Encyclopedia of Civil War Biography - Bel-Bon
BELKNAP, George Eugene, naval officer, born in Newport, New Hampshire, 22 January, 1832. He was appointed midshipman from New Hampshire, 7 October, 1847; became passed midshipman, 10 June, 1853, master in 1855; was commissioned lieutenant, 16 September, 1855; lieutenant-commander, 15 July, 1862; and commander, 25 July, 1866. As lieutenant he commanded a launch at the capture of the Barrier forts at the mouth of the Canton River, China, in November, 1856, and assisted in undermining and blowing up the four forts. He commanded the boats of the “St. Louis” at the reënforcement of Fort Pickens in April, 1861, and was commanding officer of the iron-clad “New Ironsides” in her various engagements with the fortifications in Charleston Harbor from 1862 till 1864. He was highly praised by Admirals Dupont and Dahlgren for '' in making the attacks and managing his vessel under fire. In 1864 he commanded the gun-boat “Seneca.” of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and afterward the iron-clad “Canonicus” in the two actions with Howlett House battery in December, 1864, and in the attacks on Fort Fisher in that and the following month. After the capture of the fort he went to Charleston, and was present at the evacuation. He commanded the same vessel in Admiral Godon's expedition to Havana in search of the Confederate iron- clad “Stonewall.” His name was associated with those of Commanders Parrott and Calhoun and Lieutenant Weaver in a commendatory letter of Admiral Porter declaring that these officers had given a world-wide reputation to the monitors b their efficient handling of the new type of vessel. In 1867-'8 Commander Belknap commanded the flag-ship “Hartford” of the Asiatic Squadron; in 1869 he was on navigation duty at the Boston Navy-yard; in 1874 he was engaged in command of the steamer “Tuscarora" in taking deep-sea soundings in the North Pacific Ocean. with the object of finding a route for a submarine cable between the United States and Japan. He was made commodore, 2 March, 1885, and appointed superintendent of the naval observatory. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 224.
BELKNAP, William Goldsmith, soldier, born in Newburg, New York, 24 September, 1794; died at Fort Washita, Texas, 10 November, 1851. He was a lieutenant in the war of 1812; was wounded in the sortie from Fort Erie on 17 September, 1814; became captain, 1 February, 1822; brevet major, 1 February, 1832; major, 31 January, 1842; and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 15 March, 1842, for his services in the Florida War. In 1828 Captain Belknap established Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. For gallantry in General Taylor's Rio Grande Campaign he received the brevet of colonel. He acted as inspector-general at the capture of Monterey, became lieutenant-colonel 26 September, 1847, and was brevetted brigadier- general for services at Buena Vista, 23 February, 1847. He was commandant at Fort Gibson from December, 1848, till May, 1851. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 224.
BELKNAP, William Worth, soldier, was born in Newburg, if. Y., 22 Sept, 1828. he studied law in Georgetown, D. C, and practised at Keokuk, Iowa, where he settled in 1851, and where he was elected to the legislature as a Democrat in 1857. At the beginning of the Civil War he joined the volunteer army as major of an Iowa regiment. He was engaged at Shiloh and Vicksburg, but first became prominent in Sherman's march to the sea, receiving promotion as brigadier-general on 80 July, 1804 and as major general on 18 March, 1865. After the War he was collector of internal revenue in Iowa from 1865 till 13 October 1869, when he was appointed Secretary of War. This office he retained during General Grant's second administration until 7 March, 1876, when, in consequence of charges of official corruption, he resigned. He was impeached and tried before the Senate for receiving bribes for the appointment of post-traders, and was acquitted on the technical ground of want of jurisdiction. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 225.
BELL, Charles H., naval officer, born in New York, 15 August, 1798; died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 19 February, 1875. He entered the U. S. Navy as mid- shipman, 12 June, 1812, and served with Commodore Decatur in 1813 and in Commodore Chauncey's squadron on Lake Erie in 1814. In the war with Algiers he was again with Decatur on board the "Macedonian." He became a lieutenant in 1820, and in 1824 commanded the schooner "Ferret" which capsized at sea. After remaining twenty-one hours on the wreck, he was saved, with other survivors, by Commodore McKeever. He was attached to the "Erie," in the West Indies, in 1829, and commanded one of the boats that cut out the piratical schooner "Federal" from under the guns of the forts at Guadeloupe. In 1839 he commanded the brig " Dolphin," which ascended an African river and compelled a chief to pay for goods taken from an American vessel. He was promoted commander on 20 September, 1840, and in 1844-'6 commanded the sloop "Yorktown," on the coast of Africa, and captured three slavers, one of them with 903 slaves on board. He was commissioned captain in 1854. He commanded at Norfolk Navy yard in 1859, in 1800 was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron, and was ordered home at the beginning of the Civil War. After the capture of the British mail-steamer "Trent," in November, 1861, he was sent to Panama to take command of the Pacific Squadron, in anticipation of difficulties with England, and there he remained for nearly three years. The rank of commodore was given him 16 July, 1862. He returned shortly before the close of the war, and was assigned to special duty on the James River. He took command of the Brooklyn Navy-yard in May, 1865, and held it three years. He was commissioned rear-admiral, 25 July, 1866, and placed on the retired list after sixty-two years and eight months' service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 225.
BELL, George, soldier, born in Maryland, about 1832. He was graduated at West Point in 1853. During the Civil War he served as assistant in the organization of the subsistence department for the Manassas Campaign, as principal assistant commissary to the Army of the Potomac, and in charge of subsistence depots, and as chief of commissariat of the Departments of Washington and the Potomac. On 9 April, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general for services during the war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 226.
BELL, Henry Hayworth, naval officer, born in North Carolina, about 1808; drowned at the mouth of Osaka River, Japan, 11 January, 1868. He was appointed a midshipman from North Carolina in August, 1823, and during more than forty-five years of service saw much severe fighting. He was on board of the “Grampus” when she was engaged in clearing the coast of Cuba of pirates. He was connected with the East India Squadron for many years, and commanded one of the vessels of the squadron which, in November, 1856, captured and destroyed the four barrier forts near Canton, China. Early in the Civil War he was assigned to the command of one of the first-rates forming the Western Gulf Squadron, took an active part in the capture of New Orleans, and the siege of Vicksburg, and in the blockade rendered essential service. For a time, in 1863, he was in command of the Western Gulf Squadron, and when Rear-Admiral Thatcher was ordered to other duty the command of it again devolved on him. In July, 1865, he was ordered to the command of the East India Squadron, his rank being then that of commodore. In July, 1866, he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and in 1867 he was retired; but Rear-Admiral S. C. Rowan, who was to have relieved him, had not arrived when he was drowned in attempting to enter the Osaka River in a boat from the “Hartford,” his flagship. His widow died in 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 226.
BELL, Hiram Parks, lawyer, born in Jackson County, Georgia, 27 January, 1827. He received an academic education, taught school for two years, read law, was admitted to the bar in 1849, and has since practised at Cumming, Georgia He was a candidate for presidential elector on the Bell ticket in 1860, and opened the secession ordinance in the convention of 1861. He was a member of the state senate in 1861, and resigned to enter the Confederate Army, being commissioned captain in March, 1862. He became colonel of the 43d Georgia Regiment, was dangerously wounded at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, 29 December, 1862, and resigned soon afterward. He was a member of the Confederate Congress in 1864 and 1865, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1873 till 1875, and again from 1877 till 1879. He was a delegate to the St. Louis Convention of 1876, which nominated Mr. Tilden for the presidency. In Congress Mr. Bell favored using the proceeds of the sale of public lands for educational purposes. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 226.
BELL, James Madison, 1826-1902, African American abolitionist, poet, lecturer. Member of African American community in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. Supported John Brown on his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Supported African American civil rights before and after the Civil War. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 463. American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 502.)
BELL, John, statesman, born near Nashville, Tennessee, 15 February, 1797; died at Cumberland Iron Works, Tennessee, 10 September, 1869. His father was a farmer in fair circumstances. He was graduated at Cumberland College (now the University of Nashville) in 1814, studied law, settled at Franklin, Tennessee, and was elected to the state senate in 1817. Declining a re-election, he adhered to his profession until 1827, when, after an excited canvass, he was elected to Congress over Felix Grundy, by a thousand majority, although Grundy had the support of General Jackson, then a presidential candidate. Bell was re-elected six times, serving in the House of Representatives until 1841, and for ten years he was chairman of the Committee on Indian affairs. He was at first a free- trader, but changed his views and became an earnest protectionist. He was opposed to nullification, and, although voting against the bill to charter the United States bank in 1832, he protested against the removal of the deposits, and this course led to a breach between him and President Jackson. He was one of the founders of the Whig Party. This change was marked by his election in 1834 to the speakership of the house, in opposition to James K. Polk, whom the Democrats supported. He joined with Judge White in the anti-Van Buren movement in Tennessee, which completed his sins in the estimation of President Jackson, who could not, however, prevent his return to Congress, as his popularity in his district remained unshaken. When petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia were resented in the House of Representatives in 1836, Mr. Bell voted to receive them, and he also opposed the “Atherton gag” in 1838. In this course he was supported by his constituents, though assailed in his position. President Harrison made him Secretary of War in 1841, but he resigned with the rest of the cabinet (Mr. Webster only excepted) when President Tyler separated from the Whigs. Declining the U. S. senatorship, offered him by the Tennessee legislature, he remained in retirement until 1847, when he was chosen to the state senate and immediately afterward to the national senate, where he remained until 3 March, 1859. He was prominent in his opposition to the policy of annexation. When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was brought forward, in 1854, Mr. Bell opposed its passage with all his power, not only as violating the Missouri compact, to which the honor of the south was pledged, but as unsettling the compromise of 1850 to which both the great parties had solemnly subscribed. Four years later he was equally earnest in his opposition to the Lecompton constitution that had been framed for Kansas. In 1860. Mr. Bell was nominated for the presidency of the “constitutional union” party, Edward Everett receiving the nomination for the vice-president. This ticket had no chance of success, but it was well supported, receiving the electoral votes of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. At the beginning of the Civil War, Mr. Bell was one of those who condemned secession, but were also opposed to all “coercion.” On 18 April, 1861, with seven other citizens of Tennessee, he issued an address recommending his state to preserve an armed neutrality, and on 23 April, in a speech at Nashville, he favored standing by the southern states. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 226-227.
BELL, Philip Alexander, 1808-1889, African American abolitionist, editor, journalist, civic leader. Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Subscription Agent for abolitionist newspaper, Liberator. Active in Underground Railroad. Editor, “Weekly Advocate” and later assisted with “Colored American” early Black newspapers. Founded “National Council of Colored People,” one of the first African American civil rights organizations. (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 516)
Bell, Samuel Dana, jurist, born in Francestown, New Hampshire, 9 October, 1798; died in Manchester, New Hampshire, 31 July, 1868. He was graduated at Harvard in 1816, read…. add here Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 227.
BELL, Luther Vose was born in Chester, New Hampshire, 20 December, 1806; died in camp near Budd's Ferry, Maryland, 11 February, 1862. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1823, and, after studying medicine with his elder brother John in New York City, received his diploma from Dartmouth in 1826. He began to practice in New York, but returned to New Hampshire after his brother's death in 1830. He became noted as a practitioner and writer, taking two Cambridge Boylston prizes by his essays before he was thirty years of age. One of his earlier operations, the amputation of the femur, was successfully performed, in default of any other accessible instruments, with the patient's razor, a tenon-saw, and a darning-needle for a tenaculum. Dr. Bell early became interested in the establishment of hospitals for the insane, and was elected twice to the legislature for the defence of his favorite plan. Although he was not successful, he brought himself into public notice, and in 1837 was chosen superintendent of the McLean Insane Asylum at Charlestown, Massachusetts In 1845, at the request of the trustees of the Butler hospital for the insane, at Providence, Rhode Island, he visited Europe for the purpose of recent improvements in lunatic asylums, and, after three months' absence, completed the plan of their present building. While at Charlestown, he brought to notice a form of disease peculiar to the insane, which is now known as “Bell's disease,” and was also called upon frequently to testify in the courts as an expert. In 1850 he was a member of the state council, and in 1853 of the convention for revising the state constitution. In 1852 he was nominated by the Whigs for Congress, and in 1856 for governor of the state, but was defeated both times. In 1856 he resigned his place in Charlestown, and when the Civil War began he entered the army as surgeon of the 11th Massachusetts Volunteers. At the time of his death he was medical director of Hooker's division. Dr. Bell published “An Attempt to investigate some Obscure Doctrines in Relation to Small-Pox” (1830), and “External Exploration of Diseases” (1836), and also described is investigations of alleged spiritual manifestations. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 228.
BELL, Louis, soldier, was born in Chester, New Hampshire, in 1836; died near Fort Fisher, North Carolina, 16 January, 1865. He was graduated at Brown in 1853, and began the practice of law at Farmington, New Hampshire. In 1860 he was appointed solicitor for Strafford County In April, 1861, he was offered the captaincy of a company of the 1st New Hampshire Regiment of three months men, and served his term of enlistment. Returning home, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 4th New Hampshire Volunteers, and became colonel in March, 1862. Colonel Bell was for some time a member of General Thomas W. Sherman's staff, and was inspector-general of the Department of the South from November, 1861, till March, 1862. Prior to the Wilmington Expedition he had been several times temporarily a brigade commander, and had participated in the engagements at Pocotaligo (21 October, 1862) and Fort Wagner (July, 1863). In the attack on Fort Fisher (15 January, 1865), he commanded a brigade of General Ames's division, and was mortally wounded while leading his men in an assault upon one of the traverses of that work. He died on the day following the engagement. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 228.
BEMAN, Amos Geary, 1812-1874, New Haven, Connecticut, African American clergyman, abolitionist, speaker, temperance advocate, community leader. Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society 1833-1840. Later, founding member of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Traveled extensively and lectured on abolition. Leader, Negro Convention Movement. Founder and first Secretary of Anti-Slavery Union Missionary Society. Later organized as American Missionary Association (AMA), 1846. Championed Black civil rights. Promoted anti-slavery causes and African American civil rights causes, worked with Frederick Douglass and wrote for his newspaper, The North Star. (Sinha, 2016, p. 467; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 540; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 463; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)
BEMAN, Jehiel C., c. 1789-1858, Connecticut, Boston, Massachusetts, African American, clergyman, abolitionist, temperance activist. Manger, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1837-1839. Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1841-1843. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (MASS). (Sinha, 2016, p. 467; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 477; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)
BEMAN, Nathaniel Sydney Smith, 1785-1871, Presbyterian College president, clergyman, abolitionist (Sorin, 1971, p. 90; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 231-232; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 171-172; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 541)
BEMAN, Nathaniel Sydney Smith, clergyman, born in New Lebanon, New York, 26 November, 1785; died in Carbondale, Illinois, 8 August, 1871. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1807, studied theology, and about 1810 was ordained pastor of a Congregational church in Portland, Maine A few years later he went as a missionary to Georgia, where he devoted himself to the work of establishing educational institutions. He became pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York, in 1822, and continued as such for upward of forty years. He was actively interested in the temperance, moral reform, revival, and anti-slavery movements of his time. In 1831 he was moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and during the discussions that, in 1837, led to the division in that church, he was the leader of the new-school branch. Resigning his pastorate in 1863, he passed the remainder of his life in retirement in Troy and in Carbondale. Besides sermons, essays, and addresses, which have been separately published, he was the author of a volume entitled “Four Sermons on the Atonement.” He was also one of the compilers of the hymn-book adopted by the new-school branch of the Presbyterian Church. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 231-232.
BENDIX, John E., soldier, born 28 August, 1818; died in New York City, 8 October, 1877. The birthplace of General Bendix lies between the United States and Canada, as he was born on board the “Sarah,” one of the first steamers that navigated St. Lawrence River. He learned the trade of a machinist in New York, joined the 9th Regiment New York state militia in 1847, and when the Civil War began, in 1861, he organized the 7th Regiment of New York Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the battles of Antietam (16–17 September, 1862), Fredericksburg (13 December, 1862), and the Wilderness (5–6 May, 1864), besides the engagements of the intervening campaigns. He was promoted brigadier-general in 1865. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 232.
BENEDICT, Abner R., soldier, born about 1830; died 15 May, 1867. At the beginning of the Civil War he volunteered as a private in the 12th Regiment, New York state militia, which was one of the three that first started from New York for the seat of war. In August, 1861, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the 4th regular Infantry. In March, 1862, he embarked for the Peninsula, and through the battles of the Potomac Army was conspicuous for gallantry. At Fredericksburg he commanded forty men of the strong picket line that, during the night of 13 December, 1862, was pushed up to the enemy's position, while the defeated federals were retreating across the river. The orders were to hold the position until relieved, and the intention was to withdraw the picket-line before daylight should reveal it to the enemy. By some mistake the line was not withdrawn as directed, and at daylight the enemy opened fire at short range. While encouraging his men by voice and example, Major Benedict fell, shot through the lungs, but was carried off the field b his soldiers. The wound was considered mortal but, before the scar was fairly healed, in three months, he reported for duty at Washington. He joined his regiment at Chancellorsville while the battle was in progress. At Gettysburg his superiors were all killed or wounded, leaving him in command, and he handled the regiment during that battle with great credit to himself. Shortly after Gettysburg his health began to fail, as a result of his wound; but in spite of this he refused to give up active service, and for some time commanded the 4th U.S. Infantry, as General Grant's headquarters guard during the Petersburg Campaign. After the war he remained on the active list in spite of his disability from his wound, and in the depth of winter, shortly before his death, was on duty at Plattsburg, New York, one of the coldest of the eastern army posts. He secured a change of station in the hope of benefit from a warmer climate, but died from the effects of the wound received five years before. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 232-234.
BENEDICT, George Grenville, soldier, born in Burlington, Vermont, 10 December, 1826. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1847, and in 1853 became editor of the Burlington “Free Press,” for many years the leading Republican journal of the state. He was postmaster at Burlington in 1860, but enlisted in the 12th Vermont Regiment at the beginning of the Civil War, and was commissioned lieutenant. In 1863 he was appointed aide on a brigade staff in the 1st Corps. On the third day of the battle of Gettysburg he participated in the repulse of the desperate charge delivered by the Confederates under Longstreet. General Hancock was severely wounded in the moment of victory, and Lieutenant Benedict, with another officer, caught him as he fell from his horse. After the Civil War he served on the governor's staff, was in the state senate from 1869 till 1871, postmaster of Burlington from 1871 till 1874, secretary of the state university from 1865, and president of the Vermont press association in 1886, being senior editor of the state at that time. He has published “Vermont at Gettysburg.” (Albany, 1866; new ed., 1870); and “Vermont in the Civil War” (Albany, 1866; 2d vol. forthcoming). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 233.
BENEDICT, Lewis, soldier, born in Albany, New York, 2 September, 1817; died at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, 9 April, 1864. After graduation at Williams, in 1837, he studied law in Albany and was admitted to the bar in 1841. In 1845–’6 he was city attorney at Albany; in 1847 judge advocate; from 1848 until 1852 surrogate of Albany. In 1860 he was elected a member of the state assembly, but entered the military service for the Civil War in June, 1861, as lieutenant-colonel of the 73d New York Volunteers. He served in the Peninsular Campaign, and was taken prisoner at Williamsburg, Virginia After several months' confinement in Libby and Salisbury prisons, he was exchanged, and, as colonel of the 162d New York Volunteers, accompanied Banks's expedition to Louisiana in September, 1862. He was brevetted brigadier-general for gallantry in the assault on Port Hudson, 14 June, 1883." In the Red River Campaign of 1864 he participated in the various engagements, and was mortally wounded while in command of a brigade at the battle of Pleasant Hill. His death was made the subject of a poem by Alfred BORN Street. See “ Memorial of Brevet Brigadier-General Lewis Benedict, Colonel of the 162d New York. V. I." (Albany, 1864, printed privately). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 233-234.
BENET, Stephen Vincent, soldier, born in St. Augustine, Florida, 22 January, 1827. He studied at Hallowell's school in Alexandria, Virginia, then at the University of Georgia, and at the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1849, standing third in his class. He was appointed to the Ordnance Corps, and served at the Watervliet Arsenal, at Washington, at Frankford Arsenal, again at Washington, and then at the St. Louis Arsenal. In 1859 he became assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics at West Point, and from 1861 till 1864 was instructor of ordnance and the science of gunnery, after which, until 1869, he was in command of Frankford Arsenal. In 1869 he was made assistant to the chief of ordnance, and in 1874, on the death of the chief of the department, he succeeded to the place, with the rank of brigadier-general. He translated Jomini's "Political and Military History of the Campaign of Waterloo " (New York, 1853), and he is the author of a treatise on "Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial" (1862), and "Electro-Ballistic Machines and the Sehultze Chronoscope" (1866). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 234.
BENHAM. Henry W., soldier, born in Connecticut in 1817; died in New York, 1 June, 1884. He was graduated at West Point, at the head of his class, in 1837, assigned to the Corps of Engineers, and for a year assistant in charge of improvements in Savannah River. In July, 1838, he was promoted first lieutenant, and from 1839 till 1844 was superintending engineer of the repairs of , Fort Marion and of the sea-wall at St. Augustine, retired Florida During the three years succeeding he was engaged upon government works in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and elsewhere. He was with the army in' Mexico in 1847-8, and brevetted captain for gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Buena Vista, 23 February, 1847. After the Mexican War he was engaged for a time on engineering duty in New York Harbor, and promoted to the rank of captain in May, 1848. He was also in charge of several other works of importance at Boston, Washington, and Buffalo, from 1848 to 1853. In the latter year he was assistant in charge of the Coast Survey office at Washington, and sent to Europe on duty connected therewith. During the following seven years he was occupied in professional work for the government at Boston, Newport, and Sandy Hook, and on the Potomac aqueduct. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Captain Benham entered upon active service; was on General Morris's staff as engineer of the Department of the Ohio; was brevetted colonel for gallantry at the battle of Carrick's Ford, Virginia, 18 July, 1861; in August was made brigadier-general of volunteers, and was engaged in the Virginia Campaigns, including the actions at New Creek (16 August) and Carnifex Ferry (10 September). In 1802 he was present at the capture of Fort Pulaski (10-11 April) and James Island (16 June). Later in the year he superintended fortifications in Boston and Portsmouth Harbors, and was in command of the Northern District of the Department of the South. He proved very efficient in throwing pontoon-bridges across the Rappahannock, the Potomac, and the James Rivers, and was in command of the pontoon department at Washington in 1864. In the meantime he had, through the regular stages of promotion, attained the full rank of lieutenant-colonel of engineers, and in March. 1865, was brevetted brigadier-general and major general U. S. Army, and major-general U. S. volunteers, for gallant services during the rebellion and in the campaign that terminated with the surrender of Lee's army. In 1868 (7 March) he was promoted colonel of engineers, and during that year was engaged in government works on the coast of New England, and from October, 1869, till July. 1877, was similarly occupied in the works on Long Island Head. Subsequent to this he was in charge of the defences of New York. He was placed on the retired list, 30 June, 1882. He invented the picket-shovel used by troops in the field, and was an expert in pontoon-bridges, in the management of which he devised important improvements. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 234.
