HENRY, JAMES D., was a native of Pennsylvania, but the exact date and place of his birth is not known. His earlier years being devoted to manual labor, he was barely able to read and write when he arrived at the age of manhood. In 1822 he came to Edwardsville, Ill., where he labored as a mechanic during the day, and at night attended school. He next engaged in merchandising there, and moved to Springfield in 1826, where he continued in the same business, and was soon after elected Sheriff of Sangamon county. While discharging his duties as Sheriff, the Winnebago war of 1827 came on. A battalion of four companies was raised, and under command of Col. Tom M. Neale, with Sheriff Henry as Adjutant, started in pursuit of the savages. Six of the leaders gave themselves up, and thus ended the campaign.

When the Black Hawk war began in 1831, Adjutant Henry was appointed to command the first of the two battalions from Sangamon county. The Indians retreated before the soldiers across the Mississippi river, and the chiefs returned and made a treaty of peace June 30, 1831. In the spring of 1832, when the chief Black Hawk again commenced hostilities, Col. Henry was once more appointed to command a batallion; but before meeting the enemy, the term of enlistment of the whole eighteen hundred men in the field expired. A regiment was immediately organized of those among the disbanded forces who were willing to volunteer for the purpose of holding the savages in check while more permanent forces could be raised. Col. Henry acted as Lieutenant-Colonel of this temporary organization. Three thousand two hundred men were raised, and Lieut.-Col. Henry was appointed General of the third brigade of twelve hundred men. Gen. Henry commanded in the battle of Wisconsin, July 21st, and the battle of Bad Axe, Aug. 2, 1832, winning both battles, which terminated the war. (See account of the Winnebago and Black Hawk wars, pages 53 and 54.) He had achieved these victories against not only the wishes, but machinations, of the officers of the regular army.

On his return from the scene of conflict, the citizens of Springfield gave him a public reception in recognition of his services; but owing to his extreme sensitiveness in presence of the ladies, he never entered the apartment presided over by them. The exposures and hardships of the campaign brought on disease of the lungs, and he went south, hoping by spending the following winter in a warm climate to avert its effects; but it was too late. He died March 4, 1834, in New Orleans. Such was his singular modesty, that those in whose hands he fell for the closing scenes of his life, did not know until after his death that he was General Henry, the hero of the Black Hawk war. Gov. Ford, in his History of Illinois, speaks of Gen. Henry as the idol of the people, and says: "If he had lived he would have been elected Governor of the State in 1834 by more than twenty thousand majority: and this would have been done against his own will, by the spontaneous action of the people."