Encyclopedia of Civil War Biography - Tab-Tho
TABOR, Horace Austin Warner, senator, born in Holland, Orleans County, Vermont, 30 November, 1830. He received a common-school education, and learned the trade of a stone-cutter in Massachusetts. but in 1855 he moved to Kansas and engaged in farming, and was an active member of the Free-Soil party. In 1856 he was a member of the Topeka legislature that was dispersed at the point of the bayonet by order of President Pierce. In 1859 he moved to Colorado, and the following spring he settled in California Gulch (now Leadville). There he worked in the mines until 1865, when he engaged in business, and combined both occupations I till May, 1878. During the latter month August Rische and George F. Hook, to whom he had advanced money, discovered what was afterward known as the "Little Pittsburg" mine. By the terms of his agreement. Mr. Tabor was entitled to a one-third interest, which he sold the following year for $ 1,000,000. This capital he invested in mines, banking stock, and other remunerative property, which greatly increased his wealth. In October, 1878, he was elected the first lieutenant-governor of Colorado, and he held the office until January, 1884. He was chosen U. S. Senator to fill the unexpired term of Henry M. Teller, resigned, and served from 2 February till 4 March. Besides the investments mentioned above, Senator Tabor has purchased 175,000 acres of copper lands in Texas, and 4,600,000 acres of grazing lands in southern Colorado, and is interested in irrigating canals and other enterprises that give employment to a large number of laborers. He has also obtained from the republic of Honduras a grant of every alternate section of land for 400 miles bordering on the Patook River. On this tract are immense groves of mahogany, ebony, and similar valuable woods, orchards of bananas and other tropical fruits, together with deposits of gold, silver, and coal. In addition to the section-grant, he has secured a mineral grant of 150 square miles in the interior. Altogether Mr. Tabor is probably one of the largest owners of land in the world. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 17
TAFT, Lorado, sculptor, born in Elmwood, Peoria County, Illinois, 2!) April. 1860. He was graduated at Illinois state university, Champaign, Illinois, in 1879, studied at the Ecole des beaux arts, Paris, during 1880-'3, and afterward with Marius Jean Antoine Mercie and others for two years. He has executed several busts and medallions, a statue of Schuyler Colfax, which was unveiled in Indianapolis in 1888, and reliefs for Michigan regimental monuments on the Gettysburg battle-field. He is engaged on a statue of General Grant for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Taft is instructor in sculpture at, the Chicago art institute. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 19.
TALIAFERRO, William Booth (tol-li ver), soldier, born in Belleville, Gloucester County, Virginia, 28 December, 1822. He was educated at Harvard and at William and Mary College, where he was graduated in 1841. He became captain in the 11th U. S. Infantry, 9 April, 1847, major of the 9th U.S. Infantry, 12 August, 1847, and was mustered out, 20 August, 1848. At the beginning of the Civil War he was made colonel in the provisional Army of Virginia, 1 May, 1861, and he rose to be brigadier-general in the Confederate service, 4 March. 1862. and major-general, 1 January. 1865. He commanded the Confederate troops in 1861 at Gloucester point, Virginia, took part in the engagements at Carrick's Ford, Virginia, 13 July, and in most of the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia to March. 1863, when he was placed in charge of the district of Savannah. Georgia. In July of the same year he commanded the troops and defences on Morris Island. South Carolina, and in August following the forces on James Island. In February, 1864, he led a division in Florida, consisting of four brigades. In May, 1864, he was put in command of the 7th Military District of South Carolina, and in December following he was assigned to the command of the district of South Carolina. In January,1865. He led a division composed of the brigades of Elliott, Rhett, and Anderson. General Taliaferro was a member of the general assembly of Virginia for ten years and Democratic presidential elector in 1856. He was grand-master of Masons in Virginia in 1876-'7, and member of the boards of visitors of Virginia military institute, of the Mechanical and agricultural college of the state, of William and Mary College, and of the State Normal School for the Education of Women. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
TALLMADGE, Grier, soldier, born in Dutchess County, New York, in 1826; died in Fort Monroe, Virginia, 11 October, 1862, was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1848, assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery, and served on garrison duty in the west. In 1861 he was made captain in the quartermaster's department at Fort Monroe, discharging also the duties of assistant adjutant-general. The "contraband" idea put into practice by General Benjamin F. Butler is said to have originated with him. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 25.
TALLMADGE, James, Jr., 1778-1853, New York, lawyer, soldier, opponent of slavery. U.S. Congressman. Lieutenant Governor of New York. Introduced legislation in House of Representatives to prohibit slavery in new state of Missouri in 1819. It was called the Tallmadge Amendment. Challenged Illinois right to statehood with state constitution permitting existence of slavery in the new state. The Tallmadge Amendment to the Congressional Bill for Missouri Statehood read: “And approved, that the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes…” The House of Representatives adopted the amendment; the U.S. Senate did not. Tallmadge declared: “The interest, honor, and faith of the nation required it scrupulously to guard against slavery’s passing into a territory where they [Congress] have power to prevent its entrance.” (16 Con., 1 Sess., 1819-1820, II, p. 1201) Tallmadge further said: “If the western country cannot be settled without slaves, gladly would I prevent its settlement till time shall be no more.”
(Basker, 2005, pp. 318-321, 327, 349; Dumond, 1961, pp. 101-103, 106; Hammond, 2011, pp. 138, 150-151, 272; Mason, 2006, pp. 155, 177, 181, 184, 185, 191, 209; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 35, 129, 386, 471-472; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 26; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 285; Tallmadge Amendment, pp. 177-212; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 281)
TALLMADGE, James, lawyer, born in Stanford, Dutchess County, New York, 28 January, 1778; died in New York City, 29 September, 1853. His father, Colonel James (1744 to 1821), led a company of volunteers at the capture of General John Burgoyne. After graduation at Brown in 1798 the son studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised several years in Poughkeepsie and New York, and also gave attention to agriculture, owning a farm in Dutchess County. For some time he was private secretary to Governor George Clinton, and during the war of 1812-'15 he commanded a company of home-guards in the defence of New York. He was elected a representative to Congress as a Democrat, and served from 1 December, 1817, till 3 March, 1819, but declined a re-election. In that body he defended General Andrew Jackson's course in the Seminole war, and introduced, as an amendment to the bill authorizing the people of Missouri to form a state organization, a proposition to exclude slavery from that state when admitted to the Union. In support of this amendment General Tallmadge delivered a powerful speech, 15 February, 1819, in opposition to the extension of slavery. This was widely circulated, and was translated into German. He was a delegate to the New York constitutional conventions of 1821 and 1846, a member of the state assembly in 1824, and delivered a speech on 5 August, 1824, on the bill to provide for the choice by the people of presidential electors. In 1825-'6 he was lieutenant-governor of New York, and while holding this office he delivered a speech at the reception of Lafayette in New York on 4 July, 1825. In 1836 he visited Russia, and aided in introducing into that country several American mechanical inventions, especially cotton-spinning machinery. From 1831 till 1850 he was president of the American institute, of which he was a founder. He also aided in establishing the University of the City of New York, which gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1838, and he was president of its council for many years. General Tallmadge was a leading exponent of the Whig doctrine of protection to American industry, and published numerous speeches and addresses which were directed to the encouragement of domestic production. He also delivered a eulogium at the memorial ceremonies of Lafayette by the corporation and citizens of New York, 26 June, 1834. General Tallmadge was an eloquent orator and vigorous writer. His only daughter was one of the most beautiful women in the country, and after her return from Russia, to which court she accompanied her father, married Philip S, Van Rensselaer, of Albany, third son of the patroon. Their only surviving son, James Tallmadge Van Rensselaer, is a well-known lawyer of New York City. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 26.
TALMAGE, Thomas We Witt, clergyman, born in Bound Brook, New Jersey, 7 January, 1832, was educated at the University of the City of New York in the class of 1853, but was not graduated. After graduation at New Brunswick theological seminary in 1856,hewas ordained pastor of the Reformed Dutch church in Belleville, New Jersey He had charge of the church in Syracuse, New York, from 1856 till 1862. and of one in Philadelphia in 1862-'9. During the Civil War he was chaplain of a Pennsylvania regiment, and he is now chaplain of the 13th New York Regiment. […] Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 27.
