division quartermaster to the staff of General William F. Smith ("Baldy Smith"), in 1862 was made colonel of the 15th Vermont volunteers and was mustered out with his regiment in 1863. As an officer he is said to have been very popular during the war.
He became selectman of the town of Rutland, Vermont, in 1866; and held the position three successive years; he was a member of the Vermont house of representatives, 1867, 1868 and 1888; a member and president pro tempore of the state senate, in 1874; lieutenant-governor, 1876-78; governor of his state, 1878-80; and a delegate-at-large to the Republican national conventions of 1884, 1888 and 1896, being chairman of the Vermont delegation in 1888 and 1896. Meantime from 1864 to 1869 he was a practising lawyer in Rutland, Vermont. From 1869-70 he was receiver of the Sutherland Falls Marble Company, near Rutland, and on its reorganization in 1870 he was elected manager, extending and enlarging the business of the company until it has become by far the largest marble producing company in the world. From 1880 to 1889 he was the president of the Vermont Marble Company, Proctor, Vermont.
Senator Proctor held the position of secretary of war, appointed by President Harrison a member of his cabinet in March, 1889; but as he had been appointed by Governor Page to the United States senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of George F. Edmunds he resigned his position in the cabinet, November 1, 1891.
While Senator Proctor was secretary of war, the army was put into most efficient condition, for his work was eminently reconstructive and reformatory. His insight as well as his oversight reached every branch of the service, and every department felt the invigorating effect of thorough inspection and attention to details. Our coast and border defenses were strengthened; guns for fortifications and service in the field were constructed and put into position. New tactics suited to modern conditions were prepared, and the whole army was reorganized. His work was also philanthropic and humane; for not only did he raise the standard of the kind of men recruited, but the conditions of army life for enlisted men were much improved; rations of better quality were provided; and the whole matter of punishment in the army—so hard a matter to reduce to exact justice—was put upon a much better basis. It is said that desertions from the army were fewer during the time of his administration than ever before. He had had personal experience of the