BENJAMIN, John Forbes., soldier, born in Cicero, Onondaga County, N. Y., 28 January, 1817; died in Washington, D. C., 8 March, 1877. He received a common school education, and, after three years spent in Texas, went to Missouri, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Shelbyville in 1848. He was a member of the legislature in 1850 and 1852, and presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1856. He entered the National Army as a private in the Missouri cavalry in 1861, was made captain in January, 1862, major in May, and lieutenant-colonel in September. He resigned to become provost-marshal of the 8th District of Missouri in 1863. In 1864 he was elected to Congress, where he served three successive terms, from 4 December, 1865, till 3 March, 1871. After this he practised law and prosecuted claims in Washington until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 235.
BENJAMIN, Judah Philip, lawyer, born in St. Croix, W. I., 11 August, 1811; died in Paris, 8 May, 1884. His parents were English Jews, who in 1811 sailed from England to settle in New Orleans. The mouth of the Mississippi being blockaded by the British fleet, they landed at St Croix, where Mr. Benjamin was born. His boyhood was passed in Wilmington, North Carolina, and in 1825 he entered Yale, but left college three years later, without receiving a degree. He then studied law in New Orleans in a notary's office, and was admitted to the bar 11 December 1832. For some time he was engaged in teaching school, and in compiling a digest of cases decided in the lower courts. This, at first only intended for his personal use, was subsequently enlarged and published as " A Digest of Reported Decisions of the Supreme Court of the late Territory of Orleans and of m Supreme Court of Louisiana (1834). He soon to the head of his profession, and in 1840 of the firm of Slidell, Benjamin and Conrad having an extensive practice in and cotton merchants' cases. He was a Whig and in 1845 a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state, in advocated which body he advocated the addition of an article to requiring the Governor be a citizen born in the United States. In 1847 a U. S. commissioner was appointed to investigate the Spanish land-titles, under which early settlers in California claimed their property, and Benjamin was retained as counsel. On his return he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court, and for a time much of his business was with that body in Washington. In 1848 he became one of the presidential electors from Louisiana, and was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1852, and again in 1857, but on the secession of Louisiana he withdrew from the Senate, with his colleague, John Slidell, 4 February, 1861. During his senatorial career he had attained pre-eminence in the southern wing of the Democratic Party. A sharp personal controversy between himself and Jefferson Davis seemed likely to cause a duel, when the latter apologized on the floor of the Senate for the harsh language he had used. He advocated the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of Mr. Douglas in 1854, but afterward insisted that the principle of popular sovereignty had been definitely set aside by the declaration of the supreme court in the Dred-Scott Case, which, he contended, should be accepted as conclusive. His firm advocacy of the legal claims of slavery brought from Senator Wade, of Ohio, the remark that Mr. Benjamin was "a Hebrew with Egyptian principles." On the formation of the provisional government of the Confederate States, he was appointed Attorney-General, and in August, 1861, was transferred to the War Department, succeeding L. P. Walker. Having been accused of incompetence and neglect of duty by a committee of the Confederate Congress, he resigned his office, but immediately became Secretary of State, which place he held until the final overthrow of the Confederate government He had the reputation of being “ the brains of the confederacy," and it is said that Mr. Davis was in the habit of sending to him all work that did not obviously belong to the department of some other minister. It was his habit to begin work at 8 A. M., and he was often occupied at his desk until 2 o'clock next morning. On the fall of the Confederacy he fled from Richmond with other members of the cabinet, and, on becoming separated from the party, escaped from the coast of Florida to the Bahamas in an open boat, thence going to Nassau, and in September, 1865, reached Liverpool. He at once began the study of English law, and was entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn, 13 January, 1866. In the following summer he was called to the English Bar, at the age of fifty-five. At first his success was slight, and he was compelled to resort to journalism for a livelihood. In 1868 he published " A Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property," which is now the authority on this subject in English law (3d ed., London, 1883). His practice then grew rapidly, and in June, 1872, he was made queen's counsel, after which his business soon became as large and remunerative as that of any lawyer in the land. Among his many arguments, the one most generally known is that which he delivered before the court for crown cases reserved, on behalf of the captain of the "Franconia." His last great nisi prim case was that of Anson and others against the London and northwestern Railway. After this he accepted only briefs upon appeal, and appeared solely before the house of lords and the privy council. Early in 1883 he was compelled by failing health to retire from practice, and a famous farewell banquet was given him in the hall of the Inner Temple, London, 30 June, 1883. He then withdrew to Paris, where his wife and daughter resided, and where his health rapidly failed until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, pp. 235.
BENJAMIN, Samuel Nicoll, soldier, born in New York City, 13 January, 1839; died on Governor's Island, New York Harbor, 15 May, 1886. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1861, and became a 2d lieutenant in the 2d U.S. Artillery. He served continuously throughout the Civil War, was at Bull Run, Malvern Hill, and Fredericksburg, in command of a battery at Covington, in command of the reserve artillery of the 9th Army Corps 14 August till 24 October, 1863, and was chief of artillery, 9th Army Corps, in the East Tennessee and Richmond Campaigns; was at the battle of the Wilderness and also at Spottsylvania, where he was severely wounded. He was brevetted lieutenant colonel 13 May, 1865, and major 3 March, 1875. On recovery from his wounds he became assistant professor of mathematics at the U. S. Military Academy, and from 1869 till 1875 he was at the artillery school for practice, Fort Monroe, Virginia Then, having been transferred to the staff, he was made assistant adjutant-general, and was on duty first at Washington, and later became adjutant- general of the Department of Arizona. In June, 1885, he was made assistant adjutant-general of the Division of the Atlantic, and assigned to army headquarters on Governor's Island. Colonel Benjamin was one of the very few officers that held the Congressional Medal for conspicuous bravery in the field. He married a daughter of Hamilton. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 236.
BENNETT, James Gordon, journalist, born in New Mill, near Keith, Scotland, 1 September, 1795; died in New York city, 1 June, 1872. His parents were Roman Catholics of French descent, and when he was fourteen years old he was sent to Aberdeen to study for the priesthood; but, convinced that he had mistaken his vocation, he determined to emigrate, and in April, 1819, he landed at Halifax, N. S., where he attempted to earn a living by teaching book-keeping. Failing in that, he made his way to Boston, where he found employment as a proof-reader. About 1822 he went to New York, and contributed to the newspapers, then became assistant in the office of the Charleston “Courier,” and in 1824 returned to New York and attempted to establish a commercial school, and then to lecture on political economy, but was unsuccessful, and again turned to the newspapers, becoming a reporter, and contributor of poetry and all kinds of articles. In 1825 he bought on credit the “Sunday Courier.” but soon gave it up. The next year he became connected with the “National Advocate,” but left it because of its advocacy of the election of John Q. Adams, and became associate editor on Noah's “Enquirer.” About this time he joined the Tammany Society. In 1828 he went to Washington as correspondent for the “Enquirer,” and sent a series of lively personal letters that were widely copied. At his suggestion the “Enquirer” was consolidated with another paper, becoming the “Courier and Enquirer,” which, with James Watson Webb for editor and Bennett as his assistant, became the leading American newspaper. When it deserted Jackson for Nicholas Biddle, Bennett left it, and started a cheap party paper that existed only thirty days, an then a Jackson organ in Philadelphia called the “Pennsylvanian.” He appealed to the party to sustain this paper, and, being refused, returned to New York, and, determined to trust no more to politicians, on 6 May, 1835, issued the first number of the “Herald,” a small four-page sheet, sold for a cent a copy. Two young printers, Anderson and Smith, agreed to print it, and share the profits and losses with the editor. Bennett wrote the entire newspaper, making up for the lack of news by sensational opinions, fictitious intelligence, and reckless personal attacks. The paper became popular, although it offended all parties and all creeds. On 13 June, 1835, he introduced a money-article, then a novel feature in American journalism. The next month the printing-office was burned, and Smith and Anderson abandoned the enterprise; but on 31 August Bennett revived paper, of which he was thenceforth sole proprietor. The great fire of 16 December, 1835 was reported with the fulness of incident and detail that has since become characteristic of American newspaper reports. In 1838 he engaged European journalists as regular correspondents, and extended the system to the principal American cities. He systematically employed newsboys to distribute his paper. The personal encounters in which he became involved through his lampoons were described in the same lively and picturesque style. In 1841 the income of the paper was at least $100,000. In 1846 a long speech by Clay was telegraphed to the “Herald.” During the Civil War its circulation more than doubled. It employed sixty-three war correspondents. Its expenditures for correspondence and news were disproportionate to its payment for editorial and critical matter. It was as a collector of news that Mr. Bennett mainly excelled. He had an unerring judgment of its pecuniary value. He knew how to select the subject that engrossed the interest of the people, and to give them all the details they could desire. He had also a method of impressing the importance of news upon others in his employ. No exchange editor was so close a reader as he of the great papers of the country. He clipped passages for insertion or the texts for editorials or special articles, and when he visited the office it was to unpack his mind of the suggestions stored there by reading the exchanges. He seldom gave an editorial writer more than the suggestions for an article, and he required his co-laborers to meet him daily for consultation and the distribution of topics. When another person presided, the several editors made suggestions; when Bennett himself was present, the editors became mere listeners, and wrote, as it were, at his dictation. The “Memoirs of J. G. Bennett and his Times” was published in New York in 1855. See Hudson's “Journalism in the United States” (New York, 1872). On 6 June, 1840, Mr. Bennett married Miss Henrietta Agnes Crean, a poor, but accomplished, music-teacher in New York. She died in Italy,31 March, 1873.—James Gordon, Jr., born in New York city, 10 May, 1841, the only son of the founder of the “Herald,” became the editor of the newspaper upon the death of his father. He resides mostly in Paris, and gives his attention chiefly to superintending the collection of foreign news. He added to the fame of his paper by publishing in England storm-warnings transmitted from the United States, by fitting out the “Jeanette” Polar Expedition, by sending Henry M. Stanley in search of Livingstone, and other similar enterprises. In 1883 he associated himself with John W. Mackay in forming the commercial cable company and laying a new cable between America and Europe, to compete with the combined English and French lines. He has taken much interest in sports, especially in yachting, and in 1866 he took part in a memorable race from Sandy Hook to the Needles, Isle of Wight, which was won by his schooner, the “Henrietta,” in 13 days 21 hours and 55 minutes, against two competing yachts. In 1870 he sailed another race across the Atlantic from Queenstown to New York in his yacht, the “Dauntless,” but was beaten by the English “Cambria,” which arrived only two hours in advance. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 238.
BENNETT, Thomas W., soldier, born in Union County, Indiana, 16 February, 1831. He was graduated at the law school of Indiana Asbury University in 1854, and n practice. He was elected to the state senate in 1858, and resigned in 1861 to enter the national service. He was captain in the 15th Indiana Volunteers in April, 1861, major of the 36th Regiment in September, colonel of the 69th in August, 1862, and commissioned brigadier-general on 5 March, 1865. He was again chosen to the state senate in October, 1864, and served till March, 1867. He was mayor of Richmond, Indiana, from May, 1869, till 1871, and in September of the latter year appointed governor of Idaho territory. He resigned this office 4 December, 1875, supposing that he had been elected delegate to Congress as a Republican; but the house gave the seat to his Democratic opponent. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 239.
BENSON, George William, 1808-1879, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, Society of Friends (Quaker). Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833, Brooklyn, Connecticut. Brother-in-law of abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison. (Clark, 2003; Garrison, Wendell Phillips, 1885; Mabee, 1970, pp. 82, 85, 109, 149; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 17, 21-22, 68, 86-87; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)
BENTON, Jacob, Congressman, born in Waterford, Vermont, 14 August, 1819. He received an academic education, and, after teaching for several years, studied law with Chief-Justice Bellows, and was He began practice at Lancaster, NEW HAMPSHIRE, made a high reputation as a successful advocate, and early became an earnest member of the Whig Party, and was elected to the legislature in 1854, 1855, and 1856. He was a delegate to the Chicago Convention of 1860, and afterward commanded the state volunteers as brigadier-general. He was elected to Congress from New Hampshire, serving two terms, from 4 March, 1867, till 8 March, 1871. While in Congress, Mr. Benton favored all efforts to reduce the expenses of the government and to equalize taxation. Although a clear and convincing public speaker, Mr. Benton rarely addressed the house. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 239-240.
BENTON, James Gilchrist, soldier, born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, 15 September, 1820; died in Springfield, Massachusetts, 23 August, 1881. His father, Calvin Benton, was a wool-merchant and introduced merino sheep into New England. The son was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1842, brevetted 2d lieutenant of ordnance, served at Watervliet, New York, Arsenal until 1848, was promoted to the full rank of second lieutenant, 8 March, 1847, and transferred to the Ordnance Bureau in Washington, where he assisted in preparing the " System of Artillery for the Land Service and the "Ordnance Manual." He was made first lieutenant, 25 March, 1848, served at Harper's Ferry armory in 1849, and in the San Antonio Ordnance Depot, Texas, from 1849 till 1852, was assistant inspector of arsenals and armories, and commanded the Charleston, South Carolina, Arsenal in 1853. From this time until 1857 he was on special duty in Washington, engaged principally in making experiments that led to the adoption of the Springfield rifled musket in place of the old smooth-bore. He was also a member of the ordnance boards of 1854 and 1856, then promoted to a captaincy after fourteen years' continuous service, and appointed instructor of ordnance and gunnery at West Point, where he remained until the beginning of the Civil War. He also designed the first wrought-iron sea-coast gun-carriage made in this country, which was adopted by the government, and has been in use ever since. In April, 1861, Captain Benton went to Washington as principal assistant to General James W. Ripley, chief of ordnance, was promoted major of ordnance in 1863, and in the same year became a member of the ordnance board, when he was put in command of Washington Arsenal, where he remained until 1866. Soon after he assumed command, when an explosion took place in the old penitentiary, which had been transformed into a storehouse for ammunition, he entered the building, and, with the assistance of a single man, succeeded, with his feet and hands, in putting out the fire in the loose tow and rope-handles of the boxes before the arrival of the fire department. In July, 1864, he performed another act of valor on the occasion of a similar explosion, when he entered a magazine, stripped off his coat, threw it over an open barrel of powder that was in dangerous proximity to the flames, and carried the whole in his arms to a place of safety. For these services he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel and colonel, 13 March, 1865. Among the improvements made by Colonel Benton in the arsenal grounds was cleaning the canal, an important sanitary measure; but the stirring of the muddy deposits engendered malaria, from the effects of which he never recovered. In June, 1866, he was ordered to the command of the national armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, where he remained until His death. The various models of the Springfield rifle, known as the models of 1866, 1868, 1873, and 1879, were made under his direction. In 1873, with Cols. Laidley and Crispin, he went under orders from the U. S. government to Europe to collect information in regard to the construction of heavy cannon and other ordnance manufactures. His report on this matter, as well as his report on "Experiments made at the National Armory for the purpose of revising and improving the System of Small Arms." was published by the government M for use in the Army and distribution to the militia." He never took out a patent for his inventions, holding that, as he had been educated by the government, it was entitled to benefit in every way by his time and talents. Among his inventions was the application of electricity to determine velocity. Discovering, after a series of carefully conducted experiments, that the Navy electro-ballistic pendulum was too delicate and complicated for general purposes, he devised an apparatus with two pendulums of simple construction, known as the Benton electro- ballistic pendulum. This was adopted by the government, and came largely into use in private factories for testing powder. Among his other inventions were an improvement in calipers for inspecting shells; a cap-filling machine; the thread veiocimeter for determining the velocity of projectiles; a system for loading and manoeuvring barbette guns under cover from the enemy's fire, by depressing the muzzle of the piece and using a jointed ramrod; re-enforcing-cup for cartridge case; and spring-dynamometer. He published "A Course of Instruction in Ordnance and Gunnery" (New York, 1861; 3d ed., 1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 240.
BENTON, Thomas Hart, statesman, born near Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina, 14 March, 1782; died in Washington, 10 April, 1858. He was the son of Colonel Jesse Benton, lawyer, of North Carolina, who was private secretary to Governor Tryon, the last of the royal governors of North Carolina. His mother was Ann Gooch, of the Gooch family of Virginia. He was a cousin of the wife of Henry Clay, and was consequently often quoted during his public life as a relative of the great statesman himself. He lost his father before he was eight Tears of age, and was left with a large family of brothers and sisters, all of tender age, to the care of his mother. As Thomas was the eldest, his opportunities for study were few. He was for some time at a grammar-school, and afterward at the University of North Carolina, but did not complete a course of study there, as his mother re- moved to Tennessee to occupy a tract of 40,000 acres that had been acquired by his father. The family settled twenty-five miles south of Nashville. The place was called Bentonville.[…]
His journal took a vigorous stand in favor of the admission of Missouri to the union, notwithstanding her slavery constitution, and at the end of the controversy he was re- warded for his efforts by being chosen, in 1820, one of the senators from the new state. For a year he devoted himself to a close study of the Spanish language, in order to accomplish his work more thoroughly. Possessed of a commanding intellect and liberal culture, an assiduous student, resolute, temperate, industrious, and endowed with a memory whose tenacity was marvellous, he soon placed himself among the leaders in the national councils. One of his earliest efforts was to secure a reform in the disposition of the government lands to settlers. A pioneer himself, he sympathized with the demands of the pioneer, and in 1824, 1826, and 1828 advocated new land laws. The general distress that prevailed throughout the country, and bore with especial hardship on the land-purchasers of the west, forced attention to this subject. Colonel Benton demanded: 1, a pre-emptive right to all actual settlers; 2, a periodic reduction according to the time the land had been in the market, so as to make the prices correspond to the quality; 3, the donation of homesteads to impoverished but industrious persons, who would cultivate the land for a given period of years, he presented a bill embracing these features, and renewed it every year until it took hold upon the public mind, and was at length substantially embodied in one of President Jackson's messages, which secured its final adoption. By his earnest- ness in advocating this bill and securing its final adoption, he gained the lasting friendship of every pioneer and settler in the great west. His position in the Senate, and his firmness as a supporter of Jackson's administration, gave him great influence with the Democratic Party, and he impressed his views upon the president on every occasion.
Colonel Benton also caused the adoption of a bill throwing the saline and mineral lands of Missouri, which belonged to the United States, open for occupancy. 1 hero was at this time a certain tribute levied on the people of the Mississippi valley, which proved in many cases a most unequal burden and was frequently oppressive. One part, which met with more hostility than any other, was known as the salt-tax. Benton took up the matter, and in the session of 1829-'30 delivered such elaborate arguments against the tax, and followed them up with such success, that it was repealed. He was one of the earliest advocates of a railroad to the Pacific, and was prominent in directing adventure to explorations in the far west, in encouraging overland transit to the Pacific, and in working for the occupancy of the mouth of the Columbia. As early as 1819 he had written largely on these subjects, and on his entry into Congress renewed his efforts to engage the nation in these great enterprises, he first elaborated the project of overland connection, listened to the reports of trappers and voyageurs, and as science expanded, and knowledge of the great wilderness toward the mountains became more definite, his views took form in the proposals that culminated in the opening of the Great Central Pacific Railway. He also favored the opening up and protection of the trade with New Mexico; encouraged the establishment of military stations on the Missouri, and throughout the interior; and urged the cultivation of amicable relations with the Indian tribes, and the fostering of the commerce of our inland seas. He turned his attention to the marking out of the great system of post-roads, and providing for their permanent maintenance.
In the first annual message of President Jackson strong ground was taken against the United States bank, then the depository of the national moneys, and frequently, when he directed the withdrawal of the deposits and their removal to certain state banks, the result was disastrous to the business of the country. Benton took up the matter, addressed himself to a consideration of the whole question of finance, circulating medium, and exchange, and urged the adoption of a gold and silver currency as the true remedy for the existing embarrassments. He made on this subject some of the most elaborate speeches of his life, which attracted attention throughout the United States and Europe, and the name of “ Old Bullion " was given to him. His style of oratory at this period was unimpassioned and very deliberate, but overflowing with facts, figures, logical deduction, and historical illustration. In later life he was characterized by a peculiar exuberance of wit, and raciness that increased with his years. The elaboration of his views on the national finances paved the way for subsequent legislation, and did much to bring about the present sub-treasury system of the United States.
