Encyclopedia of Civil War Biography - Cli-Cox
CLIFFORD, Nathan, jurist, born in Rumney, New Hampshire, 18 August, 1803; died in Cornish, Me, 25 July, 1881. He received his early education at the Haverhill, New Hampshire, Academy, and later supported himself while studying at the Hampton literary institution. After graduation he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and settled in York county, Maine, in 1827. From 1830 till 1834 he was a member of the Maine legislature, and during the last two years was speaker. He was a member of the Democratic Party and was considered one of its ablest leaders. In 1834 he was appointed attorney-general of Maine, an office which he filled until 1838, when he was elected to Congress and served for two terms, from 2 December, 1839, till 3 March, 1843. During the presidential canvass of 1840 he advocated the re-election of Martin Van Buren, and met in public discussion many of the most distinguished Whig orators, gaining for himself the reputation of being one of the most eloquent champions of the democracy. In 1846 Mr. Clifford became attorney-general in President Polk's cabinet. In arranging the terms of peace between Mexico and the United States, he went to Mexico as the U. S. commissioner, with the powers of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary; and through him the treaty was arranged with the Mexican government, by which California became a part of the United States. He served from 18 March, 1848, till 6 September, 1849, after which he returned to Maine and resumed his law practice. In 1858 he was nominated as an associate justice of the Supreme Court by President Buchanan. To the people of Maine this appointment gave great satisfaction, as he was not only the first cabinet officer from that state, but also the only representative she ever had in the supreme court. In 1877, as the oldest associate judge, he became president of the electoral commission convened early in that year. Although a firm believer in Mr. Tilden's election he conducted the proceedings with perfect impartiality. Subsequent to the inauguration of President Hayes he refrained from visiting the executive mansion. In October, 1880, he was attacked with a serious illness, a complication of disorders arose, and it became necessary to amputate one of his feet in consequence of gang-greene. From this illness he never recovered. He of partiality in the performance of his public duties published “United States Circuit Court Reports” (2 vols., Boston, 1869). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 657-658.
CLINGMAN, Thomas Lanier, senator, born in Huntsville, North Carolina, 27 July, 1812. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1832 with high honors, after which he studied law and was elected a member of the legislature. He settled in Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, in 1836, and was sent to the state senate in 1840. Later he was elected as a Whig to Congress, and served continuously from 4 December, 1843, till 14 June, 1858, with the exception of the 29th Congress. During his long career in the house, extending over thirteen years, he participated in nearly all of the important debates, and as chairman of the committee on foreign affairs acquitted himself with ability. His first week in Congress was marked by an encounter with Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, in which he displayed great readiness and self-possession. His speech against the so-called “21st rule” was extensively published, and his reply to Duncan's “coon speech” made a decided impression. Later his speech on the causes of Henry Clay's defeat led to a duel between himself and William L. Yancey, of Alabama. He also made important speeches on the slavery question, on General Scott's conduct in Mexico, the tariff, against commercial restrictions, on mediation in the eastern war, Texas debts, British policy in Cuba, and especially against the Clayton and Bulwer treaty. It is said that while a member of Congress he attended every day's session of the house without a single exception. He was originally a Whig, but subsequently joined the Democratic Party. In 1858, on the appointment of Asa Biggs as U.S. Judge for the District of North Carolina, Mr. Clingman was selected by the governor of that state to fill the vacancy in the Senate, and subsequently elected for six years after 4 March, 1861; but he withdrew with the southern members on 21 January, 1861. In May of that year he was sent as a commissioner to the Confederate Congress, to give assurances that North Carolina would co-operate with the Confederate states, and was invited to participate in the discussions of that body. In July he was expelled from the U.S. Senate with those who neglected to send in their resignations. He entered the Confederate Army as colonel, and on 17 May, 1862, was appointed a brigadier-general in command of the 8th, 31st, 51st, and 61st North Carolina Infantry. He served through the war, surrendering with General Joseph E. Johnston in April, 1865. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention held in 1868. In 1855 he measured and made known through the Smithsonian Institution the highest point of the Black mountain, since designated as “Clingman's peak,” and in 1858 he determined the highest point of the Smoky mountain, designated on the maps of the coast survey as “Clingman's dome. He also made known the existence in North Carolina of the diamond, ruby, platinum, corundum, and many other rare minerals, and the important mica-mines in Mitchell and Yancey Counties were first opened by him. Since the close of the war General Clingman has devoted his attention to mining and to scientific and literary pursuits. He has published a volume of his speeches (1878) and minor works, including “Follies of the Positive Philosophers” (Raleigh, 1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 658-659.
CLITZ, John Mellen Brady, naval officer, born in Sacketts Harbor, New York, 1 December, 1821. His father, Captain John Clitz, distinguished himself at Fort Erie, 17 September, 1814, and died in command of Fort Mackinac, 6 November, 1836. The son entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1837, became passed midshipman in 1843, and was on the bomb-brig "Hecla" at the capitulation of Vera Cruz and the capture of Tuxpan in the Mexican War. He was made lieutenant, 6 April, 1851; commander. 16 July, 1863, and commanded at different times the blockading steamers " Penobscot," "Juniata," and "Osceola. He was in both attacks on Fort Fisher, and was recommended for promotion in Admiral Porter's commendatory despatch of 28 January, 1865. He was commissioned captain, 25 July, 1866 did ordnance duty at the Brooklyn U.S. Navy-yard in 1870. and was "made commodore on 28 December, 1872. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 13 March, 1880, commanded the Asiatic station, and was placed on the retired list in 1884. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 662.
CLITZ, Henry Boynton, soldier, born in Sacketts Harbor, N Y., 4 July, 1824, was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1845. He entered the 7th U.S. Infantry, served during the war with Mexico and was brevetted first lieutenant for gallant conduct at Cerro Gordo. From 1848 till 1855 he was assistant instructor of infantry tactics at West Point. He then served on various frontier posts until the beginning of the Civil War. having been made captain in the 3d U.S. Infantry, 6 December, 1858 While on leave in 1859 and 1860 he travelled extensively in Europe. He took part in the defence of Fort Pickens, Florida, in 1861. He became major on 14 May of 1861, and was engaged in the Peninsular Campaign at Yorktown, where he was wounded, and in the battle of Gaines's Mills he was twice wounded and taken prisoner. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 27 June, 1862, for his gallantry at Gaines's Mills, and after a month in Libby prison, was exchanged, and made commandant at West Point, where he remained till 1864, afterward doing garrison duty till the close of the war. He was made lieutenant-colonel of the 6th U.S. Infantry, 4 November, 1863, and brevetted colonel and brigadier-general, 13 March, 1865, for his services during the war. After that time he commanded at various posts. He was made colonel of the 10th U.S. Infantry, 22 February. 1869, and placed on the retired list, 1 July, 1885, at his own request, having been in the service forty years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 662.
CLUSERET, Gustave Paul, soldier, born in Paris, France, 13 June, 1823. He entered the military school of St. Cyr in 1841, became lieutenant in January, 1848, and was made a chevalier of the legion of honor for bravery in suppressing the insurrection of June, 1848. A few months after the coup d'etat he was retired for political reasons, and opened a painter's studio in Paris, but was shortly afterward replaced and served in Algeria and the Crimean war, being promoted to captain in 1855. He resigned his commission in 1858, joined Garibaldi in 1860, and commanded the French legion in his army, receiving the brevet of colonel in November of that year for gallantry at the siege of Capua, where he was wounded. He came to the United States in January, 1862, entered the National Army, and was appointed aide-de-camp to General McClellan, with the rank of colonel. He was soon afterward assigned to General Fremont, who placed him in command of the advanced guard. He was in several engagements, and was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers on 14 October, 1862, for gallantry in the battle of Cross Keys. After some further service in the Shenandoah valley, he resigned on 2 March, 1863, and in 1864 edited in New York City the " New Nation," a weekly journal advocating Fremont for the presidency, and vehemently opposing the renomination of Lincoln. General Cluseret returned to Europe in 1867, took part in the Fenian agitation of that year, and was accused by the journals of leading, under an assumed name, the attack on Chester castle. In the same year Cluseret wrote for the "Courrier Francais" a series of articles on "The Situation in the United States." In 1868 an obnoxious article in "L'Art," a journal founded by him, caused his imprisonment for two months, and in 1869, on account of his violent attacks on the organization of the army, he was again arrested, but pleaded that he was a naturalized American citizen, and was given up to Minister Washburne, who sent him out of the country. He returned to Paris on the fall of the second empire, which he had predicted, and began to assail the provisional government, but soon afterward engaged in attempts at insurrection in Lyons and Marseilles. In the following spring he became minister of war under the commune, and for a time was at the head of all its military operations. He was arrested on suspicion of treachery on 1 May, 1871. but escaped to England, and after a short visit to this country settled near Geneva. Switzerland, in 1872. He was condemned to death in his absence by a council of war. on 30 August of that year. Cluseret has published a pamphlet on "Mexico and the Solidarity of Nations " (1866); "L'Armee et la Democratie " (1869); and assisted to prepare the "Dietionnaire historique et geographique de l'Algerie." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 663.
COATES, Lindley, 1794-1856, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Society of Friends, Quaker. Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. Ardent abolitionist who helped escaped slaves. Member of the Underground Railroad. Petitioned Congress on November 19, 1835, to “Secure the rights of freedom to every human being residing within the constitutional jurisdiction of Congress, and [to] prohibit every species of traffic in the persons of men [i.e., the internal slave trade], which is as inconsistent in principle and inhuman in practice as the foreign slave trade.” (Drake, 1950, pp. 146, 149; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)
COBB, Amasa, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)
COBB, George T., Congressman, born in Morristown, New Jersey, in October, 1813; died 6 August, 1870. He was employed in the iron-works at Dover, New Jersey, and, subsequently establishing himself in the iron business, rapidly made a fortune, from which he gave generously to both public and private objects. The Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown was one of his gifts to his native town, and he also gave $15,000 for a school-house, and $75,000 for a church. Mr. Cobb was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1860, and first sat in the extra session, called by President Lincoln in July, 1861, to provide means for suppressing the rebellion. Mr. Cobb at once gave the administration his hearty support, and his course offended many of his Democratic friends at home. The next nominating convention of his district passed resolutions condemning the war. Mr. Cobb refused a renomination, and Andrew J. Rogers succeeded him. Mr. Cobb finally separated from the Democracy, and in 1865 was elected by the Republicans of Morris County as state senator, and was re-elected in 1868. In 1869 he lost the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator by three votes. He was killed in an accident on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 667.
COBB, Howell, statesman, born in Cherry Hill, Jefferson County, Georgia, 7 September, 1815; died in New York City, 9 October, 1868. He was graduated at Franklin College, Athens, in 1834, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1836, and chosen an elector on the Van Buren ticket the same year. He was appointed by the legislature solicitor-general of the western circuit of Georgia in 1837, held the office for three years, and during that period obtained an extensive practice. He entered Congress as a Democrat in 1843, and served by successive reelections till 1851, distinguishing himself by his familiarity with the rules, his skill as a debater, his vehement professions of love for the Union, and his equally earnest advocacy of state rights. His imperiousness, and his bold championship of slavery, made him the leader of the southern party in the house in 1847, and he was elected speaker in 1849, after a long and close contest He demanded the extension of slavery into California and New Mexico by Federal authority, and advocated the compromise measures of 1850. An issue being taken on this latter question by the southern rights extremists of Georgia, he was nominated for governor by the Union Party in 1851, and after a violent contest was elected by a large majority. At the expiration of his term of service as governor, in 1853, he resumed the Practice of law, and still took an active part in politics. He was again elected to Congress in 1855, advocated Mr. Buchanan's election throughout the northern states in 1856, and in 1857 became his secretary of the treasury. He found the treasury full, and the bonds representing the national debt at a premium of sixteen to eighteen per cent. He used the surplus funds in the treasury in purchasing this indebtedness at this high premium, but the approach of the Civil War so affected the national credit that he was compelled to attempt to borrow at an exorbitant discount the money necessary to defray the ordinary expenses of the government. On 10 December 1860, he resigned, giving as his reason that the state of Georgia (then about to secede) required his services. On his return to Georgia, he addressed the people of the state, urging forward the secession movement. He was one of the delegates from Georgia to the provisional Congress which prepared and adopted the constitution of the Confederacy, and presided over each of its four sessions. Of the first Confederate Congress, that assembled 18 February, 1862, Mr. Cobb was not a member; but, having done his utmost to organize the opposition, he was withdrawn from civil office, not being a favorite with Jefferson Davis. On the demand of the Georgian members, the Confederate Congress appointed him brigadier-general, and subsequently promoted him to a major-generalship, but he took little part in military movements. At the close of the war he strongly opposed the reconstruction measures as calculated to retard the restoration of the south to the Union, keep back its prosperity, and destroy the Negro race. See a memorial volume edited by Samuel Boykin (Philadelphia, 1869).—His brother, Thomas R. R., lawyer, born in Cherry Hill, Jefferson COUNTY, Georgia, 10 April, 1823; killed at the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, 13 December, 1862, was graduated at the University of Georgia in 1841, standing at the head of his class, was admitted to the bar, and was reporter of the supreme court of Georgia from 1849 till 1857, when he resigned. He was a trustee of the university, was active in the cause of education in his native state, and had a high reputation and large practice as a lawyer. He was an able and eloquent member of the Confederate Congress, in which he served as chairman of the committee on military affairs, and afterward became a general in the Confederate Army. Mr. Cobb was a Presbyterian, took much interest in religious and educational matters, and gave largely to the Lucy Cobb Institute. He published "Digest of the Laws of Georgia" (1851); "Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States" (Philadelphia, 1858); "Historical Sketch of Slavery, from the Earliest Periods" (Philadelphia, 1859); and several essays in behalf of a state system of education. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 666-667.
COBB, Jonathan Holmes, manufacturer, born in Sharon, Massachusetts, 8 July, 1799; died in Dedham, Massachusetts, 12 March, 1882. He was graduated at Harvard in 1817, and numbered among his classmates George Bancroft, Caleb Cushing, and Stephen H. Tyng. Mr. Cobb was one of the first to interest himself in the cultivation and manufacture of silk in the United States. In 1825 the annual importations of this material amounted to $10,250,000, in consequence of which Congress adopted measures directing public attention to the desirability of producing silk at home. Meanwhile Mr. Cobb succeeded in raising the silk-worm in Dedham, and in 1829 called the attention of the Massachusetts legislature to the fact. This body directed that a work be prepared on the subject, appropriating $600 for the purpose, and Mr. Cobb was asked to write the book. Of his "Manual of the Mulberry-Tree and the Culture of Silk "(Boston, 1831),-numerous copies were distributed by the members of the Massachusetts legislature. In 1833 the printing of 2,000 copies was ordered by Congress, which were circulated throughout the United States by the members of that body. The New England silk Company, under the superintendence of Mr. Cobb, began operations about 1835, with a capital of $50,000. It employed sixteen sewing-silk machines, and, under the protective duty of forty per cent, on sewing-silk, made arrangements to manufacture 200 pounds a week. A factory was erected, which at that time was the largest building in the town, but it was destroyed by fire in 1844. From these efforts has come the silk industry of to-day, which produces in the United States annually more than $25,000,000 worth of silken fabrics, "of so excellent quality that they are frequently sold as of foreign manufacture. In 1820 Mr. Cobb established the "Village Register," and in 1831 was instrumental in founding the Dedham institution for savings, of which, for many years, he was secretary. For forty-five years he was register of probate and for twenty-eight town-clerk. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 667.
COBB, Stephen Alonzo, born in Madison, Maine, 17 June, 1833; died in August, 1878. He went with his father to Minnesota in 1850, where he engaged in the lumber business, meanwhile preparing for college. After two years in Beloit College he went to Brown, where he graduated in 1858, and in 1859 moved to Wyandotte, Kansas, and began the practice of law. In 1862 he was a state senator, but entered the army, served through the war, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1869 he again became a member of the state senate. In 1871 he was elected to the house, in 1872 was speaker of that body, and mayor of Wyandotte in 1862 and 1868. He was elected to Congress in 1872, and served on the committees on post-roads and the State Department. He was renominated in 1874, but was defeated. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 668.
COBB, Sylvanus, 1798-1866, Norway, Maine, clergyman, newspaper editor, temperance and anti-slavery leader. Editor of the Christian Freeman for 20 years. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p.668; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 245)
COBB, Sylvanus, clergyman, born in Norway, Maine, in July, 1799; died in East Boston, 31 October, 1866. In 1828 he was settled over Universalist Churches at Malden and Waltham, Massachusetts, and in 1838 took charge of the “Christian Freeman,” which he edited for more than twenty years. He was for many years a leader in the anti-slavery and temperance movements. Dr. Cobb's published works include “The New Testament, with Explanatory Notes” (Boston, 1864); “Compend of Divinity” and “Discussions.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888.
COBURN, John P., 1811-1873, African American, abolitionist, businessman. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 146)
COCHRANE, Clark B., 1817-1867, New Boston, New Hampshire. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 671.
COCHRANE, Clark B., lawyer, born in New Boston. New Hampshire, in 1817; died in Albany, New York, 5 March, 1867. He was graduated at Union, and devoted himself to the study of law. In 1844 he was chosen a member of the assembly, on the Democratic ticket, from Montgomery county. He was one of the primitive barnburners, supported Van Buren and Adams in 1848, and in 1854 vigorously opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill, after which he acted with the Democratic Party. In 1856 he was elected to Congress from the Schenectady District, and in 1858 was re-elected. The following year, his health becoming affected by the excitement of Congressional life, he was obliged to return home for temporary rest, and after the expiration of his term resided in Albany, devoting himself to his profession. In 1865 he accepted a nomination for the legislature. He was the acknowledged leader of the house, and his tact in quieting angry debate gave him the title of “The Great Pacificator.” Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 671.
