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Norton Parker Chipman moved to Iowa from Ohio when he was nine years old, received an education at Washington, Iowa, and attended law school in the University of Cincinnati before returning to Iowa to begin his legal career in his adopted hometown in 1859.

Chipman was born at Milford Center, Ohio, on March 7, 1836, and moved to Iowa with his family in 1845. Except for his time in law school, Chipman spent his entire youth in Iowa and lived her as a young adult, being commissioned a major in Company H of the Iowa Infantry in September, 1859, and fighting bravely in several Civil War battles. After the Battle of Fort Donelson in Mississippi in 1862, he was reported missing and given up for dead. But Chipman survived and was assigned to special duty in Washington, D.C.

As the Army's chief Judge Advocate General (JAG), Chipman successfully prosecuted Captain Henry Wirz, the commander of the Confederacy's infamous Andersonville prison camp, where over 14,000 Union soldiers lost their lives.
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Chipman published his recollections of the famous Andersonville Trial in his 1911 book, The Tragedy of Andersonville, republished in a new edition in 1990 titled The Andersonville Prison Trial: The Trial of Henry Wirz, with an introduction by Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz. The story of the Andersonville Trial and Chipman's role in bringing Wirz to justice inspired the Emmy Award-winning film The Andersonville Trial, (1970) directed by George C. Scott. In the film, William Shatner (in his post-Star Trek days) plays the protagonist Chipman, Richard Basehart plays Wirz, and Martin Sheen plays a supporting role.

After the Civil War, Chipman was appointed Secretary of the District of Columbia by President Ulysses S. Grant, and was later elected to Congress as representative of the District of Columbia, serving two terms. He was the District’s last voting member of congress and wrote the appropriations bill that lead to the construction of the Washington Memorial. He was a co-founder
of the Grand Army of the Republic, and authored the order creating Memorial Day.

In 1876, Chipman moved to Red Bluff, California, where he practiced law, farmed, and for 15 years served on the State Board of Trade. In 1897, he was appointed Commissioner of the Supreme Court, a position he held until the commission was disbanded and replaced by the District Courts of Appeal. He was appointed by Governor Pardee to serve as presiding justice of the newly created appellate court, a position he held until his retirement May 2, 1921. Justice Chipman died in his home in San Francisco, February 1, 1924.

Norton Chipman