Encyclopedia of Civil War Biography - Flo-Fur
FLOURNOY, Thomas Stanhope, lawyer, born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, 15 December 1811; died in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, 13 March, 1883. He was educated at Hampden-Sidney College, studied law, and was admitted to practice at Halifax Court House. Virginia. He was distinguished throughout the circuit, which was noted for its brilliant bar, as a speaker of much eloquence, and for his great success as a criminal lawyer. Though a Whig, through his personal popularity he was elected to Congress in 1846 in a largely Democratic District. In 1856 he was nominated by the Whig and Know-Nothing Parties as candidate for governor of Virginia against Henry A. Wise, who was elected. Mr. Flournoy was a member of the convention of Virginia in 1860-'l, and used all his influence to prevent the secession of the state. When it finally declared for the Confederacy, he joined the Army of Northern Virginia as a private, but was appointed colonel, and was in active service throughout the war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 486.
FLOWERS, Samuel Bryce, physician, born in Wayne County. North Carolina, 31 October, 1835. He was educated at Wake Forest College, North Carolina, and was graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1859. In that year he settled in Camden, Arkansas, but returned to North Carolina in 1862, and served as surgeon in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He is a member of the Board of Health of Wayne County, of the Wayne County Medical Society, of the North Carolina Medical Society, of which he was elected vice-president in 1875, and of the Eastern Medical Association, of which he was vice-president in 1877. He has contributed to the "Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Reports," and to the " Virginia Medical Monthly." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 487.
FLOY, James, clergyman, born in New York City, 20 August, 1800; died there, 14 October, 1863. He was educated at Columbia, and then spent three years in Europe studying, especially botany, at the royal gardens at Kew. In 1835 he was received into the New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and for eighteen years was pastor of churches in Middletown, New Haven, Brooklyn, and New York. In 1848 he was placed on the committee to revise the Methodist hymn-book, in 1854 was appointed presiding elder of the New York District of New York East Conference, and in 1850 became editor of the " National Magazine," and corresponding secretary of the American Tract Society. He also edited a denominational paper called " Good News." In 1860 he published his "Guide to the Orchard and Fruit-Garden," and edited the posthumous works of the Reverend Stephen Olin, D. D. In 1861 he returned to his pastorate in New York City, in which he continued till his death. Dr. Floy was one of the ablest and earliest of the anti-slavery clergymen, suffering the unpopularity, and afterward enjoying the success, of the cause. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 487.
FLOYD, John Buchanan, statesman, born in Blacksburg, Virginia, 1 June, 1807; died near Abingdon, Virginia, 20 August, 1803. He was graduated at the College of South Carolina in 1820, moved to Arkansas in 1830, and resided there three years, when he returned to Virginia and practised law in Washington County. He served in the state legislature in 1847-'9 and 1853, and was governor of Virginia in 1850-'3. He was a member of the electoral college in 1856. and a supporter of James Buchanan for the presidency, who appointed him Secretary of War. He held this office from 1857 till the autumn of 1860, when, having declared for secession, he resigned, and returned to his home in Abingdon, Virginia. In the whiter of 1861 he was indicted in Washington, on the charge of having secretly, during the latter portion of his administration of the War Department, prepared the means to aid secession leaders, dispersed the army into remote parts of the country, where the troops could not readily be conveyed to the Atlantic Coast, and transferred from northern to southern arsenals 113,000 muskets; and that he was privy to the abstraction of $870,000 in bonds from the Department of the Interior during the latter part of 1860. Immediately on learning of these charges, Mr. Floyd went to Washington, appeared before the court, gave bail, and demanded trial. In January, 1861, a committee of the House of Representatives made an investigation, and completely exonerated Mr. Floyd from each charge or the indictment. In 1861 he was appointed brigadier-general in the Confederate Army, and was engaged at the battle of Carnifex Ferry, 10 September, 1861. At the battle of Fort Donelson, 16 February, 1862, he reached the field when the engagement had begun, and found the position untenable and the Confederate Army in a cul de sac from which nothing but the hardest fighting could extricate it. He gave orders to that effect, and, after two days' heavy fighting, succeeded in opening a way for the extrication of his troops by a movement to his left. Afterward General Pillow ordered back the main body of the Confederate Army which was under his command to its original position, leaving General Floyd's troops without support on the ground they had gained, whereupon he retreated, with little comparative loss to his own command. Two weeks afterward General Floyd was censured by Mr. Davis for this act, and relieved from command. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 487-488.
FLUSSER, Charles W., naval officer, born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1833; died near Plymouth, North Carolina, 18 April, 1864. He moved to Kentucky when a child, and was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy, 19 July, 1847. His first cruise was made in the " Cumberland." He was promoted to lieutenant, 16 September, 1855, and in 1857 became assistant professor at the U. S. Naval Academy. He was in the brig "Dolphin " in 1859-'60, and during his succeeding leave of absence the Civil War began. He refused the offer of a high command in the Confederate service, applied for active duty, and was assigned to the command of the gun-boat "Commodore Perry," with which vessel no took part in the attack by Commodore Goldsborough that preceded the capture of Roanoke Island on 7 February, 1862. In October he took part in the shelling of Franklin, Virginia, and afterward commanded the "Perry" in the North Carolina waters. He was killed while in command of the gun-boat " Miami" in battle with the iron-clad "Albemarle " in Roanoke River. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 489.
FOLLEN, Charles Theodore, 1796-1840, Cambridge, Massachusetts, educator, professor, writer, clergyman, Unitarian minister, abolitionist. Fired from Harvard University for his anti-slavery oratory. Wrote Lectures on Moral Philosophy, which strongly opposed slavery. Influenced by abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier and abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, he was a founding member of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice President, 1834-1835, 1836-1837, Member Executive Committee, 1837-1838, 1860-1863. Counsellor of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 1859-1960. Wrote anti-slavery Address to the People of the United States, which he delivered to the Society’s first convention in Boston. Supported political and legal equality for women. (Goodell, 1852, pp. 418, 469; Pease, 1965, pp. lxi, 224-233; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 288; Sinha, 2016; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 491-492; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 492; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 301-302; First Annual Report of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, 1832)
FOLLEN, Charles Theodore Christian, educator, born in Romrod, Germany, 4 September, 1796; died in Long Island sound, 13 January, 1840. He was the second son of Christopher Follen, an eminent jurist. He was educated at the preparatory school at Giessen, where he distinguished himself for proficiency in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, and Italian. At the age of seventeen he entered the University of Giessen, and began the study of jurisprudence, but presently, on hearing the news of Napoleon's defeat at Leipsic, he enlisted in a corps of riflemen. A few weeks after enlisting, his military career was cut short by an acute attack of typhus fever, which seemed for a time to have completely destroyed his memory. After his recovery he returned to the university, where he took the degree of doctor of civil law in 1817. In the following year he lectured on the pandects in the University of Jena. Here he was arrested on suspicion of complicity with the fanatical assassin, Sand, in the murder of Kotzebue. The suspicion was entirely groundless. After his acquittal he returned to Giessen, but soon incurred the dislike of the government through his liberal ideas in politics. His brother had already been thrown into jail for heading a petition begging for the introduction of a representative government. Dr. Follen, perceiving that he was himself in danger, left Germany and went to Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Lafayette. In 1820 the French government ordered all foreigners to quit France, and Dr. Follen repaired to Zurich, where he became professor of Latin in the cantonal school of the Grisons. He was soon afterward transferred to the University of Basel, as professor of civil law, and here, in association with the celebrated De Wette, he edited the literary journal of the university, and published an essay on the “Destiny of Man,” and another on “Spinoza's Doctrine of Law and Morals.” In 1824 the governments of Russia, Austria, and Prussia demanded of the Swiss government that Dr. Follen should be surrendered to “justice” for the crime of disseminating revolutionary doctrines, and, finding the Swiss government unable to protect him, he made his escape to America, and, after devoting a year to the study of the English language, was appointed instructor in German at Harvard. He studied divinity with Dr. W. E. Channing, began preaching in 1828, and also served as instructor in ecclesiastical history in the Harvard divinity-school. In 1830 he was appointed professor of German literature at Harvard. There was no regular foundation for such a professorship; it was merely continued from time to time by a special vote of the corporation. About this time Dr. Follen became prominently connected with the anti-slavery movement, which was then extremely unpopular at Harvard, and in 1834 the corporation refused to continue his professorship. Thrown thus upon his own resources, after nearly ten years of faithful and valuable service at the university, Dr. Follen supported himself for a time by teaching and writing, living at Watertown, Milton, and Stockbridge. In 1836 he was formally ordained as a Unitarian minister, and preached occasionally in New York, Washington, and Boston. He continued conspicuous among the zealous advocates of the abolition of slavery. In 1840 he was settled over a parish in East Lexington, Massachusetts, but while on his way from New York to Boston he lost his life in the burning of the steamer “Lexington.” He published a “German Reader” (Boston, 1831; new ed., with additions by G. A. Schmitt, 1858); and “Practical Grammar of the German Language” (Boston, 1831). His complete works, containing lectures on moral philosophy, miscellaneous essays and sermons, and a fragment of a treatise on psychology, and a memoir by his widow, were published after his death (5 vols., Boston, 1842). — His wife, below… Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 491-492.
FOLLEN, Eliza Lee Cabot, 1787-1860, co-founder, leader, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) in 1833, writer, church organizer. American Anti-Slavery Society, Executive Committee member, 1846-1860. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1846-1860. Wrote “Anti-Slavery Hymns and Songs” and “A Letter to Mothers in the States.” (Hansen, 1993; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 288; Sterling, 1991; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 491-492; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 492)
FOLLEN, Eliza Lee Cabot, author, born in Boston, 15 August, 1787; died in Brookline, Massachusetts, 26 January, 1860, was the daughter of Samuel Cabot, of Boston, and married Dr. Follen in 1828. After her husband's death she educated their only son, whom, with other pupils, she fitted for Harvard. She edited the “Child's Friend” in 1843-'50. Mrs. Follen was an intimate friend of William Ellery Channing, and was a zealous opponent of slavery. Besides the memoir of her husband, mentioned above, she published “The Well-Spent Hour” (Boston, 1827); “The Skeptic” (1835); “Poems” (1839); “To Mothers in the Free States” (1855); “Anti-Slavery Hymns and Songs” (1855); “Twilight Stories” (1858); and “Home Dramas” (1859). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 491-492.
FOLSOM, Abby, reformer, born in England about 1792; died in Rochester, New York, in 1867. She came to the United States about 1837, became noted as an advocate of anti-slavery reform, and was well known for her addresses at the meetings of the American Anti-Slavery Society, about 1842-'5. She married a Mr. Folsom, a resident of Massachusetts, and afterward rarely appeared in public. She published a "Letter from a Member of the Boston Bar to an Avaricious Landlord " (Boston, 1851). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 492.
FOLTZ, Jonathan Messersmith, surgeon, born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 25 April, 1810; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 April, 1877. He entered the U. S. Navy as assistant surgeon, 4 April, 1831, and landed with the storming party at Qualah Battoo, Sumatra, being specially commended in Captain Shubrick's official dispatch. He was made surgeon, 8 December, 1838, and was attached to the frigate "Raritan," of the Brazil Squadron, in 1844-'7, and to the "Jamestown," of the same squadron, in 1851-'4. He was fleet-surgeon of the Western Gulf Squadron in 1862-'3, and was with Farragut on the "Hartford" in all his battles during those years. He occupied the same place on the " Franklin" during Farragut's voyage to Europe in 1867-'8, and in 1870-'l was president of the naval medical board. He became medical director on 3 March, 1871, and chief of the bureau of medicine and surgery, with the rank of commodore, on 25 October of that year. He was placed on the retired list, 25 April, 1872. Dr. Foltz published "Endemic Influence of an Evil Government" (New York, 1843). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 493.
FOOT, Samuel Alfred, jurist, born in Watertown, New York, 17 December, 1790; died in Geneva, New York, 11 May, 1878. He was graduated at Union in 1811, studied law in Milton, New York, and with his brother, Ebenezer Foot, of Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1813. He was district attorney for Albany County in 1819—'21, moved to New York City in 1825, and in 1844 to Geneva, New York He was judge of the court of appeals in 1851, and in I856-'7 served two terms in the legislature, where he introduced resolutions condemning the Dred Scott Decision. Judge Foot became a member of the African Colonization Society in 1851, and was president of the American Bible Society in 1843-'7. He warmly espoused the National cause in 1861, and had five sons in the army, three of whom lost their lives. At the time of his death he was probably the oldest practising lawyer in the state. He received the degree of LL. D., from Hobart in 1834, and from Union in 1853. His autobiography was printed privately (2 vols., New York, 1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 495.
FOOT, Solomon, 1802-1866, lawyer, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator. Opposed war with Mexico. Opposed slavery and its extension into new territories. Founding member of the Republican Party. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Congressional Globe; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 495; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 498)
FOOT, Solomon, senator, born in Cornwall, Addison County, Vermont., 19 November, 1802; died in Washington. D. C, 28 March, 1866. He was graduated at Middlebury in 1820, was principal of Castleton, Vermont, seminary in 1826-'8, tutor in Vermont University in 1827,'and in 1828-31 held the chair of natural philosophy in the Vermont Academy of Medicine, Castleton. He was admitted to the bar in the latter year, and began practice in Rutland, where he lived until his death. He was a member of the legislature in 1833, 1830-'8, and 1847, speaker of the house in 1837-'8 and 1847, delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1830, and state attorney for Rutland in 1830-42. He was then elected to Congress as a Whig, and served from 1843 till 1847. He was an unsuccessful candidate for clerk of the house in 1849. He was then chosen U. S. Senator from Vermont, and served from 1851 till his death, becoming a Republican in 1854. He was chairman of important committees, and was president pro tempore of the Senate during a part of the 30th Congress and the whole of the 37th. Senator Foot was prominent in debate, and took an active part in the discussions on the admission of Kansas to the Union in 1858. He was chosen president of the Brunswick and Florida Railroad Company about 1854, and visited England to negotiate the bonds of the company. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 495.