TANEY, Roger Brooke (taw'-ny), jurist, born in Calvert County, Maryland, 17 March, 1777; died in Washington, D. C, 12 October, 1804. He was the son of a Roman Catholic planter, of a family that came to Maryland in the early emigration from England, who had been educated in St. Omer, France, and Bruges, United Netherlands, in the Jesuit College, and was frequently elected to the house of delegates. The son was graduated at Dickinson College in 1795. He read law in Annapolis with Jeremiah Chase, then a judge of the general court, and was admitted to the bar in 1799. His father, who was ambitious of political honors for his son, persuaded him to begin practice in his native county, where, in the autumn of the same year, he was elected to the house of delegates. He was the youngest member in that body, yet was distinguished for the maturity of his opinions and his dialectic powers. He was defeated at the next election by a Republican, and in March, 1801, moved to Frederick. Although he was unknown I in that part of the state, his acuteness, thoroughness, and eloquence brought him a lucrative practice, and before many years passed he was retained in important and intricate cases, and confronted the leaders of the Maryland bar. He was a candidate for the house of delegates on the Federalist ticket in 1803, but was defeated. On 7 January, 1806, he married Anne Phebe Charlton Key, sister of Francis Scott Key, who had been his fellow law student. In 1811 he defended General James Wilkinson on his trial before a court-martial, thereby sharing the odium that then attached to that officer, yet refusing to take a fee for his services. During the war with Great Britain he led the wing of the Federal party that upheld the policy of the government, and was a candidate for congress, failing of election by a few votes. He was sent to the state senate in 1816, and drew up many of the bills that were passed during his term of service. He endured the disapprobation of his neighbors by courageously appearing in 1819 in defence of Jacob Gruber, a Methodist minister from Pennsylvania, who in a camp-meeting had condemned slavery in bitter language, and who was indicted as an inciter of insurrection among the Negroes. In his opening argument Taney declared of slavery that "while it continues, it is a blot on our national character." In 1821 he was counsel in the important case of Brown vs. Kennedy, which involved the question of the original proprietary title to lands that had been reclaimed from the navigable waters of Maryland, and in the following year in one connected with the law of charitable trusts. He moved in 1823 to Baltimore, where the death of William Pinkney, the retirement of Luther Martin, and the decease of other eminent lawyers left him at the head of the bar until William Wirt came in 1829 to divide with him that distinction. With many other Federals of the south, Taney passed over into the Democratic party, and supported the candidacy of Andrew Jackson for the presidency in 1824. In 1826 he argued the case of Ringgold vs. Ringgold, in which the doctrine of trusts was discussed, and, with Wirt, represented the state of Maryland in the Lord Baltimore case before the U. S. Supreme Court. In 1827 he was appointed attorney-general of Maryland, and on 27 December, 1831, he succeeded John M. Berrien as attorney-general of the United States. He became President Jackson's most trusted counsellor, and encouraged and sustained him in his determination to remove the government deposits from the United States Bank. There were only two members of the cabinet that approved this action, and when William J. Duane hesitated to carry out the president's decree he was removed and Taney was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. He entered upon the duties of the office on 24 September, 1833 and two days afterward issued the order for the removal of the deposits on 1 October The bank therefore called in its loans and refused accommodation, locking up a large part of the currency, and producing a financial stringency that affected all classes, for which the president was held responsible by the opposition. Sec. Taney was a special object of vituperation and scorn, because he was supposed to have been the "pliant instrument" of the president in his arbitrary purpose from motives of selfish ambition. His nomination to the office was sent to the Senate for confirmation on 23 June, 1834, having been withheld till near the close of the session, which, owing to the subject most prominently brought up in debate, has been known as the "panic session." On 24 June the hostile majority rejected the appointment, it being the first time that a president's selection of a cabinet officer had not been confirmed. On the following day Mr. Taney sent in his resignation, which was accepted by President Jackson in a letter expressing gratitude for his patriotic and disinterested aid during the crisis. In January, 1835, on the retirement of Gabriel Duval, associate justice of the U. S. supreme court, President Jackson named Mr. Taney for the vacant judgeship; but the Senate refused to ratify the nomination. During the ensuing year the political complexion of the Senate was changed, and when, after the death of John Marshall, the president, on 26 December, 1835, nominated Mr. Taney to be chief justice of the United States, he was confirmed on 15 March, 1836, by 29 votes against 15, notwithstanding the denunciations of Henry Clay and other political opponents. He took his seat on the bench as circuit judge at Baltimore in April, beginning his functions by abolishing the custom of giving preliminary instructions to the grand jury. In January, 1837. he presided over the full bench. His first decisions showed divergence between his view of the constitution and that of his predecessor, who had been more and more drawn to allow a wide scope to the powers of Congress and to limit the sphere of state sovereignty. In the case of the City of New York vs. Miln, Chief-Justice Taney and the majority of the court decided that an act of the legislature of New York requiring masters of vessels to make reports of passengers on arriving was a police regulation that did not interfere with t tie power of Congress to regulate foreign commerce. In the case of Briscoe vs. the Bank of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the court reversed the decision of Marshall, who held that the act establishing the bank was a violation of the provision of the constitution that restrains states from emitting bills of credit. In the Charles-River-bridge suit he delivered a judgment under which state legislatures were free to authorize bridges, railroads, and similar improvements without regard to implied contracts in former grants and monopolies. These decisions almost impelled Justice Joseph Story to resign, and caused Chancellor James Kent to say that he had lost confidence in the constitutional guardianship of the supreme court. In the case of disputed boundaries between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the chief justice, dissenting from the judgment of the court, held that the Federal tribunal had no power to decide questions of political jurisdiction between sovereign states. In 1839 he delivered the opinion in the case of the Bank of Augusta vs. Eurle, in which he laid down the principle that corporations chartered in one state may make contracts in others by the comity of nations. The claim of the proprietors of East Jersey to the oyster-fisheries in Raritan River was disallowed on the ground that fishery rights had passed with the powers of government into the hands of the state. In the case of Prigg vs. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the chief justice for the first time pronounced a state law unconstitutional. Prigg, as agent for a Maryland slave-holder, had seized and carried back to her master an escaped female slave, for which he was indicted under a state law, which made it a penal act, to carry a Negro or mulatto by force out of the state. Justice Story delivered the opinion, which declared the law unconstitutional because the remedy for fugitives from labor is vested exclusively in Congress. Chief Justice Taney held, however, that stales could pass laws for the rendition of escaped servants, but not to impair the right of the master to seize his fugitive slave, which he declared to be the law of each state, he concurred with Justice Story and Justice John McLean, and protected the rights of the Federal government in the Holmes habeas corpus case, in which he denied the authority of the governor of Vermont to extradite a fugitive from justice, because all foreign intercourse belongs to the Federal government. In 1847 the court decided, in the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire license cases, that a state can regulate or prohibit the retail sale of wines or spirits that Congress has authorized to be imported. In the Massachusetts and Now York passenger cases the chief justice delivered an opinion that the state authorities could impose a head-tax on immigrants, on the grounds that the power of Congress to regulate commerce is not exclusive, and that persons are not subjects of commerce. In 1849 he declined to pronounce judgment as to which of the contending governments of Rhode Island was the legitimate one, as it belonged to the political and not to the judicial department of the government to determine that question. In 1845 he upheld the constitutionality of the law of Congress that extended admiralty jurisdiction over the lakes and connecting navigable waters, although English precedents limited it to tide-water. In the midst of the excitement that attended the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill (30 May, 1854), and the strife of Free-Soilers and slave-holders, the Dred Scott case, to which President Buchanan alluded in his inaugural message, came before the Supreme Court for decision. It involved the question whether Congress had the power to exclude slavery from the territories. The case was presented in 1854, and, after being twice argued, was finally decided in 1857. The opinion of the court was written by Chief-Justice Taney, who entered into an elaborate historical exposition of the status of the Negro, the other five judges who concurred in the decision delivering separate opinions. He held that the plaintiff in error, Dred Scott, was debarred from seeking a remedy in the U. S. circuit court for Missouri, on the ground that he was not a citizen of that state, and enunciated the general principle that Negroes could not become citizens by the act of any state or of the United States, since, before the adoption of the constitution, the colonies had special laws for colored people, whet her slave or free, and