To Colonel Benton is to be given the credit of moving the famous “expunging resolutions.” A formidable combination had been effected in the Senate, headed by Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, and a resolution condemning the president's course had been adopted. Benton took it upon himself to have the resolution expunged from the records. From 1841 till 1851, under Presidents, Tyler, Polk, and Taylor, he participated in the discussions that arose in the Oregon boundary, the annexation of Texas, and other important subjects. The Democratic administration of Mr. Polk was nominally in favor of lat. 54° 40' N. as the boundary of Oregon, and his party had promised this in its platform, but was opposed with so much force by Mr. Benton, that '' Polk acquiesced in his views and accepted lat. 49° N. as the line. By this the United States relinquished a piece of territory that would now make its possessions continuous to Alaska and give it every harbor on the Pacific coast. During the Mexican War Colonel Benton's services, and intimate acquaintance with the Spanish provinces of the south, proved most useful to the government. On his suggestion the policy of a “masterly inactivity,” at first determined upon by the president, was abandoned, and that of a vigorous prosecution of the war adopted in its stead. At one time it was proposed by President Polk to confer upon him the title of lieutenant- general with full command of the war, in order that he might carry out his conceptions in person. Questions in regard to slavery were brought on by the acquisition of Mexican territory. These were adjusted by the compromise acts of 1850, which were introduced by Mr. Clay, were opposed by Colonel Benton, and defeated as a whole, but passed separately. In the nullification struggle, Benton became Calhoun’s leading Democratic opponent, and their opposition to each other £ into a life-long animosity. The compromise of 1833 brought a lull in the storm; but the same views soon reappeared in connection with the far more complicated question of slavery. The Calhoun doctrine was introduced into the discussion of the abolition petitions in the House of Representatives in 1835, and was definitely presented in the session of 1846–7. On 19 February, 1847, Mr. Calhoun, in answer to the “Wilmot proviso,” which excluded slavery from all territory subsequently to be acquired, introduced resolutions that embodied his doctrine as to state rights. Colonel Benton, although representing a slave state, would not deviate from the positions he had maintained on former occasions. He denounced Calhoun's resolution as a “fire-brand.” Calhoun expressed his surprise, saying he expected Benton's support because he represented a slave state. Benton replied that he had no right to expect any such thing, and from this moment the two intellectual giants were matched in a ferocious warfare against each other's ideas and interests. The resolutions never came to a vote, but they were sent to the legislature of every slave state, were adopted by several of them, and were made the basis of after-conflict and party organization. It was Calhoun's determination to make them a basis of instruction to senators in Congress, and in his hostility to Benton he confided them to certain Democrats in the Missouri Legislature whom he knew to be unfriendly to his re-election. By skilful management the resolutions were in both branches without Colonel Benton's knowledge, and a copy was sent to Washington. He promptly denounced them as not expressing the sense of the people, and containing doctrines designed to produce separation and disaster, and declared that he would appeal from the legislature to the people. On the adjournment of Congress he returned to Missouri and canvassed every section of the state in a series of speeches famed for their bitterness of denunciation, strength of exposition, and caustic wit. The result was the return of a legislature in 1849–50 with Benton men in the plurality, but composed of opposite wings, and he was defeated by a coalition his Democratic opponents (known as “anties”) and the Whigs. At the close of his term he therefore retired from the Senate, after six successive elections and thirty years' continuous service. In 1852 he announced himself a candidate for Congress, made a direct '' to the people in his Congressional District, and was elected over all opposition. He gave his warm support to the ad- ministration of Franklin Pierce; but when the Calhoun party, obtained the ascendency he withdrew. The administration then turned on him, and displaced from office all his friends throughout Missouri. Soon afterward the Kansas-Nebraska bill was brought up, and he exerted himself with all his strength against it, delivering a memorable speech, which did much to excite the country against the act, but failed to defeat its passage. At the next election he was not returned to Congress. Retiring from active politics, he de- voted two years to literary pursuits, when he became a candidate for governor in 1856, his old friends rallied to his political standard, and his course became a triumphal procession; but a third ticket was in the field, and by the dividing of forces his election was lost. In the presidential election of the same year Colonel Benton supported Mr. Buchanan in opposition to his own son-in-law, Colonel Frémont, giving as a reason that Mr. Buchanan, if elected, would restore the principles of the Jackson administration, while he feared that the success of Frémont would engender sectional parties fatal to the permanence of the union. Afterward, during the Buchanan administration, he modified many of his opinions, and in several instances took a decided stand in opposition.
The first volume of his “Thirty Years' View” of the workings of the government (New York, 1854) presented a connected narrative of the time from Adams to Pierce, and dealt particularly with the secret political history of that period. The second and last volume appeared in 1856. He then undertook the task of abridging the debates of Congress from the foundation of the government. A though at [he advanced ago of seventy-six, he labored at this task daily, and brought the work down to the conclusion of , the great compromise debate of 1830, in which, with Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and Seward, he had himself borne a conspicuous part. The last pages were dictated in whispers after he had lost the power of speaking aloud. The work was published under the title of "An Abridgment of the Debates of Congress " (15 vols., New York). Having completed this work, Mr. Benton sent for several old friends to bid them farewell. Among them was the president, whom be thanked for taking an interest in his child, and to whom he said: "Buchanan, we are friends. I supported you in preference to Fremont, because he beaded a sectional party, whose success would have been the signal for disunion. I have known you long, and I knew you would honestly endeavor to do right." A week before his death he wrote to friends in Congress requesting that neither house should take notice of his death; but Congress, nevertheless, adjourned for his funeral.
After becoming senator Colonel Benton married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel James McDowell, of Virginia. In 1844 she suffered a stroke of paralysis, and from that time he was never known to go to any place of festivity or amusement. She died in 1854, leaving four daughters, the second of whom married General John C. Fremont. Notwithstanding the temptations to which his public life subjected him, he abstained wholly from the use of tobacco, gamming and liquors. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 241-243.
BENTON William Plummer, Soldier, born near ….. in His father died father died Private in a regiment of Mounted Rifles ….
President's was mustered into service, being the first offered by Indiana. He was soon promoted colonel of the 8th Indiana Volunteers, and commanded at Rich Mountain, where he distinguished himself by personal braver)'. After three months he was authorized to re-enlist and reorganize the regiment, and did so, reporting to General Fremont, 14 September, 1861. The regiment was placed in the vanguard of Fremont's Army, and served in the Campaign in Missouri and Arkansas. He commanded a brigade at Pea Ridge, and was promoted to brigadier-general for gallantry. He was in the battles of Port Gibson, Jackson, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, the siege of Vicksburg, and Mobile. At Jackson, Mississippi, he was wounded. At the close of the war General Benton resigned his commission and returned to Richmond, Indiana, to resume the practice of law. In 1866 he went to New Orleans under government appointment, where he died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 243.
BERGH, Henry, founder of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, born in New York city, in 1823. His father, Christian Bergh, of German ancestry, was ship-builder for several years in the service of the government, and died in 1843, leaving his fortune to his three children. Henry entered Columbia, but, before he had finished the course, made a visit to Europe, where he remained about five years. In 1862 he was appointed secretary of legation at St. Petersburg, and acting vice-consul. Being obliged by reason of the severity of the climate to resign his office in 1864, he travelled extensively in Europe and the east. On his return he determined to devote the remainder of his life to the interests of dumb animals. Alone, in face of indifference, opposition, and ridicule, he began a reform that is now recognized as one of the beneficent movements of the age. Through his exertions as a speaker and lecturer, but above all as a bold worker in the street, in the court-room, and before the legislature, the cause he had espoused gained friends and rapidly increased in influence. Cruelties witnessed in Europe first suggested his mission. The legislature passed the laws prepared by him, and on 10 April, 1866, the society was legally organized, with him as president. The association moved steadily forward, and by August was in a flourishing condition financially, having received a valuable property from Mr. and Mrs. Bergh. The work of the society covers all cases of cruelty to all sorts of animals. It employs every moral agency, social, personal and legislative; it touches points of vital concern to health as well as to humanity, it looks after the transportation of cattle intended for market; it examines into the purity of milk; and fixes the times and manner of slaughtering animals for food. The society has a large and influential membership, and it has made many friends and received many gifts. In the city of New York its officers are constituted special policemen, with authority to arrest any person found practising cruelty of any kind to animals. In 1871 a Parisian, Louis Bonard, who lived with extreme simplicity in New York, died and left $150,000 to the society, which permitted a removal to quarters larger and better adapted to the work. A building at the corner of Fourth avenue and 22d street, New York city, was purchased and altered to make it suitable for the purposes of the society. […]canon confirmed, to the effect that Protestant Episcopal clergyman should at least once a year preach a sermon on cruelty and mercy to animals. One of the outgrowths of his work is the ambulance corps for removing disabled animals from the street, and a derrick to rescue them from excavations into which they may fall. He is also the originator of an ingenious invention, which substitutes artificial for live pigeons as marks for the sportsman's gun. Mr. Bergh receives no salary, but gives his time and energies freely to the ' At the beginning of this reform, no state or territory of the United States contained any statute relating to the protection of animals from cruelty. At present (1886) thirty- nine states of the Union have adopted substantially the original laws procured by him from the legislature of New York; to which may be added Brazil and the Argentine Republic. The society is now in the twenty-first year of its existence, is out of debt and self-sustaining. By reason of its fidelity, discretion, and humanity, it is everywhere recognized as a power in the land for good. In 1874 he rescued a little girl from inhuman treatment, and this led to the founding of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Mr. Bergh has written several plays, one of which was acted in Philadelphia. He has also Published a volume of tales and sketches entitled “The Streets of New York”; a drama entitled “Love's Alternative”; “The Portentous Telegram”; “The Ocean Paragon,” and “Married Off,” a poem (London, 1859). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 244-245.
BERRIEN, John M., naval officer, born in Georgia in 1802; died in Philadelphia, 20 November, 1883. On receiving his appointment as mid-shipman he joined the frigate “Constellation,” of the West India Squadron, in 1827, was subsequently transferred to the frigate “Guerriere,” of the Pacific Squadron, and then to the sloop “Vincennes.” He was promoted to passed midshipman in 1831; and joined the West India Squadron, commissioned lieutenant in 1837, and served on various vessels in the Pacific and Brazil stations. In September, 1844, he was ordered to the frigate “Potomac," and in 1847 commanded the schooner “Bonito" at the capture of the city of Tobasco, Mexico. Lieutenant Barrien received his commission as commander, 13 March, 1856, and during 1858–9 was attached to the U.S. Navy-yard at Portsmouth, New Hampshire In February, 1860, he was ordered to Hong-Kong, China, where he took command of the sloop of war “John Adams,” was commissioned captain in 1862, and sent to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, as assistant inspector of ordnance at the Fort Pitt Works. He commanded at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1865, and was lighthouse inspector in 1866-‘9. He was commissioned commodore, 20 September, 1866, and in December was placed on the retired list. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 249.
BERRY, Abraham J…. his profession. At the time of the desolation of New York by Asiatic cholera in 1832, he was among the few that remained at the post of duty. He labored night and day, and his courage and zeal resulted in many expressions of respect and admiration from all classes, as well as a public acknowledgment by the city authorities. For more than a century a considerable part of Williamsburg had belonged to his family. He identified himself with the interests of the place when it was made a city, and became its first mayor. He also assisted very materially in the establishment of the important ferries connecting with New York. In 1861 Dr. Berry, although over sixty years of age, went out as surgeon of the 38th New York Infantry. When General McClellan retreated to Harrison's Landing in July, 1862, Dr. Berry had more than 300 patients in his care near White House; but in the confusion incident to the moving of the Army he and they were forgotten. When he found that the Army had departed, he performed the herculean task of carrying the sick and convalescent safely through to the James River, and when he reached it the additions of sick and wounded had swelled his train to more than 800. His death was the result of fever contracted at that period. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 249-250.
BERRY, Hiram George, soldier, born in Thomaston (now Rockland), Maine, 27 August, 1824; died at Chancellorsville, Virginia, 2 May, 1863. He learned the carpenter's trade, and afterward engaged in navigation. He represented his native town in the state legislature several times, and was mayor of the City of Rockland. He originated and commanded for several years the Rockland guard, a volunteer company, which attained a high reputation for drill and discipline. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the service as colonel of the 4th Maine Infantry. He took part in the battle of Bull Run and the siege of Yorktown, was made a brigadier-general 4 April, 1862, his commission dating from 17 March, 1862, and was given command of the 3d Brigade of the 3d Division of Heintzelman's 3d Army Corps. He was present at the battles of Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, bore a major part in the seven days' fight, and was in the second Bull Run Campaign and Chantilly. In January, 1863, he was nominated by the president as major-general of volunteers, with rank dating from 29 November, 1862, confirmed by the Senate on 9 March, 1863, and placed in command of the 2d Division of the 3d Army Corps, succeeding General Sickles. At a critical juncture in the battle of Chancellorsville General Berry received an order from General Hooker to charge upon the advancing foe. It read: “Go in, general; throw your men into the breach; don't fire a shot—they can’t see you—but charge home with the bayonet.” They did charge home, and for three hours General Berry's division, almost alone, withstood the attack of the enemy flushed with previous victory, drove them back, and regained a portion of their lost ground. The battle was renewed the next morning, and again Berry and his division were in the front, and receiving the first assault. Intent upon driving them back, he headed one of his brigades in several successful bayonet charges, and in one of them was killed by a shot from the enemy. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 250.
BERRY, Nathaniel Springer, governor of New Hampshire, born in Bath, Maine.. 1 September, 1796. His father was Abner Berry, a ship-builder; his grandfather, John Berry, captain of infantry in the revolutionary war. His mother was Betsy, daughter of Nathaniel Springer, a captain of artillery in the same war, killed in battle. When he of the family was such that his lot was cast among strangers, and his educational advantages were limited. He became an apprentice as a tanner and currier at Bath, New Hampshire, at sixteen, and served until twenty-one. In April, 1818, he moved to Bristol, New Hampshire, and in 1820 engaged in the manufacture of leather, which business he followed about thirty-five years. He was colonel of the 34th Regiment of New Hampshire Militia for two years, was a judge of the court of common pleas from June, 1841, till June, 1850, and judge of probate for the five years ending 5 June, 1861. In 1828, 1833, 1834, and 1837 he represented Bristol in the state legislature, in 1854 represented the town of Hebron, and in 1835 and in 1836 was a state senator for the 11th District. Politically he acted with the Democratic Party for twenty-two years, and was a delegate to its national convention at Baltimore in 1840; but the action of this convention on the subject of slavery caused him to break his party ties, and he became one of the organizers of the Free-Soil Party in New Hampshire. At its first state convention. in 1845, he was nominated for governor, and received votes enough to prevent an election by the people. He was re-nominated at the four succeeding conventions. In March, 1861, he was elected Governor by the Democratic Party, inaugurated in June following, and re-elected in March, 1862, serving until June, 1863. He was indefatigable in his efforts to aid the general government in the suppression of the rebellion; and enlisted, armed, equipped, and forwarded to the seat of war more than 16,000 men. He signed, with the other northern war-governors, the letter of 28 June, 1862, to President Lincoln, upon which he made the call of 1 July, 1862, for 300,000 volunteers. In 1823 Mr. Berry became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1872 was a delegate to the general conference. He lost his wife in 1857, and in 1886 was residing with his son in Bristol. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 250.
BETHUNE, George Washington, 1805-1862, Dutch Reform clergyman, abolitionist. Director, 1839-1840, of the American Colonization Society. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 252-253; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 229-230; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)
BETHUNE, George Washington, clergyman, born in New York City in March, 1805; died in Florence, Italy, 27 April, 1862. His parents were distinguished for devout Christianity and for charitable deeds. His father, Divie Bethune, was an eminent merchant, well known as a philanthropist. He was graduated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1822, studied theology at Princeton, and after completing his course was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church in 1825. He accepted an appointment as chaplain to seamen in the port of Savannah, but in 1826 returned to the north and transferred his ecclesiastical allegiance to the Reformed Dutch Church, settling soon after at Rhinebeck, New York, where he remained four years, when he was called to the pastorate of the first Reformed Dutch Church in Utica. In 1834 his reputation as an eloquent preacher and an efficient pastor led to an invitation from a Reformed Dutch Church in Philadelphia. He remained in that city till 1848, his character as a preacher and scholar steadily growing, and then became pastor of the newly organized “Reformed Dutch Church on the Heights” in Brooklyn, New York For eleven years he continued in the pastorate of this church, but in 1859 impaired health led him to resign and visit Italy. In Rome he sometimes preached in the American chapel, at that time the only Protestant place of worship in the city. He returned in 1860 with improved health, and was for some months associate pastor of a Reformed Dutch Church in New York City; but, his health again becoming impaired, he returned to Italy in the summer of 1861, and, after some months' residence in Florence, died from apoplexy. Dr. Bethune, though best remembered by his literary work, exercised a wide influence as a clergyman and a citizen. One of his latest public efforts before leaving his native city for his last voyage to Europe was an address delivered at the great mass meeting in Union square, New York, 20 April, 1861, in which with extraordinary fire and eloquence he urged the duty of patriotism in the trying crisis that then threatened the nation. A memoir by A. R. Van Nest, D. D., was published in 1867. Dr. Bethune was an accomplished student of English literature, and distinguished himself as a writer and editor. He published an excellent edition of the “British Female Poets, with Biographical and Critical Notices” (Philadelphia, 1848); and Izaak Walton's “Complete Angler,” for which last he was peculiarly qualified by his fondness for fishing. Among his original works are “Lays of Love and Faith” (Philadelphia, 1847); “Orations and Discourses” (1850); “Memoirs of Joanna Bethune” (New York, 1863); “Fruits of the Spirit,” a volume of sermons; and two smaller works, “Early Lost, Early Saved,” and “The History of a Penitent.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 234.
BEVERIDGE, John L., soldier, born in Washington County, New York, in 1824. In 1842 he moved westward, first to Illinois, and then to Tennessee, where he became a lawyer. In 1855 he returned to Illinois, settling in Chicago, and he gained prominence in his profession. At the beginning of the Civil War he volunteered in the service of the United States, and attained the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He was elected lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1872, and in 1873 succeeded Governor Oglesby as chief executive of the state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 254.
BIBB, Henry Walton, 1815-1854, African American, author, newspaper publisher, fugitive slave, anti-slavery lecturer, abolitionist. Wrote Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, 1849. Published Voice of the Fugitive: An Anti-Slavery Journal, in 1851. Organized the North American League. Lectured for Michigan Liberty Party. (Dumond, 1961, p. 338; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 220, 447, 489, 618-619, 632-634; Sinha, 2016, p. 468; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 717; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 1, p. 532; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)
BIDWELL, Daniel D., soldier, born in Buffalo, New York, about 1816; died near Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October, 1864. He resided in Buffalo, and for twenty years prior to the Civil War was identified with the military organizations of the state and city... When the war began he resigned his office of police justice, enlisted as a private in the 65th New York Infantry, and was soon promoted to captain. Withdrawing his company from the regiment, he made it the nucleus of the 74th Regiment, New York Infantry. He was commissioned colonel of the 49th Regiment in September, 1861, served with it through the Peninsular Campaign, and during the “Seven Days' Battles” was in command of a brigade, continuing in charge from Harrison's Landing to Washington, and up to the time of the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, when he resumed command of his regiment. Colonel Bidwell took a prominent part in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, commanded a brigade at Gettysburg, and, when General Grant took command of the armies in Virginia, was again placed in charge of a brigade, participating in the Overland Campaign He was commissioned brigadier-general in July, 1864, and served with honor in the Shenandoah Campaigns, during the summer preceding the action at Cedar Creek, where he lost his life. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 258.
BIDWELL, John, politician, born in Chautauqua County, New York, 5 August, 1819. In 1829 he settled with his parents in Erie, Pennsylvania, and in 1831 moved to Ashtabula County, where he was educated in Kingsville Academy. During the winter of 1838-’9 he taught school in Darke County, and subsequently for two years in Missouri. In 1841 he emigrated to California, being one of the first to make the journey overland, which occupied at that time six months. On the Pacific Coast he had charge of Bodega and Fort Ross, and also of General Sutter's Feather River possessions. He served in the war with Mexico until its close, rising from second lieutenant to major, and was among the first to find gold in 1848 on Feather River. In 1849 he was a member of the state constitutional convention, and during the same year became a member of the Senate of the new state. He was one of the committee appointed to convey a block of gold bearing quartz to Washington in 1850, and was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention held in Charleston in 1860. Since then he has been a brigadier-general of the militia, and in 1864 he was elected a representative from California to Congress, serving from 4 December, 1865, to 3 March, 1867. He was a delegate to the Convention in 1866, and in 1875 he was candidate for governor of California, but was defeated. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 258.
BIGELOW, John, journalist, born in Malden, New York, 25 November, 1817. He was graduated at Union College in 1835, was admitted to the bar in 1839, and practised law in New York for several years, but gradually became identified with journalism to an extent that led him to abandon the law. He was editor of “The Plebeian ” and the “Democratic Review,” and prepared for the ' Gregg's “Commerce of the Prairies" and other books of travel. In 1845–’8 he was an inspector of Sing Sing State Prison. He became a partner of William Cullen Bryant in 1849 as joint owner of the “Evening Post,” and was managing editor of that journal until 1861, when, after the accession of President Lincoln, he went to Paris as U. S. consul. After the death of Mr. Dayton in 1865 he became U. S. minister to France, where he remained until 1867. During 1867 and 1868 he was Secretary of State for New York. In the spring of 1886 he was designated by the New York chamber of commerce to inspect so much of the Panama Canal as was then under construction, and on the receipt of his report he was '' elected an honorary member of the chamber. The same year he received the honorary ": of LL.D. from Racine College, Wisconsin. By the will of Samuel J. Tilden (August, 1886) he was appointed a trustee of several million dollars, to be applied to the establishment and maintenance of a public library in New York City, and he is the testator's authorized biographer. His published writings are “Jamaica in 1850; or, The Effect of Sixteen Years of Freedom on a Slave Colony.” and “Life of Frémont” (1856) and “Les États-Unis d'Amérique en 1863.” (Paris). He edited the autobiography of Franklin from the original manuscript, which he found in France (1868), and in 1869 published “Some Recollections of the late Antoine Pierre Berryer.” “The Wit and Wisdom of the Haytiens” was published in 1876, and a monograph on “Molinos the Quietist” in 1882. In 1886 e edited a life of William Cullen Bryant; a two- volume edition of the speeches of Mr. Tilden, and “The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin.” —His eldest son, John, is an officer in the 10th Regiment U.S. cavalry and author of sketches of army life in the west.—His second son, Poultney, is editor of “Outing,” an illustrated magazine for the encouragement of out-of-door recreations. His daughter Grace translated Count Moltke’s “Letters from Russia” (New York, 1877). p. 261.
BIGGS, Asa, lawyer, born in Williamstown, North Carolina, 4 February, in Norfolk, Virginia, 6 March, 1878. He received a common-school education and studied law, beginning practice in 1831, was elected to the state constitutional convention in 1835, to the lower branch of the legislature in 1840 and 1842, and to the state senate in 1844. He was chosen a member of Congress in 1845, and was one of the three commissioners appointed in 1850 who prepared the revised code of North Carolina, which went into operation in 1854. In the latter wear he was again elected to the state senate, and in 1854 was chosen U.S. Senator, which office he resigned in 1858 to accept the judgeship of the U.S. District court of North Carolina. He held this office until the war broke out, and in May, 1861, he was elected to the state convention that passed the ordinance of secession. After the war he resumed the practice of law, and subsequently engaged in the commission business at Norfolk, Virginia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 261.
BIGLER, William, governor of Pennsylvania, was born in Shermansburg, Pennsylvania, in 1814; died in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, 9 August, 1880. In 1829 he began to aid his brother John as a printer in the office of the “Center Democrat,” published at Bellefonte. In 1833 he moved to Clearfield and established the “Clearfield Democrat,” a Jackson paper which became prosperous and notable. He sold it in 1836, and entered the lumber business. But his editorial career had so extended his reputation that he was already regarded as a political leader. In 1841 he was elected to the state senate, and he was its speaker in 1843–4. In 1849 he was appointed one of the revenue commissioners, and in 1851 was elected governor, he received the gubernatorial nomination a second time in 1854, but was defeated by the American Party. In 1855 he was sent to the U.S. Senate. He was a member of the Charleston Convention in 1860, and was temporary chairman of the Democratic Convention of 1864, and a member of that of 1868. After the election of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Bigler drew up a bill, and advocated it before the Senate, for submitting the Crittenden compromise proposition to a vote of the people of the several states. In 1873 he was delegate-at-large of the constitutional convention at Erie. In 1874 he was an efficient member of the board of finance of the centennial exhibition. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 262.
