Lieutenant-Colonel Clifford Stanley Sims, U.S.V.

Lieutenant-Colonel Clifford Stanley Sims was born at Emeline Furnace, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, February 17, 1839. His paternal ancestors have been residents of Cumberland, England, and of the Scottish border since before the Norman conquest, when his ancestor, Bueth Sym, thane of Gillesland, in Cumberland, was killed. His maternal great-great-grandfather, Doctor Alexander Ross, was a surgeon in the Continental Hospital Department during the Revolution; his great-grandfather, John Ross, was major of the Third New Jersey Regiment, Continental Line, and lieutenant-colonel of the Second Burlington Regiment, State Troops, and was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey; his maternal great-grandmother was Mary Brainard, only child of Rev. John Brainard, a well-known Presbyterian clergyman; his other maternal great-grandfather, Elijah Clark, was a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey in 1776, and lieutenant-colonel of the Second Gloucester Battalion, State Troops.

Colonel Sims was educated at a private school in Philadelphia; he began the study of law in that city in 1856, and was admitted to the bar there in the May term of 1860.

He was a private in the Twenty-fifth Pennsylvania Infantry (militia in the service of the United States) September 15, 1862; honorably mustered out October 1, 1862; captain's clerk, U. S. Navy, appointed September 28, 1862, and resigned February 11, 1863, to accept promotion as acting assistant paymaster U. S. Navy, March to, 1863. He took part in a skirmish at Carson's Landing, Mississippi, January 27, 1864, where he had charge of a field howitzer on the hurricane deck of the U. S. steamer " Queen City" while exposed to the fire of a number of Confederate infantry at short distance; he handled the gun carefully and succeeded in dispersing the enemy, and was thanked by the commanding officer of the vessel. Almost all of his service was west of the Mississippi River, where he took part in a number of scouting expeditions, capturing prisoners and letters.

He was appointed lieutenant-colonel Fourth Arkansas Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, June 22, 1864, and was slightly wounded and taken prisoner in the engagement at Clarendon, Arkansas, June 24, 1864, consequently was never mustered; he remained a prisoner some time, was placed on parole, and was finally out of service by resignation June 10, 1865. He was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Arkansas in 1867, and was a member of every important committee in that body, being chairman of several. In 1868 was elected a member of the Legislature of Arkansas, in which he was chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means; in the same year he was appointed a member of a commission to prepare a digest of statutes of Arkansas, and was also appointed judge-advocate general of that State.

In 1869 he was appointed U. S. consul for the district of Prescott; remained in this position until 1878, when he resigned to accept the secretary-ships embracing Ottawa, the capital of Canada; of the Pennsylvania Company, and of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and St. Louis Railway Company, which positions he retained until 1881, when he was appointed general assistant in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and retained this position until 1887, when he was chosen president of the Delaware Company, a construction company which has built and now controls several waterworks.

In 1861 Colonel Sims was admitted to membership in the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey, and in 1883 was chosen president of the society, a position which he still occupies. In October, 1865, he was chosen a Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion.

Colonel Sims has prepared the following works, viz.: "The Origin and Signification of Scottish Surnames;" " The Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati, together with the Roll of the Original, Hereditary, and Honorary Members of the Order in the State of New Jersey;" " Maxims of the Laws of England by William Noye, with a Biographical Sketch of the Author, and an Index." He has also prepared a series of volumes of several thousand pages containing the legislation in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia relative to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the several corporations which it controls.

He has been a citizen of New Jersey since 1878, and is one of the members of the Council of the Proprietors of West New Jersey.

Source: Officers of the Volunteer Army and Navy who served in the Civil War, published by L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1893, 419 pgs.

Related Links:

• Civil War Records
• Civil War Microfilm at the National Archives
• Sims Surname

 

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