Richard Franchot

Richard Hansen Franchot (June 2, 1816 – November 23, 1875) was a U.S. Representative from New York and then an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was also an executive of two railroad companies, Albany and Susquehanna Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad.

Born in the town of Morris in Otsego County, New York, and the son of French immigrant Paschal Franchot, Richard Franchot attended the public schools and the Hartwick and Cherry Valley Academies. He studied civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York. He served for several years as president of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad.

Franchot was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861 – March 3, 1863). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1862.

He moved to Schenectady, New York, and raised the 121st New York Infantry. Franchot was commissioned as a colonel on August 23, 1862, and was brevetted as a brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers dating from March 13, 1865.

After the war, he was associated with the Central Pacific Railroad.

Franchot died in Schenectady on November 23, 1875. He was interred in Vale Cemetery.

New York Superintendent of Public Works Nicholas Van Vranken Franchot (1855–1943) and State Senator Stanislaus P. Franchot (1851–1908) were his sons, Assemblyman Nicholas V. V. Franchot II (1884–1938) was his grandson, actor Franchot Tone (1905-1968) was his great-grandson, and current Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot (1947-) is also his descendant.