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A                    B                    C                    D                    E                    F               

                      Bab-Bee         Cab-Che         Dab-Dev                               Fai-Fle
                      Bel-Bon          Chi-Cle          Dib-Dye                                Flo-Fur
                      Boo-Bro         Cli-Cox
                      Bru-Byr          Cra-Cuy

G                    H                    I                     J                     K                    L

Gag-Gid         Hab-Har                                                                             Lad-Loc
Gih-Gra         Has-Hil                                                                               Log-Lyt
Gre-Gru         Hin-Hyd

M                    N                    O                    P                    Q                    R

McA-McW                                                   Pac-Pie                                 Rad-Riv
Mad-Mid                                                      Pik-Put                                  Roa-Rya
Mil-Myr

S                     T                    U                    V                    W                    XYZ

Sac-Sha          Tab-Tho                                                       Wad-Way
She-Smi         Thr-Tyn                                                        Wea-Whe
Sno-Sti                                                                                Whi-Wil 
Sto-Sza                                                                                Wim-Wyt

  


Encyclopedia of Civil War Biography - Bru-Byr



BRUCE, Blanche K., senator, born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, 1 March, 1841. He is of African descent, was born a slave, and received the rudiments of education from the tutor of his master's son. When the Civil War began he left his young master, whose companion he had been, and who went from Missouri to join the Confederate Army. Mr. Bruce taught school for a time in Hannibal, Mo., became a student at Oberlin, afterward pursued special studies at home, and after the war went to Mississippi. In 1869 he became a planter in Mississippi. He was sergeant-at-arms of the legislature, a member of the Mississippi Levee Board, sheriff of Bolivar County in 1871–4, county superintendent of education in 1872-’3, and was elected U. S. Senator on 3 February, 1875, as a Republican, taking his seat on 4 March, 1875, and serving till 3 March, 1881. He was a member of every Republican convention held after 1868. On 19 May, 1881, he entered upon the office of register of the treasury, to which he was appointed by President Garfield. In 1886 he delivered a lecture on the condition of his race, entitled “The Race Problem, and one on “Popular Tendencies.” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p .418.



BRUCE, Henry, naval officer, born in Machias, Maine , 12 February, 1798. He was appointed to the navy as midshipman from Massachusetts on 9 November, 1813, and was captured while attached to the “Frolic,” 18 guns, when she surrendered to the British man-of-war “Orpheus,” 36 guns, remaining for six months as prisoner of war in Halifax, N. S. He became lieutenant on 13 January, 1825, was attached to the “Macedonian” and afterward to the “Franklin,” when she conveyed Minister Rush to England. He was appointed to the frigate “Brandywine,” of the Mediterranean squadron, in 1837, and was commissioned commander, 8 September, 1841. In 1845 he was appointed to the brig “Truxtun,” on the African Coast, capturing the slaver “Spitfire” during his cruise, and in 1848–50 commanded the naval rendezvous at Boston, Massachusetts He was put on the reserved list, 13 September, 1855, commissioned commodore, 16 July, 1862, and retired, 4 April, 1867. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 419.



BRUNOT, Felix R., philanthropist, born in Newport, Kentucky, 7 February, 1820. He was educated at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, followed the profession of civil engineer until 1842, became a miller at Rock Island, Illinois, and in 1847 returned to Pittsburg, where his early years had been spent, and purchased an interest in a steel furnace. He devoted his mind largely to benevolent schemes, and when the Civil War began he went to the seat of war in charge of a corps of volunteer physicians, with medicines and comforts for the sick and wounded. In 1865 President Grant appointed him one of the commissioners to investigate Indian grievances. He was chosen president of the board, and spent five summers in visiting the tribes. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 419.



BRYANT, William Cullen, 1794-1874, author, poet, editor, abolitionist.  Wrote antislavery poetry.  Free Soil Party.  Editor of the Evening Post, which supported Congressman John Quincy Adams’ advocacy for the right to petition Congress against slavery, and was against the annexation of Texas.  After 1848, the Evening Post took a strong anti-slavery editorial policy and supported the Free Soil Party, supporting Martin Van Buren.  It opposed the Compromise of 1850.  Bryant and the Post opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854.  In 1856, the Post broke with the Democratic Party, endorsing the new Republican Party and its anti-slavery faction.  They supported John C. Frémont as the presidential candidate.  Bryant opposed the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court.  He endorsed John Brown’s raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in1859.  He strongly supported the nomination of Lincoln as the Republican candidate for president in 1860.

(Rodriguez, 2007, p. 326; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 101-102; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 422-426; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 200; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3)

BRYANT, William Cullen, poet and editor, born in Cummington, Massachusetts, 3 November, 1794; died in New York, 12 June, 1878. His ancestry might have been inferred from the character of his writings, which reflect whatever is best and noblest in the life and thought of New England. The first Bryant of whom there is any account in the annals of the New World, Stephen, came over from England, and was at Plymouth, Massachusetts, as early as 1632, of which town he was chosen constable in 1663. He married Abigail Shaw, who had emigrated with her father, and who bore him several children between 1650 and 1665. Stephen Bryant had a son Ichabod, who was the father of Philip Bryant, born in 1732. Philip married Silence Howard, daughter of Dr. Abiel Howard, of West Bridgewater, whose profession he adopted, practising in North Bridgewater. He was the father of nine children, one of whom, Peter, born in 1767, succeeded him in his profession. Young Dr. Bryant married in 1792 Miss Sarah Snell, daughter of Ebenezer Snell, of Bridgewater, who moved his family to Cummington, where the subject of this sketch was born. Dr. Bryant was proud of his profession; and in the hope, no doubt, that his son would become a shining light therein, he perpetuated at his christening the name of a great medical authority, who had died four years before, William Cullen. The lad was exceedingly frail, and had a head the immensity of which troubled his anxious father. How to reduce it to the normal size was a puzzle that Dr. Bryant solved in a spring of clear, cold water, into which the child was immersed every morning, head and all, by two of Dr. Bryant's students. William Cullen Bryant's mother was a descendant of John Alden; and the characteristics of his family included some of the sterner qualities of the Puritans. His grandfather Snell was a magistrate, and without doubt a severe one, for the period was not one that favored leniency to criminals. The whipping-post was still extant in Massachusetts, and the poet remembered that one stood about a mile from his early home at Cummington, and that he once saw a young fellow of eighteen who had received forty lashes as a punishment for theft. It was, he thought, the last example of corporal punishment inflicted by law in that neighborhood, though the whipping-post remained in its place for several years.

Magistrate Snell was a disciplinarian of the stricter sort; and as he and his wife resided with Dr. Bryant and his family, the latter stood in awe of him, so much so that William Cullen was prevented from feeling anything like affection for him. It was an age of repression, not to say oppression, for children, who had few rights that their elders were bound to respect. To the terrors of the secular arm were added the deeper terrors of the spiritual law, for the people of that primitive period were nothing if not religious. The minister was the great man, and his bodily presence was a restraint upon the unruly, and the ruly too, for that matter. The lines of our ancestors did not fall in pleasant places as far as recreations were concerned; for they were few and far between, consisting, for the most part, of militia musters, “raisings,” corn-huskings, and singing-schools, diversified with the making of maple sugar and cider. Education was confined to the three R's, though the children of wealthy parents were sent to colleges as they now are. It was not a genial social condition, it must be confessed, to which William Cullen Bryant was born, though it might have been worse but for his good father, who was in many respects superior to his rustic neighbors. He was broad-shouldered and muscular, proud of his strength, but his manners were gentle and reserved, his disposition serene, and he was fond of society. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives several times, afterward to the state senate, and associated with the cultivated circles of Boston both as legislator and physician.

We have the authority of the poet himself that his father taught his youth the art of verse. His first efforts were several clever “Enigmas,” in imitation of the Latin writers, a translation from Horace, and a copy of verses written in his twelfth year, to be recited at the close of the winter school, “in the presence of the master, the minister of the parish, and a number of private gentlemen.” They were printed on 18 March, 1807, in the “Hampshire Gazette,” from which these particulars are derived, and which was favored with other contributions from the pen of “C. B.” The juvenile poems of William Cullen Bryant are as clever as those of Chatterton, Pope, and Cowley; but they are in no sense original, and it would have been strange if they had been. There was no original writing in America at the time they were written; and if there had been, it would hardly have commended itself to the old-fashioned taste of Dr. Bryant, to whom Pope was still a power in poetry. It was natural, therefore, that he should offer his boy to the strait-laced muses of Queen Anne's time; that the precocious boy should lisp in heroic couplets; and that he should endeavor to be satirical. Politics were running high in the first decade of the present century, and the favorite bugbear in New England was President Jefferson, who, in 1807, had laid an embargo on American shipping, in consequence of the decrees of Napoleon, and the British orders in council in relation thereto. This act was denounced, and by no one more warmly than by Master Bryant, who made it the subject of a satire: “The Embargo; or, Sketches of the Times” (Boston, 1808). The first edition was sold, and it is said to have been well received; but doubts were expressed as to whether the author was really a youth of thirteen. His friends came to his rescue in an “Advertisement,” prefixed to a second edition (1809), certifying to his age from their personal knowledge. They also certified to his extraordinary talents, though they preferred to have him judged by his works, without favor or affection, and concluded by saying that the printer was authorized to disclose their addresses.

The early poetical exercises of William Cullen Bryant, like those of all young poets, were colored by the books he read. Among these were the works of Pope, and, no doubt, the works of Cowper and Thomson. The latter, if they were in the library of Dr. Bryant, do not appear to have impressed his son at this time; nor, indeed, does any English poet except Pope, so far as we can judge from his contributions to the “Hampshire Gazette.” They were bookish and patriotic; one, written at Cummington, 8 January, 1810. being “The Genius of Columbia”; and another, “An Ode for the Fourth of July, 1812,” to the tune of “Ye Gentlemen of England.” These productions are undeniably clever, but they are not characteristic of their writer, nor of the nature that surrounded his birthplace, with which he was familiar, and of which he was a close observer.

He entered Williams College in his sixteenth year, and remained there one winter, distinguishing himself for aptness and industry in classical learning and polite literature. At the end of two years he withdrew, and began the study of law, first with Judge Howe, of Worthington, and afterward with William Baylies, of Bridgewater. So far he had written nothing but clever amateur verse; but now, in his eighteenth year, he wrote an imperishable poem. The circumstances under which it was composed have been variously related, but they agree in the main particulars, and are thus given in “The Bryant Homestead Book”: “It was here at Cummington, while wandering in the primeval forests, over the floor of which were scattered the gigantic trunks of fallen trees, mouldering for long years, and suggesting an indefinitely remote antiquity, and where silent rivulets crept along through the carpet of dead leaves, the spoil of thousands of summers, that the poem entitled ‘Thanatopsis’ was composed. The young poet had read the poems of Kirke White, which, edited by Southey, were published about that time, and a small volume of Southey's miscellaneous poems; and some lines of those authors had kindled his imagination, which, going forth over the face of the inhabitants of the globe, sought to bring under one broad and comprehensive view the destinies of the human race in the present life, and the perpetual rising and passing away of generation after generation who are nourished by the fruits of its soil, and find a resting-place in its bosom.” We should like to know what lines in Southey and Kirke White suggested “Thanatopsis,” that they might be printed in letters of gold hereafter.

When the young poet quitted Cummington to begin his law studies, he left the manuscript of this incomparable poem among his papers in the house of his father, who found it after his departure, “Here are some lines that our Cullen has been writing,” he said to a lady to whom he showed them. She read them, and, raising her eyes to the face of Dr. Bryant, burst into tears — a tribute to the genius of his son in which he was not ashamed to join. Blackstone bade his Muse a long adieu before he turned to wrangling courts and stubborn law; and our young lawyer intended to do the same (for poetry was starvation in America four-score years ago), but habit and nature were too strong for him. There is no difficulty in tracing the succession of his poems, and in a few instances the places where they were written, or with which they concerned themselves. “Thanatopsis,” for example, was followed by “The Yellow Violet,” which was followed by the “Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood,” and the song beginning “Soon as the glazed and gleaming snow.” The exquisite lines “To a Waterfowl” were written at Bridgewater, in his twentieth year, where he was still pursuing the study of law, which appears to have been distasteful to him. The concluding stanza sank deeply into a heart that needed its pious lesson:

The lawyer-poet had a long way before him, but he did not tread it alone; for, after being admitted to the bar in Plymouth, and practising for a time in Plainfield, near Cummington, he moved to Great Barrington, in Berkshire, where he saw the dwelling of the Genevieve of his chilly little “Song,” his Genevieve being Miss Frances Fairchild of that beautiful town, whom he married in his twenty-seventh year, and who was the light of his household for nearly half a century. It was to her, the reader may like to know, that he addressed the ideal poem beginning “O fairest of the rural maids” (circa 1825), “The Future Life” (1837), and “The Life that Is” (1858); and her memory and her loss are tenderly embalmed in one of the most touching of his later poems, “October, 1866.”

“Thanatopsis” was sent to the “North American Review” (whether by its author or his father is uncertain), and with such a modest, not to say enigmatical, note of introduction, that its authorship was left in doubt. The “Review” was managed by a club of young literary gentlemen, who styled themselves “The North American Club,” two of whose members, Richard Henry Dana and Edward Tyrrel Channing, were considered its editors. Mr. Dana read the poem carefully, and was so surprised at its excellence that he doubted whether it was the production of an American, an opinion in which his associates are understood to have concurred. While they were hesitating about its acceptance, he was told that the writer was a member of the Massachusetts Senate; and, the Senate being then in session, he started immediately from Cambridge for Boston. He reached the statehouse, and inquired for Senator Bryant. A tall, middle-aged man, with a business-like look, was pointed out to him. He was satisfied that he could not be the poet he sought, so he posted back to Cambridge without an introduction. The story ends here, and rather tamely; for the original narrator forgot, or perhaps never knew, that Dr. Bryant was a member of the Senate, and that it was among the possibilities that he was the senator with a similar name. American poetry may be said to have begun in 1817 with the September number of the “North American Review,” which contained “Thanatopsis” and the “Inscription for the Entrance of a Wood,” the last being printed as a “Fragment.” In March, 1818, the impression that “Thanatopsis” created was strengthened by the appearance of the lines “To a Waterfowl,” and the “Version of a Fragment of Simonides.”

Mr. Bryant's literary life may now be said to have begun, though he depended upon his profession for his daily bread. He continued his contributions to the “North American Review” in prose papers on literary topics, and maintained the most friendly relations with its conductors; notably so with Mr. Dana, who was seven years his elder, and who possessed, like himself, the accomplishment of verse. At the suggestion of this poetical and critical brother, he was invited to deliver a poem before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard College an honor which is offered only to those who have already made a reputation, and are likely to reflect credit on the society as well as on themselves. He accepted, and in 1821 wrote his first poem of any length, “The Ages,” which still remains the best poem of the kind that was ever recited before a college society either in this country or in England; grave, stately, thoughtful, presenting in animated picturesque stanzas a compact summary of the history of mankind. A young Englishman of twenty-one, Thomas Babington Macaulay, delivered in the same year a poem on “Evening,” before the students of Trinity College, Cambridge; and it is instructive to compare his conventional heroics with the spirited Spenserian stanzas of Bryant. The lines “To a Waterfowl,” written at Bridgewater in 1815, were followed by “Green River.” “A Winter Piece,” “The West Wind,” “The Burial-Place,” “Blessed are they that mourn,” “No man knoweth his Sepulchre,” “A Walk at Sunset,” and the “Hymn to Death.” These poems, which cover a period of six busy years, are interesting to the poetic student as examples of the different styles of their writer, and of the changing elements of his thoughts and feelings. “Green River,” for example, is a momentary revealment of his shy temperament and his daily pursuits. Its glimpses of nature are charming, and his wish to be beside its waters is the most natural one in the world. The young lawyer is not complimentary to his clients, whom he styles “the dregs of men,” while his pen, which does its best to serve them, becomes “a barbarous pen.” He is dejected, but a visit to the river will restore his spirits; for, as he gazes upon its lonely and lovely stream,

“A Winter Piece” is a gallery of woodland pictures, which surpasses anything of the kind in the language. “A Walk at Sunset” is notable in that it is the first poem in which we see (faintly, it must be confessed) the aboriginal element, which was soon to become prominent in Bryant's poetry. It was inseparable from the primeval forests of the New World, but he was the first to perceive its poetic value. The “Hymn to Death” — stately, majestic, consolatory — concludes with a touching tribute to the worth of his good father, who died while he was writing it, at the age of fifty-four. The year 1821 was important to Bryant, for it witnessed the publication of his first collection of verse, his marriage, and the death of his father.

The next four years of his life were more productive than any that had preceded them, for he wrote more than thirty poems during that time. The aboriginal element was creative in “The Indian Girl's Lament,” “An Indian Story,” “An Indian at the Burial-Place of his Fathers,” and, noblest of all, “Monument Mountain”; the Hellenic element predominated in “The Massacre at Scio” and “The Song of the Greek Amazon”; the Hebraic element touched him lightly in “Rizpah” and the “Song of the Stars”; and the pure poetic element was manifest in “March,” “The Rivulet” (which, by the way, ran through the grounds of the old homestead at Cummington), “After a Tempest,” “The Murdered Traveller,” “Hymn to the North Star,” “A Forest Hymn,” “Fairest of the Rural Maids,” and the exquisite and now most pathetic poem, “June.” These poems and others not specified here, if read continuously and in the order in which they were composed, show a wide range of sympathies, a perfect acquaintance with many measures, and a clear, capacious, ever-growing intellect. They are all distinctive of the genius of their author, but neither exhibits the full measure of his powers. The publication of Bryant's little volume of verse was indirectly the cause of his adopting literature as a profession. It was warmly commended, and by no one more so than by Gillian C. Verplanck in the columns of the New York “American.” He was something of a literary authority at the time, a man of fortune and college-bred. Among his friends was Henry D. Sedgwick, a summer neighbor, so to speak, of Bryant's, having a country-house at Stockbridge, a few miles from Great Barrington, and a house in town, which was frequented by the literati of the day, such as Cooper, Halleck, Percival, Verplanck, and others of less note. An admirer of Bryant, Mr. Sedgwick set to work, with the assistance of Mr. Verplanck, to procure him literary employment in New York in order to enable him to escape his bondage to the law; and he was appointed assistant editor of a projected periodical called the “New York Review and Athenæum Magazine.” The at last enfranchised lawyer dropped his barbarous pen, closed his law-books, and in the winter or spring of 1825 moved with his household to New York. The projected periodical was begun, as these sanguine ventures always are, with fair hopes of success. It was well edited, and its contributors were men of acknowledged ability. The June number contained two poems that ought to have made a great hit. One was “A Song of Pitcairn's Island”; the other was “Marco Bozzaris.” There was no flourish of trumpets over them, as there would be now; the writers merely prefixed their initials, “B.” and “H.” The reading public of New York were not ready for the “Review,” so after about a year's struggle it was merged in the “New York Literary Gazette,” which had begun its mission about four years earlier. This magazine shared the fate of its companion in a few months, when it was consolidated with the “United States Literary Gazette,” which in two months was swallowed up in the “United States Review.” The honor of publishing and finishing the last was shared by Boston and New York. Profit in these publications there was none, though Bryant, Halleck, Willis, Dana, Bancroft, and Longfellow wrote for them. Too good, or not good enough, they lived and died prematurely.

Mr. Bryant's success as a metropolitan man of letters was not brilliant so far; but other walks than those of pure literature were open to him as to others, and into one of the most bustling of these he entered in his thirty-second year. In other words, he became one of the editors of the “Evening Post.” Henceforth he was to live by journalism. Journalism, though an exacting pursuit, leaves its skilful followers a little leisure in which to cultivate literature. It was the heyday of those ephemeral trifles, “Annuals,” and Mr. Bryant found time to edit one. with the assistance of his friend Mr. Verplanck and his acquaintance Robert C. Sands; and a very creditable work it was. His contributions to “The Talisman” included some of his best poems. Poetry was the natural expression of his genius, a fact he could never understand, for it always seemed to him that prose was the natural expression of all mankind. His prose was masterly. Its earliest examples, outside of his critical papers in the “North American Review” and other periodicals (and outside of the “Evening Post,” of course), are two stories entitled “Medfield” and “The Skeleton's Cave,” contributed to “Tales of the Glauber Spa” (1832), a collection of original stories by Paulding, Verplanck, Sands, William Leggett. and Catharine Sedgwick. Three years before (1828) he had become the chief editor of the “Evening Post.” Associated with him was Mr. Leggett, who had shown some talent as a writer of sketches and stories, and who had failed, like himself, in conducting a critical publication for which his countrymen were not ready. He made a second collection of his poems at this time (1832), a copy of which was sent by Mr. Verplanck to Washington Irving, who was then, what he had been for years, the idol of English readers, and not without weight with the trade. Would he see if some English house would not reprint it? No leading publisher nibbled at it, not even Murray, who was Irving's publisher; but an obscure bookseller named Andrews finally agreed to undertake it if Irving would put his valuable name on the title-page as editor. He was not acquainted with Bryant, but he was a kind-hearted, large-souled gentleman, who knew good poetry when he saw it, and he consented to “edit” the book. It was not a success in the estimation of Andrews, who came to him one day, by no means a merry Andrew, and declared that the book would ruin him unless one or more changes were made in the text. What was amiss in it? He turned to the “Song of Marion's Men,” and stumbled over an obnoxious couplet in the first stanza:

“That won't do at all, you know.” The absurdity of the objection must have struck the humorist comically; but, as he wanted the volume republished, he good-naturedly saved the proverbial valor of the British soldier by changing the first line to

“The foeman trembles in his camp,”

and the tempest in a teapot was over, as far as England was concerned. Not as far as the United States was concerned, however, for when the circumstance became known to Mr. Leggett he excoriated Irving for his subserviency to a bloated aristocracy, and so forth. Professor Wilson reviewed the book in “Blackwood's” in a half-hearted way, patronizing the writer with his praise.