COCHRAN, John, lawyer, born in Palatine, Montgomery County, New York, 27 August, 1813, studied first at Union, but was graduated at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, in 1831. he studied law and was admitted to the bar of New York in 1834. From 1853 till 1857 he was Surveyor of the port of New York, and from 1857 till 1861 a representative from that city in Congress. On 4 July, 1858, he was deputed by the Common Council of the City of New York to convey to his native state of Virginia the remains of President James Monroe, who had died in New York and been buried there. On 11 June, 1861, he was commissioned colonel of the 1st U. S. Chasseurs, which he commanded at Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, and other battles of the Peninsular Campaign. He became brigadier-general of volunteers on 17 July, 1862, and was assigned a brigade in Couch's division of the Army of the Potomac. He was with the reserve at the battle of Antietam, and afterward pursued the retreating enemy, resigning from the army on 27 February, 1862, in consequence of serious physical disability. In 1864 he was nominated at Cleveland, Ohio, by the Convention of independent Republicans, for vice-president of the United States on the ticket with General John C. Fremont for president. In 1863-'5 he was attorney-general of the state of New York, and in 1869 tendered the mission to Paraguay and Uruguay, which he declined. In 1872 he was one of the New York Delegation to the Convention of the Liberal Democratic Party that met at Cincinnati, and was chiefly instrumental in securing the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency. In 1872 he was a member of the Common Council of the City of New York and president of the board, and was acting mayor during the temporary retirement of Mayor Hall in the midst of the Tweed ring disclosures, and again a member of the council in 1883. General Cochran is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 671.
COCKE, John Hartwell, 1780-1866, Fluvanna County, Virginia, general, reformer, temperance advocate. Vice President, 1833-1841, of the American Colonization Party (ACS). Life member and supporter of the ACS. President of two ACS auxiliaries in Albemarle and Fluvanna counties in Virginia. (Burin, 2005, pp. 38, 44, 61, 63, 102; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 672; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, p. 253)
COCKE, John Hartwell, born in Surry county, Virginia, 19 September, 1780; died in Fluvanna county, Virginia, 1 July, 1866. He was graduated at William and Mary in 1798, and was general commanding the Virginia troops at Camp Carter and Camp Holly, on the Chickahominy, in 1812 and 1813, in defence of the city of Richmond. He was vice-president of the American Temperance Society and of the American Colonization Society, and a member of the first board of visitors of the University of Virginia. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 672.
COCKE, Philip St. George, soldier, born in Virginia in 1808; died in Powhatan county, Virginia, 26 December 1861. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1832, assigned to the 2d artillery, and served at Charleston, South Carolina during the nullification excitement in 1832-'3. He was adjutant from 1833 till 1834, and resigned on 1 April of the latter year. He then devoted himself to planting in Virginia and Mississippi, and was president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society from 1853 till 1850. He was made a brigadier-general in the Confederate service early in 1861, and commanded the 5th brigade at the first battle of Bull Run. After an eight months' campaign he returned home, shattered in body and mind, and shot himself in a paroxysm of insanity. He published "Plantation and Farm Instruction " (1852). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 672-673.
COCKRELL, Francis Marion, senator, born in Johnson county, Missouri, 1 October, 1834. He was graduated at Chapel Hill, Missouri, in 1853, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in Warrensburg. He entered the Confederate Army, where he rose to be a colonel, commanding the 1st Missouri Brigade under General Bowen, which was routed at Baker's Creek, and he was afterward commissioned a brigadier-general. He never held a public office until elected as a Democratic senator in Congress from Missouri, to succeed Carl Schurz, taking his seat on 4 March, 1875. He was re-elected in 1880 for the term expiring 3 March, 1887. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 673.
CODDING, Ichabod, 1810-1866, born in Bristol, New York, clergyman, weaver, abolitionist, orator. Anti-slavery agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society, commissioned in 1836. He traveled on anti-slavery lecture tour from 1838-1843, in New England. He helped co-found and edit anti-slavery newspapers. He organized state organizations for the anti-slavery Liberty Party. After 1843, he lectured in Illinois. He was active in the Anti-Nebraska Convention, Connecticut, in 1843. He worked with anti-slavery leaders Owen Lovejoy, William Allan, and others. Lectured against slavery. (Blue, 2005, pp. 119, 120; Dumond, 1961, p. 186; Filler, 1960, pp. 152, 232, 247; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 673; Codding papers are in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library).
CODDING, Ichabod, clergyman, born in Bristol, New York, in 1811; died in Baraboo, Wisconsin, 17 June, 1866. He became a popular temperance lecturer at the age of seventeen, and during his junior year at Middlebury, where he entered in 1834, interested himself so much in the anti-slavery movement that he obtained leave to speak publicly in its behalf. His addresses raised such a storm of opposition that his life was several times in danger, and the college faculty, fearing the popular fury, represented that his absence was without permission. Codding compelled them to retract this statement, and then; leaving the college, served for five years as agent and lecturer of the Anti-slavery Society, speaking continually in New England and New York. It is said that he never lost his self-command, though often assailed by mobs. He moved to the west in 1842, entered the Congregational ministry, and held pastorates in Princeton, Lockport, Joliet, and elsewhere. He also continued to lecture in the west, where he was greatly admired and loved. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 673
CODY, William Frederick, scout, born in Scott county, Iowa, 26 February, 1845. When he was about seven years old his father moved to Kansas, then an unsettled territory, where he was killed in what was known as the “Border war.” When the pony express was established across the plains in the spring of 1860, William became one of the most fearless and daring among its riders. At the beginning of the Civil War he acted as government scout and guide, being chiefly employed in Arkansas and southwestern Missouri. In 1863 he enlisted in the 7th Kansas Cavalry, was promoted, and served with distinction as scout until the close of the war. In 1867 he entered into a contract with the Kansas Pacific Railway in western Kansas, at a monthly compensation of $500, to deliver all the buffalo meat that would be required for food for the army of laborers employed, and in eighteen months he killed 4,280 buffaloes, earning the title of “Buffalo Bill,” by which he was afterward familiarly known. Cody again entered the government service in 1868 as a scout and guide, and after a series of dangerous rides as bearer of important despatches through a country infested with hostile Indians, was appointed by General Sheridan chief scout and guide for the 5th U.S. Cavalry against the Sioux and Cheyennes. He then served with the Canadian River Expedition during 1868-’9, and until the autumn of 1872 was with the army on the western border. In 1872 he was elected a member of the Nebraska Legislature, but, after serving a short time, resigned, and made a successful appearance on the stage in Chicago. At the beginning of the Sioux War in 1876 he discharged his dramatic company, joined the 5th U.S. Cavalry, and was engaged in the battle of Indian Creek, where he killed in a hand-to-hand conflict the Cheyenne chief Yellow-Hand. At the close of the campaign he returned to the stage, and in 1883 organized an exhibition called the “Wild West,” whose object was to give a realistic picture of life on the frontier. His actors included actual Indians, Mexicans, and “cowboys,” and in 1886 he contracted to take his company to Europe during 1887. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 674.
COFFIN, Joshua, 1792-1864, Tyngborough, PA, educator, author, ardent abolitionist, founder of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832. He was its co-founder and first recording secretary. Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1834-1837. (Coffin, 1860; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, 675)
COFFIN, Joshua, antiquary, born in Newbury, Massachusetts, 12 October, 1792; died there, 24 June, 1864. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1817, and taught for many years, numbering among his pupils the poet Whittier, who addressed to him a poem entitled “To My Old School-Master.” Mr. Coffin was ardent in the cause of emancipation, and was one of the founders of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832, being its first recording secretary. He published “The History of Ancient Newbury” (Boston, 1845), genealogies of the Woodman, Little, and Toppan families, and magazine articles. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 675.
COFFIN, Levi, 1798-1877, Newport, Indiana, philanthropist, Society of Friends, Quaker, abolitionist, conductor Underground Railroad, established Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends. Active in Free Labor Movement, which encouraged people not to trade in goods produced by slave labor. Helped start the Western Freedman’s Aid Commission. Wrote Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, Reputed President of the Underground Railroad, Cincinnati, OH: Western Tract Society. Helped three thousands slaves to freedom. Coffin was a manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).
(Drake, 1950, pp. 162, 165, 186, 187, 197; Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 92; Mabee, 1970, pp. 141, 225, 273, 280, 283; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 75, 231-232, 488, 489; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 675; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 177-178; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 148)
COFFIN, Levi, philanthropist, born near New Garden, North Carolina, 28 October, 1798; died in Avondale, Ohio, 16 September, 1877. His ancestors were natives of Nantucket. He assisted on his father's farm and had but little schooling, yet he became a teacher. The cruel treatment of the Negroes, and the Quakers principles under which he was reared, enlisted his sympathies in favor of the oppressed race, and at the age of fifteen he began to aid in the escape of slaves. Subsequently he organized a Sunday-school for Negroes, and in 1822 opened his first school. In 1826 he settled in Wayne county, Indiana, where he kept a country store. Being prosperous in this undertaking, he soon enlarged his business in various lines, including also the curing of pork. In 1836 he built an oil-mill and began the manufacture of linseed-oil. Meanwhile his interest in the slaves continued, and he was active in the “Underground Railroad,” a secret organization, whose purpose was the transportation of slaves from member to member until a place was reached where the Negro was free. Thousands of escaping slaves were aided on their way to Canada by him, including Eliza Harris, who subsequently became known through “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” The question of using only “free-labor goods” had been for some time agitated throughout the United States, and in 1846 a convention was held in Salem, Indiana, at which Mr. Coffin was chosen to open such a store in Cincinnati. Accordingly he moved to that city in April, 1847. The undertaking proved successful, and he continued to be so occupied for many years. His relations with the “Underground Railroad” were also continued, and he became its president. In 1863 he was associated in the establishment of the freedmen's bureau, and during the following year was sent to Europe as agent for the Western freedmen's aid commission. He held meetings in all of the prominent cities in Great Britain, enlisted much sympathy, and secured funds. Again in 1867 he visited Europe in the same capacity. When the colored people of Cincinnati celebrated the adoption of the fifteenth amendment to the United States constitution, he formally resigned his office of president of the “Underground Railroad,” which he had held for more than thirty years. The story of his life is told in “Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the Reputed President of the Underground Railroad” (Cincinnati, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 675.
COFFROTH, Alex, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)
COGWELL, Mason Fitch, physician, born in Hartford, Connecticut., 10 November, 1807; died in Albany, New York, 21 January, 1865, was graduated at Yale in 1829, studied medicine, and became a leading physician in Albany. He served as assistant surgeon and surgeon in the volunteer army of the United States during the Civil War. In 1847 he married Lydia, daughter of the Reverend John M. Bradford, a direct descendant from Governor Bradford, of Plymouth colony. She died in 1872. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p 680.
COGSWELL, Milton, soldier, born in Noblesville, Indiana, 4 December, 1825; died in Washington, D. C., 20 November, 1882. He was the first child of American parentage born in Noblesville. After graduation at the U. S. Military Academy in 1849, he joined the army and served almost continuously until he was placed on the retired list in 1871. This period covered the Civil War, in which he became colonel of the 42d New York Volunteers. He was severely wounded, and held a prisoner for nearly a year. After his retirement with the rank of brevet colonel in the regular army for gallant services, he was deputy governor of the Soldier's Home in Washington, and, with the exception of a year's interval, held the office until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p 680.
COGSWELL, William, lawyer, born in Bradford, Massachusetts, 23 August, 1838. His parents were Dr. George and Abigail Parker Cogswell. He studied in Phillips Andover Academy and in Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden, New Hampshire He entered Dartmouth College, but soon went to sea before the mast, following the example of an elder brother. After his return he was graduated at Harvard law-school in 1860. In 1861 he raised the first company of volunteers for the national cause in Massachusetts. He was regularly promoted until he became colonel of the 2d Massachusetts Infantry, and participated in many of the battles of the Army of the Potomac, for which he was brevetted brigadier-general, 15 December, 1864. After the war he became a prominent officer of the Grand Army of the republic and in the Loyal legion, and he has held several important civil offices in the state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 680.
COLBY, Anthony, governor of New Hampshire, born in New London, N. H, 13 November, 1792; died there, 13 July, 1873. He was a member of the Baptist church, and did much toward consolidating the interests of the denomination in the state. He was major-general of militia, president of a railroad, and a large owner of factories. In 1846-'7 he was governor of the state. Dartmouth gave him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1850, and he was one of its trustees from 1850 till 1870. During the Civil War he was adjutant-general of the state. Governor Colby was a personal friend of Daniel Webster. His last work was the establishment of Colby Academy, a Baptist institution in New London. N. H, endowed by his family. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 681.
COLBY, Isaac, abolitionist. Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-36, Manager, 1836-39.
COLDEN, Cadwallader David, 1769-1834, New York, lawyer, soldier, opponent of slavery, 54th Mayor of New York City, U.S. Congressman. President of the New York Manumission Society (established 1785). Helped pass law in New York in 1817 freeing slaves in the state by July 4, 1827. (Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 287; Sinha, 1026, pp. 174, 176, 182)
COLE, Cornelius, born 1822, lawyer. Member of the National Republican Committee, 1856-1860. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California, 1863-1865. U.S. Senator, 1867-1873. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 685; Congressional Globe)
COLE, Cornelius, senator, born in Lodi, New York, 17 September, 1822. He was graduated at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, in 1847, and, after studying law in the office of William H. Seward, was admitted to the bar. In 1849 he crossed the plains to California, and, after working a year in the gold mines, began the practice of law. He was district attorney of Sacramento City and county from 1859 till 1862, was a member of the National Republican Committee from 1856 till 1860, and during the latter year edited a newspaper. He then moved to Santa Cruz, and was a representative from California in the 38th Congress as a Union Republican, serving from 7 December, 1863, till 3 March, 1865. He was elected U. S. Senator to succeed James A. McDougall, Democrat, serving from 4 March, 1867, till 3 March, 1873. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 685.
COLES, Edward, 1786-1868, statesman, abolitionist, Governor of Illinois (elected 1822), member American Colonization Society. Private secretary to President James Madison, 1809-1815. Manumitted his slaves in 1819. Worked with fellow abolitionist James Lemen to keep Illinois a free state. Opposed pro-slavery group in Illinois state legislature.
(Burin, 2005, p. 47; Dumond, 1961, pp. 90, 92, 100-101; Locke, 1901, pp. 24, 25, 33; Ress, 2006; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 37, 233-234; Ress, 2006; Washburne, 1882; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 687; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 296; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 226; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 143)
COLES, Edward, governor of Illinois, born in Albemarle county, Virginia, 15 December, 1786; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7 July, 1868. He was educated at Hampden-Sidney College, and at William and Mary, where he was graduated in 1807. He was private secretary to President Madison from 1810 till 1816, and in 1817 sent on a confidential diplomatic mission to Russia. He returned in 1818, and in 1819 moved to Edwardsville, Illinois., and freed all the slaves that had been left him by his father, giving to each head of a family 160 acres of land. He was appointed registrar of the U. S. land-office at Edwardsville, and in 1822 was nominated for governor on account of his well-known anti-slavery sentiments. He served from 1823 till 1826, and during his term of office prevented the pro-slavery party from obtaining control of the state after a bitter and desperate conflict. The history of this remarkable struggle has been written by Elihu B. Washburne (Chicago, 1882). Governor Coles moved to Philadelphia in 1833, and in 1856 read before the Pennsylvania Historical Society a “History of the Ordinance of 1787” (Philadelphia, 1856). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 687.
COLFAX, Schuyler, 1823-1885, Vice President of the United States, statesman, newspaper editor. Member of Congress, 1854-1869. Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana. Secretary of State. Opposed slavery as a Republican Member of Congress. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Strongly opposed the extension of slavery in the territories. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 687-688; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 297; Congressional Globe; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 297)
COLFAX, Schuyler, statesman, born in New York City, 23 March, 1823; died in Mankato, Minnesota, 13 January, 1885. His grandfather was General William Colfax, who commanded the life-guards of Washington throughout the Revolutionary war. His father died a short time before the son's birth, and in 1834 his mother married George W. Matthews. After attending the public schools till he was ten years of age, and serving three years as clerk in his step-father's store, Schuyler went with the family to Indiana in 1836, and settled in New Carlisle, St. Joseph County, where Mr. Matthews soon became postmaster. The boy continued to serve as his clerk, and began a journal to aid himself in composition, contributing at the same time to the county paper. His step-father retired from business in 1839, and Colfax then began to study law, but afterward gave it up. In 1841 Mr. Matthews was elected county auditor, and moved to South Bend, making his step-son his deputy, which office Colfax held for eight years. In 1842 he was active in organizing a temperance society in South Bend, and continued a total abstainer throughout his life. At this time he reported the proceedings of the state senate for the Indianapolis “Journal” for two years. In 1844 he made campaign speeches for Henry Clay. He had acted as editor of the South Bend ”Free Press” for about a year when, in company with A. W. West, he bought the paper in September, 1845, and changed its name to the “St. Joseph Valley Register.” Under his management, despite numerous mishaps and business losses, the “Register” quadrupled its subscription in a few years, and became the most influential journal, in support of Whig politics, in that part of Indiana: Mr. Colfax was secretary of the Chicago Harbor and River Convention of July, 1847, and also of the Baltimore Whig Convention of 1848, which nominated Taylor for president. The next year he was elected a member of the convention to revise the constitution of the state of Indiana, and in his place, both by voice and vote, opposed the clause that prohibited free colored men from settling in that state. He was also offered a nomination for the state senate, but declined it. In 1851 he was a candidate for Congress, and came near being elected in a district that was strongly democratic. He accepted his opponent's challenge to a joint canvass, travelled a thousand miles, and spoke seventy times. He was again a delegate to the Whig National Convention in 1852, and, having joined the newly formed Democratic Party, was its successful candidate for Congress in 1854, serving by successive re-elections till 1869. In 1856 he supported Fremont for president, and during the canvass made a speech in Congress on the extension of slavery and .the aggressions of the slave-power. This speech was used as a campaign document, and more than half a million copies were circulated. He was chairman of several important committees of Congress, especially that on post-offices and post-roads, and introduced many reforms, including a bill providing for a daily overland mail-route from St. Louis to San Francisco, reaching mining-camps where letters had previously been delivered by express at five dollars an ounce. Mr. Colfax favored Edward Bates as the Republican candidate for the presidency in 1860. His name was widely mentioned for the office of postmaster - general in Lincoln's cabinet, but the president selected C. B. Smith, of Indiana, on the ground, as he afterward wrote Colfax, that the latter was “a young man running a brilliant career, and sure of a bright future in any event.” In the latter part of 1861 he ably defended Fremont in the house against the attack of Frank P. Blair. In 1862 he introduced a bill, which became a law, to punish fraudulent contractors as felons, and continued his efforts for reform in the postal service. He was elected speaker of the house on 7 December, 1863, and on 8 April, 1864, descended from the chair to move the expulsion of Mr. Long, of Ohio, who had made a speech favoring the recognition of the southern confederacy. The resolution was afterward changed to one of censure, and Mr. Colfax's action was widely commented on, but generally sustained by Union men. On 7 May, 1864, he was presented by citizens of Indiana then in Washington with a service of silver, largely on account of his course in this matter. He was twice re-elected as speaker, each time by an increased majority, and gained the applause of both friends and opponents by his skill as a presiding officer, often shown under very trying circumstances. In May, 1868, the Republican National Convention at Chicago nominated him on the first ballot for vice-president, General Grant being the nominee for president, and, the Republican ticket having been successful, he took his seat as President of the Senate on 4 March, 1869. On 4 August, 1871, President Grant offered him the place of Secretary of State for the remainder of his term, but he declined. In 1872 he was prominently mentioned as a presidential candidate, especially by those who, later in the year, were leaders in the liberal Republican movement, and, although he refused to join them, this was sufficient to make administration men oppose his renomination for the vice-presidency, and he was defeated in the Philadelphia Convention of 1872. In December, 1872; he was offered the chief editorship of the New York “Tribune,” but declined it. In 1873 Mr. Colfax was implicated in the charger of corruption brought against members of Congress who had received shares of stock in the credit mobilier of America. The house judiciary committee reported that there was no ground for his impeachment, as the alleged offence, if committed at all, had been committed before he became vice-president. These charges cast a shadow over the latter part of Mr. Colfax's life. He denied their truth, and his friends have always regarded his character as irreproachable. His later years were spent mostly in retirement in his home at South Bend, Indiana, and in delivering public lectures, which he did frequently before large audiences. His first success in this field had been in 1865 with a lecture entitled “Across the Continent,” written after his return from an excursion to California. The most popular of his later lectures was that on “Lincoln and Garfield.” Mr. Colfax was twice married. After his death, which was the result of heart disease, public honors were paid to his memory both in Congress and in Indiana. See “Life of Colfax” by O. J. Hollister (New York, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 687-688.
