U.S. Senator, Mexican-American Army Officer, Attorney. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he was educated at private schools and later graduated from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio in 1840. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1843, and commenced to practice as an attorney in Cincinnati. During the Mexican-American War, he served as the Captain of Company F with the 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment and also served as an aide-de-camp to General Joseph Lane. Pugh was commended for gallantry and bravery in action at the Battle of Atlexco. After the war, he returned to Cincinnati and was elected to the Ohio Legislature from 1848 to 1850 and became Cincinnati's City Solicitor in 1850. In 1852, he was the first elected Ohio State Attorney General and served in that capacity until 1854. Pugh was elected as a Democrat to represent Ohio in the United States Senate and served from 1855 to 1861. As Senator, he was a member of the Committee on Public Lands and a member of the Committee on the Judiciary. He was also a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1860. Pugh was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1860 and resumed his law practice in Cincinnati. He is best known as a member of the counsel for the defense of Clement L. Vallandigham in 1863. During the Civil War, he fell into disfavor with the citizens of Ohio because he was a Democrat and for defending Vallandigham and later in 1863, he lost the election for the office of Lieutenant Governor. He also lost in the election for Congress in 1864 and refrained from seeking public office for several years while continuing his legal profession. He emerged to the political front again in 1873 when he was elected to become a delegate to the Ohio State Constitutional Convention but withdrew from the deliberations and declined to serve. He died in Cincinnati in 1876 when he was 53 years old.