Congress had not authorized their naturalization or enrolled them in the militia. "They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.'' He held, further, that the Missouri compromise and other laws of Congress inhibiting slavery in the territories of the United States were unconstitutional, and that whatever measure of freedom Dred Scott may have acquired by his residence, in Illinois, he lost by being subsequently moved into the territory of Wisconsin, and by his return thence to Missouri. This deliverance, made two days after the inauguration of President Buchanan, produced intense excitement throughout the country and a strong reaction in favor of the anti-slavery party. The chief justice replied to the strictures that it provoked, and especially to a direct attack on the Supreme Court made by William H. Seward in the Senate, in a supplementary opinion explaining and justifying his legal deductions. In the following year a case that arose under the Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850 came before Chief-Justice Taney. Sherman M. Booth, who had been sentenced by the U. S. district court for aiding in the escape of a Negro from slavery, was released on habeas corpus proceedings by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, which refused to take cognizance of the subsequent mandates of the Supreme Court of the United States in the matter. In reviewing the case Chief-Justice Taney affirmed the constitutionality of the Fugitive-Slave Law, and declared that "so long as this constitution shall endure, this tribunal must exist with it. deciding in the peaceful forms of judicial procedure the angry and irritating controversies between sovereignties which in other countries have been decided by the arbitrament of force." The reversal of the judgment of the state court called forth a declaration of the legislature of Wisconsin that the government of the United States was not the final judge of the extent of its powers, but that the states, as parties to the compact, have an equal right to determine infractions of their rights and the mode of their redress, and that the judgment of the Federal court was " void and of no force." The chief question at issue in the presidential election of 1860 was whether the Dred Scott decision, throwing all the territories of the United States open to slavery and denying to colored persons any standing in courts of law, should be maintained as the true construction of the constitution. On 13 March. 1861, Chief-Justice Taney delivered the opinion of the court in mandamus proceedings brought by the state of Kentucky against the governor of Ohio to compel him to cause the arrest and delivery of Willis Lago, a free man of color who, while under indictment for assisting a slave to escape, had fled from Kentucky. He affirmed the right of Kentucky to demand the person of the fugitive, and the obligation of Ohio to render him up, yet denied the jurisdiction of the U. S. court in the case. When, after the secession of the southern states, martial law was proclaimed in Maryland, Chief Justice Taney, on application of John Merryman, arrested by order of General George Cadwalader, ordered the release of the prisoner, issued an attachment against the officer, and filed an opinion, to be laid before President Lincoln, in which he denied the right of the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, affirming that such power is vested in Congress alone. When Congress passed an act to withhold three per cent, of the salaries of government officers, Chief-Justice Taney, on 16 February, 1863, sent a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, pointing out the unconstitutionality of this law so far as it affected the judges of the U. S. courts. In the matter of a seizure of contraband goods, he delivered on 3 June, 1863, an opinion at nisi prius, in which he censured the duplicity of the government detectives, ordered the price of the goods to be restored to the smugglers, and mulcted the provost-marshal and his assistants in damages and costs. Chief-Justice Taney died on the same day on which the state of Maryland abolished slavery. His judicial opinions and decisions are contained in the "Supreme Court Reports" of Benjamin R. Curtis. Benjamin C. Howard, and Jeremiah S. Black. His opinions as a circuit judge from 1836 till 1801 were reported by his son-in-law, James Mason Campbell. He wrote Andrew Jackson's farewell address on retiring from the presidency. At the age of seventy-seven he began an autobiography, which he brought down to 1801, and which forms the introduction to a " Memoir " by Samuel Tyler (Baltimore, 1872). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 28-31.
TANNER, Benjamin Tucker, A. M. E. bishop, born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 25 December, 1835. He is of African descent. After studying at Avery institute j and Western theological seminary, Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, he officiated at the 15th street Presbyterian church in Washington, D. C, also organizing the first school for freedmen in the U. S. Navy-yard, by permission of Admiral Dahlgren. At the end of eighteen months he returned to his own church, the African Methodist Episcopal, entering the Baltimore conference in April, 1862. He labored as a missionary in Alexandria, where he organized the first society of his church on Virginia soil. He was stationed in 1863 in Georgetown, D. C, in 1864 in Frederick, Maryland, and in 1866 in Baltimore, but resigned to organize a proposed conference school in Frederick, Maryland, as well as to take charge of the schools of the Freedmen's bureau in Frederick County. He was elected secretary of the general conference of 1868, and by this body was chosen editor of the "Christian Recorder," being continued in this post by three subsequent general conferences of 1872, 1876, and 1880. In 1884, he was elected managing editor of a new church publication, the "A. M. E. Church Review." He received the degree of A. M. from Avery College in 1870, and that of D. D, from Wilberforce University in 1878, and on 19 May, 1888, was elected a bishop. Dr. Tanner has written prose and poetry for periodicals, and is the author of " Paul versus Pius Ninth" (Baltimore, 1865); "Apology for African Methodism" (1807): "The Negro's Origin, and Is the Negro Cursed " (Philadelphia, 1869); and "Outline of the History and Government of the A. M. E. Church " (1883). He has ready for publication "The Negro, African and American." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 31.
TAPPAN, Arthur, 1786-1865, New York City, philanthropist, merchant, newspaper publisher, educator, radical abolitionist leader. Arthur Tappan and his brother, Lewis, were among the most important supporters of the abolitionist cause in America. Arthur was one of the founders of Oberlin College, in Ohio, and he endowed Lane Seminary, in Cincinnati. In 1828, the brothers established the anti-slavery newspaper, The Emancipator. Arthur endowed the newspaper and paid the salary of the editor and the cost of publication. Arthur was one of the founders and president of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833. He was also a Manager, 1833-1837, and Member of the Executive Committee, 1833-1840 of the AASS. Arthur contributed $1,000 a month for several years for the maintenance of the Society. He was also President of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1855, Member of the Executive Committee, 1840-1855. The Tappan brothers also were active in aiding fugitive slaves. This incurred the wrath of Southern slaveholders.
(Blue, 2005; Burin, 2005, pp. 84, 89; Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Filler, 1960, pp. 26, 40, 55, 58, 60-61, 63-64, 68, 84, 132, 262; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 8, 9, 14-18, 21, 38-41, 44, 48, 51, 55, 71, 107, 129, 134, 151, 152, 153, 200, 234, 235, 242, 285, 293, 340; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 106, 161, 162, 163, 166, 320, 362; Sorin, 1971, pp. 73, 75, 102, 114; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 33; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 209; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 311; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 320-321; Tappan, Lewis. Life of Arthur Tappan. New York, Hurd and Houghton: 1870; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 671-673; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 128, 131, 161, 163-165, 189-190)
TAPPAN, Arthur, born in Northampton, Massachusetts, 22 May, 1786; died in New Haven, Connecticut, 23 July, 1865, was locked up while an infant in a folding bedstead. When he was discovered life was almost extinct, and headaches, to which he was subject daily through life, were ascribed to this accident. He received a common-school education, and served a seven years' apprenticeship in the hardware business in Boston, after which he established himself in Portland, Maine, and subsequently in Montreal, Canada, where he remained until the beginning of the war of 1812. In 1814 he engaged with his brother Lewis in importing British dry-goods into New York City, and after the partnership was dissolved he successfully continued the business alone. Mr. Tappan was known for his public spirit and philanthropy. He was a founder of the American tract society, the largest donor for the erection of its first building, and was identified with many charitable and religious bodies. He was a founder of Oberlin College, also erecting Tappan hall there, and endowed Lane seminary in Cincinnati, and a professorship at Auburn theological seminary. With his brother Lewis he founded the New York “Journal of Commerce” in 1828, and established “The Emancipator” in 1833, paying the salary of the editor and all the expenses of its publication. He was an ardent Abolitionist, and as the interest in the anti-slavery cause deepened he formed, at his own rooms, the nucleus of the New York City anti-slavery society, which was publicly organized under his presidency at Clinton hall on 2 October, 1833. Mr. Tappan was also president of the American anti-slavery society, to which he contributed $1,000 a month for several years, but he withdrew in 1840 on account of the aggressive spirit that many members manifested toward the churches and the Union. During the crisis of 1837 he was forced to suspend payments, and he became bankrupt in 1842. During his late years he was connected with the mercantile agency that his brother Lewis established. He incurred the hatred of the southern slave-holders by his frequent aid to fugitives, and by his rescuing William Lloyd Garrison from imprisonment at Baltimore. See his “Life,” by Lewis Tappan (New York, 1871). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33.