COLHOUN, Edmund R., naval officer, born in Pennsylvania, 6 May, 1821. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 April, 1839; became a master, January, 1853; resigned, 27 June, 1853; re-entered the navy as acting lieutenant, 24 September, 1801; was commissioned commander, 17 November, 1862; captain, 2 March, 1869; commodore, 26 April, 1876, and rear-admiral, 3 December, 1882. when he was retired from active service. He served in the Mexican War in the first attack on Alvarado under Commodore Connor, and in the assault on Tobasco under Commodore Perry. In 1861-2 he commanded the steamer "Hunchback," of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and took part in the battle of Roanoke Island, the capture of Newbern, and the engagements below Franklin on the Blackwater River in October, 1862. In 1863 he commanded the steamer "Ladona," and afterward the monitor " Weehawken," of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in her various engagements with Forts Sumter, Wagner, and Beauregard, in the summer of 1863. In 1864-'5 he commanded the monitor "Saugus," attached to the North Atlantic Squadron, and engaged Hewlett's battery on James River, 21 June, and again 5 December, 1864, and took part in the bombardment of Fort Fisher, 25 December, 1864, and subsequent days. He was commandant at Mare Island U.S. Navy-yard, California, in 1879-80, and inspector of vessels in California at the time of his retirement. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 689.
COLHOUN, John, naval officer, born in Pennsylvania in 1802; died in New York City, 30 November, 1872. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 25 January, 1821, became a passed midshipman, 24 May, 1828, a lieutenant, 27 May, 1830; a commander, 4 November, 1852, was retired in October, 1864, and subsequently promoted to the rank of commodore, 4 April, 1867. He served on the store-ship "Supply, at Vera Cruz, during the Mexican War, commanded the sloop "Portsmouth" on the coast of Africa in 1859-61, brought the frigate "St. Lawrence" home from Key West in 1863, and after his retirement served as light-house inspector in 1866-7. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 689
COLLAMER, Jacob, 1791-1865, lawyer, jurist. U.S. Senator from Vermont. U.S. Senator, 1854-1865. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 689; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 297; Congressional Globe)
COLLAMER, Jacob, senator, born in Troy, New York, 8 January, 1791; died in Woodstock, Vermont, 9 November, 1865. In childhood he moved with his father to Burlington, and, earning his own support, was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1810, studied law at St. Albans, made the frontier campaign as a lieutenant of artillery in the militia, and was admitted to the bar at St. Albans in 1813. Until 1833 he practised law in Washington, Orange, and Windsor counties, Vermont, and in 1821-'2 and 1827-'8 represented the town of Royalton in the Assembly. In 1833 he was elected an associate justice of the supreme court of Vermont, and continued on the bench until 1842, when he declined a re-election. In 1843 he was chosen as a Whig to represent the 2d District in Congress, was re-elected in 1844 and 1846, but in 1848 declined to be again a candidate. In March, 1849, he was appointed Postmaster-General by President Taylor, but on the death of the president resigned with the rest of the cabinet. He was soon afterward again elected judge of the supreme court of Vermont, holding that office until 1854, when he was chosen U. S. Senator, which office he held at the time of his death. He served as chairman of the committee on post-offices and post-roads, and was also chairman of that on the library. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 689.
COLLINS, George C, merchant, born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1810; died in New York City, 10 February, 1875. He moved when a boy to Hartford, Connecticut, and at the age of twenty went to Mobile, Alabama, as confidential secretary to Burrett Ames, the largest cotton-dealer in the south. After three years he returned to the north and went into business on his own account as a grocer in Hartford, moved to New York City in 1841 as partner in the house of McCoon, Sherman & Company, and established in I860 the house of Collins & Rayner, which afterward became George C. Collins & Company. After the draft-riots of 1863 he was a member of a committee to prosecute the claims of the families of the murdered Negroes against the city, and was one of the largest contributors to the funds for the relief of the families. He was an active promoter of various charitable and religious objects. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 691.
COLLINS, John Anderson, 1810-1879, abolitionist, social reformer. General Agent and Vice President, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Edited anti-slavery magazine, Monthly Garland. (Filler, 1960, pp. 24, 110, 135; Mabee, 1970, pp. 76, 80, 81, 82, 88, 112, 114, 119, 120, 123, 124, 125, 212, 264, 394n30, 394n31, 398n13; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 307; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 253)
COLLINS, Napoleon, naval officer, born in Pennsylvania, 4 May, 1814; died in Callao, Peru, 9 August, 1875. He entered the U.S. Navy in 1834 as midshipman, became a lieutenant in 1846, was attached to the sloop “Decatur” during the Mexican War, and was present at Tuspan and Tobasco. He commanded the steamer “Anacosta” in the Potomac Squadron in 1861, and took part in the engagement at Acquia Creek on 31 May in that year. He afterward received command of the gun-boat “Unadilla,” and for nearly a year was with the fleet stationed off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and took part in the battle of Port Royal and in various expeditions along the coast. In July, 1862, he was made commander of the steamer “Octorara” in the West Indian Squadron. In 1863 he was transferred to the steam sloop “Wachusett” and sent in pursuit of Confederate privateers. On 7 October, 1864, he bore down on the Confederate steamer “Florida” in the Harbor of Bahia, Brazil, intending to sink her, but demanded her surrender, and, as the captain and half his crew were ashore, the lieutenant in command deemed it best to comply. In an instant the “Florida" was boarded, a hawser was made fast, and the captor put out to sea, making no reply to a challenge from the Brazilian fleet, and unharmed by three shots fired from the fort. After the “Wachusett" and her prize arrived in Hampton Roads in November, '' negotiations for the return of the “Florida” were in progress she was run into at her anchorage by a steam transport and sunk. Brazil having complained that her neutrality had been violated in this affair. Secretary of State Seward disavowed the act of Commander Collins and ordered him to be tried by court-martial. On 25 July, 1866, he was promoted captain and placed in command of the steam sloop "Sacramento.” He was made a commodore on 19 January, 1871, and on 9 August, 1874, was raised to the rank of rear-admiral and placed in command of the South Pacific Squadron. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 692
COLLYER, Robert, clergyman, born in Keighly, Yorkshire, England, 8 Dec, 1823. He educated himself, having left school at the age of eight years to earn his living in a factory. The only instruction he received after that was in a night-school that he attended two winters. When fourteen years old he was apprenticed to a blacksmith. In 1849 he became a local Methodist preacher, and the year following came to the United States, and, while still working as a hammer-maker in Shoemakertown, Pennsylvania, preached on Sundays. His views gradually changed in the direction of Unitarianism, and he was arraigned before the conference for heresy, and his license to preach revoked. The change in his views of the atonement was partly brought about by conversations with Lucretia Mott. The circumstance that the Methodist clergy at that time were restrained from freely denouncing slavery had much influence in converting him to Unitarianism. While still working at his craft, he became known as an eloquent public speaker. In 1859 he united with the Unitarian church, and, going to Chicago, Illinois.., became a missionary of the Unitarian church in that city, and in 1860 organized the Unity church, which began with only seven members, but rapidly increased in numbers under his spirited and earnest preaching. In 1861 he was a camp-inspector for the Sanitary commission. His reputation as a preacher and lecturer soon extended over the country. In September, 1879, he became pastor of the Church of the Messiah in New York city. He has re-visited England five times since 1865, and travelled in other parts of Europe. He is the author of "Nature and Life" (Boston, 1866); "A Man in Earnest: Life of A. H. Conant" (1868); "The Life that Now Is" (1871); “The Simple Truth, a Home Book" (1877); "A History of the Town and Parish of Ilkley" (Otley, England, 1886), written in collaboration with Horsefall Turner; "Lectures to Young Men and Women" (1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 693
COLMAN, Lucy Newhall, 1817-1906, Rochester, New York, abolitionist. Lectured against slavery in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Helped and supported by Frederick Douglass. (Sernett, 2002, pp. 55-56; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 313; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 260)
COLT, Samuel, inventor, born in Hartford, Connecticut., 19 July, 1814; died there, 10 January, 1862. His father, descended from an early settler of Hartford, was merchant and afterward a manufacturer. At the age of ten he entered his father’s factory, and remained there and at school till his fourteenth year, when he was sent to a boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, but ran away, and in July, 1827, shipped as a boy before the mast on an East India voyage. After his return he was placed in his father's factory at Ware, Massachusetts, in the dyeing and bleaching department under the tuition of William T. Smith, a scientific and practical chemist, and as soon as he again he had become dexterous he left home to seek his fortune, and though but seventeen or eighteen years of age, with a meager education, yet, under the assumed name of Dr. Coult, he traversed the Union and British America, lecturing on chemistry, and, owing to his success as an experimenter, he drew full houses. The profit from these lectures, which was very considerable, luring the two years that followed, was devoted to the prosecution of the great invention connected with his name. The first model of his pistol was made in wood in 1829, with the imperfect tools at his command, while he was a sailor-boy on board ship. The money acquired by his chemical lectin enabled him to manufacture other models, and a 1H85, when only twenty-one years of age, he took out his first patent for revolving fire-arms. Patents having been issued in England, France, and the United States for the revolver, he induced New York capitalists to take an interest in it, and a company was formed at Paterson, New Jersey, with a capital of $300,000. under the name of m Patent Arms Company. For a long time the officers of the government and of the army and navy objected to the percussion-cap, to the supposed liability of the arm to get out of order, to the tendency of several of the charges to explode at the same time, and to the greater difficulty of repairing it than the arms in common use. These objections Mr. Colt met by careful explanations, by repeated experiments, and by modifications in the construction of the weapon. In 1837, during the Florida War, the officers of the army were baffled in their attempts to drive the Indians from the Everglades, until a few of the troops, under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Harney, were armed with Colt's revolvers, and their success was such that more were at once ordered, and the Indians were easily disheartened and defeated when they found that their enemies could fire six or eight times without reloading. In 1842 the Patent Arms Company were forced to suspend, the speedy conclusion of the Seminole War having put an end to their sales, and from that time till 1847 none of the repeating fire-arms were manufactured. Meantime the market was drained of them by the demand from Texas and the Indian frontier. In 1847, the Mexican War having begun. General Taylor sent to Colonel Colt for a supply. There were none to be had, but he contracted to make 1,000 for $28,000. He had parted with the last one to a Texan ranger, and, after advertising in vain for one to serve as a model, he was compelled to make a new model, and in so doing added improvements. This first thousand were made at an armory temporarily hired at Whitneyville, near New Haven, Connecticut Other orders following immediately on the completion of the first, Colonel Colt procured more commodious workshops at Hartford and filled the orders with promptness. The emigration to California, and afterward to Australia, increased the demand for the revolvers and assured the permanence of the business. Soon after the Mexican War, the suggestions derived from the use of these arms by the military forces led to improvements in their construction and to their adoption by the government of the United States as a regular weapon for the army. Subsequently the Crimean and Indian Campaigns suggested still further improvements and simplifications. Finding in 1852 that more room and greater facilities for manufacturing were required, Colonel Colt purchased a tract of meadowland lying within the city limits of Hartford, about 250 acres in extent, protected it from the annual freshets of the Connecticut River by means of a dike, and there built an armory, consisting of two Parallel buildings three stories high and 500 feet long, connected by a central building 250 feet in length, with other buildings for offices and warerooms. In 1861 a second building of the same size as the first was erected. All the balls, cartridges, bullet molds, powder-flasks, and lubricators are manufactured at the armory, and most of them, as well as the greater part of the machinery for manufacturing the arms, were the invention of Colonel Colt or the development of his suggestions by skilful workmen. A part of the establishment is devoted to the manufacture of machinery for making the fire-arms elsewhere, which has already supplied a large portion of the machinery for the armory of the British government at Enfield, England, and the whole of that for the Russian government armory at Tula. On the land enclosed by the dike he also erected dwellings for his employes, the entire expenditure upon the grounds and buildings amounting to more than $2,500,000. The dwellings erected for the employes are unusually comfortable and convenient. Colonel Colt also provided the workmen with a public hall, a library, courses of lectures, concerts, a set of instruments for a band of musicians, and a uniform for a military company organized among them. He invented also a submarine battery for the defence of harbors against naval attacks, and was the first to conceive and practically test the project of a submarine telegraph-cable, having laid and operated with perfect success in 1843 such a cable from Coney Island and Fire Island to the city of New York, and from the Merchants' Exchange to the mouth of the harbor. This cable was insulated by being covered with a combination of cotton yarn with asphaltum and beeswax, and the whole enclosed in a lead pipe, gutta percha being then unknown. A beautiful Episcopal Church was erected to his memory by his widow, who with their only son still continues the manufacture of arms. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 694.
COLVER, Nathaniel, 1794-1870, Boston, Massachusetts, abolitionist, clergyman, anti-slavery agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Baptist minister. Lectured against slavery in New York State for two years. Counsellor, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1839-1840. Member of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS). Co-founded the abolitionist Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America and the Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 188, 393n22; Goodell, 1852, pp. 505-506; Sinha, 2016, pp. 256, 286, 289, 291, 472, 493, 502, 505, 506, 509; “The Friend of Man,” March 27, 1837; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 699; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 324)
COLVER, Nathaniel, clergyman, born in Orwe11, Vermont, 10 May, 1794; died in Chicago, 25 December, 1870. His father, a Baptist minister, moved, while Nathaniel was a child, to Champlain, in northern New York, and thence to West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where the son was converted and decided to enter the Baptist ministry. Though he had but slender opportunities of early education, he made himself a respectable scholar. After brief pastorates in various places he was called in 1839 to Boston, where he co-operated in organizing the church since famous as Tremont Temple. His ministry here was remarkable for its bold, uncompromising, and effective warfare upon slavery and intemperance, as well as for its directly spiritual results. On leaving Boston in 1852, Mr. Colver was pastor at South Abingdon, Massachusetts, at Detroit, at Cincinnati, and finally, in 1861, at Chicago. While in Cincinnati he received from Denison University the degree of D. D. In Chicago he was invited to take the professorship of doctrinal theology in the theological seminary in process of organization in that city. In 1867-'70 he was president of the Freedman's Institute in Richmond, Virginia Dr. Colver bore a conspicuous part in the anti-masonic, anti-slavery, and temperance movements of his day. He wrote much for the press, and published, besides occasional addresses, three lectures on Odd-fellowship (1844). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 699.
COLWELL, Stephen, 1800-1872, Pennsylvania, philanthropist, author. Director of the American Colonization Society, 1839-1841. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 700; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 327; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)
COLWELL, Stephen, author, born in Brooke county, Virginia, 25 March, 1800; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 15 January, 1872. He was graduated in 1819 at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Virginia in 1821. Moving to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, he practised law for ten years, when he became an iron merchant in Philadelphia. He devoted much of his time to the study of political economy, and soon began to write for the press. He acquired large wealth, which he devoted to charitable purposes, to the endowment of professorships, to the encouragement of scientific investigation, and to the collection of a large and valuable library, including a very complete selection of works on his favorite topics of political and social science. During the Civil War Mr. Colwell was among the foremost supporters of the National government in its struggle against secession. He lent his name and his money to the cause, and strengthened the hands of the administration by every means in his power. He was one of the founders of the Union league of Philadelphia, and an associate member of the U. S. Sanitary Commission. After the war he was appointed a commissioner to examine the whole internal revenue system of the United States, with a view to suggesting such modifications as would distribute and lighten the necessary burdens of taxation—a problem of peculiar importance at that crisis of the nation 's history. To this work he devoted much time and study, and his advice had due weight in determining the financial policy of the government. He bequeathed his library to the University of Pennsylvania with an endowment for a professorship of social science. His first published work, under the signature of “Mr. Penn,” was entitled “Letter to Members of the Legislature of Pennsylvania on the Removal of Deposits from the Bank of the United States by Order of the President” (1834). Still concealing his identity under the name of “Jonathan B. Wise,” he published “The Relative Position in our Industry of Foreign Commerce, Domestic Production, and Internal Trade” (Philadelphia, 1850). He was the author of “New Themes for the Protestant Clergy” (1851); “Polities for American Christians” (1852); “Hints to Laymen,” and “Charity and the Clergy” (1853); “Position of Christianity in the United States, in its Relation with our Political System and Religious Instruction in the Public Schools” (1855); “The South; a Letter from a Friend in the North with Reference to the Effects of Disunion upon Slavery” (1856). The same year he edited, with notes, “List's Treatise on National Economy.” His last and most important work is “The Ways and Means of Commercial Payment” (1858). Besides these publications in book-form, he was the author of a noteworthy article in the “Merchant's Magazine,” entitled “Money of Account” (1852), and another essay on the same subject in the “Banker’s Magazine” (1855). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 700.
