Encyclopedia of Civil War Biography - Fai-Fle
FAIRBANK, Calvin, 1816-1898, New York state, Methodist Minister, abolitionist. Convicted of aiding fugitive slaves in Kentucky. Active in Underground Railroad. He was arrested again in 1851. He served 17 years for helping slaves escape. (Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 247)
FAIRCHILD, Cassius, soldier, born in Kent, Ohio. 16 December, 1828; died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 26 October, 1868. In 1846 his father settled at Madison, Wisconsin, where, as state treasurer and in other responsible offices, his time was so fully occupied that Cassius, the eldest living son, devoted himself mainly to the care of his father's private business. He was elected a member of the state legislature in 1860. On President Lincoln's first call for troops in 1861, he was commissioned major of the 16th Wisconsin Volunteers. In the battle of Shiloh, 6 April, 1862, he received a wound that disabled him until 18 April, 1863, when he rejoined his regiment at Lake Providence, and took command of it on 18 June. He served on general court-martial at Vicksburg, Mississippi, from 10 October, 1863, till 7 March, 1864, at which date he again took command of his regiment, participated in the march from Clifton, Tennessee, to Ackworth, Georgia, and was engaged in the battles of Big Shanty and Kenesaw Mountain, and many other conflicts. He was detached on recruiting service, 12 August, 1864, but rejoined his regiment at Beaufort, South Carolina, in January following. He commanded a Brigade of the 3d Division of the 17th Army Corps from 15 January, 1865, till 1 April, and, on being mustered out in July, was brevetted brigadier- general, his commission to date from 13 March, 1865. On his return to Wisconsin he was appointed U. S. Marshal, the duties of which office he continued to discharge until his death, which was caused by the reopening of his wound. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 400-401.
FAIRCHILD, Lucius, statesman, born in Kent, Portage County, Ohio, 27 December, 1831. He was educated in the public schools of Cleveland, and at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin In 1846 his father moved to Wisconsin, then a territory, and settled in Madison. On the discovery of gold in California, the son, at the age of eighteen, joined with others, and with a four-yoke ox-team set out for the gold fields across the plains. After months of toil and travel the party arrived in San Francisco with a capital of twenty-seven cents. For six years he worked as digger, miner, prospector, and laborer, then returned to Wisconsin in 1855, not much richer than when he left. His entrance into politics began in California with his election as delegate to a convention for the nomination of governor. On his way to the gathering his mule fell off a height, carrying with him all of young Fairchild's baggage. He finished the remainder of his journey on foot, and sat in the convention without a coat and without a cent in his pocket. He was elected clerk of the circuit court in 1858, and in 1860 admitted to the bar. At the beginning of the Civil War he was a member of a local company known as the "Governor's Guard," and promptly enlisted. He entered the service as captain in the 1st Wisconsin Regiment, and served in the three months' campaign. In August, 1861, he was commissioned by President Lincoln a captain in the 16th Regiment of the regular army, also about the same time a major in the 2d Wisconsin Infantry. He accepted both appointments, and was the first officer of the regular army to receive leave of absence to serve with a volunteer regiment. At Bull Run he commanded the consolidated 2d and 7th Wisconsin Regiments, forming part of the famous "iron brigade." At the beginning of the battle of Antietam he was sick in an ambulance at the rear, but went into action, where his regiment lost more than half its force. As colonel of the 2d Wisconsin, in the battle of Gettysburg, he led a charge at Seminary Hill, where he lost his left arm. While recovering from his wounds he was commissioned a brigadier-general, 19 October, 1863, and shortly afterward elected Secretary of State in Wisconsin, where he remained two years. He was then elected governor, and served for six consecutive terms, during which time he aided the Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Madison, and was one of the founders of the State board of charities and reform. General Fairchild was appointed U. S. consul at Liverpool in November, 1872, and served six years. He was consul-general in Paris in 1878-'80, and then U. S. minister to Spain till 1882, when he resigned and returned to Madison, Wisconsin In 1886 he was elected commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 401.
FAIRFAX, Donald McNeill, naval officer, born in Virginia. 10 August, 1822, became a midshipman, 12 August, 1837, served under Dupont on the west coast of Mexico and California during the Mexican War, and was at the capture of several towns. He was promoted to a lieutenancy, 26 February, 1851, made commander, 16 July, 1862, and served on the "Cayuga," of the West Gulf Squadron, from June, 1862, till February, 1863, under Farragut, when he was transferred to the command of the steamers " Nantucket" and "Montauk," of the South Atlantic Squadron, in which he made several attacks on the defences of Charleston Harbor, under Dupont and Dahlgren. In 1864-'5 he was in command of the Naval Academy, promoted to a captaincy, 25 July, 1866, served on the flag-ship " Rhode Island," in the North Atlantic Squadron, in 1866-'7, and on the steam sloop "Susquehanna" in 1867-"8. He was advanced to the rank of commodore, 24 August, 1873, and made rear-admiral, 11 July, 1880. Admiral Fairfax was in service forty-eight years and five months; of this time, twenty years and four months were spent at sea, his last cruise terminating in 1868. See "Magazine of American History, vol. xiii. pp. 217-236. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 403.
FALES, Almira L., philanthropist, born in New York; died in Washington, D. C. 8 November, 1868. She was for some time a resident of Iowa, but her husband, Joseph T. Fales, having received an appointment as examiner in the Patent-office in Washington, she thence forth made that city her home. As early as 1860, from her extended knowledge of southern feeling and action, she foresaw and predicted the approaching struggle, and, much to the surprise of her friends, began the collection and preparation of articles for hospital use. At the beginning of the war she entered, fully prepared, on the care of sick and wounded soldiers, and at Pittsburg Landing and other battlefields of the west was busy in ministering to the wants of the sufferers. The government placed an ambulance at her command, and during the war she was unremitting in her visits to the hospitals in the neighborhood of Washington, at Fredericksburg, on the Peninsula, and elsewhere. In the yard of her own house she pitched a large tent, into which she gathered sick and disabled soldiers, and there ministered to their needs until means could be provided to send them to their homes. For some time Mrs. Fales was charged by the government with the superintendence of soldiers sent from the hospitals in and around Washington to the hospitals in New York and elsewhere. Amid all this activity she found time to correspond extensively and obtain pecuniary aid to carry on her work. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 404.
FALLOWS, Samuel, bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church, born in Pendleton, near Manchester, England, 13 December, 1835. He moved with his parents to Wisconsin in 1848, was graduated at the State University there in 1859, and was vice president of Gainesville University till 1861, when he was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served as a colonel in the Civil War, and was brevetted brigadier-general. On returning to civil life he became a pastor in Milwaukee. He was chosen state superintendent of public instruction for Wisconsin in 1871, and was twice re-elected. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 405.
FARMER, George Edgar, soldier, born in New York City in 1840; died there, 16 February, 1870. He engaged early in life in mercantile pursuits, but at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 was commissioned 2d lieutenant of the 6th New York Cavalry. He was subsequently appointed quartermaster, but before leaving for the seat of war was promoted to captain, and led his company in all the battles in which the regiment participated. At Trevillian Station, during General Sheridan's first raid, Captain Farmer was shot, but, continuing in the field, was still more seriously wounded at Deep Bottom. He rejoined his regiment in the autumn of 1864, and was with Sheridan throughout his campaign in the valley of the Shenandoah. After the battle of Cedar Creek he was made major, and was for some time in command of the regiment. Continuing with Sheridan's Cavalry Corps until the surrender of Lee, he was then promoted to lieutenant-colonel by brevet. He was honorably discharged at the close of the war, returned to business, and became a prominent and earnest member of the Grand Army of the Republic, at his death being in command of the oldest post in the state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 409.
FARNHAM, Noah Lane, soldier, born in New Haven, Connecticut, 4 June, 1829; died in Washington, D. C., 14 August, 1861. His ancestor, Henry Farnham, came from Kenilworth, England, and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1644. In 1833 Noah's parents moved to the city of New York. He was educated in New Haven and at Cheshire, Connecticut, and entered business in New York at the age of sixteen. When eighteen years old he joined the City Guard, and was present with that corps at the Astor Place riot. He subsequently joined the fire department, and was soon chosen foreman of a "hook and ladder" company, where he introduced new methods of drill, and practised his men in climbing, jumping, and other athletic exercises. In 1856 he was elected assistant engineer of the New York Fire Department, and in 1857 joined the 7th Regiment, soon attaining the rank of 1st lieutenant. He became acquainted with Colonel Ellsworth on the arrival of the latter from Chicago in April, 1861, was persuaded by him to accept the lieutenant- colonelcy of the New York Fire Zouaves, and succeeded to the command after Ellsworth's death. When the regiment was ordered to march on Manassas, Colonel Farnham was confined to a sick bed, but left it, and rode into action at the head of his men. He was wounded early in the engagement and removed to a hospital in Washington, where he died a few weeks afterward. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 411.
FARNHAM, Roswell, governor of Vermont, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 23 July, 1827. When he was thirteen years of age his family moved to Bradford, Vermont. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1841, was admitted to the bar in 1857, and was state attorney from 1859 till 1862. He then entered the army as lieutenant of the 1st Vermont Regiment, and was provost-marshal at Newport News, Virginia. He afterward became lieutenant-colonel of the 12th Vermont during its service in the field, he was in the state senate in 1858-'9, a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1876, and a presidential elector on the Hayes ticket the same year. He has served on the state board of education, and has been one of the trustees of the University of Vermont and the State Agricultural College since 1878. He was governor of Vermont from 1880 till 1882, having received the largest vote ever cast, and defeating Edward J. Phelps, afterward minister to England. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 411.
FARNSWORTH, Benjamin Franklin, 1793-1851, abolitionist, educator, Providence, Rhode Island. Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1836. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 411)
FARNSWORTH, Benjamin Franklin, educator. born in Bridgeton, Me., 17 Dec., 1793; died in Louisville, Kentucky, 4 June, 1851. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1813, studied for the ministry, and was pastor of the Baptist Church at Edenton, North Carolina, for two years. From 1821 till 1823 he was principal of the Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Academy, and then took charge of a girls' high-school at Worcester, Massachusetts. He next edited the “Christian Watchman,” of Boston, which he left, in 1826, to take the chair of theology at the New Hampton, New Hampshire, Theological Institute. Here he remained until 1833, when, after teaching school for a time in Providence, Rhode Island, he was elected president of Georgetown, Kentucky, College, from which he afterward received the degree of D. D. The following year he was chosen president of the University of Louisville, where he remained until his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 411.
FARNSWORTH, John Franklin, 1820-1897, Chicago, Illinois, Union soldier. Colonel, 8th Illinois Cavalry, later commissioned Brigadier General, 1861-1862. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois, 1857-1861, 1863-1873. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 411-412; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 284; Congressional Globe)
FARNSWORTH, John Franklin, legislator, born in Eaton, Quebec, Canada, 27 March, 1820. He moved with his parents to Michigan in 1834, received an academic education, studied and practised law, and afterward went to Chicago, Illinois. He was elected to Congress as a Republican, and served from 1857 till 1861, when he became colonel of the 8th Illinois Cavalry. He subsequently raised the 17th Illinois Regiment, by order of the War Department, and was commissioned brigadier-general, 29 November, 1862, but was compelled to resign from the army in March, 1863, owing to injuries received in the field. He then moved to St. Charles, Illinois, and from 1863 till 1873 was again a member of Congress. Since 1873 he has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Washington, D. C. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 411-412.
FARNSWORTH, Elon John, soldier, born in Green Oak, Livingston County, Michigan, in 1837; died in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 3 July, 1863, was educated in the public schools, and spent a year at the University of Michigan. Leaving college in 1858, he served in the quartermaster's department of the army during the Utah Expedition of that year. He then engaged in buffalo hunting, and in carrying freight to the then newly discovered mines at Pike's Peak. In 1861 he became assistant quartermaster of the 8th Illinois Cavalry , which his uncle was then organizing. He was soon promoted to captain, and took part in all the battles of the Peninsula, and in those of Pope's campaign. He was appointed aide to General Pleasanton in May, 1863, promoted to brigadier-general on the 29th of the following month, and was killed four days afterward while leading a charge during the battle of Gettysburg. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 412.
FARNUM, John Egbert, soldier, born in New Jersey, 1 April, 1824; died in New York City, 16 May, 1870. He was educated in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, entered the army as sergeant-major of the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry in 1846, and served through the Mexican War. Subsequently he joined the Lopez Expedition to Cuba which left New Orleans in 1850, and also took an active part in Walker's Nicaraguan Expeditions. Still later he was captain of the slave-yacht " Wanderer," and was indicted at Savannah for carrying on the slave-trade. He is said to have regretted this episode in his life, and at the beginning of the Civil War he became major in the 70th New York Volunteers, which was raised and commanded by General Sickles. He distinguished himself for gallantry in all the engagements in which Sickle’s brigade took part, and was promoted colonel of his regiment. At the battle of Williamsburg, 5 May, 1862, he was severely wounded, but recovered in time to take part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, and was brevetted brigadier-general for gallant conduct in those engagements. He was then compelled by his wounds to abandon active service, and accepted the colonelcy of the 11th Regiment of the Veteran Reserve Corps, which he retained till the close of the war. Later he was appointed inspector of customs in the city of New York, which office he held at the time of his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 412.
FARQUHAR, Norman von Heldreich, naval officer, born in Pennsylvania, 11 April, 1840. He was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1859, became a lieutenant in 1861, a lieutenant-commander in 1865, and a commander in 1872. In 1862-'3 he was executive officer of the steamer "Mahaska," of the North Atlantic Squadron, and during that period frequently engaged the enemy both afloat and in expeditions on shore. As executive officer of the "Santiago de Cuba" he took part in both attacks on Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and led the men of that vessel in the successful assault on the fort of 15 January, 1865. He was commandant of cadets at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1881-'6, and in the latter year was promoted captain. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 412.
FARRAGUT, David Glasgow, naval officer, born at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tennessee, 5 July, 1801; died in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 14 August, 1870. His ancestry is traced to Don Pedro Ferragut, called “El Conquistador,” who served under James I., king of Aragon, in the campaign in which the Moors were expelled from Majorca and Valencia in the 13th century. The estates of the family were in the Balearic Islands, and among the notable members were Agustin, a theologian; Pablo, an historian; Antonio, a distinguished soldier of the 17th century; Gonzalo, bishop of Urgel; and three magistrates of the kingdom of Majorca. But the name is now extinct in those islands. The admiral's grandfather married Juana Mesquida, and that surname appears to have superseded Ferragut. The admiral's father, George Farragut, born in Minorca, 29 September, 1755; died at Point Plaquet, West Pascagoula, Louisiana, 4 June, 1817, emigrated to this country in 1776, took part in the Revolutionary War, and was the friend and companion of General Andrew Jackson during his Indian Campaigns of 1813-'14. The journal of the U. S. House of Representatives for 1797 records that William C. C. Claiborne presented “the petition of George Farragut, praying that he may be allowed the balance of pay due to him for services rendered the United States as muster-master of the militia of the District of Washington [East Tennessee], employed in actual service for the protection of the frontiers of the United States south of the Ohio, from the 1st of March, 1792, to the 26th of October, 1793.” George Farragut. as sailing-master of an expedition to the Bay of Pascagoula in 1810-'11, sent by Governor Claiborne, of the Mississippi territory, bore a principal part in securing from the Spaniards the disputed territory on that coast. Dr. Flood, the commissioner, wrote in his report “At the special request of the inhabitants of Pascagoula, by whom he is greatly beloved, I prevailed on Sailing-Master George Farragut to accept the commission of magistrate.” George Farragut married Elizabeth Shine, of North Carolina, who bore him five children — three sons and two daughters — and died in New Orleans in 1808, of yellow fever.
The boyhood of David Glasgow Farragut lacked none of the dangers and hardships of frontier life. In his journal he says: “I remember that on one occasion, during my father's absence, a party of Indians came to our house, which was somewhat isolated; when my mother, who was a brave and energetic woman, barred the door in the most effectual manner, and sent all of us trembling little ones up into the loft of the barn while she guarded the entrance with an axe. The savages attempted to parley with her, but she kept them at bay until finally they departed. My father arrived shortly afterward with his command (he was a major of cavalry), and immediately pursued the Indians, whom I believe he succeeded in overtaking and punishing.” At the age of eight the boy accompanied his father in a small boat across Lake Pontchartrain, during a gale. “This expedition,” he says in his journal, “was my first experience on salt water, and I fervently hoped at that time it would be my last.” The father, who appears to have been afraid of nothing on land or sea, and once went from New Orleans to Havana in a pirogue (a sort of canoe), was in the habit of taking his children across the lake in all sorts of weather, saying “now was the time to conquer their fears.” At this time Sailing-Master David Porter, father of Commodore Porter, of the “Essex,” being at the New Orleans naval station, became ill, was taken care of at Farragut's house, and died there, his funeral being on the same day with Mrs. Farragut's. This circumstance led to a warm friendship with Commodore Porter when he succeeded his father on that station, and he offered to adopt one of the boys. The eldest son, William, had already received an appointment in the U.S. Navy. The choice being presented to the two others, David promptly said that he would go, and accompanied Porter in the bomb-ketch “Vesuvius” to Washington. There he was placed in school, and there also he was introduced to Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy, who promised to give him a midshipman's warrant as soon as he should complete his tenth year. Subsequently Farragut attended school in Chester, Pennsylvania, where the Porter family resided. He was but nine and a half years old when he received the promised appointment in the U.S. Navy, 17 December, 1810. In July of the next year he went to Norfolk, Virginia, in company with Captain Porter, who there took command of the frigate “Essex,” which cruised up and down the coast, her men by constant practice being brought to the highest state of efficiency. The midshipmen were sent to school in Newport, Rhode Island, during the greater part of the winter.