The poems that Bryant wrote during the first seven years of his residence in New York (about forty, not including translations) exhibited the qualities that distinguished his genius from the beginning, and were marked by characteristics rather acquired than inherited; in other words, they were somewhat different from those written at Great Barrington. The Hellenic element was still visible in “The Greek Partisan” and “The Greek Boy,” and the aboriginal element in “The Disinterred Warrior.” The large imagination of “The Hymn to the North Star” was radiant in “The Firmament” and in “The Past.” Ardent love of nature found expressive utterance in “Lines on Revisiting the Country,” “The Gladness of Nature,” “A Summer Ramble,” “A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson,” and “The Evening Wind.” The little book of immortal dirges had a fresh leaf added to it in “The Death of the Flowers,” which was at once a pastoral of autumn and a monody over a beloved sister. A new element appeared in “The Summer Wind,” and was always present afterward in Mr. Bryant's meditative poetry — the association of humanity with nature — a calm but sympathetic recognition of the ways of man and his presence on the earth. The power of suggestion and of rapid generalization, which was the key-note of “The Ages,” lived anew in every line of “The Prairies,” in which a series of poems present themselves to the imagination as a series of pictures in a gallery — pictures in which breadth and vigor of treatment and exquisite delicacy of detail are everywhere harmoniously blended and the unity of pure art is attained. It was worth going to the ends of the world to be able to write “The Prairies.”

Confiding in the discretion of his associate, Mr. Leggett, and anxious to escape from his daily editorial labors, Bryant sailed for Europe with his family in the summer of 1834. It was his intention to perfect his literary studies while abroad, and devote himself to the education of his children; but his intention was frustrated, after a short course of travel in France, Germany, and Italy, by the illness of Mr. Leggett, whose mistaken zeal in the advocacy of unpopular measures had seriously injured the “Evening Post.” He returned in haste early in 1836, and devoted his time and energies to restoring the prosperity of his paper. Nine years passed before he ventured to return to Europe, though he visited certain portions of his own country. His readers tracked his journeys through the letters that he wrote to the “Evening Post,” which were noticeable for justness of observation and clearness of expression. A selection from his foreign and home letters was published in 1852, under the title of “Letters of a Traveller.”

The last thirty years of Bryant's life were devoid of incident, though one of them (1865) was not without the supreme sorrow, death. He devoted himself to journalism as conscientiously as if he still had his spurs to win, discussing all public questions with independence and fearlessness; and from time to time, as the spirit moved him, he added to our treasures of song, contributing to the popular magazines of the period, and occasionally issuing these contributions in separate volumes. He published “The Fountain and Other Poems” in 1842; “The White-Footed Deer and Other Poems” in 1844; a collected edition of his poems, with illustrations by Leutze, in 1846; an edition in two volumes in 1855; “Thirty Poems” in 1864; and in 1876 a complete illustrated edition of his poetical writings. To the honors that these volumes brought him he added fresh laurels in 1870 and 1871 by his translation of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” — a translation which was highly praised both at home and abroad, and which, if not the best that the English language is capable of, is, in many respects, the best that any English-writing poet has yet produced.

There comes a day in the intellectual lives of most poets when their powers cease to be progressive and productive, or are productive only in the forms to which they have accustomed themselves, and which have become mannerisms. It was not with Mr. Bryant. He enjoyed the dangerous distinction of proving himself a great poet at an early age; he preserved this distinction to the last, for the sixty-four years that elapsed between the writing of “Thanatopsis” and the writing of “The Flood of Years” witnessed no decay of his poetic capacities, but rather the growth and development of trains of thought and forms of verse of which there was no evidence in his early writings. His sympathies were enlarged as the years went on, and the crystal clearness of his mind was colored with human emotions. To Bryant the earth was a theatre upon which the great drama of life was everlastingly played. The remembrance of this fact is his inspiration in “The Fountain,” “An Evening Revery,” “The Antiquity of Freedom,” “The Crowded Street,” “The Planting of the Apple-Tree,” “The Night Journey of a River,” “The Sower,” and “The Flood of Years.” The most poetical of Mr. Bryant's poems are, perhaps, “The Land of Dreams,” “The Burial of Love,” “The May Sun sheds an Amber Light,” and “The Voice of Autumn”; and they were written in a succession of happy hours, and in the order named. Next to these pieces, as examples of pure poetry, should be placed “Sella” and “The Little People of the Snow,” which are exquisite fairy fantasies. The qualities by which Bryant's poetry are chiefly distinguished are serenity and gravity of thought; an intense, though repressed, recognition of the mortality of mankind; an ardent love for human freedom; and unrivalled skill in painting the scenery of his native land. He had no superior in this walk of poetic art — it might almost be said no equal, for his descriptions of nature are never inaccurate or redundant. “The Excursion” is a tiresome poem, which contains several exquisite episodes. Bryant knew how to write exquisite episodes and omit the platitudes through which we reach them in other poets.

It is not given to many poets to possess as many residences as Bryant, for he had three — a town-house in New York, a country-house, called “Cedarmere,” at Roslyn, Long Island, and the old homestead of the family at Cummington, Massachusetts The engraving on page 424 represents the house in Cummington; that on this page is a view of his home in Roslyn. He passed the winter months in New York, and the summer and early autumn at his country-houses. No distinguished man in America was better known by sight than he.

“O good gray head that all men knew”

rose unbidden to one's lips as he passed his fellow-pedestrians in the streets of the great city, active, alert, with a springing step and a buoyant gait. He was seen in all weathers, walking down to his office in the morning, and back to his house in the afternoon — an observant antiquity, with a majestic white beard, a pair of sharp eyes, and a face that, when observed closely, recalled the line of the poet:

“A million wrinkles carved his skin.”

Bryant had a peculiar talent, in which the French excel — the talent of delivering discourses upon the lives and writings of eminent men; and he was always in request after the death of his contemporaries. Beginning with a eulogy on his friend Cole, the painter, who died in 1848, he paid his well-considered tributes to the memory of Cooper, Irving, Fitz-Greene Halleck, and Verplanck, and assisted at the dedication in the Central park of the Morse, Shakespeare, Scott, and Halleck statues. His addresses on these and other occasions were models of justice of appreciation and felicity of expression. His last public appearance was at the Central park, on the afternoon of 29 May, 1878, at the unveiling of a bust of Mazzini. It was an unusually hot day, and after delivering his address, which was remarkable for its eloquence, he accompanied General Jas. Grant Wilson, a friend of many years' standing, to his residence, No. 15 East Seventy-fourth street. General Wilson reached his door with Mr. Bryant leaning on his arm; he took a step in advance to open the inner door, and while his back was turned the poet fell, his head striking on the stone platform of the front steps. It was his death-blow; for, though he recovered his consciousness sufficiently to converse a little, and was able to ride to his own house with General Wilson, his fate was sealed. He lingered until the morning of 12 June, when his spirit passed out into the unknown. Two days later all that was mortal of him was buried at Roslyn, Long Island, beside his wife, who died 27 July, 1865.

Since the poet's death the name of one of the city pleasure-grounds has been changed (in 1884) to Bryant park, where there will be soon unveiled a noble bronze statue of the poet, to be erected by his many friends and admirers. In the Metropolitan museum of art may be seen a beautiful silver vase, presented to Bryant in 1876, and an admirable bronze bust of heroic size, executed from life by Launt Thompson. Among the many portraits of Bryant, painted by prominent American artists, the poet preferred Inman's and Durand's; but these were supplanted in his estimation by photographs of later days, from one of which was taken the fine steel portrait that accompanies this article. A complete edition of his poetical and prose works (4 vols., 8vo) was published in 1883-'4. See “Homes of American Authors” (New York, 1853); “The Bryant Homestead Book” (1870); “Presentation to Bryant at Eighty Years” (1876); “Bryant Memorial Meeting of the Goethe Club” (1878); Symington's “Biographical Sketch of Bryant” (1880); Godwin's “Life of Bryant” (1883); Wilson's “Bryant and his Friends” (1886, two editions, one on large paper and illustrated). A new life of Bryant, by John Bigelow, was issued three years later. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. pp. 422-427

BRYANT, John Howard, born in Cummington, Massachusetts, 22 July, 1807. He studied at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, but was never graduated. He moved to Illinois in 1831, became justice of the peace for Putnam County in 1834, and in 1837 was elected first recorder of deeds for the newly organized Bureau County He was twice a member of the legislature, frequently served on the board of supervisors, and was for fifteen years a member of the board of education, and most of the time its chairman. President Lincoln made him collector of internal revenue in 1862, and he held the office till 1864. Until his sixtieth year Mr. Bryant took charge of the farm on which he has always lived, laboring on it with his own hands for the greater part of the time. He is the author of “Poems,” a small volume (New York, 1855); “Poems written from Youth to Old Age; 1824-1884” (printed privately, Princeton, Illinois, 1885); and several addresses.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 426.



BUCHANAN, Franklin, naval officer, born in Baltimore, Mil., 17 September. 1800; died in Talbot County. Mil., 11 May, 1874. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman. 28 January. 1815, served some years at sea. and before reaching the age of twenty-one served as acting-lieutenant on a cruise to India. He became lieutenant, 13 January. 1825, and in July, 1820, commanded the frigate “Baltimore," built for the emperor of Brazil, on her voyage to Rio Janeiro. On his return he sailed in the Pacific, part of the time being attached to the " Peacock." On 8 September, 1841, he was promoted to master-commandant, having charge of the "Mississippi," and afterward of the "Vincennes." In 1845 he was selected by the Secretary of the Navy to organize the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. The same year he opened the school as its first superintendent, but in 1847 left the place for the command of the " Germantown," in which he took part in the Mexican War, participating in the capture of Vera Cruz. In 1852 he commanded the "Susquehanna," flagship of Commodore Perry's Japan Expedition, which opened China and Japan to the commerce of the world, and on 14 September, 1855, was made captain. He was made commandant of the Washington Navy-yard in 1859, but on 22 April, 1861, after the attack on the Massachusetts troops in Baltimore, resigned his commission. Finding that his slate did not secede, he wrote to Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, withdrawing his resignation, and asking to be restored, but his request was refused. He entered the Confederate Navy in September, 1861, with the rank of captain, superintended the fitting out of the " Merrimac," and commanded her in the attack on the federal fleet in Hampton Roads, when the "Cumberland " was sunk and the "Congress" blown up. He was so severely wounded in this action that he could not take command of his vessel in her subsequent combat with the " Monitor." For his gallantry at this time he was thanked by the Confederate Congress, and promoted to full admiral and senior officer of the Confederate Navy. He was in command when General Wool occupied Norfolk, Virginia, and blew up his ship to save her from capture. Subsequently he was placed in command of the naval defences "of Mobile, and there superintended the construction of the iron-clad ram "Tennessee," which he commanded during the action with the union fleet in Mobile Bay, 5 August. 1864. He was again wounded and taken prisoner of war, but was exchanged in February following. After the war he was for a time president of the Maryland Agricultural College, and afterward was for a few months an agent for a St. Louis life insurance Company. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 428