TAPPAN, Charles, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1839-. Supported the American Colonization Society. (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 131, 195-196)
TAPPAN, John, Boston, Massachusetts, member of the American Colonization Society Committee in Boston. (Campbell, 1971, p. 94; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 86, 130)
TAPPAN, Juliana, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, pp. 26-27, 40n, 41-43)
TAPPAN, Lewis Northey, 1788-1873, New York, NY, merchant, radical abolitionist leader. Lewis Tappan and his brother, Arthur, were among the most important activists in the cause of abolition in America. With his brother, Arthur, in 1828, Lewis began publishing anti-slavery newspaper, The Emancipator, paying for the editor and expenses for printing. Lewis Tappan’s house was destroyed by a pro-slavery mob in July 1834. He was a member of the Free-Soil Party from its beginning. Co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. Member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1855, Treasurer, 1840-1842, Secretary, 1842-1844, Corresponding Secretary, 1845-1846, 1848-1855. Leader of the Philadelphia Free Produce Association. Wrote Life. Both Lewis and Arthur Tappan were despised by slaveholders in the South.
(Blue, 2005; Burin, 2005, p. 89; Dumond, 1961, pp. 159, 218, 287; Filler, 1960, pp. 26, 31, 50, 55, 61, 63, 68, 72, 94, 102, 130, 136, 138, 144, 150, 152, 158, 164, 165, 168, 174, 177, 189, 194, 210, 247, 262; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 8, 9, 13-19, 21, 24, 26, 38, 42-49, 51, 55, 58, 91, 93, 104, 105, 130, 190, 151-156, 190, 202, 219-221, 226-229, 233, 234, 251-253, 257, 334, 340, 341, 343, 344, 345; Mitchell, 2007; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 106, 161, 162, 163, 166, 174, 290, 362; Sorin, 1971, pp. 70, 93, 96, 102, 113, 114, 131; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 32-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 203; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 311; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 321; Tappan, Lewis. Life of Arthur Tappan. New York, Hurd and Houghton: 1870; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 673-675; Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery, 1969; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 76, 128-129, 219, 228, 230; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)
TAPPAN, Lewis, merchant, born in Northampton, Massachusetts, 23 May, 1788; died in Brooklyn, New York, 21 June, 1873, received a good education, and at the age of sixteen became clerk in a dry-goods house in Boston. His employers subsequently aided him in establishing himself in business, and he became interested m calico-print works and in the manufacture of cotton. In 1827 he moved to New York and became a member of the firm of Arthur Tappan and County, and his subsequent career was closely identified with that of his brother Arthur. With the latter he established in 1828 the “Journal of Commerce,” of which he became sole owner in 1829. In 1833 he entered with vigor into the anti-slavery movement, in consequence of which his house was sacked and his furniture was destroyed by a mob in July, 1834, and at other times he and his brother suffered personal violence. He was also involved in the crisis of 1837, and afterward withdrew from the firm and established the first mercantile agency in the country, which he conducted with success. He was chief founder of the American missionary association, of which he was treasurer and afterward president, and was an early member of Plymouth church, Brooklyn. He published the life of his brother mentioned above, but afterward joined in the Free-Soil movement at its inception. He was widely known for his drollery and wit and for his anti-slavery sentiments. Judge Tappan published “Cases decided in the Court of Common Pleas,” with an appendix (Steubenville, 1831). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 32-34.
TAPPAN, Mason Weare, 1817-1886, lawyer, soldier. U.S. Congressman, Free Soil Party, 1855-1861. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33-34)
TAPPAN, Mason Weare, lawyer, born in Newport, New Hampshire, 20 October, 1817; died in Bradford, New Hampshire, 24 October, 1886. His father, a well-known lawyer, settled in Bradford in 1818, and was a pioneer in the anti-slavery movement. The son was educated at Kimball Union Academy, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1841, and acquired a large practice. He was early identified with the Whig party, and afterward was a Free-Soiler and served in the legislature in 1853-'5. He was elected to Congress as a Free-Soiler, by a combination of the Whigs, Free-Soilers, Independent Democrats, and Americans, at the time of the breaking up of the two great parties, Whigs and Democrats. He served from 3 December, 1855, till 3 March, 1861, and was a member of the special committee of thirty-three on the rebellious states. On 5 February, 1861, when a report was submitted recommending that the provisions of the constitution should be obeyed rather than amended, he made a patriotic speech in support of the government. Mr. Tappan was one of the earliest to enlist in the volunteer army, and was colonel of the 1st New Hampshire Regiment from May till August, 1861. Afterward he resumed the practice of law, and held the office of attorney-general of the state for ten years preceding his death. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' convention of 1866, and presided over the New Hampshire Republican convention on 14 September, 1886. In the presidential election of 1872 he supported his life-long friend, Horace Greeley. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33-34.
TAPPAN, Samuel Foster, 1831-1913, Manchester, Massachusetts, journalist, Union Army officer, abolitionist, Native American rights activist. Co-founded Lawrence, Kansas, as part of the New England Emigrant Aid Company. Active in the Free-Soil movement to keep slavery out of the territory of Kansas. Served as a correspondent for the New York Tribune, reporting on the anti-slavery activities there. Related to the abolitionist Tappan family.
TAPPING, Lewis, Iowa Territory, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40
TARRANT, Carter, Virginia, Baptist clergyman, co-leader of the Emancipating Baptists, anti-slavery activist, Woodford County, Kentucky. Chaplain, U.S. Army, founded anti-slavery church in Kentucky. (Brown, 1889, p. 226; Dumond, 1961, p. 91; Locke, 1901, pp. 44, 90)
TATTNALL, Josiah, naval officer, born in Bonaventure, near Savannah, Georgia, 9 November, 1795; died in Savannah, Georgia, 14 June, 1871, was educated in England under the supervision of his grandfather in 1805'11. He returned to the United States in 1811 and entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 January, 1812. He served in the war of 1812 in the seamen's battery on Craney Island, and with a force of navy yard workmen in the Bladensburg.' During the Algerine war he participated in the engagements of Decatur's squadron. He returned to the United States in September, 1817, was promoted to lieutenant, 1 April, 1818, and served in the frigate "Macedonian," on the Pacific station, in 1818—'21. In 1833-'4 he served in the schooner "Jackal." one of Porter's " Mosquito fleet," in the suppression of piracy in the West Indies. In October, 1828, he was appointed 1st lieutenant of the sloop " Erie," in the West Indies, where he cut out the Spanish cruiser " Federal," which had confiscated American property at sea during the wars of the Spanish-American republics for independence. In August, 1829, he took charge of the surveys of the Tortugas Reefs off the coast of Florida, which surveys proved to be of great value for the location of fortifications at Dry Tortugas. In March, 1831, he took command of the schooner "Grampus" in the West Indies, and in August, 1832, he captured the Mexican war-schooner "Montezuma" for illegal acts against an American vessel. His services with the "Grampus" in protecting American commerce elicited letters of thanks from the merchants and insurance companies at Vera Cruz and New Orleans, from whom he also received a service of silver. In December, 1832, he was relieved of his command at his own request, and he subsequently served on duty in making experiments in ordnance and in the conduct of the coast tidal survey. In November, 1835, in command of the bark "Pioneer," he took General Santa-Anna to Mexico after he had been captured in a battle with the Texans and surrendered to the United States. Upon their arrival at Vera Cruz, Tattnall personally prevented an attack on Santa-Anna by an excited mob of his opponents. He was promoted to commander, 25 February, 1838, and placed in charge of the Boston Navy-yard. While on his way to the African station in the " Saratoga" in 1843 he encountered a hurricane off Cape Ann, Massachusetts, and won a brilliant professional reputation by the skill he displayed in cutting away the masts and anchoring when almost on the rocks off the cape. When war was declared with Mexico he was assigned to command the steamer " Spitfire," joined the squadron at Vera Cruz, and was given command of the Mosquito division. With this he covered the landing of General Winfield Scott's army, and assisted in the bombardment of the city. After the fall of Vera Cruz he led in the attack on the forts at Tuspan and was severely wounded in the arm by grape-shot. The legislature of Georgia gave him a vote of thanks and a sword. He was promoted to captain. 5 February, 1850, and in command of the steamer "Saranac" contributed much to preserve peace between the United States and Spain during the Cuban insurrection. On 15 October, 1857, he was appointed flag-officer of the Asiatic station. He found China at war with the allied English and French fleets, and went to the scene of operations at Pei-ho. Shortly before an engagement his flagship grounded and was towed off by the English lxiats. This service was taken as an excuse for subsequent active participation in the attack on the Chinese. In explanation of his violation of neutrality, Tattnall exclaimed that "blood was thicker than water." He was sustained in his course by public opinion at the time and also by the government, On 20 February, 1861, he resigned his commission as captain in the U.S. Navy, and offered his services to the governor of Georgia. He was commissioned senior flag-officer of the Georgia navy, 28 February. 