COLTON, Walter, author, born in Rutland, Vermont. 9 May, 1797; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 22 January, 1851, was graduated at Yale in 1822, and, after teaching and studying theology at Andover, became in 1825 professor of moral philosophy and belles-let-tres at Middletown Academy, Connecticut. In 1828-"30 he edited the "American Spectator," a Whig paper in Washington, but, becoming a favorite with President Jackson, was appointed chaplain in the navy. In 1831 he sailed to the West Indies in the "Vincennes"; in 1832- 5 he was attached to the "Constellation" on the Mediterranean, in 1837 assigned to the naval station at Charlestown, Massachusetts, and edited the "Colonization Herald," and in 1838 to the chaplaincy of the station at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where, in 1841-'2, he was principal editor of the "North American," and published a pamphlet entitled "The Bible in the Public Schools." In 1845 he was ordered to California, and on 28 July, 1846, was made by Com. Stockton alcalde of Monterey, Cal. After exercising the duties of this office for two months un- der a military commission, he was confirmed as alcalde by the vote of citizens. He established there the first new paper in California, which was called the "Californian," and after its removal to San Francisco the "Alta California." He also built the first school-house, and, in a letter to the "North American," made the first public announcement of the discovery of gold. He returned to Philadelphia in 1849. He wrote many lively and interesting books of travel and sea life, the chief of which are "Ship and Shore in Madeira, Lisbon, and the Mediterranean" (New York, 1835); "A Visit to Athens and Constantinople " (183C); "Three Years in California" (1850); "Deck and Port: Incidents of a Cruise to California" (1850). In 1851 the Reverend Henry T. Cheever republished the sketches of Athens and Constantinople under the title "Land and Lee in the Bosphorus and Aegean" and edited "The Sea and Sailor, Notes of France and Italy, and other Literary Remains," with a memoir of the author. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 696.
COLVOCORESSES, George Musalas, naval officer, born in the island of Scio, Grecian archipelago, 22 October, 1810; died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 3 June, 1872. He was ransomed from the Turks after the massacre of the Greek population of the island in 1822, and sent by his father to the United States, where he was received into the family of Captain Alden Partridge and educated at the Military Academy founded by that officer in Norwich Vermont. In 1832 he was appointed a midshipman, and in 1836-7 attached to the frigate " United States ' on the Mediterranean Squadron. In 1838 he was commissioned passed midshipman, and accompanied Captain Wilkes's Exploring Expedition to the Southern Seas, serving at various times on the "Porpoise." "Peacock," "Vincennes, and Oregon " and taking part in the Overland Expedition in 1841 from Vancouver's Island to San Francisco. He was commissioned lieutenant in 1843 served on the Pacific Squadron in 1844-6. the Mediterranean Squadron m 1847-'9, on the coast of Africa in 1851-2 at New York in 1853-'5 on the East India Squadron in 1855-'8, during which he participated as executive officer of the " Levant in the capture of the Barrier Forte in Canton River and at Portsmouth U. S. Navy -yard in 1858- 60. He was made commander in 1861, and assigned to the store-ship "Supply" on the Atlantic Coast 1861-3 during which he captured the blockade-runner'" Stephen Hart," laden with arms and military stores; to the sloop-of-war "Saratoga of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in 1864 and the sloop-of-war " St. Mary's," of the Pacific Squadron, in 1865-'6. In 1867 he received his commission as captain, and was retired. He was mysteriously murdered in Bridgeport. Captain Colvocoresses was the author of a work on Wilkes's Expedition, entitled “Four Years in a Government Exploring Expedition” (New York, 1855).—His son, George Partridge, naval officer, born in Norwich, Vermont, 3 April, 1847, was graduated at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1868, and risen to the rank of lieutenant in 1875. He has served on most of the foreign naval stations, and in the hydrographic office at Washington, and in 1886 was assistant instructor in drawing at the U.S. Naval Academy. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 699-700.
COLWELL, Stephen, author, born in Brooke county, Virginia, 25 March, 1800; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 15 January, 1872. He was graduated in 1819 at Jefferson College, Pa., studied law, and was admitted to the bar of Virginia in 1821. Removing to Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, he practised law for ten years, when he became an iron merchant in Philadelphia. He devoted much of his time to the study of political economy, and soon began to write for the press. He acquired large wealth, which he devoted to charitable purposes, to the endowment of professor- ships, to the encouragement of scientific investigation, and to the collection of a large and valuable library, including a very complete selection of works on his favorite topics of political and social science. During the Civil War Mr. Colwell was among the foremost supporters of the National Government in its struggle against secession. He lent his name and his money to the cause, and strengthened the hands of the administration by every means in his power. He was one of the founders of the Union League of Philadelphia, and an associate member of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. After the war he was appointed a commissioner to examine the whole internal revenue system of the United States, with a view to suggesting such modifications as would distribute and lighten the necessary burdens of taxation—a problem of importance at that crisis of the nation's history. To this work he devoted much time and study, and his advice had due weight in determining the financial policy of the government, He bequeathed his library to the University of Pennsylvania with an endowment for a professorship of social science. His first published work, under the signature of “Mr. Penn,” was entitled “Letter to Members of the Legislature of Pennsylvania on the Removal of Deposits from the Bank of the United States by Order of the President” (1834). Still concealing his identity under the name of “Jonathan B. Wise,” he published “The Relative Position in our Industry of Foreign Commerce, Domestic Production, and Internal Trade" (Philadelphia, 1850). He was the author of “New Themes for the Protestant Clergy” (1851); “Politics for American Christians” (1852); “Hints to Laymen,” and “Charity and the Clergy” (1853); "Position of Christianity in the United States, in its Relation with our Political System and Religious Instruction in the Public Schools” (1855); “The South; a Letter from a Friend in the North with Reference to the Effects of Disunion upon Slavery” (1856). The same year he edited, with notes, “List's Treatise on National Economy.” His last and most important work is “The Ways and Means of Commercial Payment" (1858). Besides these publications in book-form, he was the author of a noteworthy article in the “Merchant's Magazine,” entitled “Money of Account” (1852), and another essay on the same subject in the “Banker's Magazine” (1855). . Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 700.
COLYAR, Arthur St. Clair, lawyer, born in Washington county, Tennessee, 23 June, 1818. He was self-educated, and achieved success as a lawyer. He opposed secession in 1861, but became a member of the Confederate Congress, and served till 1865. After the war he reorganized the Tennessee Coal and Railroad Company, becoming its president, and also engaged in manufacturing. He has done much to develop the resources of his state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 700.
COMMAGER, Henry S., soldier, born about 1825; died in Galveston, Texas, 5 September, 1867. He was a prominent Democratic politician in Toledo, Ohio, and in 1864 was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. He was colonel of the 67th Ohio Regiment during the Civil War, and on 27 February, 1865, was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers. For a short time before his death he was in the employ of the internal revenue service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 701.
COMSTOCK, Cyrus Ballou, soldier, b, in West Wrentham, Massachusetts, 3 February, 1831. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1855, standing first in his class, and became second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. From that time until 1859 he was engaged in the construction of Fort Taylor, Florida, and Fort Carroll, Maryland, after which he was assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at West Point. During the Civil War he served in the defences of Washington, D.C., becoming in August, 1861, assistant to the chief of engineers in the Army of the Potomac. He continued with this army through the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, and the Maryland Campaign, and was made chief engineer in November, 1862. After Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville he was transferred to the Army of the Tennessee, and was its chief engineer, being present at the siege of Vicksburg. Later he became assistant inspector of the military Division of the Mississippi, and from March, 1864, till the close of the war was senior aide-de-camp to General U. S. Grant, serving in the Richmond Campaign of 1864), at Port Fisher, and in General Canby's Mobile Campaign. From 1866 till 1870 he served as aide to the general-in-chief at Washington, and since that time has been occupied as superintendent of Geodetic Survey of the northern and northwestern lakes, and on other important surveys, including the improvements of the mouth of the Mississippi. In 1881 he became lieutenant- colonel in the Engineer Corps, and he holds the brevet ranks of brigadier-general in the regular army and major-general of volunteers. He was appointed in 1882 a member of the Board of Engineers for Fortifications and River and Harbor Improvements. General Comstock was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1884. He has published “Notes on European Surveys.” (Washington, 1876); “Survey of the Northwestern Lakes” (1877); and “Primary Triangulation, U.S. Lake Survey” (1882). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 702.
CONGER, Omar Dwight, senator, born in Cooperstown, New York, in 1818. He moved with his father, Reverend K. Conger, to Huron County, Ohio, in 1824, and was graduated at Western Reserve in 1842. He was engaged in the geological survey of the Lake Superior iron and copper region from 1845 till 1847, and in 1848 became a lawyer in Port Huron, Michigan He was elected judge of the St. Clair County Court in 1850, and was a state senator from 1855 till 1861, being president pro tempore of the senate in 1859. He was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket in 1864, a member of the state constitutional convention in 1866, and a member of Congress from 1869 till 1881, when he was chosen to the U. S. Senate. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 706.
CONKLING, Frederick Augustus born in Canaioharie, New York, 22 August, 1816, received a classical education, and became a merchant. He was for three years a member of the New York legislature. In June, 1861, he organized, at his own expense, the 84th New York Regiment, serving as its colonel. During July, 1863, the regiment did duty as provost-guard at Baltimore, fid, and in 1864 it saw several months' service in Virginia. Colonel Conkling served one term in Congress, from 1861 till 1863, and in 1868 was the Republican candidate for mayor of New York. He changed his politics, however, and spoke in various parts of the Union in favor of Mr. Tilden's election to the presidency in 1876, and of General Hancock's in 1880. He is a trustee of the College of physicians and surgeons, a member of the geographical and historical societies, and the author of various reports to the New York legislature, and numerous pamphlets on political, commercial, and scientific subjects. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 706.
CONKLING, Roscoe, U.S. Senator, born in Albany, New York, 30 October, 1829, received an academic education, and studied law three years under his father's tuition. In 1846 he entered the law-office of Francis Kernan, afterward his colleague in the Senate, and in 1850 became district attorney for Oneida County. He was admitted to the bar in that year, and soon became prominent both in law and in politics. He was elected mayor of Utica in 1858, and at the expiration of his first term a tie vote between the two Candidates for the office caused him to hold over for In November, 1858, he was chosen as a Republican to Congress, and took his seat in that body at the beginning of its first session, in December, 1859— a session noted for its long and bitter contest over the speakership. He was re-elected in 1860, but in 1862 was defeated by Francis Kernan, over whom, however, he was elected in 1864. His first committee was that on the District of Columbia, of which he was afterward chairman. He was also a member of the committee of ways and means and of the special reconstruction committee of fifteen. Mr. Conkling's first important speech was in support of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution. He vigorously attacked the generalship of McClellan, opposed Spaulding's legal-tender act, and firmly upheld the government in the prosecution of the war. Mr. Conkling was re-elected in the autumn of 1866, but in January, 1867, before he took his seat, was chosen U. S. Senator to succeed Ira Harris, and re-elected in 1873 and 1879. In the Senate he was from the first a member of the judiciary committee, and connected with nearly all the leading committees, holding the chairs of those on commerce and revision of the laws. Senator Conkling was a zealous supporter of President Grant's administration and largely directed its general policy toward the south," advocating it in public and by his personal influence. He was also instrumental in the passage of the civil-rights bill, and favored the resumption of specie payments. He took a prominent part in framing the electoral-commission bill in 1877, and supported it by an able speech, arguing that the question of the commission's jurisdiction should be left to that body itself. Mr. Conkling received 93 votes for the Republican nomination for president in the Cincinnati Convention of 1876. In the Chicago Convention of 1880 he advocated the nomination of General Grant for a third term. In 1881 he became hostile to President Garfield's administration on a question of patronage, claiming, with his colleague, Thomas C. Piatt, the right to control federal appointments in his state. The president having appointed a political opponent of Mr. Conkling's to the collectorship of the port of New York, the latter opposed his confirmation, claiming that he should have been consulted in the matter, and that the nomination was a violation of the pledges given to him by the president. Mr. Garfield, as soon as Mr. Conkling Had declared his opposition, withdrew all other nominations to New York offices, leaving the objectionable one to be acted on by itself. Finding that he could not prevent the confirmation, Mr. Conkling, on 16 May, resigned his senatorship, as did also his colleague, and returned home to seek a vindication in the form of a re-election. In this, however, after an exciting canvass, they failed; two other Republicans were chosen to fill the vacant places, and Mr. Conkling returned to his law practice in New York City. In 1885-'6 he was counsel of the State Senate investigating committee, appointed for the purpose of disclosing the fraud and bribery in the grant of the Broadway Horse-Railroad franchise by the board of aldermen in 1884. After the taking of testimony, lasting about three months, Mr. Conkling, together with Clarence A. Seward, made an argument which resulted in the repeal of the Broadway Railroad charter. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 706-707.
CONNER, James, soldier, born in Charleston, South Carolina, 1 September, 1829; died 26 June, 1883. He was graduated at South Carolina College in 1849, admitted to the bar in 1852, and in 1856 appointed U. S. District attorney for South Carolina, which office he resigned in December, 1860. He entered the Confederate Army as captain in 1861, served in many campaigns, rose to the rank of brigadier-general, and in the latter part of the war commanded a division. He was chairman of the South Carolina Democratic state committee in 1876, and elected in that year attorney-general on the same ticket with Governor Wade Hampton, but resigned the office in 1877. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 708.
CONNESS, John, born 1821. Union Republican U.S. Senator from California. U.S. Senator 1863-1869. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 708; Congressional Globe)
CONNESS, John, senator, born in Ireland, 20 September, 1821. He emigrated to the United States at the age of thirteen, learned the trade of a piano-forte maker, and worked in New York City until the discovery of gold in California. He went to that state in 1849, engaged in mining, and afterward became a merchant. He was a member of the California Legislature in 1853-'4 and in 1860-'1, a candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1859, and the union Democratic candidate for governor in 1861, receiving 30,944 votes, to 32,751 cast for the Breckinridge Democratic candidate, and 56,036 for Leland Stanford, the successful Republican candidate. He was elected as a Union Republican to succeed Milton S. Latham, a Democrat, to the U. S. Senate, and sat from 4 March, 1863, till 4 March, 1869, serving on the committees on finance and the Pacific Railroad, and as chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining. He resided in Massachusetts after the conclusion of his term. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 708.
CONNOR, Patrick Edward, soldier, born in the south of Ireland, 17 March, 1820. He came to the United States when a boy, was educated in New York City, entered the regular army during the Florida War, at the age of nineteen, engaged in mercantile business in New York City after his discharge in 1844, and in 1846 settled in Texas. Upon the breaking out of the Mexican War in that year he was mustered in as captain of Texas volunteers, in the regiment of Albert Sidney Johnston, fought at Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and was severely wounded at Buena Vista. Shortly after the close of the war he emigrated to California, and there engaged in business. In 1861 he raised a regiment of volunteers in California, and was ordered to Utah, to prevent a revolt of the Mormons and rid the overland routes of plundering Indians. On 29 January, 1863, his force, numbering 200, after a rapid march of 140 miles, made in four nights through deep snow, in weather so cold that the feet of seventy-six soldiers were frozen, encountered 300 warriors in their fortified camp on Bear River, Washington Territory. The troops enfiladed the position, and after a fight of four hours destroyed the entire band. Colonel Connor was commissioned brigadier-general, 30 March, 1863, and was long in command of the Utah District, where he effectively established the authority of the government. He received the brevet of major-general at the close of the Civil War, and having been appointed, on the petition of the legislatures of Colorado and Nebraska, to the District of the Plains, organized an expedition of 2,000 cavalry to chastise the Sioux and Arapahoes for depredations on the Overland mail route, and in August, I866, defeated the latter at Tongue River. He was mustered out of the service on 30 April, 1866. General Connor was the leader in building up a Gentile community in Utah. His volunteer force numbered 16,000. Soon after he established Camp Douglas, near Salt Lake City, he founded there the " Union Vedette," which was the first daily newspaper printed in the territory. He located the first silver mine in Utah, wrote the first mining law, introduced navigation on the Great Salt Lake, built the first silver-lead smelting-works, and founded the town of Stockton. After the war he declined a colonelcy in the regular army in order to attend to his large mining and commercial interests in Utah. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 708-709.
CONNOR, Selden, soldier, born in Fairfield, Maine, 25 January, 1839. He was graduated at Tufts College, Massachusetts, in 1859, and studied law in Woodstock, Vermont. When the war began he enlisted for three months in the 1st Regiment of Vermont Volunteers, and after being mustered out was chosen major, and afterward lieutenant-colonel of the 7th Maine Regiment. He commanded the regiment for some time, took part in the Peninsular Campaign, was in temporary command of the 77th New York Regiment after the battle of Antietam, participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, receiving a slight wound, and was present at the battle of Gettysburg. In January, 1864, he was commissioned colonel of the 19th Maine Volunteers, and, as ranking officer, commanded the brigade. In the battle of the Wilderness his thigh-bone was shattered by a bullet, 6 May, 1864. He was commissioned brigadier-general in June, 1864, but was incapacitated for active service after receiving his wound. In April, 1866, his leg was again fractured by a fall, confining him to his house for two years. He was a member of Governor Chamberlain's staff, and in 1868 was appointed assessor of internal revenue. In 1874 he was appointed collector for the Augusta District, and held that office till he was nominated by the Republicans for the governorship of Maine, in 1875. He was elected by 3,872 majority over Charles W. Roberts, the Democratic candidate, and re-elected for the two following terms, serving from January, 1876, till January, 1879. From 1882 till 1886 he was U. S. Pension-Agent. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 709.