When war with England was declared in June, 1812, the “Essex” was quickly made ready for sea, and soon captured several prizes. On this cruise Farragut discovered and frustrated a mutiny among the prisoners. In October the “Essex” put to sea again, under orders to join Bainbridge's squadron in the West Indies; but Porter failed to find the squadron, and on his own responsibility continued his voyage southward, doubled Cape Horn, and made a memorable cruise in the Pacific. (See Porter, David.) Young Farragut was made prize-master of one of the captured vessels, and ordered to take her to Valparaiso, the captain to navigate her. When Farragut, who confesses that he “ was a little afraid of the violent-tempered old fellow,” gave his first order, the captain flew into a rage, declared he “had no idea of trusting himself with a d—d nutshell,” and went below for his pistols. The twelve-year-old prize-master thereupon assumed complete command, had his orders obeyed, called down to the captain that if he came on deck with his pistols he would be thrown overboard, and thenceforth was master of the ship. While the “Essex” was refitting in the Marquesas Islands, Farragut and the other midshipmen played with the native boys, and became expert swimmers. The first battle in which Farragut participated — that of the “Essex” against the “Phoebe” and the “Cherub,” in the Harbor of Valparaiso, 28 March, 1814 — was one of the bloodiest ever fought on the sea. He says in his journal: “I performed the duties of captain's aide, quarter-gunner, powder-boy, and in fact did everything that was required of me. I shall never forget the horrid impression made upon me at the sight of the first man I had ever seen killed. It staggered and sickened me at first, but they soon began to fall around me so fast that it all appeared like a dream, and produced no effect on my nerves.” After the battle he was at work for nearly a month assisting the surgeons in the care of the wounded, when the survivors were sent to New York in the “Essex Junior.” Farragut was sent to school again at Chester, Pennsylvania, where he was not only instructed in the usual branches, but also drilled as a soldier.
In April, 1815, he sailed for the Mediterranean in the “Independence,” as aide to Captain William M. Crane; but she arrived too late to take part in the Algerine war, and, after visiting Malaga, Carthagena, and Gibraltar, returned home and wintered at Boston. In 1816 he visited the Mediterranean again, on board the “Macedonian,” which conveyed William Pinkney, U. S. minister to Naples; and in 1817 the ship made an extended cruise in that sea, stopping in almost every port, and giving officers and crew abundant opportunities to visit the places of interest. In the autumn of that year the chaplain, [[Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Folsom, Charles Folsom (q. v.), was appointed U. S. consul at Tunis, and at his request Midshipman Farragut spent nine months with him, studying French, Italian, English literature, and mathematics. At this time Richard B. Jones, U. S. consul at Tripoli, wrote to Mr. Folsom: “With regard to my young friend, Farragut, if he will only apply steadily to useful purposes the talents with which he is so bountifully enriched, it must, with his amiable disposition and obliging manners, insure him the respect and esteem of all who know him, and place him, at some future period, high in the niche of fame.” In a later letter the same appreciative friend spoke of Farragut as “the young admiral.” He attended the grand duke's ball in Pisa, and gives a humorous account of his misadventures. “At one time my shoe-buckle caught in the flounce of the archduchess's dress. I kicked off the offending shoe with great elegance, and then knelt down and extricated it, with a suitable apology. Soon after this I trod on the grand duke's toe, and had to make another apology. Chagrined at my own awkwardness, I determined to retire, and looked around for my cocked hat, when I found the Countess Testa using it for a foot-warmer. I drew it to me rather unceremoniously, at which she remarked that I ‘ought to feel myself highly complimented, and should not be offended.’ To which I replied, ‘Madame, it might be so considered in your country, but not in mine.’ ”
In the spring of 1819 Farragut made another cruise in the Mediterranean, and was made acting lieutenant on the brig “Shark.” In 1820 he was ordered home for his examination, and sailed in a merchantman. On the voyage they were sighted and chased by a Colombian war vessel, which the frightened captain supposed to be a pirate. Farragut therefore took command of the ship, mustered the crew, and prepared for resistance. When a small boat from the man-of-war came alongside, he had a grindstone and a barrel of tar ready to drop into it and sink it if they should prove to be pirates. He passed his examination, but not well enough to satisfy himself, and went to Norfolk, Virginia, where he fell in love with Miss Susan C., daughter of Jordan Marchant, whom he married three years later.
In May, 1822, he was ordered to sea in the sloop-of-war “John Adams,” which conveyed the newly appointed U. S. representatives to Mexico and Guatemala. On this cruise he met General Santa Aña (afterward president of Mexico) at Vera Cruz, and made his first acquaintance with the Gulf where his fame was to be won forty years later. After his return he obtained orders to sail in the schooner “Greyhound,” of Commodore Porter's fleet, which was preparing for a cruise against freebooters of the West Indies. They had numerous encounters with the pirates, and on one occasion Farragut was sent ashore at the Isle of Pines, in command of a detachment who, after making their way through swamps and thick chaparral, found the caves and concealed houses of the robbers, drove them out, and set fire to everything that would burn. Soon afterward Farragut was made executive officer of Porter's flag-ship, the “Seagull,” which made a cruise to examine the reefs and shoals of the Gulf. In a subsequent cruise he obtained leave of absence and went to visit his friends in New Orleans, taking passage in a vessel that was carrying thither the first load of bricks for the construction of Fort Jackson, with which Farragut fought his first battle in the Civil War. In July, 1823, he was assigned to the command of the “Ferret,” which convoyed merchantmen through the Gulf, to protect them from pirates. He had many cases of yellow fever on board, and treated them himself, the only death being that of a midshipman who refused his prescription because he was not a physician. He himself took the fever on his homeward voyage, and on his arrival was sent to the hospital in Washington, where he remained until his recovery.
In 1825 he was commissioned lieutenant, and ordered to the frigate “Brandywine,” Captain Charles Morris, which in September carried Lafayette home to France, and after that made a cruise in the Mediterranean. On his return home in May, 1826, Farragut took his wife to New Haven, Connecticut, to be treated for neuralgia, and remained there four months, attending the lectures of the Yale professors. Those of Professor Silliman especially interested him. After this he spent two years at Norfolk, Va. He was an accomplished cook, and prepared all the food for his invalid wife, and personally took a large part of the care of her. At the same time he established a successful school for boys on the receiving-ship “Alert.” When Samuel L. Southard, Secretary of the Navy, inspected this school, he gave it what Farragut calls “one of the few, the very few, compliments I ever received from the navy department or its head.”
In October, 1828, he was ordered to the new sloop-of-war “Vandalia,” which in December sailed for the Brazil station. The squadron went to Buenos Ayres, and was there when Rosas became dictator. In the autumn of 1829 it returned to Rio de Janeiro, where Farragut witnessed the marriage of the Emperor Dom Pedro I., and was presented at court. In December an affection of the eyes, which had long troubled him, compelled him to ask for leave of absence, and he went home in a merchantman, which on the way was chased by a pirate. Farragut found four carronades and twenty-four pounds of powder on board, mounted the guns, and got everything ready for a vigorous defence; but the merchantman outsailed her pursuer. In December, 1832, he was ordered to the “Natchez,” which in January, 1833, sailed for Charleston Harbor, where she remained until the nullification troubles were over. The vessel was next ordered to the Brazil station. Of Farragut's qualities as executive officer at this time, one of those that sailed with him wrote: “Never was the crew of a man-of-war better disciplined or more contented and happy. The moment all hands were called, and Farragut took the trumpet, every man under him was alive and eager for duty. I remember well one occasion when he took the ‘Natchez’ out of the Harbor of Rio, which at the entrance is quite narrow, against a head wind, by a manœuvre termed ‘box-hauling.’ There were several men-of-war in port, English and French, whose officers and crews were watching us closely. Many declared that the manœuvre could not be successfully accomplished, but it was done splendidly, without a balk or failure, and I shall remember to my dying day the glow of pride and satisfaction which we all felt.” In March, 1834, he took command of the schooner “Boxer,” which he thoroughly overhauled and repaired in the harbor of Rio. The “Boxer” was ordered home in the summer, and for four years the lieutenant was in Norfolk and Washington, serving on courts-martial, waiting for sailing orders, and taking care of his wife, who died in 1840. In August, 1838, he was given command of the sloop “Erie,” and ordered to Tampico, because of the prospect of war between France and Mexico. There he made minute observations of all the military and naval movements, particularly the bombardment of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, and gave his conclusions in a long letter to Commodore Barron, in which he wrote: “ If we who wander about the world do not keep those at home informed of the daily improvements in other navies, how can we hope to improve, particularly when we see men impressed with the idea that, because they once gained a victory, they can do it again? So they may; but I can tell them it must be with the means of 1838 and not those of 1812.”
He now spent two years more at home, serving on courts-martial and learning the carpenter's trade, till the spring of 1841, when he became executive officer of the “Delaware,” and in September he received his commission as commander. He sailed once more for South American waters, and in June, 1842, received command of the “Decatur.” He took every opportunity to travel in the countries whose ports he visited, and became specially familiar with South American affairs. The cruise ended in Norfolk Harbor in February, 1843. There, in December of that year, he married Virginia, eldest daughter of William Loyall, a woman of superior character and cultivation, and no little literary ability, who survived him fourteen years. In April, 1844, he became executive officer of the “Pennsylvania,” and at the beginning of the Mexican War in 1846 applied for command of a ship and active service. After much difficulty, he obtained the sloop-of-war “Saratoga,” in February, 1847. He collected a crew, and sailed two days after his assignment, eager to capture the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, which he believed could be done with three vessels; but when he arrived at Vera Cruz the castle had just surrendered to the land forces. Farragut always thought Commodore Conner had lost a great opportunity in not attacking it. He says in his journal: “Of all the service I had seen since entering the U.S. Navy, this cruise was the most mortifying. As I had the ill-will of my commodore” [Matthew C. Perry]. “I was not permitted to participate in any of the expeditions and more honorable duties, but was placed under a reef of rocks off Tuxpan, to blockade that port. When I could bear the imposition no longer, I reported the facts to the navy department, and asked to be relieved from under his command, or from command of the ship. Accordingly, I was ordered home with my vessel. My letters were considered improper by the Secretary of the Navy.” Commodore Perry denied that he had any prejudice against Farragut.
In February, 1848, Farragut's vessel returned home, when he was assigned to the Norfolk Navy-yard for two years, and in October, 1850, was ordered to Washington to compile a book of ordnance regulations for the navy, in collaboration with Commander T. A. Dornin and Lieuts. Barron, Harwood, and Fairfax. This work occupied them a year and a half. When it was completed, Farragut says: “Many of the best features were overruled and stricken out, as were also the drawings, which we considered fine illustrations. The book was highly commended by officers of other navies than our own; but where is it now? God only knows! For those who had the power called a new board ten years afterward, and made a few necessary changes to suit the introduction of steam and heavy guns, and the names of the original board were obliterated.” During those eighteen months he attended regularly the lectures at the Smithsonian institution. When he returned to the Norfolk Navy-yard as ordnance officer, he gave the officers a weekly lecture on gunnery. Lieutenant Percival Drayton was associated with him at this time in a series of experiments at Fort Monroe, to test the various classes of guns used in the navy, and an intimate friendship grew up between the two officers which lasted through their lives.
When the Crimean war began, in 1854, Farragut asked to be sent thither as a professional observer. This request was denied by the navy department; but soon afterward he was sent to establish a U.S. Navy-yard on the Pacific Coast, the site chosen being Mare Island, in the Bay of San Francisco. This task occupied him four years. During this time the affair of the vigilance committee took place, and he was appealed to for aid to the state authorities; but he carefully refrained from all interference.
In July, 1858, he returned to the Atlantic Coast, and was given command of the “Brooklyn,” a new sloop-of-war, in which he conveyed to Vera Cruz Robert M. McLane, the new U. S. minister to Mexico. The ship was then placed at the disposal of Mr. McLane and took him to various points on the coast, that he might communicate with the American consuls. Farragut was taunted with being at the beck and call of a civilian, and made a characteristic answer: “I can only say that I am always at the service of the country in doing my duty, and would rather be subject to the directions of an intelligent man appointed by the government for a purpose on account of his qualifications, than to be under some old fool who has floated up to his position without the first requisites, the only merit that he possesses being that he had been in the navy all his life without having done anything to recommend him either to the government or to his brother officers.” From Vera Cruz he wrote: “I can't help loving my profession; but it has materially changed since the advent of steam. I took as much pleasure in running into this port the other day in a gale of wind as ever a boy did in any feat of skill. The people seemed astonished. McLane said he would sooner have done it than anything else — except to take a ship.” Governmental affairs in Mexico were very much disturbed at this time, 1859, and Farragut was of great service in protecting American interests there, for which he received a letter of thanks from American merchants in Vera Cruz. He made another trip to Mexico in November, and in December passed up the Mississippi to New Orleans, where he arrived just in time to attend the funeral of his brother William, who was retired as a lieutenant. The intimate acquaintance with the Gulf of Mexico and the lower Mississippi, which Farragut gained by these frequent visits, was found to be of inestimable, value to him two years later.
In the winter of 1860-'1 Farragut was on waiting orders in Norfolk, Virginia. The one topic of discussion there, as elsewhere throughout the country, was the impending secession of the south and the probability of Civil War. If an amicable separation of the country should take place, he would remain with the south, because his relatives were there and his home, so far as he had a home on shore. But he did not see how secession could be attempted without war, and in that event he held that his allegiance was due to the National government, to which he was indebted for his naval education, rank, and employment. He watched with intense interest the efforts to carry Virginia into the Confederacy, and when it was accomplished he declared that “the state had been dragooned out of the Union.” As he expressed his opinions freely, and boldly said that President Lincoln was justified in calling for troops, he was told that a person with such sentiments “could not live in Norfolk.” “Well, then,” said he, “I can live somewhere else,” and that very evening (18 April, 1861) he departed with his wife and son, going first to Baltimore, and finally taking a cottage at Hastings-on-the-Hudson. He was a member of a naval retiring-board in Brooklyn, but had little else to do for nearly a year. One privateer, the “Sumter,” had already been sent out by the Confederates. Farragut, who had a theory as to her probable movements, asked the government to let him go in chase of her with a swift vessel, but the suggestion was not approved.
In December, 1861, he was summoned to Washington, whence he wrote a hurried note to his wife: “Keep your lips closed, and burn my letters, for perfect silence is to be observed the first injunction of the secretary. I am to have a flag in the Gulf, and the rest depends upon myself. Keep calm and silent. I shall sail in three weeks.” For some time a formidable expedition had been in preparation, intended to reduce the defences of New Orleans and capture that place, which was by far the largest city in the south. The expedition included twenty-one schooners, each carrying a large mortar, under command of Commander (now Admiral) David D. Porter. Farragut had no faith in the efficacy of these mortars, but, as a great deal of time and money had been spent in their preparation, he accepted the fleet as he found it. He sailed from Hampton Roads, 2 February, 1862, in the steam sloop-of-war “Hartford,” 1,900 tons, which from that time till the close of the war was his flag-ship. She had a speed, under steam alone, of eight knots, or with steam and sail combined, of eleven knots. She carried twenty-two nine-inch Dahlgren guns, two twenty-pounder Parrots, and a rifled Sawyer gun on the forecastle; and Farragut had her fore- and main-tops protected with boiler iron and armed with howitzers. His orders instructed him to “collect such vessels as can be spared from the blockade, and proceed up the Mississippi River and reduce the defences which guard the approaches to New Orleans, when you will appear off that city and take possession of it under the guns of your squadron. . . . As you have expressed yourself perfectly satisfied with the force given to you, and as many more powerful vessels will be added before you can commence operations, the department and the country require of you success.” A military force of 15,000 men, designed to co-operate with the fleet in capturing New Orleans, and to garrison the place after it should be taken, sailed in transports from Fort Monroe, on 20 February, commanded by General Benjamin F. Butler. The place of rendezvous was Ship Island, which is about one hundred miles northeast of the mouths of the Mississippi.
At the last great bend in the river, about thirty miles above the mouth, stood Fort Jackson on the right bank and Fort St. Philip on the left. A single fort at this point had held the British forces in check for nine days in 1814-'15, though they threw a thousand shells into it. Fort Jackson was a bastioned fortification, built of brick, with casemates and glacis, rising twenty-five feet above the water. Fort St. Philip was smaller, and rose nineteen feet. The whole number of guns in the two works was about 115, which were of various kinds and sizes, but mostly smooth-bore thirty-two-pounders. Above the forts lay a Confederate fleet of fifteen vessels, including an iron-clad ram and a large, unfinished floating battery covered with railroad iron. Below the forts two iron chains were stretched across the river, supported on eight hulks anchored abreast. Two hundred Confederate sharp-shooters kept constant watch along the banks, and several fire-rafts were ready to be lighted and sent down against the fleet. To pass these obstructions and fight his way to the city, Farragut had six sloops-of-war, sixteen gun-boats, twenty-one mortar schooners, and five other vessels, carrying in all over 200 guns. This was the largest expedition that had ever sailed under the United States flag, but it did not include a single iron-clad, and while it was mainly built for sea-service, its task now was to operate in a River with many shoals and a shifting channel. To get the larger vessels over the bar at Southwest pass, it was necessary to lighten them as much as possible, and then drag them over through a foot of mud. With the “Pensacola” alone, this process occupied two weeks. The “Colorado” could not be taken over at all.