FOOTE, George Anderson, physician, born in Warren County, North Carolina 16 December. 1835. He was graduated at Jefferson Medical College. Philadelphia, in 1850, and was a surgeon in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He was publicly thanked by the general commanding the troops at Plymouth, North Carolina, for his gallantry. He was on the ram "Albemarle" when she was blown up by Lieutenant Cushing, and assisted in capturing Cushing's party. He has been president of the North Carolina Medical Society, and has contributed to periodical literature under the pen-name of "Civis." His publications include a pamphlet on "Higher Education," and an article on " Hypodermic Medication." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 495-496.
FOOTE, Henry Stuart, senator, born in Fauquier County, Virginia, 20 September, 1800; died in Nashville, Tennessee, 20 May, 1880. He was graduated at Washington College, Lexington, Virginia, in 1819, admitted to the bar in 1822, and in 1824 went to Tuscumbia, Alabama, where he edited a Democratic newspaper. He moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1820, and acquired an extensive practice, but was also active in politics, and in 1844 was a presidential elector. He was chosen to the U. S. Senate as a Unionist in 1847, took part in favor of the compromise measures of 1850, and served as chairman of the committee on foreign relations. He resigned his seat in the Senate in the autumn of 1852 to canvass his state as a Union candidate for the governorship, his opponent being Jefferson Davis, who had been persuaded to take, the place of General John A. Quitman on the secession ticket, when it became evident that the latter must be defeated. Foote was elected and served one term, till 1854, when he moved to California, but returned to Mississippi in 1858, and practised law at Vicksburg. He strongly opposed secession in the Southern Convention at Knoxville in May, 1859, and when the question was seriously agitated in Mississippi he moved to Tennessee. But he subsequently was elected to the Confederate Congress, where he was noticeable for his hostility to Jefferson Davis, and finally for his opposition to the continuance of the war. He was in favor of accepting the terms offered by President Lincoln in 1863 and 1864. After the war he resided for a time in Washington, D. C., and supported the administration of General Grant, who made him superintendent of the U. S. Mint at New Orleans. He held this office till shortly before his death, when failing health compelled him to return to his home near Nashville. Governor Foote was an able criminal lawyer, an astute politician, and a popular orator. He had a violent temper, and during his political career fought several duels, two of which were with Sargent S. Prentiss, one with John A. Winston, and one with John F. H. Claiborne. He also had a personal encounter with Thomas H. Benton on the floor of the U. S. Senate. He published "Texas and the Texans" (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1841); "The War of the Rebellion, or Scylla and Charybdis" (New York, 1806); "Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest" (St. Louis, 1876); and " Personal Reminiscences." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 496.
FOOTE, Andrew Hull, naval officer, born in New Haven, Connecticut, 12 September, 1806; died in New York City, 26 June, 1863, was entered as midshipman, 4 December, 1822, on the elder Commodore David Porter's squadron that was sent out in 1823 to break up the piratical nests among the West India Islands. He was promoted lieutenant in 1830. and in 1849 was appointed captain of the brig " Perry," in which he cruised off the African Coast for two years, doing effective service in the suppression of the slave-trade. He was put in command of the sloop-of-war " Plymouth " in 1856, and arrived at Canton, China, on the eve of the hostilities between the Chinese and English. He exerted himself to protect American property, and was fired on by the Barrier forts while thus engaged. He obtained permission from Commodore Armstrong to demand an apology, and when it was refused he attacked the forts, four in number, with the " Portsmouth " and the "Levant." breached the largest, and tarried them by storm. His loss was 40, while that of the enemy was 400. At the beginning of the Civil War he was chosen by the government to command the Western Flotilla. The equipment and organization of this flotilla taxed the energies of Flag-officer Foote to the utmost, and he always spoke of it as his greatest work. In the beginning of February, 1862, in connection with the land forces under Grant, he moved upon Fort Henry on the Tennessee, and upon the 6th, after a hotly contested engagement before the army came up, he carried the fort with his gunboats. His bravery and conduct were conspicuous; and this proved to be his most important achievement in the war. The same impetuosity marked the succeeding action on the 14th, in the combined assault upon Fort Donelson, where for an hour and a half he engaged the fort and contributed greatly to the demoralization of its garrison, but several of the boats having been disabled, the fleet was compelled to withdraw, and Foote himself was wounded. He then aided General Pope on the Mississippi, and, after a series of ineffectual attempts, Island No. 10 was surrendered to him on 7 April. His wound became so serious that he was obliged to give up his western command. On 16 June, 1862, he received a vote of thanks from Congress, and was made a rear-admiral, and on 22 June he was appointed chief of the bureau of equipment and recruiting. On 4 June, 1863, he was chosen to succeed Rear-Admiral Dupont in command of the fleet off Charleston, and while on his way to assume this command he died in New York. He was a man of a high type of Christian character, with most genial and lovable traits, but uncompromisingly firm in his principles, especially in regard to temperance reform in the U.S. Navy, where he was the means of abolishing the spirit-ration. Admiral Smith said of him: "Rear-Admiral Foote's character is well known in the navy. One of the strongest traits was great persistence in anything he undertook. He was a man who could neither be shaken off nor choked off from what he attempted to carry out, He was truly a pious man, severely an honest man, and a philanthropist of the first order. He was one of our foremost navy officers—none before him." The work he did for his country was mainly in being the first to break the Confederate line of defence, and in an hour of great depression, by a well-timed and brilliant— even if minor—action, to raise the hope and prestige of success. In a word, he was a courageous and successful officer, thoroughly devoted to his profession, and uniting the best characteristics of the old and new schools of the U. S. Navy. During a period of four years after 1852. when he remained at home, he wrote "Africa and the American Flag" (1854). His biography has been written by Professor James M. Hoppin (New York, 1874). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 496-497.
FORAKER, Joseph Benson, governor of Ohio, born near Rainsborough, Highland County, Ohio, 5 July, 1846. He worked on a farm in his boyhood, and when sixteen years of age enlisted in the 89th Ohio Regiment, and served in the Army of the Cumberland until the close of the war. He was made sergeant on 26 August, 1862,1st lieutenant, 14 March, 1864, and on 19 March, 1865, was brevetted captain "for efficient services during the campaigns in North Carolina and Georgia," When his regiment was mustered out he was aide-de-camp on General Henry W. Slocum's staff. After the war he spent two years at Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, and then entered Cornell, where he was graduated with the first class in 1869. He was admitted to the bar in the same year, and in 1879-'82 was judge of the Cincinnati Superior Court, resigning the office on account of his health. He was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for the governorship of Ohio in 1883, but was again a candidate for the office in 1885, when he was elected. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 497.
FORBES, Abner, Vermont, general, soldier. Officer, Vermont auxiliary of the American Colonization Society. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-38. (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 76)
FORBES, Edwin, artist, born in New York City in 1839. At eighteen years of age he began the study of art, and devoted himself to animal painting. In 1859 he became a pupil of A. F. Tait. At the beginning of the Civil War he joined the Army of the Potomac, and remained in the south as special artist for Frank Leslie, the publisher, till 1864. His sketches of his experiences during this period were preserved in a series of copper-plate etchings, which were exhibited at the Centennial Exposition of 1876. and awarded a medal. General William T. Sherman bought the first proofs for the United States government, and they are now in the War Department at Washington. "The Reliable Contraband," "Coming through the Lines," and the "Sanctuary," are the most effective of these sketches. Others are, "A Night March," " Returning from Picket Duty," and " The Reveille." His "Lull in the Fight," a scene in the battle of the Wilderness, was exhibited at the National Academy, New York and at the Boston athenaeum (1865). In 1877 he was elected an honorary member of the London Etching Club. His studio is in Brooklyn, and since 1878 he has devoted himself to landscape and cattle pictures. His later works are: "Early Morning in an Orange County Pasture " (1879); "On the Skirmish Line"; "Stormy March "; " Roughing " ; " On the Meadows " (1880); and " Evening in the Sheep Pasture " (1881). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 498.
FORBES, John Murray, 1813-1898, industrial entrepreneur, abolitionist, philanthropist, American railroad magnate. President of the Michigan Central Railroad and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. Opposed the introduction of slavery into Kansas and supplied money and weapons to the cause. Forbes was an elector for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. (Hughes, Sarah Forbes, ed. Life and Recollections of John Murray Forbes. Houghton, Mifflin, 1899. Pearson, Henry. An American Railroad Builder: John Murray Forbes. Houghton, Mifflin, 1911. Pease & Pease, 1972)
FORCE, Manning Ferguson, soldier, born in Washington, D. C., 17 December 1824, was graduated at Harvard in 1845, and at the law-school in 1848. He was appointed major of the 20th Ohio Regiment in 1861, promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and engaged at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. He was then made colonel, was with General Grant in his campaign in southwestern Tennessee and his expedition into northern Mississippi in 1862-'3, took part in the siege of Vicksburg, and on 11 August, 1863, was made brigadier-general of volunteers. He was with Sherman in his Atlanta Campaign and his march to the sea, was brevetted major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865, and commanded a district in Mississippi till he was mustered out of service, 11 January, 1866. He was judge of the court of common pleas of Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1867-77, and judge of the superior court of Cincinnati from that year till 1887. He has published "From Fort Henry to Corinth," being vol. ii. of " Campaigns of the Civil War" (New York, 1881), and several pamphlets, mostly historical, including "Prehistoric Man," "Darwinism and Deity," " The Mound-Builders" (Cincinnati, 1873); "Some Early Notices of Ohio Indians"; "To What Race did "the Mound-Builders belong?" (1879); "Marching across Carolina" (1883); "Personal Recollections of the Vicksburg Campaign" (1885): "Letters of Amerigo Vespucci," an address delivered before the Ohio Historical and philosophical Society (1885); and "Sketch of the Life of Justice John McLean" (Cambridge, 1885). He has edited Walker's "Introduction to American Law" (Boston, 1878),and Harris's "Principles of Criminal Law " (Cincinnati, 1880). Son of historian Peter Force. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 499-500.
FORD, Edward Lloyd, publisher, born in Oswestry, Shropshire. England, 10 March, 1845; died in Morristown, New Jersey, 16 December, 1880. He came to New York in early youth, and studied for a few years under Professor J. H. Patton. He enlisted in the 99th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1861. and within a year was promoted to a lieutenancy, and detailed on General Meade's staff. He was taken, prisoner at Chancellorsville, 2 May, 1863. and sent to Libby prison, Richmond, but was exchanged early in the September following, and returned to his post of duty. In 1863 he was discharged from the volunteer service, promoted to a captaincy on the staff of General Birney, and served in the 10th Army Corps. Broken health forced him to leave the army in December, 1864. In 1867 he became a partner in the newly established publishing-house of J. B. Ford & Company, and, by his business ability and fertility of invention, contributed largely to the success of the "Christian Union." He had a genius for mechanics, and made many improvements in printing, notably in devices for the rapid delivery of sheets from a printing-machine. He invented and patented folding combinations, folding and pasting apparatus, and devices for printing two sheets simultaneously, and for folding and. pasting one within the other. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 500.
FORD, Lewis de Saussure, physician, born in Morristown,, New Jersey, 30 December, 1801; died in Augusta, Georgia. 21 August, 1883, was graduated in medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, in 1822. and in the same year moved to Hamburg, South Carolina He went to Augusta, Georgia, in 1827, and assisted in organizing there the Medical College, of Georgia, in which he afterward held the chairs of chemistry and practice of medicine. He was a surgeon in the Confederate Army from 1861 till the end of the Civil War, and had charge of hospitals in Richmond and elsewhere. He was twice mayor of Augusta. The University of Georgia gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1868. Dr. Ford contributed many valuable essays on paroxysmal fevers to the "Southern Medical and Surgical Journal" in 1836-'45. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 501.
FORD, William Henry, physician, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7 October. 1839. He was graduated at Princeton in 1857, and at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1860, and in 1862 was appointed an acting medical cadet in the U. S. Army. He became assistant surgeon of the 44th Pennsylvania Regiment, in 1863, was soon afterward promoted to surgeon, and served until after the battle of Gettysburg. He studied in Europe in 1865-'8, was an editor of the Philadelphia " Medical Times" in 1870-'l, assistant demonstrator in the Philadelphia School of Anatomy in 1869-71, and compiler of vital statistics for the city in 1872-'5. He was chairman of the Centennial Medical Commission's Committee on sanitary science in 1876, and a member of the Philadelphia Board of Health in 1871-'87, serving as its secretary in 1875-'7 and as its president in 1877-9 and 1886-'7. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 501.
FORNEY, John Weiss, journalist, born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 30 September, 1817; died in Philadelphia, 9 December, 1881. He began life as a shop-boy in a village store, but, being ambitious, gave up the work and at the age of sixteen entered the printing-office of the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, "Journal." In his twentieth year he purchased the Lancaster "Intelligencer," a strongly Democratic journal, and in 1840 he published the paper in whose office he had entered as apprentice seven years before, in connection with Ins previous purchase, under the name of the "Intelligencer and Journal." His journal attained a wide reputation, and in 1845 President Polk appointed him deputy surveyor of the Port of Philadelphia. He then disposed of his paper, bought a half share in the "Pennsylvania," one of the most decided of the Democratic journals in the state, and conducted it editorially until 1851. In that year he was chosen clerk of the House of Representatives and re-elected two years later, serving until 1855. During this term of office he continued to write for the " Pennsylvania," and edited the Washington "Union," the foremost Democratic paper at the capital. While clerk of the House of Representatives it became Mr. Forney's duty to preside during the protracted struggle for the speakership in 1855. which resulted in the election of Nathaniel P. Banks, when, by his tact as presiding officer, he won the applause of all parties. In 1856 he returned to Pennsylvania and was chosen chairman of the Democratic State Committee. In January, 1857, he was the Democratic candidate for U. S. Senator, but was defeated by Simon Cameron. In August, 1857, he began the publication of the " Press" an independent Democratic journal in Philadelphia. Having exhausted his fund in the political campaign, he purchased the type on credit, and the paper was printed for months in the office of the "Sunday Dispatch." The “Press " ardently espoused the opinions of Stephen A. Douglas, and supported Buchanan's administration up to the adoption of the Lecompton Constitution, and the effort to secure the admission of Kansas into the Union under it. Mr. Forney resolutely opposed that measure, and his action caused a disruption of the friendly relations which had previously existed between the president and himself. Few men in the country contributed more than Mr. Forney to strengthen the Republican Party, and to prepare it for the contest of 1860. In December, 1859, he was again elected clerk of the House of Representatives, and soon afterward started in Washington the "Sunday Morning Chronicle," which was afterward, in October, 1862, converted into a daily. He was elected Secretary of the U. S. Senate in 1861, and for six years was one of the most influential supporters of the administration. On the death of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Forney supported Andrew Johnson for a short tune, but afterward became one of the foremost in the struggle which resulted in the president's impeachment. He sold the " Chronicle in 1870, and in March, 1871, became collector of the port of Philadelphia. He held the office but one year, but during that time perfected the system of direct transportation of imports in bond without appraisement and examination at the port of original entry. When the Centennial Exhibition was proposed, he was one of its most active promoters, and went to Europe in its interests in 1875. On his return he sold his interest in the " Press," and in 1879 established " The Progress," a weekly paper, in Philadelphia. In 1880 he supported Winfield S. Hancock for the presidency. He was the author of " Letters from Europe" (Philadelphia, 1869); "What I saw in Texas" (1872); "Anecdotes of Public Men" (2 vols., New York, 1873); "A Centennial Commissioner in Europe" (Philadelphia, 1876); "Forty Years of American Journalism " (1877); and " The New Nobility" (New York, 1882). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 503
FORNEY, William Henry, soldier, born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, 9 November, 1823. He was graduated at the University of Alabama in 1844, and during the war with Mexico served as 1st lieutenant in the 1st Alabama Volunteers. He afterward studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1848, and engaged in practice for twenty-five years. He was elected to the legislature in 1859, entered the Confederate Army as captain in 1861, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general. He surrendered with Lee at Appomattox in 1865, and in 1865-'6 was a state senator. He was chosen to Congress as a Democrat in 1874, and has served by successive re-elections till the present time (1887). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 503-504.
