ST. PIERRE , Henri Cesaire, Q. C.* is the son of the late Joseph St.  Pierre, a patriot of '37, by his wife;  Domitilde Denis. - Born at Ste. Madeleine, P.Q. (Province Quebec), Sept. 13, 1844, he was educated at the Montreal College, and, subsequently, studied law with City Atty. Agnew, of Kingston, Ont.

The American civil war was then at its height, and young St. P., yielding to a desire for a military life, joined the Northern forces. He served in the 76th N. Y. Volunteers, but being wounded in Va., in the autumn of  1863, was captured by the enemy,  and remained a prisoner of war in the South until the close of the war.

Resuming his law studies in the office of the late Sir Geo. Cartier, Montreal, he was called to the bar, 1870, has since practised his profession in Montreal, and is now regarded as " probably the leading criminal lawyer of the Province " (Toronto Mail). 

It has been stated that he has defended more than 30 persons accused of capital offences, and that he has been successful in  all but 3 or 4. None of those he defended, excepting Shortis, the Beauharnois murderer, were condemned for execution.

In 1887 he defended Caza for murder, and, in 1897, he was chief counsel for the Hon. J. I. Tarte in the Grenier libel case. He was created a Q. C., by the Earl of Derby, 1889, and is now a, mem. of the firm of St. Pierre, Pelissier & Wilson. In politics, he is a Lib., and unsuccessfully contested Jacques Cartier in that interest, for the Que. Assembly, g. e. 1878. Since then he has devoted himself exclusively to the calls of his profession, and has persistently declined all invitations looking to political or other honours. 

Mr. St. P. is gifted with the powers of eloquence, and on occasions when he has appeared in public, has won unstinted praise from all classes of the Canadian population, for his liberality of sentiment and broadminded patriotism. On this account, his speech at the unveiling of the Chenier monument, Montreal, Dec., 1895, attracted considerable attention. Addressing more particularly his French-Canadian countrymen, on that occasion, he said he would like an end put to exclusiveness, for why should not a French-Canadian be just as much at home in Toronto as in Montreal? Canada was a great deal more to them than the Province of Quebec. He would say to all: "Be English, be Scotch, be French, be Irish if you will, but above and before all, let us be Canadians."

In religion, a Roman Catholic, he married 1874, Adeline Albina, daughter of the late Adolphe Lesieur, merchant, Terrebonne.-144/ Berri St., Montreal.

* Q.C. = "Queen's Counsel" - a high rank of barrister in the British legal system, those who have "taken silk" and may represent the Crown in more important cases. Barristers are lawyers who represent clients in court (as opposed to solicitors, who do not). - MFB

The above is extracted from the book "The Canadian men and women of the time: a handbook of Canadian biography", Morgan, Henry J. (Henry James), 1842-1913. 1176 pages.  (Toronto : W. Briggs, 1898.)

The pages of this book can be found online. 

Thanks to Ken Scheffler, who sent the information on this listing, and notes:

I am currently doing research on Canadians who served in the Civil War and came across his biography through www.canadiana.org in The Canadian Men and Women of the Time: A Handbook of Canadian Biography (p. 902) published in 1898. Henri St. Pierre was born in what is now the Province of Quebec and the biography states that he was a member of the 76th New York Volunteers and that he was captured in 1863 and spent the duration of the war in a POW camp. Unfortunately. I could not find him in the roster you provide and so assume that he was enrolled under a different or anglicized name.

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