The mortar schooners were towed up the stream to a point within reach of the forts, and began to take their places and open fire on 18 April. There was a stretch of woods between them and the forts, and their masts were trimmed with bushes to prevent them from being distinguished. The gunners could not see the forts, but fired with a computed aim, the result of careful observation and triangulation by a coast-survey officer. They used shells weighing 285 pounds, and kept up a constant fire for six days and nights, throwing nearly 6,000 shells. This resulted in disabling fifty-three of the garrison and destroying some of the buildings, but not in materially damaging the forts. Farragut was impatient with this operation, as it only served to give the enemy warning, and he found the greatest difficulty in preventing collisions in his fleet. Half a dozen fire-rafts were sent down, but boats'-crews tackled them, and either towed them ashore or sent them out to sea. Perhaps no commander was ever so completely master of every detail as Farragut. He could have taken the place and performed the duties of any man in the fleet. He issued orders in which minute directions were given for every contingency that he could anticipate, and in addition to this he bade his officers use their own ingenuity. They whitewashed the decks (for the attack was to be in the night) and took other precautions, the most important of which were those intended to protect the boilers and machinery. Not only was the coal so placed as to guard these, but all the spare chains were “stoppered” up and down the side amidships. In the night of 20 April, Captain Henry H. Bell went silently up the river with a boat's-crew and unfastened the chains to make an opening for the fleet to pass through. In the night of the 23d, Lieutenant-Commodore C. H. B. Caldwell was sent up to see if the way was still clear, and signaled that it was; but the enemy discovered him and opened fire, at the same time sending down fire-rafts and lighting two large piles of wood near the ends of the chain, so that the whole scene was made as bright as day. But the fleet was now ready for the attack, and at half past three o'clock in the morning it was under way. The first Division , consisting of eight vessels, was commanded by Captain Theodorus Bailey; the second, three vessels, was led by Farragut's flag-ship; the third, six vessels, commanded by Captain Bell. As the line of battle passed through the opening in the chain, it came within reach of the guns of the forts, and each vessel in succession was subjected to a raking fire. One became entangled among the rafts and did not get free in time to make the passage, another received a shot in her boiler and was compelled to drop down-stream again, while a third, being delayed till daylight, attempted to pass up alone and was driven back by a destructive fire. With these exceptions, the whole line moved steadily up the river, sailing close to the forts and pouring in broadsides of shell and grape-shot that at times swept the bastions clear of the enemy and silenced the guns. After passing by the forts, the fleet was subjected to a raking fire similar to that which it had encountered in the approach, and no sooner had it gone beyond the range of this than it encountered the Confederate fleet. But of this it made short work; some of the enemy's vessels were driven ashore, some were run down, and others were riddled with shot. The flag-ship “Hartford” grounded on a shoal, and at the same time the ram “Manassas” pushed a fire-raft against her. But the flames were promptly extinguished and the vessel gotten off into deep water, when she was approached in the smoke and darkness by a steamer crowded with men, evidently intending to board her. She at once planted a heavy shell in the stranger, which exploded, and the vessel disappeared. The “Hartford” then passed on up-stream, firing right and left into the enemy's gun-boats. The “Brooklyn” encountered several of these, into one of which she sent eleven shells at a single discharge, all of which exploded, and the gun-boat ran ashore in flames. The “Mississippi,” a side-wheel steamer, encountered the ram “Manassas,” and received a blow that disabled her machinery; but she sent a broadside through the ram, and promptly boarded it and set it on fire, so that it drifted down the river and exploded. The gun-boat “Varuna,” of Farragut's fleet, was rammed by two Confederate gun-boats and sank in fifteen minutes. At daylight the fleet continued on its way up the river, and Captain Bailey, leading in the “Cayuga,” captured a Confederate regiment encamped on the bank. On the morning of the 25th the Chalmette batteries, three miles below the city, were attacked and silenced, and an hour later New Orleans itself was at the mercy of Farragut's guns. This exploit had cost the National fleet 37 men killed and 147 wounded, and one vessel sunk out of the seventeen. The Confederate fleet was completely destroyed. At noon the surrender of the city was demanded of the mayor, and Captain Bailey was sent ashore to haul down the Louisiana flag and raise the stars and stripes over the public buildings. A troublesome correspondence with the mayor ensued, and Farragut was glad to turn over the city to General Butler as soon as the troops could be brought up, on the evening of 1 May. The forts had surrendered to Commodore Porter on the 28th. It appears that this timely capture of New Orleans changed the purpose of the Emperor Napoleon, who was about to recognize the Confederacy and take measures to raise the blockade.
Farragut wanted to take his fleet at once to Mobile, capture that place, and close the port to blockade-runners; but the government was anxious to open the Mississippi through its whole length, and the ships were therefore kept in the river for some months. Before daylight, on 28 June, 1862, he ran by the batteries at Vicksburg with eight vessels, joining Commodore Charles H. Davis's fleet of iron-clads above the city. In this passage Farragut's fleet was under fire about two hours, and lost fifteen men killed and thirty wounded. On 15 July, finding that nothing could be effected at Vicksburg by the fleet alone, he ran the batteries again, descending the river to New Orleans. The next day he was commissioned rear-admiral.
On 14 March, 1863, to assist General Nathaniel P. Banks in his siege of Port Hudson, Farragut attempted to run by the batteries at that place with seven vessels three sloops-of-war, each with a gun-boat lashed to the port-side, and the side-wheel steamer “Mississippi.” By this arrangement, if a vessel were disabled, the gun-boat could take her out of the fight. But they met so destructive a fire that only the “Hartford” and her attendant gun-boat succeeded in getting by. The “Mississippi” ran aground and was burned, and the others were compelled to drop down stream. With the “Hartford” and the “Albatross” Farragut proceeded up stream and blockaded the mouth of Red River, thus preventing Confederate supplies from coming down, or re-enforcements from going up to the army of General Richard Taylor. Coal and provisions were sent down to him by General Grant and Admiral Porter, on barges that drifted past the Vicksburg batteries in the night. Subsequently he assisted General Banks in the investment of Port Hudson, till it was surrendered, 8 July.
The Mississippi was now open to navigation through its entire length. Admiral Porter took Farragut's place at New Orleans, while Farragut sailed far New York in the “Hartford,” arriving in August. When the flag-ship was examined at the U.S. Navy-yard, it was found that she had been struck 240 times by shot and shell during her nineteen months of service. Farragut was given public welcome home and receptions by the New York chamber of commerce and committees of citizens, and rested five months while the ship was refitted.
In January, 1864, he returned to the Gulf, visited Ship Island and Pensacola, establishing depots of supplies, and prepared for his long-meditated attack on the defences of Mobile. In May a beautiful sword, with a gold and silver scabbard and the hilt set in brilliants, was sent to him by the Union League club of New York. About this time he wrote: “If anyone asks what I am doing, answer, Nothing but waiting for the world to turn round till it comes my turn to do something.” He reconnoitered the forts, and declared that an attack would be useless till he had some iron-clads. These came at last, as did also the troops under General Gordon Granger for the land attack.
The defences of the bay consisted mainly of two forts — Morgan at the eastern side of the entrance, and Gaines at the western — three miles apart. From Fort Gaines eastward to a point near Fort Morgan stretched a line of piles and a double line of torpedoes. The point where they terminated was indicated by a red buoy, and the blockade-runners were accustomed to pass in by the narrow channel between this buoy and Fort Morgan. Inside of these defences lay the Confederate iron-clad ram “Tennessee” and three wooden gun-boats. As at New Orleans, Farragut issued general orders containing the most minute instructions for every contingency. His seven sloops-of-war the “Brooklyn” leading and the “Hartford” coming second were to form one line, each sloop having a gun-boat lashed on the port side, to take her through if her machinery should be disabled. The “Brooklyn” was given the lead because she had four chase guns and a contrivance for picking up torpedoes. The four iron-clad monitors, “Tecumseh,” “Manhattan,” “Winnebago,” and “Chickasaw,” formed another line to the right of the line of wooden ships, between them and Fort Morgan. Six steamers were placed south and east of that work, to keep up a flank fire upon it. Before daylight on 5 August everybody in the fleet was astir, and at half-past five the signal was given for the advance. An hour later the combatants were within range, and the firing began immediately, and was heavy and destructive on both sides. The admiral mounted into the port main rigging, in order to see over the smoke, and as this increased he gradually mounted higher. Captain Drayton, to prevent his falling to the deck in case of being wounded, sent up a quarter-master with a piece of lead-line, which was made fast to one of the shrouds and passed around the admiral, to prevent such an accident. The commanders had all been instructed to keep to the east of the red buoy; but the leading monitor, in her eagerness to engage the Confederate ram, passed west of it, struck a torpedo, and suddenly went down. (See Craven, Tunis A. M.) A little later the “Brooklyn” stopped, and this seemed likely to throw the whole line into confusion. “What is the trouble?” was shouted through a trumpet from the “Hartford.” “Torpedoes!” was the answer. “Damn the torpedoes!” exclaimed Farragut. “Four bells! Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jonett, full speed!” Thus the “Hartford” passed the “Brooklyn,” took her place at the head of the line, and led the fleet into the bay. Every vessel suffered from the enemy's fire as it approached the fort, poured in rapid broadsides that silenced the Confederate guns when it was abreast of the work, and suffered again from raking fire after it had passed. Inside of the bay, the signal “Chase enemy's gun-boats” was given, and the lashings that held the gun-boats to the sloops were cut with axes and the former made off for their prey, and one Confederate gun-boat was captured, one was sunk, and another driven under the guns of the fort. There was a brush with the iron-clad ram, but it was not serious, and the fleet came to anchor three miles up the bay. Farragut was planning to attack the ram as soon as it should be dark enough to prevent the garrison of the fort from seeing which was friend and which foe; but the ram anticipated him, steaming directly for the flag-ship in the midst of the fleet. The admiral at once gave orders for every ship to attack her, not only with shot but by ramming, and a desperate contest ensued. The ram had the advantage in that she was sure of striking an enemy with every blow, while the fleet had to avoid running and firing into one another. Their shot had no effect on the sloping iron sides of the monster, and when the wooden vessels rammed her they splintered their own bows and only heeled her over. But the monitors, with their enormous guns, shot away her smoke-stack and steering-apparatus and jammed her shutters, while one fifteen-inch shot actually penetrated her armor. Her commander was wounded, her crew could do nothing in the smoke that filled their vessel, and she displayed a white flag and surrendered. In the fight the “Lackawanna” had accidentally run into the flag-ship and cut her down nearly to the water's edge. The victory cost the National fleet 335 men, including 52 killed by shot and 113 drowned in the “Tecumseh.” The Confederate fleet lost 10 killed, 16 wounded, and 280 prisoners. The loss in the forts is unknown. A few days later they were surrendered. Farragut in his official report awarded the most generous praise to all that had assisted in winning the victory. He said: “The commanding officers of all the vessels that took part in the action deserve my warmest commendations, not only for the untiring zeal with which they had prepared their ships for the contest, but for their skill and daring in carrying out my order's during the engagement,” and he mentioned every one of them specially. He also wrote: “I witnessed the terrible effects of the enemy's shot, and the good conduct of the men at their guns; and although no doubt their hearts sickened, as mine did, when their shipmates were struck down beside them, yet there was not a moment's hesitation to lay their comrades aside and spring again to their deadly work.” The quarter-master that tied him in the rigging says he saw the admiral come on deck just as the killed of the “Hartford” were being laid out, and “it was the only time I ever saw the old gentleman cry, but tears came in his eyes like a little child.” Henry Howard Brownell was on board the flag-ship as an acting ensign, and described the battle in one of his finest poems, “The Bay Fight.” The city of Mobile could not be captured by the fleet as New Orleans had been, because of shoal water and obstructions in the channel. But the purpose of the operation, to stop the passage of blockade-runners and so close another main avenue of supply to the Confederacy, was accomplished. The accompanying view of the “Hartford” shows the ship as she appeared in Mobile Bay after the battle. The stunted appearance of her masts is due to the fact that her top-gallants were housed. Her hull was painted lead-color.
In November, as Farragut's health was failing, the department ordered him home, and on 12 December he reached New York, where he was given a public reception, and a purse of $50,000 was presented to him for the purchase of a home in the city. A bill creating the grade of vice-admiral was passed by Congress on 22 December, and the next day President Lincoln signed it, and nominated Farragut for the office, which nomination the Senate at once confirmed. When Richmond fell into the hands of the National forces, Farragut, who was on the James, with General George H. Gordon, procured horses, and rode thither post haste, entering the city a short time before the president got there. A few days later he visited his old home, Norfolk, and was given a public reception by the naval and military officers there and those of the citizens who had remained true to the Union. In the course of his speech he said: “This meeting recalls to me the most momentous events of my life, when I listened in this place till the small hours of the morning, and returned home with the feeling that Virginia was safe and firm in her place in the Union. Our Union members of the convention were elected by an overwhelming majority, and we believed that everything was right. Judge, then, of our astonishment in finding, a few days later, that the state had been voted out by a miserable minority, for want of firmness and resolution on the part of those whom we trusted to represent us there, and that Virginia had been dragooned out of the Union. . . . I was told by a brother officer that the state had seceded, and that I must either resign and turn traitor to the government which had supported me from childhood, or I must leave this place. Thank God, I was not long in making my decision! I have spent, half of my life in revolutionary countries, and I know the horrors of Civil War, and I told the people what I had seen and what they would experience. They laughed at me, and called me ‘granny’ and ‘croaker’; and I said, ‘I cannot live here, and will seek some other place where I can live.’ I suppose they said I left my country for my country's good, and, thank God. I did!”
On 6 July, 1865. the Union club of Boston gave a dinner to the admiral, at which Oliver Wendell Holmes read one of his happiest occasional poems, a few lines of which may be quoted here:
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“
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Fast, fast are lessening in the light
The names of high renown —
Van Tromp's proud bosom pales from sight,
Old Benbow's half hull down.
Scarce one tall frigate walks the sea,
Or skirts the safer shores.
Of all that bore to victory
Our stout old commodores.
Hull, Bainbridge, Porter — where are they?
The answering billows roll,
Still bright in memory's sunset ray,
God rest each gallant soul!
A brighter name must dim their light,
With more than noontide ray —
The Viking of the River Fight.
The Conqueror of the Bay.
I give the name that fits him best —
Ay, better than his own —
The Sea-King of the sovereign West,
Who made his mast a throne.”
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On 25 July. 1866, Congress created the grade of admiral, before unknown in the U. S. Navy, and the rank was given to Farragut. The next year he was assigned to the European Squadron, hoisted his flag on the “Franklin,” and made along cruise in European waters. By special permission of the president, Mrs. Farragut and her cousin, Mrs. Pennock, wife of his fleet captain, Alexander M. Pennock, accompanied them. They visited the principal European capitals, and were everywhere received with the highest honors. One of the most interesting incidents of the cruise was a visit to the Island of Minorca, the home of Farragut's ancestors, where the whole population turned out to welcome him. In the summer of 1869 the admiral and Mrs. Farragut visited Vallejo, California. His last official duty was to take charge of the naval obsequies of George Peabody, when the remains arrived at Portland, Maine, in January, 1870. The next summer he spent in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the guest of Rear-Admiral Pennock. An old sailor, who had charge of the dismantled sloop-of-war “Dale,” lying in the harbor, says that one day the admiral wandered on board, and on stepping ashore again remarked: “That is the last time I shall ever tread the deck of a man-of-war.” The foreboding proved true, and not long afterward he quietly passed away. The remains were conveyed to New York, and, after a public funeral, were finally deposited in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Admiral Farragut had a strongly religious nature, believing in the constant guidance of Divine Providence. At the time of his death he was a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is one of the few great heroes of the world whose character has never been clouded by the slightest suspicion of a want of honesty or personal purity. Many entertaining anecdotes are told of him. When we consider the novel and complicated problems that confronted him in naval warfare, and the providential manner in which he seemed to have been schooled for them through a long life when we remember how other commanders merely fought line against line in simple though courageous fashion, while he contended with casemated forts, fire-rafts, fleets, and hidden torpedoes, all at once, and conquered them all, we can hardly refuse to pronounce him the greatest naval commander the world has ever seen.
There is a colossal bronze statue of the admiral in Farragut square, Washington, executed by Vinnie Ream, and paid for by a Congressional appropriation. There is one of heroic size in Madison square, New York, executed by Augustus St. Gaudens, paid for by a subscription raised among the citizens. In the chancel of the Church of the Incarnation, New York, is a mural tablet containing a bas-relief likeness by Lannt Thompson. William Page's original picture of “Farragut's Entry into Mobile Bay” is now in the possession of the emperor of Russia; a replica is still owned by Mr. Page's family. (See illustration on page 417.) The admiral's son, Loyall Farragut, has written his life, which includes his journals and many of his letters (New York, 1879). See also James E. Montgomery's “Cruise of the Franklin” (1869) and “Admiral Farragut,” by Captain Alfred T. Mahan, U. S. N., Great Commanders Series (1892). [Appleton’s 1900 Vol. II. pp. 412-419
FARWELL, Nathan Allen, senator, born in Unity, Maine, 24 February, 1812. He received a public school education, graduating in 1831, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began to practice in Rockland, Maine He was a member of the state senate in 1853, 1854, 1861, and 1862, serving as president in 1861, and of the lower branch of the legislature in 1860, 1863, and 1864. He was a delegate to the Baltimore National Republican Convention in 1864, and in that year was appointed to the U. S. Senate as a Republican for the unexpired term of William Pitt Fessenden. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia " Loyalists' Convention" of 1800. He travelled in Europe from 1845 till 1847. He has been master mariner, trader, and twenty-five years president of Marine Insurance. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 420.