BUCHANAN, James, fifteenth president of the United States, born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, 23 April, 1791; died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1 June. 1868. The days of his youth were those of the nation's youth; his public career of forty years saw all our great extensions of boundary of the  south and west, acquired from foreign powers, the admission of thirteen new states, the development of many important questions of internal and foreign policy, and the gradual rise and final culmination of a great and disastrous insurrection. He was educated at a school in Mercersburg and at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, when he was graduated in 1809. He began to practise law in Lancaster in 1812. His early political principles were those of the federalists, who disapproved of the war; yet, as he himself said, "he thought it was the duty of every patriot to defend the country, while the war was raging, against a foreign enemy." His first public address was made at the age of twenty-three, on the occasion of a popular meeting in Lancaster after the capture of Washington by the British in 1814. He urged the enlistment of volunteers for the defence of Baltimore, and was among the first to enroll his name. In October of the same year he was elected to the House of Representatives in the legislature of Pennsylvania for Lancaster county. Peace was pro-claimed early in 1815, and on 4 July Mr. Buchanan delivered an oration before the Washington association of Lancaster. In it he spoke of the war as "glorious, in the highest degree, to the American character, but disgraceful in the extreme to the administration." The speech excited much criticism, and in later life he said that "it contained many sentiments which he regretted, but that at the same time it could not be denied that the country was wholly unprepared for war at the period of its declaration, and the attempt to carry it on by means of loans, without any resort to taxation, had well nigh made the government bankrupt." He was again elected to the legislature in October, 1815, and at the close of that session he retired to the practice of his profession, in which he gained early distinction, especially in the impeachment of a judge, whom he successfully defended. His intention at this time was not to re-enter public life, but the death of a young lady to whom he was engaged caused him to seek change and distraction of thought, and he accepted a nomination to Congress, and was elected in 1820 for a district composed of the counties of Lancaster, York, and Dauphin, taking his seat in December, 1821. He was called a Federalist, but the party distinctions of that time were not very clearly defined, and Mr. Buchanan's political principles, as a national statesman, were vet to be formed. Mr. Monroe had become president in 1817, and held that office during two terms, his administration being called "the era of good feeling." The excitement and animosities of the war of 1812 had subsided, and when Mr. Buchanan entered Congress there was no sectionalism to disturb the repose of the country. Questions of internal policy soon arose, however, and he took an able part in many important debates. Mr. Monroe's veto of a bill imposing tolls for the support of the Cumberland road for which Mr. Buchanan had voted, produced a strong effect upon the latter's constitution. . It was the first time that his mind had been brought sharply to the consideration in the question in what mode "internal improvements " can be effected by the general government, a fives ten ough knowledge and very accurate views of the nature of our mixed system of government, was a minority report, presented by him as chairman of this committee, against a proposition to repeal the 25th section of the Judiciary Act of 1789 which gave the supreme court appellate jurisdiction, by writ of error to the state courts, in cases where the constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States line between the f iw!fan to Perceive the dividing tion, and that very much guard 1 n! Buchanan remain     state Powers- Mr- live in the calm of despotism, though the Emperor fives ten . In the House of Representatives Nicholas [I.] is one of the best of despots. Coming abroad can teach an American no other lesson but to love his country, its institutions, and its laws better, much better than he did before. I have not yet learned to submit patiently to the drudgery of etiquette. Foreign ministers must drive a carriage and four with a postilion." He left St. Petersburg on 8 August, 1833, spent a short time in Paris and London, and reached home in November. The next year was spent in private occupations in Lancaster, except that he was one of the commissioners appointed by Pennsylvania to arrange with commissioners from New Jersey concerning the use of the waters of Delaware River. On 6 Dec, 1834, are drawn in question. This report caused the rejection of the bill by a vote of 138 to 51. During Mr. Adams's term the friends of the administration began to take the name of national Republicans, while the opposing party assumed the name of Democrats, Mr. Buchanan was one of the leaders of the opposition in the House of Representatives. He was always a strong supporter and warm personal friend of General Jackson. At the close of the 21st Congress in March, 1831, it was Mr. Buchanan's wish to retire from public life, but, at the request of General Jackson (who had become president in 1829), he accepted the mission to Russia. He embarked from New York in a sailing-vessel on 8 April, 1832, and arrived at St. Petersburg about the middle of June. The chief objects of his mission were the negotiation of a commercial treaty that should pro- mote an increase of the commerce between Russia and the United States by regulating the duties to be levied on the merchandise of each country by the other so far as to prevent undue discrimination in favor of the products of other countries; to provide for the residence and functions of consuls, etc.; and also the negotiation of a treaty respecting the maritime rights of neutral nations on the principle that "free ships make free goods." The Russian minister for foreign affairs at this time was Count Nesselrode. He favored the treaty of commerce, and, though there was much opposition to it from some members of the Russian ministry, it was finally concluded on 18 Dec, 1832. The negotiation concerning a treaty on maritime rights was not successful, because, as Mr. Buchanan wrote, "Russia is endeavoring to manage England at present, and this is an unpropitious moment to urge her to adopt principles of public law which would give offence to that nation, and which would in any way abridge her own belligerent rights." His attractive manners and evident sincerity of character produced their effect on the Russians, especially the emperor and empress; and he wrote home: " I flatter myself that a favorable change has been effected in his [the emperor's] feelings toward the United States since my arrival": and at his audience of leave the emperor told him to tell General Jackson to send him another minister exactly like himself. He wrote to President Jackson: "Your foreign policy has had no small influence on public opinion through- out Europe." Of Russia and the emperor Mr. Buchanan wrote: "There is no freedom of the press, no public opinion, and but little political eonversa- w*w ten years—during Mr. Monroe's second term, through the administration of John Quincy Adams, and during the first two years of Jackson's administration. In December,'1829. he became chairman °l the judiciary committee of the house, and as such introduced a bill to amend and extend the judicial system of the United States, by including in the circuit-court system six new states, and by increasing the number of judges of the Supreme Court to nine. His speech in explanation of this measure—which was not adopted at the time— as  important as any that has been made upon 'he subject. Another measure, evincing a thor- the legislature of Pennsylvania elected him to the U. S. Senate to succeed Mr. Wilkins, who had been appointed minister to Russia. This office was acknowledged by Mr. Buchanan afterward to be "the only public station he desired to occupy." He took his seat December 15. He held very strongly the doc- trine of instruction, that is, the right of a state legislature to direct the vote of a senator of the state in Congress, and the duty of the senator to obey. There has never been a period in the history of the Senate when more real power of debate was dis- played, or when public measures were more thoroughly considered, than at this time. President Jackson's celebrated proclamation against nullification, and his removal of the public deposits from the bank of the United States into certain selected state banks, had been made during Mr. Buchanan's residence abroad. Jackson enjoyed great popularity and influence throughout the country, but a large majority of the Senate were opposed to his financial measures. This opposing party, the old "national Republicans" of John Quincy Adams's administration, were now called Whigs, and included Mr. Clay, Mr. "Webster, Mr. Clayton, of Delaware, Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, and Mr. Frelinghuysen and Mr. Southard, of New Jersey. Among the Jackson men, or Democrats, were Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Wright, of New York, Mr. Ben- ton, of Missouri, and Mr. King, of Alabama. Mr. Calhoun stood apart from both the political parties, a great and powerful debater who had been Vice-President, and who was now senator from the " nullifying" state of South Carolina. One of the first debates in which Mr. Buchanan took part in the Senate (and one that has not yet lost its interest) was upon a bill requiring the president, when making a nomination to fill a vacancy occasioned by the removal of any officer, to state the fact of such removal and to render reasons for it. Mr. Buchanan opposed it He contended that the constitution only made the consent of the Senate necessary in the appointment of officers by the executive, not in their removal; that, if such consent were required, long and dangerous delays might occur when the Senate was not in session; and that, if the president must assign reasons for removals, these reasons must be investigated, much time would be consumed, and the legislative branch of the government would thus exercise distinctions to which it has no claim. Another great discussion into which Mr. Buchanan entered related to the refusal of the legislative chambers of France to pay a certain sum that had been promised in 1881 by a convention between the United States and the government of King Louis Philippe for the liquidation of certain claims of American citizens against Franco. The United States waited three years in vain for the payment of this money; and" finally, in January, 1836, the president recommended to Congress a partial non-intercourse with France. Mr. Buchanan made a long and earnest speech, contending against Webster and Clay, in support of this measure, insisting that "there' is a point in the intercourse between nations at which diplomacy must end and a nation must either consent to abandon her rights or assert them by force." There was some danger for a time of war with France, but eventually Great Britain made an offer of mediation and the difficulty was amicably adjusted. In January, 18117, Mr. Buchanan delivered a speech that maybe regarded as his ablest effort ill the Senate. Dunging" resolution, which proposed to cancel in   the Senate Mr. Clay's resolution of censure against President Jackson for his removal It was in support of Colonel Benton's "e solution, which of the public deposits from the bank of the United States. In this argument Mr. Buchanan separated, in a remarkable degree, that which was personal and partisan in the controversy from the serious questions involved. He contended that the censure passed by the Senate in 1834 upon the president was unjust, because he had violated no law; and that the Senate, in recording such a mere censure, adopted in its legislative capacity, rendered itself incompetent to perform its' high judicial function of impeachment He concluded with a very ingenious and elaborate criticism of the word "expunge." The "expunging" resolution was adopted by a party vote. Toward the end of Jackson s administration the subject of slavery began to be pressed upon the attention of Congress by petitions for its abolition in the District of Columbia. One memorial on this subject was presented by Mr. Buchanan himself from some Quakers in his own state. Mr. Calhoun and others objected to the reception of these petitions. Mr. Buchanan, though he disapproved of slavery, yet contended that Congress had no power under the constitution to interfere with slavery within those states where it existed, and that it would be very unwise to abolish it in the District of Columbia—" a district carved out of two slave-holding states and surrounded by them on all sides "; but, nevertheless, he also contended, in a long and forcible speech, for the people's right of petition and the duty of Congress, save under exceptional circumstance's, to receive their petitions. In June, 1836, Mr. Buchanan argued, against Mr. Webster, for a bill, introduced in conformity with a special recommendation from President Jackson, prohibiting the circulation through the mails of incendiary publications on the subject of slavery. In a very sarcastic speech against a bill to prevent the interference of certain federal officers with elections, even in conversation, Mr. Buchanan thus expressed his political faith: "I support the president because he is in favor of a strict and limited construction of the constitution, according to the true spirit of the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. I firmly believe that if this government is to remain powerful and permanent it can only he by never assuming doubtful powers which must necessarily bring it into collision with the states. I oppose the Whig Party, because, according to their reading of the constitution, Congress possesses, and they think ought to exercise, powers which would endanger the rights of the states and the liberties of the people. The most important and far- reaching of President Jackson's executive measures was his veto in 1832 of a bill for renewing the charter of the bank of the United States. Jack- son moved the national deposits into certain stale banks, which produced financial distress throughout the land. Mr. Buchanan was conspicuous »» Senate as a supporter of Jackson's financial. policy throughout his administration and that of his successor, Mr. Van Buren. of the same party. Mr. Buchanan had been reelected to the Senate m January, 1837, by a very large vote and for a full term, us first election having been to a vacancy, and he was the first person that had ever received a second election from the legislature of Pennsylvania. In H*» Mr. Van Buren offered Mr. Buchanan the a''0™';" generalship, which Mr. Orundv had resigned. » Buchanan answered that he "preferred hus|»»™ as a senator from Pennsylvania: that notniiH. could induce him to waive this preference exee|' sense of public duty, and that he felt that he cm render a more efficient support to the P«nl'lP''' of the administration "on the floor of the WM» than he could in an executive office. Lac     commercial distress of the country produced, in the elections of 1840, a political revolution, and on 4 March, 1841, the Whigs came into power under President Harrison. His death in April placed in the executive chair Mr. Tyler, who proved to be opposed to a national bank, and vetoed two bills: the first for a national bank, and the second for a "Fiscal Corporation of the United States." Mr. Clay made frequent attacks upon Mr. Tyler's vetoes, and even proposed a joint resolution for an amendment of the constitution requiring but a bare majority, instead of two thirds, of each house of Congress to pass a bill over the president's objections. Mr. Buchanan, on 2 February, 1842, replied to Mr. Clay in a speech that may be ranked very high as an ex- position of one of the most important parts of our political system. He showed that the president's veto was the people's safeguard, through the officer who "more nearly represents a majority of the whole people than any other branch of the government," against the encroachments of the Senate. The veto power "owes its existence," said he, "to a revolt of the people of Rome against the tyrannical decrees of the Roman Senate. The president of the United States, elected by his fellow- citizens to the highest official trust in the country, is directly responsible to them for the manner in which he shall discharge his duties; and he will not array himself, by the exercise of the veto power, against a majority in both houses of Congress, un- less in extreme cases, where, from strong convictions of public duty, he may be willing to draw down upon himself their hostility." Mr. Buchanan was one of those that opposed the ratification of the treaty with England negotiated by Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton in 1842. In 1843 he was elected to the Senate for a third term, and in 1844 his name was brought forward as the Democratic candidate of Pennsylvania for the presidential nomination; but before the national convention met he withdrew in order that the whole strength of the party might be concentrated upon one candidate. James K. Polk was elected; he asked Mr. Buchanan to become his secretary of state, and the invitation was accepted. In this responsible position Mr. Buchanan had two very important questions to deal with, and they required the exercise of all his political tact and indefatigable industry. One was the settlement of the boundary between the territory of Oregon and the British possessions. (See Polk, James Knox.) The other was the annexation of Texas, which resulted in the Mexican War. Texas had been for nine years independent of Mexico, and now sought admission into our union. The difficulties that attended this question were, on the one hand, the danger of increasing the excitement, already considerable, against slavery (for Texas would be a slave-holding state); and, on the other, the danger of interference on the part of England if Texas should remain in- dependent and resume her war with Mexico. The adoption by Texas of the basis of annexation proposed by the United States was followed by the refusal of the Mexican Government to receive Mr. Nidell, sent by Mr. Polk as envoy extraordinary, with the object of avoiding a war and to settle all      between the two countries, including the western boundary of Texas. The result of the war was the cession to the United States of California and New Mexico and the final settlement o, the Texan bound The IK)lj of Mr i oik s administration toward the states of Central America and on the subject of the Monroe doctrine was shaped by Mr. Buchanan very differently from    at adopted by the succeeding administration of General Taylor, whose secretary of state was Mr. Clayton, the American negotiator of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty with Great Britain. Acting under Mr. Buchanan's advice. President Polk, in his first annual message, in December, 1845, reasserted the Monroe doctrine that no European nation should henceforth be allowed by the United States to plant any colony on the American continent or to interfere in any way in American affairs. This declaration was intended to frustrate the attempts of England to obtain a footing in the then Mexican province of California by an extensive system of colonization. England's aims were defeated for the time. Two years afterward, when the Mexican War was drawing to a close, Mr. Buchanan turned the attention of President Polk to the encroachments of the British government in Central America, under the operation of a protectorate over the kingdom of the Mosquito Indians. Great disturbances followed in Yucatan, and the Indians began a war of extermination against the whites. If not actually incited by the British authorities, the savages were known to be supplied with British muskets. The whites were reduced to such extremities that the authorities of Yucatan offered to transfer the dominion and sovereignty of the peninsula to the United States, as a consideration for defending it against the Indians, at the same time giving notice that if this offer should be declined they would make the same proposition to England and Spain. The president recommended to Congress the appeal of Yucatan, but declined to recommend the adoption of any measure with a view to acquire the dominion and sovereignty over the peninsula. In April, 1848, the United States appointed a charge d'affaires to Guatemala, and Mr. Buchanan instructed him to " promote, by his counsel and advice, should suitable occasions offer, the reunion of the states that formed the federation of Central America; to cultivate the most friendly relations with Guatemala and the other states of Central America; and to communicate to the state department all the information obtainable concerning the British encroachments upon the Mosquito kingdom." The new charge was prevented from reaching Guatemala until late in Mr. Polk's administration, and the plan wisely conceived by Mr. Buchanan was not carried out. In the meantime the British government seized upon the port of San Juan de Nicaragua, the only good harbor along the coast. Instead of carrying out the policy of President Polk and Mr. Buchanan, the administration of President Taylor, without consulting the states of Central America, entered in 1850 into the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, the ambiguous language of which soon gave rise to such complications and misunderstandings between England and the United States that Mr. Buchanan was obliged to go, subsequently, as minister to London, to endeavor to unravel them. In- stead of a simple provision requiring Great Britain absolutely to recede from the Mosquito protectorate, and to restore to Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica their respective territories, the treaty declared that neither of the parties should " make use of any protection which either affords or may afford, or any alliance which either has or may have, to or with any state or people, for the purpose of erecting or maintaining any fortifications, or of occupying, fortifying, or colonizing any part of Central America, or of assuming or exercising any dominion over the same." It soon became the British construction of this clause that it recognized the existence of the Mosquito protectorate for all purposes other than those expressly prohibited; and down to the time when Mr. Buchanan was sent by President Pierce as minister to England this claim was still maintained. On the accession of the Whig Party to power under Taylor, in March, 1849, Mr. Buchanan re- tired for a time from official life. His home, from the age of eighteen, had been the city of Lancaster, where he owned a house. In the autumn of 1848 he purchased a small estate of twenty-two acres, known as Wheatland, about a mile from the town. The house was a substantial brick mansion, and, on Mr. Buchanan's retirement from the cabinet, this became his permanent abode when he was not occupying an official residence in London or in Washington. Mr. Buchanan never married. The death of the lady whom he had intended to marry was a deep and lasting sorrow. The loss of his sister, Mrs. Lane, in 1839, and of her husband two years later, gave him the care of their four children; and the youngest of these, afterward widely known as Miss Harriet Lane, became an inmate of his household. James Buchanan Henry, the son of another sister, who died about the same time, was also taken into his family; and these two cousins were brought up by their uncle with the most wise and affectionate care. Mr. Buchanan's letters to his niece, begun when she was a school-girl, and, after Miss Lane had grown up, written almost daily during her absences from him, give a charming picture of his private life. During the few years of Mr. Buchanan's unofficial life, passed chiefly speech made at Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, in October, 1852, in opposition to the election of General Scott, the Whig candidate.  This speech exhibited in a very clear light the whole political history of that period, and asserted a principle which he said ought to be an article of Democratic faith: “Beware of elevating to the highest civil trust the commander of your victorious armies,” drawing a distinction between one “who had been a man of war, and nothing but a man of war from his youth upward,” and such as had been “soldiers only in the day and hour of danger, when the country had demanded their services, and who had already illustrated high civil appointments”; and then criticising exhaustively each of General Scott's avowed political opinions, and quoting Mr. Thurlow Weed, “one of General Scott's most able supporters,” as acknowledging that “there was weakness in all Scott said or did about the presidency.” When in 1853 Franklin Pierce, became president, he appointed Mr. Buchanan minister to England. Buchanan, though social in his nature, was a man of simple republican tastes, and the formality and etiquette of life at a foreign court, never agreeable, now, at the age of sixty-two, appeared to him particularly distasteful; besides, he considered that his duty to his young relatives as well as to his only surviving brother, a clergyman in delicate health, required his presence at home. But with Mr. Buchanan duty to his country always outweighed every other consideration, and Mr. Pierce's urgent appeal to him to accept what was at that time a very important mission, at length  Mr. Buchanan sailed for England from New York on 5 August 1853, the second was the desire of England to establish reciprocal free trade in certain enumerated articles between the United States and the British North American provinces, and thus preserve their alle- at Wheatland, he does not appear to have devoted much time to the law. His correspondence was large; and this, with a constant and lively interest in public affairs, rendered him, even in retirement, very busy. He lent considerable influence to his party as a private individual; but his exertions were not marked by purely partisan feeling. He strenuously opposed the Wilmot proviso, which aimed at excluding slavery from all newly acquired territory; and favored Mr. Clay’s “Compromise Measures of 1850,” which provided for the admission of California as a free state, and the abolition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia; but, by the fugitive slave law, secured the return to their owners of slaves that had escaped into free states. He wrote many influential public letters, in one of which he declared that “two things are necessary to preserve the union from danger: 1. Agitation in the north on the subject of southern slavery must and landed in Liverpool on the 17th. There were three £ questions to be settled with England at this time: the first related to the fisheries; giance and ward off the danger of their annexation to the United States; and this Mr. Buchanan was very desirous to use as a powerful lever to secure the third point, which the United States earnestly desired, viz., the withdrawal of all British dominion in Central America, and the recognition of the Mon- roe doctrine, which the Clayton-Bulwer treaty had not firmly established. President Pierce considered it best that the 'W'. and fishery questions should be settled at Washington; but Mr. Buchanan was intrusted with the negotiation of the Central American question in London. Mr. Buchanan's main object was to develop and ascertain the precise differences between the two governments in regard to the construction of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, but the Crimean War so long delayed the negotiations with this country that nothing could be accomplished while he remained in England. As the war approached, and when it was finally declared, the principles of neutrality, privateering, and many other topics came within the range of the discussion; and it was very much in consequence of the views expressed by Mr. Buchanan to Lord Clarendon, and by the latter communicated to the British cabinet, that the course of England toward be rebuked and put down by a strong and enlight- neutrals during that war became what it was ended public opinion: 2. The fugitive slave law must When Lord Clarendon, in 1854, presented to Mr. be enforced in its spirit.” In the presidential election Buchanan a £ for a treaty between Great Briton of 1852 Mr. Buchanan was a candidate for the ain, France, and the United States, making it pira- Democratic nomination; but General Franklin Pierce cy for neutrals to serve on board of privateers cruis- received the nomination and was elected. The most ing against the commerce of either of the three important service rendered by Mr. Buchanan to his nations when such nation was a belligerent, the party in this election—and with him a service to his very impressive reasons that Mr. Buchanan opposed party was alike a service to his country—was a to it caused it to be abandoned. An American
minister at the English Court, at periods of exciting and critical questions between the two nations, is very likely to experience a considerable variation in the social barometer. But the strength of Mr. Buchanan's character, and the agreeable personal qualities which were in him united with the gravity of years and an experience of a very uncommon kind, overcame at all times any tendency to social unpleasantness that might have been caused by national feelings excited by temporary causes. Throughout his residence in England Mr. Buchanan was treated with marked attention, not only by society in general, but by the queen and the prince consort. Miss Lane joined him in the spring of 1854, and remained with him until the autumn of 1855. Mr. Buchanan arrived in New York in April, 1856, and there met with a public reception from the authorities and people of the city, that evinced the interest that now began to be everywhere manifested in him as the probable future president. Prior to the meeting of the national Democratic Convention at Cincinnati in June, 1856, there was lack of organization on the part of Mr. Buchanan’s political friends; and Mr. Buchanan himself, '. willing to accept the nomination, made no efforts to secure it, and did not believe that he would receive it. The rival claimants were President Pierce and Senator Douglas, of Illinois. Chiefly through the efforts of Mr. Slidell, Mr. Buchanan was nominated. By this time the Whig £ had disappeared, the old y lines were obliterated, and the main political issue had come to be the question of slavery or no slavery in the territories. The £ party now called them-selves Republicans, and their candidate was General Fremont. The result of the election shows, with t distinctness, the following facts: 1. That Mr. Buchanan was chosen president because he received the electoral votes of the five free states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois, and California (sixty-two in all), and that without them he could not have been elected. 2. That his southern vote (that of every slave-holding state excepting Maryland) was partly given to him because of his conservative opinions and position, and partly because the candidate for the vice-presidency, Mr. Breckinridge, was a southern man. 3. That General Fremont received the electoral vote of no southern state, and that this was due partly to the character of the Republican Party, and partly to the fact that the Republican candidate for the vice-presidency, Mr. Dayton, of New Jersey, was a citizen of a non-slaveholding state. General Fremont himself was nominally a citizen of California. This election, therefore, foreshadowed the sectional division that would be almost certain to happen in the next one if the four years of Mr. Buchanan's administration should not witness a subsidence in the sectional feelings between the north and the south. It would only be necessary for the Republicans to wrest from the Democratic Party the five free states that had voted for Mr. £ and they would elect the president in 1860. Whether this was to happen would depend upon the ''    of the Democratic Party to avoid a rupture into factions that would themselves be representatives of irreconcilable dogmas on the sub- # of slavery in the territories. Hence it is that Mr. Buchanan's course as president, for the first three years of his term, is to be judged with reference to the responsibility that was upon him so to conduct the government as to disarm, if possible, the antagonism of section to section. His administration of affairs after the election of Mr. Lincoln is to be judged simply by his duty as the executive in the most extraordinary and anomalous crisis in which the country had ever been placed. Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated on 4 March, 1857. The cabinet, which was confirmed by the Senate on 6 March, consisted of Lewis Cass, of Michigan, secretary of state; Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury: John B. Floyd, of Virginia, Secretary of War; Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy; Aaron V. Brown, of Tennessee, Postmaster-General; Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior; and Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, Attorney-General. The internal affairs of the country during Buchanan's administration occupied so much of the public attention at the time, and have since been a subject of so much interest, that his management of our foreign relations has been quite obscured. The wisdom displayed in this branch of his duties was such as might have been expected from one who had had his previous experience in the state department and in important diplomatic posts. His only equals in the executive office in this respect have been Mr. Jefferson and Mr. John Quincy Adams. During an administration fraught with the most serious hazards to the internal relations of the states with each other, he kept steady in view the preservation of peace and good will between the United States and Great Britain, while he abated nothing from our just claims or our national dignity. He left to his successor no unsettled question between these two nations that was of any immediate importance, and he also left the feeling between them and their respective governments in a far better condition than he found it on his accession to the presidency. The long-standing and dangerous question of British dominion in Central America, in the hope of settling which Mr. Buchanan had accepted the mission to England, was still pending, but it was at length amicably and honorably settled, under his advice and approbation after he became president, by treaties be- tween Great Britain and the two Central American states, in accordance with the American construction of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. Another subject of contention that had long existed between the two countries was removed by President Buchanan in a summary and dignified way. The belligerent right of search had been exercised by Great Britain in the maritime war of 1812. In process of time she undertook to assert a right to detain and search, on the '' seas, in time of ace, merchantmen suspected of being engaged in the slave-trade. In 1858 she despatched some cruisers with such orders to the coast of Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico. President Buchanan, always vigilant in        the commerce of the country, but mindful of the importance of preventing any necessity for war, remonstrated to |' English Government against this violation of the freedom of the seas. Then he sent a large naval force to the neighborhood of Cuba with instructions “to protect all vessels of the United States on the high seas from search or detention by the vessels of war of any other nation.” The effect was most salutary. The British government receded, abandoned the claim of the right of search, and recognized the '' of international law in favor of the freedom of the seas. During the whole of Mr. Buchanan’s administration our relations with Mexico were in a complicated and critical position, in consequence of the internal condition of that country and of the danger of interference by European powers. Great outrages were committed in Mexico upon our citizens and their property, and their claims against that government exceeded $10,000,000. Mr. Buchanan recommended to Congress to send assistance to the constitutional government in Mexico, which had been forcibly superseded by military rule, but which still held the allegiance of the majority of the people, and to enforce redress for the wrongs of our citizens. He saw very clearly that, unless active measures should be taken by the government of the United States to reach a power with which a settlement of all claims and difficulties could be effected, some other nation would undertake to establish a government in Mexico, and the United States would then have to interfere, not only to secure the rights of their citizens, but to assert the principle of the Monroe doctrine. He also instructed the Mexican minister, Mr. McLane, to make a " Treaty of Transit and Commerce" and a "convention to enforce treaty stipulations, and to maintain order and security in the territory of the republics of Mexico and the United States." But Congress took no notice of the president's recommendation, and refused to ratify the treaty and the convention. Mexico was left to the interference of Louis Napoleon; the establishment of an empire, under Maximilian, followed, for the embarrassment of President Lincoln's administration while we were in the throes of our Civil War, and the claims of American citizens were to all appearance indefinitely postponed. Our relations with Spain were also in a very unsatisfactory condition at the beginning of Mr. Buchanan's term. There were many just claims of our citizens against the Spanish government for injuries received in Cuba, and Mr. Buchanan succeeded in having a u convention concluded at Madrid in 1860, establishing a joint commission for the final adjudication and payment of all the claims of the respective parties." The Senate refused to ratify this convention also, probably because of the intense excitement against slavery, the convention having authorized the presenting before the commissioners of a Spanish claim against the United States for the value of certain slaves. In the settlement of claims against the government of Paraguay the president's firm policy was seconded by Congress, and he was authorized to send a commissioner to that country ac- companied by "a naval force sufficient to exact justice should negotiation fail." This was entirely successful; full indemnification was obtained without any resort to arms. Mr. Buchanan's negotiations with China, conducted through William B. Reed as minister, were also successful; a treaty was concluded in 1858. which established very satisfactory commercial relations with that country and secured the liquidation of all claims. June 22, 1860, Mr. Buchanan vetoed a bill "to secure homesteads to actual settlers in the public domain, and for other purposes." The other purposes contemplated donations to the states. The ground of the veto was that the power "to dispose of the territory of the United States did not authorize Congress to donate public lands to the states for their domestic purposes. In the Senate the bill failed to receive the two thirds majority necessary to pass it over the veto. In internal affairs the preceding administration of President Pierce had left a legacy of trouble to his successor in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which was followed by a terrible period of lawlessness and bloodshed in Kansas, under what was called "squatter sovereignty" the slavery and the anti-slavery parties among the settlers struggling for supremacy. The pro-slavery party sustained the territorial government and obtained control of its legislature. The anti-slavery party repudiated this legislature and held a convention at Topeka to institute an opposition government. Congress had recognized the authority of the territorial government, and Mr. Buchanan', as president, had no alternative but to recognize and uphold it also. The fact that the legislature of that government was in the hands of the pro-slavery party made the course he adopted seem as if he favored their pro-slavery designs, while, in train, he had no object to subserve but to sustain, as he was officially obliged to sustain, the government that Congress had recognized as the lawful government of the territory. Now, throughout the north, the press and the pulpit began to teem with denunciations of the new president, who had not allowed revolutionary violence to prevail over the law of the land, and" this was kept up throughout his administration. The anti-slavery party gained ground, and the election of 1860 resulted m the triumph of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Buchanan was a conservative and far-seeing man, who, though opposed to slavery, believed that the blind and fanatical interference of the northern abolitionists in the domestic affairs of the southern states would excite the latter in a manner dangerous to the peace and prosperity of the union. His messages constantly recommended conciliatory legislative measures; but Congress paid no attention to his advice. Finally the election of Mr. Lincoln was seized upon as the signal in South Carolina for the breaking out of her old doctrine of secession. She passed her ordinance of secession on 20 December, 1860. Mr. Buchanan never for a moment admitted that a state had any power to secede from the union. South Carolina had once and forever adopted and ratified the Constitution of the United States, and he maintained that she had by this act permanently resigned certain powers to the federal government, and that she could not, by her own will and without the consent of the other states, resume those powers and declare herself independent. She could, if actually oppressed by the general government, seek to redress her wrongs by revolution; but never by secession. He refused to receive, in their assumed official capacity, the commissioners sent by South Carolina, in December. 1860, to treat with him as with a foreign power. In October, 1860, before the election, Mr. Buchanan received from General Scott, the general-in-chief of the army, a communication saying that, in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election. General Scott anticipated that there would be a secession of one or more of the southern states; and that, from the general rashness of the southern character, there was danger of a '"preliminary" seizure of certain southern forts. This paper became known as "General Scott's Views.'' It was the foundation, at a later period, of a charge that President Buchanan had been warned by General Scott of the danger of leaving the southern forts without sufficient garrisons to prevent surprises, and that he had neglected this warning. Mr. Buchanan, who now publicly denied the right of secession. furnish" the southern states with any justification of such a proceeding by prematurely reinforcing the forts as if he anticipated secession. But then if the president had wished to adopt such measure, there were, as General Scott himself said, have companies of regular troops, or 400 men, then able for the garrisoning of nine fortifications in the highly excited southern states. The remainder the army was scattered over the western plains. Scott's views were clearly impracticable, and deduced no impression upon the president s ni,nQ; Mr. Buchanan has fen often and severe reproached for a "temporizing policy and a of such vigor as might have averted the Civil War; but the policy of Mr. Lincoln's administration, until after the" attack on Fort Sumter, was identical with that of Mr. Buchanan. In his annual message of 5 December, I860, Mr. Buchanan stated clearly and forcibly his denial of the right of secession, and also his conviction that if a state should adopt such an unconstitutional measure the Federal Government had no power, under the constitution, to make aggressive war upon her to compel her to remain in the union; but at the same time drawing a definite distinction between this and the right of the use of force against individuals, in spite of secession, in enforcing the execution of federal laws and in the preservation of federal property. This doctrine met the secessionists upon their own ground; for it denied that a state ordinance of secession could absolve its people from obeying the laws of the United States. Mr. Buchanan thus framed the only justifiable basis of a Civil War, and left upon the records of the country the clear line of demarcation that would have to be observed by his successor and would make the use of force, if force must be used, a war, not of aggression, but of defence. In order to disarm all unreasonable opposition from the south, Mr. Buchanan urged upon Congress the adoption of an "explanatory amendment" of the constitution, which should effectually secure to slave-holders all their constitutional rights. From all parts of the country, north and south, he received private letters approving, on various grounds, the tone of the message; but nearly the whole of the Republican Party saw fit to treat it as a denial by the president of any power to enforce the laws against the citizens of a state after secession, and even after actual rebellion; while this very power, emphatically stated as it was in the message, was made by the secessionists their ground of attack. It was the peat misfortune of Mr. Buchanan's position that he had to appeal to a Congress in which there were two sectional parties breathing mutual defiance; in which broad and patriotic statesmanship was confined to a small body of men, who could not win over to their views to sufficient number from either of the parties to make up a majority upon any proposition whatever. In the hope of preventing the secession of South Carolina, the president sent Caleb Cushing to Charleston, with a letter to Governor Pickens, urging the people of the state to await the action of Congress. After the actual secession of South Carolina, Mr. Buchanan's two great objects were: 1. To confine the area of secession, so that if there was to be a southern confederacy it might comprehend only the cotton states, which were most likely to together. 2. To induce Congress to prepare for a Civil War in case one should be precipitated. While he made it apparent to Congress that at that tune he was without the necessary executive powers to enforce the collection of the revenue in South Carolina, he did not fail to call for the appropriate powers and means. But at no time during that session did a single Republican senator (and the Republicans had a majority in the Senate), in any form whatever, give his vote or his influence for any measure that would strengthen the Hands of the president cither in maintaining peace or in executing the laws of the United States. Whatever was the governing motive for their inaction it never can be said that they were not sea-   ahly warned by the president that a policy of inaction would be fatal. That policy not only "Wed him, but crippled his successor. When Lincoln came into office, seven states had already seceded, and not a single law had been put upon the statute-book that would enable the executive to meet such a condition of the union. Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, had introduced into the Senate a resolution, which became known as the "Crittenden Compromise," providing in substance for a restoration of the Missouri Compromise-line of 36° 30'; and it was proposed that this question should be referred to a direct vote of the people in the several states. On 8 January, 1861, Mr. Buchanan sent a special message to Congress, strongly recommending the adoption of this measure; but it produced no effect. During the last three months of his term there were several changes in his cabinet. Mr. Cobb resigned his portfolio on 8 December, 1860, and Mr. Thomas, who succeeded him as Secretary of the Treasury, also resigned on 11 January, their sympathies being with the secessionists. This department was then taken by General John A. Dix. Mr. Thompson, secretary of the interior, resigned on 8 January, also because he was a southern man, and the duties of this office were subsequently per- formed by Moses Kelly, chief clerk. General Cass and Governor Floyd resigned their offices in December; Judge Black was transferred from the Attorney-Generalship to the State Department, and Edwin M. Stanton became Attorney-General. Joseph Holt succeeded Sec. Floyd in the War Department. The two critical questions which it was important that the president should correctly and consistently decide were, whether he was to receive in their assumed official character any commissioners sent by the southern states as to a foreign power, and whether re-enforcements should be sent to Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, or to any other southern fort. Mr. Buchanan always refused to receive both the South Carolina Commissioners and also Mr. Crawford, the first of the Commissioners from the Confederate Government at Montgomery, who arrived in Washington just before the close of his term; he thus left the new president entirely free to act as he saw best, and entirely untrammelled by any previous pledges. As to re-enforcements for southern forts, Major Anderson was instructed to report to the government any necessity for assistance, and in the meantime an expedition was fitted out at New York and held in readiness to sail at an hour's notice. Until the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration, Major Anderson considered himself sufficiently strong, and agreed with the president that any unnecessary movement of troops would be regarded by the south as a menace and would provoke hostilities. Mr. Buchanan would not initiate a Civil War; his policy was entirely defensive; and yet he did all that he could, constitutionally, to avert a war. It has often been asked, why did Mr. Buchanan suffer state after state to go out of the union. Why did he not call on the north for volunteers, and put down rebel-ion in its first stage. The president had no power to call for volunteers under any existing law; Congress, during the whole winter, refused to pass any law to provide him with men or money. In the application of all the means that he had for protecting the public property, he omitted no step that could have been taken with safety, and, at the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. Major Anderson not only held Fort Sumter, but had held it down to that time in perfect confidence that he could maintain his position. On 9 March, 1861, Mr. Buchanan returned to his home at Wheatland, a view of which appears on page 432, rejoicing to be free from the cares of a long and responsible public life, and welcomed by an immense gathering of his neighbor and the citizens of Lancaster. Here he lived quietly for the remaining seven years of his life, taking, however, a lively interest in public affairs and always supporting, "with his influence as a private citizen, the maintenance of the war for the restoration of the Union. His health was generally good throughout his whole life. After his final return to Wheatland he began to be attacked occasionally by rheumatic bout, and this malady at last terminated his life in his seventy-eighth year. His remains were interred in a cemetery near Lancaster. No man was ever treated with greater injustice than he was during the last seven years of his life by a large part of the public. Men said he was a secessionist; he was a traitor; he had given away the authority of the government; he had been weak and vacillating; he had shut his eyes when men about him, the very ministers of his cabinet, were plotting the destruction of the union; he was old and timid; he might have crushed an incipient rebellion, and he had encouraged it. But he bore all this with patience and dignity, forbearing to say anything against the new administration, and confident that posterity would acknowledge that he had done his duty. In 1862 he was attacked by General Scott, who made several statements concerning the president's management of the Fort Sumter affairs during the last winter of his administration, which Mr. Buchanan successfully refuted. Mr. Buchanan's loyalty to the constitution of the United States was unbounded. He was not a man of brilliant genius, nor did he ever do any one thing to make his name illustrious and immortal, as Webster did when he defended the constitution against the heresy of nullification. But in the course of a long, useful, and consistent life, filled with the exercise of talents of a fine order and uniform ability, he had made the constitution of his country the object of his deepest affection, the constant guide of all his public acts. He published a vindication of the policy of his administration during the last months of his term, "Buchanan's Administration" (New York, 1806). See "Life of President Buchanan," by George Ticknor Curtis (2 vols., New York, 1883). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p.428-436.