FORREST, French, naval officer, born in Maryland in 1796; died in Georgetown, D. C., 22 December, 1866. He became a midshipman, 9 June, 1811, and fought bravely in the war of 1812, distinguishing himself under Commodore Perry in the battles on Lake Erie, and in the action between the " Hornet" and the "Peacock" on 24 February, 1813. He was advanced to a lieutenancy, 5 March, 1817, made commander, 9 February, 1837, and captain, 30 March, 1844. During the war with Mexico he was adjutant-general of the land and naval forces, and superintended the transportation of troops into the interior of that country. At the beginning of the Civil War, when Virginia seceded, he joined the Confederates, and was given the command of the navy. He took charge at Norfolk Navy-yard, and afterward was appointed to the command of the James River Squadron. He then became acting assistant Secretary of the Navy. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 505.
FORREST, Nathan Bedford, soldier, born in Bedford County, Tennessee, 13 July, 1821; died in Memphis, Tennessee, 29 October, 1877. While vet quite young he moved with his family to Mississippi, where his father soon afterward died, leaving Nathan mainly responsible for the support of the household. In 1842 he moved to Hernando. Mississippi, and established himself as a planter, remaining there till about 1852, when he went to Memphis, Tennessee, and became a real estate broker and dealer in slaves. When the Civil War broke out he had amassed a considerable fortune. In June, 1861, he joined the Tennessee Mounted Rifles, and in July following he raised and equipped, at the request of Governor Harris, a regiment of cavalry, and was made lieutenant-colonel. In October he moved with his men to Fort Donelson, where he remained until the approach of General Grant, and whence he was allowed to escape with his men before the flag of truce was sent. After a raiding excursion, during which he visited Nashville, Huntsville, and Iuka. He took part in the battle of Shiloh. He was assigned to the command of the cavalry at Chattanooga in the following June, participated in the attack on Murfreesboro on 13 July, 1862, and on 21 July was made brigadier-general. In September he was in command at Murfreesboro, and on 31 December was engaged at Parker's Cross-Roads. He fought at Chickamauga on 19 and 20 September, 1863, and in November was transferred to northern Mississippi. In the following month he was made major-general and assigned to the command of Forrest's cavalry department. He was in command of the Confederate forces that attacked Fort Pillow in April, 1864, and, while negotiations for the surrender of the fort were in progress under a flag of truce, moved troops into favorable positions that they could not have gained at any other time. Major Bradford, the commander of the fort, refused to surrender, whereupon the works were taken by assault, and the garrison, consisting mainly of colored troops, were given no quarter. The excuse given by Forrest's men was, that the flag of the fort had not been hauled down in token of surrender. During the operations of Hood and Thomas in Tennessee he proved a great source of annoyance to the National commanders, and in February, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. He was finally routed by General James H. Wilson on 2 April, 1865, and on 9 May he surrendered at Gainesville. After the war he was president of the Selma, Marion, and Memphis Railroad, but resigned in 1874. He was a delegate from Tennessee to the New York Democratic National Convention of 4 July, 1868. Some of General Forrest's official documents are very amusing for their peculiar orthography and phraseology. In his dispatch announcing the fall of Fort Pillow, the original of which is still preserved, he wrote: "We busted the fort at ninerclock and scatered the niggers. The men is still a cillanen in the woods." Accounting for prisoners, he wrote: “Them as was cotch with spoons and brestpins and sich was cilld and the rest of the lot was payrold and told to git." See " Campaigns of N. B. Forrest," by T. Jordan and J. B. Pryor (New York, 1868). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 505-506.
FORSHEY, Caleb Goldsmith, engineer, born in Somerset County, Pa,, 18 July, 1812; died in Carrollton, Louisiana, 25 July, 1881. He was educated at Kenyon College, Ohio, and at the U. S. Military Academy, where he entered in 1833, but was not graduated. He was professor of mathematics and civic engineering at Jefferson College, Mississippi, in 1836-'8, and was from that time engaged for many years in engineering works in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. He was in charge of the U. S. Survey of the Mississippi Delta in 1851-'3, was chief engineer of the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railway in 1853-"5, and designed the bridge across Galveston West Bay. In 1855 he established the Texas Military Institute and conducted it till 1861, when, though opposed to secession, he entered the Confederate service as a lieutenant-colonel of engineers. He was employed on the James River and as chief engineer on the staff of General Magruder, and planned the defences of the Texas frontier and the operations for the recapture of Galveston and the Texas Coast. Since the war he has been engaged in railway construction in Texas, on the improvements at the mouth of the Mississippi, and during 1874-'5 was in the U. S. Engineer Service on the Red River and Galveston Bay. He was the first vice-president and one of the founders of the New Orleans Academy of Sciences, and has contributed largely to the scientific journals of the south and southwest. He assisted in the preparation of " The Physics of the Mississippi River (Washington, 1861) Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 506
FORSYTH, James W., soldier, born in Ohio about 1835. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1856, and assigned to the infantry. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant on 15 March, 1861, was for two months assistant instructor to a brigade of Ohio volunteers, and on 24 October was made captain. He was on General McClellan's staff during the Peninsular and Maryland Campaigns, was brevetted major on 20 September, 1863, for gallantry at Chickamauga, and in 1864-'5 was assistant adjutant-general of volunteers and chief-of-staff to General Sheridan. He took part in the Richmond and Shenandoah Campaigns, and was lantry at Opequan, Fisher's Hill, and Middletown, brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers for gallantry, 19 October, 1864; colonel in the regular army, 1 April, 1865, for services at Five Forks, and brigadier-general on 9 April, for services during the war. He was given the full commission of brigadier-general of volunteers on 19 May, and in 1866-'7 was assistant inspector-general of the Department of the Gulf. He was aide to General Sheridan in 1869- 73, military secretary of the Division of the Missouri in 187&-'8, and was then assigned to frontier duty, taking part in the Bannock Campaign of 1878. In 1886 he became colonel of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. He has published "Report of an Expedition up the Yellowstone River in 1875 " (Washington, 1875). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 507.
FORSYTH, John, editor, born in Georgia in 1813; died in Mobile, Alabama, 2 May, 1879, was for many years one of the foremost Democratic editors of the south. In 1856 he was appointed minister to Mexico, but in 1858 demanded his passports, and withdrew from the legation. In 1861, with Marshall J. Crawford, of Georgia, he represented the Confederate States as commissioner to the National government, but his request for an unofficial interview with Secretary of State Seward was declined. He moved to Mobile after the Civil War and engaged in journalistic work until feeble health compelled him to retire. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 507.
FORT, Greenberry Lafayette, soldier and politician, born in French Grant, Scioto County, Ohio, 11 October, 1825; died in Lacon, Illinois. 13 January, 1883. In May. 1834, his parents left Ohio and settled in Marshall County, Illinois, where he was brought up on a farm and attended school. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Lacon, where he was elected sheriff in 1850, was clerk of the circuit court in 1852, and county judge in 1857-'61. In his first case Abraham Lincoln was the opposing counsel, and David Davis the presiding judge. On the first call for troops in 1861, he volunteered in the National Army, served in the Army of the Tennessee on both field and staff duty through all its campaigns, and was chief quartermaster of the 15th Army Corps on the march from Atlanta to the sea, and until the final surrender of Johnston's army. He was afterward ordered with Sheridan's command to Texas, where he was mustered out as colonel and brevet brigadier-general of volunteers at Galveston in 1866. He was elected to the state senate of Illinois in that year, and was afterward chosen to Congress as a Republican, serving from 1873 till 1879. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 507-508.
FORTEN, Charlotte, see GRIMKÉ, Charlotte Forten “Lottie”
FORTEN, James, Jr., Philadelphia, PA, African American, abolitionist, son of James Forten, Sr. American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1844. (Pease, 1965, pp. 233-240)
FORTEN, James, Sr., 1766-1842, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, businessman, social reformer, free African American community leader, led abolitionist group. Co-founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Organized first African American Masonic Lodge in 1797. Petitioned Congress to pass law to end slavery and the changing of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. Opposed Pennsylvania Senate bill that would restrict Black settlement in the state. Supported temperance and women’s rights movements. American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice President, 1834-1835, Manager, 1835-1840. (Basker, 2005, pp. 296-317; Billington, 1953; Douty, 1968; Dumond, 1961, pp. 170-171, 328, 340; Mabee, 1970, pp. 93, 104, 105, 161, 308; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 34, 105, 290; Winch, 2002; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 305-306; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 536; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 276; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 446)
FORTEN, Margaretta, 1808-1875, free African American, officer, Female Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia, daughter of James Forten. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 416; Winch, 2002; Yellin, 1994, pp. 7, 79, 75, 115-116, 164, 237; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 447)
FORTEN, Robert, free African American, abolitionist, social activist, son of James Forten, father of Charlotte Forten. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 288; Winch, 2002)
FORTEN, Sarah Louisa, free African American, Female Anti-Slavery Society of Philadelphia (Yellin, 1994, pp. 7, 98, 103-104, 114-116, 206)
FOSTER, Abby Kelley, 1810-1887, Worcester, Massachusetts, reformer, orator, abolitionist leader, women’s rights activist, temperance reformer, member Massachusetts and American Anti-Slavery Societies, co-founded abolitionist paper, Anti-Slavery Bugle in Ohio. Activist in the Underground Railroad. (Drake, 1950, p. 158; Sterling, 1991; Dumond, 1961, p. 281; Mabee, 1970, pp. 42, 77, 199, 213, 224, 266, 300, 323, 328, 329, 336; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 162, 169, 290-291, 465; Van Broekhoven, 2002, pp. 42, 49, 63, 73, 149, 189-191, 210-211, 214, 216; Yellin, 1994, pp. 19, 26, 27, 31, 43, 148-149, 154, 170, 173, 175, 176, 223, 231-248, 267-268, 280-281, 286, 288, 289, 292, 294, 296, 332; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 515; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 542; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 308-310; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 289; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 323-324; Sterling, Dorothy. Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelley and the Politics of Antislavery. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1991.)
FOSTER, Abby Kelley, reformer, born in Pelham, Massachusetts, 15 Jan., 1811; died in Worcester, Massachusetts, 14 Jan., 1887. Her parents, who were descendants of Irish Quakers, moved to Worcester while she was an infant. Her education was finished at the Friends' school in Providence, Rhode Island, after which she taught for several years in Worcester and Millbury, and in a Friends' school in Lynn, Massachusetts. She resigned her post about 1837, and began lecturing as an anti-slavery advocate, being the first woman to address mixed audiences in favor of abolition. Though sincere in her convictions and womanly in her delivery, she suffered many indignities in Connecticut during her lectures, While speaking in Pennsylvania, she met Stephen S. Foster, whom she married in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, 21 Dec., 1845. The two continued their public addresses, and on one tour in Ohio Mrs. Foster spoke every day for six weeks. They settled on a farm near Worcester, which was their home up to the time of Mr. Foster's death. About 1850 Mrs. Foster began to be actively interested in the cause of woman suffrage, making many speeches in its advocacy, and that of prohibition. She took an extreme view of these questions, and in argument was pronounced and aggressive. Alike in their belief regarding woman suffrage and their protests against taxation without representation, both Mr. and Mrs. Foster refused to pay taxes on their home estate because the wife was not permitted to vote, and this resolution was followed by the sale of the home for two consecutive years, but it was bought in by friends, and finally redeemed by Mr. Foster. Mrs. Foster's last public work was an effort made to raise funds to defray the expenses of securing the adoption of the 15th amendment in the doubtful states. In June, 1886, she attended an anti-slavery reception in Boston. The day preceding her fatal illness she finished a sketch of her husband for this work. Personally Mrs. Foster was amiable and unassuming, but never lacked the courage to proclaim and defend her advanced opinions. James Russell Lowell pays this tribute to Mrs. Foster:
“A Judith there, turned Quakeress,
Sits Abby in her modest dress.
No nobler gift of heart or brain.
No life more white from spot or stain,
Was e'er on freedom's altar lain
Than hers—the simple Quaker maid.”
Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 515.
FOSTER, Charles, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1844-45
FOSTER, Henry Allen, born 1800, Cazenovia, New York, U.S. Congressman and Senator. Vice-President, American Colonization Society, 1838-41. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 511; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)
FOSTER, Henry Allen, senator, born in Hartford, Connecticut, 7 May, 1800. He moved to Cazenovia, New York, in early life, and, after receiving a common school education, entered the law office of David B. Johnson, and was admitted to the bar in 1822. He was a member of the state senate from 1831 till 1834, and again from 1841 till 1844. He was a representative in Congress from 1837 till 1839, having been elected as a Democrat, and in 1844 was appointed United States Senator in place of Silas Wright, Jr., serving till 1847. From 1863 till 1869 he held the office of judge of the Fifth District of the Supreme Court. He has resided for many years in Rome, New York. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 511.