CONOVER, Simon Barclay, senator, born in Cranbury, Middlesex County, New Jersey, 23 September, 1840. He was graduated M. D. in the University of Nashville, Tennessee, in 1864, appointed an assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland, and stationed at Nashville, Tennessee, resigned, but was afterward reappointed, and ordered to Lake City, Florida, in 1866. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1868, and was appointed state treasurer by Governor Reed, resigning his commission in the army to accept the office. He was a member of the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1868, and became a member of the Republican National Committee. After the expiration of his tenure of office as treasurer, in 1873, he was elected a member of the state House of Representatives, and chosen speaker. He was elected U. S. Senator in 1872, and served from 4 March, 1873, till 3 March, 1879. He was the Republican candidate for governor in 1880. After the expiration of his term in the Senate he resumed the practice of medicine. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 709.
CONOVER, Thomas A., naval officer, born in New Jersey in 1794; died in South Amboy, New Jersey, 25 September, 1864. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 January, 1812, his first cruise being on the "Essex," commanded by Captain David Porter, during the war with England. His next service was under Commodore McDonough on Lake Champlain. He was promoted to a lieutenancy, 5 March, 1817, and served on board the "Guerriere" in the Mediterranean and other vessels in various portions of the world until his promotion to commander, 29 February 1838, in which capacity he commanded the sloop-of-war "John Adams" some years. He was promoted to the rank of captain, 2 October, 1848, and in 1857-8 commanded the squadron on the coast of Africa the "Constitution" being his flag-ship On 16 July 1862, on the creation of the grade of commodore in the navy, he was promoted to that rank and placed on the retired list, having been m the service fifty-three years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 709.
CONRAD, Charles M., statesman born m Winchester, Virginia, about 1804; died in New Orleans, Louisiana, 11 Feb 1878. He went with his father to Mississippi, and thence to Louisiana while an infant received a liberal education, studied law was admitted to the bar in 1828, and practised in New Orleans. He served several years in the state legislature, was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Whig in the place of Alexander Mouton, who had resigned, and served from 14 April, 1842, till 3 March, 1843. In 1844 he was a member of the state constitutional convention. He was elected to Congress in 1848, and served till August, 1850, when he was appointed Secretary of War by President Fillmore, serving from 13 August, 1850, till 7 March, 1853. He was one of the leaders of the secession movement in Louisiana in December, 1860, a deputy from Louisiana in the Montgomery provisional Congress of 1861, a member of the 1st and 2d Confederate Congresses in 1862–'4, and also served as a brigadier- general in the Confederate Army. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 709-710.
CONRAD, Joseph, soldier, born in Wied-Selters, Germany, 17 May, 1830. He was graduated at the Military Academy of Hesse Darmstadt in 1848, and came to this country, settling in Missouri. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in the National service, and was made captain of the 3d Missouri Infantry. He became major in September, and was engaged in the action of Carthage, the battle of Pea Ridge, and the siege of Corinth. After being mustered out, he re-entered the army as lieutenant-colonel of the 15th Missouri Infantry, in May, 1862, became colonel in November, and was engaged in the battles of Perryville, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. During the Atlanta Campaign he commanded a brigade in the Army of the Cumberland, and was brevetted brigadier-general for his services. He commanded the sub-District of Victoria in Texas until February, 1866, when he was mustered out of the volunteer service. In July, 1866, he entered the regular army, and was commissioned captain in the 29th U.S. Infantry, transferred to the 11th U.S. Infantry in April, 1869, and served with his regiment until October, 1882, when he was retired with the rank of colonel. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 710.
CONRAD, Joseph Speed, soldier, born in Ithaca, New York, 23 August, 1833. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1857, and assigned to the 2d U.S. Infantry, stationed at Fort Columbus. He was sent to the western frontier in 1858, and during the three years succeeding served in Minnesota and Nebraska. When the Civil War began he was a first lieutenant, and was detailed as commissary of subsistence to General Lyon in the Missouri Campaign in the summer of 1861. He was wounded at the battle of Wilson's Creek, 10 August, and was on sick-leave until October. He was promoted captain, 1 November, 1861, and placed at the head of the discharge department in Washington from that time until 21 January, 1864. Early in the summer of that year he joined the regular brigade of the Army of the Potomac, and was engaged in the campaigns that followed, including the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Petersburg, and Reams's Station. During this period he served at different times as judge-advocate, provost-marshal, and commissary of musters. He received three brevets, as major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel of volunteers. From 1865 till 1871 he was occupied with garrison duty, after which he served as instructor of infantry tactics at the U.S. Military Academy, and then on special duty in Washington in connection with the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. In 1877 he was assigned to duty on the frontier. He was promoted to major of the 17th U.S. Infantry on 27 April, 1879, and to lieutenant-colonel of the 22d U.S. Infantry on 27 June, 1884. In 1886 he was in command of Fort Lyon, Colorado. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 710.
CONWAY, Ellen Davis Dana, abolitionist, feminist wife of Daniel M. Conway.
CONWAY, Martin Franklin, 1827-1882, Hartford County, Maryland. U.S. Congressman, diplomat, abolitionist. Supported Kansas Free-State Movement. (Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 363)
CONWAY, Moncure Daniel, 1832-1907, abolitionist, clergyman, author, women’s rights advocate. Unitarian minister. (Drake, 1950, p. 175; Mabee, 1970, pp. 322, 329, 336, 343, 363-365, 366, 369, 372; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 711-712; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 364)
CONWAY, Moncure Daniel, author, born in Stafford county, Virginia, 17 March, 1832. His father was a magistrate and a member of the Virginia legislature; his mother a daughter of Surgeon-General Daniel. He received his early education at Fredericksburg Academy, and was graduated at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, in 1849, where he united with the Methodist Church. He began the study of law at Warrenton, Virginia, and while there wrote for the Richmond “Examiner,” of which his cousin, John M. Daniel, was editor, in support of extreme southern opinions. He abandoned the law to enter the Methodist ministry, joined the Baltimore conference in 1850, was appointed to the Rockville circuit, and in 1852 to Frederick circuit. He was a contributor to the “Southern Literary Messenger” and published a pamphlet entitled “Free Schools in Virginia,” in which he advocated the adoption of the New England common-school system. Having undergone a change of political and religious convictions, partly through the influence of a settlement of Quakers among whom he lived, he left the Methodist ministry and entered the divinity-school at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was graduated in 1854. He then returned to Virginia, in the hope of preaching his humanitarian ideas and transcendental and rationalistic doctrines; but upon reaching Falmouth, where his parents resided, was obliged by a band of neighbors to leave the state under threats because he had befriended Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave from the same district. The same year he became pastor of the Unitarian Church in Washington, D. C., where he preached until he was dismissed on account of some anti-slavery discourses, especially one delivered after the assault on Senator Sumner. In 1857 he was settled over the Unitarian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. There he published, among other pamphlets, “A Defence of the Theatre” and “The Natural History of the Devil.” The publication of books on slavery and its relation to the Civil War led to an invitation to lecture on this subject in New England, as he had already lectured gratuitously throughout Ohio. During the war his father's slaves escaped from Virginia and were settled by him in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was for a time editor of the Boston “Commonwealth.” In 1863 he went to England to enlighten the British public in regard to the causes of the war, and there wrote and lectured as a representative of the anti-slavery opinions of the north. He also contributed to “Fraser's Magazine” and the “Fortnightly Review.” Toward the close of 1863 he became the minister of South Place Religious Society in London, remaining there until he returned to the United States in 1884. He was long the London correspondent of the Cincinnati “Commercial.” “The Rejected Stone, or Insurrection versus Resurrection in America,” first appeared under the pen-name “A Native of Virginia,” and attracted much attention before the authorship became known. “The Golden Hour” was a similar work. Mr. Conway was a frequent contributor to the daily liberal press in England, and has written extensively for magazines in that country and in the United States. A series of articles entitled “South Coast Saunterings in England” appeared in “Harper's Magazine” in 1868-'9. He has published in book form “Tracts for To-day” (Cincinnati, 1858); “The Rejected Stone” (Boston, 1861); “The Golden Hour” (1862); “Testimonies concerning Slavery” (London, 1865); “The Earthward Pilgrimage,” a moral and doctrinal allegory (London and New York, 1870); “Republican Superstitions,” a theoretical treatise on politics, in which he objects to the extensive powers conferred on the president of the United States by the Federal constitution, and advocates, with Louis Blanc, a single legislative chamber (London, 1872); “The Sacred Anthology,” a selection from the sages and sacred books of all ages (London and New York, 1873); “Idols and Ideals” (London and New York, 1877); “Demonology and Devil-Lore” (1879); “A Necklace of Stories” (London, 1880); “The Wandering Jew and the Pound of Flesh” (London and New York, 1881); “Thomas Carlyle” (1881). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 711-712.
CONWAY, William, sailor, born in Camden. Maine, in 1802; died in Brooklyn, New York, 30 November, 1865. He was a sailor in the U.S. Navy for forty years, and was stationed at the Warrington or Pensacola U.S. Navy-yard when it was surrendered to the southerners on 12 January, 1861, serving at the time as quartermaster. When ordered by Lieutenant Frederick Kinshaw to lower the U.S. flag, he replied: “I have served under that flag for forty years, and I won't do it.” Shortly afterward Mr. Conway was sent to the north, where he remained until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 712.
CONY, Samuel, jurist, born in Augusta, Maine, 27 February, 1811; died there, 5 October, 1870. He was graduated at Brown in 1829, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1832, and engaged in practice at Oldtown, Maine. He was elected to the legislature in 1835, in 1839 was chosen a member of Governor Fairfield's executive council, and from 1840 till 1847 was judge of probate for Penobscot County. In 1847 he was appointed land-agent, and in 1850 elected state treasurer, an office which he retained for five years. In 1850 he moved to Augusta. Up to 1861 he acted with the Democratic Party, but, being rejected by the section of his party that was opposed to the war, he was in 1862 elected to the legislature as a War Democrat, and in 1863 chosen governor. His administration was so admirable and efficient that he was twice re-elected by large majorities. He was offered a renomination in 1867, but the impaired state of his health forced him to decline. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 713.
CONYNGHAM, John Butler, soldier, born in 1827; died in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, 27 May, 1871. He was graduated at Yale in 1846, subsequently studied law, and practised in Wilkesbarre and St. Louis. At the first call for troops in 1861 he volunteered in the three-months' service, and on his return joined the 52d Pennsylvania Volunteers, of which he was appointed major on 5 November, 1861. He participated in the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, and in the winter of 1863 was sent with his regiment to Port Royal, South Carolina, was present at the naval attack on Fort Sumter in April, 1863, and participated in the subsequent assault and siege operations against Fort Wagner. Upon the reduction of that fort, Major Conyngham was placed in command of the defences of Morris Island. He was detailed by General Terry to make a night reconnaissance of Sumter, and subsequently engaged in the night assault on Fort Johnson, across Charleston Harbor. In this assault he was captured and detained as prisoner for several months. While a prisoner at Charleston he was one of the number selected as hostages to be shot in case of a bombardment of the city by our forces. In November, 1863, he was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy, and in March, 1865, to the colonelcy of his regiment. In March, 1867, Colonel Conyngliam was appointed captain in the 38th Infantry, U. S. Army, and transferred to the 24th U.S. Infantry, November, 1869. In 1871 he was brevetted major and lieutenant-colonel for gallant service in the field. During his term of service in the regular army he was mostly employed on the Indian frontier. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 713.
COOK, Henry F., soldier, killed in battle at Bristow Station, Virginia, 14 October, 1863. He was a native of Mississippi, served as first lieutenant in the Mexican War, with Jefferson Davis's regiment of Mississippi volunteers, distinguished himself in the battle of Monterey, where he was wounded, and commanded a company in the battle of Buena Vista. At the beginning of the Civil War he joined the Confederate Army, and rose by successive steps until he was made a brigadier-general in 1863. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 714.
COOK, Philip, soldier, born in Twiggs county, Georgia, 31 July, 1817. He was educated at Oglethorpe University, studied law at the University of Virginia, was admitted to the bar, and practised his profession in Americus, Georgia In 1859, 1860, and 1863 he served in the state senate. He entered the Confederate service in April, 1861, as a private, and before the end of the war had risen to a brigadier-generalship. In 1865 he was elected to Congress, but was not allowed to take his seat, by reason of the "disability clause," incurred by his taking up arms against the Union. After the repeal of the law creating this clause he was elected to Congress three times, serving from 1 December, 1873 till 3 March, 1879. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 717.
COOKE, Philip St. George, soldier, born near Leesburg, Virginia, 1 June, 1809. After studying at the Academy of Martinsburg, Virginia, entered the U.S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1827, and was assigned to the 6th U.S. Infantry. He was stationed for many years on the frontier, and in the Black Hawk War was adjutant of his regiment at the battle of Bad Axe River, 2 August, 1832. He became first lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Dragoons on 4 March, 1833, and captain on 31 May, 1835. He escorted a party of Santa Fé traders to the Arkansas River in 1843, and on 30 June of that year captured a Texan military expedition. During the Mexican War he commanded a Missouri volunteer battalion in California from 1846 till 1847, and in 1848 a regiment in the city of Mexico, having been promoted to major on 16 February, 1847, and brevetted lieutenant-colonel on 20 February, for his conduct in California. Afterward he was engaged in various Indian expeditions, commanding the cavalry in the action at Blue Water, 3 September, 1855. He commanded in Kansas during the troubles there in 1856–57, performing that delicate duty to the satisfaction of all, and was at the head of the cavalry in the Utah Expedition of 1857-8, becoming colonel of the 2d U.S. Dragoons on 14 June, 1858. In 1859 he prepared a new system of cavalry tactics, which was adopted for the service in November, 1861 (revised ed., 1883). In June, 1861, Colonel Cooke published a letter in which he declared that he owed allegiance to the general government rather than to his native state of Virginia. He was promoted to brigadier-general on 12 November, 1861, and commanded all the regular cavalry in the Army of the Potomac during the Penninsular Campaign, particularly in the siege of Yorktown, and the battles of Williamsburg, Gaines's Mills, and Glendale. He sat on courts-martial in 1862–3, commanded the Baton Rouge District till 1864, and till 1866 was general superintendent of the recruiting service. He was at the head of the Department of the Platte in 1866–’7, of that of the Cumberland in 1869-'70, and of the Department of the Lakes from 1870 till 1873. On 29 October, 1873, he was placed on the retired list, having been in active service more than forty-five years. General Cooke has published “Scenes and Adventures in the Army” (Philadelphia, 1856), and “The Conquest of New Mexico California; an Historical and Personal Narrative” (1878). His daughter married General J. E. B. Stuart, the Confederate cavalry leader. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 720.
COOKE, John Esten, author, born in Winchester, Virginia, 3 November, 1830; died near Boyce, Clarke County, Virginia, 27 September, 1886. He left school at sixteen, studied law with his father, and, after practicing about four years, devoted himself to literature. He entered the Confederate Army at the beginning of the Civil War, and served first as a private in the artillery and afterward in the cavalry, being engaged in nearly all the battles in Virginia, most of the time as a member of General J. E. B. Stuart's staff. At Lee's surrender he was inspector-general of the horse-artillery of the Army of Virginia. His writings relate almost entirely to Virginia, and describe the life, manners, and history of the people of that state. His war-books are records of personal observation and opinion. In a letter written a few months before his death Mr. Cooke says: “I still write stories for such periodicals as are inclined to accept romance, but whether any more of my work in that field will appear in book-form is uncertain. Mr. Howells and the other realists have crowded me out of popular regard as a novelist, and have brought the kind of fiction I write into general disfavor. I do not complain of that, for they are right. They see, as I do, that fiction should faithfully reflect life, and they obey the law, while I cannot. I was born too soon, and am now too old to learn my trade anew. But in literature, as in everything else, advance should be the law, and he who stands still has no right to complain if he is left behind. Besides, the fires of ambition are burned out of me, and I am serenely happy. My wheat-fields are green as I look out from the porch of the Briers, the corn rustles in the wind. and the great trees give me shade upon the lawn. My three children are growing up in such nurture and admonition as their race has always deemed fit, and I am not only content, but very happy, and much too lazy to entertain any other feeling toward my victors than one of warm friendship and sincere approval.” His publications include “Leather Stocking and Silk,” a story (New York, 1854); “The Virginia Comedians” (2 vols., 1854); “The Youth of Jefferson,” based on the letters of that statesman (1854); “Ellie,” a novel (Richmond, Virginia, 1855); “The Last of the Foresters” (New York, 1856); “Henry St. John, Gentleman; a Tale of 1774–75,” sequel to the “Comedians” (1859); “Life of Stonewall Jackson" (Richmond, 1863; enlarged ed., New York, 1876); “Surry of Eagle's Nest,” a picture of military incidents in the Confederate cavalry, in auto-biographical form, purporting to be “from MS. of Colonel Surry” (New York, 1866); “Wearing of the Gray” (1867); “Mohun, or the Last Days of Lee and his Paladins,” sequel to the foregoing (1868); “Fairfax” (1868); “Hilt to Hilt,” a romantic story of 1864 (1869); “Out of the Foam ” (1869); “Hammer and Rapier,” war sketches (1870); “The Heir of Gaymount” (1870); “Life of General R. E. Lee’” (1871); “Dr. Van Dyke,” a story of Virginia in the last century (1872); “Her Majesty the Queen" (Philadelphia, 1873); “Pretty Mrs. Gaston, and other Stories” (New York, 1874); “Justin Harley” (Philadelphia, 1874); “Canolles,” a story of Cornwallis's Virginia Campaign (Detroit, 1877); “Professor Pressensee,” a story (New York, 1878): “Mr. Grantley's Idea,” “Virginia Bohemians,” and “Stories of the Old Dominion” (1879); “Virginia; a History of the People” (Boston, 1883); “My Lady Pokahontas” (1884); and “The Maurice Mystery” (New York, 1885). Besides these, Mr. Cooke wrote several novels not issued in permanent form, and a mass of stories, sketches, and verses for periodicals. The last product of his pen was an article written for this work. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 729-721.