BILBO, William, circa 1815-1867, lawyer, journalist, entrepreneur. Participated in lobbying effort in Congress for the passage of the Constitutional amendment banning slavery in the United States. Worked with Secretary of State William H. Seward.
BILLINGS, John Shaw, surgeon, born in Switzerland County, Indiana, 12 April, 1838. He was graduated at Miami University in 1857, and at the Ohio Medical College in 1860. At first he settled in Cincinnati, but in November, 1861, he was appointed acting assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army. Until March, 1863, he was assistant surgeon, having charge of hospitals in Washington, D. C., and West Philadelphia. He then served with the Army of the Potomac, being with the 5th Corps at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. From October, 1863, till February, 1864, he served on Hospital duty at David's and Bedlow's Islands in the vicinity of New York City, also acting as a member of the board of enrollment, after which he became medical inspector to the Army of the Potomac, and from December, 1864, was connected with the surgeon-general's office in Washington. In December, 1876, he was appointed surgeon, with the rank of major, in the regular army. He is also medical adviser of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and lecturer on municipal hygiene at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Billings is a member of numerous scientific societies, including the American Medical Association and the National Academy of Sciences (1883), and he is also an honorary member of the Statistical Society of London. During 1879-'80 he was vice-president of the National Board of Health, and in 1884 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh. During August, 1886, he was present at the meeting of the British Medical Association, and delivered an important address' on “medicine in the United States.” His contributions to the periodical literature of medicine are numerous, and he has also published reports on “Barracks and Hospitals” (War Department, Washington, 1870); “The Hygiene of the U.S. Army.” (1875); and “Mortality and Vital Statistics of the United States” (Census Reports, 1880). His great work, however, has been the “Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office,” U. S. Army (Washington, 1880 et seq.), in large quarto volumes, which contain the biography of every medical subject as far as it is to be found in the library at present under Dr. Billings's care. It is expected that the work will consist of ten volumes, of which six have been issued up to 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 262.
BINGHAM, John Armor, born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, in 1815. Republican Congressman, judge, advocate, U.S. Army. Bingham was one of the writers and sponsors of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. One of three military judges presiding in the Lincoln assassination trial. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 263; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 277)
BINGHAM, John A., lawyer, born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, in 1815. He passed two years in a printing-office, and then entered Franklin College, Ohio, but left, on account of his health, before graduation. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, was district attorney for Tuscarawas County, Ohio, from 1846 till 1849, was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1854, and re-elected three times, sitting from 1855 till 1863. He prepared in the 34th Congress the report on the contested Illinois elections, and in 1862 was chairman of the managers of the house in the impeachment of Judge Humphreys for high treason. He failed of re-election in 1864, and was appointed by President Lincoln judge-advocate in the army, and later the same year solicitor of the court of claims. He was special judge-advocate in the trial of the assassins of President Lincoln. In 1865 he returned to Congress, and sat until 1873, serving on the committees on military affairs, freedmen, and reconstruction, and in the 40th Congress as chairman of the committees on Claims and Judiciary, and as one of the managers in the impeachment trial of President Johnson. On 3 May, 1873, he received the appointment of minister to Japan, which post he held until 1885, when he was recalled by President Cleveland. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, p. 263.
BINGHAM, Judson David, soldier, born at Massena Springs, St. Lawrence County, New York, 16 May, 1831. He was appointed to West Point from Indiana, and in 1854. He took part in the suppression of John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859, and during the Civil War served in charge of trains and supplies of General Banks's command in Maryland in 1861, of the quartermaster's depot at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1862-’3, and as chief quartermaster of the Army of the Tennessee. He took part in the siege of Vicksburg and in the invasion of Georgia. On 9 April, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general for faithful and meritorious services during the rebellion. After the war he was successively chief quartermaster of the Department of the lakes, assistant quartermaster-general at Washington, being in charge of the bureau a part of the time, as commissioner to audit the Kansas war accounts, and as chief quartermaster with the rank of lieutenant-colonel at the headquarters of the Division of the Pacific and the Department of the Missouri, and from 4 June, 1886, at ' Illinois, as chief quartermaster of the Division of the Missouri. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 263-264.
BINGHAM, Kinsley S., senator, born in Camillus, New York, 16 December, 1808; died at Oak Grove, Michigan, 5 October, 1861. He received a common-school education, and was clerk in a lawyer's office for three years. In 1833 he emigrated to Michigan and settled upon a farm. In 1837 he was elected to the Michigan legislature, continued during eight years a member of that body, and for three years as speaker. In 1849 he was elected a representative in Congress, and served on the committee of commerce. In 1854 he was elected governor of the state, and in 1859 was chosen U.S. Senator. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 264.
Binney, Horace, 1780-1875, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, constitutional lawyer, member of the Philadelphia auxiliary of the American Colonization Society. (Burin, 2005, pp. 84, 112; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 265-266; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 280; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 40, 72)
BINNEY, Horace, lawyer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4 January, l780; died there, 12 August, 1875. He was of English and Scotch descent. His father was a surgeon in the revolutionary army. In 1788, the year after his father's death, he was placed in a classical school at Bordentown, New Jersey, where he continued three years, and distinguished himself especially by his attainments in Greek. In July, 1793, he entered the freshman class of Harvard, and at graduation in 1797 he divided the highest honor with a single classmate. He had acquired the art and habit of study, and a love for it which never abated until the close of his life. This art he ever regarded as his most valued acquisition. He began the study of law in November, 1797, in the office of Jared Ingersoll, and was called to the bar in March, 1800, when he was little more than twenty years of age. His clientage for some years was meagre, but his industry continued unflagging, and gradually, in the face of a competition with eminent lawyers, such as no other bar in the country then exhibited, he became an acknowledged leader. In 1806 he was sent to the legislature of the state, in which he served one year, declining a re-election. So early as 1807 his professional engagements had become extremely large, and before 1815 he was in the enjoyment of all that the legal profession could give, whether of reputation or emolument. Between 1807 and 1814 he prepared and published the six volumes of reported decisions of the supreme court of Pennsylvania that bear his name. They are among the earliest of American reports, and are regarded as almost perfect models of legal reporting. Soon after 1830 Mr. Binney's health began to be impaired, and he desired to withdraw from the courts and throw off the business that oppressed him. It was this, in part, that made him willing to accept a nomination for Congress; but there was doubtless another reason that influenced him—the hostility of President Jackson to the United States bank. The veto of the bill for its recharter aroused the deepest feeling of almost the entire business community of Philadelphia, and with that community Mr. Binney was closely associated, while his ability, combined with his well-known knowledge of the condition and operations of the bank, pointed him out as the fittest man to defend the institution in Congress. He accepted a nomination, and was elected to the 23d Congress. In the consideration of great subjects, notably that of the removal of the public deposits from the United States bank, he proved himself to be a statesman of high rank and an accomplished debater. But official life was distasteful to him, and he declined a re-election. On his return to Philadelphia he refused all professional engagements in the courts, though he continued to give written opinions upon legal questions until 1850. Many of these opinions are still preserved. They relate to titles to real estate, to commercial questions, to trusts, and to the most abstruse subjects in every department of the law. They are model exhibitions of profound and accurate knowledge, of extensive research, of nice discrimination, and wise conclusion, and they were generally accepted as of almost equal authority with judicial decision. Once only after 1836 did Mr. Binney appear in the courts. In 1844, by appointment of the city councils of Philadelphia, he argued in the supreme court of the United States the case of Bidal vs. Girard's executors, in which was involved the validity of the trust created by Mr. Girard's will for the establishment and maintenance of a college for orphans. The argument is in print, and it is still the subject of admiration by the legal profession in this country, and almost equally so by the profession in Great Britain. It lifted the law of charities out of the depths of confusion and obscurity that had covered it, and while the fulness of its research and the vigor of its reasoning were masterly, it was clothed with a precision and a beauty of language never surpassed. The argument was a fitting close to a long and illustrious professional life. Mr. Binney had a fine, commanding person, an uncommonly handsome face, a dignified and graceful manner, and a most melodious voice, perfectly under his control, and modulated with unusual skill. In fine, he was in all particulars a most accomplished lawyer. No words can better describe him than those which he applied to a great man, the friend of his early man-hood: “He was an advocate of great power; a master of every question in his causes; a wary tactician in the management of them; highly accomplished in language; a faultless logician; a man of the purest integrity and the highest honor; fluent without the least volubility; concise to a degree that left every one's patience and attention unimpaired, and perspicuous to almost the lowest order of understanding, while he was dealing with almost the highest topics.” If it be added to this that his mental power was equal to the comprehension of any legal subject, that his mode of presentation was the best possible, that his rhetoric was faultless, that he had an aptness of illustration that illuminated the most abstruse subjects, and a personal character without a visible flaw, it will be seen that he must have been, as he was, a most persuasive and convincing advocate. In 1827, by invitation of the bar of Philadelphia, he delivered an address on the life and character of Chief-Justice Tilghman; and in 1835, complying with a request of the select and common councils of the city, an address on the life and character of Chief-Justice Marshall. Until the close of his life he was a constant reader and an indefatigable student. He kept himself well informed of current events, and in regard to all public questions he not only sought information, but matured settled opinions. In 1858 he published a sketch of the life and character of Justice Bushrod Washington, in which he delineated the qualities that make up a perfect nisi prius judge, with singular acuteness. In the same year he published sketches of three leaders of the old Philadelphia bar, which were greatly admired. He also in 1858 gave to the press a more extended discussion, entitled “An Inquiry into the Formation of Washington's Farewell Address,” strikingly illustrative of the character of his own mind, and of his habits of investigation and reasoning. And in 1862 and in 1863 he published three pamphlets in support of the power claimed by President Lincoln to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. His argument was not less remarkable than the best of his earlier efforts. Throughout his life Mr. Binney manifested a deep interest in many literary, scientific, and art institutions of Philadelphia, and in many of the noblest charities. He was also an earnest Christian, a devout member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and often a leading member of its conventions. The activity of his mind remained undiminished until his death. This occurred forty years after the age when most men are at the zenith of their reputation, forty years after he had substantially retired from public view and from participation in all matters that attract public notice, and at the end of a period when public recollection of most lawyers has faded into indistinctness. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888 p 265-266.
BINTLIFF, James, 1824-1901, abolitionist, newspaper editor, publisher, proprietor, businessman, Union Army colonel, helped found Republican Party. (Hunt, Roger, Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Gaithersburg, MD, 1990)
BIRD, Francis William, 1809-1894, anti-slavery political leader, radical reformer. Member of the anti-slavery “Conscience Whigs,” leader of the Massachusetts Free Soil Party. Led anti-slavery faction of the newly formed Republican Party. Supported abolitionist Party leader Charles Sumner. Opposed Dred Scott decision. “Bird Club” greatly influenced radical Republican politics in Massachusetts and in the U.S. Senate. Organized Emancipation League. Supported enlistment of African Americans in the Union Army and emancipation of Blacks in the District of Columbia. Supported women’s rights, Indian rights, suffrage rights for Chinese, and other causes. (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 805)
BIRGE, Henry Warner, soldier, born in Hartford, Connecticut, about 1830. When the Civil War began he was a resident of Norwich, Connecticut, and an aide on the staff of Governor W. A. Buckingham. On the day of the president's first call for troops (15 April, 1861) he began organizing the first regiments of Connecticut's quota. On 23 May he was '' major of the 4th Connecticut Volunteers, which was the first “three-years' regiment” of state troops mustered into the service of the United States. He served in Maryland and Virginia until November, 1861, when he was appointed colonel of the 13th Connecticut Infantry; joined General Butler's army in New Orleans in March, 1862, and was laced in command of the defences of the city. In September he commanded his regiment in a movement in the La Fourche District, and in December, when General Butler was succeeded by General. Banks, he was assigned to a brigade, which he commanded through the first Red River Campaign and the siege of Port Hudson (April to July, 1863). Before the surrender of this stronghold General Birge volunteered to organize and lead a volunteer battalion to carry the Confederate works by assault. Such was his reputation among the rank and file that his own regiment, the 13th Connecticut, volunteered almost in a body, and the full complement of 1,000 men was ready within two days. The assault was planned for the night of 10 July, but the news of the fall of Vicksburg was received, and Port Hudson surrendered 8 July, 1863. He was promoted brigadier-general 9 September, 1863. In 1864 he accompanied the second Red River Expedition, and after the engagements at Sabine Cross-Roads, Pleasant Hill, and Cane River, returned to Alexandria and was sent to take command at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which post was threatened by the Confederates. In July, 1864, he was ordered north with the 2d Division of the 19th Corps, joining General. Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley in August, and being present in all the battles of the ensuing campaign. In February and March, 1865, he was in command of the defences of Savannah, Georgia, where he remained until November, when he resigned his commission. His services were recognized the brevet of major-general of volunteers, and £ a vote of thanks from the legislature of his native state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 266.
BIRNEY, James Gillespie, 1792-1857, abolitionist leader, statesman, orator, writer, lawyer, jurist, newspaper publisher. On two occasions, mobs in Cincinnati attacked and wrecked his newspaper office. Beginning in 1832, Birney was an agent for the American colonization Society, representing the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. In 1833, he transferred to agent in Kentucky. Wrote pro-colonization articles for Alabama Democrat. Editor of the Philanthropist, founded 1836. Founder and president of the Liberty Party in 1848. Third party presidential candidate, 1840, 1844. Founder University of Alabama. Native American rights advocate. Member of the American Colonization Society. American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-1836, Vice President, 1835-1836, 1836-1838, Executive Committee, 1838-1840, Corresponding Secretary, 1838-1840. American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, Secretary, 1840-1841, Executive Committee, 1840-1842. His writings include: “Ten Letters on Slavery and Colonization,” (1832-1833), “Addresses and Speeches,” (1835), “Vindication of the Abolitionists,” (1835), “The Philanthropist,” a weekly newspaper (1836-1837), “Address of Slaveholders,” (1836), “Argument on Fugitive Slave Case,” (1837), “Political Obligations of Abolitionists,” (1839), “American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery,” (1840), and “Speeches in England,” (1840). (Birney, 1969; Blue, 2005, pp. 20-21, 25, 30, 32, 48-51, 55, 9-99, 101, 139, 142, 163, 186, 217; Burin, 2005, pp. 84, 112; Drake, 1950, pp. 141, 149, 159; Dumond, 1938; Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 93, 176, 179, 185, 197, 198, 200-202, 257-262, 286, 297, 300-301, 303; Filler, 1960, pp. 55, 73, 77, 89, 94, 107, 128, 131, 137, 140-141, 148, 152, 156, 176; Fladeland, 1955; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 27, 36, 40, 41, 49, 54, 55, 60, 71, 92, 195, 228, 252,293, 301, 323, 328, 350; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 4-5, 7, 8, 13-15, 18, 21-31, 35, 50, 101, 199, 225; Pease, 1965, pp. 43-49; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 43-44, 46, 48, 163, 188-189, 364, 522; Sorin, 1971, pp. 25, 47, 51, 52, 65, 70n, 97, 103n; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 146-148, 211-212, 229-230; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 267-269; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 291-294; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 79-80; Birney, William, Jas. G. Birney and His Times, 1890; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 312-313)
BIRNEY, James Gillespie, statesman, born in Danville, Kentucky, 4 February, 1792; died in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, 25 November, 1857. His ancestors were Protestants of the province of Ulster, Ireland. His father, migrating to the United States at sixteen years of age, settled in Kentucky, became a wealthy merchant, manufacturer, and farmer, and for many years was president of the Danville bank. His mother died when he was three years old, and his early boyhood was passed under the care of a pious aunt. Giving promise of talent and force of character, he was liberally educated with a view to his becoming a lawyer and statesman. After preparation at good schools and at Transylvania University he was sent to Princeton, where he was graduated with honors in 1810. Having studied law for three years, chiefly under Alexander J. Dallas, of Philadelphia, he returned to his native place in 1814 and began practice. In 1816 he married a daughter of William McDowell, judge of the U. S. Circuit Court and one of several brothers who, with their relatives, connections, and descendants, were the most influential family in Kentucky. In the same year he was elected to the legislature, in which body he opposed and defeated in its original form a proposition to demand of the states of Ohio and Indiana the enactment of laws for the seizure, imprisonment, and delivery to owners of slaves escaping into their limits. His education in New Jersey and Pennsylvania at the time when the gradual emancipation laws of those states were in operation had led him to favor that solution of the slavery problem. In the year 1818 he moved to Alabama, bought a cotton plantation near Huntsville, and served as a member of the first legislature that assembled under the constitution of 1819. Though he was not a member of the convention that framed the instrument, it was chiefly through his influence that a provision of the Kentucky Constitution, empowering the general assembly to emancipate slaves on making compensation to the owners, and to prohibit the bringing of slaves into the state for sale, was copied into it, with amendments designed to secure humane treatment for that unfortunate class. In the legislature, he voted against a resolution of honor to General Jackson, assigning his reasons in a forcible speech. This placed him politically in a small minority. In 1823, having found planting unprofitable, partly because of his refusal to permit his overseer to use the lash, he resumed at Huntsville the practice of his profession, was appointed solicitor of the northern circuit, and soon gained a large and lucrative practice. In 1826 he made a public profession of religion, united with the Presbyterian Church, and was ever afterward a devout Christian. About the same time he began to contribute to the American Colonization Society, regarding it as preparing the way for gradual emancipation. In 1827 he procured the enactment by the Alabama legislature of a statute "to prohibit the importation of slaves into this state for sale or hire." In 1828 he was a candidate for presidential elector on the Adams ticket in Alabama, canvassed the state for the Adams party, and was regarded as its most prominent member. He was repeatedly elected mayor of Huntsville, and was recognized as the leader in educational movements and local improvements. In 1830 he was deputed by the trustees of the state university to select and recommend to them five persons as president and professors of that institution, also by the trustees of the Huntsville female seminary to select and employ three teachers. In the performance of these trusts he spent several months in the Atlantic states, extending his tour as far north as Massachusetts. His selections were approved. Returning home by way of Kentucky, he called on Henry Clay, with whom he had been on terms of friendship and political sympathy, and urged that statesman to place himself at the head of the gradual emancipation movement in Kentucky. The result of the interview was the final alienation in public matters and politics of the parties to it, though their friendly personal relations remained unchanged. Mr. Birney did not support Mr. Clay politically after 1830 or vote for him in 1832. For several years he was the confidential adviser and counsel of the Cherokee nation, an experience that led him to sympathize with bodies of men who were wronged under color of law. In 1831 he had become so sensible of the evil influences of slavery that he determined to remove his large family to a free state, and in the winter of that year visited Illinois and selected Jacksonville as the place of his future residence. Returning to Alabama, he was winding up his law business and selling his property with a view to removal, when he received, most unexpectedly, an appointment from the American Colonization Society as its agent for the southwest. From motives of duty he accepted and devoted himself for one year to the promotion of the objects of that society. Having become convinced that the slave-holders of the gulf states, with few exceptions, were hostile to the idea of emancipation in the future, he lost faith in the efficacy of colonization in that region. In his conversations about that time with southern politicians and men of influence he learned enough to satisfy him that, although the secret negotiations in 1829 of the Jackson administration for the purchase of Texas had failed, the project of annexing that province to the United States and forming several slave states out of its territory had not been abandoned; that a powerful combination existed at the south for the purpose of sending armed adventurers to Texas; and that southern politicians were united in the design to secure for the south a majority in the U. S. Senate. The situation seemed to him to portend the permanence of slavery, with grave danger of Civil War and disunion of the states. Resigning his agency and relinquishing his Illinois project, he moved, in November, 1833, to Kentucky for the purpose of separating it from the slave states by effecting the adoption of a system of gradual emancipation. He thought its example might be followed by Virginia and Tennessee, and that thus the slave states would be placed in a hopeless minority, and slavery in process of extinction. But public opinion in his native state had greatly changed since he had left it; the once powerful emancipation element had been weakened by the opposition of political leaders, and especially of Henry Clay. His efforts were sustained by very few. In June, 1834, he set free his own slaves and severed his connection with the Colonization Society, the practical effect of which, he had found, was to afford a pretext for postponing emancipation indefinitely. From this time he devoted himself with untiring zeal to the advocacy in Kentucky of the abolition of slavery. On 19 March, 1835, he formed the Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society, consisting of forty members, several of whom had freed their slaves. In May, at New York, he made the principal speech at the meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and thenceforward he was identified with the Tappans, Judge William Jay, Theodore D. Weld, Alvan Stewart, Thomas Morris, and other northern abolitionists, who pursued their object by constitutional methods. In June, 1835, he issued a prospectus for the publication, beginning in August, of an anti-slavery weekly paper, at Danville, Kentucky; but before the time fixed for issuing the first number the era of mob violence and social persecutions, directed against the opponents of slavery, set in. This was contemporaneous with the renewed organization of revolts in Texas; the beginning of the war for breaking up the refuge for fugitive slaves, waged for years against the Florida Seminoles; and the exclusion, by connivance of the postmaster-general, of anti-slavery papers from the U. S. mails; and it preceded, by a few months only, President Jackson's message, recommending not only the refusal of the use of the mails, but the passage of laws by Congress and also by the non-slaveholding states for the suppression of “incendiary” (anti- slavery) publications. Mr. Birney found it impossible to obtain a publisher or printer; and as his own residence in Kentucky had become disagreeable and dangerous, he moved to Cincinnati, where he established his paper. His press was repeatedly destroyed by mobs; but he met all opposition with courage and succeeded finally in maintaining the freedom of the press in Cincinnati, exhibiting great personal courage, firmness, and judgment. On 22 January, 1836, a mob assembled at the court-house for the purpose of destroying his property and seizing his person; the city and county authorities had notified him of their inability to protect him; he attended the meeting, obtained leave to speak, and succeeded in defeating its object. As an editor, he was distinguished by a thorough knowledge of his subject, courtesy, candor, and large attainments as a jurist and statesman. The “Philanthropist” gained rapidly an extensive circulation. Having associated with him as editor Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, he devoted most of his own time to public speaking, visiting in this work most of the cities and towns in the free states and addressing committees of legislative bodies. His object was to awaken the people of the north to the danger menacing the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, the system of free labor, and the national constitution, from the encroachments of the slave-power and the plotted annexation of new slave states in the southwest. In recognition of his prominence as an anti-slavery leader, the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society unanimously elected him, in the summer of 1837, to the office of secretary. Having accepted, he moved to New York City, 20 September, 1837. In his new position he was the executive officer of the society, conducted its correspondence, selected and employed lecturers, directed the organization of auxiliaries, and prepared its reports. He attended the principal anti-slavery conventions, and his wise and conservative counsel had a marked influence on their action. He was faithful to the church, while he exposed and rebuked the ecclesiastical bodies that sustained slavery; and true to the constitution, while he denounced the constructions that severed it from the principles contained in its preamble and in the declaration of independence. To secession, whether of the north or south, he was inflexibly opposed. The toleration or establishment of slavery in any district or territory belonging to the United States, and its abolition in the slave states, except under the war power, he held was not within the legal power of Congress; slavery was local, and freedom national. To vote he considered the duty of every citizen, and more especially of every member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the constitution of which recognized the duty of using both moral and political action for the removal of slavery. In the beginning of the agitation the abolitionists voted for such anti-slavery candidates as were nominated by the leading parties; but as the issues grew, under the aggressive action of the slave power, to include the right of petition, the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, the equality of all men before the law, the right of the free states to legislate for their own territory, and the right of Congress to exclude slavery from the territories, the old parties ceased to nominate anti-slavery candidates, and the abolitionists were forced to make independent nominations for state officers and Congress, and finally to form a national and constitutional party. Mr. Birney was their first and only choice as candidate for the presidency. During his absence in England, in 1840, and again in 1844, he was unanimously nominated by national conventions of the Liberty Party. At the former election he received 7,369 votes; and at the latter, 62,263. This number, it was claimed by his friends, would have been much larger if the electioneering agents of the Whig Party had not circulated, three days before the election and too late for denial and exposure, a forged letter purporting to be from Mr. Birney, announcing his withdrawal from the canvass, and advising anti-slavery men to vote for Mr. Clay. This is known as “the Garland forgery.” Its circulation in Ohio and New York probably gave the former state to Mr. Clay, and greatly diminished Mr. Birney's vote in the latter. In its essential doctrines the platform of the Liberty Party in 1840 and 1844 was identical with those that were subsequently adopted by the Free-Soil and Republican parties. In the summer of 1845 Mr. Birney was disabled physically by partial paralysis, caused by a fall from a horse, and from that time he withdrew from active participation in politics, though he continued his contributions to the press. In September, 1839, he emancipated twenty-one slaves that belonged to his late father's estate, setting off to his co-heir $20,000, in compensation for her interest in them. In 1839 Mr. Birney lost his wife, and in the autumn of 1841 he married Miss Fitzhugh, sister of Mrs. Gerrit Smith, of New York. In 1842 he took up his residence in Bay City, Michigan In person he was of medium height, robust build, and handsome countenance. His manners were those of a polished man of the world, free from eccentricities, and marked with dignity. He had neither vices nor bad habits. As a presiding officer in a public meeting he was said to have no superior. As a public speaker he was generally calm and judicial in tone; but when under strong excitement he rose to eloquence. His chief writings were as follows: “Ten Letters on Slavery and Colonization,” addressed to R. R. Gurley (the first dated 12 July, 1832, the last 11 December, 1833); “Six Essays on Slavery and Colonization,” published in the Huntsville (Alabama) “Advocate” (May, June, and July, 1833); “Letter on Colonization,” resigning vice-presidency of Kentucky Colonization Society (15 July, 1834); “Letters to the Presbyterian Church” (1834); “Addresses and Speeches” (1835); “Vindication of the Abolitionists” (1835); “The Philanthropist,” a weekly newspaper (1836 and to September, 1837); “Letter to Colonel Stone” (May, 1836); “Address to Slaveholders” (October, 1836); “Argument on Fugitive Slave Case” (1837); “Letter to F. H. Elmore,” of South Carolina (1838); “Political Obligations of Abolitionists” (1839); “Report on the Duty of Political Action,” for Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society (May, 1839); “American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery” (1840); “Speeches in England” (1840); “Letter of Acceptance”; “Articles in Q. A. S. Magazine and Emancipator” (1837-'44); “Examination of the Decision of the U. S. Supreme Court,” in the case of Strader et al., v. Graham (1850). —His son, James, born in Danville, Kentucky, 7 June, 1817; was a state senator in Michigan in 1859, and was lieutenant-governor of the state and acting governor in 1861-'3. He was appointed by President Grant, in 1876, minister at the Hague, and held that office until 1882.—Another son, William, lawyer, born near Huntsville, Alabama, 28 May, 1819. While pursuing his studies in Paris, in February, 1848, he took an active part in the revolution, and he was appointed on public competition professor of English literature in the College at Bourges. He entered the U. S. national service as captain in April, 1861, and rose through all the grades to the rank of brevet major-general of volunteers, commanding a division for the last two years of the Civil War. He participated in the principal battles in Virginia, and, being sent for a short time to Florida after the battle of Olustee, regained possession of the principal parts of the state and of several of the Confederate strongholds. ln 1863-'4, having been detailed by the war Department as one of three superintendents of the organization of U. S. colored troops, he enlisted, mustered in, armed, equipped, drilled, and sent to the field seven regiments of those troops. In this work he opened all the slave-prisons in Baltimore, and freed their inmates, including many slaves belonging to men in the Confederate armies. The result of his operations was to hasten the abolition of slavery in Maryland. He passed four years in Florida after the war, and in 1874 moved to Washington, D. C., where he practised his profession and became attorney for the District of Columbia.— The third son, Dion, physician, entered the army as lieutenant at the beginning of the Civil War, rose to the rank of captain, and died in 1864 of disease contracted in the service.—The fourth son, David Bell, born in Huntsville, Alabama, 29 May, 1825; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 18 October, 1864, studied law in Cincinnati, and, after engaging in business in Michigan, began the practice of law in Philadelphia in 1848. He entered the army as lieutenant-colonel at the beginning of the Civil War, and was made colonel of the 23d Pennsylvania Volunteers, which regiment he raised, principally at his own expense, in the summer of 1861. He was promoted successively to brigadier and major-general of volunteers, and distinguished himself in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, the second battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. After the death of General Berry he commanded the division, receiving his commission as major-general, 23 May, 1863. He commanded the 3d Corps at Gettysburg, after General Sickles was wounded, and on 23 July, 1864, was given the command of the 10th Corps. He died of disease contracted in the service.—A fifth son, Fitzhugh, died, in 1864, of wounds and disease, in the service with the rank of colonel—A grandson, James Gillespie, was lieutenant and captain of cavalry, served as staff officer under Custer and Sheridan, was appointed lieutenant in the regular army at the close of the war; and died soon afterward of disease contracted in the service. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 267-269.