BUCHANAN, Thomas McKean, lieutenant-commander. U. S. Navy, born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, 10 Sept, 1837; died in Bayou Teche, Louisiana, 15 January, 1862. He was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1855, become lieutenant in 1860 and lieutenant-commander in 1862. He co-operated with the National Army in many battles on the lower Mississippi, and was killed while encouraging his men in the sharp action at Bayou Teche. Farragut called him "one of our most gallant and persevering young officers." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 436.



BUCHANAN, Robert Christie, soldier, born in Maryland about 1810; died in Washington, D. C, 29 November, 1878. He was appointed to the C. S. Military Academy from the District of Columbia, and after his graduation in 1830 served as lieutenant in the Black Hawk and Seminole Wars. He was made captain on 1 November, 1838, and in the war with Mexico took part in numerous battles. He was brevetted major, 9 May, 1846, commanded a battalion of Maryland volunteers from 25 November, 1846, till 30 May, 1847", and brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 8 Sept, 1847, for services at Molino del Rey. He was made major in the 4th U.S. Infantry, 3 February, 1855, served against hostile Indians and in various positions until the beginning of the Civil War, when he became lieutenant-colonel of his regiment and stationed in the defences of Washington from November, 1861, till March, 1862. He had command of his regiment in the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign, and afterward of a brigade of infantry. He was engaged in the siege of Yorktown and in the battles of Gaines's Mills, Glendale, and Malvern Hill, and made brevet colonel 27 June. 1862. He took part in the second battle of Bull Run and in the Maryland and Rappahannock Campaign, in November, 1862, was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and in March, 1863, was placed in command of Fort Delaware. In February. 1864. he was promoted to the rank of colonel of the 1st U.S. Infantry, which regiment he commanded at New Orleans from December, 1864, till August, 1865. In March, 1865, he was made brevet brigadier-general of the U. S. Army for gallant conduct at Malvern Hill, and brevet major-general for services at Manassas and Fredericksburg. He commanded the District of Louisiana from January, 1868 till January, 1869, and on 31 December, 1870, was retired, on his own application, after thirty years of consecutive service. When retired he was in command of Fort Porter, New York  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 436.



BUCKALEW, Charles R., senator, born in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, 28 December, 1821. After receiving an academic education, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. From 1845 till 1847 he was prosecuting attorney for Columbia County, and from 1850 till 1856 a state senator. In 1854 he was a commissioner to ratify a treaty with Paraguay, in 1857 chairman of the state Democratic Committee, elected again a state senator, and a commissioner to revise the Pennsylvania penal code. In 1858-’61 he was U. S. Minister to Ecuador. He was chosen U.S. Senator in 1863 by a majority of one vote, and served until 1869. While in the Senate he served on important committees, and took an active part in the debates, particularly in those on the reconstruction measures, which he opposed as illegal. In 1869 he was again chosen to the state senate, and while there began the movement for a state constitutional convention, of which he was afterward a leading member. In 1886 he was elected to Congress from Pennsylvania. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 437



BUCKINGHAM, William Alfred, governor of Connecticut, born in Lebanon, Connecticut, 28 May, 1804; died in Norwich, Connecticut, 3 February, 1875. He was educated in the public schools, and spent his boyhood on his father's farm. When twenty-one years old he moved to Norwich, and was for many years a successful merchant and manufacturer there. He was mayor of the city in 18W. 1850, 1850, and 1857, and was elected governor of the state every year from 1858 till 1866, when he refused a renomination. In 1860 the result of the election in Connecticut was awaited with interest by the whole country, and the defeat of ex-boy. Thomas H. Seymour, the Democratic candidate, of Governor Buckingham, was regarded by the southern leaders as an indication of the general feeling of the north. During the war Governor Buckingham co-operated promptly with the president, and  untiring in his efforts to sustain the national government. He was one of the governors on whom Mr. Lincoln especially leaned. The number union troops he raised was prodigious for the population of the state, then only 461,000. Connecticut never suffered a draft, and sent into the new nearly 55,000 men—6,000 more than her quota. This was due largely to Governor Buckingham s effort. Although known as the "war governor of Connecticut," he was by nature and training a civilian of kindly, disposition, and gentle manners. He was president of the American temperance union, moderator of the first national Congregational council, and one of the corporate members of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions. After two years in private life he was elected, in 1868, to the U. S. Senate, and died just before the expiration of his term. Governor Buckingham contributed liberally to the poor, and for religious and educational purposes; among his gifts was $25,000 to Yale theological school. A bronze statue of Governor Buckingham was unveiled in the state-house at Hartford, Connecticut, on 18 June, 1884. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 438-439.


BUCKLAND, Cyrus, inventor, born in Manchester, Connecticut, 10 August, 1799. He received a common school education, turned his attention to mechanical pursuits at the of twenty-one, and assisted in building the machinery in a cotton factory at Monson, Massachusetts, and in the first mills erected at Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts In 1828 he became a pattern-maker in the U. S. Armory at Springfield, Massachusetts. He rose to be a designer of machinery and tools for the manufacture of fire-arms, and at different times was employed as inspector in all the different parts of the armory, and also as inspector of cannon. His skill and inventive powers were called into requisition in remodelling old weapons and designing new ones, and in devising labor-saving machinery for producing the arms used in the U. S. service. The machinery in the armory was in a primitive condition when he entered it; but the improvements suggested by him raised the machinery and appliances to a standard of mechanical attainment far above any private establishment in the country. A set of stocking-machines of his invention, perfected in 1842, comprises thirteen machines for working gunstocks from the rough state, as they were served out at the mills, to a degree of finish that requires only the smoothing of the outer surface to complete the manufacture.  One machine cuts the groove in the stock in which the barrel is inserted; a second profiles the stock; a third cuts the groove for the butt-plate and bores the holes for the screws that fasten it; a fourth cuts on, in a single operation, the three bands that bind together the stock and the barrel; a fifth trims off the surplus wood between the bands; a sixth returns the stock and gives it the final form; a seventh cuts the bed for the guard, with mortise, screw-holes, etc.; and an eighth is a finishing-machine for cutting in the band-springs, boring for band-spring and ramrod-spring, wires, grooving for the ramrod, etc. Buckland invented machines for turning the upper band of the musket; for punching and cutting various parts of the arm; or finishing the cone; for milling screws; for finish-milling and tapping the cone-seat; for checking the comb of the hammer; for boring and turning the barrel; for milling the ' ate edges: for rifling muskets: and for cutting the thread of the screw on the inside of the barrel and milling the breech-screw. This last invention, perfected in 1857, effected a great improvement in the manufacture of small-arms by producing a perfect interchange of parts, any screw fitting any barrel. The stocking apparatus and other inventions of Mr. Buckland reduced the cost of making muskets fifty per cent. The British government sent over commissioners, who had the gun-stock machines copied in Chicopee, and imported men from the Springfield Armory to work them. Continental  likewise adopted this machinery. Buckland received no compensation for his valuable inventions beyond his daily wages, but when he retired Congress voted him a grant of $10,000. His nervous system broke down under the protracted mental strain, and he retired from the armory, an invalid, in 1859. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 439



BUCKLAND, Ralph Pomeroy, soldier, born in Leyden, Massachusetts, 20 January, 1812. His father moved to Ohio when Ralph was but a few months old. He was educated at Kenyon College, but was never graduated, afterward studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. He was a delegate to the Whig National Convention of 1848, served as state senator from 1855 till 1859, and in 1861 was appointed colonel of the 72d Ohio Infantry. He commanded the 4th Brigade of Sherman's division at the battle of Shiloh, and was made a brigadier-general 29 November, 1862. He also commanded a brigade of the 15th Army Corps at Vicksburg and the District of Memphis during the year 1864. During an absence from the field, in 1864, he was elected to Congress, and served two terms. He resigned from the army, 9 January, 1865, and on 13 March was brevetted major-general of volunteers. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists’ Convention of 1866, to the Pittsburgh Soldiers' Convention, and to the Republican National Convention of 1876. General Buckland was president of the managers of the Ohio Soldiers’ and Sailors' Orphans' Home from 1867 till 1873, and government director of the Pacific Railroad from 1877 till 1880. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 439.



BUCKNER, Simon Bolivar, soldier, born in Kentucky in 1823. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1844. Entering the 2d U.S. Infantry, he was, from August, 1845, till May, 1846, assistant professor of ethics at West Point. He was brevetted first lieutenant for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, where he was wounded, and captain for gallantry at Molino del Rey. He was appointed assistant instructor of infantry tactics at West Point, August, 1848, and resigned 25 March, 1855. He was superintendent of construction of the Chicago Custom-House in 1855, and colonel of the volunteers raised in Illinois in that year for the Utah Expedition, but not mustered into service. He then practised law, and became the most prominent of the Knights of the Golden Circle in Kentucky. After the Civil War began he was made commander of the state guard of Kentucky and adjutant-general of the state. On 12 September, 1861, he issued from Russellville an address to the people of Kentucky, calling on them to take up arms against the usurpation of Abraham Lincoln, after which he occupied Bowling Green. After the capture of Fort Henry he evacuated that place and withdrew to Fort Donelson, where he commanded a brigade in the battles of 13, 14, and 15 February, 1862, and, after the escape of Pillow and Floyd, surrendered the fort, 16 February to General Grant, with 16,000 prisoners and vast stores. He was imprisoned at Fort Warren, Boston, until exchanged in August, 1862. He subsequently commanded the 1st Division of General Hardee's corps in Bragg's army in Tennessee. Later he was made a major-general, and assigned to the 3d Grand Division, was in the battles of Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, and surrendered with Kirby Smith's army to Osterhaus, at Baton Rouge, 26 May, 1865. General Buckner's first wife was a daughter of Major Kingsbury. He was one of the pall-bearers at General Grant's funeral. He resides in his native state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 440.



BUDD, Charles Henry, physician, born in Pemberton, New Jersey, 8 December, 1822; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 October, 1880. He was educated at Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, after which he began to practice in Darby, Pennsylvania At the beginning of the Civil War he received an appointment at the Chestnut Hill Hospital, and afterward at the Nicetown Hospital, Philadelphia.  Subsequent to the war he practiced medicine in Jenkstown […]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 440.



BUELL, Don Carlos, soldier, born on the present site of Lowell, Ohio, 23 March, 1818. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1841, entered the 3d U.S. Infantry, became first lieutenant on 18 June, 1846, and won the brevet of captain at Monterey, and of major at Contreras and Churubusco, where he was severely wounded. He served as assistant adjutant-general at Washington in 1848–9, and at the headquarters of various departments till 1861, was made a lieutenant-colonel on the staff, 11 May, 1861, and appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 17 May, 1861. After assisting in organizing the army at was assigned in August to a division of the Army of the Potomac, which became distinguished for its discipline. In November he superseded General William. T. Sherman in the Department of the Cumberland, which was re-organized as that of the Ohio. The campaign in Kentucky was begun by an attack upon his pickets at Rowlett station, near Munfordsville, on 17 December. On 14 February, 1862, General Buell occupied Bowling Green. On the 23d, with a small force, he took possession of Gallatin, Tennessee, and on the 25th his troops entered Nashville, supported by gunboats. He was promoted major-general of volunteers on 21 March, 1862, and on the same day his district was incorporated with that of the Mississippi, commanded by General Halleck. He arrived with a part of a division on the battlefield of Shiloh, near the close of the first day's action, 6 April. Three of his divisions came up the next day, and the Confederates were driven to their intrenchments at Corinth. On 12 June he took command of the District of Ohio. In July and August Bragg's army advanced into Kentucky, capturing several of Buell's posts, compelling the abandonment of Lexington and Frankfort, and the removal of the state archives to Louisville, which city was threatened as well as Cincinnati. General Bragg advanced from Chattanooga on 5 September, and, entering Kentucky by the eastern route, passed to the rear of Buell's army in middle Tennessee. The  maneuver compelled General Buell, whose communications with Nashville and Louisville were endangered, to evacuate central Tennessee and retreat rapidly to Louisville along the line of the railroad from Nashville to Louisville. The advance of General E. Kirby Smith to Frankfort had already caused consternation in Cincinnati, which place, as well as Louisville, was exposed to attack. At midnight of 24 September, Buell's retreating army entered Louisville amid great excitement, as it was feared that Bragg would reach there first on 30 September, by order from Washington, Buell turned over his command to General Thomas, but was restored the same day, and on 1 October began to pursue the Confederates. "On 7 October the two divisions of the Confederate Army formed a junction at Frankfort. Bragg had already drained the country of supplies and sent them southward, which was the object of his raid, before General Buell was able to meet him with equal numbers. As the Confederates retreated the union troops pressed upon their heels, and at Perryville General Bragg halted and determined to give battle. The two armies formed in order of battle on opposite sides of the town. The action was begun, after the opening artillery fire, by a charge of the Confederates early in the afternoon of the 8 October, 1862, and soon became general, and was hotly contested until dark, with heavy losses on both sides. The next morning General Bragg withdrew to Harrodsburg. The Confederates retreated slowly to Cumberland Gap, and, though General Buell pursued them, he was blamed for not moving swiftly enough to bring them into action again. On the 24th he was ordered to transfer his command to General Rosecrans. A military commission, appointed to investigate his operations, made a report, which has never been published. He was mustered out of the volunteer service on 23 May, 1864, and on 1 June resigned his commission in the regular army, having been before the military commission from 24 November, 1862, till 10 May, 1863, and since that time waiting orders at Indianapolis. He became president of the Green River Iron-Works of Kentucky in 1865, and subsequently held the office of pension agent at Louisville, Kentucky Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 441-442.



BUELL, Richard Booker, engineer, born in Cumberland, Maryland, 9 November, 1842. He was graduated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, in 1862, was an engineer officer in the U. S. Navy in 1862-'7, and in 1870 assistant civil engineer in the Tehuantepec Survey. He has published "The Cadet Engineer" (Philadelphia, 1875); "Safety-Valves" (New York, 1878); additions to Weisbach's "Mechanics of Engineering" on heat, steam, and steam-engines (1878); and "The Compound Steam-Engine and its Steam-Generating Plant" (1884). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 442.