COOKE, John R., entered the army in 1855 as second lieutenant of the 8th U.S. Infantry, became first lieutenant, 28 January, 1861, and, resigning on 30 May, entered the Confederate service, where he rose to the rank of brigadier-general. [Philip St. Georges Cooke’s son.] Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 721.
COOLIDGE, Richard H., military surgeon, born in the state of New York in 1816; died in Raleigh, North Carolina, 23 January, 1866. He was appointed assistant surgeon in the U. S. Army from New York state in August, 1841, and served at various posts. In June, 1860, he was promoted surgeon, and was medical purveyor and director, Department of the Pacific, from January, 1861, till April, 1862. He was lieutenant-colonel and medical inspector from June, 1862, till October, 1865, was in the provost-marshal's department, Washington, D. C., till April, 1864, and on duty at Louisville, Kentucky, from May till November, 1864. He was made medical inspector of the Northern Department and of the Department of Pennsylvania in 1865, and subsequently promoted to a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy for faithful and meritorious services during the war. He was medical director of the Department of North Carolina at the time of his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 723.
COOLIDGE, Sidney, scientist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1830; died near Chickamauga, Georgia, 19 September, 1863. He studied abroad from 1839 till 1850, first in Geneva and Vevay, and afterward in the Royal military College in Dresden. After his return to this country he assisted in the construction of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and in running the boundary-line of Minnesota. After working in the nautical-almanac office and in the Cambridge observatory, he was appointed in 1853 assistant astronomer to Commodore Perry's Japan Exploring Expedition. In 1854 he assisted Professor George P. Bond in his observations of the planet Saturn, and contributed drawings and notes to the published annals of the observatory. He took charge in 1855 of the Chronometric Expedition for determining the difference of longitude between Cambridge and Greenwich, and in 1850-'7 studied the dialects and astronomical superstitions of the Indians near Saguenay River and Lake Mistassinnie. Being in Mexico in 1858, he took part in the Civil War of that year, was taken prisoner and sentenced to be shot, but was finally released and sent to the city of Mexico on parole. He took part in an Arizona land-Survey in 1860, and in May, 1861, became major in the 16th U. S. Infantry. He was superintendent of the regimental recruiting service in 1862, commanded regiments at different posts and camps, and was engaged at the battles of Hoover's Gap and Chickamauga, where he was killed. For his services in the latter fight he received the brevet of lieutenant-colonel. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 723.
COOMBS, Leslie, soldier, born near Boonesboro, Clark County, Kentucky, 28 November, 1793; died in Lexington, Kentucky, 21 August, 1881. His father, who served at the siege of Yorktown, moved from Virginia in 1782, and settled in the wilderness of Kentucky. Leslie, the twelfth child of this pioneer farmer, entered the army at the age of nineteen. In the campaign that ended in the disaster at the River Raisin, he was sent by General Winchester with important despatches to General Harrison. To deliver these he was obliged to traverse a wilderness, occupied by savages and covered with snow, for over a hundred miles, and suffered great privations. On 2 June, 1813, he was commissioned captain of spies in Dudley's Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers. He volunteered, with an Indian guide, to carry the intelligence of the approach of General Clay's forces to General Harrison, when the latter was besieged in Fort Meigs, but was overpowered in sight of the fort, and escaped to Fort Defiance. He bore a conspicuous part in the defeat of Colonel Dudley, on 5 May, and was wounded at Fort Miami. After the war he studied law, was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-three, attaining high rank in the profession. In 1836 he raised, at Ins own expense, a regiment to aid Texas in her struggle for independence, and was commissioned colonel in August of that year. He was for several terms state auditor, and "was many times elected to the legislature. When his old" commander, General Harrison, was a candidate for president, Coombs took a prominent part in the canvass. As a stump orator he was unsurpassed. At the beginning of the Mexican War he aided largely in raising volunteers in Kentucky. He was a strong Whig, and earnestly devoted to the Union from the time when the question of secession was first advanced. In 1849 Henry Clay, who placed great trust in General Coombs, wrote to him suggesting that Union meetings should be held throughout Kentucky, enclosing resolutions to be adopted. During the canvass of 1844 he made many speeches in the north and east in support of his friend Clay as a candidate for president. It was in defeating General Coombs for Congress that John C. Breckinridge won his earliest success in public life. General Coombs's last public office was that of clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, to which he was elected by a large majority as the Union candidate in 1860. In opposition to the state guard, organized by Simon B. Buckner, which was only a school of recruits for the Confederate Army, he organized and armed, in conjunction with General Lovell H. Rousseau, a body of loyal soldiers, who subsequently rendered effective service in the national cause. General Coombs was one of the pioneers of railroad-building in the west. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 723-724.
COOPER, George Henry, naval officer, born In Fort Diamond, New York Harbor, 27 July, 1821. He was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy on 14 August, 1837, and during that year was attached to the fleet on the coast of Florida, which was co-operating with the army in boat expeditions against the Seminole Indians. From 1838 till 1842 he was attached to the frigate “Constitution” on the Pacific, after which he spent some time in the naval school, then in Philadelphia. He was promoted to passed midshipman in June, 1843, and served on the “Flirt” during the Mexican War. This vessel reported to General Taylor in March, 1846, and Mr. Cooper commanded a detachment of men at Point Isabel, Texas, in May. After the capture of Monterey he was transferred to Commodore Connor's squadron, and was present at the attacks on Tobasco, Alvarado, and Tuspan. From 1847 till 1851 he served at Norfolk, and then for five years was attached to the “Susquehanna” in the East India Squadron. He received his commission as lieutenant, 8 May, 1851, and on his return from the East Indies again spent two years at Norfolk, after which he served on the frigate “Roanoke” in the home squadron, and later at the U.S. Navy-yard in Portsmouth. In July, 1862, he was made commander and given the supply-vessel “Massachusetts,” of the Atlantic Squadron, and in 1863 was in command of the “Mercedita,” of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. For seven weeks he commanded the monitor “Sangamon” inside of the Charleston Roads, employed on picket-duty, and acted in concert with the army, constantly shelling Fort Sumter and the batteries on Sullivan's Island. Later he was stationed in Stone Inlet, South Carolina, as senior officer, co-operating with the army in expeditions against the enemy, and frequently engaged at short range. From 1863 till 1867 he commanded successively the “Sonoma,” the “Glaucus,” and the “Winooski,” and, after receiving his commission as captain in December, 1867, was stationed at the Norfolk U.S. Navy-yard. He then spent some time at sea in command of the frigate “Colorado,” and in 1872-’3 was commandant of the Norfolk Navy-yard. In June, 1874, he was promoted to commodore, after which he had charge of the Pensacola Navy-yard. From 1878 till 1880 he was President of the Board of Inspection, and commandant of the Brooklyn Navy-yard until 1882. In November, 1881, he was commissioned rear-admiral and given command of the North Atlantic Station, with headquarters in New York. In 1884 he was placed on the retired list. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 724.
COOPER, James, senator, born in Frederick county, Maryland, 8 Mav, 1810; died in Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio," 28 March, 1863. He studied at St. Mary's College, and was graduated at Washington College. Pennsylvania, in 1832, after which he studied law with Thaddeus Stevens. In 1834 he was admitted to the bar, and began to practice in Gettysburg. Pennsylvania He was elected to Congress as a Whig, and served for two terms, from 2 December, 1839, till 3 March, 1843. He was a member of the state legislature during the years 1843, 1844, 1846, and 1848, and its speaker in 1847. In 1848 he was made attorney-general of Pennsylvania, and he was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Whig, holding office from 3 December, 1849, till 3 March, 1855. On the expiration of his term he settled in Philadelphia, and later in Frederick City, Maryland. Soon after the beginning of the Civil War he took command of all the volunteers in Maryland, and organized them into regiments. On 17 May, 1861, He was made brigadier-general in the volunteer service, his appointment being among the first that were made during the war. Later he was placed in command of Camp Chase, where he served until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 724.
COOPER, Joseph Alexander, soldier, born near Somerset, 25 November, 1823. He served during the Mexican War in the 4th Tennessee Infantry. When the Civil War began he entered the U.S. service as captain in the 1st Tennessee Infantry, becoming in 1862 colonel of the 6th Tennessee. He served in East Tennessee and Georgia, and in July, 1864, was made a brigadier-general, in which capacity he commanded on the march through Georgia, receiving the brevet of major-general in March, 1865. He held the office of collector of internal revenue in Tennessee from 1869 till 1879, and later, again resumed his farming in Kansas. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp.
COOPER, Peter, 1791-1883, New York anti-slavery activist, Native American rights advocate, industrialist, inventor, philanthropist. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 730-732; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 409)
COOPER, Peter, philanthropist, born in New York City, 12 February, 1791; died there, 4 April, 1883; His mother was the daughter of John Campbell, a successful potter in New York, who became an alderman of the city and was deputy quartermaster during the Revolutionary War. Mr. Campbell contributed liberally to the cause of American freedom, and received in acknowledgment a large quantity of Continental money. On his father's side Mr. Cooper was of English descent, and both his grandfather and his father served in the Continental Army. The latter, who became a lieutenant during the war, was a hatter, and at the close of the war resumed his business in New York. Peter was born about this period, and he remembered the time when, as a boy, he was employed to pull hair out of rabbit-skins, his head being just above the table. He continued to assist his father until he was competent to make every part of a hat. The elder Cooper determined to live in the country, and moved to Peekskill, where he began the brewing of ale, and the son was employed in delivering the kegs. Later, Catskill became the residence of the family, and the hatter's business was resumed, to which was added the making of bricks. Peter was made useful in carrying and handling the bricks for the drying process. These occupations proved unsatisfactory, and another move was made, this time to Brooklyn, where the father and son again made hats for a time, after which they settled in Newburg and erected a brewery. Peter meanwhile acquired such knowledge as he could, for his schooling appears to have been limited to half days during a single year. In 1808 he was apprenticed to John Woodward, a carriage-maker, with whom he remained until he became of age. During this time he constructed a machine for mortising the hubs of carriages, which proved of great value to his employer, who at the expiration of his service offered to establish him in business. This, however, was declined, and Cooper settled in Hempstead, Long Island, where for three years he manufactured machines for shearing cloth, and at the end of this engagement he had saved sufficient money to buy the right of the state of New York for a machine for shearing cloth. He began the manufacture of these machines on his own account, and the enterprise was thoroughly successful, largely owing to the interruption of commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain by the war, and also on account of an improvement devised by himself. At this time he married Sarah Bedel, of Hempstead, who proved a devoted wife during fifty-six years of married life. With the cessation of hostilities the value of this business depreciated, and he turned his shop into a factory for making cabinet-ware. Later he entered the grocery business in New York, but soon afterward the profits acquired by the sale of his machines and in the grocer's shop were invested in a glue-factory, which he purchased with all its stock and buildings then on a lease of twenty-one years. These works were situated on the “old middle road,” between 31st and 34th streets, New York City, and there the business of manufacturing glue, oil, whiting, prepared chalk, and isinglass was continued until the expiration of the lease, when he bought ten acres of ground in Maspeth avenue, Brooklyn, where the business has since been continued. In 1828 he purchased 3,000 acres of land within the city limits of Baltimore, and he erected the Canton iron-works, which was the first of his great enterprises tending toward the development of the iron industry in the United States. This purchase was made at a time when there was great commercial excitement in Baltimore on account of the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It was feared that the many short turns in the road would make it useless for locomotive purposes. The stockholders had become discouraged, and the project seemed about to be abandoned, when Peter Cooper came to the rescue and built, in 1830, from his own designs, the first locomotive engine ever constructed on this continent. By its means the possibility of building railroads in a country with little capital, and with immense stretches of very rough surface, in order to connect commercial centres, without the deep cuts, tunneling, and levelling that short curves might avoid, was demonstrated, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was saved from bankruptcy. He determined to dispose of his Baltimore property, and a portion of it was purchased by Horace Abbott, which in time became the Abbott Iron company. The remainder was sold to Boston capitalists, who formed the Canton Iron Company. He received part of his payment in stock at $44 a share, which he subsequently sold at $230. He then returned to New York and built an iron-factory, which he afterward turned into a rolling-mill, where he first successfully applied anthracite coal to the puddling of iron, and made iron wire for several years. In 1845 he built three blast-furnaces in Phillipsburg, near Easton, Pennsylvania, which were the largest then known, and, to control the manufacture completely, purchased the Andover iron-mines, and built a railroad through a rough country for eight miles, in order to bring the ore down to the furnaces at the rate of 40,000 tons a year. Later the entire plant was combined into a corporation known as the Ironton Iron-works. At these works the first wrought-iron beams for fireproof buildings were made. The laying of the Atlantic cable was largely due to his persistent efforts in its behalf. He was the first and only president of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company. It became necessary to expend large sums in its construction, much of which came directly from Mr. Cooper. The banks were unwilling to trust the corporation, and invariably drew on the president as claims matured. The company was frequently in his debt to the extent of ten to twenty thousand dollars. The first cable lasted scarcely a month, and a dozen years elapsed before the original investments were recovered. In spite of public ridicule and the refusal of capitalists to risk their money, Mr. Cooper clung to the idea, until at last a cable became an assured success. The original stock, which had been placed on the market at $50 a share, was then disposed of to an English company at $90. Mr. Cooper served in both branches of the New York common council, and strongly advocated, when a member of that body, the construction of the Croton aqueduct He was a trustee in the Public School Society first founded to promote public schools in New York, and when that body was merged in the board of education he became a school commissioner. But he is most widely known in connection with his interest in industrial education. His own experience early impressed him with the necessity of affording proper means for the instruction of the working classes. With this idea he secured the property at the junction of 3d and 4th avenues, between 7th and 8th streets, and from plans of his own making “The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art” was erected. In 1854 the corner-stone was laid, and five years later, on its completion, a deed was executed in fee simple transferring this property to six trustees, who were empowered to devote all rents and income from it “to the instruction and improvement of the inhabitants of the United States in practical science and art.” A scheme of education was devised which should include “instruction in branches of knowledge by which men and women earn their daily bread; in laws of health and improvement of the sanitary conditions of families as well as individuals; in social and political science, whereby communities and nations advance in virtue, wealth, and power; and finally in matters which affect the eye, the ear, and the imagination, and furnish a basis for recreation to the working classes.” Free courses of lectures on social and political science were established; also a free reading-room; and collections of works of art and science were provided, and a school for instruction of women in the art of design by which they may gain an honorable livelihood. When sufficient funds have been collected, it is proposed to establish a polytechnic school. The building with its improvements has cost thus far nearly $750,000. It has an endowment of $200,000 for the support of the free reading-room and library. The annual expense of the schools varies from $50,000 to $60,000, and is derived from the rents of such portions of the edifice as are used for business purposes. Mr. Cooper devoted much careful thought and study to questions of finance and good government. He became active in the greenback movement, and published several political pamphlets on the subject of the currency. In 1876 he was nominated by the National Independent Party as their candidate for president, and in the election that followed received nearly 100,000 votes. In all affairs concerning the advancement and welfare of New York City Mr. Cooper was prominent. No public gathering seemed complete without his well-known presence on the platform. He was a regular attendant of the Unitarian Church, and liberal in his donations to charitable institutions, to many of which he held the relation of trustee. His various addresses and speeches were collected in a volume entitled “Ideas for a Science of Good Government, in Addresses, Letters, and Articles on a Strictly National Currency, Tariff, and Civil Service” (New York, 1883). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 730-732.
COOPER, Philip H, naval officer, born in New York, 7 August 1844. He was graduated at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1863, when he was promoted to ensign and attached to the steam sloop "Ticonderoga” in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and was present at both attacks on Fort Fisher. In 1865 he was made master, and in 1866 lieutenant, serving, meanwhile, until 1868 on the sloop “Shenandoah,” in the Asiatic Squadron. He received his commission as lieutenant-commander in 1868, and was assigned to duty at the U.S. Naval Academy. Later he was attached to the “Plymouth,” on the European Station, and afterward was on duty at the Naval Academy. He was made commander in 1879, and for several years employed at the Bureau of Navigation in Washington, after which he commanded the “Swatara” in the Asiatic Squadron. In 1886 he was made commandant of the Norfolk Navy-yard. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 732.
COOPER, Samuel, soldier, born in Hackensack, New Jersey, 12 June, 1798; died in Cameron, Virginia, 3 December, 1876. His father, of the same name, served during the Revolutionary war, and fought in the battles of Lexington, Bunker Hill, Monmouth, and Germantown. At the close of the war, having attained the rank of major, he settled in Dutchess county, where he married Miss Mary Horton. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1815, and promoted to second lieutenant in the artillery. His services were retained on the reorganization of the army after the war of 1812, and he served on garrison duty and in Washington for several years, meanwhile he had been promoted to first lieutenant. From 1828 till 1836 he was aide-de-camp to General Alexander Macomb, becoming captain in June, 1836, and until 1841 was on staff duty at army head-quarters as assistant adjutant general. During the Florida War he was chief of staff to Colonel William J. Worth. He remained on special duty in the war Department in Washington from 1842 till 1852, was brevetted colonel for meritorious conduct in the prosecution of his duties in connection with the Mexican War, and then, until 1861, was adjutant-general of the U.S. Army, with the rank of colonel of the staff, dating from 1852. For a short time during this period he was Secretary of War ad interim. In March, 1861, he resigned his commission and offered his services to the seceding states. He was appointed adjutant and inspector-general of the army, of which he was the ranking officer, standing first on the list of generals. In 1827 he married a granddaughter of George Mason, of Gunston Hall, Clermont, Fairfax County, Virginia, and subsequent to the Civil War, lived in retirement at his country seat near Alexandria, Virginia He was the author of “A Concise System of Instructions and Regulations for the Militia and Volunteers of the United States” (Philadelphia, 1836). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 732.
