkansas and resumed the practice of medicine in Little Rock until 1861; during the Civil War raised a brigade of troops for the Confederate Army; later was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate Army; died near Houston, Tex., on January 1, 1864; interment in City Cemetery, Houston, Tex.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Woods, James M. "Expansionism as Diplomacy: The Career of Solon Borland in Central America 1853-1854." Americas 40 (January 1984): 399-415.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present