FASNACHT, Charles H., soldier, born in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania, 27 March, 1842. He enlisted in 1861 in the 99th Pennsylvania Regiment, and mustered out of service in July, 1865, as 1st lieutenant. On 12 May, 1864, just after the taking of the salient at Spottsylvania, he captured the flag of the 2d Louisiana Regiment, taking the color-bearer and color-guard prisoners, but was shortly afterward wounded, and fell into the enemy's hands. With over one hundred others he lay on the battle-field several days, waiting to be taken to Richmond, and was finally rescued by National troops. During this time he had the flag concealed in the lining of his blouse. For his gallantry he received the United States medal of honor, a silver medal from the directors of the sanitary fair at Philadelphia, And the bronze " Kearny badge. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 421.
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FAULKNER, Charles James, lawyer, born in Martinsburg, Virginia, in 1806; died in Boydville, West Virginia, 1 November, 1884. He was graduated at Georgetown University, D. C, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. Three years later he became a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, where he introduced a measure for the gradual abolition of slavery in Virginia, declaring that all children born of slave parents after 1 July, 1840, should be free, but the proposition was defeated. Mr. Faulkner after this devoted himself with success to his profession. He served as a commissioner on the disputed boundary-line between Virginia and Maryland. He was elected a state senator in 1841, but resigned in the. following year. In 1848 he was elected to the House of Delegates, and introduced a bill that was passed and sent to Congress, which became the famous Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850. He was a member of the convention for the revision of the state constitution in 1850. The next year he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, and was reelected by the Democratic vote for four successive terms, serving from 1 December, 1851, till 3 March, 1859. When James Buchanan became president in 1857, he offered Mr. Faulkner the mission to France, which he at first declined, but accepted in 1859. Louis Napoleon was encouraged by him to sympathize with the south in the approaching contest, rather than with the nation, and accordingly President Lincoln recalled Mr. Faulkner, who, on his return to the United States, was arrested and confined in Fort Warren as a disloyal citizen. When released in exchange for Alfred Ely, a member of Congress who was imprisoned in Richmond, he joined the Confederate Army, and served on the staff of General "Stonewall " Jackson until the death of that officer. For some years he was debarred the rights of citizenship on account of having borne arms against the government, but in 1872 his political disabilities were removed. He was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of West Virginia in 1872, and in 1874 was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives for the term that expired on 8 March, 1877. He was an unsuccessful candidate subsequently for the U. S. Senate and for the governorship of West Virginia, after which he retired to private life.—His son, Charles James, senator, born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, about 1840, was graduated at the University of Virginia, served as a private in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and after its close studied law, and rose rapidly in the profession. In 1880 he was appointed a circuit judge, to fill an unexpired term, and in 1882 was elected to the same office. On 5 May, 1887, he was elected as a Democrat to the U. S. Senate from West Virginia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp.421-422.
FAUNTLEROY, Thomas Turner, soldier, born in Richmond County, Virginia, 6 October, 1796; died in Leesburg, Virginia, 12 September, 1883. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the war of 1812—'15 when but seventeen years old. He studied law in Winchester, practised in Warrenton, and in 1823 was elected to the legislature. In 1830 he was commissioned a major of dragoons in the regular army, and served in the Seminole War. In September, 1845, he was detached from General Taylor's army to hold in check the Indians on the frontier of Texas. From this duty he was ordered to join General Taylor, and subsequently, in Mexico, he commanded the cavalry of General Scott's army. In 1849 he was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 1st U.S. Dragoons, and commanded the troops on frontier duty in Texas. In 1850 he was promoted colonel. In the winter of 1854-'5 he conducted a campaign against the hostile Indian tribes of the Rocky Mountains, and in 1858 he made another midwinter campaign against the Indians in New Mexico. In May, 1861, He entered the Confederate service. He was commissioned a brigadier-general by the convention of Virginia, and placed in command of Richmond and its defences. But, after the organization of the Confederate government, it refused to confirm his commission, although he ranked all the officers but one that had resigned from the U. S. Army to serve the Confederacy.—His. son, Archibald Magill, physician, born in Warrenton, Virginia, 8 July, 1837; died in Staunton, Virginia. 19 June, 1886, was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1856, and in 1857 entered the U. S. Army as assistant surgeon; but he and his brother, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, resigned at the same time with their father. He became a surgeon in the Confederate Army, and was president of the board for the admission of surgeons, and chief officer on the medical staff of General Joseph E. Johnston, and served with him until the battle of Seven Pines. He was then ordered rebuild and organize the hospitals at Danville, Virginia, and afterward had charge of the military hospital at Staunton, Virginia, until the war ended. He remained and practised at Staunton after the war, and was for several years superintendent of the lunatic asylum at that place. His contributions to medical literature include papers on bromide of potassium, chloral hydrate, the use of chloroform in obstetrical practice, and a "Report upon Advance in Therapeutics," which was printed in the Transactions of the Virginia Medical Society.— Another son, Thomas T., became judge of "the Virginia supreme court of appeals.—Their sister, Mary Thurston, married Surgeon-General Barnes,, of the U. S. Army. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 422.
FAXON, Henry W., journalist, born in Buffalo, New York, about 1830; died in Washington, D. C., 11 September, 1864. He entered the U.S. Navy as an apprentice, but left it after two or three years, and after serving as a telegraph clerk in Troy, New York. and then as clerk in a candle-factory, became an editor of the Buffalo " Republic" in 1855. He was afterward on the staff of the Buffalo " Times," and in 1861 became an army correspondent for New York papers. Among his most noted efforts were the "Silver Lake Snake Story" and the "A. P. L. Parin Papers." The snake story, which was the original of the sea-serpent tales that have since become familiar, was published in the Buffalo "Republic," and professed to be a description of a monster seen in Silver Lake, Wyoming County Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 423.
FEARING, Benjamin Dana, soldier, born in Harmar, Ohio, 10 October, 1837; died there. 9 December, 1881. He was graduated at Marietta in 1856, and entered a Philadelphia publishing house. In April, 1861, he enlisted in the 2d Ohio Regiment, took part with it in the battle of Bull Run, became adjutant of the 36th Ohio In August, and on 17 December was made major of the 77th Ohio, which he commanded at Shiloh. On 26 August, 1862, he was made lieutenant-colonel of the 92d Ohio, which he had assisted in raising, and was promoted to colonel on 22 March, 1863. He defended Hoover's Gap at the head of three regiments, and distinguished himself at Chickamauga, where he was severely wounded. He rejoined his regiment in March, 1864, led it at Resaca, Kenesaw, Atlanta, and Jonesboro, and on 2 December was brevetted brigadier- general of volunteers. He commanded a brigade m Sherman's march to the sea, and was again severely wounded at Bentonville, where he led a charge, of which Anson C. McClurg, in his "Lost Chance of the Confederacy," says, "Upon this movement of General Fearing's brigade, in all probability, turned the fortunes of the day." After the war he engaged in manufacturing in Cincinnati, but illness caused by his wounds forced him to retire in 1869, and finally ended his life. General William T. Sherman spoke of him as "the bravest man that fought on Shiloh's field." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 424.
FEATHERSTON, Winfield Scott, soldier, born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, 8 August, 1821. He was educated at various academies, and in 1836, while at school in Georgia, served for three months as a volunteer against the Creek Indians. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He was afterward elected to Congress as a Democrat, and served in 1847—'51, but was defeated for a third term by the Union candidate. He was a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1852, and was sent by his state to Kentucky in December, 1860, to confer with the authorities on the subject of secession. In May, 1861, he became colonel of the 17th Mississippi Regiment. He served in Virginia in 1861-'2, and on 4 March of the latter year was promoted to brigadier-general for gallantry at Ball's Bluff. He was wounded on the fifth day of the battles around Richmond, and in January, 1863, was transferred to Vicksburg at his own request. He commanded an expedition sent to meet Porter's gun-boats, ascending Deer Creek, joined Johnston in Georgia in May, 1864, and continued with that army till the surrender in 1865, commanding a division much of the time. After the war he returned to the practice of law, and was a member of the Mississippi legislature in 1876-'8 and 1880-'2. In 1881 he became judge of the 2d Judicial Circuit of the state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 424.
FEBIGER, John Carson, naval officer, born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 14 February, 1821, entered the U.S. Navy from Ohio as a midshipman, 14 September, 1838, and was in the "Concord, of the Brazil Squadron, when she was wrecked on the eastern coast of Africa in 1843. He became passed midshipman, 20 May, 1844, and lieutenant, 30 April, 1853. He was on the "Germantown," of the East India Squadron, in 1858-'60, and on the sloop "Savannah " in 1861, and on 11 August, 1862, was commissioned commander, and assigned to the steamer "Kanawha," of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. After commanding various vessels in that and the Mississippi Squadron, he was given the "Mattabeset," of the North Atlantic Squadron, in 1864, and in that steamer took part, on 5 May, 1864, in the fight between the little fleet of wooden vessels, under Captain Melancton Smith, and the Confederate ram "Albemarle," in Albemarle sound, North Carolina. In this engagement the ram was defeated, and her tender, the "Bombshell," captured, and Febiger was commended for his "gallantry and skill" by Captain Smith and Rear-Admiral Samuel P. Lee. He commanded the "Ashuelot," of the Asiatic Squadron, in 1866-'8, and on 6 May of the latter year was promoted to captain. He was inspector of naval reserve lands in 1869-'72, was made commodore, 9 August, 1874, was a member of the board of examiners in 1874-'6, and commandant of the Washington Navy-yard in 1876-'80. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 4 February, 1882, and on 1 July, 1882, was retired on his own application, having been in the service over forty years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 424-425.
FEE, Reverend John Gregg, 1816-1901, American Missionary Association, clergyman, educator, abolitionist. Founder of Berea College, Madison County, Kentucky, in 1855. The lad for Berea College was granted by abolitionist politician Cassius M. Clay. Became active in the abolitionist movement in 1844. Founded two anti-slavery churches. Fee was educated at Lane University. Fee was a religious abolitionist. He wrote Non-Fellowship with Slaveholders the Duty of Christians in 1849. (Filling, 1960, pp. 213, 222, 247, 272; Goodell, 1852, p. 492; Mabee, 1970, pp. 141, 142, 157203, 220, 228, 229, 232, 236, 238, 241, 258, 326, 339, 376; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 166, 380; Sinha, 2016, p. 477; Autobiography of John G. Fee, Berea, Kentucky, 1891; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 310, Vol. 7, p. 786)
FEGAN, James, soldier, born in Athlone, Ireland, in 1827; died in Fort Shaw, Montana, 25 June, 1886. He served in the constabulary in his native country, but came to the United States in early life, and enlisted as a private in the 2d U. S. Infantry, 29 October, 1851. He re-enlisted eight times, entering the service again as soon as his term expired, and was finally retired on 8 May, 1885. He was sent to the soldiers' home in Washington in 1870, but obtained a discharge and returned to active service. Fegan was a well-known character in his regiment, and many stories are told of his shrewdness and humor. He served with credit in the Civil War, and was wounded at Antietam. In March, 1868, at Plum Creek, Kansas, he stood guard single-handed over a deserter he had captured and a powder-train, defended both against a crowd of men who wished to recapture the deserter, and brought his charge safe to camp. For his gallantry he was given the U. S. Medal of Honor. On 6 December, 1882, Fegan was made the subject of a special presidential message to Congress. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 426.
FELTON, Samuel Morse, civil engineer, born in West Newbury, Massachusetts, 17 July, 1809, was graduated at Harvard in 1834, studied civil engineering, became superintendent and engineer of the Fitchburg Railroad in 1843, and left it in 1851 to become the president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore road, where he remained until 1865. Mr. Felton planned and directed the secret passage of Mr. Lincoln from Harrisburg to Washington previous to his inauguration as president in 1861. He received information that a deep-laid plot existed to seize the capital with its archives and records, and then declare the southern conspirators to be the government de facto of the United States. At the same time, all communication between Washington and other places was to be cut off, except a controlled line to the south; and the transportation of troops to defend the capital was to be prevented. He was also informed that, in case his road attempted to carry troops to the defence of Washington, the bridges were to bo burned and the trains attacked by parties disguised as Negroes. In case Mr. Lincoln was found, he was to be put out of the way. Mr. Felton organized and armed a force of trained men, who, while apparently whitewashing the bridges, were in reality a guard that could be summoned instantly, he also established a secret police force. Mr. Felton avoided a special train from Philadelphia to Washington by delaying a regular train for the nominal purpose of forwarding an "important package." When Mr. Lincoln was safely on the train the telegraph wires in all directions between Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Washington were cut, and not united again until eight o'clock on the following morning. After they were joined the first message announced the safe arrival of the "important package." The package was merely a bundle of old reports, carefully sealed and directed, and sent by special messenger, but its arrival meant the arrival of Mr. Lincoln at the capital. Mr. Felton also planned and organized the transportation of troops to Annapolis when communication by way of Baltimore was cut off in April, 1861. He was a commissioner of the Hoosac tunnel in 1862, was chosen president of the Pennsylvania Steel Company in 1865, which office he still holds, and a government commissioner of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads in 1869. He was a member of the Centennial Board of Finance in 1876, and director of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1870-'3, and of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1873-'83. He published "Philadelphia. Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Investigation into the Alleged Misconduct of the Superintendent" (Philadelphia, 1854-'5). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 429.
FENTON, Reuben Eaton, 1819-1885, Carroll Chautauqua County, New York, statesman, lawyer, U.S. Congressman. Voted against extension of slavery in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Elected Governor in 1864. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 430-431; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 326)
FENTON, Reuben Eaton, statesman, born in Carroll, Chautauqua County, New York, 1 July, 1819; died in Jamestown, New York, 25 August, 1885. His early education was obtained at Pleasant Hill and Fredonia Academies, in his native County. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, and began practice in Jamestown, but, finding law uncongenial, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and in a few years acquired a moderate fortune. Meanwhile he took active interest in politics, and in 1843 was elected supervisor of the town of Carroll, which office he held for eight years. In 1852 Mr. Fenton was elected to Congress, and was active in the contest over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, being one of the forty-four northern Democrats that voted against the further extension of slavery. This action resulted in his defeat in 1854, when he was nominated by the Whigs and Democrats against the Know- nothing candidate. The Republicans of his district nominated Mr. Fenton for Congress in 1856, and he was elected by a large majority, serving from 1857 till 1864, when he resigned, having been chosen governor of his state. He heartily supported the cause of the Union in the Civil War, and stood firmly by President Lincoln and his cabinet in their war measures. He was inaugurated governor at the opening of the year 1865, and was reelected by an increased majority. In 1868 he was elected to succeed Edwin D. Morgan as U. S. Senator, and served from 1869 to 1875. The only public trust held by him after leaving the Senate was that of chairman of the U. S. Commission at the International Monetary Conference in Paris in 1878. Mr. Fenton actively promoted the interests of the community in which he lived. He projected the bringing of two new railroads into Jamestown, and was one of the main contributors toward establishing there a Swedish orphanage. He also served a term as president of the village. His last public address was made on the occasion of General Grant's funeral, when a memorial service was held in Walnut Grove, his place of residence. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 430-431
FENTON, William Matthew, lawyer, born in Norwich, Chenango County, New York, 19 December, 1808; died in Flint, Michigan, 13 May, 1871. He was one of the earliest emigrants to Genesee County, Michigan, and, after taking an active part in founding the village that bears his name, he resided there and at Flint, and engaged in the practice of law. In 1848 he was elected lieutenant-governor of Michigan, and re-elected in 1850 and 1851. At the beginning of the Civil War he became a member of the State Military Board, and was one of the principal organizers of the 8th Michigan Regiment, which he commanded and which participated in so many battles in various parts that it became known as the "wandering regiment.” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 431.
FERRERO, Edward, soldier, born in Granada, Spain, 18 January, 1831. His parents were Italian, and he was brought to the United States when an infant. His father's house in New York was frequented by Italian political refugees, and he enjoyed the friendship of Garibaldi, Argenti, Albius, and Avazzana. Before the Civil War the son conducted a dancing-school, and also taught dancing at the U. S. Military Academy. At the beginning of the war he was lieutenant-colonel of the 11th New York Militia Regiment. In 1861 he raised the 51st New York Regiment, called the "Shepard Rifles," and led a brigade in Burnside's expedition to Roanoke Island, where his regiment took the first fortified redoubt captured in the war. He also commanded a brigade at Newbern, and under General Reno, and in 1862 served in Pope's Virginia Campaign. He was in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, and for his bravery in the latter engagement was appointed brigadier-general, 19 September, 1862. He served at Fredericksburg and at Vicksburg, commanded the 2d Brigade of General Sturgis's division, 9th Army Corps, and a division at the siege of Knoxville. He afterward marched the 9th Corps over the mountains, without roads and by compass only, to Cincinnati. Ferrero was in command at the defence of Fort Sanders against the desperate assault of Longstreet, and at the battle of Bean's Station, under General Shackleford, by his timely occupation of Kelley's Ford, frustrated Longstreet's attempt to send a detachment across the Holston, and so paralyze the National forces by striking them in the rear. In Grant's final campaign, including the siege of Petersburg, he commanded the colored division of the 9th corps. He was brevetted major-general, 2 December, 1864, and mustered out in August, 1865. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 441
FERRY, Orris Sanford, senator, born in Bethel Fairfield County, Connecticut, 15 August, 1823; died in Norwalk. Connecticut, 21 November, 1875. He was graduated at Yale in 1844, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1846, and began practice in Norwalk. In 1847 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the first Division of Connecticut militia, and from 1849 till 1856 was judge of probate for the District of Norwalk. He was elected to the state senate in 1855, serving two years, and in 1857-'9 was district attorney for the County of Fairfield. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress in 1856, but was elected two years later, serving in 1859-'61, and being again defeated in 1860. When the Civil War began, he zealously supported the National government, and in July, 1861, became colonel of the 5th Connecticut Regiment, joining General Banks's corps in Maryland. He was promoted to brigadier-general. 17 March, 1862, and was assigned a brigade in Shields's division, from which he was transferred to Peck's division of the 4th Army Corps under General Keyes. He served till the close of the war, resigned his commission. 15 June, 1865, and on 23 May. 1866, was elected U. S. Senator from Connecticut, taking his seat in March, 1867. During the latter part of the reconstruction period he opposed President Johnson, and voted guilty at his impeachment trial. In 1873 Mr. Ferry was re-elected by a coalition of Independent Republicans and Democrats, but he adhered to General Grant's administration and opposed the Liberal Republican candidates at the presidential election of that year. He voted against the civil rights bill on the ground that it would prejudice the cause of public education. While in the lower house of Congress General Ferry served as a member of the committee on Revolutionary Claims, and the Special Committee of Thirty-Three on the Rebellious States. While in the Senate he was a member of the committees on Private Land Claims, Public Buildings, and Patents, and after his re-election in 1872 was chairman of the latter committee. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp.442-443.