BUFFINGTON, Adelbert R., soldier, born in Wheeling, Virginia, 22 November, 1837. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in May, 1861, and made brevet second lieutenant of ordnance. During the Civil War he served, first, in drilling volunteers at Washington, D. C, from 7 May, till 5 June, 1861, was assistant ordnance officer at St. Louis Arsenal from 8 June till 15 October, 1862, and was promoted first lieutenant of ordnance, 22 July. From 25 October, 1862, till 12 September, 1863, he was engaged in mustering Missouri and Illinois volunteers; aided with artillery and men in the defence of Pilot Knob, Missouri; acted as assistant adjutant-general of the 5th Division, Army of the West; drilled and organized the employees of the arsenal into a regiment of Missouri militia (of which he was commissioned colonel by Governor Gamble): and also commanded the Wheeling, West Virginia, Ordnance Depot. He was inspector of rifling sea-coast cannon from 19 September, 1863, till 13 July, 1864, and brevet major, 13 March, 1865. He was in command of the New York Arsenal from 13 July, 1864, till September, 1865, and of Baton Rouge Arsenal. Louisiana, from 14 September, 1865, till 15 August, 1866.  Buffington was chief of ordnance, Department of the Gulf, from 15 August, 1866, till 26 March, 1867; of the 5th Military District, Texas and Louisiana, in 1867-8; was in command of the Watertown Arsenal from May. 1868, till 20 October of the same year, and assigned to the command of Detroit Arsenal, 15 December, 1870, from which he retired, in February, 1872, to superintend the southern forts, first, as assistant, from February, 1872, till April, and then as chief from that time till May, 1873. From 14 May till October, 1873, was assistant at Watervliet Arsenal; was in command of Indianapolis Arsenal, 15 October, 1873, till 19 April, 1875; was promoted major of ordnance, 23 June, 1874; and was in command of the Alleghany Arsenal from 19 April, 1875, till December, 1880, and of Watervliet Arsenal from December, 1880, till 3 October, 1881. He was on leave of absence, inspecting arms for the Egyptian government, from 6 December, 1865, till 22 April, 1876. On 1 June, 1881, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of ordnance, made a member of the board on heavy ordnance and projectiles, 13 July, 1881, till May, 1882, and on 3 October of that year placed in command of the national armory. He has perfected the following inventions: A magazine fire-arm; carriages for light and heavy guns: parts of models of 1884 Springfield rifles, and several mechanical devices. He also introduced the gas-forging furnaces and improved methods, simplifying and reducing the cost of manufacture, at the national armory, of Springfield rifles, and was the originator of the nitre and manganese method of bluing iron and steel surfaces, which is used at the national armory for small arms. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 442.



BUFFUM, Arnold, 1782-1859, Smithfield, Rhode Island, Indiana, New York, New York, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist, temperance reformer, philanthropist.  Maor of Lynn, Massachusetts.  Member, Massachusetts House of Representatives.  Co-founder (with William Lloyd Garrison) and first president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, in 1832.  Manager and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society in December 1833.  Manager, Massachusetts, 1833-1837; Manager, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1835-1837; Vice President, 1834-1836.  Executive Committee, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1846-1855.  Lectured extensively against slavery.  Visited England to promote abolitionism.  Was influenced by English anti-slavery leaders Clarkson and Wilberforce. (Drake, 1950, pp. 137, 157-158, 162-163, 178; Pease, 1965, pp. 418-427; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 218, 401, 433; Staudenraus, 1961, pp. 195-198, 209-210; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 18, 20, 22, 58, 62, 66, 67; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Buffum, Arnold, Lectures Showing the Necessity for a Liberty Party, and Setting Forth its Principles, Measures and Object, 1844; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 241; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 320)



BUFFUM, Edward Gould, journalist, born in Rhode Island about 1820; died in Paris, France, U October, 1867. He was the son of Arnold Buffum well-known philanthropist of New England. In early life he became connected with the "New York Herald," and continued his connection with this journal until the beginning of the Mexican War, when he joined Colonel Stevenson's Regiment of New York volunteers, with which he went, to California in 1846 as a lieutenant. He served on the Pacific side of Mexico, and at the close of the year returned to California and took an active part m the explorations for gold. […]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 442-443.



BUFFUM, James Needham, 1807-1887, Mayor of Lynn, Massachusetts, abolitionist, supporter of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.  Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1845-1848.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 114, 119, 120, 121, 123, 125, 210, 211, 221, 225, 250, 342; New York Times obituary: June 13, 1888)



BUFFUM, William, Providence, Rhode Island, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-40, Executive Committee, 1840-41.



BUFORD, Abraham, soldier, born in Kentucky about 1820: died 9 June, 1864. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1841, and assigned to the 1st U.S. Dragoons, was promoted first lieutenant in 1840, and brevetted captain for gallantry at Buena Vista. In 1848-'51 he served in New Mexico, and in 1852-'4 in the cavalry school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and as secretary of the military asylum of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, with the rank of captain, and on 22 October, 1854, he resigned from the army and became a farmer in Woodford County, Kentucky In 1861 he entered the service of the Confederate States, was commissioned a brigadier-general, and performed distinguished services. He died by his own hand. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 443.



BUFORD, Napoleon Bonaparte, soldier, born in Woodford County, Kentucky, 13 January, 1807; died 2S March, 1883. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1827, and employed as a lieutenant of artillery in various surveys. In 1831 he obtained leave to enter Harvard law-school, and in 1834-'6 was assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at West Point. On 31 December, 1835, he resigned his commission, and became resident engineer of the Licking River improvement, in the service of the state of Kentucky, and afterward an iron-founder and banker at Rock Wand, Illinois, and in 1857 president of the Rock Island and Peoria Railroad. On 10 Ang., 1861, he entered the National Army as colonel of the 27th Illinois Volunteers, took part in the battle of Belmont, Missouri, 7 November, 1861, was in command at Columbus, Kentucky, after its evacuation by the Confederates in March, 1862, and in the attack on Island No. 10. captured Union City by surprise after a forced march commanded the garrison at Island No. 10 after the capitulation of the fort, and was engaged in the expedition to Fort Pillow in April, 1862. He was promoted brigadier-general on 15 April, and, took part in the siege of Corinth, commanded a division at Jacinto from June till September, 1862, was engaged in the battle of Corinth on 3 - 4 0ctober, 1862, and in the siege of Vicksburg in , and was in command of Cairo, Illinois, from March till September, 1863, and at Helena, Arkansas, from 12 September, 1863, till 9 March, 1865. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865, and mustered out of the service on 24 August, 1865. He was special U. S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 7 February till 1 September, 1868, and for inspecting the Union Pacific Railroad from 1 September, 1867, till 10 March, 1869, when the road was completed. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 443.



BUFORD, John, soldier, born in Kentucky in 1825; died in Washington, D. C, 16 December 1863, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1848; was appointed brevet second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Dragoons and served on the plains, being engaged in the Sioux Expedition of 1855, at Blue Water, in the Kansas disturbances of 1856-'7, and in the Utah Expedition of 1857- 8 until the Civil War began; he was made a major in the inspector-general's corps on 12 November, 1861. His duties did not give him an opportunity to engage in the campaigns until 1862, when he was attached to the staff of General Pope in the Army of Virginia on 26 June, and on 27 July made a brigadier-general, assigned to the command of a brigade of cavalry under General Hooker in the Northern Virginia Campaign, and engaged at the skirmish at Madison Court-House, 9 August, the passage of the Rapidan in pursuit of Jackson's force, 12 August, Kelly's Ford, Thoroughfare Gap, 28 August, and Manassas, 29 and 30 August, where he was wounded. He served as chief of cavalry of the Army of the Potomac in the Maryland Campaign, being engaged at South Mountain, 14 September, 1862, at Antietam, 17 September, where he succeeded General Stoneman on General McClellan's staff, and in the march to Falmouth. When the cavalry organization of the Army of the Potomac was perfected, of which General Stoneman was at that time the chief, General Buford was assigned to command the reserve cavalry brigade. He was subsequently conspicuous in almost every cavalry engagement, being at Fredericksburg, 13 December, 1862, in Stoneman raid toward Richmond in the beginning of May, 1863, and at Beverly Ford, 9 June, 1863. He commanded the cavalry division of the Army of the Potomac in the Pennsylvania Campaign, was engaged at Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville, and at Gettysburg he began the attack on the enemy before the arrival of Reynolds on 1 July, and the next day rendered important services both at Wolf's Hill and Round Top. He participated in the pursuit of the enemy to Warrenton, and in the subsequent operations in Virginia, being engaged at Culpepper, and, after pursuing the enemy across the Rapidan, cut his way to rejoin the army north of the Rappahannock. A short time previous to his death he was assigned to the command of the cavalry in the Army of the Cumberland, and had left the Army of the Potomac for that purpose. His last sickness was the result of toil and exposure. His commission as major-general reached him on the day of his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 443.



BULLARD, Talbot, physician, born in Sutton, Massachusetts, 18 August, 1815; died in Indianapolis, Ind., 18 June, 1863. He was educated at Marietta, and then studied medicine in the Cincinnati Medical College. After settling in Indianapolis he followed his profession and acquired a lucrative practice. Soon after the beginning of the war he became interested in the welfare of the soldiers, and at the battle of Pittsburg Landing he assumed the superintendence and care of the Indiana wounded. The devotion he showed at that time was such that his service was called for by Governor Morton after every subsequent battle in which Indiana troops were engaged. At Pittsburg Landing he contracted a complaint from which he never recovered, and when called on by the governor to go to Vicksburg, he did so contrary to the advice of his friends, and, after the mission was accomplished, returned to his home and soon died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 446



BULLOCK, Jonathan Russell, born in Bristol. Rhode Island, 6 September, 1815. He was graduated at Brown in 1834, studied law in his father's office, and admitted to the bar in 1886. Soon afterward he moved to Alton, Illinois.., where he practised his profession till April, 1843, when he returned to Rhode Island, and was associated in practice with the late Joseph M. Blake, then attorney-general until when he was appointed collector. In 1844 and the two succeeding years he was chosen first representative to the general assembly from the town of Bristol; but in 1847, having been retained as counsel from that town in an important question affecting its boundaries, then pending before the legislature, he declined re-election. In 1849 he was selected as one of a committee of three to inquire into the validity of the state (revolutionary) debt.. and in the same year was appointed collector Bristol and Warren, an office which he held until 4 March, 1854. In April, 1859, he was elected into the state senate, and in December, 1860 was chosen lieutenant-governor. In December, 1861 he was appointed by the governor a special commissioner to adjust the accounts between Rhode Island and the United States, growing out of the expense occurred by the state in raising troops to suppress the rebellion, and while engaged in this duty in September, 1862, he was chosen a judge of the Supreme Court. He remained upon the bench of this court until March, 1864, when he was appointed by President Lincoln judge of the district court of the United States for Rhode Island. In September, 1869, in consequence of failing health, he resigned this office. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 446-447.



BULLOCK, Rufus Brown, governor of Georgia, born in Bethlehem, Albany County, New York, 28 March, 1834. He was graduated at Albion (New York) Academy in 1850, and, after various pursuits, was sent during 1859-'60 to organize the business of the Adams Express Company in the South Atlantic states. His headquarters were at Augusta, Georgia, where he formed  Southern Express Company, and became one of its active managers. During the Civil War he continued this occupation under the direction of the Confederate government, establishing railroads and telegraph lines on interior routes. Later he was placed in charge of contributions for the officers and men of the Army of Northern Virginia, and at Appomattox he gave his parole as an acting assistant quartermaster-general. After the cessation of hostilities, Mr. Bullock resumed the general management of express affairs, and was elected one of the trustees and secretary of the Southern Express Company. Its present magnitude is largely due to his management at that time. He was also associated in the organization of the first national bank of Georgia, and was elected president of the Macon and Augusta Railroad. In 1867 he was chosen a delegate to the convention called to frame a constitution under the reconstruction laws then recently passed. His course at that convention met with the approval of its progressive members, and he was their unanimous choice as candidate for governor. After a bitter canvass in the spring of 1868, the new constitution was ratified, and Mr. Bullock was declared elected. But the reactionists obtained a majority in the legislature, and expelled the colored men who had been elected and seated. Against this action Governor Bullock earnestly protested, and after its accomplishment brought the matter to the attention of Congress, by which he was empowered to reassemble the old legislature, including the expelled colored members. This struggle for the rights of Negroes to hold office rendered him very unpopular in is state, and he was overwhelmed with abuse. At the next regular election the opposition seated a large majority of the general assembly, and, just # to its convening in November, 1870, Governor Bullock resigned his office. Charges of corruption were made against him, and, after a hearing in the state courts at Atlanta, he was acquitted and thoroughly vindicated from every accusation. During his term of office over 600 miles of new railroad were built within the state, and the value of property as returned by its owners for taxation was increased over $50,000,000. Governor Bullock continued his residence in Georgia, and became president of one of the largest cotton-mills in Atlanta. He has taken no public part in politics since his resignation of the office of governor. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 447.



BULLOCK, William A., inventor, born in Greenville, Greene County, New York, in 1813; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 14 April, 1867. At an early age he, with his brother, learned the trade of iron-founder and machinist. He devoted all his leisure to books, and acquired a good theoretical as well as practical knowledge of mechanics. After engaging in various pursuits, and making, among other things, hay-and cotton-presses, he began the publication of a newspaper, the “Banner of the Union,” in Philadelphia in 1849. The establishment was moved three years later to Catskill, New York, where he made in 1852, for his own use, a wooden press turned by a hand-crank. To this machine a self-feeder was attached, which contained the germ of one of his most important inventions. Mr. Bullock soon afterward went to New York City, where he constructed a fast press on the planetary system for “Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly.” His name became immediately prominent because of the unprecedented rapidity with which a very large edition of the paper, containing an illustrated account of a prize-fight, was issued. He devoted his attention to, and perfected, about this time, the automatic feeding mechanism that forms an important, feature in the presses bearing his name. Mr. Bullock now gave his energies to the problem of constructing a printing-press that should embody in one machine accurate self-adjustment and feeding, perfecting, or printing on both sides, with the highest rate of speed. He was successful in accomplishing all these objects, and the Bullock web perfecting press revolutionized the art of press building. In carrying into practice his plans, he fed the paper from a roll containing five or six miles of linear measurement, moistening it by passing it through a spray, carried it between the impression cylinder and the form, first for one side, then for the other, and cut the sheets off at the proper intervals with great precision with a serrated knife which struck the paper with lightning-like rapidity, and was so constructed as rarely to need sharpening, after which the sheets were automatically delivered on the receiving-board at the rate, in his earlier presses, of 12,000 an hour. Subsequent modifications and improvements have brought the delivery up to 30,000 an hour. While engaged in setting up and adjusting one of his new presses for the “Public Ledger,” in Philadelphia, Mr. Bullock was, 3 April, 1867, accidentally caught by the main driving-belt from the engine- room. His leg was crushed, and he sustained other injuries, which caused his death. He had a long time in his confidence one of his workmen, a foreigner, to whom he had in many of his ideas, so that after his death improvements of his own devising were made, and the Bullock press ": superseded all previous ones. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 447.



BULLUS, Oscar, naval officer, born about 1800; died in New York City, 29 October 1871. In 1815 he was appointed from New York to the U.S. Military Academy, but resigned and entered the Navy as a midshipman in 1817. He was ordered to the sloop “Ontario,” and served under Captain Biddle in the Pacific Ocean until 1819. From 1819 till 1821 he was in service on the Mediterranean, where, in June, 1821, he fell from aloft and received injuries that led to his being placed on the reserved list. From 1822 till 1824 he was on duty on the “Washington,” and at the Navy-yard, New York. In 1830 he was assigned the command of the “Rush,” later of the receiving-ship “Franklin,” then was on the sloop “St. Louis,” and from 1835 till 1838 on the “Constitution.” From 1842 till 1844 he was in command of the “Boxer,” and, after short duty at New York, commander of the store-ship “Relief.” In 1848 he was commissioned commander, and assigned to the charge of the “Michigan” on the lakes. He was placed on the retired list in September, 1855, for disability received in the line of duty. He was commissioned captain in 1861, and in command of rendezvous, New York, rendered good service in connection with recruiting. In 1867 he was promoted commodore, and had charge of the depot at Malden, Massachusetts  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 447.



BURBANK, Sidney, soldier, born in Massachusetts, 26 September, 1807; died in Newport, Kentucky, 7 December 1882. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1829, and entered the 1st U.S. Infantry as second lieutenant. After some years of frontier duty, at various garrisons, he served in the "Black Hawk " war in 1832, and at the Military Academy from 1836 till 1839, as instructor of infantry tactics, he was made captain in 1839, and fought in the Florida War against the Seminole Indians, he was again on frontier duty from 1841 till 1859, when he became superintendent of the western recruiting service at Newport barracks, Kentucky. During the Civil War he was colonel of the 2d U.S. Infantry and in command of a brigade attached to the Army of the Potomac. He was present at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and for his services received the brevet of brigadier-general. Subsequent to the war he joined his regiment, and was stationed at Newport barracks, Kentucky, and at Louisville. Later, from 1867 till 1869, he was in command of the District of Kentucky, and from 1869 till 1870 superintendent of general recruiting service. He was retired in 1870, after forty consecutive years of service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 449.



BURBRIDGE, Stephen Gano, soldier, born in Scott County, Kentucky, 19 August, 1881. He was educated at Georgetown College, and at the Kentucky Military Institute in Frankfort, after which he studied law with Senator Garrett Davis in Paris, Kentucky From 1849 till 1853 he followed mercantile pursuits in Georgetown, D. C., and then turned his attention to agriculture. He conducted a large farm in Logan County until the beginning of the Civil War, when he raised the 26th Kentucky Infantry and was made its colonel. At the battle of Shiloh he distinguished himself, and was made a brigadier-general. During General Bragg's invasion of Kentucky in 1862, he was ordered to that state, and was variously engaged until the Confederate forces were driven out. He then joined the expedition against Vicksburg, and participated in several actions. He had command of the 1st Brigade in the 1st Division of the 13th Corps of the Army of the Mississippi, and led the charge at Arkansas Post that resulted in its capture, planting the American flag upon the fort, which had been placed in his hands, as a tribute to his gallantry, by General A. G. Smith, for that purpose. General Burbridge was also conspicuous at the capture of Port Gibson, and was among the first to enter the place. Later he was placed in command of the Military District of Kentucky, and defeated General John H. Morgan on his raid, driving him into Tennessee. For this service he received the thanks of President Lincoln, and on 4 July, 1864, the brevet of major-general. He resigned in 1865, and retired to Kentucky.Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 449.



BURCHARD, Charles, 1810-1879, New York, Wisconsin, political leader, opposed slavery.  Member of the Whig and Liberty Parties.  Major in the Civil War.



BURGER, Louis, soldier, born in Spire, Bavaria, 6 February, 1821; died in New York City, May, 1871. He was educated at the high school in Kaiserslautern, and then at the polytechnic school in Munich, where he devoted special attention to engineering and architecture during 1840–4. Afterward he followed his profession and filled various posts in Bavaria and Würtemberg. Subsequent to the revolution in 1849 he came to the United States and established himself in New York as an architect. In 1854 he organized the Engineer Corps of the 5th Regiment of the New York State National Guards, and was elected captain. During the Civil War he commanded his regiment in the short campaign in 1861, and again during the invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863, and for his services he received the brevet of brigadier-general. In 1865 he was elected brigadier-general of the 2d Brigade, 1st Division of the State national guard. He was twice president of the “Liederkranz,” a German Musical Society in New York, and was a director of the Bowery National Bank and German Savings Bank. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 450-451.



BURKE, Stevenson, lawyer, born in St. Lawrence County, New York, 26 November, 1826. He was admitted to the bar in Elyria, Ohio, in 1848. was judge of common pleas in Lorain County from 1862 till 1869, and subsequently practised law in Cleveland. He was attorney for the Erie Railway Company in the proceedings connected with the "re-organization of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, and acted with Chief-Justice Waite as arbitrator in the case. He was counsel for some of the Oberlin rescuers who forcibly released an escaped slave that had been seized by sheriff's officers from Kentucky. Despairing of an acquittal of his clients in Cleveland, he secured the arrest of the Kentuckians and their indictment for kidnapping in Lorain County a proceeding that impelled the opposite counsel to agree to a discontinuance of the cases on both sides. In the Butzman and Mueller case in 1884 he delivered a notable argument against the constitutionality of the Scott, liquor law. He was the agent employed by the managers of the New York Central Railroad in the purchase of the New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, known as the "Nickel Plate” railroad, and has been the regular attorney for several railroad corporations and taken an active  part in the management of  railroads becoming vice-president of the Cleveland Columbus Cincinnati, and Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroads, and president Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad. He is also interested in the Hocking Valley coal-lands, and purchased for their owners the three railroads carrying coal from that field in June, 1881, and in 1885 the Ohio Central Railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p.  454-455.



BURLEIGH, Charles Calistus, 1810-1878, Connecticut, radical abolitionist.  Leader of the Pennsylvania Free Produce Association.  Officer, American Anti-Slavery Society.  Lectured extensively on evils of slavery.  Edited Pennsylvania Freeman paper of the Eastern Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in temperance, peace and women’s rights movements.  (Drake, 1950, p. 171; Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 265, 273; Mabee, 1970, pp. 34, 35, 66, 298, 368; Pease, 1965, pp. 172-177; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 455; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 284; Burleigh, “Slavery and the North” [Anti-Slavery Tract No. 10], New York, 1855, pp. 2-3, 8-10; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 959; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II, New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 320)

BURLEIGH, Charles C., abolitionist, born in Plainfield, Connecticut, 10 November, 1810; died in Florence, Massachusetts, 14 June, 1878. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Windham County, Connecticut, but soon became interested in the anti-slavery movement, in which he attained high distinction as an orator and an earnest worker. He, with his brother, edited an abolitionist newspaper called “The Unionist,” the publisher being Miss Prudence Crandall (q. v.), who was indicted for keeping a colored school in Connecticut. He rendered efficient service to Mr. Garrison in Boston in protecting him from the violence of the mob in 1835, and was one of the speakers in Pennsylvania Hall, in Philadelphia, when that building was burned by a mob in 1838. He was one of the earliest advocates of women's rights and of liberalism in religion, as he was also of temperance principles, in behalf of which he spoke frequently. For fifteen years he was resident speaker of the Free Congregational Society in Florence, Massachusetts, and for one year preached in Bloomington, Illinois. He was the author of “Thoughts on the Death Penalty” (1845), and a tract on the Sabbath, which advanced anti-Sabbatarian views. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 455.