FOSTER, James P., naval officer, born in Bullitt County, Kentucky, 8 June, 1827; died in Indianapolis, Indiana, 2 June, 1869. He moved with his family, in childhood, to Bloomington, Indiana, and entered the U.S. Navy in 1846. He had reached the rank of lieutenant in 1861, and in July, 1862, was commissioned a lieutenant-commander, and in October of the same year was ordered to the Mississippi Squadron, commanded by Admiral Porter. He was placed in command of the "Neosho," from which he was soon transferred to the iron-clad ram "Chillicothe," and in March, 1863, distinguished himself by the valuable service performed by his vessel during the Yazoo Expedition. Later in the year he was placed in command of the gun-boat "Lafayette," and rendered valuable assistance during the bombardment and siege of Vicksburg. After the war he was ordered to the Naval Academy, and placed in charge of the training-ships. He was then promoted to commander, ordered to the "Osceola," and joined the Brazilian Squadron, where he contracted the disease from which he died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 511.
FOSTER, John Gray, soldier, born in Whitefield, New Hampshire, 27 May, 1823; died in Nashua, N. H, 2 September, 1874. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1846, assigned to the Engineer Corps, and served in the Mexican War under General Scott, being engaged at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and Molino del Rey, where he was severely wounded. He received the brevets of 1st lieutenant and captain for gallantry. He was assistant engineer in Maryland in 1848-'52, and on coast-survey duty in Washington, D. C, in 1852-'4, and after promotion to a 1st lieutenancy acted as assistant professor of engineering at West Point in 1855-'7. At the beginning of the Civil War he was stationed at Charleston, South Carolina, and safely removed the garrison of Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter during the night of 26-27 December, 1860. He was brevetted major for the distinguished part he took in this transfer, and was one of the defenders of the fort during its subsequent bombardment. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 23 October, 1861, commanded a brigade in Burnside's North Carolina Expedition, and received the brevet of lieutenant-colonel for his services at Roanoke Island. While in command of the Department of North Carolina, with the rank of major-general of volunteers, in 1862-'3, he conducted several important expeditions. He had charge of the combined departments of Virginia and North Carolina from July till November, 1863, and afterward of the army and Department of the Ohio, which he relinquished in December, 1864, on account of severe injuries from the fall of his horse. After the termination of his sick leave he commanded the Department of the South, co-operating efficiently with General Sherman, and preparing to assist in the reduction of Charleston under Sherman's orders, when suffering caused by his old wound obliged him to transfer the command to General Quincy A. Gillmore. In 1865 he was brevetted brigadier-general in the regular army for gallant services in the capture of Savannah, Georgia, and major-general for services in the field during the rebellion. He was in command of the Department of Florida in 1865-"6, and on temporary duty in the engineer bureau of Washington in 1867. He afterward served as superintending engineer of various river and harbor improvements. His submarine engineering operations in Boston and Portsmouth Harbors were conducted with great ability and were eminently successful. He contributed articles to periodical literature on engineering topics, and published " Submarine Blasting in Boston Harbor" (New York, 1869). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 511-512.
FOSTER, John Watson, diplomatist, born in Pike County, Indiana, 2 March, 1836. He was graduated at the Indiana State University in 1855, and, after one year at Harvard law-school, was admitted to the bar and began practice in Evansville. He entered the National service in 1861 as major of the 25th Indiana Infantry. After the capture of Fort Donelson he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and subsequently was made colonel of the 65th Indiana Mounted Infantry. Later he was appointed colonel of the 130th Indiana Regiment. During his entire service he was connected with the western armies of Grant and Sherman. He was commander of the advance brigade of cavalry in Burnside's expedition to East Tennessee, and was the first to occupy Knoxville in 1863. After the war he became editor of the Evansville "Daily Journal," and in 1869 was appointed postmaster of that city. He was sent as U. S. minister to Mexico by President Grant in 1873, and reappointed by President Hayes in 1880. In March of that year he was transferred to Russia, and held that mission until November, 1881, when he resigned to attend to private business. On his return to this country, Colonel Foster established himself in practice in international cases in Washington, D. C., acting as counsel for foreign legations before courts of commissions, in arbitrations, etc. President Arthur appointed him minister to Spain, and he served from February, 1883, till March. 1885, when he resigned and returned to the United States, having negotiated an important commercial treaty with the Spanish government. This treaty elicited general discussion and was strongly opposed in the Senate. That body failed to confirm it, and it was afterward withdrawn by President Cleveland for reconsideration. Some weeks later General Foster was instructed to return to Spain to reopen negotiations for a modified treaty. This mission, however, was unsuccessful, and Mr. Foster remained abroad but a few months. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 512.
FOSTER, Lafayette Sabine, 1806-1880, statesman, Connecticut State Representative, Mayor of Norwich, Connecticut, U.S. Senator 1854-1867, Republican Party, opposed to slavery. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 512-513; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 553; Congressional Globe)
FOSTER, Lafayette Sabine, statesman, born in Franklin, Connecticut, 22 November, 1806: died in Norwich, Connecticut, 19 September, 1880. His father, Captain Daniel, was an officer of the Revolution, who was descended on his mother's side from Miles Standish, and served with distinction at the battles of White Plains, Stillwater, and Saratoga. The son earned the means for his education by teaching, was graduated with the first honors at Brown in 1828, studied law, and was admitted to the Bar at Centreville, Maryland, while conducting an academy there in 1830. He returned to Connecticut, completed his legal studies in the office of Calvin Goddard, who had been his first preceptor, was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in November, 1831, and opened an office in Hampton in 1833, but in 1834 settled at Norwich. He took an active interest in politics from the outset of his professional life, was the editor of the Norwich " Republican," a Whig journal, in 1835, and in 1839 and 1840 was elected to the legislature. He was again elected in 1846 and the two succeeding years, and was chosen speaker. In 1851 he received the degree of LL. D. from Brown University. In 1851-'2 he was mayor of Norwich. He was twice defeated as the Whig candidate for governor, and in 1854 was again sent to the assembly, chosen speaker, and elected to the U. S. Senate on 19 May, 1854, by the votes of the Whigs and Free- Soilers. Though opposed by conviction to slavery, he resisted the efforts to form a Free-Soil Party until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He delivered a notable speech in the Senate on 25 June, 1850, against the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and opposed the Lecompton Constitution for Kansas in 1858. He was a member of the Republican Party from its organization in 1856, and in 1860 was again elected to the Senate. In December, 1860, he spoke in approval of the Powell resolution to inquire into the distracted state of the country, though he was one of the few who at that time believed that the southern leaders would force a disruption of the Union, and was in favor of resisting the extension of slavery beyond the limits recognized in the constitution, even at the cost of Civil War. Mr. Foster was intimately connected with the administration, and was often a spokesman of Mr. Lincoln's views. On 11 March, 1861, he moved the expulsion of Senator Lewis T. Wigfall, of Texas. In 1863 he advocated an appropriation for the gradual manumission of slaves in Missouri. In 1864, on the question of the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act, he spoke in favor of preserving the earlier law of 1793, and thereby incurred the reproaches of the radical members of his party. He also opposed the bill granting the voting franchise to colored citizens of the District of Columbia without an educational qualification. He served on the committees on Indian affairs and land claims, and was chairman of the committee on pensions, and during the Civil War of that on foreign relations. In 1865 he was chosen president of the Senate pro tempore. After Andrew Johnson became president, Mr. Foster was acting vice-president of the United States. During the subsequent recess he travelled on the plains as member of a special commission to investigate the condition of the Indians. His senatorial term of office expired in March, 1867, and he was succeeded by Benjamin F. Wade in the office of vice-president. On account of his moderate and conservative course in the Senate his re-election was opposed by a majority of the Republicans in the Connecticut Legislature, and he withdrew his name, though he was urged to stand as an independent candidate, and was assured of the support of the Democrats. He declined the professorship of law at Yale in 1869, but after his retirement from the bench in 1876 delivered a course of lectures on "Parliamentary Law and Methods of Legislation." In 1870 he again represented the town of Norwich in the assembly, and was chosen speaker. He resigned in June of that year in order to take his seat on the bench of the supreme court, having been elected by a nearly unanimous vote of both branches of the legislature. His most noteworthy opinion was that in the case of Kirtland against Hotchkiss, in which he differed from the decision of the majority of the court (afterward confirmed by the U. S. Supreme Court) in holding that railroad bonds could not be taxed by the state of Connecticut when the property mortgaged was situated in Illinois. In 1872 he joined the liberal Republicans and supported Horace Greeley as a candidate for the presidency. In 1874 he was defeated as a Democratic candidate for Congress. He was a judge of the Connecticut superior court from 1870 till 1876, when he was retired, having reached the age of seventy years, and resumed the practice of law. In 1878-'9 he was a commissioner from Connecticut to settle the disputed boundary question with New York, and afterward one of the three commissioners to negotiate with the New York authorities for the purchase of Fisher's Island. He was also a member of the commission appointed in 1878 to devise simpler rules and forms of legal procedure for the state courts. By his will he endowed a professorship of English law at Yale, bequeathed his library to the town of Norwich, and gave his home for the free academy there. See "Memorial Sketch" (printed privately. Boston, 1881). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 512-513.
FOSTER, Robert Sandford, soldier, born in Vernon, Jennings County, Indiana, 27 January, 1834. He was educated at the Vernon Common-school. During the Civil War he fought with Indiana troops, and was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 12 June, 1863. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865, resigning on 25 September, and being appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 27th regular infantry, but declined. Since the war he has resided in Indianapolis, was its treasurer from 1867 till 1872. He was U. S. Marshal for the District of Indiana from 1881 till 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 514.
FOSTER, Stephen Collins, song-composer, born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 4 July, 1826; died in New York City, 13 January, 1864. At the age of thirteen he was sent to school in Towanda, Pennsylvania, and afterward to Athens, Pennsylvania At fifteen he entered Jefferson College at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, but soon returned to his native place to pursue his favorite studies with private tutors. Possessing a natural fondness for music, he learned, unaided, to play on the flageolet, and thrummed the guitar and banjo as an accompanimentto ditties of his own composition. But he soon realized the limitations of musical self-instruction, and thereafter devoted several years of study to the voice and to piano-forte music. In 1842, when he was a merchant's clerk in Cincinnati, Ohio, his first song, " Open thy Lattice, Love," appeared in Baltimore, Maryland Two others, " Uncle Ned " and "O Susannah !" were immediately taken up by travelling Negro minstrels, and became universally popular. This success fixed Poster's destiny; he relinquished his career in business and devoted himself entirely to musical composition. In 1850 Foster married and moved to New York City, but the couple soon tired of their new home and returned to Pittsburg. About this time he composed his "Old Folks at Home." For the privilege of singing it in public, Christy's minstrels paid him $500. In 1861 appeared "Old Black Joe," the last of his Negro melodies; thereafter he confined himself to the composition of sentimental ballads. In 1860 Foster, with his wife and child, returned to New York City, where the family remained until he died. He wrote in succession about 125 pieces, one fourth of which were Negro ditties, and the others home ballads. So popular did many become, both here and abroad, that they were introduced at concerts by the most eminent vocalists, and rendered into foreign languages. Of "O Susannah!" "Nelly was a Lady, Uncle Ned," "Nelly Bly," "Old Dog Tray," "Old Kentucky Home,'" Willie, we have missed You," and "Old Folks at Home," hundreds of thousands of copies were printed. The last named was by far the most profitable piece ever published in this country. Foster wrote both the words and music of all his pieces. His method of composition was to jot down the melody as it came to him, and thereafter invent suitable words. He adhered to simple chords for accompaniments, and kept the airs within the range of ordinary voices. The subjects appeal to home life and popular taste, and the versification is smooth and musical. His Negro ditties are characterized by archness, humor, and unusual refinement. In some of his compositions, notably so in the beautiful serenade " Come where my Love lies Dreaming," Foster rises to a higher plane than that of a writer of ditties, and commands the admiration of scientific musicians. He was a man of culture, familiar with the French and German languages, and a respectable artist in water-colors. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 514.
FOSTER, Stephen Symonds, 1809-1881, divinity student, radical abolitionist, women’s rights activist. Founded New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society. Manager, 1843-1845, American Anti-Slavery Society. Husband of abolitionist and women’s rights activist Abby Kelly Foster. Their home was a station on the Underground Railroad. Wrote The Brotherhood of Thieves; Or a True Picture of the American Church and Clergy, in 1843, an anti-slavery book. (Drake, 1950, pp. 158, 176-177; Mabee, 1970, pp. 223, 250, 251, 262, 266, 270, 272, 279, 297, 323, 324, 327, 329, 378, 394n24, 419n8; Pease, 1965, pp. 134-142, 474-479; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 169, 290; Stevens, 1843; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 514-515; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 558; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 307)
FOSTER, Stephen Symonds, abolitionist, born in Canterbury, New Hampshire, 17 November, 1809; died near Worcester, Massachusetts, 8 September, 1881. He learned the carpenter's trade, then studied with the intention of becoming a minister, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1838, and studied theology in the Union theological seminary, New York; but, because he was precluded from advocating abolition in the pulpit, he deserted that profession in order to engage in the anti-slavery contest. He was an earnest orator, a master of denunciation and invective, and was frequently the victim of mob violence. He is described in one of Lowell's anti-slavery poems as "A kind of maddened John the Baptist, To whom the harshest word comes aptest, Who, struck by stone or brick ill starred, Hurls back an epithet as hard. Which, deadlier than stone or brick, Has a propensity to stick." While in the theological seminary he induced some of his classmates to join with him in a meeting to protest against the warlike preparations then going on, arising from the dispute with Great Britain over the northeastern boundary. The refusal of the faculty to allow the chapel to be used for such a meeting made him dissatisfied with the churches because they countenanced war, and when he became an anti-slavery agitator of the moral-force school, instead of a Congregational minister, he directed his attacks chiefly against the church and the clergy, because they upheld slavery. Since the people of the New England towns could not be induced to attend anti-slavery lectures, he was accustomed to attend church meetings and claim there a hearing for the enslaved, and was often expelled by force, and several times imprisoned for disturbing public worship. Other abolitionists adopted the same plan of agitation, which was very effective. He lived for many years on a farm in the suburbs of Worcester. He published articles in periodicals on the slavery question, and in 1843 a pamphlet entitled "The Brotherhood of Thieves, a True Picture of the American Church and Clergy," in the form of a letter to Nathaniel Barney. a reprint of which was issued by Parker Pillsbury (Concord, 1886).—His wife, Abby Kelley see above. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 514-515.