COPELAND, John Anthony, Jr., 1834-1859, free African American man with John Brown during his raid at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia; hanged with John Brown, December 1859 (see entry for John Brown). (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 480; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 269)
COPELAND, Joseph T., soldier, born in Michigan about 1830. He entered the 1st Michigan Cavalry, which was organized during the summer of 1861, and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel on 22 August He fought through the Manassas Campaign, returned to Detroit in July, 1862, and organized the 5th Cavalry, of which he became colonel, 14 August, and on 29 November, 1862, was appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers and assigned to the command of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade, formed at Washington, 12 Dee. The brigade, forming part of Hooker's cavalry, was in Maryland after Leo had crossed the Potomac. They were the first Union troops to occupy Gettysburg; but with the other changes of commanders then carried out, General Copeland transferred his command to General Custer just before the battle, 1 July, 1863. He subsequently commanded a draft rendezvous at Annapolis Junction, Maryland, and at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and then the post and military prison at Alton, Illinois, until the close of the war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 735.
COPELAND, Melvin, abolitionist, Hartford, Connecticut, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-1839.
COPELAND, Oberlinites John, Jr., free African American man with John Brown during his raid at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, October 16, 1859; hanged with John Brown, December 1859 (see entry for John Brown). (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407)
COPPOC, Barclay, Iowa, Society of Friends, Quaker, joined John Brown in his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, in 1859. Escaped capture. (See entry for John Brown). (Drake, 1950, p. 192; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407)
COPPOC, Edwin, Iowa, Society of Friends, Quaker, joined John Brown in his raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, (West) Virginia, in 1859. Hanged with John Brown. (See entry for John Brown). (Drake, 1950, p. 192; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 327; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 404-407)
CORBETT, Henry Winslow, senator, born in Westboro, Massachusetts, 18 February, 1827. He accompanied. his parents to Washington county, New York, received an academic education, entered a store at Cambridge in 1840, moved to New York City in 1843, and continued in mercantile business there for seven years. In 1850 he ship a quantity of goods to Portland, Oregon, and the following spring settled in that territory and became a prominent merchant, and in 1867 a banker, in Portland. He has held various local offices, and was active in the organization of the Democratic Party in Oregon. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1860, and chairman of the state central committee in 1859–60, and in 1866 was elected U.S. Senator, serving from 1867 till 3 March, 1873. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 700
CORBIN, Thomas G., naval officer, born in Virginia, 13 August 1820; died in 1886. He was appointed a midshipman, 15 May, 1838, served on the Coast Survey and in the Brazilian and Pacific Squadrons, was commissioned lieutenant, 10 June, 1852. He was for many years employed in the survey of the River Plata during 1853–5. He was attached to the steamer "Wabash," of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in 1861-3, and at the battle of Port Royal, 7 November, 1861, taking part in the capture of Forts Beauregard and Walker. He was commissioned commander, 16 July, 1862, and was commandant at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1863. In 1864-'5 he commanded the steamer "Augusta," served as fleet-captain of the West India Squadron in 1865-'6, was commissioned captain, 25 July, 1866, made his last cruise in command of the flagship "Guerriere," of the South Atlantic Squadron, in 1868, and afterward served on ordnance duty at Philadelphia. He was retired 5 January, 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 736-37.
CORCORAN, Michael, soldier, born in Carrowkeel, County Sligo, Ireland, 21 September, 1827; died near Fairfax Court-House, Virginia, 22 December, 1863. He was the son of a captain in the British Army, received a good education, and was appointed in the Irish constabulary at the early age of eighteen, but resigned his commission from patriotic motives in 184!), emigrated to the United States. and settled in New York City, where he obtained a clerkship in the post-office, and afterward in the office of the city register. He entered the 6th Regiment of New York militia as a private, rose through the successive grades, and in August, 1859, was elected colonel. When the militia paraded in honor of the Prince of Wales in 1860, he refused to order out his regiment, for which he was subjected to a trial by court-martial that was still pending when the Civil War began. Upon the first call of the president for troops, Colonel Corcoran led the 69th regiment to the seat of war. It was ordered into Virginia, built Port Corcoran on Arlington heights, and fought with impetuous valor at the battle of Bull Run, 21 July, 1861. The colonel was wounded and taken prisoner, and was first sent to Richmond, and afterward taken to Charleston, Columbia, Salisbury, back to Richmond, and to other places, being kept in close confinement for nearly a year. With some other national officers he was reserved for execution in case the U. S. government carried out its threat of punishing the crews of captured privateers. He was offered his liberty on condition of not again taking up arms against the south, but refused to accept it on such terms. An exchange being finally effected, 15 August, 1862, he was released, and commissioned brigadier-general, dating from 21 July, 1861. He next organized the Corcoran legion, which took part in the battles of the Nansemond River and Suffolk, during April, 1863, and held the advance of the enemy upon Norfolk in check. In August, 1863, the legion was attached to the Army of the Potomac. General Corcoran was killed by the falling of his horse upon him while he was riding in company with General Thomas Francis Meagher. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 737
CORLEY, Manuel Simeon…….. announced as an abolitionist and threatened with expulsion the state. He defended himself in articles openly avowing his principles, which were only received by the newspapers at advertising rates. In 1852 he made a tour through the north, and wrote a series of letters directed against sectionalism to the "Southern Patriot.” In 1855-6 he edited the South Carolina "Temperance Stand” A patent for a new system for cutting cloth was issued to him in 1857. He was one of the few opponent of secession in South Carolina in 1860, was compelled to serve as a conscript in the Confederate Army in 1863, and after his capture by the national troops at Petersburg, 2 April, 1865, joyfully took the oath of allegiance and returned to his home. He opposed the policy of Andrew Johnson and Governor Perry, advocated reconstruction in 1866, and was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867, in which he introduced the resolutions to remove the provisional government, opposed the repudiation of the slave £ and advocated the present homestead law of the state. He was elected to Congress in 1868, and, after the removal of his technical disabilities, took his seat on 25 July, 1868, and served till 3 March, 1869. He introduced joint resolutions for the better protection of loyal men in the reconstructed states and the exclusion of secessionist text-books from the schools, and earnestly supported the 15th amendment. In 1869 he was appointed a special agent of the U. S. treasury Department. He was commissioner of the state board of agricultural statistics in 1870, treasurer of Lexington county in 1874, and a nominee of the independent party for state comptroller in 1882. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 739-40
CORNING, Erastus, merchant, born in Norwich, Connecticut, 14 December, 1794; died in Albany, New York, 9 April, 1872. At the age of thirteen he settled in '. where he served as a clerk in the hardware store of his uncle, Benjamin Smith. In 1814 he moved to Albany and entered the business house of James Spencer, becoming later a member of the firm. After inheriting the greater portion of his uncle's property, he became head of the extensive hard- warehouse of Erastus Corning & Company He also acquired a large interest in the Albany iron-works, which, under his management, became one of the largest industrial establishments in the United States. His attention was then directed to banking, a business which he followed for many years with success. His greatest work was in connection with the development of the railroad system of New York state. He was made president of the pioneer Albany and Schenectady line, and its extension was largely the results of his efforts. He was the master-spirit of the consolidation that made the great New York Central road, and was president of that corporation for twelve years, continuing as a director until his death. He became prominent in Albany politics, and held the office of mayor. From 1842 till 1845 he was a member of the state senate, and he was elected as a Democrat to Congress, serving from 7 December, 1857, till 3 March, 1859, and again from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1863. He was again re-elected but resigned on account of failing health. He was a member of the Peace Congress held in Washington in 1861. He was elected a Regent of the University of the State of New York in 1833, and at the time of his death was vice-chancellor of the board. Mr. Corning acquired great wealth, and his estate at the time of his death was estimated at $8,000,000. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 742-743
CORNISH, Reverend Samuel Eli, 1795-1858, free African American, New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, clergyman, publisher, editor, journalist. Presbyterian clergyman. Published The Colonization Scheme Considered and its Rejection by Colored People and A Remonstrance Against the Abuse of Blacks, 1826. Co-editor, Freedom’s Journal, first African American newspaper. Editor, The Colored American, 1837-1839. Leader and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Manager, AASS, 1834-1837. In 1840, joined the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS). Executive Committee, AFASS, 1840-1855. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 170, 328, 330; Mabee, 1970, pp. 51, 58, 93, 104, 129, 134, 150, 159, 190, 277, 278, 294, 398n20, 415n14, 415n15; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 38-39, 47; Sorin, 1971, pp. 82, 83, 90, 92-93; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 527)
CORSE, John Murray, soldier, born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 27 April, 1835. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1857, but immediately resigned and entered the Albany law-school. As soon as he returned to his home in Iowa he was nominated by the Democrats for lieutenant- governor. He entered the U. S. service as major of the 6th Iowa Volunteers in August, 1861, served under General Fremont, and then as judge-advocate and inspector-general on the staff of General Pope; but after the victories of Island No. 10 and Shiloh preferring active service, joined his regiment, and became its colonel. He commanded a division at Memphis, and was commissioned a brigadier-general on 11 August, 1863. He served in the Chattanooga Campaign, distinguished himself at Chickamauga, and was wounded at Missionary Ridge. In Sherman's march to the sea he commanded a division of the 15th Corps. When, after the evacuation of Atlanta, the Confederates crossed the Chattahoochee and destroyed the railroad, Corse was ordered from Rome to the relief of Allatoona, where large commissary supplies, guarded by 890 men, under Colonel Tourtellotte, were threatened by an infantry division of the enemy. General Corse arrived with 1,054 troops before the Confederates; but when the latter came up, being greatly superior in numbers, they closely surrounded the position. To the summons of the Confederate general, French, to surrender and avoid a needless effusion of blood, General Corse returned a defiant answer. The Confederates, numbering 4,000 or 5,000, attacked the fortifications furiously, 5 October. 1864, but were repeatedly driven back. General Sherman, who had despatched a corps to attack the Confederate rear, signaled from Kenesaw mountain, where he heard the roar of battle, eighteen miles away, for the commander to hold out, as relief was approaching; and when he learned by the sun-telegraph that Corse was in command, he said: "He will hold out; I know the man." General Corse's ear and cheek-bone were shot away during the engagement, but he continued to direct his men. At the approach of the relieving force, the assailants retired. General Sherman made the brave defence of Allatoona the subject of a general order, emphasizing the principle in warfare that fortified posts should be defended to the last, without regard to the strength of the attacking force. Corse received the brevet of major-general, 5 October, 1864. After the war, General Corse was for two years (1867-'9) collector of internal revenue in Chicago, Illinois He then spent four years in Europe, and on his return engaged in railroad contracting, and built several hundred miles of road in the neighborhood of Chicago. In 1881 he moved to Massachusetts, residing in Boston and in Winchester, where he settled in 1882, after marrying for his second wife a niece of Franklin Pierce, he was a vigorous opponent of General Butler in his political campaigns, and became chairman of the Executive Committee in the Democratic state central committee. On 9 October, 1886, he was appointed postmaster of Boston. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 747.
CORSE, Montgomery Dent, soldier, born in Alexandria (then in the District of Columbia), 14 March, 1816. He served as a captain in the Mexican War, and lived in California from April, 1849, till December, 1856, when he returned to Virginia and became a banker in Alexandria. He entered the Confederate service in May, 1861, as colonel of the 17th Virginia regiment. He was wounded in the second battle of Bull Run, and engaged at Boonsboro and Antietam. He was commissioned a brigadier-general in November, 1862, commanded a brigade in Pickett's division in the expedition against Knoxville, and was captured at Sailor's Creek, Virginia, on 6 April, 1865. After the war he resumed the business of a banker and broker at Alexandria till 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 747
CORSON, Edward T., surgeon, born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 14 October, 1834; died in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, 22 June, 1864. He entered the U.S. Navy as assistant surgeon, 20 May, 1859, and was ordered to China and Japan in the U. S. steamer "Hartford," where he remained until the winter of 1861. He was subsequently, for a short time, at the naval asylum, Philadelphia, and, upon application for sea service, was ordered to the "Mohican," returning, after a cruise of 40,000 miles, without the loss of a man by sickness, He was promoted to surgeon, 31 July, 1862. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 747
CORWIN, Thomas, 1794-1865, Lebanon, Ohio, attorney, statesman, diplomat, opposed slavery, U.S. Congressman, Governor of Ohio, U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Treasury. Director of the American Colonization Society, 1833-1834. (Mitchell, 2007, p. 33, 35, 160, 172, 173, 266n; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 403; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 751; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 457; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 549; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 138, 207)
CORWIN, Thomas, statesman, born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, 29 July, 1794; died in Washington, D. C., 18 December, 1865. In 1798 his father, Matthias, moved to what is now Lebanon, Ohio, and for many years represented his district in the legislature. The son worked on the home farm till he was about twenty years old, and enjoyed very slender educational advantages, but began the study of law in 1815, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1818. His ability and eloquence as an advocate soon gained him an extensive practice. He was first chosen to the legislature of Ohio in 1822, serving seven years, and was chosen to Congress in 1830, from the Miami District as a Whig, of which party he was an enthusiastic member. His wit and eloquence made him a prominent member of the House of Representatives, to which he was re-elected by the strong Whig constituency that he represented for each successive term till 1840, when he resigned to become the Whig candidate for governor of Ohio, and canvassed the state with General Harrison, addressing large gatherings in most of the counties. He was unsurpassed as an orator on the political platform or before a jury. At the election he was chosen by 16,000 majority, General Harrison receiving over 23,000 in the presidential election that soon followed. Two years later, Governor Corwin was defeated for governor by Wilson Shannon, whom he had so heavily beaten in 1840. In 1844 the Whigs again carried the state, giving its electoral vote to Mr. Clay, and sending Mr. Corwin to the U. S. Senate, where he made in 1847 a notable speech against the war in Mexico. He served in the Senate until Mr. Fillmore's accession to the presidency in July, 1850, when he was called to the head of the treasury. After the expiration of Mr. Fillmore's term he returned to private life and the practice of law at Lebanon, Ohio. In 1858 he was returned once more a representative in Congress by an overwhelming majority, and was re-elected with but slight opposition in 1860. On Mr. Lincoln's accession to the presidency he was appointed minister to Mexico, where he remained until the arrival of Maximilian, when he came home on leave of absence, and did not return, remaining in Washington and practicing law, but taking a warm interest in public affairs, and earnestly co-operating in every effort to restore peace. His style of oratory was captivating, and his genial and kindly nature made him a universal favorite. His intemperate speech against the Mexican War hindered his further political advancement. He was a faithful public servant, led a busy life, lived frugally, and, although he had been secretary of the U. S. treasury, failed to secure a competency for his family. See the “Life and Speeches” of Thomas Corwin, edited by Isaac Strohn (Dayton. 1859).—His brother, Moses B., born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, 5 January, 1790; died in Urbana, Ohio, 7 April, 1872, received a common-school education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practised at Urbana. He was a member of the legislature in 1838-'9, and was elected as a Whig to Congress in 1848, against his son, John A., who was nominated as a Democrat. He was again elected in 1854. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 751.
CORWINE, Amos Breckinridge, journalist, born in Maysville, Kentucky, in 1815; died in New Rochelle, Ohio, 22 June, 1880. His early years were spent on his father's plantation in Mississippi. He published the Yazoo “Banner” from 1840 to 1844. He served during the Mexican War, being a lieutenant in the Mississippi regiment commanded by Jefferson Davis, and was severely wounded at Buena Vista. After that war, in partnership with his brother Samuel, he edited the Cincinnati “Chronicle.” During the administrations of Presidents Tyler and Fillmore he was U. S. consul at Panama. In 1856 he was sent by President Pierce to investigate the Panama massacres, and on his report were based the treaty and adjustment of damages between the United States and New Granada. He was re-appointed consul, and remained in Panama until 1861, when he was removed. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 751.
COUCH, Darius Nash, soldier, born in South East, Putnam County, New York, 23 July, 1822. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1840, and assigned to the 4th U.S. Artillery, with which he served in the Mexican War, gaining the brevet of first lieutenant, 23 February, 1847, for gallant conduct at Buena Vista. He received his full commission on 4 December, served against the Seminoles in 1849-50, and in 1853, when on leave of absence, made an exploring expedition into Mexico, which is thus mentioned in the U. S. Senate Reports of "Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean " (1853-6), "Should there be two species, and the smaller not named, I shall propose to call it C. Couehii, in honor of its indefatigable discoverer, Lieutenant D. M. Couch, who, at his own risk and cost, undertook a journey into northern Mexico, when the country was swarming with bands of marauders, and made large collections in all branches of zoology, which have furnished a great amount of information respecting the natural history of our borders, and the geographical distribution of vertebrata generally. Lieutenant Couch wrote an account of his expedition, entitled "Notes of Travel," but it is still in manuscript. He resigned on 30 April, 1855, was a merchant in New York City in 1855-'7, and engaged in manufacturing at Norton, Massachusetts, from 1858 till 15 June, 1861, when he became colonel of the 7th Massachusetts Volunteers. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers in August, his commission dating from 17 May, and on the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac was assigned a division in General Keyes's Corps, with which he distinguished himself at Fair Oaks, Williamsburg, and Malvern Hill. He was promoted to major- general on 4 July, 1862, commanded a division in the retreat from Manassas to Washington, 30 August to 2 Sept, and took part in the battle of Antietam in Franklin's Corps. He was soon afterward in command of the 2d Army Corps, and took a prominent part in Burnside's operations at Fredericksburg, and Hooker's at Chancellorsville. From 11 June, 1863, till 1 December, 1864, he commanded the Department of the Susquehanna, and was engaged in organizing Pennsylvania militia to resist Lee's invasion of July, 1863. He was at the head of the 2d Division of the 23d Army Corps from December, 1864, till May, 1865, was at the battle of Nashville, and took part in the operations in North Carolina, in February, 1865, to effect a junction with Schofield. He resigned on 26 May 1865, and was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts. He was collector of the port of Boston from 1 October, 1866, till 4 March. 1867, when the failure of the Senate to confirm his appointment forced him to vacate the office. He became president of a Virginia Mining and Manufacturing Company in 1867, but subsequently moved to Norwalk Connecticut, was quartermaster-general of the state of Connecticut in 1877-8. and adjutant-general in 1883-4. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 753.