BIRNEY, William, 1819-1907, lawyer, Union soldier, abolitionist leader, strong opponent of slavery, commander of U.S. Colored Troops (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 269; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 294; Who’s Who in America, 1899-1907; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 819)
BISSELL, Josiah Wolcott, engineer, born in Rochester, New York, 12 May, 1818. He was the son of Josiah Bissell, an early settler of Rochester, N. Y., who employed his wealth, derived from land speculations, for benevolent objects, and who established a line of stage-coaches that did not run on Sundays. He was engaged before the Civil War in banking, and in architectural and engineering work. During the war he was colonel of an engineer regiment attached to General Pope's army, and superintended the construction of the canal that enabled the national gun-boats to approach the Confederate works on Island No. 10 in Mississippi River. After his return to civil life he took a prominent part in the enterprise of collecting and indexing records of real estate titles, so as to simplify searches, and was engaged in that work in Cincinnati, and afterward in Boston. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 271.
BISSELL, Simon B., naval officer, born in Vermont, 28 October. 1808; died in Paris, Prance. 18 February, 1883. He became a midshipman in the U. S. Navy 6 November, 1824, and was promoted to be a lieutenant 8 December 1837; commander, 14 September, 1855; captain, 16 July, 1862: commodore, 10 October, 1866. He was attached to the sloop "Albany" during the war with Mexico, and was present at the siege of Vera Cruz. He commanded the sloop "Cyane," Pacific squadron, in 1861-2; was on duty the in the Navy-yard at Mare Island, California, in 1863- 4; commanded the sloop-of-war "Monongahela" in 1866-7; was on special service in 1869; and was placed on the retired list on 1 March, 1870. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 271.
BISSELL, William H.. statesman, born in Hartwick, near Cooperstown, New York, 25 April, 1811; died in Springfield, Illinois, 18 March, 1880. He was self-educated, attending school in summer and teaching in the winter; was graduated at Philadelphia Medical College in 1835, and practised medicine two years in Steuben County, New York, and three years in Monroe County Illinois.. He was elected to the Illinois legislature in 1840, and distinguished himself as a forcible and ready debater. He studied law, and practised successfully in Belleville, St. Clair County, and became prosecuting attorney in 1844. He was a captain in the 2d Illinois Volunteers in the Mexican War, and distinguished himself at Buena Vista. He was a representative in Congress from Illinois as an independent Democrat, serving from 2 December, 1839, till 3 March, 1845. He separated from the Democratic Party on the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and was chosen governor as a Republican in 1856. He was re-elected, and died in office. While he was in Congress his resistance of the Missouri Compromise involved him in a controversy with the southern Democrats, and hot words passed between him and Jefferson Davis on the subject of the bravery of the northern as compared with the southern soldiers, which led to a challenge from Mr. Davis. In accepting the challenge to a duel, Mr. Bissell chose as the weapons muskets, at thirty paces, whereupon the friends of Mr. Davis interfered. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 271.
BLACK, Jeremiah Sullivan, jurist, born in the Glades, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 10 January, 1810; died at his home in York. Pennsylvania, 19 August, 1883. His ancestry was Scotch-Irish. James Black, his grandfather, came to America from the north of Ireland, and settled in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, where, in 1778, Henry Black, father of Jeremiah, a man of note in his day. was born. Jeremiah's early education was obtained at school near his father's farm. He studied law, and taken into the office of Chauncey Forward, a lawyer in Somerset county, and was admitted to the bar in 1831. In 1838 he married a daughter of Mr. Forward. After an active and successful practice of eleven years, he was raised to the bench. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat. and was nominated by a Democratic governor, in April, 1842. for president-judge of the district where he lived, which post he held for nine years. In 1851 Judge Black was elected one of the supreme court judges of Pennsylvania. After serving the short term of three years, he was re-elected, in 1854, for a full term of fifteen years. On the accession of James Buchanan to the presidency, in 1857, Judge Black became attorney-general. He was very industrious and successful, in connection with Edwin H. Stanton, in protecting the interests of the nation against false claimants to grants of land made by the Mexican government to settlers in California before that country came under the control of the United States. When the secession crisis arrived, in 1860-'l, Buchanan held that there was no authority for coercing a state, if it chose to secede and set up as an independent government: but Attorney-General Black was of the opinion that it was the duty of the government to put down insurrection, and that the constitution contained no provision for a dissolution of the union in any manner whatever. General Cass having resigned as Secretary of State in December. 1860. Judge Black was appointed to fill the vacancy, Edwin M. Stanton taking the post of attorney- general. Judge Black occupied this office during the remainder of Buchanan’s administration, and exerted himself to save the government from falling into the hands of the secessionists. In March, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln became president. Judge Black retired from public life. He was appointed U. S. Supreme Court reporter, but soon resigned that office, and entered again upon the practice of law at his home, near York, Pennsylvania. He was engaged in several prominent lawsuits during the last twenty years of his life, and retained his vigor and professional skill to the close of his career. The Vanderbilt will contest, the Milliken case, and the McGarrahan claim were among the more noted cases in which he was engaged. He was a contributor to periodical literature, furnished an account of the Erie Railway litigation, argued the third-term question in magazine articles, and had a newspaper discussion with Jefferson Davis. His son, Chauncey Forward, was elected lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania in 1882, and in 1886 was the Democratic candidate for the governorship. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 272.
BLACKBURN, Joseph Clay Styles, senator, born in Woodford County, Kentucky, 1 October, 1838. He was graduated at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1857. studied law with George B. Kincaid in Lexington, Kentucky, was admitted to the bar in 1858, and practised in Chicago till 1860, when he returned to his native county. He entered the Confederate Army in 1861, and served through the war. In 1865 he resumed the practice of law, in 1871 was elected to the Kentucky legislature, and was re-elected in 1873. In 1875 he entered Congress as a Democrat. He was re-elected in 1876, 1878, 1880, and 1882. He was elected senator from Kentucky on 4 February, 1884, and took his seat on 4 March, 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 272.
BLACKMAN, George Curtis, surgeon, born in Newtown, Connecticut, 20 April, 1819; died in Avondale, Ohio, 19 July, 1871. He was graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, in 1840, and in 1854 became professor of surgery in the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati. During the Civil War he served as an army surgeon. He was a bold and skilful operator, and an able writer and lecturer. He translated and edited Vidal's “Treatise on Venereal Disease” (New York, 1854), edited a new edition of Mott's translation of Velpeau's “Surgery,” with notes and additions of his own, and was a frequent contributor to medical journals. He was a member of the Society of Physicians and Surgeons in London. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 274
BLACKBURN, Gideon, 1772-1838, Kentucky, Virginia, clergyman, abolitionist, strong supporter of the American Colonization Society. Went to Illinois in 1833. Assisted Elijah P. Lovejoy in organizing Illinois Anti-Slavery Society. Founded Blackburn College at Carlinville, Illinois. Established school for Cherokee Indians. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 91, 92, 135, 198-199; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 272; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 315; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 139)
BLACKBURN, Gideon, clergyman, born in Augusta County, Virginia, 27 August, 1772; died in Carlinville, Illinois, 23 August, 1838. He was educated at Martin Academy, Washington County, Tennessee, licensed to preach by Abingdon presbytery in 1795, and settled many years at Marysville, Tennessee He was minister of Franklin, Tennessee, in 1811-'3, and of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1823-'7. He passed the last forty years of his life in the western states, in preaching, organizing churches, and, from 1803 to 1809, during a part of each year, in his mission to the Cherokees, establishing a school at Hywassee. He established a school in Tennessee in 1806, and from 1827 till 1830 was president of Center College, Kentucky. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 272.
BLACKBURN, William Jasper, born 1820, newspaper editor, U.S. Congressman, printer, opponent of slavery. Published Blackburn’s Homer’s Iliad, in Homer, Louisiana. Published pro-Union paper in the South during the Civil War. Published editorials against the assault in the Senate against Charles Sumner, who was opposed to slavery. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 272-273)
BLACKBURN, William Jasper, editor, born in Randolph County, Arkansas, 24 July, 1820. He was early left an orphan, and received his education in public schools, also studying during the years 1838-'9 in Jackson College, Columbia, Tennessee; after which he became a printer, and worked in various offices in Arkansas and Louisiana. Later he settled in Homer, Louisiana, where he established “Blackburn's Homer Iliad,” in which he editorially condemned the assault on Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks, being the only southern editor that denounced that action. Although born in a slave state, he was always opposed to slavery, and his office was twice mobbed therefor. The “Iliad” was the only loyal paper published during the Civil War in the gulf states. He was a member of the constitutional convention of Louisiana convened in 1867, and was elected as a Republican to Congress, serving from 17 July, 1868, till 3 March, 1869. From 1872 till 1876 he was a member of the Louisiana State Senate. Subsequently he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and became owner and editor of the Little Rock “Republican.” He received the nomination of the Republicans for the state senate, but failed to secure his seat, though he claimed to have been elected by 2,000 majority. Mr. Blackburn is known as an occasional writer of verse. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 272-273.
BLACKWELL, Antoinette Louisa, 1825-1921, abolitionist, reformer (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 274; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 319-320; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 82-83)
BLACKWELL, Antoinette Louisa Brown, author and minister, born in Henrietta, Monroe County, New York, 20 May, 1825. When sixteen years old she taught school, and then, after attending Henrietta Academy, went to Oberlin, where she was graduated in 1847. She spent her vacations in teaching and in the study of Hebrew and Greek. In the winter of 1844 she taught in the Academy at Rochester, New York, where she delivered her first lecture. After graduation she entered upon a course of theological study at Oberlin, and completed it in 1850. When she asked for the license to preach, usually given to the theological students, it was refused; but she preached frequently on her own responsibility. The four years following her graduation were spent in study, preaching, and in lecturing on literary subjects, temperance, and the abolition of slavery. At the woman's rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850, Miss Brown was one of the speakers, and she has since been prominent in the movement. In 1853 she was regularly ordained pastor of the Orthodox Congregational Church of South Butler and Savannah, Wayne County, New York, but gave up her charge in 1854 on account of ill health and doctrinal doubts. In 1855 she investigated the character and causes of vice in New York City, and published, in a New York journal, a series of sketches entitled “Shadows of our Social System.” In 1856 she married Samuel C. Blackwell, brother of Elizabeth Blackwell. They have six children, and now live in Elizabeth, New Jersey Mrs. Blackwell still preaches occasionally, and has become a Unitarian. She is the author of “Studies in General Science” (New York, 1869); “The Market Woman”: “The Island Neighbors” (1871); “The Sexes Throughout Nature” (1875); and “The Physical Basis of Immortality” (1876). She has in preparation (1886) “The Many and the One.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 274.
BLACKWELL, Elizabeth, 1821-1910, Bristol, England, abolitionist, physician. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp.274-275; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 230)
BLACKWELL, Elizabeth, physician, born in Bristol, England, in 1821. Her father emigrated with his family in 1832, and settled in New York, but moved in 1838 to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he died a few months afterward, leaving a widow and nine children almost destitute. Elizabeth, then seventeen years old, opened a school in connection with two elder sisters, and conducted it successfully for several years. A friend now suggested that she should study medicine, and she resolved to become a physician. At first she pursued her studies in private, with some help from Dr. John Dixon, of Asheville, North Carolina, in whose family she was governess for a year. She then continued her studies in Charleston, South Carolina, supporting herself by teaching music, and after that in Philadelphia, under Dr. Allen and Dr. Warrington. She now made formal application to the medical schools of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston for admission as a student, but in each instance the request was denied, although several professors avowed interest in her undertaking. Rejecting advice to adopt an assumed name and male attire, she persevered in her attempt, and after several more refusals was finally admitted to the medical school at Geneva, New York, where she took her degree of M. D. in regular course in January, 1849. During her connection with the college, when not in attendance there upon lectures, she pursued a course of clinical study in Blockley Hospital, Philadelphia. After graduation she went to Paris, and remained there six months, devoting herself to the study and practice of midwifery. The next autumn she was admitted as a physician to walk the hospital of St. Bartholomew in London, and after nearly a year spent there she returned to New York, and began practice in 1851. In 1854, with her sister, Dr. Emily Blackwell, she organized the New York Infirmary For women and Children. In 1859 she revisited England, and delivered in London and other cities a course of lectures on the necessity of medical education for women. In 1861, having returned to New York, she held, with Dr. Emily Blackwell, a meeting in the parlors of the infirmary, at which the first steps were taken toward organizing the Women's Central Relief Association for sending nurses and medical supplies for the wounded soldiers during the Civil War. In 1867 the two sisters organized the women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, in which Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell held the chair of hygiene and Dr. Emily Blackwell the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women. In 1869, leaving Dr. Emily in. charge of their joint work, Dr. Elizabeth returned to London and practised there for several years, taking an active part in organizing the women's Medical College, in which she was elected professor of the diseases of women. She also took part in forming in England the National Health Society, and the Society for Repealing the Contagious-Diseases acts. Besides several health tracts, she has published “Laws of Life, or the Physical Education of Girls” (Philadelphia, 1852), and “Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children” (1879), which has been translated into French. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 274-275.
BLACKWELL, Samuel Charles, 1823-1901, England, abolitionist, husband of abolitionist Antoinette Brown, brother of Elizabeth Blackwell.
BLAINE, James Gillespie, 1830-1893, statesman. Founding member of the Republican Party. Member of Congress 1862-1880. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 275-280; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 322-329; Congressional Globe)
BLAINE, James Gillespie, statesman, born in West Brownsville, Washington County, Pennsylvania, 31 January, 1830; died in the City of Washington, D. C., 27 January, 1893. He was a second son. On his father's side he inherited the hardy and energetic qualities of the Scotch-Irish blood. His great-grandfather, Ephraim Blaine, born 1741; died 1804, bore an honorable part in the revolutionary struggle, was an officer of the Pennsylvania line, a trusted friend of Washington, and during the last four years of the war served as the commissary-general of the northern department of his command. Possessed of ample means, he drew largely from his own private purse and enlisted the contributions of various friends for the maintenance of the army through the severe and memorable winter at Valley Forge. From the Cumberland Valley, where his ancestors had early settled and had been among the founders of Carlisle, Mr. Blaine's father moved to Washington County in 1818. He had inherited what was a fortune in those days, and had large landed possessions in western Pennsylvania; but their mineral wealth had not then been developed, and though relieved from poverty he was not endowed with affluence, and a large family made a heavy drain on his means. He was a man of liberal education, and had travelled in Europe and South America before settling down in western Pennsylvania, where he served as prothonotary. Mr. Blaine's mother, a woman of superior intelligence and force of character, was a devout Catholic; but her son adhered to the Presbyterian convictions and communion of his paternal Scotch-Irish ancestry. The early education of Mr. Blaine was sedulously cultivated. He had the advantage of excellent teachers at his own home, and for a part of the year 1841 he was at school in Lancaster, Ohio, where he lived in the family of his relative, Thomas Ewing, then secretary of the treasury. In association with Thomas Ewing, Jr., afterward a member of Congress, young Blaine began his preparation for college under the instruction of a thoroughly trained Englishman, William Lyons, brother of Lord Lyons, and at the age of thirteen he entered Washington College in his native county, where he was graduated in 1847. It is said that when nine years old he was able to recite Plutarch's lives. He had a marked taste for historical studies, and excelled in literature and mathematics. In the literary society he displayed the political aptitude and capacity that distinguished his subsequent career. Sometime after graduation he became a teacher in the western military Institute, at Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky Here he formed the acquaintance of Miss Harriet Stanwood, of Maine, who was connected with a seminary for young ladies at the neighboring town of Millersburg, and to whom within a few months he was married. He soon returned to Pennsylvania, where, after some study of the law, he became a teacher in the Pennsylvania institution for the blind at Philadelphia. The instruction was chiefly oral. The young teacher had charge of the higher classes in literature and science, and the principal has left a record that his “brilliant mental powers were exactly qualified to enlighten and instruct the interesting minds before him.” After an association of two years with this institution, he moved in 1854 to Augusta, Maine, where he has since made his home. Purchasing a half interest in the Kennebec “Journal,” he became its editor, his ready faculty and trenchant writing being peculiarly adapted to this field. He speedily made his impress, and within three years was a master spirit in the politics of the state.