FOSTER, Theodore, Michigan, Methodist clergyman, abolitionist. Co-editor and publisher of the Signal of Liberty with Guy Beckley, the newspaper of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, representing the Liberty Party. (Dumond, 1961, p. 187; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)
FOWLER, Joseph Smith, senator, born in Steubenville, Ohio, 31 August, 1822. He was graduated at Franklin College, Ohio, in 1843, and for four years filled the chair of mathematics in that institution. He then studied law in Kentucky, but began practice in Tennessee. When the Civil War began, he ardently espoused the national cause, and in September, 1861. in consequence of a proclamation of Jefferson Davis for the expulsion of loyal people, he moved to Springfield, Illinois. In April, 1862, he returned to Tennessee, was made comptroller of the state under Governor Andrew Johnson, and took a leading part in reorganizing the state government in the interests of the Union. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1865, but was not admitted to his seat until July, 1866. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 517
FOWLER, Orin, 1791-1852, Lebanon, Connecticut, clergyman. Free-Soil U.S. Congressman, temperance activist, strong opponent of slavery. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 517; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 2, p. 565)
FOWLER, Orin, clergyman, born in Lebanon, Connecticut, 29 July, 1791; died in Washington, D. C., 3 Sept., 1852. He was graduated at Yale in 1815, studied theology under President Dwight, taught in the academy in Fairfield, Connecticut, for a year, was licensed to preach on 14 October, 1817, made a missionary tour in the Mississippi valley in 1818, and in 1819 was settled over a Congregational Church in Plainfield, Connecticut. He was dismissed by this society in 1831, but was immediately called to a church in Fall River, of which he remained pastor until he entered Congress. In 1841 he delivered three discourses containing a history of Fall River since 1620, and an account of the boundary dispute between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was appointed by a committee of citizens to defend the interests of the town before the boundary commissioners, published a series of articles on the subject in the Boston “Atlas,” and was elected in 1847 to the state senate, where he secured the rejection of the decision of the boundary commission by a unanimous vote. His constituents were so pleased with his ability as a legislator that they elected him in 1848 as a Free-Soil Whig to the National House of Representatives, and re-elected him for the following term. He was an advocate of temperance laws, and a strong opponent of slavery. In March, 1850, he replied to Daniel Webster's speech in justification of the Fugitive-Slave Law. He was the author of a “Disquisition on the Evils attending the Use of Tobacco” (1833), and “Lectures on the Mode and Subjects of Baptism” (1835). His “History of Fall River, with notices of Freeborn and Tiverton,” was republished in 1862 (Fall River). Appletons’ Cycolpædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 517.
FOX, Gustavus Vasa, naval officer, born in Saugus, Massachusetts, 13 June, 1821; died in New York City, 29 October, 1883. He was appointed midshipman in the U. S. Navy, 12 January, 1838, and served on various stations, on the coast survey, in command of mail stations, and in the war with Mexico until 10 July, 1850, when, after a service of nineteen years, he resigned with the rank of lieutenant, his commission being dated the day previous to his resignation. After leaving the navy he accepted the position of agent of the Bay State Woollen Mills at Lawrence, Massachusetts. In February, 1861, he was sent for by General Scott, and consulted in reference to sending supplies and troops to Fort Sumter, but the expedition was forbidden by President Buchanan. When Mr. Lincoln became president, Fox was sent to Fort Sumter to communicate with Major Anderson, and on his return was directed to carry out the plan previously formed. The plan was virtually thwarted by the withdrawal of one of the ships (the" Powhatan''), which was to have taken part. The expedition had not reached Charleston when the Confederates, notified of its coming, opened fire on Fort Sumter, and the only thing accomplished was the bringing away of Major Anderson and his command after the surrender. After communications with Washington had been cut off, Fox applied to William H. Aspinwall and William B. Astor, who fitted out the steamer " Yankee," of which he was appointed acting captain, and in which he sailed for Chesapeake Bay. He was at this time appointed by President Lincoln to the post of assistant Secretary of the Navy, which he held until the end of the war. His services in this position were extremely valuable, and a member of Mr. Lincoln's cabinet once spoke of him as follows: "Fox was the really able man of the administration. He planned the capture of New Orleans, the opening of the Mississippi, and in general the operations of the navy. He had all the responsibility of removing the superannuated and inefficient men he found in charge, had the honor of selecting Farragut, and was often consulted by General Grant. He performed all his duties with an eye only to the requirements of the hour, and with no view to the advancement of any interest of his own." He was an able assistant to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, whose administration of the navy department owed to him much of its success. Soon after the close of the war Captain Fox was sent on a special mission to Russia to convey to the czar, Alexander II., the congratulations of the U. S. Congress on his escape from assassination. The voyage was made on the "Miantonomoh," the first monitor to cross the Atlantic. It is said that Captain Fox might have obtained from the U. S. government an admiral's commission had he not refused to ask for it. One result of his visit to Russia was the purchase of Alaska by the U. S. government. In the negotiations concerning this purchase Captain Fox took an active interest, he afterward became manager of the Middlesex Mills, and a partner with E. R. Mudge, Sawyer & County, where he remained several years. See Joseph F. Loubat's " Narrative of Fox's Mission to Russia in 1860 " (New York, 1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 519-520.
FRAILEY, James Madison, naval officer, born in Maryland, 6 May, 1809; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 26 September, 1877. He entered the U. S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 May, 1826, became passed midshipman in 1836, lieutenant in 1839, commander in 1861, captain in 1866, and a commodore in 1872. He served in the naval battery before Vera Cruz, and commanded the steamer " Quaker City," of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in 1862-'4. This vessel was struck by a shell and partially disabled in an attack by Confederate rams off Charleston, 31 January, 1863. He commanded the "Tuscarora" in both attacks on Fort Fisher, and the steam sloop " Saranac," of the North Pacific Squadron, in 1867-'8. He was appointed to the command of League Island Naval Station on 30 April, 1870, and was retired from the service, 6 May, 1871. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 521.
FRANK, Augustus, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Congressional Globe)
FRANKLIN, William Buel, soldier, born in York, Pa,, 27 February, 1823. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1843 at the head of his class, among the members of which were Ulysses S. Grant, Christopher C. Augur, and James A. Hardie. He served in the topographical engineers until the outbreak of the Civil War, the dates of his various commissions being as follows: 2d lieutenant, 21 September, 1846; 1st lieutenant, 3 March, 1853; and captain, 1 July, 1857. He was brevetted 1st lieutenant, 23 February,1847, for gallantry at the battle of Buena Vista. In the Mexican War he was attached to the staff of General Taylor as a Topographical Engineer, was engaged in making rcconnoissances, and carried Taylor's orders on the battlefield of Buena Vista. His other service prior to 1861 was such as ordinarily falls to an engineer officer. He was engaged in surveys on the western plains and mountains, as assistant professor at West Point, as engineer-secretary of the light-house board, and in charge of the construction of lighthouses and public buildings. At the beginning of the Civil War he was stationed in Washington in charge of the construction of the capitol, the treasury department, and the general post-office. He was appointed colonel of the 12th U.S. Infantry, 14 May, 1861, brigadier- general of volunteers, 17 May, 1861, and major-general of volunteers, 4 July, 1862. He received the brevet of brigadier-general in the regular army, 30 June, 1862, for his gallant conduct in the battles before Richmond, and of major-general, 13 March, 1865, for services during the rebellion. His first active service was at Bull Run, where he commanded a brigade in Heintzleman's division, and was engaged in the heaviest part of the battle, around the Henry house. On the organization of the Army of the Potomac he received a division, and, when the 6th Army Corps was formed, he was placed in its command, retaining it throughout the year 1862. He was in most of the battles on the Peninsula—Yorktown, West Point, White Oak Bridge, Savage's Station, Malvern Hill, and Harrison's Landing. After his return to Maryland with the army, he was in command on the field of Crampton's Gap, South Mountain, 14 September, 1862, and was engaged in the battle of Antietam, 17 September, 1862. At the battle of Fredericksburg, 13 December, 1862, he commanded the left grand division, consisting of his own corps, the 6th, under William F. Smith, and the 1st Corps, under John F. Reynolds. (See Burnside.) General Burnside complained to the committee on the conduct of the war that Franklin did not obey his orders in this battle, and the latter was sharply censured by the committee. He was also one of the generals removed by Burnside for insubordination, and the failure of the president to approve the order of removal led to Burnside's resignation of his command. After being on waiting orders for several months, General Franklin was returned to active service in July, 1863, and on 15 August, 1863, was assigned to the command of the 19th Army Corps. He took part in the Red River Expedition of 1864, and was wounded in the battle of Sabine Cross-Roads, 8 April, 1864. He was obliged to leave the army on account of illness, 29 April, 1864, and remained on leave of absence till 2 December, when he was assigned to duty on a retiring board at Wilmington, Delaware. During his leave he was captured by Confederate raiders while he was riding on the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad, 11 July, 1864, but escaped from them on the following night. He resigned, 15 March, 1866, and since has been engaged as vice-president of the Colt's Fire-Arms Company at Hartford, Connecticut, and in various other manufacturing enterprises. He has had charge of the construction of the new state-house at Hartford, was state commissioner at the Centennial Exposition of 1876, Presidential elector in 1876, adjutant-general of Connecticut in 1877 and 1878, and president of the board of managers of the National Home for Disabled Soldiers in 1880-'7. He has contributed various articles to the "American Cyclopaedia" and to periodical literature on military subjects. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 535-536.
FRANKLIN, Samuel Rhoads, naval officer, born in York, Pennsylvania, 25 August, 1825, was appointed midshipman, 18 February, 1841, attached to the frigate " Cumberland," of the Pacific Squadron, in 1841-'3, and to the frigate "United States " and store-ship "Relief," in the Pacific, in 1845-'7. He was present at the demonstration on Monterey during the Mexican War, promoted to passed midshipman, 10 August, 1847, and assigned to duty on the "Independence," of the Mediterranean Squadron for 1849-'52, and to the coast survey, 1853-'5. He was commissioned master, 18 April, 1855, and lieutenant, 14 September following, served in the Naval Academy in 1855-"6, on the sloop "Falmouth," of the Brazil Squadron, in 1857-'9, on the " Macedonian " in 1859-60, and on the steam sloop "Dacotah," on the Atlantic Coast, in 1861-2. He was a volunteer on board the "Roanoke " in the action with the "Merrimac" in March, 1862, in which the "Congress" and the "Cumberland" were destroyed. He became executive officer of the " Roanoke," and engaged with the forts at Sewell's point, but the sloop grounded, and did not get fairly into action. He was commissioned lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, commanded the "Aroostook," of the James River Flotilla, in 1862, the "Aroostook," of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron, in 1863, and was on special duty in New Orleans in 1864. During the operations in Mobile Bay in the spring of 1865 he was on the staff of acting rear-admiral Thatcher, and was the naval representative in the demand for the surrender of the city of Mobile. He was made commander, 26 September, 1866, and given the steamer " Saginaw," of the north Pacific Squadron, in 1866-'7, on ordnance duty at Mare Island, California in 1868-'9, was advanced to the grade of captain. 13 August, 1872, and commanded the " Wabash 'and afterward the " Franklin " until transferred to duty as hydrographer to the Bureau of Navigation at Washington, D. C. He was promoted to commodore, 15 December, 1880, assigned to special duty in the bureau of equipment department, and became president of the board of examiners, 16 June, 1883. He received the appointment of rear-admiral, 24 January, 1885, was assigned to duty as superintendent of the Naval Observatory, and in 1886 became commandant of the European Station. In August, 1887, he will be of legal age to be retired. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 536.