FESSENDEN, Francis, soldier, born in Portland, Maine, 18 March, 1839, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1858, and studied law at Harvard and in New York. He was appointed captain in the 19th U. S. Infantry on 14 May, 1861, and was severely wounded at Shiloh. From October, 1862, till July, 1863, he was colonel of the 25th Maine Volunteers, and commanded a brigade in front of Washington and near Centreville, Virginia. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 10 May, 1864, and major-general, 9 November, 1865. In 1864 he was with General Banks in the Red River Expedition, and was present at Sabine Cross-Roads, Pleasant Hill, and Monett's Bluff, where, leading his brigade in an assault, he lost a leg. In November, 1864, he was on duty in Washington, and in 1865 was in command of the 1st Infantry Division, Department of West Virginia, and was afterward assigned to Hancock's 1st Veteran Corps. He was a member of the Wirtz Military Commission in Washington in 1865, and assistant commander of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in 1866. He was retired with the rank of brigadier-general in the regular army, 1 November, 1866. He served as mayor of Portland in 1876, but declined a renomination. [son of William Pitt Fessenden; Appleton’s 1900]
FESSENDEN, James Deering, born in Westbrook, Maine, 28 September, 1833; died in Portland, Maine, 18 November, 1882, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1852, studied law, and practised in Portland. He enlisted a company early in the Civil War, and entered the service as captain of the 2d U. S. sharp-shooters, 2 November, 1861. He served on General David Hunter's staff in the Department of South Carolina in 1862-'3, was present at the attack on Fort Pulaski in 1862, at the operations on the Edisto, and at Dupont's attack on Charleston. He was assigned to the duty of organizing and commanding the First Regiment of Colored Troops in 1862, but the government was not then ready to use colored troops. He was promoted to colonel in 1862, and in September, 1863, reported to General Hooker, and was engaged in the campaign of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and in the Atlanta Campaign in 1864. He was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, 8 August, 1864, ordered to General Sheridan in October, and was with him at Cedar Creek. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted major-general of volunteers, and was on duty in South Carolina. He was appointed register in bankruptcy for the first District of Maine in 1868, and represented Portland in the legislature in 1872-'4. [son of William Pitt Fessenden]; Appleton’s 1900 Vol. II pp. 444-445.
FESSENDEN, Joshua Abbe, born in Rockland, Maine, was appointed 2d lieutenant in the 1st U. S. Cavalry , 24 March, 1862; 2d lieutenant 5th U.S. Artillery , 6 September, 1862; 1st lieutenant, 30 November, 1865; captain, 26 June, 1882; and was wounded at Chickamauga. [son of Samuel Clement Fessenden; Appleton’s 1900]
FESSENDEN, Samuel, 1784-1869, Portland, Maine, lawyer, jurist, soldier, abolitionist. Vice president, 1833-1839, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. Leader, active member of the Liberty Party. Member of the Anti-Slavery Party in Maine. Nominee for Governor of Maine. Early member of the Republican Party. Father of Treasury Secretary William Pitt Fessenden and Congressman Samuel Clement Fessenden. (Dumond, 1961, p. 301; Sinha, 2016, pp. 377, 405, 465-466, 561; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 443; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 346)
FESSENDEN, Samuel, lawyer, born in Fryeburg, Maine, 16 July, 1784; died near Portland, Maine, 13 March, 1869. His father, the Reverend William Fessenden, graduated at Harvard in 1768, was the first minister of Fryeburg, and frequently a member of the Massachusetts legislature. He also served as judge of probate. Samuel received his early education at the Fryeburg Academy, and was graduated at Dartmouth in 1806. He studied law with Judge Dana, of Fryeburg, was admitted to the bar in 1809, and began practice at New Gloucester, where he rose to distinction in his profession. In 1815-'16 he was in the general court of Massachusetts, of which state Maine was then a district, and in 1818-'19 represented his district in the Massachusetts Senate. For fourteen years he was major-general of the 12th Division of Massachusetts Militia, to which office he was elected on leaving the Senate, and to which he gave much attention. He moved to Portland in 1822, and about 1828 declined the presidency of Dartmouth. He was an ardent Federalist, and one of the early members of the anti-slavery Party in Maine. In 1847 he was nominated for governor and for Congress by the Liberty Party, receiving large votes. For forty years he stood at the head of the Bar in Maine. He was an active philanthropist. He published two orations and a treatise on the institution, duties, and importance of juries. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Bowdoin in 1846. Appleton’s 1900 p. 443
FESSENDEN, Samuel, soldier, born in Portland, Maine, 6 January, 1841; died in Centreville, Virginia, 1 September, 1862, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1861. He began to study law, but soon entered the military service as 2d lieutenant in the 2d Maine battery, 30 November, 1861. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant, 3 June, 1862, was aide to General Zebulon B. Tower in July, 1862, and was mortally wounded in the second battle of Bull Run, 31 August [son of William Pitt Fessenden]; Appleton’s 1900
FESSENDEN, Samuel, born in Rockland, Maine, was appointed 2d lieutenant in the 5th Maine battery, 18 January, 1865. He is a lawyer and politician in Stamford, Connecticut [son of Samuel Clement Fessenden]; Appleton’s 1900
FESSENDEN, Samuel Clement, 1815-1881, Maine, lawyer, jurist, U.S. Congressman, Maine 37th, Congress 1861-1863, abolitionist. Father was Samuel Fessenden (1784-1869). (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 443-444)
FESSENDEN, Samuel Clement, lawyer, born in New Gloucester, Maine, 7 March, 1815; died 18 April, 1882, was graduated at Bowdoin, and at Bangor theological seminary in 1837, and was pastor of the 2d Congregational Church in Thomaston (now Rockland) from then till 1856. In that year he established the “Maine Evangelist,” and in 1858 studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice. He was elected judge of the municipal court of Rockland, and was a representative from Maine to the 37th Congress, serving from July, 1861, till March, 1863. Until the rise of the Republican Party he was an abolitionist. In 1865 he was appointed a member of the board of examiners of the U. S. Patent-Office. In 1879 he was U. S. consul at St. John's, N. B. [son of Samuel Fessenden]; Appleton’s 1900
FESSENDEN, Thomas Amory Deblois, lawyer, born in Portland, Maine, 23 January, 1826; died in Lewiston, Maine, 28 September, 1868, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1845. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Mechanics' Falls, Maine, after which he moved to Lewiston. He was a member of the convention that nominated Frémont for president in 1856, in 1858 was appointed aide-de-camp to Governor Morrill, of Maine, and in 1860 was elected to the legislature. In 1861 he was prosecuting attorney for Androscoggin County, and was elected a representative from Maine to the 37th Congress, to fill a vacancy, serving from December, 1862, till March, 1863. He was an able lawyer and eloquent speaker. [son of Samuel Fessenden]; Appleton’s 1900
FESSENDEN, William Pitt, 1806-1869, lawyer, statesman, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Elected to Congress in 1840 as a member of the Whig Party opposing slavery. Moved to repeal rule that excluded anti-slavery petitions before Congress. Strong leader in Congress opposing slavery. Elected to the Senate in 1854. He opposed the Kansas-Nebraska bill as well as the Dred Scott Supreme Court Case. Co-founder of the Republican Party. Prominent leader of the anti-slavery faction of the Republican Party in the U.S. Senate. As U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Father was abolitionist Samuel Fessenden. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 443-444; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 368; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 861; Congressional Globe)
FESSENDEN, William Pitt, senator, born in Boscawen, New Hampshire, 16 October, 1806; died in Portland, Maine, 8 September, 1869, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1823, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1827. He practised law first in Bridgeton, a year in Bangor, and afterward in Portland, Maine He was a member of the legislature of that state in 1832, and its leading debater. He refused nominations to Congress in 1831 and in 1838, and served in the legislature again in 1840, becoming chairman of the house committee to revise the statutes of the state. He was elected to Congress as a Whig in 1840, serving one term, during which time he moved the repeal of the rule that excluded anti-slavery petitions, and spoke upon the loan and bankrupt bills, and the army. He gave his attention wholly to his law business till he was again in the legislature in 1845-'6. He acquired a national reputation as a lawyer and an anti-slavery Whig, and in 1849 prosecuted before the supreme court an appeal from an adverse decision of Judge Story, and gained a reversal by an argument which Daniel Webster pronounced the best he had heard in twenty years. He was again in the legislature in 1853 and 1854, when his strong anti-slavery principles caused his election to the U. S. Senate by the vote of the Whigs and anti-slavery Democrats. Taking his seat in February, 1854, he made, a week afterward, an electric speech against the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which placed him in the front rank of the Senate. He took a leading part in the formation of the Republican Party, and from 1854 till 1860 was one of the ablest opponents of the pro-slavery measures of the Democratic administrations. His speech on the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, in 1856, received the highest praise, and in 1858 his speech on the Lecompton Constitution of Kansas, and his criticisms of the opinion of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case, were considered the ablest discussion of those topics. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1859 without the formality of a nomination. In 1861 he was a member of the Association. By the secession of the southern senators the Republicans acquired control of the Senate, and placed Mr. Fessenden at the head of the finance committee. During the Civil War he was the most conspicuous senator in sustaining the national credit. He opposed the legal-tender act as unnecessary and unjust. As chairman of the finance committee, Mr. Fessenden prepared and carried through the Senate all measures relating to revenue, taxation, and appropriations, and, as declared by Mr. Sumner, was “in the financial field all that our best generals were in arms.” When Secretary Chase resigned in 1864, Mr. Fessenden was called by the unanimous appeal of the nation to the head of the treasury. It was the darkest hour of our national finances. Secretary Chase had just withdrawn a loan from the market for want of acceptable bids; the capacity of the country to lend seemed exhausted. The currency had been enormously inflated, and gold was at 280. Mr. Fessenden refused the office, but at last accepted in obedience to the universal public pressure. When his acceptance became known, gold fell to 225, with no bidders. He declared that no more currency should be issued, and, making an appeal to the people, he prepared and put upon the market the seven-thirty loan, which proved a triumphant success. This loan was in the form of bonds bearing interest at the rate of 7.30 per cent., which were issued in denominations as low as $50, so that people of moderate means could take them. He also framed and recommended the measures, adopted by Congress, which permitted the subsequent consolidation and funding of the government loans into the four and four-and-a-half per cent, bonds. The financial situation becoming favorable, Mr. Fessenden, in accordance with his expressed intention, resigned the secretaryship in 1865 to return to the Senate, to which he had now for the third time been elected. He was again made chairman of the finance committee, and was also appointed chairman of the joint committee on reconstruction, and wrote its celebrated report, pronounced one of the ablest state papers ever submitted to Congress. It vindicated the power of Congress over the rebellious states, showed their relations to the government under the constitution and the law of nations, and recommended the constitutional safeguards made necessary by the rebellion. Mr. Fessenden was now the acknowledged leader in the Senate of the Republicans, when he imperilled his party standing by opposing the impeachment of President Johnson in 1868. He gave his reasons for voting “not guilty” upon the articles, and was subjected to a storm of detraction from his own party such as public men have rarely met. His last service was in 1869, and his last speech was upon the bill to strengthen the public credit. He advocated the payment of the principal of the public debt in gold, and opposed the notion that it might lawfully be paid in depreciated greenbacks. His public character was described as of the highest type of patriotism, courage, integrity, and disinterestedness, while his personal character was beyond reproach. He was noted for his swiftness of retort. He was a member of the Whig National Conventions that nominated Harrison (1840), Taylor (1848), and Scott (1852). For several years he was a regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He received the degree of LL. D. from Bowdoin in 1858, and from Harvard in 1864. [son of Samuel Fessenden]; Appleton’s 1900 Vol. II., pp. 443-444.
FIELD, Cyrus West, merchant, born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 30 November, 1819, received his education in his native village, and at the age of fifteen came to New York, where his brother David Dudley secured a situation for him in the employ of Alexander T. Stewart. When he attained his majority he began the manufacture and sale of paper on his own account, and in the course of a dozen years was at the head of a prosperous business. In 1853 he partially retired, and spent six months travelling in South America. The project of carrying a telegraph line across the Atlantic ocean was suggested to him during a conversation with his brother Matthew, in which aid was solicited for the construction of a telegraph route across Newfoundland. The matter was at once presented to Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Marshall 0. Roberts, and Chandler White, who agreed to contribute $20,000 each, and the enterprise was at once organized, under the title of the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph. Its counsel for the company was his brother, David Dudley, and a committee was immediately sent to Newfoundland to secure from the local legislature the exclusive right for fifty years to establish a telegraph from the continent of America to Newfoundland, and then to England. Mr. Field thenceforth devoted his time largely to the accomplishment of this purpose. He visited England, solicited financial aid, and finally subscribed, in his own name, for a one-fourth interest in the company. Several unsuccessful efforts were made to lay the cable, but finally communication was established in 1858. For a few weeks messages were sent from one continent to the other, and then the cable ceased to act. The Civil War occupied the attention of the country for several years, and it was impossible to proceed further until its termination. Meanwhile, public interest was kept alive by the efforts of Mr. Field. He made repeated visits to England, and delivered addresses on the subject on both sides of the Atlantic. Finally, in 1865, active measures were renewed, and the steamship "Great Eastern" (see illustration) began the delivery of the cable. At midocean, after 1,200 miles had been laid, the cable parted, and the vessel returned to England. In 1866 another expedition started, and on 27 July telegraphic communication was established between the two continents, and has not since been interrupted. Congress voted unanimously to present Mr. Field with a gold medal and the thanks of the nation, while the prime minister of England declared that only the fact that he was a citizen of another country prevented his receiving high honors from the British government, John Bright pronounced him the " Columbus of modern times, who, by his cable, had moored the new world alongside of the old." The Paris exhibition of 1867 gave him the grand medal, the highest prize it had to bestow. In 1869 he attended the opening of the Suez canal as the representative of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He became interested in 1876 in the development of the system of elevated railways in New York City, and has devoted much of his thought and capital to their successful establishment. In 1880 he left New York for a trip around the world, and since his return has obtained concessions from the Sandwich Islands for the laying of a cable between San Francisco and those islands, with a view toward ultimate extension across the Pacific Ocean. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 448-449.
FIELD, David Dudley, lawyer, born in Haddam, Connecticut, 13 February, 1805. was his eldest child, and was graduated at Williams in 1825. He studied law first in Albany with Harmanus Bleecker, but after a few months moved to New York, where he completed his studies. Soon after Mr. Field's admission to the bar, in 1828, he became a junior partner in the law firm of Henry and D. Sedgwick, with which he studied. From then until 1885 he was continuously engaged in the active practice of his profession. Mr. Field has attained special prominence in connection with his labors in the cause of law reform. As early as 1839 he wrote a "Letter on the Reform of the Judiciary System," and afterward addressed a committee of the New York Legislature on the subject. In 1841 he prepared three bills, which were introduced, but the judiciary committee, to whom they were referred, failed to take any action on them. In 1846 he wrote a series of articles on "The Reorganization of the Judiciary," which were widely distributed in pamphlet-form. His influence was felt in the Constitutional Convention of 1846, and their report called for a general code and the "Reform of the Practice." Before the legislature met in January, 1847, he published "What shall be done with the Practice of the Courts Shall it be wholly Reformed? Questions addressed to Lawyers." In September, 1847, he was appointed commissioner on practice and pleadings, and as such took part in the preparation of the code of procedure. The commission reported the first installment to the legislature in February, and it was enacted in April, 1848. The remainder was reported in four sections at different times until January. 1850, when the completed "Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure were submitted to the legislature. Both these codes have been enacted into law. The radical design of the new system of civil procedure was to obliterate the distinction between the forms of action and between legal and equitable suits, so that all the rights of the parties in relation to the subjects of litigation can be determined in one action, instead of dividing them between different suits. This system has been adopted in twenty-four of the states and territories, and is the basis of the legal reform established by the new judicature act in England, and of the practice in several of the English colonies, including India. Eighteen of the states and territories have adopted his code of criminal procedure. For some years following the enactment of these laws he continued to publish numerous pamphlets, including the "Law Reform Tracts." also frequent articles in the journals, and drafted bills that were introduced into the legislature for the purpose of effecting the completion of codification. In 1857 Mr. Field was appointed by the state of New York head of a commission to prepare a political code, a penal code, and a civil code. These, with the two codes of procedure previously made, were designed to supersede the unwritten or common law. They were completed in 1865, and covered the entire province of American law, and presented to the people in compact form the whole law by which they were governed. The state of New York has, as yet, adopted only the penal code, although other states have drawn largely from the civil code in their legislation, and in California and Dakota they have adopted them in full. In 1866 he brought before the British Association for the promotion of social science, at its meeting in Manchester. England, a proposal for a general revision and reform of the law of nations, similar to that which he had before undertaken in regard to the civil and criminal law. He procured the appointment of a committee, consisting of eminent jurists of different countries, charged with preparing and reporting to the association the outlines of an international code, to be first submitted to their careful revision and amendment, and, when made as complete as possible, to be presented to the attention of the different governments, in the hope of receiving at some time their approval and adoption as the recognized law of nations. The distinguished jurists composing this committee resided in different countries, and hence it was difficult for them to act in concert. In consequence. Mr. Field took the whole matter upon himself, and in 1873, after the lapse of seven years, presented to the Social science Congress his "Outlines of an International Code," which attracted the attention of all jurists, and has been translated into French, Italian, and Chinese. It resulted in the formation of an association for the reform and codification of the laws of nations, also having for his object the substitution of arbitration for war in the settlement of disputes between countries. The membership includes jurists, economists, legislators, and politicians, and of this organization Mr. Field was elected first president. An eminent chancellor of England has said that "Mr. Dudley Field, of New York, had done more for the reform of laws than any other man living." Mr. Field has taken much interest in politics. Originally a Democrat, he voted with that party, although he persistently opposed its pro-slavery policy, until the nomination of John C. Fremont, in 1856, whom he supported in the presidential canvass of that year. During the Civil War he was a staunch adherent of the administration, and was active with voice, pen, and purse in aid of his country. For eight weeks in 1876 he filled the unexpired term in Congress of Smith Ely, who had been made mayor of New York City. He now acted with the Democratic Party, and was one of the advocates on that side in the dispute over the presidential election. He has delivered numerous addresses, and has contributed very largely to current literature on political topics. His "Sketches over the Sea" appeared in the " Democratic Review " at the time of his first trip abroad in 1836, and he published "Speeches, Arguments, and Miscellaneous Papers (2 vols., New York, 1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 447-448.