He engaged in the movement for the formation of the Democratic Party with all his energy, and his earnest and incisive discussion of the rising conflict between freedom and slavery attracted wide attention. In 1856 he was a delegate to the first Republican National Convention, which nominated General Frémont for the presidency. His report at a public meeting on his return home, where he spoke at the outset with hesitation and embarrassment, and advanced to confident and fervid utterance, first illustrated his capacity on the platform and gave him standing as a public speaker. The next year he broadened his journalistic work by taking the editorship of the Portland “Advertiser”; but his editorial service ended when his parliamentary career began. In 1858 he was elected to the legislature, remaining a member through successive annual re-elections for four years, and serving the last two as speaker. At the beginning of the Civil War Mr. Blaine gained distinction not only for his parliamentary skill, but for his forensic power in the debates that grew out of that crisis. The same year that he was elected to the legislature he became chairman of the state committee, a position which he continued to hold uninterruptedly for twenty years, and in which he led in shaping and directing every political campaign of his party in Maine.
In 1862 Mr. Blaine was elected to Congress, where in one branch or the other he served for eighteen years. To the house he was chosen for seven successive terms. His growth in position and influence was rapid and unbroken. In his earlier years he made few elaborate addresses. During his first term his only extended speech was an argument in favor of the assumption of the state war debts by the general government, and in demonstration of the ability of the north to carry the war to a successful conclusion. But he gradually took an active part in the running discussions, and soon acquired high repute as a facile and effective debater. For this form of contention his ready resources and alert faculties were singularly fitted. He was bold in attack, quick in repartee, and apt in illustration. His close study of political history, his accurate knowledge of the record and relations of public men, and his unfailing memory, gave him great advantages. As a member of the committee on post-offices, he was largely instrumental in securing the introduction of the system of postal cars. He earnestly sustained all measures for the vigorous prosecution of the war, but sought to make them judicious and practical. In this spirit he supported the bill for a draft, but opposed absolute conscription. He contended that it should be relieved by provisions for commutation and substitution, and urged that an inexorable draft had never been resorted to but once, even under the absolutism of Napoleon. At the same time he enforced the duty of sustaining and strengthening the armies in the field by using all the resources of the nation, and strongly advocated the enrolment act. The measures for the reconstruction of the states that had been in rebellion largely engrossed the attention of Congress from 1865 till 1869, and Mr. Blaine bore a prominent part in their discussion and in the work of framing them. The basis of representation upon which the states should be readmitted was the first question to be determined. Thaddeus Stevens, chairman of the committee on reconstruction, had proposed that representation should be apportioned according to the number of legal voters. Mr. Blaine strenuously objected to this proposition, and urged that population, instead of voters, should be the basis. He submitted a constitutional amendment providing that “representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which shall be included within this union according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by taking the whole number of persons, except those whose political rights or privileges are denied or abridged by the constitution of any state on account of race or color.” He advocated this plan on the ground that, while the other basis of voters would accomplish the object of preventing the south from securing representation for the blacks unless the blacks were made voters, yet it would make a radical change in the apportionment for the northern states where the ratio of voters to population differed very widely in different sections, varying from a minimum of 19 per cent. to a maximum of 58 per cent. The result of the discussion was a general abandonment of the theory that apportionment should be based on voters, and the 14th amendment to the constitution, as finally adopted, embodied Mr. Blaine's proposition in substance.
On 6 February, 1867, Mr. Stevens reported the reconstruction bill. It divided the states lately in rebellion into five military districts, and practically established military government therein. The civil tribunals were made subject to military control. While the majority evinced a readiness to accept the bill, Mr. Blaine declared his unwillingness to support any measure that would place the south under military government, if it did not at the same time prescribe the methods by which the people of a state could by their own action reëstablish civil government. He accordingly proposed an amendment providing that when any one of the late so-called Confederate states should assent to the 14th amendment to the constitution and should establish equal and impartial suffrage without regard to race or color, and when Congress should approve its action, it should be entitled to representation, and the provisions for military government should become inoperative. This proposition came to be known as the Blaine amendment. In advocating it, Mr. Blaine expressed the belief that the true interpretation of the election of 1800 was that, in addition to the proposed constitutional amendment — the 14th — impartial suffrage should be the basis of reconstruction, and he urged the wisdom of declaring the terms at once. The application of the previous question ruled out the Blaine amendment, but it was renewed in the Senate and finally carried through both branches, and under it reconstruction was completed.
The theory that the public debt should be paid in greenbacks developed great strength in the summer of 1867 while Mr. Blaine was absent in Europe. On his return at the opening of the next session he made an extended speech against the doctrine, and was the first man in Congress to give utterance to this opposition. The long unsettled question of protecting naturalized American citizens while abroad attracted special attention at this time. Costello, Warren, Burke, and other Irish-Americans had been arrested in England, on the charge of complicity in Fenian plots. Costello had made a speech in 1865 in New York, which was regarded as treasonable by the British government, and he was treated as a British subject and tried under an old law on this accusation. His plea of American citizenship was overruled, and he was convicted and sentenced to sixteen years' penal servitude. Mr. Blaine, who, with other American statesmen, resisted the English doctrine of perpetual allegiance, and maintained that a naturalized American was entitled to the same protection abroad that would be given to a native American, took active part in pressing these questions upon public attention, and, as the result of the agitation, Costello was released. The discussion of these cases led to the treaty of 1870, in which Great Britain abandoned the doctrine of “once a subject always a subject,” and accepted the American principle of equal rights and protection for adopted and for native citizens. Mr. Blaine was chosen speaker of the House of Representatives in 1869, and served by successive reelections for six years. His administration of the speakership is commonly regarded as one of the most brilliant and successful in the annals of the house. He had rare aptitude and equipment for the duties of presiding officer; and his complete mastery of parliamentary law, his dexterity and physical endurance, his rapid despatch of business, and his firm and impartial spirit, were recognized on all sides. Though necessarily exercising a powerful influence upon the course of legislation, he seldom left the chair to mingle in the contests of the floor. On one of those rare occasions, in March, 1871, he had a sharp tilt with General Butler, who had criticised him for being the author of the resolution providing for an investigation into alleged outrages perpetrated upon loyal citizens of the south, and for being chiefly instrumental in securing its adoption by the Republican caucus. The political revulsion of 1874 placed the Democrats in control of the house, and Mr. Blaine became the leader of the minority. The session preceding the presidential contest of 1876 was a period of stormy and vehement contention. A general amnesty bill was brought forward, removing the political disabilities of participants in the rebellion which had been imposed by the 14th amendment to the constitution. Mr. Blaine moved to amend by making an exception of Jefferson Davis, and supported the proposition in an impassioned speech. After asserting the great magnanimity of the government, and pointing out how far amnesty had already been carried, he defined the ground of his proposed exception. The reason was, not that Davis was the chief of the confederacy, but that, as Mr. Blaine affirmed, he was the author, “knowingly, deliberately, guiltily, and wilfully, of the gigantic murders and crimes of Andersonville.” In fiery words Mr. Blaine proceeded to declare that no military atrocities in history had exceeded those for which Davis was thus responsible. His outburst naturally produced deep excitement in the house and throughout the country. If Mr. Blaine's object as a political leader was to arouse partisan feeling and activity preparatory to the presidential struggle, he succeeded. An acrid debate followed. Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, assumed the lead on the other side, and not only defended Davis against the accusations, which he pronounced unfounded, but preferred similar charges against the treatment of southern prisoners in the north. In reply, Mr. Blaine turned upon Mr. Hill with the citation of a resolution introduced by him in the Confederate Senate, providing that every soldier or officer of the United States captured on the soil of the Confederate states should be presumed to have come with intent to incite insurrection, and should suffer the penalty of death. This episode arrested universal attention, and gave Mr. Blaine a still stronger hold as a leader of his party.
He now became the subject of a violent personal assault. Charges were circulated that he had received $64,000 from the Union Pacific Railroad company for some undefined services. On 24 April, 1876, he rose to a personal explanation in the house and made his answer. He produced letters from the officers of the company and from the bankers who were said to have negotiated the draft, in which they declared that there had never been any such transaction, and that Mr. Blaine had never received a dollar from the company. Mr. Blaine proceeded to add that the charge had reappeared in the form of an assertion that he had received bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad as a gratuity, and that these bonds had been sold through the Union Pacific Company for his benefit. To this he responded that he never had any such bonds except at the market price, and that, instead of deriving any profit from them, he had incurred a large pecuniary loss. A few days later another charge was made to the effect that he had received as a gift certain bonds of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and had been a party to a suit concerning them in the courts of Kansas. To this he answered by producing evidence that his name had been confounded with that of a brother, who was one of the early settlers of Kansas, and who had bought stock in the Kansas Pacific before Mr. Blaine had even been nominated for Congress.
On 2 May a resolution was adopted in the house to investigate an alleged purchase by the Union Pacific Railroad Company, at an excessive price, of certain bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad. It soon became evident that the investigation was aimed at Mr. Blaine. An extended business correspondence on his part with Warren Fisher, of Boston, running through years and relating to various transactions, had fallen into the hands of a clerk named Mulligan, and it was alleged that the production of this correspondence would confirm the imputations against Mr. Blaine. When Mulligan was summoned to Washington, Mr. Blaine possessed himself of the letters, together with a memorandum that contained a full index and abstract. On 5 June he rose to a personal explanation, and, after denying the power of the house to compel the production of his private papers, and his willingness to go to any extremity in defence of his rights, he declared his purpose to reserve nothing. Holding up the letters he exclaimed: “Thank God, I am not ashamed to show them. There is the very original package. And with some sense of humiliation, with a mortification I do not attempt to conceal, with a sense of outrage which I think any man in my position would feel, I invite the confidence of forty-four millions of my countrymen, while I read those letters from this desk.” The demonstration closed with a dramatic scene. Josiah Caldwell, one of the originators of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad, who had full knowledge of the whole transaction, was travelling in Europe, and both sides were seeking to communicate with him. After finishing the reading of the letters, Mr. Blaine turned to the chairman of the committee and demanded to know whether he had received any despatch from Mr. Caldwell. Receiving an evasive answer, Mr. Blaine asserted, as within his own knowledge, that the chairman had received such a despatch, “completely and absolutely exonerating me from this charge, and you have suppressed it.” A profound sensation was created, and General Garfield said: “I have been a long time in Congress, and never saw such a scene in the house.”
The Republican National Convention was now at hand, and Mr. Blaine was the most prominent candidate for the presidential nomination. He had a larger body of enthusiastic friends than any other leader of his party, and the stirring events of the past few months had intensified their devotion. On 11 June, the Sunday preceding the convention, just as he was entering church at Washington, he was prostrated with the extreme heat, and his illness for a time created wide apprehension. The advocates of his nomination, however, remained unshaken in their support. On the first ballot he received 285 votes out of a total of 754, the remainder being divided among Senator Morton, Secretary Bristow, Senator Conkling, Governor Hayes, and several others. On the seventh ballot his vote rose to 351, lacking only 28 of a majority, but a union of the supporters of all the other candidates gave Governor Hayes 384 and secured his nomination. Immediately after the convention, on the resignation of Senator Morrill to accept the secretaryship of the treasury, Mr. Blaine was appointed senator to fill the unexpired term, and in the following winter he was chosen by the legislature for the full ensuing term. In the Senate he engaged in the discussion of current questions. He opposed the creation of the electoral commission for the settlement of the disputed presidential election of 1876, on the ground that Congress did not itself possess the power that it proposed to confer on the commission. He held that President Hayes's southern policy surrendered too much of what had been gained through reconstruction, and contended that the validity of his own title involved the maintenance of the state governments in South Carolina and Louisiana, which rested on the same popular vote. On the currency question he always assumed a pronounced position. While still a member of the house, in February, 1876, he had made an elaborate speech on the national finances and against any perpetuation of an irredeemable paper currency, and soon after entering the Senate, when the subject was brought forward, he took strong ground against the deterioration of the silver coinage. He strenuously opposed the Bland bill, and, when its passage was seen to be inevitable, sought to amend it by providing that the dollar should contain 425 grains of standard silver, instead of 412½ grains. He favored a bi-metallic currency, and equally resisted the adoption of the single gold standard and the depreciation of silver. Measures for the development and protection of American shipping early engaged his attention. In 1878 he advocated the establishment of a line of mail steamers to Brazil, and unhesitatingly urged the application of a subsidy to this object. On frequent occasions he recurred to the subject, contending that Great Britain and France had built up their commerce by liberal aid to steamship lines, and that a similar policy would produce similar results here. He argued that Congress had endowed the railroad system with $500,000,000 of money, which had produced $5,000,000,000 to the country, and that the policy ought not to stop when it reached the sea.
In March, 1879, Congress was deeply agitated by a conflict over the appropriation bills. The Democrats, being in control of both houses, had refused to pass the necessary measures for the support of the government unless accompanied by a proviso prohibiting the presence of troops at any place where an election was being held. The Republicans resisted this attempt, and, in consequence of the failure of the bills at the regular session, the president was compelled to call an extra session. Mr. Blaine was among the foremost in the Senate in defending the executive prerogative and in opposing what he denounced as legislative coercion, He pointed out how few troops there were in all the states of the south, and said: “I take no risk in stating, I make bold to declare, that this issue on the troops being a false one, being one without foundation, conceals the true issue, which is simply to get rid of the federal presence at federal elections, to get rid of the civil power of the United States in the election of representatives to the Congress of the United States.” He proceeded to characterize the proposition to withhold appropriations except upon the condition of executive compliance as revolutionary, saying: “I call it the audacity of revolution for any senator or representative, or any caucus of senators or representatives, to get together and say: ‘We will have this legislation, or we will stop the great departments of the government.’ ” The resistance was unsuccessful, and the army appropriation bill finally passed with the proviso. Mr. Blaine at all times defended the sanctity of the ballot, and in December, 1878, pending a resolution presented by himself for an inquiry into certain alleged frauds in the south, made a powerful plea as to the injustice wrought by a denial of the franchise to the blacks. When the attempt was made to override the plain result of the election of 1879 in Maine, and to set up a state government in defiance of the popular vote, Mr. Blaine took charge of the effort to establish the rightful government, and through his vigorous measures the scheme of usurpation was defeated and abandoned. On the Chinese question he early declared himself decidedly in favor of restricting their immigration. In a speech on 14 February, 1879, when the subject came before the Senate, he argued that there were only two courses: that the Chinese must be excluded or fully admitted into the family of citizens; that the latter was as impracticable as it was dangerous; that they could not be assimilated with our people or institutions; and that it was a duty to protect the free laborer of America against the servile laborer of China.
As the presidential convention of 1880 approached, it was apparent that Mr. Blaine retained the same support that had adhered to him so tenaciously four years before. The contest developed into an earnest and prolonged struggle between his friends and those who advocated a third term for General Grant. The convention, one of the most memorable in American history, lasted through six days, and there were thirty-six ballots. On the first the vote stood: Grant 304, Blaine 284, Sherman 93, Edmunds 34, Washburne 30, Windom 10, Garfield 1. On the final ballot the friends of Blaine and Sherman united on General Garfield, who received 399 votes to 306 for Grant, and was nominated. On his election, Mr. Blaine was tendered and accepted the office of Secretary of State. He remained at the head of the department less than ten months, and his effective administration was practically limited by the assassination of President Garfield to four. Within that period, however, he began several important undertakings. His foreign policy had two principal objects. The first was to secure and preserve peace throughout this continent. The second was to cultivate close commercial relations and increase our trade with the various countries of North and South America. The accomplishment of the first object was preliminary and essential to the attainment of the second, and, in order to promote it, he projected a peace Congress to be held at Washington, to which all the independent powers of North and South America were to be invited. His plan contemplated the cultivation of such a friendly understanding on the part of the powers as would permanently avert the horrors of war either through the influence of pacific counsels or the acceptance of impartial arbitration. Incidentally, it assumed that the assembling of their representatives at Washington would open the way to such relations as would inure to the commercial advantage of this country. The project, though already determined, was delayed by the fatal shot at Garfield, and the letter of invitation was finally issued on 29 November, 1881, fixing 24 November, 1882, as the date for the proposed Congress. On 19 December Mr. Blaine retired from the cabinet, and within three weeks his successor had reversed his policy and the plan was abandoned, after the invitation had been accepted by all the American powers except two.
When Mr. Blaine entered the Department of state, war was raging between Chili and Peru, and he sought to exercise the good offices of our government, first, for the restoration of peace, and, second, to mitigate the consequences of the crushing defeat sustained by Peru. Other efforts failing, he despatched William Henry Trescott on a special mission to offer the friendly services of the United States; but this attempt, like the one for the Peace Congress, was interrupted and frustrated by his retirement from the department. His brief service was also signalized by an important correspondence with the British government concerning the modification of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, making formal proposal for the abrogation of certain clauses which were not in harmony with the rights of the United States as secured by convention with the Colombian republic, he urged that the treaty, by prohibiting the use of land forces and of fortifications, without any protection against superior naval power, practically conceded to Great Britain the control of any interoceanic canal that might be constructed across the isthmus, and he proposed that every part of the treaty which forbids the United States fortifying the canal and holding the political control of it in conjunction with the country in which it is located should be cancelled. To the answer of the British government that the treaty was an engagement which should be maintained and respected, Mr. Blaine replied that it could not be regarded as a conclusive determination of the question; that since its adoption it had been the subject of repeated negotiations between the two countries; that the British government had itself proposed to refer its doubtful clauses to arbitration; and that it had long been recognized as a source of increasing embarrassment. Throughout the correspondence Mr. Blaine insisted in the firmest tone that “it is the fixed purpose of the United States to consider the isthmus canal question as an American question, to be dealt with and decided by the American governments.”
Upon the retirement of Mr. Blaine from the State Department in December, 1881, he was, for the first time in twenty-three years, out of public station. He soon entered upon the composition of an elaborate historical work entitled “Twenty Years of Congress,” of which the first 200 pages give a succinct review of the earlier political history of the country, followed by a more detailed narrative of the eventful period from Lincoln to Garfield. The first volume was published in April, 1884, and the second in January, 1886 (Norwich, Connecticut). The work had a very wide sale, and secured general approval for its impartial spirit and brilliant style. When the Republican National Convention of 1884 met at Chicago, it was clear that Mr. Blaine had lost none of the hold upon the enthusiasm of his party. On the first ballot he received 334½ votes, President Arthur 278, Senator Edmunds 93, Senator Logan 63½, and the rest were scattering. His vote kept gaining till the fourth ballot, when he received 541 out of a total of 813 and was nominated. The canvass that followed was one of peculiar bitterness. Mr. Blaine took the stump in Ohio, Indiana, New York, and other states, and in a series of remarkable speeches, chiefly devoted to upholding the policy of protection to American industry, deepened the popular impression of his intellectual power. The election turned upon the result in New York, which was lost to Mr. Blaine by 1,047 votes, whereupon he promptly resumed the work upon his history, which had been interrupted by the canvass. After the result had been determined, he made, at his home in Augusta, a speech in which he arraigned the Democratic Party for carrying the election by suppressing the Republican vote in the southern states, and cited the figures of the returns to show that, on an average, only one half or one third as many votes had been cast for each presidential elector or member of Congress elected in the south as for each elected in the north. This speech had a startling effect, and attracted universal attention, though Mr. Blaine had set forth the same thing in a speech that he made in Congress as long before that time as 11 December, 1878.
Mr. Blaine took an active part in the Maine canvass of 1886, opening it, 24 August, in a speech at Sebago Lake devoted chiefly to the questions of the fisheries, the tariff, and the third-party prohibition movement. The fishery controversy had acquired renewed interest and importance from recent seizures of American fishing-vessels on the Canadian Coast, and Mr. Blaine reviewed its history at length, and sharply criticised the attitude and action of the administration. He presented the issue of protection against free-trade as the foremost one between the two parties; and, with regard to prohibition, insisted that there was no warrant or reason for a third-party movement in Maine, because the Democratic Party had enacted and enforced a prohibitory law in that state. His succeeding speeches, continued throughout the canvass, followed the same line.
At the Republican National Convention at Chicago, in 1888, Mr. Blaine's name was prominently used in connection with the nomination, but he sent from Italy a telegraphic message positively declining to allow it to be so used. On the election of President Harrison, the nominee of the convention, Mr. Blaine was again called to the cabinet as Secretary of State. He was active in forwarding the Pan-American Congress, a conference of representatives of the independent governments of North and South America, held in Washington, and also gave his attention to the international conference for the adoption of regulations to govern vessels at sea. The McKinley tariff measure was supplemented, largely through his suggestions, by treaties of reciprocity with various nations, and he was also actively concerned in the diplomatic treatment of the seal-fishery dispute, the recognition of the newly organized Brazilian republic, the trouble with Italy over the lynching of alleged Italian subjects in New Orleans, the Civil War in Chili, and a dispute with Spain regarding the rights of American missionaries in the Caroline Islands.
On 4 June, 1892, Mr. Blaine suddenly resigned his portfolio, and three days later, at the Republican National convention in Minneapolis, his name was once more conspicuous among those of the presidential candidates. His resignation caused much speculation, and many persons coupled it with his subsequent candidacy for the presidential nomination; but he himself gave as his reason that he desired to rest. His health now failed rapidly, and he took no more active interest in public life, his death following soon afterward. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 275-280.
BLAIR, Austin, governor of Michigan, born in Caroline, Tompkins County, New York, 8 February, 1818. He was educated at Hamilton and Union Colleges, being graduated at the latter in 1839, studied law, and moved to Michigan. He was county clerk of Eaton County, member of the legislature in 1846, and prosecuting attorney of Jackson County from 1852 till 1854. He was state senator from 1854 until 1856, and from 1861 till 1865 was governor of the state, in which office he was active in his support of the national government. In 1866 he was elected as a Republican to Congress, where he was a member of the committees on foreign affairs, rules, and militia, and was twice re-elected in succession, serving on the committee on land-claims. In 1873 he resumed law practice in Jackson, Michigan Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 280.