1861, and in March, 1861, he became a captain in the Confederate Navy, and was ordered to command the naval defences of Georgia and South Carolina. On 7 November, 1861, he led an improvised naval force against the attack on Port Royal. He conducted attacks on the blockading fleet at the mouth of the Savannah, constructed batteries for the defence of that river, and materially delayed the operations of the National forces. In March, 1862, he was ordered to relieve Franklin Buchanan, who was wounded in the engagement with the ' Monitor," and took command of the " Merrimac" and the naval defences of the waters of Virginia. He set out for Hampton Roads on 11 April, 1862, accompanied by the gun-boats, which cut out three merchant vessels, but the "Merrimac" did not venture to lose communication with Norfolk. When the Confederates were forced to abandon the peninsula, Norfolk and the Navy-yard were also surrendered, and on 11 May, 1862, Tattnall destroyed the " Merrimac " off Craney Island in order to prevent her capture. He was then ordered to resume command of the naval defences of Georgia. At his request a court of inquiry was ordered to investigate the destruction of the "Merrimac," and he was censured for destroying the vessel without attacking the enemy's fleet, and for not taking her to Hog Island to defend the James River. He then demanded a regular court-martial, which met at Richmond, 5 July, 1862, and. after a thorough investigation, honorably acquitted him. He was indefatigable in his efforts to defend Savannah River, but in January, 1865, he was obliged to destroy all the vessels he had collected. He then went to Augusta, where he was included in the parole of the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston's army. He remained there until 12 June. 1806, when he took his family to Nova Scotia, after first obtaining permission from the war department to leave the country. He resided near Halifax, but his pecuniary resources became nearly exhausted, and in 1870 he returned to his home in quest of employment. On 5 January, 1870, the mayor and city council appointed him inspector of the port of Savannah. He held this office, which had been created for him, for seventeen months, when it was abolished by his death. See "'The Life of Commodore Tattnall," by Charles C. Jones, assisted by J. R. F. Tattnall, the commodore's son (Savannah, 1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 38-39.
TAYLOR, Alfred, naval officer, born in Fairfax County, Virginia, 23 May, 1810. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 November, 1826, became a passed midshipman, 4 June. 1831, and was commissioned a lieutenant, 9 February, 1837. During the Mexican war he was attached to the frigate "Cumberland" in the blockade of Vera Cruz and in some of the operations on the coast. He served at the Washington Navy-yard in 1848-'51, and in the steamer "Mississippi'' with Perry's Expedition to Japan in 1853-'5, was commissioned commander, 14 September, 1855, and commanded the sloop " Saratoga " on the coast of Africa when the Civil War opened in 1861. He was commissioned captain, 10 July, 1862, and was attached to the U.S. Navy-yard at Boston in 1862-'5. He commanded the flag-ship "Susquehanna" on the Brazil station in 1866, and was promoted to commodore, 27 September, I860. He was then on waiting orders until February, 1869, when he was appointed light-house inspector. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 29 January, 1872, and was retired by operation of law, 23 May. 1872. He has been a resident of New York City since his retirement. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 39.
TAYLOR. Bushrod Bust, naval officer, born in Madison, Indiana, 31 March, 1832; died in Washington, D. C, 22 April, 1883. He entered the U.S. Navy as an acting midshipman, 3 April, 1849, and was graduated at the Naval Academy. 12 June, 1855. He was promoted to master on 10.September, lieutenant, 31 July, 1850, and served in the Paraguay Expedition of 1859. He went to the Naval Academy as an instructor in October, 1860, and assisted in the removal of the academy from Annapolis to Newport. From May to August, 1861, he served in the flagship "Colorado," in the Gulf Squadron, on the blockade. He was in the supply and despatch steamer " Connecticut " in 1861-"2, and was executive of the steamer" Cimmeron" in James River and the South Atlantic blockade in 1862-'3. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, served in the steamer " Ticonderoga," flag-ship of the West India Squadron, in 1863, and commanded the steamer " Kanawha," in the Western Gulf Squadron, until 28 September, 1865. He next served at the Philadelphia Navy-yard in 1865-'6. and at the Naval Academy as an instructor in 1866-'9. He was commissioned commander. 14 March, 1868, and had the steamer" Idaho," of the Asiatic Squadron, in 1869. In this vessel he encountered the centre of a terrible typhoon, in which she was completely dismantled and became almost a total wreck. This was one of the worst storms, that was ever survived by any ship. He next commanded the "Ashuelot " on the same station, until January. 1872, served at the Philadelphia Navy-yard in 1872, and in the bureau of yards and docks at Washington in 1872-'4. He commanded the steamer " Wachusett " during the threatened war with Spain in 1874, was a member of the board of inspection in 1876, and at the Boston Navy-yard in 1876-9. He was commissioned captain, 27 October, 1869, and had special duty at Washington in 1880. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 42.
TAYLOR, George William, soldier, in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 22 November, 1808; died in Alexandria, Virginia, 1 September, 1862. He was graduated at the military academy of Alden Partridge, Middletown, Connecticut, and received a midshipman's warrant in the U.S. Navy in 1827, but resigned at the end of four years and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In the beginning of the Mexican war he assisted in raising a company in New Jersey, being commissioned as lieutenant on 8 March, 1847, and as captain in the following September, and served through General Zachary Taylor's campaigns. After the war he went to California, remaining there three years. Returning then to New Jersey, he occupied himself in mining and iron-manufacturing. When the Civil War began he was made colonel of the, 3d New Jersey Infantry, which left for the field on 28 June. 1861,"assisted in guarding Long Bridge, formed part of the reserve division at Bull Run, and participated in the occupation of Manassas in March. 1862, being the first to perceive the enemy retreating. When General Philip Kearny was promoted. Colonel Taylor succeeded to the command of the brigade, which he led in the advance on Richmond and the seven days' battles, receiving his commission as brigadier-general of volunteers on 11 May, 1862. At Gaines's Mills his command was subjected to the hottest fire. At the second battle of Bull Run he fought with distinguished courage, and received wounds from which he soon after died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 44.
TAYLOR, James Barnett, clergyman, born in Barton-on-Humber. England, 19 March, 1819; died in Richmond, Virginia, 22 Dee., 1871. He was brought in his infancy to the United States, and received his early education in New York City, whence his parents moved about 1818 to Mecklenburg County, Virginia After passing through an academical course, he became a Baptist home missionary, and in 1826 was chosen pastor of a church in Richmond, Virginia. where he soon acquired a high reputation as a preacher. In 1839-40 he officiated as chaplain of the University of Virginia. Returning to Richmond, he served as a pastor there for five years longer. He labored also as a missionary, and in 1845, soon after the organization of the Southern Baptist convention, became its corresponding secretary. This office he filled till within a few weeks of his death, travelling constantly, preaching throughout the south, and editing the "Religious Herald" for a short time, and subsequently the "Southern Baptist Missionary Journal" and the " Home and Foreign Journal," both of which he founded, hand the "Foreign Mission Journal.' He was pastor also of the Baptist church at Taylorsville, Hanover County, Virginia, till the Civil War began. During the war he labored as a colporteur in camps and hospitals, and for three years as Confederate post-chaplain. After its close he exerted himself to revive the missions of the Southern Baptist convention, and took much interest in the education of the freedmen, preaching often to colored congregations, and conferring with the secretary of the Freedmen's bureau with regard to the best plans for assisting the emancipated slaves. He was one of the originators of the Virginia Baptist education society, and a founder of Richmond College. His chief published works were " Life of Lot Cary" (Baltimore. 1H37): "Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers " (Richmond. 1837); and 'Memoir of Luther Rice, one of the First Missionaries in the East" (1841). He had nearly completed before his death a " History of Virginia Baptists." See "Life and Times of James B. Taylor,' by his son, George B. Taylor (Philadelphia. 1872). His wife was a daughter of Elisha Scott Williams.—Their son, George Boardnian, clergyman, born in Richmond, Virginia, 27 December, 1832, was graduated at Richmond College, taught for a short time, and then studied three years at the University of Virginia, at the same time serving as pastor of two Baptist churches in the vicinity. He was graduated in most of the schools in the university, was pastor for two years in Baltimore, Maryland, then for twelve years at Staunton, Virginia, leaving his church during the campaign of 1862 to act as chaplain to Stonewall Jackson's corps. Subsequently, till the close of hostilities, he officiated as post-chaplain in conjunction with his pastorate. In 1809 he was chosen chaplain of the University of Virginia for the usual period of two years, after which he returned to his former church at Staunton, of which he again took leave in 187:3, on being appointed by the mission board of the Southern Baptist convention missionary to Rome, Italy. He was co-editor of the " Christian Review " for two years, and since 1876 he has been one of the editors of " 11 Seminatore," a monthly Baptist magazine published in Rome. The degree of D. D. was given him by Richmond College and the University of Chicago in 1872. His publications include "Oakland Stories" (4 vols., New York, 1859-'65); "Costar Grew" (Philadelphia, 1869): ' Roger Bernard, the Pastor's Son " (1870); and ' Walter Ennis," a tale of the early Virginia Baptists (1870). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 44.
