MANNING F. FORCE. 
The scope of a State Academy of Science is attested by 
the men who unite in the common pursuit of truth. Gen- 
eral Force achieved for himself distinction as a lawyer, a 
soldier and a jurist aside from his attainments in science, 
and his skill as an executive officer exhibited in his career as 
commandant of the Soldiers’ Home at Sandusky, Ohio. 
Manning F. Force was the son of a lawyer, the com- 
piler of the American Archives; he was graduated from 
Harvard College in 1845 at the age of 20 years, and from 
the law school three years later. He practiced law in Cin- 
cinnati from 1850 till the beginning of the war of the 
rebellion, then enlisting as major in a volunteer regiment; 
he was subsequently promoted to the office of colonel by 
gradual stages. He was awarded the Seventeenth Corps 
gold medal of honor after the capture of Jackson by Gen- 
eral Sherman; he later commanded a brigade of this corps 
and exhibited great gallantry in the operations before At- 
lanta. Here he was severely wounded. At the close of the 
war he was brevetted major general for “especial gallantry 
before Atlanta.’ It is said of General Force that “During 
the whole war he lost not a wagon, a caisson nor a cannon 
and his command, though always in the extreme front, 
was never taken by surprise, and never gave way under 
ine 
Returning to the walks of peace, he was elected a 
judge of the Court of Common Pleas at Cincinnati in 1866, 
and re-elected at the close of his term in 1871; he was 
advanced to the position of judge of the Superior Court 
of Cincinnati by election in 1877 and re-elected in 1882, 
being at the latter date the nominee of both political parties 
for that position. He declined re-election in 1887 and the 
next year accepted the appointment as commandant of the 
Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, Sandusky, where he 
served until his death in 1899. In other lines Judge Force 
2a OR ASC: 