BLAIR, Francis Preston, statesman, born in Abingdon, Virginia, 12 April, 1791; died in Silver Spring, Maryland, 18 October, 1876. He was educated at Transylvania University, Kentucky, and studied law, but never practised. He early took part in politics, and in 1824 supported Henry Clay for the presidency. He dissented, however, from Clay's views in relation to the United States Bank, and in 1828 became an ardent Jackson man. In 1829 an article in a Kentucky paper by Mr. Blair against the nullification movement attracted the president's attention, and he invited the writer to establish a journal at Washington to support the union. This led to the establishment of the “Globe,” which was the recognized organ of the Democratic Party until 1845, when President Polk, against General Jackson's published protest, moved Mr. Blair from the management. This action signified the triumph of Calhoun and his adherents over the Jackson or national democracy. President Polk offered Mr. Blair the Spanish mission, which was declined. He supported Mr. Van Buren in 1848, and promoted the reunion of the party, by which Pierce's election was secured in 1852. After the repeal of the Missouri compromise in 1854, Mr. Blair was active in the organization of the Democratic Party, presiding over the Pittsburg Convention of 1856 and drawing up the platform adopted there. After peremptorily refusing to allow his own name to be used, he favored the nomination of Colonel Frémont for the presidency. Mr. Blair was also one of the leaders in the Chicago Convention of 1860, which nominated Lincoln, and, after the election, of the latter, had much influence with his administration. In 1864 Mr. Blair conceived the idea that, through his personal acquaintance with man of the Confederate leaders, he might be able to effect a peace. Without telling the president of his intention, he asked for a pass to the south, and had several interviews with Jefferson Davis and others. His efforts finally led to the unsatisfactory “peace conference” of 3 February, 1865. After Lincoln's death, Mr. Blair's opposition to the reconstruction measures and to the general policy of the Republicans led to his co-operation with the Democratic Party, though, his counsels were disregarded by its leaders till 1876, when Mr. Tilden was nominated for the presidency. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 280.
BLAIR, Francis Preston, soldier, born in Lexington, Kentucky, 19 February, 1821; died in St. Louis, Missouri, 8 July, 1875, was son of Francis P. Blair noticed above. After graduation at Princeton, in 1841, he studied law in Washington and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1843, and began to practice in St. Louis. In 1845 he went for his health to the Rocky Mountains with a company of trappers, and when the war with Mexico began he enlisted in the army as a private. After the War he returned to the practice of his profession in St. Louis. In 1848 he joined the Free-Soil branch of the Democratic Party, was for a time editor of the “Missouri Democrat,” and from 1852 till 1856 was a member of the Missouri legislature. In 1856 he joined the newly organized Republican, Party, and was elected to Congress, where, in 1857, he spoke in favor of colonizing the Negroes of the United States in Central America. In 1858 the Democratic candidate for Congress was returned. Mr. Blair successfully contested the seat, but immediately resigned, and was defeated in the election that followed. He was, however, elected again in 1860 and in 1862. Soon after the South Carolina secession Convention was called, in November, 1861, Mr. Blair, at a meeting of the Republican leaders in St. Louis, showed the necessity of immediate effort to prevent the seizure by the state authorities of the St. Louis Arsenal, containing 65,000 stand of arms belonging to the government. He became the head of the military organization then formed, which guarded the arsenal from that time; and it was at his suggestion that the state troops under General Frost were captured on 10 May, 1861, without orders from Washington. It is claimed that he thus saved Missouri and Kentucky to the union. Entering the army as a colonel of volunteers, he was made brigadier-general 7 August, 1861, and major-general 29 November, 1862, resigning his seat in Congress in 1863. He commanded a division in the Vicksburg Campaign, led his men in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and was at the head of the 17th Corps during Sherman's Campaigns in 1864–5, including the march to the sea. In 1866 he was nominated by President Johnson as collector of internal revenue at St. Louis, and afterward as minister to Austria; but in each case, his opposition to the reconstruction measures led to his rejection by the Senate. He was afterward commissioner of the Pacific Railroad. His dissatisfaction with the Party of the Republicans led him to return to the Democratic Party, and in 1868 he was its candidate for the vice-presidency. In January, 1871, General Blair again entered the legislature of Missouri, and in the same month he was elected to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate, where he remained until 1873, when he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated. At the time of his death he was state superintendent of insurance. He published “The Life and Public Services of General William O. Butler” (1848). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 281.
BLAIR, Henry William, senator, born in Campton, New Hampshire, 6 December, 1834. His parents died before he had completed his thirteenth year, and his boyhood was spent in the family of Richard Bartlett, of Campton, where he worked on the farm, and attended school at intervals until he was seventeen, when he began to teach, hoping to earn enough money to take him through college. Com £ ill health to give up this plan, he read law with William Leverett, of Plymouth, New Hampshire, was admitted to the bar in 1859, and in 1860 was elected prosecuting attorney for Grafton County When the Civil War and he enlisted in the 15th New Hampshire Volunteers, was chosen captain of his company, soon became major, and finally lieutenant-colonel. He was twice wounded severely at the siege of Port Hudson, and was prevented by his wounds, and disease contracted in service, from taking any active part in the remainder of the war. He was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1866, and in 1867 and 1868 to the state senate. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1875 till 1879, and, declining a renomination, was elected to the U.S. Senate in the latter year, and reëlected in 1885. Senator Blair has given much attention to social '' and is an ardent temperance reformer. He is the author of the “Blair Common School Bill,” which was introduced by him in the 47th Congress. As passed by the Senate in April, 1884, the bill appropriates $77,000,000 to be distributed among the states in proportion to their illiteracy. In the original bill the amount was $105,000,000. In the 49th Congress the Senate again passed the bill, making the appropriation $79,000,000. Senator Blair has also introduced prohibitory temperance and woman suffrage amendments to the national constitution, is the author of the Blair scientific temperance education bill and the Blair pension bill, and has made important speeches on financial subjects. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 281.
BLAIR, Jacob B., Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)
BLAIR, Montgomery, 1813-1883, statesman, attorney, jurist, abolitionist, Postmaster General of the United States. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 282; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 340)
BLAIR, Montgomery, statesman, born in Franklin County, Kentucky, 10 May, 1813; died in Silver Spring, Maryland, 27 July, 1883. He was a son of Francis P. Blair, Sr., was graduated at West Point in 1835, and, after serving in the Seminole War, resigned his commission on 20 May, 1836. He then studied law, and, after his admission to the bar in 1839, began practice in St. Louis. He was appointed U. S. District attorney for Missouri, and in 1842 was elected mayor of St. Louis. He was raised to the bench as judge of the court of common pleas in 1843, but resigned in 1849. He moved to Maryland in 1852, and in 1855 was appointed U. S. solicitor in the court of claims. He was moved from this office by President Buchanan in 1858, having left the Democratic Party on the repeal of the Missouri compromise. In 1857 he acted as counsel for the plaintiff in the celebrated Dred Scott case. He presided over the Maryland Republican Convention in 1860, and in 1861 was appointed postmaster-general by President Lincoln. It is said that he alone of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet opposed the surrender of Fort Sumter, and held his resignation upon the issue. As postmaster-general he prohibited the sending of disloyal papers through the mails, and introduced various reforms, such as money-orders, free delivery in cities, and postal railroad cars. In 1864 Mr. Blair, who was not altogether in accord with the policy of the administration, told the president that he would resign whenever the latter thought it necessary, and on 23 September Mr. Lincoln, in a friendly letter, accepted his offer. After this Mr. Blair acted with the Democratic Party, and in 1876-'7 vigorously attacked Mr. Hayes's title to the office of president. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 282.
BLAKE, George A. H., soldier, born in Pennsylvania in September, 1812; died in Washington, D.C., 27 October, 1884. He became lieutenant in the 2d U.S. Dragoons 11 June, 1836, was made captain in December, 1839, and was in the actions with the Seminoles at Fort Miller and Jupiter inlet, in 1841. During the Mexican War, in 1846–’7, he was in the battles at Cerro Gordo, Puebla, Contreras, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and the City of Mexico, and was brevetted major for gallant conduct at St. Augustine, Mexico. In July, 1850, he became major of the 1st U.S. Dragoons, and served against the Apache and Navajo Indians. In May, 1861, he was made lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry, and colonel on 15 February, 1862. He took part in the battle of Gaines's Mill, 27 June, 1862, where he was slightly wounded, and was also in the actions at Aldie, Middletown, Upperville, and at Gettysburg, where he distinguished himself. He was afterward chief commissary of musters for the Department of Virginia, and in the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general U. S. A. for his services at Gettysburg. From February, 1865, till March, 1866, he was member of a military commission at Washington, and afterward commander at Fort Vancouver, Washington territory. On 15 December, 1870, he was retired. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 283.
BLAKE, George Smith, naval officer, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1808; died in Longwood, Massachusetts, 24 June, 1871. His father, Francis Blake, was a prominent lawyer in Worcester. On 1 January, 1818, he was appointed to the U.S. Navy as midshipman. On 5 November, 1821, the schooner "Alligator, on which he was serving, was attacked near the Cape Verde Islands by a Portuguese ship, which was captured and sent to the United States, with Blake as her executive officer. Commissioned lieutenant, 81 March, 1827, he cruised in the "Grampus," on the West India station, for the suppression of piracy. He was employed on a Survey of Narragansett bay in 1832, was attached to the U.S. Navy-yard at Philadelphia in 1833, and from 1837 till 1848 was connected with the coast survey. The secretary of the treasury, in a letter to the Navy Department, speaks highly of Lieutenant Blake's zeal and fidelity in this service. In 1846, while commanding the brig "Perry" in the Gulf of Mexico, he was wrecked on the Florida Coast in the great hurricane, but succeeded in getting his vessel on", and brought her to Philadelphia under jury-masts. The secretary of the Navy, in a letter to Lieutenant Blake, commended his conduct on this occasion. He was made commander 27 February, 1847, and attached to the bureau of construction. From 1849 till 1852 he was fleet captain in the Mediterranean. On 14 September, 1855, he was made captain, and assigned to special duty at Hoboken, New Jersey, in connection with the building of the Stevens battery there. In 1858 he became superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. At the beginning of the war his prompt measures saved the government property at the academy from capture, and he superintended the removal of the school to Newport, Rhode Island. He was commissioned commodore on 16 July, 1862, left the Naval Academy in 1865, and from I860 till 1869 he was light-house inspector of the Second District, residing at Boston. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 284.
BLAKE, Homer Crane, naval officer, born in Cleveland, Ohio, 1 February, 1822; died 21 January, 1880. He was appointed to the U.S. Navy from Ohio as a midshipman, 2 March, 1840, and served on the frigate "Constellation," of the East India Squadron, 1841-3; the sloop "Preble," 1843-'5; at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1846, when he was made passed midshipman; and again on the " Preble " until 1848. Until 1856 he served on receiving-ships at New York and Boston, with the exception of two years in the Pacific, and in 1855 was commissioned lieutenant. From 1857 till 1859 he served on the "St. Lawrence," of the Brazil Squadron, and from 1861 till 1862 on the "Sabine," of the home squadron. He was then made lieutenant-commander and given the command of the " Uatteras," of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron, formerly a merchant steamer. On 11 July, 1863, the " Hatteras," while at anchor off Galveston, Texas, was ordered to chase a suspicious vessel, which proved to be the Confederate cruiser " Alabama," and after a short action Commander Blake was obliged to surrender, as the "Hatteras," no match for her adversary. was disabled and sinking. The crew was taken off, and the " Hatteras " went down in ten minutes. Blake was carried to Jamaica, where he was paroled, returned to the United States, and was soon exchanged. From 1863 till 1865 he commanded the steamer "Utah," of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, where he did good service, shelling three divisions of the Confederate Army on the James in 1864, and assisting to repel an attack on the Army of the James on 23 January, 1865. He was made commander, 8 March, 1866, commanded the "Swatara" and the " Alaska," and became captain, 25 May, 1871. From 1873 till 1878 he was in command of the naval rendezvous at New York, and in 1880 was promoted to commodore. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 284.
BLAKESLEY, J. M., anti-slavery agent. Founded 15 anti-slavery societies in Chataqua and Erie Counties in New York. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 392n21; Friend of Man, February 1, 1837, May 10, 1837, March 21, 1838)
BLANCHARD, Albert G., soldier, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1810. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1829, and served on frontier duty and recruiting service until 1 October, 1840, when he resigned, with the rank of first lieutenant. From 1840 till 1846 he was a merchant at New Orleans, Louisiana, and was director of public schools there from 1843 till 1845. During the Mexican War he served as captain of Louisiana volunteers, being at the battle of Monterey and the siege of Vera Cruz, and he re-entered the regular army on 27 May, 1847, as major of the 12th U.S. Infantry, serving till 25 July, 1848. After teaching in the New Orleans public schools he became a surveyor, and was afterward connected with several railroad companies. At the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861, he was made a brigadier-general in the Confederate Army, and on 29 February, 1862, issued from Norfolk, Virginia, an order that became quite celebrated, urging the inhabitants to fire at the National Army from behind trees, and obstruct its passage in every possible way. Since the war, General Blanchard has been a civil engineer and surveyor in New Orleans. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 287.
BLANCHARD, Jonathan, 1811-1892, clergyman, educator, abolitionist, theologian, lecturer. Worked for more than thirty years for the abolition of slavery. Member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. President of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, 1845-1858. President, Illinois Institute. Vice president, World Anti-Slavery Convention, London, England, 1843, Free Soil Party. (Bailey, J.W., Knox College, 1860; Blanchard Papers, Wheaton College Library, Wheaton, Illinois; Blanchard Jonathan, and Rice, N.L. [1846], 1870; Dumond, 1961, p. 186; Kilby, 1959; Maas, 2003; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 196-197; Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 350-351)
BLANCHARD, Justus Wardwell, soldier, born in Milford, New Hampshire, in 1811; died in Syracuse, New York, 14 September, 1877. Before the Civil War he was captain of the Burgess Corps of Albany, New York. He entered the national service as captain in the 3d New York Volunteers in 1861, became lieutenant-colonel in 1863, and brevet brigadier-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865. He was at Big Bethel in 1861, took part in Banks's Red River Expedition, volunteered on a forlorn hope at Port Hudson, and was with Sheridan in his Shenandoah Campaign in 1864. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 288.
BLANCHARD, Thomas, inventor, born in Sutton, Massachusetts, 24 June, 1788; died in Boston, 16 April, 1864. He had a fondness for mechanical employment, and was associated with his brother in the manufacture of tacks by hand. This process was exceedingly slow and tedious, and in 1806 he invented a machine, which he subsequently so improved that five hundred tacks could be made in a minute, with heads and points more perfect than those made by the old-fashioned plan. This patent he sold for $5,000 to a company that afterward went extensively into the manufacture. After this he turned his attention to the manufacture of a machine for turning and finishing gun-barrels by a single operation; and this he accomplished, finishing the octagon portion of the barrel by changing the action of the lathe to vibratory motion. This invention, afterward extended to the turning of all kinds of irregular forms, was one of the most remarkable improvements made in the century. During the progress of its development he was employed at the Springfield Armory, where he received nine cents allowance from the government for each musket made by his machines, and this was his only compensation during the first term of his patent, originally granted in 1820. In 1831 he received a patent for an improved form of steamboat, so constructed as to ascend rapids or rivers having strong currents, which was used on the Connecticut River and in the west. He introduced several improvements in the construction of railroads and locomotives, and was the inventor of a steam wagon before any railroad had ever been built. In 1851 he devised a process for bending heavy timber. He also constructed machines for cutting and folding envelopes at a single operation, and several mortising machines. Mr. Blanchard was awarded more than twenty-five patents for his inventions, for some of which he received ample compensation. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 288.
BLATCHFORD, Richard Milford, lawyer, born in Stratford, Connecticut, 23 April, 1798; died in Newport, Rhode Island, 3 September, 1875. He was graduated at Union in 1818, taught school in Jamaica, L.I., and studied law at the same time. After being admitted to the bar he settled in New York, and rose rapidly in his profession. In 1826 he was appointed financial agent and counsel for the bank of England, later he held the same ' from the bank of the United States, and in 1836, when the charter of that bank expired, he satisfactorily settled the affairs between it and the bank of England. In 1855 he was elected to the state legislature. At the beginning of the Civil War he was a prominent member of the union defence Committee, and President Lincoln appointed him on the committee charged with the disbursement of the large sums of money appropriated for obtaining soldiers for the union Army. The other members of the committee were Generals John A. Dix and George Opdyke. In 1862 he received the appointment of minister-resident to the States of the Church, and remained in Rome until October, 1863. He was a commissioner of Central Park from April, 1859, till April, 1870, when he was moved by the operation of the new charter. In 1872 he was appointed a Commissioner of Public Parks, but was afterward moved by the enactment of a new charter. He was a warm personal friend of Daniel Webster, and one of the executors to his will.—His son, Samuel, jurist, born in New 1820, was graduated at Columbia in 1837. Two years later he became private secretary to Governor William H. Seward, and he was military secretary on the governor's staff till 1843. In 1842 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1845 was made a counsellor of the Supreme court of New York state. During the latter part of the same year he, settled in Auburn, and became associated with W. H. Seward and Christopher Morgan in a law partnership. In 1854 he moved to New York City, and resumed the practice of his profession. He was appointed in May, 1867, District judge of the U. S. court for the Southern District of New York. and in March, 1882, became an associate justice of the Supreme court of the United States. Since 1867 he has been a trustee of Columbia College. For several years he published reports of cases in the circuit courts of the United States. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 290.
BLEDSOE, Albert Taylor, educator, born in Frankfort, Kentucky, 9 November, 1809; died in Alexandria, Virginia, 8 December, 1877. He was appointed from Kentucky to the U. S. Military Academy, and was graduated in 1830, after which he served in the army at Fort Gibson, Indian territory, until 31 August, 1832, when he resigned. From 1833 till 1834 he was adjunct professor of mathematics and teacher of the French language at Kenyon, and in 1835–6 professor of mathematics at Miami. After studying theology he was ordained a clergyman in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1835, and was connected with various churches in Ohio until 1838. Having previously studied law, he began its practice in Springfield, Ohio in 1838, and continued it there and in Washington, D.C., till 1848. During the years 1848–54 he was professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Mississippi, and from 1854 till 1861 professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia. In 1861 he entered the Confederate service as colonel, but was soon made chief of the war bureau and acting assistant Secretary of War. In 1863 he went to England to collect material for his work on the constitution, which he published on his return in 1866. He then settled in Baltimore and began the publication of the “Southern Review,” hitherto mainly of a political character, which under his editorship assumed a theological tone and became the recognized organ of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In 1868 he became principal of the Louisa school, Baltimore, and in 1871 was ordained a minister in the Methodist Church. In addition to numerous contributions to periodicals he published “An Examination of wards on the Will” (Philadelphia, 1845); “A Theodicy or Vindication of the Divine Glory” (New York, 1853); “Liberty and Slavery” (Philadelphia, 1857); “Is Davis a Traitor? or was Secession a Constitutional Right previous to the War of 1861?” (Baltimore, 1866); and “Philosophy of Mathematics” (Philadelphia, 1866). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 291.
BLENKER, Louis, soldier, born in Worms, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, 31 Julv,1812; died in Rockland County, New York, 31 October, 1803. In his youth he was apprenticed to a jeweler, but on becoming of age he enlisted in the Bavarian legion that was raised to accompany Prince Otho, then recently elected king, to Greece. When the legion was disbanded in 1837, he received the rank of lieutenant. He then returned home and began the study of medicine in the University of Munich, but soon gave this up to engage in the wine business in Worms. In 1849 he was a leading member of the revolutionary government in that city, and also burgomaster and commander of the national guard. He fought in several successful engagements with the Prussians; but the revolutionists being soon completely crushed, he retired into Switzerland. In September, 1849, having been ordered to leave that country, he came to the United States and settled in Rockland County, New York where he undertook to cultivate a farm. Later he engaged in business in New York, and so continued until the beginning of the Civil War, when he organized the 8th Regiment of New York Volunteers, of which he was commissioned colonel, 31 May, 1861. After some time spent in Washington his regiment was incorporated with others into a brigade attached to Colonel Miles's 8th Division in General McDowell's Army. During the first battle of Bull Run this division acted as a reserve, and covered the retreat with grout steadiness. For his services at that time he was commissioned brigadier-general of the volunteers 9 August, 1861. He remained with the Army of the Potomac, commanding a division, until the beginning of the Peninsular Campaign, when he was ordered to western Virginia, he took an active part in the battle of Cedar Keys, 8 June, 1862: but after the arrival of General Fremont he was succeeded by General Sigel. General Blenker was then ordered to Washington, and on 31 March, 1863, was mustered out of service. He returned to his farm in Rockland County, where he remained until his death, which resulted from internal injuries received from a fall of his horse in entering the town of Warrenton, Virginia. while with his command. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 292.
BLISS, Philemon, 1813-1889, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, 1854, Chief Justice, Dakota Territory in 1861, elected Supreme Court of Missouri, 1868. Helped found anti-slavery Free Soil Party. Agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). (Blue, 2005, p. 76; Dumond, 1961, p. 165; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. I, Pt. 2, pp. 375-376)
BLISS, Philip Paul, singing evangelist, born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, 9 July, 1838; died near Ashtabula, Ohio, 29 December, 1876. His early years were assed in the wilds of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and is education was of the most rudimentary description; but he possessed an innate passion for music, which at first was only cultivated by listening to his father singing hymns. When about ten years old he, for the first time, heard a piano, and was unable to resist the temptation that lured him through the open door and into the room. He stood spell-bound until the music ceased, and the player, becoming aware of his presence, barefooted and in rags, harshly ordered him away. Until 1855 he worked on a farm and at wood-cutting. but so faithfully improved his occasional opportunities for study that by 1856 he had enough education to teach a school in Hartsville, Alleghany County, New York. The following winter he, for the first time, attended a singing-school in Towanda, Pennsylvania. The same winter he attended a musical convention in Rome, New York. In 1858 he taught school in Rome, his vocal powers developing son, John Murray, jurist, born, in Massachusetts in through constant exercise. In the summer of 1860 he was providentially enabled to attend the normal academy of music at Geneseo, New York, and in the following winter began to teach music and to compose songs, which soon attained local popularity. During 1865 he was drafted into the army, and for duty at Carlisle barracks; but, as the war was over, he was soon discharged. During the twelve years beginning with 1864 he wrote the songs that have made him famous. In 1865 he formed a business partnership with a Chicago firm, and held musical conventions and gave concerts throughout the northwestern states. His fame as a “singing evangelist” did not spread beyond the whither his engagements led him until a chance meeting with D. L. Moody, the famous revivalist leader, brought about a warm friendship between the two, and resulted in his self-consecration to missionary labors that carried his songs all over the world. But it was not until 1874 that he deliberately devoted himself to evangelistic work, though he had always been £ inclined, and had united with the Baptist Church at Elk Run, Pennsylvania, when thirteen years old. A fine personal presence, a native gift of effective speech, and a wonderful voice, gave him an irresistible power over miscellaneous audiences. His singing, though not scientific, according to classical standards, appealed strongly to the hearts of the multitudes. According to an expert, the “chest range” of his voice was from D flat below to A flat above, and this without straining or confusing the vowel sounds. The motive of his most famous song was supplied by a message signaled by flag during the fight from Kenesaw mountain, Georgia, to Altoona Pass, twenty miles distant, over the heads of the enemy. It ran thus: “Hold the fort; I am Coming W. T. Sherman.” These words and the inspiring air that Mr. Bliss composed to accompany them are sung wherever English is spoken. Others of his compositions have commanded a popularity hardly second to that of “Hold the Fort.” Among them are “Down Life's Dark Vale we Wander,” “Hallelujah! 'tis done!” “Jesus Loves Me,” and “Pull for the Shore, Sailor!” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 293-294.