BURLEIGH, Gertrude, abolitionist, Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Yellin, 1994, p. 73)



BURLEIGH, William Henry, 1812-1871, Connecticut, journalist.  Active in temperance, peace and women’s rights movements.  Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society. Editor of the anti-slavery newspapers Christian Freeman, newspaper of the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, and the Charter Oak.  Leader of the Liberty Party.  In 1836, he was appointed a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  In 1840-1841, Burleigh was a Manager of the AASS.  As a result of his protesting the war against Mexico, which he felt was being fought for the “slave power,” Burleigh was attacked by mobs and barely escaped being hurt.  (Dumond, 1961, pp. 186, 265, 273, 301; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 455; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 280; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 3, p. 961)

BURLEIGH, William Henry, journalist, born in Woodstock, Connecticut, 2 February, 1812 ; died in Brooklyn, New York, 18 March, 1871. He was a lineal descendant, on his mother's side, of Governor Bradford. His father, a graduate of Yale in 1803, had been a popular and successful teacher, but in 1827 became totally blind. William, who had been bred on a farm and educated principally by his father, was now apprenticed to a clothier and afterward to a village printer. He contributed to the columns of the newspaper it was a part of his duty to print, not in written communications, but by setting up his articles without the intervention of writing. From the autumn of 1832 till 1835 he was almost constantly engaged in editorial duties and in charge of papers advocating one or all of the great reforms then agitating the public mind—anti-slavery, temperance, and peace. Though naturally one of the most genial and amiable of men, Mr. Burleigh was stern in his adherence to principle. In 1836 he added to his editorial duties the labor of lecturing in behalf of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and defending their views. For a time he had charge of the “Literary Journal” in Schenectady, then became in 1837 editor of the Pittsburg “Temperance Banner,” afterward called the “Christian Witness,” the organ of the Western Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. In 1843 he was invited to Hartford by the Executive Committee of the Connecticut  Anti-Slavery Society, and took charge of its organ, the “Christian Freeman,” which soon became the “Charter Oak,” a vigorously edited and brilliant defender of the anti-slavery and temperance reforms. Mr. Burleigh afterward took charge of the Washington “Banner.” He struck trenchant blows at popular vices and political depravity in his papers, and received his reward more than once in mob violence. But while he deemed this heroic defence of unpopular doctrines a duty, and maintained it with unfaltering heart, he disliked controversy, and, whenever he could command the means for it, he would establish a purely literary paper, which, though generally short-lived, always contained gems of poetry and prose from his prolific pen, and avoided controversial topics. In 1850 he disposed of the “Charter Oak” to the Free-Soilers, the nucleus of the Democratic Party, and moved to Syracuse, and subsequently to Albany, New York, to be the general agent and lecturer of the New York State Temperance Society and-editor of the “Prohibitionist.” When in 1855 Governor Clark offered him, unsolicited, the place of harbor-master of the port of New York, he accepted it and moved to Brooklyn. For the next fifteen years he was either harbor-master or port-warden, but found time for much literary and some political labor. In the political campaigns he was in demand as a speaker, and his thorough knowledge of all the questions before the people, together with his eloquence, made him popular. He was also in request as a lyceum lecturer, especially on anti-slavery subjects. A collection of his poems was published in 1841, followed by enlarged editions in 1845 and 1850. A part of these were after his death published, with a memoir by his widow (Boston, 1871).—His wife, Celia, reformer, born in Cazenovia, New York, in 1825; died in Syracuse, 26 July, 1875. She was a teacher, and in 1844 married C. B. Kellum and moved with him to Cincinnati. She was divorced from him, and in 1851 married Charles Chaucey Burr; was again divorced, and in 1865 married Mr. Burleigh. She was the first president of the Woman’s club, Brooklyn, and took an active part in advocating woman suffrage and other reform movements. After Mr. Burleigh's death she prepared herself for the ministry, and was pastor of a Unitarian Church in Brooklyn, Connecticut, until 1873; but failing health compelled her to resign in October, 1871, when she went to the water-cure establishment of Dr. Jackson in Danville, New York Mrs. Burleigh had a wide reputation as an able writer and an eloquent speaker. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 455.



BURLEY, Bennett G. Confederate naval officer. On 19 September, 1864, assisted by Captain Bell and others, he captured the steamer "Philo Parsons," plying between Detroit and Sandusky, when about two miles from Kelly's Island, off the Ohio Coast. Subsequently another American steamer, the "Island Queen." was captured by Burley and his party, and after her passengers, including twenty-five U. S. soldiers, had been made prisoners and transferred to the "Philo Parsons, the "Island Queen " was sent adrift. The " Philo Parsons " was afterward taken to Sandwich, on the Canadian shore, and left there. Burley was arrested, and the evidence produced at the extradition trial at Toronto in his case rendered it manifest that he was acting under the authority of the southern Confederacy in the capture of the steamers; that the immediate object was the capture of the U. S. war vessel " Michigan," guarding Johnson's Island: and the ultimate object, the taking of Johnson's Island and the liberation of the 8,000 Confederate soldiers imprisoned there. That all this was not attempted by Burley and his comrades was probably owing to the fact of his discovery of the hazardous and seemingly impossible character of the undertaking, after he had captured the "Philo Parsons" and the " Island Queen." After some diplomatic correspondence between the British government and that of the United States, Burley was surrendered to the authorities of the latter, under the provisions of the extradition treaty, the plea of "belligerent rights" in his behalf by Jefferson Davis not being regarded by the court as sufficient to free him from the crime of robbery charged against him in the indictment. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 455-456.



BURLINGAME, Anson, 1820-1870, New Berlin, New York, diplomat, lawyer, orator. Massachusetts State Senator, elected 1852.  Republican United States Congressman, elected in 1855 and served 3 terms.  Burlingame was a member of the Free-Soil Party and an early co-founder of the Republican Party in Massachusetts.  Anti-slavery activist in the House of Representatives.  He delivered a speech in reprimand of Senator Preston Brooks after he assaulted Senator Sumner on the Senate floor.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 456-457; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 289; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, pp. 308, 336, 491-493).

BURLINGAME, Anson, diplomatist, born in New Berlin, Chenango County, New York, 14 November, 1820; died in St. Petersburg, Russia, 23 February, 1870. He was the descendant of a family who were among the early settlers of Rhode Island. His father, a farmer, moved, when Anson was three years old, to a farm in Seneca County, Ohio, where they lived for ten years, and in 1833 again moved to Detroit, and after two years more to a farm at Branch, Michigan In 1837 Anson was admitted to the University of Michigan, and six years later went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and entered the law-school of Harvard University, where he was graduated in 1846. He began the practice of the law in Boston, and a year or two later became an active member and a popular orator of the Free-Soil Party, then recently formed. In the political campaign of 1848 he acquired a wide reputation as a public speaker in behalf of the election of Van Buren and Adams. In 1849-'50 he visited Europe. In 1852 he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate, and in 1853 he served as a member of the state constitutional convention, to which he was elected by the town of Northborough, though he resided in Cambridge. He joined the American Party on its formation in 1854, and in that year was elected by it to the 34th Congress. In the following year he co-operated in the formation of the Democratic Party, to which he ever afterward steadily adhered. In Congress he bore himself with courage and address, and was recognized as one of the ablest debaters on the anti-slavery side of the house. For the severe terms in which he denounced the assault committed by Preston S. Brooks upon Senator Sumner, in 1856, he was challenged by Brooks. He promptly accepted the challenge, and named rifles as the weapons, and Navy Island, just above Niagara Falls, as the place. To the latter proposition Mr. Brooks demurred, alleging that, in order to meet his opponent in Canada, in the then excited state of public feeling, he would have to expose himself to popular violence in passing through “the enemy's country,” as he called the northern states. The matter fell through, but the manner in which Mr. Burlingame had conducted himself greatly raised him in the estimation of his friends and of his party; and on his return to Boston, at the end of his term, he was received with distinguished honors. He was re-elected to the 35th and 36th Congresses; but failing, after an animated and close contest, to be returned to the 37th, his legislative career ended in March, 1861. He was immediately appointed by President Lincoln minister to Austria; but that government declined to receive, in a diplomatic capacity, a man who had spoken often and eloquently in favor of Hungarian independence, and had moved in Congress the recognition of Sardinia as a first-class power. He was then sent as minister to China. In 1865 he returned to the United States with the intention of resigning his office; but the Secretary of State urged him to resume his functions for the purpose of carrying out important projects and negotiations that he had initiated. To this he finally consented. When, in 1867, he announced his intention of returning home, Prince Kung, regent of the empire, offered to appoint him special envoy to the United States and the great European powers, for the purpose of framing treaties of amity with those nations—an honor never before conferred on a foreigner. This place Mr. Burlingame accepted, and, at the head of a numerous mission, he arrived in the United States in March, 1868. On 28 July supplementary articles to the treaty of 1858 were signed at Washington, and soon afterward ratified by the Chinese government. These articles, afterward known as “The Burlingame Treaty,” marked the first official acceptance by China of the principles of international law, and provided, in general, that the privileges enjoyed by western nations under that law—the right of eminent domain, the right of appointing consuls at the ports of the United States, and the power of the government to grant or withhold commercial privileges and immunities at their own discretion, subject to treaty—should be secured to China; that nation undertaking to observe the corresponding obligations prescribed by international law toward other peoples. Special provisions also stipulated for entire liberty of conscience and worship for Americans in China, and Chinese in America; for joint efforts against the cooly trade; for the enjoyment by Chinese in America and Americans in China of all rights in respect to travel and residence accorded to citizens of the most favored nation; for similar reciprocal rights in the matter of the public educational institutions of the two countries, and for the right of establishing schools by citizens of either country in the other. The concluding article disclaims, on the part of the United States, the right of interference with the domestic administration of China in the matter of railroads, telegraphs, and internal improvements, but agrees that the United States will furnish assistance in these points on proper conditions, when requested by the Chinese government. From America Mr. Burlingame proceeded in the latter part of 1868 to England, and thence to France (1869), Denmark, Sweden, Holland, and Prussia, in all of which countries he was favorably received, and in all of which, but France, to which he intended returning, he negotiated important treaties or articles of agreement. He reached St. Petersburg early in 1870, and had just entered upon the business of his mission when he died of pneumonia, after an illness of only a few days. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.



BURNETT, Henry Clay, lawyer, born in Essex County, Virginia, 5 October, 1825; died near Hopkinton, Kentucky, 1 October, 1866. He received a classical education, moved early to Kentucky, where he entered upon the practice of law, and was in 1851-3 clerk of the circuit court of Trigg County. He was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1855, 1857, 1859, and 1861, but was expelled, for his open sympathy with secession, on 3 December, 1861. He had presided over a Kentucky Southern Conference held at Russellville on 29 October, 1861, and called a sovereignty convention at Russellville on 18 November, of which also he was president, and which passed an ordinance of secession and organized a state government. He was a representative from Kentucky in the provisional Confederate Congress, serving from 18 November, 1861, till 17 February, 1862, and a senator in the Confederate Congress, serving from 19 February, 1862, till 18 February, 1865. After the downfall of the Confederacy he exerted himself to restore the peace Democrats to the ascendency of his state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 459.



BURNETT, Peter Hardeman, Governor of California, born in Nashville, Tennessee, 15 November, 1807. In his youth Burnett was a trader and lawyer in Missouri and Tennessee. He went to Oregon, overland, in 1843, took a prominent part there in the organization of the territorial government, was member of the legislature in 1844 and 1848, and became a judge of the Supreme Court. The gold excitement attracted him to California in 1848, and he worked for a short time in the mines, and then became agent in managing the complicated affairs of the Sutter family and estate at New Helvetia. In 1849 he was one of the most active persons in urging the rights and necessities of the people of California as sufficient warrant for the formation of a state government in advance of Congressional authority. During the agitation of that summer he was an outspoken opponent of the United States military government of the territory; but he cheerfully joined in accepting, at length, Governor Riley's action, where-by a constitutional convention was officially called under the new constitution he was at once elected governor, and assumed the office, although the state was not admitted by Congress until September, 1850. He resigned the governorship in 1851, then practised law, and was one of the supreme judges in 1857-'8. From 1863 till 1880 he was president of the corporation now known as the Pacific Bank in San Francisco. He has published “The Path which Led a Protestant Lawyer to the Catholic Church” (New York, 1860); “The American Theory of Government, considered with reference to the Present Crisis” (1861); “Recollections of an Old Pioneer” (1878), which is especially valuable in connection with the early political and constitutional history of the Pacific Coast; and “Reasons why we should Believe in God, Love God, and Obey God” (1884).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 459.



BURNETT, Ward Benjamin, soldier, born in Pennsylvania in 1811; died in Washington, D.C., 24 June, 1884. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1832, served in the Black Hawk War of that year, in garrison at Fort Jackson, Louisiana, was an instructor at the Military Academy in 1833– '4, and on topographical and ordinance duty until 1836, when he resigned and became a civil engineer. At the beginning of the Mexican War he was made colonel of the 2d New York Volunteers, and was sent to join the army under General Scott. He Was with his regiment at the siege of Vera Cruz, and in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Churubusco, in the last of which he was severely wounded. The regiment was disbanded 1 August, 1848. Colonel Burnett received the thanks of the state legislature and a silver medal from the city of New York, and was brevetted brigadier-general. The surviving members of his regiment gave him a gold medal, 20 August, 1853, and further recognized is services, 18 August, 1859, by presenting to him the gold snuff-box in which the freedom of the city of New York had been officially given to Andrew Jackson forty years before. As a civil engineer he was engaged on dry-dock construction from 1849 till 1855 in the U.S. Navy-yards at Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and on the water-works of Brooklyn and Norfolk, Virginia, in 1855 and 1856. From 1858 till 1860 he was U. S. surveyor-general of Kansas and Nebraska. During the latter years of his life he was an invalid, and gave up all active work. He was buried at West Point. He married a daughter of General Aaron Ward, of Westchester County, and his son, a lieutenant in the navy, adopted his grandfather's name. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 459.



BURNHAM, Hiram, soldier, born in Maine; killed in battle at Chapin's Farm, 29 September, 1864. He entered the service as colonel of the 6th Maine Volunteers, leading them with skill and gallantry through the Peninsular Campaign, at Antietam, and in subsequent engagements. At the second battle of Fredericksburg he distinguished himself for bravery and courage, and again at Gettysburg. In April, 1864, he was made brigadier-general, and during the campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg he bore a conspicuous part. A few weeks previous to his death he was assigned to a brigade in Stannard's division, 18th Corps. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 460.



BURNHAM, James C., soldier, born in New York about 1820; died there, 2 September, 1866. He was appointed major in the 2d New York Infantry, 3 December 1846, and served with the command in that capacity from Vera Cruz to Churubusco. After the fall of Colonel Baxter he commanded the regiment at the storming of Chapultepec, was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel, 27 September, 1847, and led the regiment through the several battles around the city of Mexico, distinguishing himself in the attack on the Belen Gate. After the war Colonel Burnham was city marshal of New York under Mayor Wood, and was a prominent politician for several years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 460



BURNS, Anthony, fugitive slave, born in Virginia about 1830; died in St. Catharines, Canada, 27 July, 1862. He effected his escape from slavery in Virginia, and was at work in Boston in the winter of 1853-'4. On 23 May, 1854, the U. S. House of Representatives passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealing the Missouri Compromise, and permitting the extension of Negro slavery, which had been restricted since 1820. The news caused great indignation throughout the free states, especially in Boston, where the anti-slavery party had its headquarters. Just at this crisis Burns was arrested by U. S. Marshal Watson Freeman, under the provisions of the fugitive-slave act, on a warrant sworn out by Charles F. Suttle. He was confined in the Boston Court-house under a strong guard, and on 25 May was taken before U. S. Commissioner Loring for examination. Through the efforts of Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker, an adjournment was secured to 27 May, and in the meantime a mass-meeting was called at Faneuil Hall, and the U. S. marshal summoned a large posse of extra deputies, who were armed and stationed in and about the court-house to guard against an expected attempt at the rescue of Burns. The meeting at Faneuil Hall was addressed by the most prominent men of Boston, and could hardly be restrained from adjourning in a body to storm the court-house. While this assembly was in session, a premature attempt to rescue Burns was made under the leadership of Thomas W. Higginson. A door of the court-house was battered in, one of the deputies was killed in the fight, and Colonel Higginson and others of the assailants were wounded. A call for re-enforcements was sent to Faneuil Hall, but in the confusion it never reached the chairman. On the next day the examination was held before Commissioner Loring, Richard H. Dana and Charles M. Ellis appearing for the prisoner. The evidence showed that Burns was amenable under the law, and his surrender to his master was ordered. When the decision was made known, many houses were draped in black, and the state of popular feeling was such that the government directed that the prisoner be sent to Virginia on board the revenue cutter “Morris.” He was escorted to the wharf by a strong guard, through streets packed with excited crowds. At the wharf the tumult seemed about to culminate in riot, when the Reverend Daniel Foster (who was killed in action early in the Civil War) exclaimed, “Let us pray!” and silence fell upon the multitude, who stood with uncovered heads, while Burns was hurried on board the cutter. A more impressively dramatic ending, or one more characteristic of an excited but law-abiding and God-fearing New England community, could hardly be conceived for this famous case. Burns afterward studied at Oberlin College, and eventually became a Baptist minister, and settled in Canada, where, during the closing years of his life, he presided over a congregation of his own color. See “Anthony Burns, A History,” by C. E. Stevens (Boston, 1854). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 460.



BURNS, John, soldier, born in Burlington, New Jersey, 5 September, 1793; died in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 7 February, 1872. He was of Scottish ancestry, and through his father claimed relationship with the poet. He was among the first to volunteer for the war of 1812; was present in the actions at Plattsburg, Lundy's Lane, in which last-named engagement he was one of Colonel Miller's regiment that captured the British battery in the centre and turned the tide in favor of the Americans. He volunteered promptly for the war with Mexico, and again for the Civil War. For this last service he was rejected on account of his age by the United States mustering officer, but managed to go with the army as a teamster, and was always anxious to borrow a rifle and be in the ranks when the enemy was encountered. His age soon told against him, and, contrary to his will, he was sent home to Gettysburg, where his townsmen made him constable to keep him busy and contented. When the foremost Confederate  scouts approached in June, he went out with a party of volunteers to fight them, but was turned back by the National Cavalry. When the Confederates under General Early occupied the town, June 26, Burns had to be locked up for  asserting his civil authority as constable in opposition to that of the Confederate provost. As soon as the enemy advanced toward York, Burns resumed his official functions and began to arrest Confederate stragglers, including a chaplain named Gwin, who bore despatches. Two days later the National advance under General Buford arrived and relieved the veteran from his self-imposed duty of facing the Army of Northern Virginia single-handed. Shortly after the preliminary skirmishing of the battle of Gettysburg began, Burns met a wounded Union soldier, borrowed his rifle and ammunition, with which he went to the front and offered his services as a volunteer to Major Chamberlain, of the 155th Pennsylvania regiment. He was referred to the 7^th Wisconsin Volunteers nearby, they being sharply engaged with the enemy. The old man proved himself such a skilful sharp-shooter that the colonel commanding the regiment sent him a favorite long-range rifle, which he used all day with deadly effect in the advanced line; but he was badly wounded in the afternoon, when the National troops were forced back. He told a plausible story to his Confederate captors, and got himself carried to his own house, where his wounds were dressed by the surgeons; and, after a narrow escape from execution as an ununiformed combatant, he was left when the Confederates were in turn driven back and finally defeated. The story of his patriotic zeal aroused the test interest in the northern states; he was lauded as the “hero of Gettysburg,” and after the war, as his home was on the battle-field, became an object of curiosity to visitors and accumulated a competence through their generosity. During the last two years of his life his mind failed, and his friends were unable to prevent his wandering about the country. He was found in New York City on a cold winter's night in December, 1871, in a state of destitution, and was cared for and sent home, but died of pneumonia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 461.



BURNS, William Wallace, soldier, born in Coshocton. Ohio, 3 September, 1825. From 1843 till 1847 he was a cadet at the U. S. Military Academy. Joining the 3d Infantry after graduation, he served through the war with Mexico, and, after ten years of frontier, garrison, and recruiting service, received a staff appointment as captain and commissary of subsistence. His experience in the supply department led to his appointment for similar important duties during the Civil War. He served in the Army of the Potomac, and was wounded in the action at Savage's Station, 29 June, 1862. He was in the field with the Army of the Potomac to and including the battle of Fredericksburg, December, 1862, and was then appointed chief commissary of the Department of the Northwest. During the closing years of the Civil War he was in charge of the commissary departments successively of the Carolinas, of Georgia, and of Florida, and lastly of the whole Department of the South. Since the war he has been on duty at Washington, Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 462.