FIELD, Dr. Nathaniel, 1805-1888, Jeffersonville, IN, physician, legislative representative, clergyman, abolitionist. Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1835-1839. Aided fugitive slaves. He inherited slaves from his relatives and immediately emancipated them. He also aided fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 450)
FIELD, Nathaniel, physician, born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, 7 November, 1805; died in Jeffersonville, Clark County, Indiana, 28 August, 1888. His father served. in the Revolutionary War, and emigrated to Kentucky in 1784. Nathaniel was educated in the best schools, and was graduated at Transylvania Medical school, Lexington, Ky. He first settled in northern Alabama, and practised there three years, when he returned to Kentucky. In the autumn of 1829 he moved to Jeffersonville, Ind., where he afterward resided. He was a member of the legislature from 1838 till 1839. In the spring of the latter year he organized the city government of Jeffersonville, under a charter that he drafted and had passed by the legislature. In 1830 he established the first Christian (or Campbellite) Church in that city, and in 1847 the Second Advent Christian Church. He served as pastor of the former for seventeen years, and of the latter for forty years, without compensation, believing it to be wrong to earn a livelihood by preaching, or to “make merchandise of the gospel.” He voted against the entire township, in 1834, on the proposition to expel the free Negroes, and was compelled to face a mob in consequence. He was one of the original abolitionists of the west, and emancipated several valuable slaves that he had inherited. He held a debate, in 1852, with Elder Thomas P. Connelly on the “State of the Dead,” and the arguments were published in book-form. He also published a humorous poem, entitled “Arts of Imposture and Deception Peculiar to American Society” (1858). Dr. Field was the author of a monograph on “Asiatic Cholera,” contributed many essays to medical journals, and prepared in manuscript lectures on “Capital Punishment,” “The Mosaic Record of Creation,” “The Age of the Haman Race,” and “The Chronology of Fossils.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 450.
FIELD, Stephen Johnson, jurist, born in Haddam, Connecticut, 4 November, 1816, was not three years old when his father moved to Stockbridge, and ten years later accompanied his sister, Emilia, who had married a missionary, to Smyrna, for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of oriental languages. On his return he entered Williams, and was graduated in 1837, standing first in his class. Subsequently he came to New York, and began the study of law in the office of his brother, David Dudley. After his admission to the bar he became a partner in the firm. This connection was severed in 1848, and he spent some time in European travel. In November, 1849, he sailed from New York for San Francisco, where he practised his profession. A few weeks later he was among those who founded Marysville, becoming its first alcalde, and continuing as such until the organization of the judiciary under the constitution of the state. He was elected a member of the first legislature held after the admission of California into the Union, served on its judiciary committee, and secured the passage of laws concerning the judiciary, and regulating civil and criminal procedure in all the courts of the state. He was also the author of the law that gives authority to the regulations and customs of miners in the settlement of controversies among them, thus solving a perplexing problem. At the close of the session he returned to Marysville, and during the ensuing six years devoted himself to his profession, gaining an extensive practice. In 1857 he was elected judge of the supreme court of California for six years, beginning with January, 1858, but, on the occurrence of a vacancy, he was appointed to fill it in October, 1857. On the resignation of Chief- Justice David S. Terry, in September, 1859, Judge Field succeeded him, and continued in office till his appointment to the supreme bench of the United States by President Lincoln in 1863. Among the prominent decisions in which he has been concerned was the famous test-oath ease, in which he gave the casting vote, and wrote the opinion of the court annulling the validity of the " iron-clad" oath. His dissenting opinions in the legal-tender cases, in the confiscation cases, and in the New Orleans slaughter- house case, have also attracted attention. Judge Field was a member of the electoral commission in 1877, and voted with the Democratic minority of the commission. In 1880 his name was placed in nomination for the presidency at the Cincinnati Convention, and he received sixty-five votes on the first ballot. He was appointed by the governor of California, in 1873, one of a commission to examine the code of laws of that state, and to prepare amendments to the same for legislative action. He received the degree of LL. D. from Williams in 1864, and in 1869 was appointed professor of law in the University of California. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 448.
FIELD, James Gaven, lawyer, born in Walnut, Culpeper County, Virginia, 24 February, 1826. His ancestors were identical with those of the Fields of New York. He attended for a time a classical school, and became a teacher. In 1848 he went to California, and in 1850 was elected one of the secretaries of the convention that framed the first constitution of that state. In the same year he returned to Virginia, and began the study of law, and in 1852 was admitted to the bar. He served as the attorney for the commonwealth in his native county from 1860 till 1865. During the Civil War he was actively engaged in the Confederate service, and lost a leg at the battle of Slaughter's Mountain. Since the war he has been attorney-general of the state. General Field is a Baptist, being a zealous and liberal promoter of all the enterprises in which that denomination is engaged. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 449
FIELD, Richard Stockton, senator, born in White Hill, Burlington County New Jersey, 31 December, 1803: died in Princeton, New Jersey, 25 May, 1870. He was a grandson of Richard Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was graduated at Princeton in 1821, studied law in the office of his uncle, Richard Stockton, and was admitted to the bar in 1825. He was for several years a member of the New Jersey legislature, and in 1838 was appointed attorney-general of the state, which office he resigned in 1841. He was a prominent member of the convention that, in 1844, met to adopt the present constitution of the state of New Jersey, and in 1851 was chosen to deliver the first animal address before an association composed of its survivors. From 1847 till 1855 he was professor in the New Jersey law-school. Ever taking a strong interest in educational matters, and especially in the common schools of the state, he was in the latter year made president of the board of trustees of the state normal-school, then just organized, and thenceforward until his death he wrote all its annual reports to the legislature. In November, 1863, he was appointed to the U. S. Senate for the unexpired term of John R. Thompson, who died in office. While a member of that body he delivered an able argument on the discharge of state prisoners, in which he maintained that the right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus resided not in Congress, but in the president. On 21 January, 1863, he was appointed by President Lincoln . Southern District judge for the District of New Jersey, which office he held until his death. In 1866 he was a delegate to the, Philadelphia convention, and throughout his life he was an unflinching advocate of the Union cause. After his elevation to the bench he lived in comparative seclusion in his luxurious home at Princeton. Judge Field was a man of varied and profound learning, gentle, courteous, and dignified, and of a charitable disposition. He was closely identified with the interests of his alma mater, which in return conferred upon him, in 1859, the degree of LL. D. Judge Field, at the time of his decease, was president of the New Jersey Historical Society, and for many years a valuable contributor to its publications. "The Provincial Courts of New Jersey," etc., forming the third volume of the " Collections" (1840), is probably his most valuable contribution to historical research. Among his best-known addresses, all of which have been printed, are those " On the Trial of the Reverend William Tennent for Perjury in 1742" (1851): "The Power of Habit" (1855); "The Constitution not a Compact between Sovereign States" (1861); "On the Life and Character of Chief-Justice Hornblower" (1865); and " An Oration on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln" (1866). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 450-451.
FILLEBROWN, Thomas Scott, naval officer, born in the District of Columbia, 13 August, 1834; died in New York City, 26 September, 1884. He was appointed to the U.S. Navy from Maine as a midshipman, 19 October, 1841, was promoted to passed midshipman, 10 August, 1847; became lieutenant, 15 September, 1855: lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862; commander, 25 July, 1866 ; captain, 6 January, 1874; and commodore, 7 May, 1883. He was present in all the operations on the Gulf Coast during the Mexican War, and took part in the North Pacific and Paraguay Expeditions. In 1863 he was placed in command of the steamboat "Chenango," and while proceeding down New York Harbor lost four officers and thirty men through the explosion of a boiler. He also commanded the iron-clad " Passaic," operating against Fort Sumter in May, 1864, the iron-clad "Montauk," in the attack on Battery Pringle, Stono River, South Carolina, in July of the same year, and the steamer "Sonoma," of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in 1864-'5. He was also present at the engagement with Confederate batteries in Tagoda River, South Carolina, in February, 1865. At the close of the war he was assigned to special duty at the Navy Department in Washington, where he remained until just before his last illness. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 452
FILLMORE, Millard, thirteenth president of the United States, born in the township of Locke (now Summerhill). Cayuga County, New York, 7 February. 1800: died in Buffalo. New York, 7 March, 1874. The name of Fillmore is of English origin, and at different periods has been variously written. Including the son of the ex-president, the family can be traced through six generations, and. as has been said of that of Washington, its history gives proof of the lineal and enduring worth of race." The first of the family to appear in the New World was a certain John Fillmore, who, in a conveyance of two acres of land dated 24 November, 1704, is described as a "mariner of Ipswich." Massachusetts. His eldest son, of the same name, born two years before the purchase of the real estate in Beverly, also became a sea-faring man, and while on a voyage in the sloop " Dolphin," of Cape Ann, was captured with all on board by the pirate Captain John Phillips. For nearly nine months Fillmore and his three companions in captivity were compelled to serve on the pirate ship and to submit, during that long period, to many hardships and much cruel treatment. After watching and waiting for an opportunity to obtain their freedom, their hour at length came. While Fillmore sent an axe crashing through the skull of Burrall, the boatswain, the captain and other officers were despatched by his companions, and the ship was Won. They sailed her into Boston Harbor, and the same court which condemned the brigands of the sea presented John Fillmore with the captain's silver-hilted sword and other articles, which are preserved to this day by his descendants. The sword was inherited by his son, Nathaniel, and was made good use of in Doth the French and Revolutionary wars. Lieutenant Fillmore's second son, who also bore the name Nathaniel, and who was the father of the president, went with his voting wife. Phebe Millard, to what at the close of the past, century was the “far west” where he and a younger brother built a log cabin in the wilderness, and there his second son, Millard, was born. Nathaniel Fillmore was one of "God Almighty's gentlemen," whose creed was contained in two words, "do right," and who lived to see his son elevated to a position than which there is none loftier on earth. Of the president's mother, who died in 1831, little is known beyond the fact that, she was a sensible and, in her later years, a sickly woman; with a sunny nature that enabled her to endure uncomplainingly the many hardships of a frontier life, and that her closing days were gladdened by the frequent visits of her second son, who was then in public life, with every prospect of a successful professional and political career.
From a brief manuscript autobiography prepared by "worthy Mr. Fillmore," as Washington Irving described him, we learn that, owing to a defective title, his father lost his property on what was called the "military tract," and moved to another part of the same county, now known as Niles, where he took a perpetual lease of 130 acres, wholly unimproved and covered with heavy timber. It was here that the future president first knew anything of life. Working for nine months on the farm, and attending such primitive schools as then existed in that neighborhood for the other three months of the year, he had an opportunity of forgetting during the summer what he acquired in the winter, for in those days there were no newspapers and magazines to be found in pioneers' cabins, and his father's library consisted of but two books — the Bible and a collection of hymns. He never saw a copy of "Shakespeare" or "Robinson Crusoe," a history of the United States, or even a map of his own country, till he was nineteen years of age! Nathaniel Fillmore's misfortunes in losing his land through a defective title, and again in taking another tract of exceedingly poor soil, gave him a distaste for farming, and made him desirous that his sons should follow other occupations. As his means did not justify him or them in aspiring to any profession, he wished them to learn trades, and accordingly Millard, then a sturdy youth of fourteen, was apprenticed for a few months on trial to the business of carding wool and dressing cloth. During his apprenticeship he was, as the youngest, treated with great injustice, and on one occasion his employer, for some expression of righteous resentment, threatened to chastise him. when the young woodsman, burning with indignation, raised the axe with which he was at work and told him the attempt would cost him his life. Most fortunately for both, the attempt was not made, and at the close of his term he shouldered his knapsack, containing a few clothes and a supply of bread and dried venison, and set out on foot and alone for his father's house, a distance of something more than a hundred miles through the primeval forests. Mr. Fillmore in his autobiography remarks: "I think that this injustice—which was no more than other apprentices have suffered and will suffer—had a marked effect on my character. It made me feel for the weak and unprotected, and to hate the insolent tyrant in ever)station of life."
In 1815 the youth again began the business of carding and cloth-dressing, which was carried on from June to December of each year. The first book that he purchased or owned was a small English dictionary, which he diligently studied while attending the carding machine. In 1819 he conceived the design of becoming a lawyer. Fillmore, who had yet two years of his apprenticeship to serve, agreed with his employer to relinquish his wages for the last year's services, and promised to pay thirty dollars for his time. Making an arrangement with a retired country lawyer, by which he was to receive his board in payment for his services in the office, he began the study of the law, a part of the time teaching school, and so struggling on, overcoming almost insurmountable difficulties, till at length, in the spring of 1823, he was, at the intercession of several leading members of the Buffalo bar, whose confidence he had won, admitted as an attorney by the court of common pleas of Erie County, although he had not completed the course of study usually required. The writer has recently seen the dilapidated one-story building in Buffalo where Mr. Fillmore closed his career as a school-master, and has also conversed with one of his pupils of sixty-five years ago. The wisdom of his youth and early manhood gave presage of all that was witnessed and admired in the maturity of his character. Nature laid on him, in the kindly- phrase of Wordsworth, "the strong hand of her purity," and even then he was remarked for that sweet courtesy of manner which accompanied him through life. Millard Fillmore began practice at Aurora, where his father then resided, and fortunately won his first case and a fee of four dollars. In 1827 he was admitted as an attorney, and two years later as counsellor of the supreme court of the state. In 1830 he moved to Buffalo, and after a brief period formed a partnership with Nathan K. Hall, to which Solomon G. Haven was soon afterward admitted.
By hard study and the closest application, combined with honesty and fidelity, Mr. Fillmore soon became a sound and successful lawyer, attaining a highly honorable position in the profession. The law-firm of Fillmore, Hall & Haven, which continued till 1847, was perhaps the most prominent in western New York, and was usually engaged in every important suit occurring in that portion of the state. In 1853, while still in Washington. Mr. Fillmore made an arrangement with Henry E. Davies to renew, on retiring from the presidency, the practice of his profession in New York in partnership with that gentleman, who, after occupying a judge's seat in the court of appeals, returned to the bar. Family afflictions, however, combined with other causes, induced the ex-president to abandon his purpose. There were doubtless at that time men of more genius and greater eloquence at the bar of the great city: but we cannot doubt that Mr. Fillmore's solid legal learning, and the weight of his personal character, would have won for him the highest professional honors in the new field of action.
Mr. Fillmore's political career began and ended with the birth and extinction of the great Whig Party. In 1828 he was elected by Erie County to the state legislature of New York, serving for three terms, and retiring with a reputation for ability, integrity, and a conscientious performance of his public duties. He distinguished himself by his advocacy of the act to abolish imprisonment for debt, which was passed in 1831. The bill was drafted by Fillmore, excepting the portions relative to proceedings in courts of record, which were drawn by John C. Spenser. In 1832 he was elected to Congress, and, after serving for one term, retired till 1836, when he was re-elected, and again returned in 1838 and 1840, declining a renomination in 1842. In the 27th Congress Mr. Fillmore, as chairman of the committee on ways and means —a committee performing at that period not only the duties now devolving upon it, but those also which belong to the committee on appropriations —had herculean labors to perform. Day after day, for weeks arid months. Fillmore had to encounter many of the ablest debaters of the house, but on all occasions he proved himself equal to the emergency. It should not be forgotten that, in the opinion of John Quincy Adams, there were more men of talent and a larger aggregate of ability in that Congress than he had ever known. Although Mr. Fillmore did not claim to have discovered any original system of revenue, still the tariff of 1842 was a new creation, and he is most justly entitled to the distinction of being its author. It operated successfully, giving immediate life to our languishing industries and national credit. At the same time Mr. Fillmore, with great labor, prepared a digest of the laws authorizing all appropriations reported by him to the house as chairman of the committee on ways and means, so that on the instant he could produce the legal authority for every expenditure which he recommended. Sensible that this was a great safeguard against improper expenditures, he procured the passage of a resolution requiring the departments, when they submitted estimates of expenses, to accompany them with a reference to the laws authorizing them in each and every instance. This has ever since been the practice of the government.