FRELINGHUYSEN, Frederick Theodore, son of General Frederick's third son, Frederick, lawyer, born in Millstone, New Jersey, 4 August 1817, died in Newark, New Jersey, 20 May 1885, was but three years of age when his father died and was at once adopted by his uncle, Theodore. He was graduated at Rutgers in 1836, studied law with his uncle, Theodore, at Newark, and was admitted to the bar in 1839. In this year his uncle was called to the chancellorship of the University of New York, and the young attorney succeeded to his practice. He was chosen City attorney in 1849, and in the following year was also elected City Counsel. Not long afterward he became the retained counsel of the New Jersey Central Railroad Company, and of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, and became generally known throughout the state. His name was mentioned as a candidate for attorney general of New Jersey in 1857, and in 1861 was appointed to that office. In this same year Mr. Frelinghuysen was a member of the Peace Congress in Washington, where he was a conspicuous figure. On the expiration of his term as attorney general, in 1866, he was reappointed by Governor Marcus L. Ward, but in the same year was appointed by the governor to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William Wright. He took his seat in the Senate in December 1866, and was elected in the winter of 1867 to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Wright, which would end on 4 March 1869. He now resigned the office of attorney general to occupy one that, it is said, had long been the summit of his ambition. At the expiration of his term in 1869 the majority of the legislature of New Jersey was opposed to him in politics, and, as a matter of course, his re-election was impossible. In 1870 President Grant nominated him as minister to England, and the Senate promptly confirmed the nomination without the usual reference to the committee. Mr. Frelinghuysen, however, declined the appointment; why he did so was a question that was variously answered by political friends and foes. Years afterward it became known that it was at the request of his wife, who was unwilling to expose her children to the various influences to be encountered during a residence at a foreign court. On 25 July 1871, he was again elected U. S. Senator for the full term of six years. During his service in the Senate he was a member of the judiciary committee, and of those on the finance, naval affairs, claims, and railroads, and was chairman of the committee on agriculture. He was also a member of the committee on foreign relations, and acting chairman of the same during the negotiation of the Alabama claims by the joint high commission. When he came into the Senate the Civil War had ended, but he brought with him the feelings that had governed him throughout its progress, and took an active part in the work of restoring the Union. In the impeachment trial of President Johnson he voted for conviction. He was always prominent in the debates of the Senate, and introduced into that body several measures of great importance. In the matter of the Washington Treaty, in the French arms controversy, in the currency question, he was especially active. A bill was introduced by him to restore a gold currency, and so well sustained by argument that a measure similar to his own was subsequently adopted. A tariff for protection always received his support, and he left nothing undone to promote the industries of his own state. The civil rights bill, introduced by Charles Sumner, was personally entrusted to him by that gentleman, and was advocated by Mr. Frelinghuysen until it passed the Senate. He introduced a bill against polygamy, and secured its passage in the Senate; also a bill to return to Japan what is known as the Japanese indemnity fund, which also passed. The soundness of his argument in the Sue Murphy case was at first doubted, but it was afterward conceded that he was right in denying the claims of even loyal persons at the south for damages resulting from the war, insisting that they must suffer as did loyal persons at the north, and that the results of the war must rest where they fall. He succeeded in defeating this bill, and thus saved the country from innumerable claims of a similar character, which would have exhausted the national treasury. The trouble that arose in 1877 in regard to counting the electoral vote seems to have been anticipated by Mr. Frelinghuysen in the summer of the previous year, and, to avoid it, he introduced a bill referring the decision of any such controversy to the president of the Senate, the speaker of the house, and the chief justice. The Senate adjourned before the bill could be acted upon. When, in 1877, his anticipations were realized, he was one of the joint committee of the Senate and house that reported a bill creating the electoral commission, and he was appointed a member of that commission. In 1877, a majority of the legislature of New Jersey being again Democratic, he was succeeded by John R. McPherson. On 12 December 1881, President Arthur invited Mr. Frelinghuysen to a seat in the cabinet as Secretary of State, and the Senate promptly confirmed this appointment. Peaceful and prosperous as was the administration of President Arthur, yet the labors of Mr. Frelinghuysen were nonetheless arduous, and, though always regarded as a man of great physical vigor, he retired from them thoroughly exhausted. Surrendering his seat to his successor in the cabinet on 4 March 1885, he went at once to his home in Newark, New Jersey, where, on his arrival, he found himself too ill to receive the citizens and friends who had filled his house to welcome him. For many weeks he lay in a lethargic condition, which continued until the end. Like all his ancestors, Mr. Frelinghuysen was the possessor of a strong religious sentiment. He was a close student of the Bible, and an active member of that branch of the Church in which so many of his forefathers had been bright and shining lights. He took a lively interest in educational matters, and in charitable and benevolent institutions. He was president of the American Bible Society, and for thirty-four years a trustee of Rutgers College. His published writings are not numerous, nor did he give much time to literary work. Many of his speeches were never written until after they had been delivered; but he never spoke, as he once told the writer, without engraving on his memory, in their exact order, every word that he was about to utter; and so tenacious was that memory that, whenever he deemed it important to commit anything to writing, the manuscript was for him thereafter a useless paper. [Frederick Frelinghuysen’s son] Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 544-545.
FRELINGHUYSEN, Theodore, 1787-1862, Franklin, Somerset Co., Newark, New Jersey, attorney, jurist, statesman, opposed slavery. U.S. Senator, 1829-1836. Mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Chancellor of the University of New York. Whig Vice Presidential candidate. American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-1841. Member of the board of the African Education Society. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 543-544; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 16; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 16, 86, 128, 189-190, 207, 225, 228)
FRELINGHUYSEN, Theodore, lawyer, born in Franklin, Somerset County, New Jersey, 28 March 1787; died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 12 April 1861, was sent at the age of eleven to the grammar school connected with Queen's College (now Rutgers), where he remained two years, but,, on the resignation of the rector of the school, returned to his home at Millstone. Having no great disposition to apply himself to study, he persuaded his father to give him the privilege of remaining at home and becoming a farmer. But consent to this plan had been only partially obtained when his father was called away on public business. His stepmother, a wise and estimable woman, believing that this arrangement would not be a judicious one, packed young Theodore's trunk and sent him to the classical academy recently established at Baskingridge, New Jersey, by the Reverend Dr. Robert Findley. Here he completed his preparatory studies, and in 1802 was admitted to the junior class of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, from which he was graduated with high honors in 1804. In the meantime, his father having died, his elder brother, John a lawyer, had taken charge of the homestead at Millstone. In the office of this brother he began the study of law, and, after being admitted to the bar, moved to Newark, New Jersey, where he married, and entered upon the practice of his profession, in which he soon attained eminence. In 1817 he was appointed attorney general by a legislature whose majority was opposed to him in politics. Twice afterward he was reappointed on the expiration of his term of office, and finally resigned it in 1829, having been elected a senator of the United States. Prior to this, however, he had declined the office of justice of the Supreme Court tendered to him in 1826. The first important matter on which he addressed the Senate was the bill for the removal of the Indians beyond the Mississippi River. This speech availed nothing, however, except to bring its author prominently before the nation, and to give to him the title of the “Christian statesman.” He also took an active part in the discussion of the pension bill, the president's protest, the removal of the deposits from the U. S. bank, the compromise, and the tariff. His senatorial term expired in 1835 when he resumed his professional labors in Newark. In 1836 Newark was incorporated as a City. In the following year Mr. Frelinghuysen was elected its mayor, and in 1838 he was re-elected to the same position. In 1839 he was unanimously chosen chancellor of the University of New York, and while in the occupancy of this office was, in May 1844, nominated by the Whig National Convention at Baltimore for the vice-presidency of the United States on the same ticket with Henry Clay. He continued in the discharge of his duties as chancellor of the University until 1850, when he accepted the presidency of Rutgers College, and in the same year was formally inducted into that office, continuing in it until the day of his death. Mr. Frelinghuysen was an earnest advocate of the claims of organized Christian benevolence, and it is said of him that no American layman was ever associated with so many great national organizations of religion and charity. He was president of no less than three of these during some period of their existence, while his name may be found on the lists of officers of all the rest with scarcely an exception. For sixteen years he was president of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions. From April, 1846, till his death he was president of the American Bible Society; from 1842 till 1848, of the American tract Society; from 1826 till near the close of his life, vice president of the American Sunday School union; and for many years vice president of the American colonization Society. In the work of all these institutions he took an active part. His remains were buried in the grounds of the 1st Reformed Dutch Church in New Brunswick, N.J. See a memoir of him by Reverend Talbot W. Chambers, D.D. (1863). [General Frederick Frelinghuysen’s second son; Appleton’s, 1900]
FRÉMONT, John Charles, 1813-1890, California, Army officer, explorer. In 1856, was first candidate for President from the anti-slavery Republican Party. Lost to James Buchanan. Early in his career, he was opposed to slavery and its expansion into new territories and states. Third military governor of California, 1847. First U.S. Senator from the State of California, 1850-1851. He was elected as a Free Soil Democrat, and was defeated for reelection principally because of his adamant opposition to slavery. Frémont supported a free Kansas and was against the provisions of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. On August 30, 1861, Frémont issued an unauthorized proclamation to free slaves owned by secessionists in his Department in Missouri. Lincoln revoked the proclamation and relieved Frémont of command. In March 1862, Frémont was given commands in Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. (Blue, 2005, pp. 8, 10, 12-13, 58, 77, 78, 105, 131, 153, 173, 178, 206, 225, 239, 245, 252, 261-263, 268-269; Chaffin, 2002; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 89, 93, 94-95, 97-98, 138, 139, 145, 149, 159, 161, 172, 215, 219-225, 228-230, 243; Nevins, 1939; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 59, 65, 140, 242-243, 275, 369, 385, 687; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 545-548; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 4, Pt. 1, p. 19; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 8, p. 459; Chaffin, Tom, Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire, New York: Hill and Wang, 2002; Eyre, Alice, The Famous Fremonts and Their America, Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1948; Nevins, Allan, Fremont: Pathmaker of the West, Volume 1: Fremont the Explorer; Volume 2: Fremont in the Civil War, 1939, rev ed. 1955)
FRÉMONT, John Charles, explorer, born in Savannah, Georgia, 21 January, 1813; died in New York City, 13 July, 1890. His father, who was a Frenchman, had settled in Norfolk, Virginia, early married Anne Beverley Whiting, a Virginian lady, and supported himself by teaching his native language. After his death, which took place in 1818, his widow moved with her three infant children to Charleston, South Carolina. John Charles entered the junior class of Charleston College in 1828, and for some time stood high, especially in mathematics; but his inattention and frequent absences at length caused his expulsion. He then employed himself as a private teacher of mathematics, and at the same time taught an evening school. He became teacher of mathematics on the sloop-of-war “Natchez” in 1833, and after a cruise of two years returned, and was given his degree by the college that had expelled him. He then passed a rigorous examination at Baltimore for a professorship in the U. S. Navy, and was appointed to the frigate “Independence,” but declined, and became an assistant engineer under Captain William G. Williams, of the U. S. Topographical Corps, on surveys for a projected railroad between Charleston and Cincinnati, aiding particularly in the exploration of the mountain passes between North Carolina and Tennessee. This work was suspended in 1837, and Frémont accompanied Captain Williams in a military reconnaissance of the mountainous Cherokee country in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, made rapidly, in the depth of winter, in anticipation of hostilities with the Indians. On 7 July, 1838, while engaged with Jean Nicolas Nicollet in exploring, under government authority, the country between the Missouri and the northern frontier, he was commissioned by President Van Buren as 2d lieutenant of topographical engineers. He went to Washington in 1840 to prepare his report, and while there met Jessie, daughter of Thomas H. Benton, then senator from Missouri. An engagement was formed, but, as the lady was only fifteen years of age, her parents objected to the match; and suddenly, probably through the influence of Colonel Benton, the young officer received from the war department an order to make an examination of the River Des Moines on the western frontier. The survey was made rapidly, and shortly after his return from this duty the lovers were secretly married, 19 October, 1841. In 1842, Frémont was instructed by the War Department to take charge of an expedition for the exploration of the Rocky mountains, particularly the South pass. He left Washington on 2 May, and in four months had carefully examined the South pass and explored the Wind River mountains, ascending their highest point, since known as Frémont's peak (13,570 ft.). His report of the expedition was laid before Congress in the winter of 1842-'3, and attracted much attention both at home and abroad. Immediately afterward, Frémont determined to explore the unknown region between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific, and set out in May, 1843, with thirty-nine men. On 6 September, after travelling over 1,700 miles, he came in sight of Great Salt lake. His investigations corrected many vague and erroneous ideas about this region, of which no accurate account had ever been given, and had great influence in promoting the settlement of Utah and the Pacific states. It was his report of this expedition that gave to the Mormons their first idea of Utah as a place of residence. After leaving Great Salt Lake, he explored the upper tributaries of the Columbia, descended the valley of that River to Fort Vancouver, near its mouth, and on 10 November set out on his return. His route lay through an almost unknown region leading from the Lower Columbia to the Upper Colorado, and was crossed by high and rugged mountain-chains. Deep snow soon forced him to descend into the great basin, and he presently found himself, in the depth of winter, in a desert, with the prospect of death to his whole party from cold and hunger. By astronomical observation he found that he was in the latitude of the Bay of San Francisco; but between him and the valleys of California was a snow-clad range of mountains, which the Indians declared no man could cross, and over which no reward could induce them to attempt to guide him. Frémont undertook the passage without a guide, and accomplished it in forty days, reaching Sutter's Fort, on the Sacramento, early in March, with his men reduced almost to skeletons, and with only thirty-three out of sixty-seven horses and mules remaining. Resuming his journey on 24 March, he crossed the Sierra Nevada through a gap, and after another visit to Great Salt lake returned to Kansas through the South pass in July, 1844, having been absent fourteen months. The reports of this expedition occupied in their preparation the remainder of 1844. Frémont was given the double brevet of 1st lieutenant and captain in January, 1845, at the instance of General Scott, and in the spring of that year he set out on a third expedition to explore the great basin and the maritime region of Oregon and California. After spending the summer in exploring the watershed between the Pacific and the Mississippi, he encamped in October on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, and after crossing the Sierra Nevada with a few men, in the dead of winter, to obtain supplies, left his party in the valley of the San Joaquin while he went to Monterey, then the capital of California, to obtain from the Mexican authorities permission to proceed with his exploration. This was granted, but was almost immediately revoked, and Frémont was ordered to leave the country without delay. Compliance with this demand was impossible, on account of the exhaustion of Frémont's men and his lack of supplies, and it was therefore refused. The Mexican commander, General José Castro, then mustered the forces of the province and prepared to attack the Americans, who numbered only sixty-two. Frémont took up a strong position on the Hawk's peak, a mountain thirty miles from Monterey, built a rude fort of felled trees, hoisted the American flag, and, having plenty of ammunition, resolved to defend himself. The Mexican general, with a large force, encamped in the plain immediately below the Americans, whom he hourly threatened to attack. On the evening of the fourth day of the siege Frémont withdrew with his party and proceeded toward the San Joaquin. The fires were still burning in his deserted camp when a messenger arrived from General Castro to propose a cessation of hostilities. Frémont now made his way northward through the Sacramento valley into Oregon without further trouble, and near Klamath Lake, on 9 May, 1846, met a party in search of him with despatches from Washington, directing him to watch over the interests of the United States in California, there being reason to apprehend that the province would be transferred to Great Britain, and also that General Castro intended to destroy the American settlements on the Sacramento. He promptly returned to California, where he found that Castro was already marching against the settlements. The settlers flocked to Frémont's camp, and in less than a month he had freed northern California from Mexican authority. He received a lieutenant-colonel's commission