BURNSIDE, Ambrose Everett, soldier, born in Liberty, Indiana, 23 May, 1824; died in Bristol, Rhode Island, 3 September, 1881. The Burnside family is of Scottish origin. Having followed the fortunes of Charles Edward the pretender until his final defeat at Culloden in 1746, the founders of the American branch emigrated to South Carolina. The revolt of the American colonies against Britain divided them, some joining the patriots, others remaining loyal to the crown. Among the latter was James, grandfather of Ambrose, who was a captain in one of the regiments of South Carolinian royalists. When it became certain that the revolution would be successful, he, in company with others, whose estates were confiscated, escaped to Jamaica, out eventually obtained amnesty from the young republic and returned to South to Indiana, manumitting their slaves from conscientious motives. K^ «»*»l,Ii' h 1814 settled in the new town of ^rt^nf from married Pamelia Brown .another einigi? South Carolina.  Ambrose, the fourth of nine en born in a rude log cabin at the edge  The village  for a frontier town, and at seventeen Be n * w a better education than most bop 0 his father could not afford to give «» J mersional training, and he was mdenUreu' ^ chant tailor. After ".g^Tp'artier under to Liberty and began business asa»> Tailor5.» the style of " Myers & Burnad* Merchan Conversation with veterans of U» with Great Britain &r boob affairs, he read all the histories anu ^ taring on the.subvert thatJ^oouW ^R and local tradition is to the e Smith, Congressman from the totnt ^ the shop to have his coat . young tailor with a copy of ^"kept open bT propped UP against a pair of shears, so that he  followed, at' the same time. ^ "'S by the mand the Congressman was  that tell.gence and appearance o the  he sought his appointment as a cadet, and, although the first attempt was a failure, fortune at last favored him, and he entered the class of 1847, when there were at the academy more than a score of future generals, including McClellan, Hancock, and "Stonewall" Jackson. The war with Mexico was nearly over when Burnside was graduated; but he accompanied one however, the expeditionary force was largely increased, and, on 12 January, 1888, a Corps of 12,000 men, on a fleet of forty-six transports, sailed from Hampton Roads with sealed orders, directing them to rendezvous in Pamlico sound by way of Hatteras inlet. Within twenty-four hours a heavy gale arose, which lasted nearly two weeks, scattered the weens, oeatiereu me of the last detachments of recruits to the conquered fleet, and imperilled its safety. On 25 January, how- capital, and remained there as second lieutenant of the 3d U.S. Artillery during the military occupation of the place. Then followed years of life in garrison and on the frontier, including some Indian fighting. In 1852 he married Mary Richmond, daughter of Nathaniel Bishop, of Providence, Rhode Island, and in November of the same year resigned his commission, having invented a breech-loading rifle, the manufacture of which he wished to superintend. In August, 1857, a board of army officers reported favorably upon the Burnside breech-loader; but the inventor would not pay his way among the underlings of the war department, and was forced to go into bankruptcy. He devoted all his personal property to the liquidation of his debts, sought employment, found it at Chicago, under George B. McClellan, then vice-president of the Illinois central Railroad, and, by practicing strict economy, he eventually paid every obligation. In June, 1860, he became treasurer of the Illinois Central Railroad, his office being in New York City. In the autumn of that year he visited New Orleans on business, and gained an insight into the movement for secession that shook his lifelong faith in the Democratic Party. So confidently anticipate war that he set his business affairs in order, and was ready to start at once when, on 15 April, 1861, Governor Sprague, of Rhode Island, telegraphed for him to take command of the 1st Regiment of detached militia. On 20 April the regiment left Providence by sea, and inarched, with the other battalions that had been hurried forward, from Annapolis to Washington, reaching the capital on 26 April. The preliminary operations about Washington soon culminated, owing mainly to popular outcry and political pressure at the north, in the premature advance of the federal army, and the battle of Manassas or Bull Run (21 July). Colonel Burnside commanded a brigade on the extreme right of Hunter's division, which was detached from the main army early in the morning, and sent cross an upper ford to turn the Confederate left The movement was anticipated by the enemy, and a sharp engagement took place, at the beginning of which General Hunter was wounded, leaving Burnside in command. The Confederates were forced back, losing heavily, until nearly noon, when they were re-enforced by General Johnston's advance brigade under Jackson, who stemmed the tide of fugitives, and there won his name of " Stonewall." By this time Burnside's ammunition was exhausted, and his command had to fall back. It made no further aggressive movement, but retained its organization after the rout of the main army, and on the retreat toward Washington. A period of comparative inactivity followed, during which Colonel Burnside's regiment was mustered out on the expiration of its term of service. On 6 August, 1861, he was commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers, and given a command composed of the three year regiments then On 23 October, General Burnside was directed to organize a “coast division” with  headquarters at Annapolis. This force was largely composed of Regiments recruited on the New England Coasts, and intended for operations along the lower Potomac Chesapeake Bay. The plan was changed, ever, all the vessels had passed through Hatteras inlet and were safe in the sound. On 5 February the fleet, with an escort of gun-boats, moved toward Roanoke Island, a fortified post of the Confederates, and engaged the gun-boats and batteries. Within a few hours a landing was effected, and on 8 February the Confederate position near the middle of the island was carried and the garrison captured, numbering 2,500 men. The possession of Roanoke Island gave command of the extensive land-locked waters of Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, and was one of the earliest substantial successes of the national arms. Newbern, North Carolina, was occupied, after a sharp struggle, on 14 March. The surrender of Fort Macon and Beaufort soon followed, and, when General Burnside visited the north on a short leave of absence, he found himself welcomed as the most uniformly successful of the federal leaders. During the campaign in the Carolinas and the early summer following, the Army of the Potomac, under McClellan, had been defeated before Richmond, and had in turn repelled the Confederates at Malvern Hill. Burnside relinquished the command of the Department of North Carolina, and, with his old divisions reorganized as the 9th Corps, was transferred to the Army of the Potomac, which held the north shore of the Rappahannock opposite Fredericksburg. The chief command was offered to Burnside, but he resolutely declined it, frankly declaring that he did not consider himself competent. On 27 June the order was issued relieving McClellan and placing Pope in command. The fortunes of the Confederacy now seemed so distinctly in the ascendant that it was determined at Richmond to assume the offensive. The preparations for the movement were at once known in Washington, and the administration urged General Pope to create a diversion along the line of the Rappahannock. This he attempted, but was foiled almost at all points, and the Army of Virginia, as it was temporarily designated, fell back sullen and demoralized after a second defeat at Manassas, upon the defences of Washington, where Burnside was again asked to take command, but again declined. In its extremity, the administration again called upon McClellan, who in a remarkably short time brought order out of chaos and reinspired the army with a degree of confidence. By this time Lee’s advance had crossed the Potomac near Sharpsburg, and Burnside was sent to meet him with the 1st and 9th Corps. He left Washington September 3. On 12 September he met the enemy's pickets at Frederick City, and on the 14th encountered the Confederates in force at South Mountain, and very handsomely dislodged them from a strong position. The energy of this movement was probably not anticipated by General Lee. He retreated to Antietam Creek, threw up intrenchments, and awaited attack. To Burnside's 9th Corps, on the morning of the battle of Antietam (Sent. 17), was assigned the task of capturing and holding a stone bridge. This was done at a terrible sacrifice of life; but it was the key of the position, and, according to a high Confederate authority (Edward A. Pollard, the historian), if the bridge could have been re-captured, the result of the battle of Antietam would have been decisive. The army remained in the neighborhood of Sharpsburg until early in November, when McClellan was relieved, and on 10 November Burnside reluctantly assumed command. At this time the Confederate Army was divided, Longstreet and Jackson commanding, respectively, its right and left wings, being separated by at least two days' march. Rick' and Burnside were always warm personal friends, and the former gave his successor in command the benefit of his projected plans. A month d in reorganizing the army in three grand divisions, under Generals Sumner, Franklin, and Hooker, with the 11th Corps under Sigel as a reserve. The plan was to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg and, if possible, crush the separated wings of the Confederate Army in detail. The movement began 15 November, and four days later the army occupied the heights opposite Fredericksburg, but with the river intervening and no pontoon-train ready. The responsibility for this failure has never been charged to General Burnside, nor has it ever been definitely fixed upon any one save a vague and impersonal “department”; but it necessitated a fatal delay, for Lee had moved nearly as rapidly as Burnside, and promptly occupied and fortified the heights south of the river. During the period of enforced inaction that followed, General Burnside went to Washington and expressed his doubts as to the policy of crossing the river, in view of the failure of the attempt to divide Lee's forces. But he was urged to push a winter campaign against Richmond, and, returning to the front, gave orders to place the bridges. is was gallantly effected in the face of a sharp resistance, Fredericksburg was cleared of the enemy, and on 13 December the whole National Army had crossed and was in position south of the Rappahannock. The situation in brief was this: South and in the rear of Fredericksburg is a range of hills irregularly parallel to the course of the river; the space between is a lateau well adapted for the movement of troops. his was occupied by the National Army in the three grand divisions specified, Sumner holding the right, Hooker the centre, and Franklin the left. The Confederates occupied the naturally strong position along the crest of the hills, and were well intrenched, with batteries in position. Longstreet commanded the right wing, and Jackson the left. The weak point of the Confederate line was at its right, owing to a depression of the hills, and here it was at first intended to make a determined assault; but, for some reason, orders were sent to Franklin, at the last moment, merely to make a demonstration, while Sumner attempted to carry Marye's hill, which, naturally a strong position, was rendered nearly impregnable by a sunken road, bordered by a stone wall, along its base. The best battalions in the army were sent against this position; but the fire of artillery and infantry was so severe that nothing was gained, £ the struggle was kept up till nightfall, General Hooker's division being the last to attack, only to be repelled as its predecessors had been. Burnside would have renewed the attack on the next day, but Sumner dissuaded him at the last moment, and that night the whole army recrossed the river, having lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, more than 12,000 men. Some of these, however, afterward returned to their regiments. The Confederate loss was 5,309. Insubordination was soon developed among the corps and division commanders, and Burnside issued an order, subject to the president's approval, summarily dismissing several of them from the service, and relieving others from duty. and Brooks, was not approved, and General Burnside was superseded by Major-General Hooker. Transferred to the Department of the Ohio, with headquarters at Cincinnati, Burnside found himself forced to take stringent measures in regard to the proceedings of southern sympathizers on both sides of the river. On 13 April, 1863, he issued his famous general order defining certain treasonable offences, and announcing that they would not be tolerated. Numerous arrests followed, including that of Clement L. Vallandigham, who was tri by military commission for making a treasonable speech, was found guilty, and sentenced to imprisonment during the remainder of the war. #. sentence the president commuted to banishment, and Vallandigham was sent within the lines of the Confederacy. The Democrats of Ohio thereupon nominated him for governor, but he was defeated by a majority of more than 100,000. In August, 1863, Burnside crossed the Cumberland mountains at the head of 18,000 men, marching 250 miles in 14 days, '' Confederates, who had their headquarters at Knoxville, to make a hasty retreat. He pushed forward, and Cumberland Gap was captured, with its garrison and stores. Attacked by Longstreet, with a superior force, General Burnside retreated in good order, fighting all the way to Knoxville, where he was fortified and provisioned for a siege by the time Longstreet was ready to invest the place. This movement, according to General Burnside's biographer, was made, on his own responsibility, to draw Longstreet away from Grant's front, and thus facilitate the defeat of General Bragg, which soon followed. The siege of Knoxville was prosecuted with great vigor for a month, when the approach of General Sherman compelled Longstreet to raise the si Immediately afterward General Burnside was relieved, and devoted himself to recruiting and reorganizing the 9th Corps. In April, 1864, he resumed command at Annapolis, with the corps nearly 20,000 strong. Attached once more to the Army of the Potomac, this time under General Grant, he led his corps through the battles of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, and the operations against Petersburg. In these latter engagements the corps suffered very heavily, and General Meade preferred charges of disobedience against Burnside, and ordered a court-martial for his trial. This course was disapproved by General Grant, and, at Burnside's request, a court of inquiry was ordered, which eventually found him “answerable for the want of success.” He always held that the failure was due to interference with his plan of assault, and before a Congressional committee of investigation much testimony was adduced to show that this was really the case. General Burnside resigned from the army on 15 April, 1865, with a military record that does him high honor as a patriotic, brave, and able officer, to whom that bane of army life, professional jealousy, was unknown. He always frankly admitted his own unfitness for the command of a large army, and accepted such commands only under stress of circumstances. Returning to civil life, he became at once identified with railroad construction and management. He was elected governor of Rhode Island in April, 1866, and re-elected in 1867 and 1868. Declining a fourth nomination, he devoted himself successfully to the great railroad interests with which he was identified. He went to Europe on business during the height of the Franco-Prussian war, and, as a soldier, naturally wished to witness some of the siege operations before Paris. The order, which Visiting the Prussian headquarters at Versailles sweepingly included Hooker, Franklin, Newton, simply in a private capacity, he found himself called upon to act as an envoy between the hostile forces, which he did, passing back and forth under a flag-of-truce, endeavoring to further negotiations for peace. In Paris, and among the German besiegers, he was looked upon with the greatest curiosity, and, although his efforts at peace-making were unsuccessful, he secured the lasting respect and confidence of both sides. In January, 1875, after his return to this country, he was elected U. S. Senator from Rhode Island," and in 1880 was re-elected. He took a leading position in the Senate, was Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and sustained his life-long character as a fair-minded and patriotic citizen. His death, which was very sudden, from neuralgia of the heart, occurred at his home in Bristol, B. L The funeral ceremonies assumed an almost national character, for his valuable services as a soldier and as a statesman had secured general recognition, and in his own state he was the most conspicuous man of his time. Burnside was a tall and handsome man of soldierly bearing, with charming manners, which won for him troops of friends and admirers. He outlived his wife, and died childless. See " Life and Public Services of Ambrose E. Burnside," by Benjamin Perley Poore (Providence, 1882).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 462-465.



Burr, James, American abolitionist.  Aided fugitive slaves in Missouri.  He was caught, tried and convicted.  Sentenced to prison. Worked with abolitionists George Thompson and Alanson Work.  (Sinha, 2016, p. 393-394)



BURRIS, Samuel D., 1808-1869, African American anti-slavery activist.  Aided fugitive slaves on the Underground Railroad. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 2, p. 412)



BURRITT, Elihu, 1810-1879, reformer, free produce activist, advocate of compensated emancipation (Burritt, 1856, pp. 11-18, 30-33; Dumond, 1961, p. 350; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 195, 202, 203, 236, 257, 327, 329, 334, 340, 343, 363, 365, 366, 369, 372, 378, 420n1; Pease, 1965, pp. 200-205, 427; Appletons’, 1888, Vol. 1, p. 469; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. II, Pt. 1, p. 328).

BURRITT, Elihu, reformer, born in New Britain, Connecticut, 8 December, 1810; died there, 9 March, 1879. He was the son of a shoemaker, was educated in the common schools of his native place, and in 1828, after his father's death, was apprenticed to a blacksmith. The stories of the old revolutionary soldiers who came to his father's house had given him a desire to know more of books, and, when his apprenticeship was ended, he studied Latin, French, and mathematics with his brother, the principal of a small boarding-school. He attempted to perform the duties of a teacher as a means of support, but poor health prevented success. He returned to his forge, still continuing his studies, often watching the castings in his furnace with a Greek grammar in his hand. After beginning the study of Hebrew, he thought of going to sea and using his wages to buy oriental books at the first port, but gave up this plan, and, going to Worcester, Massachusetts, resumed work at the anvil and the study of languages, for which the antiquarian library there gave him special facilities. Here he translated all the Icelandic sagas relating to the discovery of America, and obtained the name of the “learned blacksmith.” In 1839 he published for a year a monthly periodical to teach French, called “The Literary Gemini.” Mr. Burritt made his first public appearance in 1841 as a lecturer maintaining the doctrine that all mental attainments are the result of persistent study and effort. In 1842 he established the “Christian Citizen” at Worcester, a weekly journal, devoted to anti-slavery, peace, temperance, and self-culture. Four years later he went to Europe, and during a visit of three years devoted himself to co-operation with the English peace advocates. During this time also he developed the basis of an international association known as the League of universal brotherhood, which aimed at the abolition of war and the promotion of fraternal relations and feelings between different countries. At this time he was proprietor and editor of the “Peace Advocate,” and published a periodical tract, the “Bond of Brotherhood.” He was prominent in organizing the first Peace Congress, and took part in two subsequent Congresses, in 1849 and 1850. In 1852 he became editor of the “Citizen of the World,” Philadelphia, in which he urged the compensated emancipation of southern slaves. His disappointment at the failure of his project was great. He had advocated it clearly and forcibly, and to its advancement had devoted all his time and resources, living at times almost in poverty. Mr. Burritt then retired to a small farm which he owned at New Britain. He made a brief visit to England in 1863, and during the following two years he published three new books and several volumes of general writings. He was appointed U. S. consul at Birmingham in 1865, returned to America in 1870, and spent the remainder of his days in his native village. He published “Sparks from the Anvil” (London, 1848); “Miscellaneous Writings” (1850); “Olive Leaves” (1853); “Thoughts of Things at Home and Abroad” (Boston, 1854); “Hand-Book of the Nations” (New York, 1856); “A Walk from John O'Groat's to Land's End” (London, 1864); “The Mission of Great Sufferings” (1867); “Walks in the Black Country” (1868); “Lectures and Speeches” (1869); “Ten Minute Talks” (1873); and “Chips from Many Blocks” (1878). See “Life of Elihu Burritt,” by Charles Northend (New York, 1879). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888. Vol. I  p.468



BURTON, Henry S., soldier, born in New York in 1818; died in Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island, 4 April, 1869. He was appointed to '' U. S. Military Academy from Vermont, was graduated in 1839, and served as second lieutenant of the 3d Artillery in the Florida War from 1839 till 1842. He was made first lieutenant, 11 November, 1839, and was an assistant instructor at West Point from 16 June, 1843, till 5 August, 1846. He served in the Mexican War as lieutenant-colonel of New York volunteers, distinguished himself by his defence of La Paz, Lower California, and was also engaged at Todos Santos. He was made captain, 22 September, 1847, and remained in California on duty in various forts most of the time till 1862, when, having been promoted to major on 14 May, 1861, he had charge of the prisoners of war at Fort Delaware until September, 1863. He was made colonel of the 5th Artillery, 11 August, 1863, and commanded the artillery reserve of the Army of the Potomac from January till May, 1864. He was inspector of artillery in the Richmond Campaign, and held the same office in the Department of the East from 7 September till 2 December, 1864, when he became a member of the retiring board, and served there till 15 May, 1865. He was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, 13 March, 1865, for services at the capture of Petersburg, and commanded his regiment, stationed in various forts, for the remainder of his life. From October, 1868, till March, 1869, he was member of a court-martial in New York City. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 472.



BUSH, Abigail Norton, c. 1810 - c. 1899, abolitionist, radical reformer, women’s rights activist, member of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society.  Active in Rochester, New York.  Wife of radical abolitionist Henry Bush.  President of the Women’s Rights Convention in Rochester, New York, in 1848.



BUSSEY, Cyrus, soldier, born in Hubbard, Trumbull County, Ohio, 5 October, 1833. His father was a Methodist minister. When fourteen years old he became a merchant's clerk in Dupont, Indiana, and at the age of sixteen began business on his own account, becoming a prosperous merchant. From this time until he was twenty-two he devoted several hours a day to study, and for two years studied medicine with his brother. Mr. Bussey was elected to the state senate as a Democrat in 1858, and was a delegate to the Baltimore Convention that nominated Stephen A. Douglas for president. At the outbreak of the war he came forward strongly to the support of the government and was a pointed by Governor Kirkwood to the command of the militia in the southeastern part of the state, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On 10 August, 1861, he became colonel of the 3d Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, which he had raised, and joined the Army of the Southwest. He commanded a brigade in the battle of Pea Ridge, participated in the Arkansas Campaign of 1862, and on 10 July led the 3d Brigade of Steele's division. He commanded the District of Eastern Arkansas from 11 January, 1863, till the following April, when he took charge of the 2d Cavalry Division of the Army of the Tennessee. He was chief of cavalry at the siege of Vicksburg, doing good service in watching General Joseph Johnston's attempts to raise the siege, led the advance in Sherman's movement against Johnston, and defeated Jackson at Canton, 17 July, 1863. He was made brigadier-general, 5 January, 1864, for “special gallantry,” and shortly afterward was given command of western Arkansas and the Indian territory, with the 3d Division of the 7th Corps. This district had been in a disorganized state. Fort Smith, its headquarters, was the resort of dishonest contractors, who cheated the government and plundered the residents, and drunkenness and theft prevailed among the troops to an alarming extent. With a view to breaking up corruption and restoring discipline, General Bussey was given command there, and he succeeded in a short time in accomplishing this difficult task. He was brevetted major-general on 13 March, 1865, and after the war resumed business as a commission merchant, first in St. Louis, and then in New Orleans. He was a delegate to the Republican Convention of 1868, which nominated General Grant for president, was for six years president of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, and chairman of a committee of that body that obtained from Congress the appropriation for Captain Eads's jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi. General Bussey engaged in business in New York City in 1881, and in 1884 took an active part in the canvass for Mr. Blaine. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 475



BUSTEED, Richard, lawyer, jurist, Union general, anti-slavery advocate. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 476).

BUSTEED, Richard, lawyer, born in Cavan, Ireland, 16 February, 1822. His father, George Washington Busteed, was a Dublin barrister, and at one time held a colonel's commission in the British Army. In 1829 the elder Busteed was appointed chief secretary of the island of St. Lucia, but his zeal in the cause of emancipation led to his removal from office, and, after returning to Ireland, he emigrated to London, Canada, where he established a paper called “The True Patriot.” Richard began work on this paper as a type-setter, mid afterward accompanied his father to Cincinnati, Ohio, to Hartford, Connecticut, and finally to New York, where he worked on the “Commercial Advertiser.” At this time he was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Church. After a visit to Ireland for his health in 1840, he began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. His management of the defence in several celebrated extradition cases soon made his reputation, and he became a successful lawyer. In 1856 he was elected corporation counsel of New York City, holding the office till 1859, and in the presidential campaign of 1860 he was a supporter of Douglas, and a bitter opponent of Lincoln, but after the attack on Sumter he became a strong union man. On 7 August, 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers by President Lincoln, and assigned to duty, first in New York and then in Washington. In December, 1862, he took command of a brigade at Yorktown, Virginia General Busteed's course in support of the administration, and on the slavery question, had raised against him many enemies, who determined to prevent his confirmation. The five colonels of his brigade sent a joint letter to the Senate, testifying to the improvement in discipline made by their commands under him. His name, however, was not sent to that body for confirmation, as on 10 March, 1863, he sent his resignation to the president. On 17 September, 1863, General Busteed was appointed by President Lincoln to be U. S. District Judge for Alabama. He was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on 20 January, 1864, and in the autumn of 1865 he opened the court. He decided that the test-oath prescribed by Congress was unconstitutional, so far as it applied to attorneys practicing before U. S. courts, and this decision was followed by judges in other states, the supreme court afterward delivering a similar opinion. In November, 1865, Judge Busteed had a controversy with the U. S. military authorities in Alabama, which excited great interest, and involved important questions relating to the suspension of the habeas corpus act. In 1874 he resigned and resumed the practice of law in New York City. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 476.