Mr. Fillmore retired from Congress in 1843, and was a candidate for the office of vice-president, supported by his own and several of the western states, in the Whig convention that met at Baltimore in May, 1844. In the following September he was nominated by acclamation for governor, but was defeated by Silas Wright, his illustrious contemporary, Henry Clay, being vanquished at the same time in the presidential contest by James K. Polk. In 1847 Fillmore was elected comptroller of the state of New York, an office which then included many duties now distributed among other departments. In his report of 1 January, 1849, he suggested that a national bank, with the stocks of the United States as the sole basis upon which to issue its currency, might be established and carried on, so as to prove a great convenience to the government, with perfect safety to the people. This idea involves the essential principle of our present system of national banks.
In June, 1848, Millard Fillmore was nominated by the Whig National Convention for vice-president, with General Taylor, who had recently- won military renown in Mexico, as president, and was in the full owing November elected, making, with the late occupant of the office, seven vice-presidents of the United States from New York, a greater number than has been yet furnished by any other state. In February, 1849, Fillmore resigned the comptroller-ship, and on 5 March he was inaugurated as vice-president. In 1826 Calhoun, of South Carolina, then vice-president, established the rule that that officer had no authority to call senators to order. During the heated controversies in the sessions of 1849-'50, occasioned by the application of California for admission into the Union, the vexed question of slavery in the new territories, and that of the rendition of fugitive slaves, in which the most acrimonious language was used, Mr. Fillmore, in a forcible speech to the Senate, announced his determination to maintain order, and that, should occasion require, he should resume the usage of his predecessors upon that point. This announcement met with the unanimous approval of the Senate, which directed the vice-president's remarks to be entered in full on its journal. He presided during the exciting controversy on Clay's "Omnibus Bill" with his usual impartiality, and so perfectly even did he hold the scales that no one knew which policy he approved excepting the president, to whom he privately stated that, should he be required to deposit a casting vote, it would be in favor of Henry Clay's bill. More than seven months of the session had been exhausted in angry controversy, when, on 9 July, 1850, the country was startled by the news of President Taylor's death. He passed away in the second year of his presidency, suddenly and most unexpectedly, of a violent fever, which was brought on by long exposure to the excessive heat of a fourth of July sun, while he was attending the public ceremonies of the day.
It was a critical moment in the history of our country when Millard Fillmore was on Wednesday, 10 July, 1850, made President of the United States. With great propriety he reduced the ceremony of his inauguration to an official act to be marked by solemnity without joy; and so with an absence of the usual heralding of trumpet and shawm, he was unostentatiously sworn into his great office in the hall of representatives, in the presence of both houses. The chief justice of the Circuit court of the District of Columbia—the venerable William Cranch, appointed fifty years before by President John Adams—administered the oath, which being done, the new president bowed and retired, and the ceremony was at an end. Mr. Fillmore was then in the prime of life, possessing that which to the heathen philosopher seemed the greatest of all blessings—a sound mind in a sound body. The accompanying vignette portrait was taken at this time, while the large steel engraving is from a picture made some twenty years later. Of Fillmore's keen appreciation of the responsibility devolving on him we have the evidence of letters written at that time, in which he says he should despair but for his humble reliance on God to help him in the honest, fearless, and faithful discharge of his great duties. President Taylor's cabinet immediately resigned, and a new and exceedingly able one was selected by Mr. Fillmore, with Daniel Webster as Secretary of State; Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treasury; William A. Graham, Secretary of the Navy; Charles M. Conrad, Secretary of War; Alexander II. H. Stuart, Secretary of the Interior; John J. Crittenden, Attorney-General: and Nathan K. Hall, Postmaster-General. Of these, Mr. Webster died, and Messrs. Graham and Hall retired in 1852, and were respectively replaced by Edward Everett, John P. Kennedy, and Samuel D. Hubbard. Stuart, of Virginia, is now the sole survivor of the illustrious men who aided Mr. Fillmore in guiding the ship of state during the most appalling political tempest, save one, which ever visited this fair land. It is not the writer's wish to reawaken party feelings or party prejudice or to recall those great questions of pith and moment which so seriously disturbed Congress and the country in the first days of Fillmore’s administration, but yet, even in so cursory a glance as we are now taking of his career, some comment would seem to be called for in respect to those public acts connected with slavery which appear to have most unreasonably and unjustly lost him the support of a large proportion of his party in the northern states. Whatever the wisdom of Mr. Fillmore's course may have been, it is impossible to doubt his patriotism or his honest belief that he was acting in accordance with his oath to obey the constitution of his country. The president's dream was peace—to preserve without hatred and without war tranquillity throughout the length and breadth of our broad land, and if in indulging this delusive dream he erred, it was surely an error that leaned to virtue's side. There is a legend "that he serves his party best who serves his country best." In Mr. Fillmore's action it is confidently believed that he thought not of party or of personal interests, but only of his bounden duty to his country and her sacred constitution.
One of the president's earliest official acts was to send a military force to New Mexico to protect that territory from invasion by Texas on account of its disputed boundary. Then followed the passage by a large majority of the celebrated compromise measures, including the fugitive-slave law. The president referred to the attorney-general the question of its constitutionality, and that officer in a written opinion decided that it was constitutional. Fillmore and the strong cabinet that he had called around him concurred unanimously in this opinion, and the act was signed, together with the other compromise measures. The Fugitive-Slave Law was exceedingly obnoxious to a large portion of the Whig Party of the north, as well as to the anti-slavery men, and its execution was resisted. Slaves in several instances were rescued from the custody of the United States marshals, and a few citizens of Christiana, in Pennsylvania, were killed. Although it was admitted that Fillmore's administration as a whole was able, useful, and patriotic, although his purity as a public man was above suspicion, and no other act of his administration could be called unpopular, still, by the signing and attempted enforcement of the fugitive-slave law and some of its unfortunate provisions, of which even Mr. Webster did not approve, the president, as has been already stated, lost the friendship and support of a large portion of his party in the north.
Mr. Fillmore’s administration being in a political minority in both houses of Congress, many wise and admirable measures recommended by him failed of adoption; nevertheless we are indebted to him for cheap postage; for the extension of the national capital, the corner-stone of which he laid 4 July, 1851; for the Perry Treaty, opening the ports of Japan, and for various valuable exploring expeditions. When South Carolina in one of her indignant utterances took Mr. Fillmore to task for sending a fleet to Charleston Harbor, and he was officially questioned as to his object and authority, the answer came promptly and to the purpose, " By authority of the constitution of the United States, which has made the president commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and who recognizes no responsibility for his official action to the governor of South Carolina." With stern measures he repressed filibustering, and with equal firmness exacted from other countries respect for our flag. Mr. Fillmore carried out strictly the doctrine of non-intervention in the affairs of foreign nations, and frankly stated his policy to the highly-gifted Kossuth, who won all hearts by his surpassing eloquence. At the same time, however, it was clearly shown how little the administration sympathized with Austria by the celebrated letter addressed to her ambassador, Hulsemann. by Daniel Webster, who died soon after. His successor as Secretary of State was Edward Everett, whose brief term of office was distinguished by his letter declining the proposition for a treaty by which England, France, and the United States were to disclaim then and for the future all intention to obtain possession of Cuba. In his last message, however, the president expressed an opinion against the incorporation of the island with this Union.
Nothing in Mr. Fillmore's presidential career was, during the closing years of his life, regarded by himself with greater satisfaction than the suppressed portion of his last message of 6 December, 1852. It was suppressed by the advice of the cabinet, all of whom concurred in the belief that, if sent in, it would precipitate an armed collision, and he readily acquiesced in their views. It related to the great political problem of the period—the balance of power between the free and the slave states. He fully and clearly appreciated the magnitude of the then approaching crisis, and in the document now under consideration proposed a judicious scheme of rescuing the country from the horrors of a Civil War, which soon after desolated so large a portion of the land. His perfectly practicable plan was one of African colonization, somewhat similar to one seriously entertained by his successor, Mr. Lincoln. Had President Fillmore's scheme been adopted, it is quite possible that it would have been successful, and that our country might have been blessed with peace and prosperity, in lieu of the late war with its loss of half a million of precious lives and a debt of more than double the amount of the estimated cost of his plan of colonization. Mr. Fillmore retired from the presidency, 4 March, 1853, leaving the country at peace with other lands and within her own borders, and in the enjoyment of a high degree of prosperity in all the various departments of industry. In his cabinet there had never been a dissenting voice in regard to any important measure of his administration, and, upon his retiring from office, a letter was addressed to him by all its members, expressing their united appreciation of his ability, his integrity, and his single-hearted and sincere devotion to the public service.
The surviving member of Fillmore's cabinet, who also sat in the 27th Congress with him, in a communication, with which he has favored the writer, says: "Mr. Fillmore was a man of decided opinions, but he was always open to conviction. His aim was truth, and whenever he was convinced by reasoning that his first impressions were wrong, he had the moral courage to surrender them. But, when he had carefully examined a question and had satisfied himself that he was right, no power on earth could induce him to swerve from what he believed to be the line of duty. . . . There were many things about Mr. Fillmore, aside from his public character, which often filled me with surprise. While he enjoyed none of the advantages of early association with cultivated society, he possessed a grace and polish of manner which fitted him for the most refined circles of the metropolis. You saw, too, at a glance, that there was nothing in it which was assumed, but that it was the natural outward expression of inward refinement and dignity of character. I have witnessed, on several occasions, the display by him of attributes apparently of the most opposite character. When assailed in Congress he exhibited a manly self-reliance and a lofty courage which commanded the admiration of every spectator, and yet no one ever manifested deeper sensibility, or more tender sympathy, with a friend in affliction. ... he seemed to have the peculiar faculty of adapting himself to every position in which he was called to serve his country. When he was chairman of the committee of ways and means, members of Congress expressed their sense of his fitness by declaring that he was born to fill it. When he was elected vice president, it was predicted that he would fail as the presiding officer of the Senate, yet he acquitted himself in this new and untried position in such a manner as to command the applause of senators. And when advanced to the highest office of our country, he so fulfilled his duties as to draw forth the commendation of the ablest men of the opposite party. . . . For the last, two years of my official association with Mr. Fillmore," adds Mr. Stuart, "our relations, both personal and political, were of an intimate and confidential character. He knew that I was his steadfast friend, and he reciprocated the feeling. He talked with me freely and without reserve about men and measures, and I take pleasure in saying that in all my intercourse with him I never knew him to utter a sentiment or do an act which, in my judgment, would have been unworthy of Washington.
His gifted "contemporary, Henry Clay, thought highly of Fillmore's moderation and wisdom, said his administration was an able and honorable one, and on his death-bed recommended his nomination for the presidency (by the Baltimore convention of 1852), as being a "statesman of large civil experience, and one in whose career there was nothing inconsistent with the highest purity and patriotism. After leaving Washington for the last time, Webster said to a friend that Fillmore's administration—leaving out of the question his share of its work—was the ablest the country had possessed for many years. The same great statesman, in his speech at the laying of the corner-stone of the capitol extension, said : " President Fillmore, it is your singularly good fortune to perform an act such as that which the earliest of your predecessors performed fifty-eight years ago. You stand where he stood; you lay your hand on the cornerstone he laid. Changed, changed is everything around. The same sun, indeed, shone upon his head which shines upon yours. The same broad river rolled at his feet, and now bathes his last resting-place, which now rolls at yours. But the site of this city was then mainly an open field. Streets and avenues have since been laid out and completed, squares and public grounds enclosed and ornamented, until the city, which bears his name, although comparatively inconsiderable in numbers and wealth, has become quite fit to be the seat of government of a great and united people. Sir, may the consequences of the duty which you perform so auspiciously to-day equal those which flowed from his act. Nor this only: may the principles of your administration and the wisdom of your political conduct be such that the world of the present day and all history hereafter may be at no loss to perceive what example you made your study."
It should be stated as a part of Mr. Fillmore's public record that he was a candidate for nomination as president at the Whig convention of 1852; but although his policy, the Fugitive-Slave Law included, was approved by a vote of 227 against 60, he could not command 20 votes from the free states. Four years later, while at Rome, he received the news of his nomination for the presidency by the American Party. He accepted the nomination, but before the close of the campaign it became evident that the real struggle was between the Republicans and Democrats. Many, with whom Fillmore was the first choice for president, cast their votes for General Fremont or James Buchanan, believing that there was no hope of his election, and, although he received the support of large numbers in all the states, Maryland alone gave him her electoral vote. In the summer of 1864 Colonel Ogle Tayloe, of Washington, wrote to Mr. Fillmore on the subject of the presidential nomination, and his response was: " I can assure you in all sincerity that I have no desire ever to occupy that exalted station again, and more especially at a time like this." Apropos of letters, the writer has had the privilege of perusing a collection of confidential correspondence written by President Fillmore during a score of years while in public life; and, after a most careful examination, has failed to find a single passage that would not stand the light of day, not a word of ignoble office-seeking, no paltry tricks to gain notoriety, no base designs of fattening upon public plunder.
Having thus glanced at the professional and political career of Mr. Fillmore, it now only remains to allude very briefly to his private life from 1853 onward. "The circles of our felicities make short arches." Who shall question the wise axiom of Sir Thomas Browne, the brave old knight of Norwich, a favorite author with the president? Three weeks after the close of his administration he sustained a severe affliction in the loss of his wife, Abigail Powers, the daughter of a clergyman, whom he married 5 February, 1826, and who was emphatically her husband's "right-hand." She had long been a sufferer from ill health and was looking forward most eagerly to a return to her old home, when she was taken away to those temples not made with hands. Irving says that she received her death-warrant while standing by his side on the cold marble terrace of the capitol, listening to the inaugural address of Mr. Fillmore's successor. To this Christian lady the White House is indebted for the books which to-day make the library one of the most attractive rooms in the presidential mansion. In the following year their only daughter, who had grown to womanhood, also passed away, leaving a memory precious to all who had the privilege of her acquaintance. His home now lonely from the loss of those who spread around it sunshine and happiness, induced Mr. Fillmore to carry out a long-cherished project of visiting the Old World, and in May. 1855, he sailed in the steamer “Atlantic." During his visit to England he received numerous and gratifying attentions from the queen and her cabinet ministers, and was proffered the degree of D. C. L. by the University of Oxford, through its chancellor, the late Earl of Derby. This honor he however declined, as did Charles Francis Adams a few years later.
We cannot dwell us we could wish on Mr. Fillmore's patriotic attitude during the early years of the late war; of his warm interest in all the charitable Christian work of the city in which he passed nearly half a century; of his establishing the Buffalo Historical Society; how, as the first citizen of Buffalo, he was called upon to welcome distinguished visitors, including Mr. Lincoln, when on his way to Washington in 1861. and frequently to preside over conventions and other public gatherings, for the control of which he was so admirably qualified by his thorough parliamentary abilities, his widely extended knowledge, his broad views, and a personal urbanity which nothing could disturb; of the method and exactness, the precision and punctuality, with which he conducted his private affairs, as in earlier years he had performed his professional and public duties; of another visit to Europe in 1866, accompanied by his second wife, Caroline C. Mcintosh, who survived him for seven years; of his manner of life in dignified retirement, surrounded by all the comfort and luxuries of a beautiful and well-appointed mansion, including a large library, and with an attached wife to share his happy home (see accompanying illustration). In a letter written to his friend Mr. Corcoran, of Washington, but a few weeks before the inevitable hour came, he remarks: "I am happy to say that my health is perfect. I eat, drink, and sleep as well as ever, and take a deep but silent interest in public affairs, and if Mrs. Fillmore's health can be restored, I should feel that I was in the enjoyment of an earthly paradise." The ex-president accepted an invitation to meet the surviving members of his cabinet and a few other valued friends at the residence of Mr. Corcoran. The month of January, 1874, was designated as the date of the meeting, but was afterward changed to April, by Mr. Fillmore's request. Before that time he was no longer among the living. After a short illness, at ten minutes past eleven o'clock, on Sunday evening, 8 March, Millard Fillmore
"Gave his honors to the world again,
His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace." He was gathered to his fathers at the ripe age of seventy-four years, and passed away without the knowledge that his former partner, Judge Hall, with whom he had been so long and so closely united in the bonds of friendship, as well as in professional and political life, had also, a few days, previous, rested from his labors, and was then lying in the Forest Hill cemetery, where the ex-president now sleeps by his side.
Among the chief magistrates of our country there appear more brilliant names than Fillmore's, yet none who more wisely led on the nation to progress and prosperity, making her name great and preserving peace in most perilous times, without invoking the power of the sword, or one who could more truthfully say, " Those hands are clean." Without being a genius like Webster or Hamilton, he was a safe and sagacious statesman. He possessed a mind so nicely adjusted and well balanced that he was fitted for" the fulfilment of any duty which he was called to perform. He was always ready to give up everything but conviction when once convinced. A single public act honestly and unflinchingly performed cost him his popularity. Posterity, looking from a distance, will perhaps be more just. All his acts, whether daily and common or deliberate and well-considered, were marked with modesty, justice, and sincerity. What Speaker Onslow said of Sir Robert Walpole was equally true of President Fillmore. "He was the best man from the goodness of his heart, to live with and under, of any great man I ever knew." His was an eminently kindly nature, and the last time the writer saw him, in 1873, he was relieving, with a liberal hand, the necessities of an old and unfortunate friend. He was a sound, practical Christian " without knowing it," as Pope remarked of a contemporary. His temper was perfect, and it is doubtful if he left an enemy on earth. Frederick the Great announced with energy that" Peter the First of Russia, to govern his nation, worked upon it like aquafortis upon iron." Fillmore, to win his way, like Lincoln and Garfield, from almost hopeless poverty to one of the most eminent positions of the world, showed equal determination, oftentimes working for weeks and months together, till long past midnight, which happily his powers of physical endurance permitted him to do with impunity, and affording a fine illustration of the proud boast of our country, that its loftiest honors are the legitimate objects of ambition to the humblest in the land, as well as to those favored by the gifts of fortune and high birth. See Chamberlain's "Biography of Millard Fillmore " (Buffalo, 1856); Benton's "Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856," vol. xvi. (New York, 1861); Thompson's "The Presidents and their Administrations " (Indianapolis, 1873); Von Hoist's "Constitutional and Political Hist6ry of the United States," vol. iv. (Chicago, 1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 452-457.