on 27 May, and was elected governor of California by the American settlers on 4 July. On 10 July, learning that Commodore Sloat, commander of the United States Squadron on that coast, had seized Monterey, he marched to join him, and reached that place on 19 July, with 160 mounted riflemen. About this time Commodore Stockton arrived at Monterey with the frigate “Congress” and took command of the squadron, with authority from Washington to conquer California. At his request Frémont organized a force of mounted men, known as the “California battalion,” of which he was appointed major. He was also appointed by Commodore Stockton military commandant and civil governor of the territory, the project of making California independent having been relinquished on receipt of intelligence that war had begun between the United States and Mexico. On 13 January, 1847, Frémont concluded with the Mexicans articles of capitulation, which terminated the war in California and left that country permanently in the possession of the United States. Meantime General Stephen W. Kearny, with a small force of dragoons, had arrived in California. A quarrel soon broke out between him and Commodore Stockton as to who should command. Each had instructions from Washington to conquer and organize a government in the country. Frémont had accepted a commission from Commodore Stockton as commander of the battalion of volunteers, and had been appointed governor of the territory. General Kearny, as Frémont's superior officer in the regular army, required him to obey his orders, which conflicted with those of Commodore Stockton. In this dilemma Frémont concluded to obey Stockton's orders, considering that he had already fully recognized that officer as commander-in-chief, and that General Kearny had also for some time admitted his authority. In the spring of 1847 despatches from Washington assigned the command to Gen Kearny, and in June that officer set out overland for the United States, accompanied by Frémont, whom he treated with deliberate disrespect throughout the journey. On the arrival of the party at Fort Leavenworth, on 22 August, Frémont was put under arrest and ordered to report to the adjutant-general at Washington, where he arrived on 16 September, and demanded a speedy trial. Accordingly a court-martial was held, beginning 2 November, 1847, and ending 31 January, 1848, which found him guilty of “mutiny,” “disobedience of the lawful command of a superior officer,” and “conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline,” and sentenced him to be dismissed from the service. A majority of the members of the court recommended him to the clemency of President Polk. The president refused to confirm the verdict of mutiny, but approved the rest of the verdict and the sentence, of which, however, he remitted the penalty. Notwithstanding this, Frémont at once resigned his commission, and on 14 October, 1848, set out on a fourth expedition across the continent, at his own expense, with the object of finding a practicable passage to California by way of the upper waters of the Rio Grande. With thirty-three men and 120 mules he made his way through the country of the Utes, Apaches, Comanches, and other Indian tribes then at war with the United States. In attempting to cross the great Sierra, covered with snow, his guide lost his way, and Frémont's party encountered horrible suffering from cold and hunger, a portion of them being driven to cannibalism. All of his animals and one third of his men perished, and he was forced to retrace his steps to Santa Fé. Undaunted by this disaster, he gathered another band of thirty men, and after a long search discovered a secure route by which he reached the Sacramento in the spring of 1849. He now determined to settle in California, where, in 1847, he had bought the Mariposa estate, a large tract of land containing rich gold-mines. His title to this estate was contested, but after a long litigation it was decided in his favor in 1855 by the Supreme Court of the United States. He received from President Taylor in 1849 the appointment of commissioner to run the boundary-line between the United States and Mexico, but, having been elected by the legislature of California, in December of that year, to represent the new state in the U. S. Senate, he resigned his commissionership and departed for Washington by way of the isthmus. He took his seat in the Senate, 10 September, 1850, the day after the admission of California as a state. In drawing lots for the terms of the respective senators, Frémont drew the short term, ending 4 March, 1851. The Senate remained in session but three weeks after the admission of California, and during that period Frémont devoted himself almost exclusively to measures relating to the interests of the state he represented. For this purpose he introduced and advocated a comprehensive series of bills, embracing almost every object of legislation demanded by the peculiar circumstances of California. In the state election of 1851 in California the Anti-slavery Party, of which Frémont was one of the leaders, was defeated, and he consequently failed of re-election to the Senate, after 142 ballotings. After devoting two years to his private affairs, he visited Europe in 1852, and spent a year there, being received with distinction by many eminent men of letters and of science. He had already, in 1850, received a gold medal from the king of Prussia for his discoveries, had been awarded the “founder's medal” of the Royal geographical Society of London, and had been elected an honorary member of the Geographical Society of Berlin. His explorations had gained for him at home the name of the “Pathfinder.” While in Europe he learned that Congress had made an appropriation for the survey of three routes from the Mississippi valley to the Pacific, and immediately returned to the United States for the purpose of fitting out a fifth expedition on his own account to complete the survey of the route he had taken on his fourth expedition. He left Paris in June, 1853, and in September was on his march across the continent. He found passes through the mountains on the line of latitudes 38 and 39, and reached California in safety, after enduring great hardships. For fifty days his party lived on horse-flesh, and for forty-eight hours at a time were without food of any kind. In the spring of 1855 Frémont with his family took up his residence in New York, for the purpose of preparing for publication the narrative of his last expedition. He now began to be mentioned as an anti-slavery candidate for the presidency. In the first National Republican Convention, which met in Philadelphia on 17 June, 1856, he received 359 votes to 196 for John McLean, on an informal ballot, and on the first formal ballot Frémont was unanimously nominated. In his letter of acceptance, dated 8 July, 1856, he expressed himself strongly against the extension of slavery and in favor of free labor. A few days after the Philadelphia Convention adjourned, a National American Convention at New York also nominated him for the presidency. He accepted their support in a letter dated 30 June, in which he referred them for an exposition of his views to his forthcoming letter accepting the Republican nomination. After a spirited and exciting contest, the presidential election resulted in the choice of Mr. Buchanan by 174 electoral votes from nineteen states, while Frémont received 114 votes from eleven states, including the six New England states, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Maryland gave her eight electoral votes for Mr. Fillmore. The popular vote for Frémont was 1,341,000; for Buchanan, 1,838,000; for Fillmore, 874,000. In 1858 Frémont went to California, where he resided for some time. In 1860 he visited Europe. Soon after the beginning of the Civil War he was made a major-general of the regular army and assigned to the command of the newly created Western Department. After purchasing arms for the U. S. government, in Europe, he returned; he arrived in St. Louis on 26 July, 1861, and made his headquarters there, fortifying the city, and placing Cairo in security by a demonstration with 4,000 troops. After the battle of Wilson's Creek, on 10 August, where General Nathaniel Lyon was slain, Frémont proclaimed martial law, arrested active secessionists, and suspended the publication of papers charged with disloyalty. On 31 August he issued a proclamation assuming the government of the state, and announcing that he would emancipate the slaves of those in arms against the United States. President Lincoln wrote to him, approving all of the proclamation except the emancipation clause, which he considered premature. He asked Frémont to withdraw it, which he declined, and the president annulled it himself in a public order. In the autumn Frémont moved his army from the Missouri River in pursuit of the enemy. Meanwhile many complaints had been made of his administration, it being alleged that it was inefficient, though arbitrary and extravagant, and after an investigation by the Secretary of War he was, on 2 November, 1861, relieved from his command just as he had overtaken the Confederates at Springfield. It is claimed by Frémont's friends that this was the result of a political intrigue against him. On leaving his army, he went to St. Louis, where he was enthusiastically received by the citizens. In March, 1862, he was given the command of the newly created “mountain district” of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In the early part of June his army engaged a superior force under General Jackson for eight days, with constant sharp skirmishing, the enemy retreating slowly and destroying culverts and bridges to cause delay. The pursuit was terminated with a severe engagement on the evening of 6 June, in which Jackson's chief of cavalry, General Ashby, was killed, and by the battle of Cross-Keys on 8 June. It is claimed by General Frémont that if McDowell's force had joined him, as promised by the president, Jackson's retreat would have been cut off; as it was, the latter made good his escape, having accomplished his purpose of delaying re-enforcements to McClellan. On 26 June the president issued an order creating the “Army of Virginia,” to include Frémont's corps, and giving the command of it to General Pope. Thereupon Frémont asked to be relieved, on the ground that he could not serve under General Pope, for sufficient personal reasons. His request having been granted, he went to New York to await further orders, but received no other command during the war, though, as he says, one was constantly promised him. On 31 May, 1864, a convention of Republicans, dissatisfied with Mr. Lincoln, met at Cleveland and tendered to General Frémont a nomination for president, which, he accepted. In the following September a committee of Republicans representing the administration waited on him and urged his withdrawal, as “vital to the success of the party.” After considering the matter for a week, he acceded to their request, saying in his letter of withdrawal that he did so “not to aid in the triumph of Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part toward preventing the election of the Democratic candidate.”
Since 1864 General Frémont has taken little part in public affairs, but has been active in railway matters. He procured from the Texas legislature a grant of state land in the interest of the Memphis and El Paso Railway, which was to be part of a proposed trans-continental road from Norfolk to San Diego and San Francisco. The French agents employed to place the land-grant bonds of this road on the market made the false declaration that they were guaranteed by the United States. In 1869 the Senate passed a bill giving Frémont's road the right of way through the territories, an attempt to defeat it by fixing on him the onus of the misstatement in Paris having been unsuccessful. In 1873 he was prosecuted by the French government for fraud in connection with this misstatement. He did not appear in person, and was sentenced by default to fine and imprisonment, no judgment being given on the merits of the case. In 1878-'81 General Frémont was governor of Arizona. He has published “Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1842, and to Oregon and North California in 1843-'4” (Washington, 1845; New York, 1846; London, 1849); “Colonel J. C. Frémont's Explorations,” an account of all five of his expeditions (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1859); and “Memoirs of my Life” (New York, 1880). See also the campaign biographies by John Bigelow (New York, 1856), and Charles W. Upham (Boston, 1856). His wife, Jessie Benton, born in Virginia in 1824, has published “Story of the Guard; a Chronicle of the War,” with a German translation (Boston, 1863); a sketch of her father, Thomas H. Benton, prefixed to her husband's memoirs (1880); and “Souvenirs of my Time” (Boston, 1887). [Appleton’s 1900]
FRENCH, Mansfield, clergyman, born in Manchester, Vermont, 21 February, 1810; died at Pearsall's. Long Island, March, 1876. In his youth he studied at the Bennington Seminary, and at twenty began theological studies at the divinity-school of Kenyon College, Ohio. He was the founder of Marietta College, Granville Female Seminary, and principal of Circleville Female College. Ohio. In 1845 he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and entered the itinerant ministry in the North Ohio conference. During the next three years he was president of the Xenia, Ohio, female college, and agent for Wesleyan University. He was afterward agent for Wilberforce University, the first college opened to the Negro race in America. In 1858 he moved to New York City with a religious monthly, of which he was editor and proprietor, called "The Beauty of Holiness." There he became a strong anti-slavery agitator, and after the capture of Port Royal, at the earnest solicitation of Lewis Tappan and other abolitionists, he went to Washington and laid before President Lincoln his views of the nation's duty toward "contraband" slaves. In June. 1862, he visited, Port Royal, inspected the condition of the Negroes, and resolved to return to the north and induce teachers to go back with him. On 10 February, 1862, he organized a large meeting at Cooper Institute, New York City, where his account of the need of instruction among the colored people excited such interest and sympathy that at once the "National Freedman's Relief Association" was formed, and he was elected general agent. In March, 1863, he again sailed for Port Royal, this time accompanied by a large corps of teachers. He next attempted to have the Negroes placed on the abandoned plantations, and taught methodical farming under white superintendents. In this plan he met with much military and civil opposition, but finally met with partial success. Mr. French was the personal friend of President Lincoln, of Secretary of War Stanton, and Salmon P. Chase. At one period during the Civil War Mr. French organized an expedition to intercept telegraphic communications between the Confederate forces, and delivered their messages at Washington. He was popularly known as "Chaplain French." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 548-549.
FRENCH, Robert, 1802-1882, politician, abolitionist, Temperance activist. Mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Massachusetts State Senator. Co-founder and President of the New Bedford Young Man’s Anti-Slavery Society. Member of the Whig and Free Soil parties. Opposed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and successfully passed legislation to oppose it in New Bedford.
FRENCH, William Henry, soldier, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 13 January, 1815; died there, 20 May, 1881. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1837, and entered the army as 2d lieutenant of artillery. He served in the Seminole War in Florida and on the Canada border in 1837-'8. During the Mexican War he was aide-de-camp to General Franklin Pierce, and on the staff of General Patterson, was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, in the battles of Churubusco and Contreras, and brevetted major for gallantry at the capture of the city of Mexico. Between 1850 and 1852 he again served against the Seminole Indians in Florida, and was on garrison and frontier duty till 1861, when he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and served in the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign. He was engaged at the battles of Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Oakgrove, Gaines's Mill, Peach Orchard, Savage Station, Glendale, and Malvern Hill. In the Maryland Campaign he commanded a division of Sumner's corps at the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg, September, 1862, and in the next month was appointed major-general of volunteers. He served in the Rappahannock Campaign, in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, commanded the 3d Army Corps in its operations at Mine Run, from November, 1863, till May, 1864, when he was mustered out of volunteer service. He commanded the 2d U.S. Artillery on the Pacific Coast from 1865 till 1872, and in 1875, having passed through the successive military grades, was appointed lieutenant-colonel, in command at Fort McHenry, Baltimore. In July, 1880. at his own request, being over sixty- two years of age, he was retired. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 549.
FROTHINGHAM, Octavius Brooks, 1822-1895, Boston, Massachusetts, author, clergyman, orator, anti-slavery leader and activist. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 556)
FROTHINGHAM, Octavius Brooks, author, born in Boston, 26 Nov., 1822, was graduated at Harvard in 1843, and, after three years in the divinity school, was ordained pastor of the North Church (Unitarian) at Salem, Massachusetts, 10 March, 1847. He preached in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1855-'9, then moved to New York, and became pastor of a congregation that in 1860 was organized as the “Third Unitarian Congregational Church,” and represented the most radical branch of his denomination. He dissolved this society in 1879 and went to Europe, and on his return in 1881 formally withdrew from specific connection with any church, and devoted himself to literature in Boston. He has been a leader in the movement that has for its object the promotion of rationalist ideas in theology, and has contributed largely to various journals and reviews. In 1867 he became first president of the Free Religious Association. He was for a time art-critic of the “New York Tribune.” Mr. Frothingham has published more than 150 sermons, and is the author of the following works: “Stories from the Lips of the Teacher” (Boston, 1863); “Stories from the Old Testament” (1864); “Child's Book of Religion” (1866); “The Religion of Humanity” (New York, 1873); “Life of Theodore Parker” (Boston, 1874); “Transcendentalism in New England” (New York, 1876); “The Cradle of the Christ” (1877); “Life of Gerrit Smith” (1878); “Life of George Ripley” (Boston, 1882); and “Memoir of William Henry Channing” (1886).—Nathaniel Langdon's daughter, Ellen, born in Boston, 25 March, 1835, has devoted herself to German literature, and has translated Lessing's “Nathan der Weise” (1868); Goethe's “Hermann und Dorothea” (1870); Lessing's “Laokoon” (1874); and Grillparzer’s “Sappho” (1876). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II p. 556
FRY, Cary Harrison, soldier, born in Garrard County, Kentucky, 20 August, 1813; died in San Francisco, California, 5 March, 1873. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1834, and served in the 3d U.S. Infantry at Fort Towson, Indian Territory, but resigned on 31 October, 1836, studied medicine, and practised in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1845-'6. In the Mexican War he served as major in the 2d Kentucky Volunteers, commanding the regiment after the fall of its colonel and lieutenant-colonel in the battle of Buena Vista, where he distinguished himself. He practised medicine in Danville and Louisville, Kentucky, in 1847-53, and on 7 February of the latter year re-entered the regular army as paymaster, with the staff rank of major. During the Civil War he served at Washington, being acting pay-master-general in 1862, and becoming deputy pay-master-general in 1866. He was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, on 15 October, 1867, and from 1869 till his death was chief paymaster of various military divisions. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 557.