BUTLER, Andrew Pickens, jurist, born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, 17 November, 1796; died near Edgefield Court-House, 25 May, 1857, was graduated at South Carolina College in 1817, admitted to the bar in 1819, and soon gained a reputation for eloquence and humor. He was elected to the legislature in 1824, and in 1825, as aide to Governor Manning, took part in the reception given to General Lafayette. In 1827 he was one of the committee that conducted the impeachment trial of Judge James, a revolutionary veteran, charged with incompetence and drunkenness. During the nullification troubles in 1831 he commanded a cavalry regiment. He was judge of sessions in 1833, and of the state court from 1835 till 1846, and was then appointed by the governor to the U.S. Senate to fill a vacancy, and was afterward elected by the legislature, remaining a senator till his death. Soon after taking his seat he became chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and he took a conspicuous part in debate, particularly on questions affecting the south. His report on the Fugitive Slave Law was Defended by him in an able speech. His last effort was in reply to Charles Sumner and in defence of his state. Judge Butler was a relative of Preston S. Brooks, and it was because of remarks about him in debate that Mr. Brooks assaulted Mr. Sumner in the Senate-chamber. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 482.



BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin, 1818-1893, New York, attorney, political leader, opponent of slavery, Civil War Union General, Republican member of the U.S. Congress.  Founding member and officer of the Albany auxiliary of the American Colonization Society.  As Union General, he refused to return runaway slaves to Southerners at Fort Monroe.  This led to a federal policy of calling enslaved individuals who fled to Union lines contraband of war.  (Burin, 2005, p. 162; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 477-478; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 1, p. 357; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 81, 129, 178, 224).

BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin, lawyer, born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, 5 November, 1818. He is the son of Captain John Butler, who served under Jackson at New Orleans. He was graduated at Waterville College (now Colby University), Maine, in 1838, was admitted to the bar in 1840, began practice at Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1841, and has since had a high reputation as a lawyer, especially in criminal cases. He early took a prominent part in politics on the Democratic side, and was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853, and of the state senate in 1859. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention that met at Charleston. When a portion of the delegates reassembled at Baltimore, Mr. Butler, after taking part in the opening debates mid votes, announced that a majority of the delegates from Massachusetts would not further participate in the deliberations of the convention, on the ground that there had been a withdrawal in part of the majority of the states; and further, he added, “upon the ground that I would not sit in a convention where the African slave-trade, which is piracy by the laws of my country, is approvingly advocated.” In the same year he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts. At the time of President Lincoln's call for troops in April, 1861, he held the commission of brigadier-general of militia. On the 17th of that month he marched to Annapolis with the 8th Massachusetts Regiment, and was placed in command of the District of Annapolis, in which the City of Baltimore was included. On 13 May, 1861, he entered Baltimore at the head of 900 men, occupied the city without opposition, and on 16 May was made a major-general, and assigned to the command of Fort Monroe and the Department of Eastern Virginia. While he was here, some slaves that had come within his lines were demanded by their masters; but he refused to deliver them up on the ground that they were contraband of war; hence arose the designation of “contrabands,” often applied to slaves during the war. In August he captured Forts Hatteras and Clark on the Coast of North Carolina. He then returned to Massachusetts to recruit an expedition for the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi. On 23 March, 1862, the expedition reached Ship Island, and on 17 April went up the Mississippi. The fleet under Farragut having passed the forts, 24 April, and virtually captured New Orleans, General Butler took possession of the city on 1 May. His administration of affairs was marked by great vigor. He instituted strict sanitary regulations, armed the free colored men, and compelled rich secessionists to contribute toward the support of the poor of the city. His course in hanging William Mumford for hauling down the U. S. flag from the mint, and in issuing “Order No. 28,” intended to prevent women from insulting soldiers, excited strong resentment, not only in the south, but in the north and abroad, and in December, 1862, Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation declaring him an outlaw. On 10 May, 1862, General Butler seized about $800,000 which had been deposited in the office of the Dutch consul, claiming that arms for the Confederates were to be bought with it. This action was protested against by all the foreign consuls, and the government at Washington, after an investigation, ordered the return of the money. On 16 December, 1862, General Butler was recalled, as he believes, at the instigation of Louis Napoleon, who supposed the general to be hostile to his Mexican schemes. Near the close of 1863 he was placed in command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and his force was afterward designated as the Army of the James. In October, 1864, there being apprehensions of trouble in New York during the election, General Butler was sent there with a force to insure quiet. In December he conducted an ineffectual expedition against Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, North Carolina, and soon afterward was removed from command by General Grant. He then returned to his residence in Massachusetts. In 1866 he was elected by the Republicans a member of Congress, where he remained till 1879, with the exception of the term for 1875-'7. He was the most active of the managers appointed in 1868 by the House of Representatives to conduct the impeachment of President Johnson. He was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for governor of Massachusetts in 1871; and in 1878 and 1879, having changed his politics, was the candidate of the independent greenback party and of one wing of the Democrats for the same office, but was again defeated. In 1882 the Democrats united upon him as their candidate, and he was elected, though the rest of the state ticket was defeated. During his administration, he made a charge of gross mismanagement against the authorities of the Tewksbury Almshouse; but, after a long investigation, a committee of the legislature decided that it was not sustained. In 1883 he was renominated, but was defeated. In 1884 he was the candidate of the greenback and anti-monopolist parties for the presidency, and received 133,825 votes. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888.



BUTLER, Francis Eugene, clergyman, born in Suffolk, Connecticut, 7 February, 1825; died in Suffolk, Virginia, 4 May, 1863. He was for several years a merchant in New York city, where he was secretary of the New York Bible Society, one of the founders of the Young Men's Christian association, and an active friend of other religious institutions. When twenty-nine years old, he entered Yale with the determination of fitting himself for the ministry. He was graduated in 1857, and spent three years in the study of theology at Princeton, and one year at Andover. He supplied for a time the pulpit of a church in Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania, and afterward that of the Second Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, Ohio. After his ordination on 16 April, 1862, he preached in the Congregational Church in Paterson, New Jersey When the 25th Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers was organized, he accepted the post of chaplain, and accompanied the regiment to Suffolk, Virginia In an engagement near that place on 3 May, learning that some men of a Connecticut regiment on the right were suffering for want of surgical assistance, he went to their relief, and was shot by a sharp-shooter and died the next day.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 479.


BUTLER, Matthew Calbraith, senator, son of William, born near Greenville, South Carolina, 8 March, 1836, was educated at South Carolina College, studied law at Edgefield Court House with his uncle, was admitted to the bar in 1857, at Edgefield Court-House, and was elected to the legislature in 1859. He entered the Confederate service as captain in June, 1861, became colonel of the 2d South Carolina Cavalry on 22 August, 1862, brigadier-general on 1 September, 1863, and afterward a major-general, commanding Wright's and Logan's brigades of cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia. At the battle of Brandy Station, 9 June, 1863, he lost his right leg. He was elected to the legislature of South Carolina in 1866, was a candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1870, and received the Democratic vote for U.S. Senator the same year. In 1876, when there were two contending state governments in existence, he was elected U.S. Senator by the Democratic legislature, as the successor of Thomas J. Robertson, Republican. David T. Corbin, who was elected by the Republican legislature, contested the election but General Butler was admitted to the seat on 2 December, 1877. In 1882 he was re-elected for the term expiring 3 March, 1889. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 482.



BUTLER, Ovid, 1801-1881, Augusta, New York, lawyer, newspaper publisher, university founder, abolitionist.  Founded abolitionist newspaper, Free Soil Banner, in 1849. Helped found Northwestern Christian University in 1855.  It was later renamed Butler University.



BUTLER, Pardee, 1816-1888, Kansas, farmer, clergyman, abolitionist.  He was a victim of a pro-slavery mob in Kansas in August 1855, and a Republican Party organizer in Kansas in May-June 1856.



BUTLER, Pierce Mason, born in Edgefield District, South Carolina, 11 April, 1798; killed in the battle of Churubusco, Mexico, 20 August, 1847, received a military education, and entered the army in 1819 as second lieutenant of infantry. He displayed from the first abilities that promised distinction. was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in 1823, and attained the grade of captain in 1825. After four years of service, he resigned his commission, and in 1829 became a resident of Columbia, South Carolina, and was elected president of a bank established at that place. In 1836 he resigned the office and accepted the appointment of lieutenant-colonel in Goodwyn's regiment of South Carolina volunteers, raised to aid in suppressing the Seminole Indians of Florida. He served throughout the war, and won distinction in several hard-fought battles. On his return from Florida, he was in 1838 elected governor of South Carolina. At the end of his term, having given great satisfaction to the state by the dignity and ability that he displayed in the office, he was appointed by the president Indian agent, and filled that place to the satisfaction of the government until the beginning of the war with Mexico in 1846, when he resigned it to enter the army. He organized the Palmetto Regiment, was elected its colonel, and led it with the greatest gallantry in the fierce conflicts in which it took part, winning marked distinction in the battle of Cerro Gordo. At the battle of Churubusco, 22 August, 1847, Colonel Butler was wounded in the early part of the engagement, but would not retire from the field, and continued to lead his men in the impetuous charge upon the Mexican lines until he was shot through the head and killed instantly. Colonel Butler was over six feet in height, finely pro- portioned, his features classical, his face beaming with the ardor of his heroic spirit, and his bearing full of soldierly dignity. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 482.



BUTLER, William Orlando, soldier, born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, in 1791; died in Carrollton, Kentucky, 6 August, 1880. He was educated at Transylvania University in 1812, and was studying law under Robert Wickliffe at Lexington, when, at the breaking out of hostilities with England, he enlisted as a private, and hastened to the relief of Fort Wayne. Promoted ensign in the 17th Infantry, he was at the disastrous battles of 18 and '' 1813, at Raisin River. He distinguished himself in the second engagement by burning a barn from which the Indians poured a galling fire into the American ranks, was afterward wounded and taken prisoner, and, after enduring privations and inhuman treatment, was paroled at Fort Niagara, and made his way back to Kentucky amid many hard- ships. Commissioned a captain, he raised a company, and did good service at Pensacola. He was ordered to New Orleans, where, on the night of 23 December, 1814, while in command of four companies on the left wing, he attacked and repelled General Sir Edward Pankenham. This check gave time for the construction of defences at Chalmette, which on 8 January enabled the Americans to defeat a force double their own and win a decisive victory. For this service he was made brevet major. In the following year he succeeded his brother, Major Thomas Butler, as aide-de-camp to General Jackson. In 1817 he resigned from the army and resumed the practice of law, was elected in that year to the legislature, and served through three terms. In 1839 he was elected as a Democrat to Congress, and he was again returned in 1841, but declined a third nomination. He was induced to accept the nomination for governor in 1844, with no hope of the effect of reducing the majority of  the Whig Party from 28,000 to fewer than 5,000. His success at the bar was marked, but at the beginning of the Mexican War he joined the army, and on 29 June, 1846, was appointed major-general of volunteers. He reported to General Taylor, and in the early military movements in Texas and northern Mexico bore a prominent part. At the siege of Monterey, 24 September, he charged a battery, was wounded in the leg, and was sent home, but rejoined the army of General Scott the following year, and was at the capture of the city of Mexico. For his bravery at Monterey he received a sword of honor from Congress, and one from his own state. In February, 1848, being senior major-general, he succeeded General Scott in the chief command, and held that place when peace was signed, 29 May, 1848. In May, 1848, the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore nominated General Butler for vice-president on the ticket on which Lewis Cass held the first place. This ticket was defeated by the schism in the party, and the nomination in New York of the Free-Soil candidates, Van Buren and Adams. General Butler remained in private life after this election, refusing the appointment of governor of the Territory of Nebraska in 1855. His last appearance on the public stage was as a member of the Peace Congress which met at Washington in 1861. He was the author of “The Boatman's Horn” and other short poems. His “Life and Public Services,” edited by Francis P. Blair, Jr., appeared in 1848. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 481.



BUTTERFIELD, Daniel soldier, born in Utica, New York, 31 October, 1831, was graduated at Union in 1849, and became a merchant in New York City. He was colonel of the 12th New York Militia when the Civil War began. Accompanying his regiment to Washington in July, 1861, he led the advance into Virginia over the Long Bridge, joined General Patterson on the upper Potomac, and commanded a brigade. On the enlargement of the regular army, he was commissioned a lieutenant-colonel, and assigned to the 12th U.S. Infantry, 14 May, 1861, appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 7 September, 1861, and ordered to the corps of Fitz-John Porter, in which he made the Campaign of the Peninsula, taking a conspicuous part in the actions at Hanover Court-House, Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mills, where he was wounded, and in the battles fought during the retreat of McClellan's army to Harrison's Landing, where he commanded a detachment on the south side of the James River to cover the retreat. He took part in the great battles under Pope and McClellan in August and September, 1862, and near the close of October took command of Morell's division. He became major-general of volunteers on 29 November, 1862, was made colonel of the 5th Infantry in the regular army on 1 July, 1863, and commanded the 5th Corps at the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, was chief of staff, Army of the Potomac, at Chancellorsville, and at Gettysburg, where he was wounded, was ordered to re-enforce Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland, in October, 1863, acting as chief of staff to Hooker at Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Ringgold, and Pea Vine Creek, Georgia. He commanded a division of the 20th Corps at the battles of Buzzard's Roost, Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Kenesaw, and Lost Mountain, Georgia, and was brevetted brigadier and major-general, U.S.A., for gallant and meritorious conduct. He is the author of “Camp and Outpost Duty” (New York, 1862). He served after the war as superintendent of the general recruiting service of the U.S. Army, with headquarters in New York, and in command of forces in New York Harbor from 1865 till 1869, when he resigned from the army and was appointed head of the Sub-treasury of the United States in New York. Since leaving this position he has been connected with the American Express Company. On 21 September, 1886, he married, in London England, Mrs. Julia L. James, of New York City. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 483.



BUTTERFIELD, John, expressman; born in Helderberg, New York, in 1783; died in Utica, 15 November, 1869. He was self-educated, and was a stage-coach driver in early life. In 1822 he moved to Utica to assist in the management of the stage-line between Albany and Buffalo, and soon became the leading manager of that business in the state, owner of nearly all the stage-coach lines in western New York, and part-owner of a line of steamers on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. In 1849 he formed the express company of Butterfield, Wesson & Co. On the establishment of railroads, he directed his energies to the new project, and was also the originator of the American express company, in which organization he was a directing power until his death. The corporation was formed in  Butterfield, Wesson & Co., Wells & Co., and Livingston & Fargo, which was accomplished at the suggestion of Mr. Butterfield. Perceiving the commercial importance of the electric telegraph, he projected and built the Morse telegraph line between New York and Buffalo. He was president of the Overland Mail Company, which, in 1858, contracted with the government to carry a monthly, and subsequently a daily, mail between San Francisco and the Missouri River. He also aided largely in building up the city of Utica. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 483.



BUTTERWORTH, Benjamin, commissioner of the Patent Office,  born in Warren County, Ohio, 22 October, 1822. His father was originally a Virginia planter, who had freed his slaves, and, removing to Ohio, became active with Levi Coffin in the “Underground Railroad.” The son was educated at Ohio University in Athens, studied law in Cincinnati, was admitted to the bar in 1861, and practised in that city. He was U.S. District Attorney in 1870, a member of the state senate in 1873 and 1874, and was elected to Congress in 1878, and re-elected for the following term. He was the author of the compulsory army retirement act. In 1883 President Arthur appointed him a commissioner to examine a part of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He was also retained by the government as counsel to prosecute the South Carolina election cases in that year. After the retirement of E. M. Marble from the patent-office, 1 September, 1883, Mr. Butterworth was appointed commissioner of patents. In 1884 he was in elected to Congress.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 483-484.



BUTTRE, John Chester, engraver, born in Au- burn, New York, 10 June, 1821. He obtained his education in the district-schools and in Auburn Academy. The first drawing-lessons he received were from one Hulaniski, a Polish exile residing in Auburn; and afterward, while assisting his father, he devoted his leisure to the study of portrait-painting. In the practice of this art he was assisted by friends; but he did not succeed as well with colors as in drawing, and his attention was directed to wood-engraving. His first attempt in this line was a series of small penny toy primers. By degrees the work progressed, and in time he did the business of a general engraver, including card- plates, wood-cuts for the newspapers, marking silver-ware, and various kinds of simple work. In 1841 he moved to New York, and thereafter gave his attention to steel-plate engraving. His productions were soon in demand, and ap in many of the magazines. About 1858 he executed a full-length portrait of President Buchanan, which was then regarded as one of the best specimens of that kind of work. He also engraved and published a successful full-length portrait of Martha Washington.  During the Civil War he published “The Empty Sleeve,” “Only a Little Brook,” “Prayer in Camp,” and several similar pictures, which had an extensive sale. His work includes the engraving of nearly 3,000 plates, and it is his pride that orders have come to him on account of is merit, without solicitation. He has published in parts “The American Portrait Gallery,” of which the letter-press was presented by his daughter, Lillian C. Buttre (3 vols., New York, 1880–81).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 484.



BUTTS, Isaac, journalist, born in Washington, Dutchess County, New York, 11 January, 1816; died in Rochester, New York, 20 November, 1874. At the age of twelve he moved with his father's family to the town of Irondequoit, adjoining the city of Rochester, where he lived upon a farm and received common-school instruction. Approaching to majority, he sought a more liberal education and received it under the instruction of Professor Chester Dewey, principal of the Rochester high school. After successfully following various pursuits, he adopted the profession of journalism, and in October, 1845, purchased and assumed editorship of the Rochester “Advertiser,” the oldest daily paper in the United States west of Albany, and the leading organ of the Democratic Party in western New York. During the following year, 1846, slavery became a prominent issue in the politics of the United States, as a consequence of the war with Mexico, and the pending acquisition of territory by treaty of peace. The question was, whether slavery should be allowed or prohibited by Congress in the acquired territory, and discussion of it was forced in August, 1846, by the introduction in the House of Representatives of the “Wilmot Proviso,” to the effect that slavery should be excluded. Mr. Butts took strong ground against both sides in the controversy, and promulgated the doctrine that the people of the territories should settle the question for themselves. Credit for the origin of this principle of “Popular Sovereignty,” or “Squatter Sovereignty,” as its opponents contemptuously stigmatized it, has been erroneously claimed for each of three distinguished senators— Daniel S. Dickinson, Lewis Cass, and Stephen A. Douglas – respectively from New York, Michigan, and Illinois. The records prove that it was first advocated by Mr. Butts in the daily “Advertiser” of 8 February, 1847; by Mr. Dickinson in the Senate, 13 December, 1847; by General Cass in his Nicholson letter, 24 December, 1847; and by Judge Douglas in the discussion of the compromise measures in the Senate, 17 June, 1850. In the division of the Democratic Party that followed in 1848, Mr. Butts took side with the “Barnburners” of New York in support of Van Buren and Adams against the “ Hunkers,” who sustained Cass and Butler. After the defeat of the latter he sold the “Advertiser” to a syndicate of “Hunkers,” and, retiring from editorial service, engaged in the enterprise of the House printing telegraph and in the construction of lines in the western states, converging at St. Louis. After the presidential election of 1852 he returned to journalism by the purchase of a half-interest in the Rochester Daily “Union,” which had been established in August of that year to support the Democratic candidates, Pierce and King. In 1857 the daily “Advertiser” was joined with the “Union,” and Mr. Butts continued as editor until December, 1864, when he permanently retired. About the beginning of this last period of editorial service there was a consolidation of telegraphic lines and interests by the incorporation of the Western Union Telegraph Company, of which Mr. Butts was one of the organizers and for many years one of the managers. Mr. Butts never held any public position beyond acting as a delegate for his party in several state and national conventions. He was elected a delegate at large to the New York Constitutional Convention of 1866, but declined to serve. He was a man of marked talent, both natural and acquired. Possessed of an analytical and logical mind, he was a powerful controversialist; and he has left brochures on finance, protection, free-trade, and other subjects, that are remarkable for originality and force. His volume on “Protection and Free-Trade,” with a memoir, was published posthumously (New York, 1875). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 484-485.



BYRD, Harvey Leonidas, physician and army surgeon, born in Salem, Sumter County, South Carolina, 8 August, 1820; died 29 November, 1884. He was descended from the earliest settlers of the Carolinas, and his family has always been prominent in the state. His grandfather was a member of Marion's brigade in the Revolutionary War. After acquiring a classical education in his native state, Dr. Byrd went to Philadelphia and entered the famous medical schools— Jefferson College, Pennsylvania College, and the University of Pennsylvania, took degrees from all of them, and in 1840 began practice in his native town, but soon moved to Georgetown, and afterward to Savannah, where he became a professor in the Medical College and in Oglethorpe Medical College. In 1844 he married Adelaide Dazier, daughter of John Dazier, of Williamsburg, South Carolina. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as a surgeon, and served until the surrender, when he settled in Baltimore and began a movement for the reopening of Washington University, which had been suspended during the war. He was cordially seconded by others of the profession, was nominated dean of the faculty, and the college entered almost at once on a career of success. After several years of service, he withdrew, and established the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore. He contributed largely to medical periodicals, edited the “Oglethorpe Medical and Surgical Journal” for three years, and was a member of the leading medical societies, of the Aryan order, and of various historical societies.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 486.

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