James Garfield was born near Orange, Ohio. He worked as a farmworker, teacher, lay preacher, and lawyer. In 1859 he was elected to the Ohio Senate. During the Civil War, he led a volunteer regiment as a colonel and fought at the Battle of Shiloh, an important Union victory. From 1863 to 1880, he served in the House of Representatives. In 1880 he was briefly elected to the Senate. Later that same year, he won the Republican nomination and was elected president. Only four months after his inauguration, however, Charles Guiteau shot Garfield in a railroad station in Washington, D.C. Garfield died in September.
