Philip S. Post

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Philip Sidney Post (March 19, 1833 - January 6, 1895) was an American diplomat, politician, and decorated Army officer. He served as a United States Representative from Illinois for eight years, from 1887 to 1895. During the American Civil War, he was a Union Army general and earned the Medal of Honor.

Born in Florida, New York, Post pursued classical studies and graduated from Union College, Schenectady, New York, in 1855. He studied at the Poughkeepsie Law School and was admitted to the bar in Illinois in 1856.

During the Civil War, he entered the Union Army and served with the 59th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was promoted through the ranks to colonel and was brevetted brigadier general of Volunteers on December 16, 1864. He was awarded the Medal of Honor on March 8, 1893, for his actions at the Battle of Nashville.

He was appointed consul to Vienna in 1866. He was promoted to consul general to Austria-Hungary in 1874 served until his resignation in 1879. He was the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic's Department of Illinois in 1886.

Post was elected as a Republican to the Fiftieth and to the four succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1887, until his death before the close of the Fifty-third Congress, in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 1895.

He was interred in Hope Cemetery, Galesburg, Illinois.