Richard Hanson Weightman


Richard Hanson Weightman was an antebellum delegate to the United States Congress from the Territory of New Mexico. He was also a district commander of the secessionist Missouri State Guard during the American Civil War, and was killed in action at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri.

Biography

Born in Washington, D.C., Weightman attended private schools there and in Alexandria, Virginia. He graduated from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1834. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, 1835–1837. He subsequently studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1841 in the District of Columbia, but did not practice.
He moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and on May 28, 1846, was elected captain of Clark's Battalion, Missouri Volunteer Light Artillery, in the Mexican War. He served as Additional Paymaster, Volunteers, in the Army in 1848 and 1849. He moved to New Mexico Territory in 1851 and edited a newspaper in Sante Fe. He was appointed agent for Indians in New Mexico in July 1851. While in Santa Fe in August 1854, he killed François Xavier Aubry who was a French Canadian merchant and explorer of the American Southwest. When Aubry drew his revolver, Weightman stabbed Aubry with a Bowie knife.
Weightman was elected as a Democrat and the Territory's first Delegate to the Thirty-second Congress. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1852, but resumed newspaper work. He moved to Kickapoo and Atchison, Kansas, in 1858, and went to Independence, Missouri, in 1861.
Weightman was elected colonel of the First Regiment Cavalry, Eighth Division, Missouri State Guard on June 11, 1861. He was promoted to command of the First Brigade, Eighth Division, June 20, 1861, and led it competently at the Battle of Carthage on July 5.
Colonel Richard Hanson Weightman was killed while leading his brigade at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri on August 10, 1861, and was interred on the battlefield near Springfield, Missouri.