FINLEY, Jesse Johnson, senator, born in Wilson County, Tennessee, 18 November, 1812. He was educated at Lebanon, Tennessee, and in 1836-'7 was captain of a company of mounted volunteers from Tennessee that served in the Seminole War in Florida. On his return he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1838, and in 1840 moved to Mississippi County, Arkansas, where he was elected to the state senate in 1841. The following year he resigned and went to Memphis, Tennessee, where he practised law. He was elected mayor in 1845, and after the expiration of his term of office in 1846 moved to Marianna, Jackson County, Florida. In 1850 he was elected to the state senate, and in 1852 was presidential elector on the Whig ticket. In 1853 he was appointed judge of the Western Circuit of Florida to fill a vacancy, and was subsequently elected to the same office for two terms without opposition. He was appointed judge of the Confederate Court for the District of Florida in 1861, but resigned in March, 1862, and volunteered as a private in the army. He was promoted successively to captain, colonel, and brigadier-general. At the close of the war Judge Finley went to Lake City, Florida, and in 1871 moved to Jacksonville in the same state. He was then elected to Congress as a Conservative Democrat, and served in 1875-'9. In 1880 he was nominated against his wishes and took his seat, but was subsequently unseated by the rival candidate. In March, 1887, he was selected by the governor to supply the vacancy in the United States Senate that had been occasioned by the expiration of the term of Charles W. Jones, until a choice could be made by the legislature. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 460.
FINLEY, Robert Smith, 1804-1860, Cincinnati, Ohio. Member and Secretary of the Cincinnati auxiliary of the American Colonization Society (ACS). Son of ACS founder Robert S. Finley. Traveling agent for the Society. Organized numerous societies in Ohio. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 460; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 140, 144-145, 147, 210, 227, 231-232, 234)
FINNEY, Charles Grandison, Reverend, 1792-1875, Lorain, Ohio, clergyman, advocate of social reforms, author, publisher, president of Oberlin College, Ohio, 1851-1866, abolitionist. Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1841. Vice President, 1840, Ohio State Anti-Slavery Society. American Presbyterian Minister and leader in the “Second Great Awakening” in the United States. Also considered one of the “fathers of modern revivalism,” 1825-1835, in upstate New York and Manhattan. (Dumond, 1961, pp. 154, 158-159, 163; Goodell, 1852, p. 492; Mabee, 1970, pp. 130, 151, 153, 218, 253, 291, 339, 403n25; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 511, 518; Sorin, 1971, pp. 12, 55, 67, 69, 97, 111-112; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 461; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 394; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 290-292; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 7, p. 935; Proceedings of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Convention, 1835)
FINNEY, Charles Grandison, clergyman, born in Warren, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 29 August, 1792; died in Oberlin, Ohio, 16 August, 1875. He moved with his father to Oneida County, New York, in 1794, and when about twenty years old engaged in teaching in New Jersey. He began to study law in Jefferson County, New York, in 1818, but, having been converted in 1821, studied theology, was licensed to preach in the Presbyterian Church in 1824, and began to labor as an evangelist. He met with great success in Utica, Troy, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. On his second visit to the last city, in 1832, the Chatham street theatre was bought and made into a church for him, and the New York "Evangelist" established as an advocate of the revival. His labors here resulted in the establishment of seven "free Presbyterian" churches, and in 1834 he became pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle, which had been built especially for him. Mr. Finney accepted, in 1835, the professorship of theology at Oberlin, which had just been founded by his friends, and retained it until his death. Here he assisted in establishing the "Oberlin Evangelist," and afterward the "Oberlin Quarterly." He also became pastor of the Congregational Church in Oberlin in 1837, but continued at intervals to preach in New York and elsewhere. He spent three years in England as a revivalist, in 1849-'51 and 1858-'60, adding to his reputation for eloquence, and in 1851-'66 was president of Oberlin. Professor Finney relied greatly on doctrinal preaching in his revivals, as opposed to animal excitement, and his sermons were plain, logical, and direct. He was an Abolitionist, an anti-mason, and an advocate of total abstinence. His chief works are "Lectures on Revivals," which have been translated into several foreign languages (Boston, 1835; 13th ed., 1840; enlarged ed., Oberlin, 1868); "Lectures to Professing Christians" (Oberlin, 1830); "Sermons on Important Subjects" (New York, 1839); and "Lectures on Systematic Theology" (2 vols., Oberlin, 1847; London, 1851). After his death were published his "Memoirs," written by himself (New York, 1870). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 461.
FISH, Hamilton, statesman, born in New York City, 3 August, 1808, was graduated at Columbia in 1827, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. He was for several years a commissioner of deeds. In politics he was a Whig, and was the defeated candidate of that party for the state assembly in 1834. In 1842 he was elected a representative in Congress from the Sixth District of New York over John McKeon, the Democratic candidate, and served one term. In 1846 he was a candidate for lieutenant-governor. The Whig candidate for governor, John Young, was elected, but Mr. Fish, who had incurred the hostility of the anti-renters by his warm denunciation of their principles, was defeated. His successful competitor, Addison Gardiner, a Democrat who had received the support of the anti-renters, resigned the office in 1847 on becoming a judge of the court of appeals, and Mr. Fish was elected in his place. In 1848 he was chosen governor by about 30,000 majority, the opposing candidates being John A. Dix and Reuben H. Walworth. In 1851 he was elected U. S. Senator in place of Daniel S. Dickinson. In the Senate he opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and acted with the Republican Party from its formation to the end of his term, though he was not especially prominent in the party. When his senatorial term expired in 1857 he went to Europe with his family, and remained till shortly before the beginning of the Civil War. On his return he took an active part in the campaign that resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln. In January, 1862, in conjunction with Bishop Ames, he was appointed by Secretary of War Stanton a commissioner to visit the U. S. soldiers imprisoned at Richmond and elsewhere," to relieve their necessities and provide for their comfort." The Confederate government declined to admit the commissioners within their lines, but intimated a readiness to negotiate for a general exchange of prisoners. The result was an agreement for an equal exchange, which was carried out substantially to the end of the war. In 1868 he aided in the election of General Grant, was appointed Secretary of State by him in March, 1869, and was reappointed at the beginning of his second term in March, 1873, serving from 11 March, 1869, to 12 March, 1877. He introduced a system of examinations of applicants for consulates, to test their knowledge of subjects connected with their duties. On 9 February, 1871, the president appointed him one of the commissioners on the part of the United States to negotiate the Treaty of Washington, which was signed by him on 8 May of that year. He effected a settlement of the long-standing northwestern boundary dispute, giving the Island of San Juan to the United States, and successfully resisted an effort by Great Britain to change the terms of the extradition treaty by municipal legislation. In the settlement of the Alabama question he procured the acceptance of a doctrine by the Geneva tribunal, securing the United States against claims for indirect damages arising out of Fenian raids, or Cuban filibustering expeditions. In November, 1873, he negotiated with Admiral Polo, Spanish minister at Washington, the settlement of the "Virginius" question. He was for some years president of the New York Historical Society, and was president-general of the New York Society of the Cincinnati. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 463-464.
FISK, Samuel, soldier, born in Shelburne, Massachusetts, 23 July, 1828; died in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 22 May, 1864. He was graduated at Amherst in 1848, was in Andover Theological Seminary from 1850 till 1852, was tutor at Amherst from 1852 till 1855, then travelled a year in Europe and the east, and was pastor of the Congregational Church at Madison, Connecticut, in 1857. He entered the National Army as a private in the 14th Connecticut Regiment in 1862, became captain, was for some time a prisoner in Richmond, distinguished himself in several battles, and fell at the head of his company on the second day of the battle of the Wilderness, 6 May, dying in the hospital. His letters from Europe and the east, first published in the Springfield "Republican” under the pen-name of “Dunn Browne," appeared in a volume in 1857. His Experiences in the Army," under the same assumed name, were published in 1866. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 468.
FITCH, Eleazer Thompson, 1791-1871, New Haven, Connecticut, educator, theologian. Vice president, 1833-1835, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Bruns, 1977, p. 514; Locke, 1901, p. 92; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 470)
FITCH, Eleazar Thompson, educator, born in New Haven, Connecticut, 1 Jan., 1791; died there, 31 Jan., 1871. He was graduated at Yale in 1810, and afterward was a teacher at East Windsor Hill, and subsequently in the New Haven Hopkins grammar-school. In 1812 he entered Andover theological seminary, where, after completing the regular course, he remained, pursuing advanced studies, giving assistance in instruction, and preaching, until his election, in 1817, to succeed President Dwight in the office of professor of divinity at Yale. One branch of his work was to teach theology to graduates, and in this his classes increased so that he was led to urge upon the corporation the founding of a theological department, which was organized in 1822. In this department he filled the chair of homiletics, at the same time being college preacher and pastor, and giving instruction in the academical department in natural theology and the evidences of Christianity. He delivered to successive classes a series of sermons in systematic theology, and some of his doctrinal views thus presented becoming publicly controverted, he was compelled to defend them as publicly. Impaired health compelled him to resign his office as professor, yet he retained his connection with the theological seminary as lecturer until 1861, and with the theological faculty as professor emeritus until his death. At his resignation he became a member of the “Circle of Retired Clergymen and Laymen,” in whose meetings he took an active part. He wrote theological reviews and other articles for periodicals, and a volume of his sermons was published in 1871. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 470.
FITCH, Graham Newell, senator, born in Le Roy, New York, 5 December, 1809. He received a classical education, studied at the Medical College in Fairfield, New York, and settled at Logansport. Indiana, in 1834, where he still (1887) resides. From 1844 till 1847 he was a professor in Rush Medical College, Chicago, and from 1878 till 1883 taught the art and science of surgery in the Indiana Medical College. He was an Indiana presidential elector in 1844, 1848, and 1856, and a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, New York, in 1868. From 1836 till 1839 he was a member of the legislature of Indiana, and held a seat in Congress from 3 December, 1849, till 3 March, 1853. He was subsequently elected United States Senator from Indiana, and served as such from 9 February, 1857, till 3 March, 1861. In the autumn of that year Dr. Fitch raised the 46th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, with other troops, and was commissioned colonel. He remained in the field until November, 1862, when he was compelled to resign on account of injuries received. He commanded the land forces at the capture of Fort Pillow, at Memphis. Tennessee, and also at St. Charles, Arkansas. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 470-471.
FITCH, Leroy, naval officer, born in Indiana in October, 1835; died in Logansport, Indiana, 13 April, 1875. He was graduated at the Naval Academy in 1856, promoted to be master, 5 September, 1859, lieutenant, 21 September, 1862, and commander, 28 August, 1870. He served in the Mississippi Squadron during the Civil War, taking part in the capture of Forts Donelson and Pillow, the reduction of Island No. 10, and the victory over the Confederate fleet at Memphis, Tennessee. On the morning of 19 July, 1863, being then in command of the steamer "Moose," he succeeded in intercepting Morgan, and frustrated his attempts to cross the Ohio at Buffington Island, having followed him for more than live hundred miles up the river. He seized Morgan's train and a portion of his guns, crippling his strength, leading to his capture. For these signal services he received complimentary letters from Generals Burnside, Cox, and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. He also defended Johnsonville, Tennessee, from the attack of General Forrest, was present at the engagement before Nashville during the operations of Hood, and participated in many minor skirmishes with guerillas on the Mississippi, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers. He also accompanied several land expeditions in the same section. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 472
FITZHUGH, Carroll Ann, 1805-1875, abolitionist, women’s rights activist. Active in aiding fugitive slaves in her home, along with her abolitionist husband, Gerrit Smith. Prominent supporter of the abolitionist movement.
FITZHUGH. Edward Henry, judge, born in Caroline County, Virginia, 21 September, 1810. He studied law, practised for many years at Wheeling, West Virginia, moved to Richmond, Virginia, in 1861, and served in an important capacity in the quartermaster's department of the Confederate Army, from 1861 till 1865. He was judge of the chancery court of the City of Richmond from 1870 till 1883, when he returned to the practice of his profession. Judge Fitzhugh has been active in the councils of the Presbyterian Church, and in 1867 was elected a member of the executive committees of "publication and education" of the general assembly. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 474.
FLANAGHAN, James Winright, lawyer, born in Gordonsville, Virginia, 5 September, 1805. In 1814 his parents moved to Kentucky, where he received a limited education, engaged in mercantile pursuits, and was a justice of the peace for twelve years. He was a member of the Circuit court of Breckinridge County from 1833 till 1843, when he moved to Harrison County, Kentucky, and after spending one year settled in Henderson, Husk County, Texas, where he was the first to sell merchandise. He also became interested in cotton-planting. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1851-'2, and of the state senate in 1855-'6. In 1857 he was a presidential elector, and a delegate to the Peace Congress of 1861. He was a member of the state constitutional conventions of 1866 and 1868. In 1869 he was elected to Congress for the state at large, and in that year he also held the office of lieutenant-governor. He was elected to the U. S. Senate as a Republican, serving from 1870 till 1875, and was a member of the committees on mines and mining, and post-offices, and chairman of the committee on education and labor. —His son, Webster, politician, born in Cloverport, Breckenridge County, Kentucky, 9 January, 1832, was admitted to the bar in 1851, and became interested in politics, holding important local offices. At the beginning of the Civil War he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers in the Confederate service. In 1865 he was appointed judge of the 5th Judicial District of Texas. He was elected to the state constitutional convention in 1860, and two years afterward became lieutenant-governor of the state. He was chairman of the delegation to the Republican Convention which met in Philadelphia in 1872, and served as member of the Texas Senate till 1875, when he represented his district in another constitutional convention, thus assisting in the formation and adoption of two state constitutions. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 478.
FLANDERS, Benjamin Franklin, statesman, born in Bristol, New Hampshire, 26 January, 1816. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1842, moved to New Orleans in 1843, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice, at the same time devoting much of his time to teaching in the public schools of the city, of which he was for several years the principal, being finally chosen superintendent in the 3d municipality, an office which he declined. He was part proprietor and one of the editors of the New Orleans "Tropic," a short-lived newspaper. In 1862 he was compelled to leave New Orleans for the north because of his devotion to the Union, but on the capture of that city he returned, and in the same year the Federal military authorities made him treasurer of New Orleans. This office he resigned in a few months, having been elected a representative to Congress, as a Unionist. taking his seat within a fortnight of its final adjournment, in March. 1863. In that year Secretary Chase appointed him supervising special agent of the Treasury Department for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, which place he resigned in 1866. In June, 1867, General Philip H. Sheridan created him military governor of Louisiana, superseding J. Madison Wells, an office which he assumed without inauguration ceremonies, and resigned in six months. By the choice of Governor Warmoth, he was made mayor in May, 1870, and in November following was elected for two years. In 1873 General Grant-appointed him U.S. Assistant Treasurer in New Orleans, and this office he held until 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 478.
FLETCHER, Calvin, 1798-1866, Indianapolis, Indiana, banker, farm owner, state legislator. Member of the Whig, Free Soil and, later, Republican parties. Supported colonization movement in Indiana. During Civil War, he promoted the organization of U.S. Colored Troops in Indiana. (Diary of Calvin Fletcher)
FLETCHER, Ryland, governor of Vermont, born in Cavendish. Vermont, 18 February, 1799; died in Proctorsville, Vermont, 19 December, 1885, studied in the Norwich Military Academy, and became a farmer. He was active as an anti-slavery agitator, was chosen to the state senate, and lieutenant-governor of Vermont from 1854 till 1856. when he was elected governor of the state by the Free-Soil Party, serving until 1858. From 1861 till 1864 he was a representative in the legislature. In 1864 he was a presidential elector on the Republican ticket. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 480.
FLETCHER. Thomas Clement, governor of Missouri, born in Jefferson County. Missouri, 21 January, 1827. He received a common-school education, was clerk of the circuit and county courts from 1849 till 1850, and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He was colonel of the 31st Missouri Regiment in the National Army from 1862 till 1864, when he became colonel of the 47th Missouri, and in that year was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1863 he was captured and taken to Libby Prison. In 1865-'9 he was governor of Missouri, and issued the proclamation abolishing slavery in that state. Governor Fletcher was a delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1860 and 1864. He was the first speaker in the first Republican Convention held in a slave-state, and although his parents were slave-owners, he had been an ardent abolitionist since his boyhood. He has made many political speeches, most of which were published, but they have never been collected in book-form. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 481-482.
FLETCHER, William Baldwin, physician, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, 18 August, 1837. He was educated in the Lancaster Academy in Massachusetts, and, after graduating at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, began to practice in Indianapolis. During the war he served in various capacities as scout and volunteer engineer, and had charge of one department of secret service. In July, 1861, he was captured by the Confederates, and imprisoned for nine months. Subsequently he served on the medical staff in various departments. He was a delegate to the session of the American Medical Association held in Boston in 1865. He represented Marion County in the state senate in 1882-'3, and since 1882 he has been devoted to the investigation of cerebral circulation. In 1883 he was appointed superintendent of Indiana Hospital for the insane, and since that time has published several pamphlets on the management of the insane. Among his contributions to medical journals are: "The Discovery of Various Entozoa found in Pork"; "Human Entozoa"; "Report of Five Cases of Trichiniasis "; and he has published a monograph on the "History of Asiatic Cholera" (Cincinnati, 1863). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 482.