TAYLOR, John W., 1784-1854, abolitionist. Nine term Democratic U.S. Congressman from New York, 1813-1833. Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Proposed legislation in 1819 to prohibit slavery in Arkansas Territory. Later organized the Whig and National Republican Parties. Taylor said during a debate on slavery: “Our votes this day will determine whether the high destinies of this region, of these generations, shall be fulfilled, or whether we shall defeat them by permitting slavery, with all its baleful consequences, to inherit the wind.” (15 Cong., 2 Sess., 1818-1819, p. 1170)
(Basker, 2005, pp. 318, 319, 321, 324, 327, 349; Dumond, 1961, p. 104; Mabee, 1970, pp. 86, 191, 193, 199, 202, 204; Mason, 2006, pp. 146, 148, 181, 186; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 35, 36, 298; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 46; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 235)
TAYLOR, John W., speaker of the House of Representatives, born in Charlton, Saratoga County, New York, 20 March; 1784; died in Cleveland, Ohio, 8 September, 1854. He was graduated at Union in 1803, organized the Ballston Centre Academy in that year, studied law in Albany, was admitted to the bar in 1807, and practised in Ballston, becoming a justice of the peace in 1808, then state commissioner of loans, and in 1811-'12 a member of the legislature. He was elected to Congress as a Democrat and a supporter of the war with Great Britain, and was re-elected nine times in succession, serving altogether from 24 May, 1813, till 2 March, 1833. On 20 November, 1820; owing to the absence of Henry Clay, Taylor was chosen in his place as speaker, and served till the end of the second session, during which the Missouri compromise was passed. On the question of the admission of Missouri to the Union he delivered the first speech in Congress that plainly opposed the extension of slavery. He was again elected speaker on the organization of the 19th Congress, serving from 5 December, 1825, till 3 March, 1827. He was one of the organizers of the National Republican, and afterward of the Whig, party. After retiring from Congress he practised law at Ballston, and was a member of the state senate in 1840-'1 , but resigned in consequence of a paralytic stroke, and from 1843 till his death lived with a daughter in Cleveland. He was the orator of the Phi Beta Kappa society at Harvard in 1827, and frequently spoke in public on literary as well as on national topics. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 46.
TAYLOR, Moses, merchant, born in New York City, 11 January, 1806. He received a common-school education, became a merchant's clerk at the age of fifteen, and when ten years older embarked in business on his own account. He acquired a large trade with Cuba, and was an extensive ship-owner. In 1855 he became president of the City bank. During the Civil War he was one of the original members of the Union defence committee, and, as chairman of the loan committee of the associated banks, he was instrumental in obtaining subscribers for more than $200,000,000 of government securities. He was one of the originators of submarine telegraphy, and has been an active promoter of important railway lines. Among his charitable gifts was one of $250,000 in 1882 for a hospital for employes of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and coal and iron companies at Scranton, Pennsylvania Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 47.
TAYLOR, Nelson, soldier, born in South Norwalk, Connecticut, 8 June, 1821. He received a common-school education. At the beginning of the war with Mexico he joined the army as captain of the 1st New York Volunteers on 1 August, 1846, served through the war, and at its close settled in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, where he was elected a state senator in 1846 and sheriff in 1855. He was also president of the board of trustees of the state insane asylum from 1850 till 1856. Returning to New York City, he studied law, taking his degree at the Harvard law-school in 1860. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the volunteer service as colonel of the 72d New York Infantry. He commanded this regiment, which formed a part of General Daniel E. Sickles's brigade, during the Chickahominy Campaign. He had command of the brigade at Williamsburg and in General John Pope's Virginia Campaign, and was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, in recognition of his services, on 7 September, 1862. He resigned on 19 January, 1863, resumed practice in New York City, and was elected as a Democrat to Congress, serving from 4 December, 1865, till 3 March, 1867. He was a member of the select committees on freedmen and invalid pensions. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 48.
TAYLOR, Walter Herron, soldier, born in Norfolk, Virginia, 18 June, 1838. He was educated at the Virginia military institute, and became a merchant and banker. He joined the Confederate Army on the secession of Virginia, and was on the staff of General Robert E. Lee during the entire period of the Civil War, and from the time that General Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, served as adjutant-general of that army, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. After the war he resumed the banking business at Norfolk, Virginia, where he has held municipal offices, and was elected to the state senate, of which he was a member from 1869 till 1873. He is the author of " Four Years with General Lee " (New York, 1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 50.
TAYLOR, William Vigneron, naval officer, born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1781; died there, 11 February, 1858. He went to sea before the mast, became a captain in the merchant marine, and entered the U.S. Navy as a sailing-master, 28 April, 1813. He was attached to Commodore Oliver H. Perry's flag-ship, the "Lawrence," in the battle of Lake Erie, where he was severely wounded, afterward receiving a vote of thanks and a sword for his services. He was commissioned a lieutenant, 9 December, 1814, cruised in the "Java" on the Mediterranean station in 1815-'16, and was on leave at Newport on account of his wound in 1816-'23, after which he served in the ship " Ontario," of the Mediterranean Squadron, in 1824-"6, at the Boston Navy-yard in 1827-'8, and in the frigate "Hudson," on the Brazil station, in 1829-'30. He was promoted to master-commandant, 3 March, 1831, was in charge of the receiving ship at Boston in 1833-"4, and the sloop "Warren" in 1835. In 1839-'41 he had the store-ship " Erie." ne was promoted to captain, 8 September, 1841, and commanded the Pacific Squadron in the " Ohio" in 1847-'8. After this he was on leave at Newport until his death.—His son, William Rogers, naval officer, born in Newport, Rhode Island, 7 November, 1811, entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 April, 1828, became a passed midshipman, 14 June, 1834, and cruised in the "Peacock" in the East Indies in 1835-'6. When the " Peacock" was stranded on the Island of Massera in 1836. he was sent to take the U. S. diplomatic agent, Edmund Roberts, to Muscat to arrange treaties. This voyage lasted five days in an open boat, and upon arrival at Muscat the sultan offered him the sloop "Sultane " to go to the relief of the "Peacock "; but the latter had got off, and he rejoined her at sea. He served as acting lieutenant on the same station and in the Pacific in the schooner "Enterprise" and ship "North Carolina" in 1836-'8. He was commissioned a lieutenant, 10 February, 1840, and was engaged in the survey of Tampa bay. Florida, in 1842-3, during which he at times had command of the steamer "Poinsett" and the brig Oregon." He served on the Brazil station in the brig " Perry " and the ship “Columbus" in 1843-'4. During the Mexican war he was on the sloop " St. Mary's" in the engagement with batteries at Tampico. where he commanded the launch in the expedition that captured that port and five Mexican schooners, 14 November, 1846. During the siege and bombardment of Vera Cruz he commanded the eight-inch gun in the naval battery on shore for thirty-six hours. He was promoted to commander, 14 September, 1855, and was on ordnance duty at Washington in 1857-'9. In 1861 he was ordered to command the steamer "Housatonic," and he was promoted to captain, 16 July, 1862. While senior officer in the blockade off Charleston he engaged the Confederate rams "Chocura" and " Palmetto " in the " Housatonic" when they attacked the squadron in January. 1863. When Dahlgren took command he was appointed fleet-captain, and participated in the actions against Morris Island in July, 1863. On 16 July he was in the battle on board the monitor " Catskill." and on 18 July in the monitor " Montauk." He commanded the steamer "Juniata" in both attacks on Fort Fisher. He was president of the board to revise the U.S. Navy regulations, was in charge of the ordnance-yard at Washington in 1866-'7, and was promoted to commodore, 25 July, 1866. He was a member of the examining board in 1868, commanded the northern Squadron of the Pacific fleet in 1869-'71, was promoted to rear-admiral, 19 January, 1871. and was president of the examining board in 1871—'2, and commanded the South Atlantic Squadron from 22 May, 1872, till 7 November, 1873, when he was retired. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 51.