BLODGETT, Foster, politician, born in Augusta, Georgia, 15 January, 1826; died in Atlanta, 12 November, 1877. He became mayor of Augusta in 1859, and was reelected in 1860, but was defeated in 1861. During the Civil War he was captain of the Blodgett Artillery, from Augusta. After the war he joined the Republican Party and was appointed postmaster of Augusta in 1865, but was removed from that office in 1868, and reinstated in 1869. In 1867 he was made president of the Union Republican Club of Augusta, and during the same year he was again chosen mayor. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867, and in 1870 claimed to have been chosen U. S. Senator from Georgia, but failed to secure his seat, as the Senate decided in favor of the claims of Thomas M. Norwood. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 295
BLOODGOOD, Delavan, surgeon, born in Springville, Erie County, New York, 20 August 1831. He was graduated at Madison University, Hamilton, New York, in 1852, studied medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, Michigan University, and Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where he received his degree of M. D., and entered the U. S. Navy as assistant surgeon 13 March, 1857. In his first cruise, in the steam frigate “Merrimac,” of the Pacific Squadron, he volunteered his services when a supposed epidemic broke out among the '' of the Pacific steam navigation company at Tobago. At the beginning of the Civil War he was on duty in the Gulf of Mexico, and afterward in Hampton Roads, receiving promotion as surgeon, 24 January, 1862. He was subsequently attached to the West India Flying Squadron when yellow fever broke out on board, and to the Carolina Blockading Squadron when a severe epidemic of small-pox occurred. He was ordered to the “Jamestown” at Panama in February, 1867, and was one of the few survivors of the virulent epidemic of yellow fever that raged among the men. He was promoted, 22 August, 1884, to medical director, and assigned to the Naval Laboratory in Brooklyn, New York. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 296.
BLOOMER, Amelia Jenks, reformer, born in Homer, New York, 27 May, 1818. She married, in 1840, Dexter C. Bloomer, a lawyer, and resided in Seneca Falls, New York, where she wrote frequently on the enfranchisement of women, and on 1 January, 1849, issued the first number of “The Lily,” a semi-monthly publication, devoted to temperance and woman's rights, which attained a circulation of 4,000. In 1853 she moved with her husband to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where she continued the publication of “The Lily,” and was also associate editor of the “Western Home Journal,” a literary weekly. In 1855, on account of her husband's business interests, they moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where it was impracticable for lack of manufacturing and postal facilities, to continue the publication of the paper, which she therefore sold to Mary B. Birdsall. She advocated women's rights on the lecture platform as well as in the columns of her paper, and took a prominent in the movement for woman suffrage. She lectured on temperance in the principal cities of the northwest, and adopted and publicly recommended a sanitary dress for women, known as the Bloomer costume, which was first introduced by Elizabeth Smith Miller, daughter of Gerrit Smith. It consisted of skirts reaching just below the knee and Turkish trousers. In the winter of 1855 Mrs. Bloomer addressed the territorial legislature of Nebraska on the subject of conferring the ballot on women. She took part in organizing the Iowa State suffrage Association, and was at one time its president, but in later years withdrew entirely from public life. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 296.
BLOSS, William Clough, 1795-1863, abolitionist leader, reformer, temperance advocate. Early abolitionist leader in Rochester, New York, area. Founded abolitionist newspaper, Rights of Man, in 1834. Petitioned U.S. Congress to end slavery in Washington, DC. Early supporter of women’s rights and African American civil rights. Activist in aiding fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad. manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1843-1845. (American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 54)
BLOW, Henry Taylor, 1817-1875, statesman, diplomat. Active in pre-Civil War anti-slavery movement. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1863-1867, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 297; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, pp. 443-444; Congressional Globe)
BLOW, Henry Taylor, statesman, born in Southampton County, Virginia, 15 July, 1817; died in Saratoga, New York, 11 September, 1875. He went to Missouri in 1830, and was graduated at St. Louis University. He then engaged in the drug business and in lead-mining, in which he was successful. Before the Civil War he took a prominent part in the anti-slavery movement, and served four years in the state senate. In 1861 he was appointed minister to Venezuela, but resigned in less than a year. He was a Republican member of Congress from 1863 till 1867, and served on the committee of ways and means. He was minister to Brazil from 1869 till 1871, and was appointed one of the commissioners of the District of Columbia in 1874. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 297.
BLUNT, James G., soldier, born in Hancock County, Maine, in 1826; died in Washington, D. C., in 1881. From his fifteenth to his twentieth year he was a (1817), and a sailor. He was graduated at the Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 1849, and practised medicine in Darke County until 1856, when he settled in Anderson County, Kansas. He took a prominent part in the contest over the introduction of slavery into Kansas, and was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the state. In July, 1861, he entered the army as lieutenant-colonel of the 3d Kansas Volunteers. He commanded the cavalry in General James Lane's brigade, and on 8 April, 1862, was promoted brigadier-general and assigned to the command of the military Department of Kansas. On 22 October, 1862, in the battle of Old Fort Wayne, his Kansas and Cherokee troops routed the Confederate force concentrated at Maysville, on the western border of Arkansas. On 28 November. he attacked and defeated Marmaduke's forces at Cane Hill, Arkansas On 7 December, 1862, he encountered and defeated, with the aid of General Herron, the Confederates under Hindman at Prairie Grove, and thereby checked the advance of the southern troops into Missouri. On 28 December. he captured Fort Van Buren on Arkansas River. He was promoted to be major-general, 29 November, 1862. In June, 1863, being relieved of the command of the Department of Kansas, he took the field with the army of the frontier. On 16 July, 1863, he defeated General Cooper at Honey Springs; and on 28 October, 1864, at Newtonia, Missouri, with the assistance of General Sanborn's cavalry, his troops gave the final blow to Price's invasion of Missouri. During the latter part of the war he was military commandant of the District of south Kansas. After he was mustered out he settled in Leavenworth, Kansas. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 297-298.
BLYDEN, Edward Wilmot, Negro author, born in St. Thomas, West Indies, 3 August, 1832. His parents were of pure Negro blood, of decided character and strong religious feeling. Young Blyden received the rudiments of an education in the secular schools of the island; but the stimulus for higher training came from the late Reverend J. P. Knox, of Newtown, Long Island, who was temporarily in charge of the Reformed Dutch Church at St. Thomas. At the instance of this gentleman, young Blyden came to New York in 1845, seeking entrance into some American College. But so hostile to Negroes was the feeling in the schools of the country that he gave up his purpose, and was about returning to his island home. At this juncture the New York Colonization Society offered him a free passage to Liberia, West Africa, which country he reached in January, 1850. He at once entered the Alexander high school, then under the charge of the Reverend David Wilson, and began acquiring a classical education with a view to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. He was graduated at this school in 1858, and soon afterward became its principal. Very early in life Dr. Blyden developed a decided talent for languages, and he has since become distinguished in that branch of learning. At the age of ten, during a brief residence in Venezuela, he acquired the Spanish language. At the Alexander high school he became proficient in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and to these he added French and Italian at a later period. In 1876 he undertook Arabic, and went to the Orient to improve his knowledge of that language. His attainments have placed him in many responsible positions in the young republic of Liberia. As a preacher and teacher he has filled the positions re£ of Presbyterian pastor, principal of the Alexander high school, professor, and in 1880 president, of Liberia College, commissioner to the general assembly of the American Presbyterian Church in 1861, and again in 1880. At the age of nineteen he was editor of the “Liberia Herald,” and since then he has been government commissioner to the colored people of the United States. He has held the offices of Secretary of State and of the interior several times. Twice he has been appointed minister to the court of St. James. He has published “Liberia's Offering” and “From West Africa to Palestine” (1873). His contributions to periodicals include “The Negro in Ancient. History,” “Liberia, its Status and its Field,” “Mohammedanism and the Negro Race,” “Christianity and the Negro Race,” “Islam and Race Distinctions,” and “Africa and the Africans.” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 298.
BOARMAN, Charles, naval officer, born in Maryland; died in Martinsburg, W. Virginia, 13 September, 1879. He was appointed a midshipman from the District of Columbia, and, after attending the naval school at the U.S. Navy-yard in Washington, he was ordered to the sloop “Erie,” and then attached, during the war of 1812, to the brig “Jefferson” on Lake Ontario. He was commissioned as lieutenant, 15 March, 1817; as commander, 9 February, 1837; as captain, 29 March, 1844, commanding the flag-ship “Brandywine” in the Brazil Squadron from 1844 till 1850, and the U.S. Navy-yard at Brooklyn from commodore on 4 April, 1867, and made a rear-admiral on the retired list, 15 August, 1876. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 299.
BOCOCK, Thomas S., politician, born in Buckingham County, Virginia, in 1815. He received a classical education at Hampden-Sidney, studied law, and began practice at Appomattox Court-House, Virginia, was state's attorney in 1845–6, sat for several terms in the house of delegates, was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1846, and sat for seven successive terms, until the ordinance of secession was enacted. In 1861 he was elected to the Confederate Congress. He had been a candidate for speaker in the 36th Federal Congress, and was elected speaker of the Confederate House of Representatives on its permanent organization, 18 February, 1862. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 299.
BOGARDUS, Abraham, born in Fishkill, New York, 29 November 1822. He received his early education at the Newburg Academy, and at the age of fourteen became a dry-goods clerk in New York. After several years' experience in this line he was induced to take lessons in making daguerreotypes from George W. Prosch, and, finding this occupation agreeable, he opened in 1846 a gallery in New York. At first progress was very slow, and frequently he found it impossible to make more than two pictures a week. Later, the photograph was invented, and he at once be the production of this kind of pictures. His business increased rapidly, and frequently orders amounting to one hundred dozen photographs were received during a single day. Numerous improvements in the preparations of solutions, processes, and apparatus have been devised by him, and he has published many articles on the technicalities of his business in the photographic journals. Mr. Bogardus was active in the establishment of the national photographic association in 1868, and was elected its president by acclamation at that time, and for the ensuing five years. His presidential addresses are valuable contributions to the literature of the art. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 300.
BOGARDUS, James, inventor, born in Catskill, New York, 14 March, 1800; died in New York City, 13 April, 1874. He received the ordinary school education afforded by his native town, at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to a watchmaker, and soon became skilled as a die-sinker and engraver. His inventive ability was first manifested by an eight day three-wheeled chronometer clock, for which he received the highest premium at the first fair of the American Institute, after which he produced an eight-day clock with three wheels and a segment of a wheel, which struck the hours, and, without dial-wheels, marked the hours, minutes, and seconds. In 1828 he invented the “ring flier.” for cotton-spinning, which afterward came into general use, and in 1829 devised an eccentric mill, in which the grinding-stones or plates run in the same direction with nearly equal speed. In 1831 he made an engraving-machine with which gold watch-dials could be made, turning imitation filiee works, rays from the centre, and the figures in relief, all by one operation. The steel die from which the gold medal of the American Institute is struck, and other beautiful medallions, were made with this machine. He also invented the transfer- machine for producing bank-note plates from separate dies, which is now in general use. In 1832 he invented the first dry gas-metre, and in 1836, by giving a rotary motion to the machinery, he made it applicable to all current fluids. While in England, in 1836, he produced a medallic engraving- machine, with which portraits of the Queen, Sir Robert Peel, and numerous other distinguished persons were engraved, and he also agreed to construct in London a machine for engine-turning that would copy all kinds of known machine engraving but could not imitate its own work. The British Government in 1839 offered a reward for the best plan of manufacturing postage-stamps, and that submitted by him was selected from among 2,600 competing designs, and it is still in use. His later inventions include a machine for pressing glass, appliances for shirring India-rubber fabrics, and for cutting India-rubber into fine threads. Besides improvements in drilling-machines and in eccentric mills, he patented in 1848 a sun-and-planet horse-power, and a dynamometer for measuring the speed and power of machinery while in motion. 'y in New York city, built in 1847 entirely of cast-iron, five stories high, was the first building so constructed in the United States, and probably the first in the world. His success in this undertaking led to his engaging in the business of erecting iron-ware buildings throughout the country. He invented a pyrometer of great delicacy, and a deep-sea sounding-machine, which can be used without a line and is very accurate, and also made numerous improvements in the manufacture of tools and machinery. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 301.
BOGGS, Charles Stuart, naval officer, born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 28 January, 1810. He is a nephew of Captain James Lawrence, and entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman on 1 March, 1826. He was promoted a lieutenant 6 September, 1837, was in the “Princeton,” of Commodore Conner's squadron, during the Mexican War, was present at the siege of Vera Cruz, and commanded the boat expedition that destroyed the “Truxtun" after her surrender to the Mexicans. He was promoted commander, 14 September, 1855, and assigned to the U.S. mail steamer “Illinois,” which he commanded three years. He then became light-house inspector for California, Oregon, and Washington territory. In 1861 he was ordered to the gun-boat “Varuna,” of Farragut's gulf squadron. In the attack on Forts St. Philip and Jackson, in April, 1862, he destroyed six of the Confederate gun-boats, but finally lost his own vessel, which steamed ahead of the fleet and engaged the Confederate Squadron above the forts. She was attacked by two rams and run into the banks of the river and there sank, causing, however, the destruction of her antagonists, which were both burned. He returned to Washington as bearer of despatches, and was ordered to the command of the new sloop-of-war “Juniata.” He was promoted to the rank of captain on 16 July, 1862, and was made a commodore, 25 July, 1866. He commanded the steamer “De Soto,” of the North Atlantic Squadron, in 1867-'8. In 1869-'70 he was assigned to special duty, and prepared a report on the condition of steam-engines afloat. On 1 July, 1870, he received promotion to the rank of rear-admiral, and was appointed light-house inspector of the 3d District. He was placed on the retired list in 1873. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 302.
BOHLEN, Henry, soldier, born in Bremen, Germany, 22 October, 1810; killed near Rappahannock Station, Virginia, 22 August, 1862. He came to the United States when young, and settled as a liquor merchant in Philadelphia, acquiring wealth in that trade. In 1861 he became colonel of the 75th Pennsylvania (German) Volunteers, and was attached to General Blenker's command, was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 28 April, 1862, and served under Frémont in western Virginia, distinguished himself at the battle of Cross Keys, 8 June, when General Frémont attacked “Stonewall Jackson" and drove him from a strong position beyond Harrisonburg. He was also specially commended for his services in the Shenandoah valley under General Sigel. He covered the retreat of the Army of Virginia across the Rappahannock, and fell while directing the movements of his brigade in a skirmish near that river. He led his brigade across the river to attack a detachment of Longstreet's division, but was assailed by superior numbers, and re-crossed under cover of the batteries. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 302.
BOLLES, John A., lawyer, born in Eastford, Connecticut, 16 April, 1809; died in Washington, D.C., 25 May, 1878. He was graduated at Brown in 1829, admitted to the bar in Boston in 1833, and in 1843 chosen Secretary of State under Governor Marcus Morton. He was a member of the harbor and back bay commission in 1852. From 1862 till 1865 he served as judge-advocate on the staff of General John A. Dix, who was his brother-in-law. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers in 1865, and appointed naval solicitor the same year. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 308.
BOMFORD, George, military officer, born in New York in 1780; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 25 March, 1848. He entered West Point from New York, was graduated in 1805, and became lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He served as assistant engineer on the fortifications of New York Harbor in 1805–’8, being promoted first lieutenant, 30 October, 1806, then on the defences of Chesapeake Bay from 1808 till 1810, and as superintending engineer of the works on Governor's Island from 1810 till 1812. During the war of 1812–5 with Great Britain he served in the Ordnance Department, with the rank of major on the staff, was appointed assistant commissary-general of ordnance, 18 June, 1812, and attached to the Corps of Engineers, 6 July, 1812. He introduced bomb cannons, made on a pattern of his own invention, which were called columbiads, a form of heavy combining the qualities of gun, howitzer, and mortar. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel, 9 February, 1815, and was continued on ordnance duty, though attached to the artillery after the reorganization of the army in 1821. On the organization of the Ordnance Corps he was promoted colonel, and appointed chief of ordnance, 30 May, 1832. He was in command of the Ordnance Corps and bureau at Washington until 1 February, 1842, when he became inspector of arsenals, ordnance, arms, and munitions of war, in which duty he continued until his death. The cannons invented by him were further developed by Dahlgrén, but were superseded by the Rodman type about the beginning of the Civil War. In July, 1841, he conducted experiments to ascertain the expansive force of powder in a gun by firing bullets through tubes inserted in the sides. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 308.
BOMFORD, James V., soldier, born on Governor's Island, New York Harbor, 5 October, 1811, was graduated at West Point in 1832, and served as first lieutenant in the military occupation of Texas, and as captain in the war with Mexico. He was engaged in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterey, the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro Gordo, the capture of San Antonio, and the battle of Churubusco, receiving the brevet of major, 20 August, 1847, for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Molino del Rey, distinguished himself at the storming of Chapultepec, and was resent at the capture of Mexico. Serving on frontier duty in Texas at the beginning of the Civil War, he was promoted major, 17 October, 1860, and was prisoner of war from 9 May, 1861, till 9 April, 1862. On 10 January, 1862, he was made a lieutenant-colonel, and, after his return to his regiment, was engaged in the movements of General Buell's army in Alabama and Kentucky. At the battle of Perryville he served as chief of staff to General McCook, and received the brevet of colonel for meritorious services in that action. He was retired from active service 8 June, 1872. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 309.
BOND, Hugh L., jurist, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 16 December, 1828, was graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1848, returned to Baltimore, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1851, and practised in Baltimore. He took part in the Know-nothing movement. In March, 1860, he was appointed judge of the Baltimore criminal court, and on 5 November, 1861, was elected by the people to that office, which he held during the trying times of the war. After the massacre of national soldiers on 19 April, 1861, when the city authorities decided that no more northern troops should be allowed to pass through Baltimore, he charged the grand jury that those who took part in the riot were guilty of murder. The police commissioners made an order forbidding the display of any flag; but the seventy-five loyalists that were arrested under this order for raising the national standard were discharged on habeas corpus by Judge Bond. In later years, when several military commissioners undertook to sit in Baltimore and try citizens for offences against the United States, he charged the grand jury to indict the officers on these commissions. because they had no jurisdiction over persons not in the military service of the government, especially when the civil courts were open. Shortly before the close of his term, Governor Swann claimed the right to remove the police commissioners and appoint others, and when the de facto commissioners fortified the station-houses, and armed the police to defend their right to the office, authorized his appointees to raise followers sufficient to put the resisting commissioners out, and called upon President Johnson to send federal troops to interfere. Judge Bond told General Grant, who came to investigate the situation, that the de facto commissioners would obey a written order from the president brought by a single soldier bearing the U.S. flag; but that, if the federal authorities declined to interfere, he would arrest the Swann commissioners, and hold them to bail to keep the peace, which was accordingly done. After the emancipation of the slaves under the revised constitution of 1864, the slave-holders took advantage of an old apprentice law, and had the children of the free Negroes brought to the probate courts and apprenticed to themselves. Judge Bond decided that these apprentices were held in involuntary servitude, and released, on habeas corpus, all that were brought before him. He was a prominent member of an association for the education of colored people, to which his friend, Secretary Stanton, transferred all the federal barracks in Maryland for the purpose of building school-houses. With assistance from the freedmen's aid societies, schools were established in all the counties of the state, and Judge Bond visited every locality, and made speeches intended to overcome the prejudices of the people against the schools, 'd frequently broke out into violence. He lost his seat on the bench in 1868, when the Democrats obtained political ascendency in the state, and resumed the practice of law in Baltimore. On 13 July, 1870, President Grant nominated him judge of the 4th circuit of the U.S. court, which includes the states of Maryland, the two Virginias, and the two Carolinas. In 1871 he conducted, at Raleigh, North Carolina, and Columbia, South Carolina, many trials of ku-klux conspirators, more than 100 of whom he sentenced to the penitentiary. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 312-313.
BONDI, August, 1833-1907, Vienna, Austria, abolitionist. Supported radical abolitionist John Brown in Bleeding Kansas war.
BONHAM, Millege L., soldier, born in South Carolina, 6 May, 1815. He was graduated at the University of South Carolina in 1834, admitted to the bar at Columbia in 1837, and settled and began practice in Edgefield. In the Mexican War he commanded a battalion of South Carolina Volunteers. From 1848 till 1850 he was state solicitor for the southern circuit, in 1856 elected to Congress as a state-rights Democrat, and in 1858 reelected. On 21 December, 1860, he left Congress with the other members of the South Carolina delegation. He was a commissioner from South Carolina to Mississippi, and detailed as major-general to command the South Carolina troops. He entered the Confederate Army with the rank of brigadier-general, and commanded a brigade at the battles of Blackburn's Ford and Bull Run. He was then elected a representative from South Carolina in the Confederate Congress, and served until he was elected governor of that state for the term 1862-'4. In 1864 he returned to the Confederate Army, and served until the close of the war. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention held in New York in 1868. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 313.
BONNEVILLE, Benjamin L. E., explorer, born in France about 1795; died at Fort Smith, Arkansas, 12 June, 1878. He was appointed to West Point from New York, was graduated in 1815, became lieutenant of artillery, and in 1820 was engaged in the construction of a military road through Mississippi. He became a captain of infantry in 1825, and in 1831-6 engaged in explorations in the Rocky Mountains and in California. His journal was edited and amplified by Washington Irving, and published under the title of “Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U.S.A., in the Rocky Mountains and the Far West” (Philadelphia, 1837). He was promoted major, 15 July, 1845, and fought through the Mexican War, taking part in the march through Chihuahua, in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro Gordo, the capture of San Antonio, the battle of Churubusco, where he was wounded, the battle of Molino del Rey, the storming of Chapultepec, and the assault and capture of the city of Mexico. For gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco he was brevet lieutenant-colonel. He was promoted to the full rank of lieutenant-colonel on 7 May, 1849, and to the grade of colonel on 3 February, 1855. He was commandant at Santa Fé in 1856–7, commanded the Gila Expedition in 1857, resumed command of the Department of New Mexico in 1858, and on 9 September, 1861, was retired from active service for disability. During the Civil War he served as superintendent of recruiting in Missouri, and from 1862 till 1865 as commandant of Benton barracks in St. Louis. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general for long and faithful services. At the time of his death he was the oldest officer on the retired list. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 314.