COUDIN, Robert, soldier, born in Jamaica, Vermont, 18 September, 1805; died in Boston, Massachusetts , 9 July, 1874. His grandfather, Thomas Coudin, held a military commission under George II. Robert was educated in his native town, and in 1825 came to Boston, where he engaged in the lumber business. Before the Civil War he was colonel of the old 2d Massachusetts Militia Regiment. He was commissioned colonel of the 1st Massachusetts Volunteers on 25 May, 1861, and left for the seat of war on 15 June. His was the first regiment that volunteered "for three years or the war." Among the battles in which Colonel Coudin took part were Bull Run, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Glendale, Malvern Hill and Chantilly. At the battle of Bull Run, his horse being shot under him, he marched at the head of his men, loading and firing with them. For bravery at Williamsburg he was recommended for promotion by General Hooker, and received his brigadier-general's commission on 26, Sept 1862. His appointment expired on 4 March, 1863. At the close of the war he became captain of the "Ancient and honorable Artillery Company of Boston, and was director of various public institutions.—His son, Robert Jackson, born in Boston, 21 May, 1839; died in 1864, entered the army as a private in his father's regiment. He rose by bravery on the battle-field to be captain in the 56th Massachusetts Regiment, and was probably killed in the battle of Cold Harbor, 3 June, 1864, as he was never heard from after that day. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 753-754.
COVERT, John M., physician, born in St. Augustine, Florida, 25 July, 1832; died in Brooklyn, New York, 18 February, 1872. He was graduated at Charleston College, South Carolina, in 1853, and at South Carolina Medical College in 1855. Soon after taking his medical degree he went to Norfolk as a volunteer in a yellow-fever epidemic, and settled there in the practice of his profession. He became surgeon of the 1st Louisiana Volunteers in 1861, and was subsequently medical director on General Lee's staff. He return to Norfolk after the war, and in 1867 volunteered to go to Galveston, Texas, to combat the yellow fever. He moved to Brooklyn, New York, in 1869, and at the time of his death was known in literary circles there as an excellent belles-lettres scholar, and the possessor of much poetical talent. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 756.
COVODE, John, 1808-1871, abolitionist. U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania, serving 1855-1863, representing the 35th District and the Republican Party. (Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 756; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 470)
COVODE, John, Congressman, born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, 17 March, 1808; died in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 11 January, 1871. He was of Dutch descent, spent his early years on a farm, and, after serving a short apprenticeship to a blacksmith, engaged in the coal trade. He afterward became a large woollen manufacturer, and a stockholder and director in several railroad lines. After two terms in the legislature, he was elected to Congress as an anti-masonic Whig in 1854, and re-elected as a Republican in 1856, serving four terms, from 1855 till 1863. In his second term he made a national reputation by his vigor and penetration as chairman of the special committee appointed to investigate charges against President Buchanan. His report, published by order of Congress (Washington, 1860), attracted much attention. He earnestly supported President Lincoln's administration, being an active member of the joint committee on the conduct of the war. President Johnson sent Mr. Covode south to aid in the reconstruction of the disaffected states; but he did not see matters as the president desired, and was recalled. Mr. Covode was again elected to Congress in 1868, his seat being unsuccessfully contested by his opponent, and was active in opposing the president. He was chairman of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania in 1869, and declined a renomination to Congress in 1870. He was recognized in his state as a strong political power. His unthinking impetuosity made him many bitter enemies, but his honesty and geniality won him innumerable friends. He was known as “Honest John Covode.” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 756.
COWAN, Edgar, 1815-1885, lawyer. U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania 1861-1867. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. I, p. 756; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 605; Congressional Globe; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 470)
COWAN, Edgar, senator, born in Sewickley, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, 19 September, 1815; died in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 29 August, 1885. He was early thrown on his own resources, becoming by turns clerk, boat-builder, school-teacher, and medical student, but finally entered Franklin College, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1839. He then studied law in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. In 1861 he was elected to the U. S. Senate by the people's party, and served till 1867, distinguishing himself as a ready and fearless debater. He was chairman of the committees on patents, finance, and agriculture, and a member of that on the judiciary. He was a delegate to the Union Convention at Philadelphia in 1866, and in January, 1867, was appointed minister to Austria, but was not confirmed by the Senate. At the close of his term he resumed the practice of law in Greensburg. Senator Cowan was a man of large proportions and great physical strength, being six feet four inches in height. He published various speeches and addresses in pamphlet form. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 756.
COWEN, Benjamin S., physician, born in Washington county, New York, in 1793; died in St. Clairsville, Ohio, 27 September, 1869. He was educated in his native place and studied medicine. In 1820 he moved to Moorefield, Harrison County, Ohio, subsequently studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. He moved to St. Clairsville in 1832, and after a time edited the Belmont " Chronicle," of which he was proprietor and principal editor until 1852, when he relinquished it to his son, now Brigadier General B. R. Cowen. In 1839 he was a delegate to the convention that nominated General Harrison for president, and in 1840 was elected to Congress by the Whigs, where he succeeded Joshua R. Biddings as chairman of the committee on claims. He took strong ground in favor of the tariff of 1842, and throughout his Congressional career was looked upon as a consistent anti-slavery man. During 1845-6 he was a member of the Ohio legislature, and from 1847 till 1852 was presiding judge of the court of common pleas. At the beginning of the war he was active in raising men and money, and during its continuance his efforts to aid the government never relaxed. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 757.
COWLES, Betsy Mix, 1810-1876, educator, reformer, abolitionist. Organized the Ashtabula County Female Anti-Slavery Society. Worked closely with abolitionist leader Abby Kelley in the Western Anti-Slavery Society (WASS). African American and women’s civil rights advocate. (American National Biography, 2002)
COWLES, Henry, 1803-1881, Austinburgh, Ohio, clergyman, educator, anti-slavery activist, reformer. Manager, 1834-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 757)
COWLES, Henry, clergyman, born in Norfolk, Connecticut, 24 April, 1803; died 6 September, 1881. He was graduated at Yale in 1826, and held Congregational pastorates from 1828 till 1835. He was a professor of theology at Oberlin from 1835 till 1848. He published “Notes” on the Bible (16 vols., New York, 1867-'81); “Hebrew History” (New York, 1873); and other works. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 757.
COWLES, Horace, Farmington, Connecticut, abolitionist. American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), Manager, 1833-40, 1840-41.
COX, Abby Ann, New York City, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, p. 41)
COX, Abraham L., 1800-1864, New York, surgeon, opponent of slavery, abolitionist leader. Founding member and recording secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1833-1836. (Dumond, 1961, p. 218; Sorin, 1971, p. 32n; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I p. 757.
COX, Abraham Siddon, surgeon, born in New York in 1800; died at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, 29 July, 1864. He had been for many years one of the most eminent medical practitioners of New York City. At the beginning of the war he became a surgeon in the army, and at the time of his death was surgeon-in-chief of the 1st Division, 20th Corps, Army of the Cumberland. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 757.
COX, Gershom A., Reverend, clergyman, abolitionist, Maine. Founder and first Vice President of the Portland Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.
COX, Hannah Pierce [Pearce], 1797-1876, Pennsylvania, abolitionist leader, Underground Railroad activist. (Hersch, 1978; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 53, 246; Smedley, 1969; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 758; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 474)
COX, Hannah, abolitionist, born in Longwood, near Philadelphia, in 1796; died there, 15 April, 1876. She joined the first movement in favor of emancipation, being a co-laborer with Benjamin Lundy, Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and John G. Whittier. For years she and her husband, who survived her in his 91st year, received fugitive slaves. Their golden wedding was celebrated in 1873, when poems were sent by Whittier and Bayard Taylor. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 758.
COX, Jacob Dolson, statesman, born in Montreal, Canada, 27 October, 1828. His parents were natives of the United States, but at the time of his birth were temporarily sojourning in Canada. He spent his boyhood in New York, moved with his Parents to Ohio in 1846, and was graduated at Oberlin in 1851. After leaving college he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1853, and settled in Warren, Ohio. In 1859-'61 he was a member of the state senate, having been elected by the Republicans. At the beginning of the Civil War he held a state commission as brigadier-general of militia, and took an active part in raising troops. He entered the National Army on 23 April, 1861, and three weeks later received the commission of brigadier-general and was assigned to the command of the “Brigade of the Kanawha" in Western Virginia. On 29 July he drove out the Confederates under General Wise, taking and repairing Gauley and other bridges, which had been partially destroyed. General Cox remained in command of this department, with the exception of a short interval, until August, 1862, when he was assigned to the Army of Virginia under General Pope. He served in the 9th Corps at the battle of South Mountain, 14 September, 1862, assuming command when General Reno fell, and also at Antietam, three days later. For his services in this campaign he was commissioned major-general. On 16 April, 1863, General Cox was put in command of the District of Ohio, and also of a division of the 23d Army Corps. He served in the Atlanta Campaign, and under General Thomas in the campaigns of Franklin and Nashville. On 14 March, 1865, he fought the battle of Kingston, North Carolina, and then united his force with General Sherman's army. At the close of the war he resigned his command, and entered on the practice of law in Cincinnati. He was governor of Ohio in 1866-'7, declined the office of commissioner of internal revenue tendered him by President Johnson in 1868, and was secretary of the interior in President Grant's first cabinet from March, 1869, till December, 1870, when, on account of disagreement with certain measures of the administration, he resigned. Returning to Cincinnati, he resumed his legal practice. In October, 1873, he was elected president of the Wabash Railroad, and moved to Toledo to take charge of his new work. In 1876 the Republicans elected him representative to Congress, where he served from 15 October, 1877, till 3 March, 1879. The degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon him by the University of North Carolina, and also by Davison University, Ohio. He has published “Atlanta” and “The March to the Sea; Franklin and Nashville” (New York, 1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 758.
COX, James, soldier, born in Monmouth, New Jersey, 14 June, 1753; died there, 12 September, 1810. His early education was received in the public schools. At the age of twenty-four he commanded a company of militia, and afterward served at the battles of Germantown and Monmouth, attaining to the rank of brigadier-general. He was for many years a member of the state assembly, and one year its speaker. He was also a representative from New Jersey in the 10th Congress, serving from 22 May, 1800, until his death.—His grandson, Samuel Sullivan, statesman, born in Zanesville, Ohio, 30 September, 1824. He is a son of Ezekiel Taylor Cox, a member of the Ohio Senate in 1832-'8. He attended the Ohio University at Athens, and was graduated at Brown in 1846. During his stay in college he maintained himself by literary work, and obtained the prizes in classics, history, literary criticism, and political economy. Adopting the profession of the law, he returned to Ohio to begin practice, but soon laid it aside, and went to Europe. On his return he became, in 1853, editor of the Columbus, Ohio, "Statesman," and from that time turned his attention to political issues. While editing this journal he published a gorgeous description in sophomoric strain, which procured for him the sobriquet of “Sunset” Cox. Mr. Cox was offered, in 1855, the secretaryship of legation in London, but declined it. The opportunity was given not long after of going to Lima, Peru, in a similar capacity, and he accepted. He remained in Peru one year, and on his return was elected to Congress, and re-elected three times, serving continuously from 7 December, 1857, till 3 March, 1865. During three terms he was chairman of the committee on Revolutionary claims. Mr. Cox was a delegate to the Chicago, New York, and St. Louis Democratic Conventions of 1864,1868, and 1876. During the Civil War he sustained the government by voting money and men, although he took a prominent part in opposing certain policies of the administration. In 1866 he took up his residence in New York City, and was elected as a representative to Congress in 1868, and re-elected three times. He served on the committees on foreign affairs, banking, the centennial exhibition, and rules. At the opening of the first session of the 45th Congress, in 1877, he was one of three candidates for the speakership. Although not elected, he served frequently as speaker pro tem. In this session he took upon himself, by a special resolution of his own, the work of the new census law. He was the author also of the plan of apportionment adopted by the house. He was the introducer and champion for many years of the bill concerning the life-saving service, and finally witnessed its passage. Mr. Cox's work in Congress included the raising of the salaries of letter-carriers, and granting them a vacation without loss of pay. This latter measure involved an appropriation of $96,000, but its results justified the action. He was on the committee to investigate the doings of Black Friday, Federal elections in cities, the New York post-office, and the Ku-klux troubles. He was also for many years one of the regents of the Smithsonian institution, his term closing in 1865. In 1869 he visited Europe and northern Africa, journeying through Italy, Corsica, Algeria, and Spain. In 1872 he was defeated as candidate at large for the state, but the death of his successful competitor necessitated another election, which resulted in Mr. Cox's return to his seat. He was re-elected in 1874, 1876, 1878, and 1880, serving twelve consecutive years, making a total Congressional service on his part of twenty years. The last effort of Mr. Cox. and for which the Chamber of Commerce of New York City thanked him, was the passage of a law uniting all jurisdictions in the Federal jurisdiction, so as to preserve New York Harbor and its tributaries from destruction. This had passed in the house, but it was defeated on a point of order in the Senate. In the summer of 1882 Mr. Cox visited Sweden, Norway, Russia, Turkey, and Greece. In 1885 he was appointed minister to Turkey, but returned to the United States in October 1886 after a year's absence, and in November was re-elected to Congress. He has a reputation as an effective and humorous speaker, writer, and lecturer. In addition to a large amount of newspaper and magazine work, he has published “The Buckeye Abroad" (New York, 1851); "Puritanism in Politics" (1863); "Eight Years in Congress " (1865); "A Search for Winter Sunbeams" (1870); "Why We Laugh" (1876); "Free Land and Free Trade" (1870); "Arctic Sunbeams" (1882); "Orient Sunbeams" (1882); and "The Three Decades of Federal Legislation " (1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 758-759.
COX, John, Pennsylvania, Underground Railroad activist, abolitionist. (Hersch, 1978; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 53, 246; Smedley, 1969)
COX, Samuel Hanson, 1793-1880 New York, radical abolitionist leader, Presbyterian clergyman, orator. American Anti-Slavery Society. (Sorin, 1971, pp. 74, 114; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 2, Pt. 2, p. 481; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 5, p. 630; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 760; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 228)
COX, Samuel Hanson, clergyman, born in Rahway, New Jersey, 25 August, 1793; died in Bronxville, Westchester County, New York, 2 October, 1881. His father, who at the time of his death, in 1801, was engaged in mercantile enterprises in New York City, was descended from a family that in the 17th century settled on the eastern shore of Maryland, where the name, diversely spelled, has been long connected with the Quakers of Talbot county. By intermarriages with other families of the Peninsula, this connection was rendered nominal at different periods; but, as the father of Dr. Cox had maintained his relations with the society, he received his academic education at their high-school or college at Westtown, near Philadelphia. He also received private instruction in Philadelphia, and was a law-student in Newark, New Jersey, in 1812, when, with Southard, Frelinghuysen, and others that became eminent, he organized a volunteer Corps of riflemen, which occasionally served in the war, notably at Fort Green, Long Island. He studied theology in Philadelphia under Dr. Wilson, a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman. The degree of M. A. was conferred upon him by Princeton, and that of D. D. by Williams. He was ordained in 1817, and accepted the pastorate of Mendham, Morris County, New Jersey In 1821 he moved to New York as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Spring street, and thence to Laight street in 1825. His congregation here was largely composed of wealthy merchants. He took a leading part in the foundation of the University of the City of New York and in literary conventions, one of which was presided over by John Quincy Adams, called to aid in its organization. He was appointed to open the instructions of the university with the late Dr. McIlvaine, afterward bishop of Ohio, and delivered one of the two memorable courses of lectures in the winter of 1831-'2, his department being that of moral philosophy. During the cholera season of the latter year he remained at his post until stricken down by the disease. In impaired health Dr. Cox went to Europe in 1833, where a speech, delivered at the anniversary of the British and foreign Bible Society in London, gained him distinction and opened the way to honors and attentions in Europe. The anti-slavery sentiment then predominant in England made a great impression on Dr. Cox, and he publicly defended his country, when it was gratuitously assailed on that point, and delivered a celebrated sermon against slavery, soon after his return, which, though moderate in tone, drew upon him a great share of the violence with which the agitators were then visited. He was never identified with their extreme measures, and afterward took a leading conservative position in all questions connected with the south, which for a long time disturbed the Presbyterian Church. In recognition of this service to the counsels of his brethren, he received the degree of LL. D. from a Southern College. In other questions his theological standing was with the new school, of which he was a prominent champion. In the order and discipline of his church, however, he maintained the highest and most thorough old-school position. He was elected professor of pastoral theology in the Theological seminary at Auburn in 1834, but in 1837 became pastor of the 1st Presbyterian congregation in Brooklyn, Long Island, where he built a new church in Henry street. In 1845 Dr. Cox attended the Evangelical alliance in London. In 1852, his health declining, he visited Nassau, but with so little good effect that, against the remonstrances of his people and the most liberal proposals on their part, he resigned his charge, and retired to a pleasant property, which they enabled him to purchase, at Owego, New York He considered his career as a pastor at an end, but frequently delivered lectures and appeared in pulpits in New York for several years subsequently. He was for many years professor of ecclesiastical history in the Union Theological Seminary of New York. His contributions to periodicals and journalistic literature were numerous. His work on “Quakerism” (1833) is in part an autobiography. In connection with the duties of his chair, he edited Bower's “History of the Popes” (New York, 1847). He also presided for a time over the Ladies' College at Le Roy, New York For the last twelve years of his life he lived in retirement in Westchester county. Although much criticised for personal eccentricities, he was generally recognized as a man of high character and commanding talents, of great boldness in expressing his strong convictions, and of singular power as an orator. Dr. Cox was the eldest of three sons, all of whom attained professional eminence. JAMES died prematurely in Philadelphia in 1830. ABRAHAM LIDON, after a brilliant practice in New York, where he became professor of surgery in the medical College now connected with the New York University, of which he was one of the founders, died in the service of his country near Chattanooga in 1863. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 760