TAYLOR, Zachary, twelfth president of the United States, born in Orange County, Virginia, 24 September, 1784; died in the executive mansion, Washington, D. C, 9 July. 1850. His father. Colonel Richard Taylor, an officer in the war of the Revolution, was conspicuous for zeal and daring among men in whom personal gallantry was the rule. After the war he retired to private life, and in 1785 moved to Kentucky, then a sparsely occupied county of Virginia, and made his home near the present city of Louisville, where he died. Zachary was the third son. Brought up on a farm in a new settlement, he had few scholastic opportunities; but in the thrift, industry, self-denial, and forethought required by the circumstances, he learned such lessons as were well adapted to form the character illustrated by his eventful career. Yet he had also another form of education. The liberal grants of land that Virginia made to her soldiers caused many of them, after the peace of 1783, to remove to the west; thus Colonel Taylor's neighbors included many who had been his fellow-soldiers, and these often met around his wide hearth. Their conversation would naturally be reminiscences of their military life, and all the sons of Colonel Taylor, save one. Hancock, entered the U. S. army. The rapid extension of settlements on the border was productive of frequent collision with the Indians, and required the protection of a military force. In 1808, on the recommendation of President Jefferson, Congress authorized the raising of five regiments of infantry, one of riflemen, one of light artillery, and one of light dragoons. From the terms of the act it was understood that this was not to be a permanent increase of the U. S. army, and many of the officers of the "old army " declined to seek promotion in the new regiments. At this period questions had arisen between the United States and Great Britain which caused serious anticipations of a war with that power, and led many to regard the additional force authorized as a preliminary step in preparation for such a war. Zachary Taylor, then in his twenty-fourth year, applied for a commission and was appointed a 1st lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Infantry, one of the new regiments, and in 1810 was promoted to the grade of captain in the same regiment, according to the regulations of the service. He was happily married in 1810 to Miss Margaret Smith, of Calvert County, Maryland, who shared with him the privations and dangers of his many years of frontier service, and survived him but a short time. The troubles on the frontier continued to increase until 1811, when General William H. Harrison, afterward president of the United States, marched against the stronghold of the Shawnees and fought the battle of Tippecanoe. In . June, 1812, war was declared against England, and this increased the widespread and not unfounded fears of Indian invasion in the valley of the Wabash. To protect Vincennes from sudden assault, Captain Taylor was ordered to Fort Harrison, a stockade on the river above Vincennes, and with his company of infantry, about fifty strong, made preparations to defend the place. He had not long to wait. A large body of Indians, knowing the smallness of the garrison, came, confidently counting on its capture; but as it is a rule in their warfare to seek by stratagem to avoid equal risk and probable loss, they tried various expedients, which were foiled by the judgment, vigilance, and courage of the commander, and when the final attack was made, the brave little garrison repelled it with such loss to the assailants that when, in the following October, General Hopkins came to support Fort Harrison, no Indians were to be found thereabout. For the defence of Fort Harrison, Captain Taylor received the brevet of major, an honor that had seldom, if ever before, been conferred for service in Indian war. In the following November, Major Taylor, with a battalion of regulars, formed a part of the command of General Hopkins in the expedition against the hostile Indians at the head-waters of the Wabash. In 1814, with his separate command, he being then a major by commission, he made a campaign against the hostile Indians and their British allies on Rock River, which was so successful as to give subsequent security to that immediate frontier. In such service, not the less hazardous or indicative of merit because on a small scale, he passed the period of his employment on that frontier until the treaty of peace with Great Britain disposed the Indians to be quiet. After the war, 3 March, 1815, a law was enacted to fix the military peace establishment of the United States. By this act the whole force was to be reduced to 10,000 men, with such proportions of artillery, infantry, and riflemen as the president should judge proper. The president was to cause the officers and men of the existing army to be arranged, by unrestricted transfers, so as to form the corps authorized by the recent act, and the supernumeraries were to be discharged. Maj. Taylor had borne the responsibilities and performed the duties of a battalion commander so long and successfully that when the arranging board reduced him to the rank of captain in the new organization he felt the injustice, but resigned j from the army without complaint, returned home, and proceeded, as he said in after-years, "to make I a crop of corn." Influences that were certainly not employed by him, and are unknown to the writer of this sketch, caused his restoration to the grade of major, and he resumed his place in the army, there to continue until the voice of the people called him to the highest office within their gift. Under the rules that governed promotion in the army, Maj. Taylor became lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Infantry, and commanded at Fort Snelling, then the advanced post in the northwest. In 1832 he became colonel of the 1st U.S. Infantry, with headquarters at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien. The barracks were unfinished, and his practical mind and conscientious attention to every duty were manifest in the progress and completion of the work. The second Black Hawk Campaign occurred this year, and Colonel Taylor, with the greater part of his regiment, joined the army commanded by General Henry Atkinson, and with it moved from Rock Island up the valley of Rock River, following Black Hawk, who had gone to make a junction with the Pottawattamie band of the Prophet, a nephew of Black Hawk. This was in violation of the treaty he had made with General Edmund P. Gaines in 1831, by which he was required to remove to the west of the Mississippi, relinquishing all claim to the Rock River villages. It was assumed that his purpose in returning to the east side of the river was hostile, and, from the defenceless condition of the settlers and the horror of savage atrocity, great excitement was created, due rather to his fame as a warrior than to the number of his followers. If, as he subsequently declared, his design was to go and live peaceably with his nephew, the Prophet, rather than with the Foxes, of whom Keokuk was the chief, that design may have been frustrated by the lamentable mistake of some mounted volunteers in hastening forward in pursuit of Black Hawk, who, with his band—men, women, and children— was going up on the south side of the Rock River. The pursuers fell into an ambuscade, and were routed with some loss and in great confusion. The event will be remembered by the men of that day as " Stillman's run." The vanity of the young Indians was inflated by their success, as was shown by some exultant messages: and the sagacious old chief, whatever he may have previously calculated upon, now saw that war was inevitable and immediate. With his band recruited by warriors from the Prophet's band, he crossed to the north side of Rock River, and, passing through the swamp Koshkenong, fled over the prairies west of the Four Lakes, toward Wisconsin River. General Henry Dodge, with a battalion of mounted miners, overtook the Indians while they were crossing the Wisconsin and attacked their rear-guard, which, when the main body had crossed, swam the river and joined the retreat over the Kickapoo hills toward the Mississippi. General Atkinson, with his whole army, continued the pursuit, and, after a toilsome march, overtook the I Indians north of Prairie du Chien, on the bank of the Mississippi, to the west side of which they were preparing to cross in bark canoes made on the spot. That purpose was foiled by the accidental arrival of a steamboat with a small gun on board. The Indians took cover in a willow marsh, and there was fought the battle of the Bad Axe. The Indians were defeated, and dispersed, and the campaign ended. In the meantime, General Winfield Scott, with troops from the east, took chief command and established his headquarters at Rock Island, and thither General Atkinson went with the regular troops, except that part of the 1st U.S. Infantry which constituted the garrison of Port Crawford. With these Colonel Taylor returned to Prairie du Chien. When it was reported that the Indians were on an island above the prairie, he sent a lieutenant with an appropriate command to explore the island, where unmistakable evidence was found of the recent presence of the Indians and of their departure. Immediately thereafter a group of Indians appeared on the east bank of the river under a white flag, who proved to be Black Hawk, with a remnant of his band and a few friendly Winnebagoes. The lieutenant went with them to the fort, where Colonel Taylor received them, except the Winnebagoes, as prisoners. A lieutenant and a guard were sent with them, sixty in number—men, women, and children—by steamboat, to Rock Island, there to report to General Scott for orders in regard to the prisoners. Colonel Taylor actively participated in the