FRY, Speed Smith, soldier, born in Mercer (now Boyle) county, Kentucky, 9 September, 1817, after studying at Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, completed his education at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana. He organized a company of the 2d Kentucky Volunteer Infantry in 1846, commanded it during the Mexican War, and after his return was county judge of Boyle County, 1857-'61. At the beginning of the Civil War he organized the 4th Kentucky Regiment in the National Army, and served as its colonel till 21 March, 1862, when he was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers. He was mustered out of service on 24 August, 1865, and in 1869-'72 was a supervisor of internal revenue in his native state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 557.
FRY, James Barnet, soldier, born in Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois, 22 February, 1827. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1847, and assigned to the 3d U.S. Artillery . After serving for a short time as assistant instructor of artillery at West Point, he joined his regiment at the city of Mexico, where he remained in 1847-'8. After doing frontier and garrison duty at various posts, he was again instructor at West Point in 1853-'4, and adjutant of the academy in 1854-'9. He was made assistant adjutant-general on 16 March, 1861, was chief of staff to General Irwin McDowell in that year, and to General Don Carlos Buell in 1861—'2, taking part in the battles of Bull Run. Shiloh, and Corinth, the movement to Louisville, Kentucky, and the pursuit of General Bragg through the southeastern part of that state. He was made provost-marshal-general of the United States, with headquarters at Washington, on 17 March, 1863, and given the staff rank of brigadier-general, 21 April, 1864. Both these commissions expired on the abolition of the office of provost-marshal-general on 30 August, 1866: during that time General Fry put in the army 1,120,621 men, arrested 76,502 deserters, collected $26,306,316.78, and made an exact enrolment of the National forces. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted major-general, U. S. Army, for " faithful, meritorious, and distinguished services." He was adjutant-general, with the rank of colonel, of the Division of the Pacific in 1866-'9, the South in 1869-'71, the Missouri in 1871-3, and the Atlantic from 1873 till 1 June, 1881, when he was retired from active service at his own request. He is now (1887) a resident of New York City. General Fry's "Final Report of the Operations of the Bureau of the Provost-Marshal-General in 1863-'6" was issued as a Congressional document (2 parts, Washington, 1866). He has also published "Sketch of the Adjutant-General's Department, U. S. Army, from 1775 to 1875 " (New York, 1875); "History and Legal Effects of Brevets in the Armies of Great Britain and the United States, from their Origin, in 1692, to the Present Time" (1877); "Army Sacrifices," illustrating army life on the frontier (1879); "McDowell and Tyler in the Campaign of Bull Run" (1884); "Operations of the Army under Buell" (1884); and "New York and Conscription " (1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 557
FRY, Joseph, naval officer, born in Louisiana about 1828; died in Santiago de Cuba, 7 November, 1873. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman in 1841, and became passed midshipman, 10 August, 1847. In that year he fought a duel with Midshipman Brown, of Mississippi, near Washington, in which, after drawing his antagonist's fire, he refused to return it. He was promoted to master, 14 September, 1855, to lieutenant on the following day, and resigned, 1 February, 1861, after the secession of his native state. He was unable to secure a commission in the Confederate Navy owing to its limited size, and was given a command in the army. After serving in the southwest through the war, he moved to Albany, New York He accepted the command of the filibustering steamer " Virginius" in 1873, and with thirty-six of his crew was shot as a pirate by the authorities in Cuba, after the capture of his vessel by a Spanish man-of-war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 557.
FULLER, John E., Boston, Massachusetts, New England Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor and co-founder, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, 1835-39
FULLER, Lydia, Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS). (Yellin, 1994, p. 61)
FULLER, John Wallace, soldier, born in Cambridge, England, 28 July, 1827. He came to New York in 1833 with his father, a Baptist clergyman, and became a bookseller, first in Utica, New York, and then in Toledo, Ohio. He was treasurer of the former city in 1852-'4, and in May, 1861, was appointed assistant adjutant-general of Ohio. He became colonel of the 27th Ohio Regiment in August of that year, served under Pope at New Madrid and Island Number Ten, and commanded the "Ohio brigade" at Iuka and at Corinth in October, 1862, where he distinguished himself. He was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers on 5 January, 1864, captured Decatur, Alabama, in March, and commanded a brigade in the Atlanta Campaign, doing brilliant service at the Chattahoochee River on 21 July. His division opened the battle of Atlanta, and won the approbation of General McPherson. He fought Hood at Snake Creek Gap in October, commanded the 1st Division of the 17th Corps in Sherman's march to the sea, and was present at Johnston's surrender. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865. and resigned on 15 August General Fuller was appointed collector of the port of Toledo, Ohio, by President Grant in 1874, and reappointed in 1878. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 560.
FULLER, Sarah Margaret, 1810-1850, author, reformer, women’s rights advocate, opponent of slavery. Daughter of anti-slavery Congressman Timothy Fuller. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 561-562)
FULLER, Sarah Margaret, Marchioness Ossoli, author, born in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, 23 May, 1810; died off Fire Island beach, 16 July, 1850, was the eldest of eight children. She derived her first teaching from her father, studied Latin at the age of six, and injured her health by over-application. At thirteen she was a pupil at the famous school of Dr. Park, in Boston, where she began the study of Greek. Thence she went to a school in Groton, kept by the Misses Prescott. On the sudden death of her father, Margaret vowed that she would do her whole duty toward her brothers and sisters, and she faithfully kept the vow, teaching school in Boston and Providence, and afterward taking private pupils, for whom she was paid at the rate of two dollars an hour. During the transcendental period she knew intimately the leading minds of the time—Emerson, Hawthorne, Ripley, Channing, Clarke, Hedge—and in the company of such was very brilliant, meeting them as equals. She first met Emerson in 1835, and the next year visited him at Concord. She went occasionally to Brook Farm, though never fully believing in the success of that experiment, and never living there. She held conversations in Boston, conducted the “Dial,” translated from the German, projected works, and wrote the “Summer on the Lakes,” the record of a season spent in travelling from June to September, 1843. In December, 1844, she went to New York as literary critic of the “Tribune,” then under the management of Horace Greeley, in whose household she at first lived. While in New York, she visited the prisons, penitentiaries, asylums, theatres, opera-houses, music-halls, picture-galleries, and lecture-rooms, writing about everything in the “Tribune,” and doing much to move the level of thought on philanthropic, literary, and artistic matters. Her intimacies here were mainly with practical, honest, striving people. Even William H. Channing was a minister at large, C. P. Cranch received boarders, and Lydia Maria Child was connected with the press. This she called her “business life,” and she pursued it unremittingly for about twenty months, after which, having saved a little money, she went to Europe on the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Spring. This was in 1846. In Europe she saw the foremost people in the literary, social, political, and reformatory world, spent the late summer and autumn in travelling, established herself for a time at Rome in the spring of 1847, passed that summer in Switzerland and the more northern Italian cities, and returned to Rome in October. She was married in December to Giovanni Angelo, Marquis Ossoli, was a mother in 1848, and entered with zeal into the Italian struggle for independence in 1849. Her conduct during the siege of the city by the French was of the most heroic, disinterested, humane, and tender kind. Her service in the hospitals won the heartiest praise. She was a friend of Mazzini. Though racked with anxiety for her husband and child, she appeared entirely oblivious of herself. On the capture of Rome by the French in June, 1849, and the consequent dispersal of the leaders in the defence, she and her husband took refuge in Rieti, a village in the mountains of Abruzzi, where the child had been left in charge of a confidential nurse, and after some months moved to Florence, which, after a delightful sojourn, they left for Leghorn, whence passage for America was taken on the “Elizabeth,” a merchant vessel that sailed 17 May, 1850. Horace Sumner, a younger brother of Charles Sumner, and Celeste Paolini, a young Italian girl, were the only other passengers. The voyage began disastrously. The captain died of small-pox, and was buried at sea in the waters off Gibraltar. Head winds kept them there a week. The boy was dangerously seized with small-pox soon afterward. As the voyage neared its ending, a violent southeast wind became in the evening a gale, by midnight a hurricane, and the vessel was driven on the shore at Fire Island in the early morning at four o'clock. The wreck was complete. A great wave swept the deck, and carried all before it. The boy was drowned in the arms of the steward while the latter was trying to reach the land, and the lifeless body was carried on the beach. Neither mother nor father was heard of more. Of Ossoli little is known. It is not strange that to most people he should be a name only, for he was married but a short time, he was not seen out of his native country, and there was known but slightly save to a small number of friends, while his inability to speak any language except his own naturally prevented his mingling with Americans. But he was a gentleman, sincere, true, and self-respecting. All we know of him is to his credit. He was sufficiently educated for his rank in society. That he was a devoted husband is certain, ready to share his wife's fortune whatever it might be, and in all respects thoughtful of her happiness, believing in her entirely. His future in this country would have been melancholy. He must have been dependent on the efforts of his wife, and those efforts, even though incessant and reasonably successful, might not have availed to support a family. It will be seen that her career naturally fell into three divisions. The first period lasted till her life in New York in 1844. The second included her experience there. The third embraced her activity in Rome. The first, which may be called the transcendental epoch, could not be repeated. It was extremely interesting, exciting, stimulating to the mind. She was under stimulating influences. Self-culture was then the key-note of her endeavor. The third could not be reproduced. That extraordinary episode, with its raptures of self-devotion, was as exceptional, in its way, as the first. The second epoch—that of literary production—was still open to her, enlarged and simplified. She was essentially a critic. She was not a reformer, and could not have been, had her means been ever so ample. She lived by her pen, and her livelihood must have been precarious—so much so that some of her admirers looked on the final catastrophe as a deliverance for her. What she might have become if she had lived, it is useless to conjecture. She possessed brilliant gifts of many kinds. She had a warm heart, but her natural talent was for literature. She wrote a great deal for magazines, various papers, a complete account of which may be found in Higginson's “Life.” Her collected works, including “Summer on the Lakes” (1843), “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” (1844), and “Papers on Literature and Art” (1846), were edited by her brother, Reverend Arthur B. Fuller (Boston, 1855). Her book on the Roman republic was lost with her. The life of Margaret Fuller has been written by Emerson, Clarke, and Channing, edited for the most part by William Henry Channing (1852). This is strongest on the transcendental side. There is also a memoir of her by Julia Ward Howe, in the “Eminent Women” series (Boston, 1883), and one by Thomas Wentworth Higginson in the “American Men of Letters” series (Boston, 1884). The last is the most complete, though somewhat warped by the author's idea that Margaret Fuller’s career culminated in philanthropy. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 561-562.
FURNESS, William Henry, 1802-1896, Unitarian clergyman, abolitionist, reformer. Supported rights for African Americans and Jews. Opposed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. (Sinha, 2016, pp. 447, 449, 488, 501; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 565-566; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 316.
FURNESS, William Henry (fur'-ness), clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 20 April, 1802. He was graduated at Harvard in 1820, and completed his theological studies at Cambridge in 1823. In January, 1825, he was ordained pastor of the 1st Congregational Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, where he remained until he retired from the ministry, in 1875. He received the degree of D. D. from Harvard in 1847, and that of Doctor of Letters from Columbia at its centennial anniversary in 1887. The theological position of Dr. Furness is peculiar, belonging as he does to the extreme humanitarian school, as distinguished from that of Canning, Peabody, and Norton. He accepts, for the most part, the miraculous facts of the New Testament, yet accounts for them by the moral and spiritual forces resulting from the pre-eminent character of the Saviour, who, in his view, is an exalted form of humanity. One of his constant labors as a preacher and an author has been to ascertain the historical truth and develop the spiritual ideas of the records of the life of Christ. His books reveal a highly cultivated intellect, impelled by enthusiastic ardor, and enriched by a glowing fancy. “Æsthetic considerations,” remarks a writer of his own denomination, “weigh more with him than historical proofs, and vividness of conception than demonstration.” In the anti-slavery movement Dr. Furness took an intense interest, preaching frequently on the subject. From 1845 till 1847 he edited an annual entitled “The Diadem.” Besides many occasional sermons he is the author of “Remarks on the Four Gospels” (Philadelphia, 1835; London, 1837); “Jesus and His Biographers” (Philadelphia, 1838); “Domestic Worship,” a volume of prayers (1842; 2d ed., Boston, 1850); “A History of Jesus” (Philadelphia and London, 1850; new ed., Boston; 1853); “Discourses” (Philadelphia, 1855); “Thoughts on the Life and Character of Jesus of Nazareth " (Boston, 1 859); “The Veil partly Lifted and Jesus becoming Visible” (Boston, 1864); “The Unconscious Truth of the Four Gospels” (Philadelphia, 1868); “Jesus” (1871); “The Power of Spirit Manifest in Jesus of Nazareth” (1877); “The Story of the Resurrection Told Once More” (1885); and “Verses: Translations and Hymns” (Boston, 1886). He has also translated from the German Schubert's “Mirror of Nature” (1849); “Gems of German Verse” (1851); “Julius and Other Tales” (1856; enlarged ed., 1859); and translated and edited Dr. Daniel Schenkel's “Characterbild Jesu,” an elaborate essay written as a reply to Renan's work, under the title of “Character of Jesus Portrayed” (2 vols., Boston, 1866). His version of Schiller's “Song of the Bell” is considered the best that has been made. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 565-566.