campaign up to its close, and to him was surrendered the chief who had most illustrated the warlike instincts of the Indian race, to whom history must fairly accord the credit of having done much under the most disadvantageous circumstances. In 1836 Colonel Taylor was ordered to Florida for service in the Seminole war, and the next year he defeated the Indians in the decisive battle of Okechobee, for which he received the brevet of brigadier-general, and in 1838 was appointed to the chief command in Florida. In 1840 he was assigned to command the southern division of the western department of the army. Though General Taylor had for many years been a cotton-planter, his family had lived with him at his military station, but, when ordered for an indefinite time on field service, he made his family home at Baton Rouge, Louisiana Texas having been annexed to the United States in 1845, Mexico threatened to invade Texas with the avowed purpose to recover the territory, and General Taylor was ordered to defend it as a part of the United States. He proceeded with all his available force, about 1.500 men, to Corpus Christi, where he was joined by re-enforcements of regulars and volunteers. Discussion had arisen as to whether the Nueces or the Rio Grande was the proper boundary of Texas. His political opinions, whatever they might be, were subordinate to the duty of a soldier to execute the orders of his government, and, without uttering it, he acted on the apophthegm of Decatur: "My country, right or wrong, my country." Texas claimed protection for her frontier, the president recognized the fact that Texas had been admitted to the Union with the Rio Grande as her boundary, and General Taylor was instructed to advance to" that river. His force had been increased to about 4,000, when, on 8 March, 1846, he marched from Corpus Christi. He was of course conscious of the inadequacy of his division to resist such an army us Mexico might send against it, but when ordered by superior authority it was not his to remonstrate. General Gaines, commanding the western department, had made requisitions for a sufficient number of volunteers to join Taylor, but the Secretary of War countermanded them, except as to such as had already joined. General Taylor, with a main depot at Point Isabel, advanced to the bank of the Rio Grande, opposite to Matamoras, and there made provision for defence of the place called Fort Brown. Soon after his arrival, Aiupudia, the Mexican general at Matamoras, made a threatening demand that General Taylor should withdraw his troops beyond the Nueces, to which he replied that his position had been taken by order of his government, and would be maintained. Having completed the intrenchment, and being short of supplies, he left a garrison to hold it, and marched with an aggregate force of 2,288 men to obtain additional supplies from Point Isabel, about thirty miles distant. General Arista, the new Mexican commander, availing himself of the opportunity to interpose, crossed the river below Fort Brown with a force estimated at 6,000 regular troops, 10 pieces of artillery, and a considerable amount of auxiliaries. In the afternoon of the second day's march from Point Isabel these were reported by General Taylor's cavalry to be in his front, and he halted to allow the command to rest and for the needful dispositions for battle. In the evening a request was made that a council of war should be held, to which General Taylor assented. The prevalent opinion was in favor of falling back to Point Isabel, there to intrench and wait for re-enforcements. After listening to a full expression of views, the general announced: "I shall go to Fort Brown or stay in my shoes," a western expression equivalent to "or die in the attempt." He then notified the officers to prepare to attack the enemy at dawn of day. In the morning of 8 May the advance was made by columns until the enemy's batteries opened, when line of battle was formed and Taylor's artillery, inferior in number but otherwise superior, was brought fully into action and soon dispersed the mass of the enemy's cavalry. The chaparral, dense copses of thorn-bushes, served both to conceal the position of the enemy and to impede the movements of the attacking force. The action closed at night, when the enemy retired, and General Taylor bivouacked on the field. Early in the morning of 9 May he resumed his march, and in the afternoon encountered General Arista in a strong position with artillery advantageously posted. Taylor's infantry pushed through the chaparral lining both sides of the road, and drove the enemy's infantry before them; but the batteries held their position, and were so fatally used that it was an absolute necessity to capture them. For this purpose the general ordered a squadron of dragoons to charge them. The enemy's gunners were cut down at their pieces, the commanding officer was captured, and the infantry soon made the victory complete. The Mexican loss in the two battles was estimated at a thousand; the American, killed, forty-nine. The enemy precipitately recrossed the Rio Grande, leaving the usual evidence of a routed army. General Taylor then proceeded to Fort Brown. During his absence it had been heavily bombarded, and the commander, Maj. Brown, had been killed. The Mexicans evacuated Matamoras, and General Taylor took peaceable possession, 18 May. The Rio Grande, except at time of flood, offered little obstacle to predatory incursions, and it was obviously sound policy to press the enemy back from the border. General Taylor, therefore, moved forward to Oamargo, on the San Juan, a tributary of the Rio Grande. This last-named river rose so as to enable steamboats to transport troops and supplies, and by September a sufficiently large force of volunteers had reported at General Taylor's headquarters to justify a further march into the interior, but the move must be by land, and for that there was far from adequate transportation. Hiring Mexican packers to supplement the little transportation on hand, he was able to add one division of volunteers to the regulars of his command, and with a force of 6,625 men of all arms he inarched against Monterey, a fortified town of great natural strength, garrisoned by 10,000 men under Gen. Ampudia. On 19 September he encamped before the town, and on the 21st began the attack. On the third day General Ampudia proposed to surrender, commissioners were appointed, and terms of capitulation agreed upon, by which the enemy were to retire beyond a specified line, and the United States forces were not to advance beyond that line during the next eight weeks or until the pleasure of the respective governments should be known. By some strange misconception, the U. S. government disapproved the arrangement, and ordered that the armistice should bo terminated, by which we lost whatever had been gained in the interests of peace by the generous terms of the capitulation, and got nothing, for, during the short time that remained unexpired, no provision had been or could be made to enable General Taylor to advance into the heart of Mexico. Presuming that such must be the purpose of the government, he assiduously strove to collect the means for that object. When his preparations were well-nigh perfected, General Scott was sent to Mexico with orders that enabled him at discretion to strip General Taylor of both troops and material of war, to be used on another line of operations. The projected campaign against the capital of Mexico was to be from Vera Cruz, up the steppes, and against the fortifications that had been built to resist any probable invasion, instead of from Saltillo, across the plains to the comparatively undefended capital. The difficulty on this route was the waterless space to be crossed, and against that General Taylor had ingeniously provided. According to instructions, he went to Victoria, Mexico, turned over his troops, except a proper escort to return through a country of hostiles to Monterey, and then went to Agua Nueva, beyond Saltillo, where he was joined by General John B. Wool with his command from Chihuahua. General Santa-Anna saw the invitation offered by the withdrawal of General Taylor's troops, and with a well-appointed army, 20,000 strong, marched with the assurance of easily recovering their lost territory. General Taylor fell back to the narrow pass in front of the hacienda of Buena Vista, and here stood on the defensive. His force was 5,400 of all arms; but of these, only three batteries of artillery, one squadron of dragoons, one mounted company of Texans, and one regiment of Mississippi riflemen, had ever been under Are. Some skirmishing occurred on 22 February, and a general assault along the whole line was made on the morning of the 23d. The battle, with varying fortune, continued throughout the day; at evening the enemy retired, and during the night retreated by the route on which he had advanced, having suffered much by the casualties of battle, but still more by desertions. So Santa-Anna returned with but a remnant of the regular army of Mexico, on which reliance had been placed to repel invasion, and thenceforward peace was undisturbed in the valley of the Rio Grande. At that time General Taylor's capacity was not justly estimated, his golden silence being often misunderstood. His reply to Secretary Marcy's strictures in regard to the capitulation of Monterey exhibited such vigor of thought and grace of expression that many attributed it to a member of his staff who had a literary reputation. It was written by General Taylor's own hand, in the open air, by his camp-fire at Victoria, Mexico. Many years of military routine had not dulled his desire for knowledge; he had extensively studied both ancient and modern history, especially the English. Unpretending, meditative, observant, and conclusive, he was best understood and most appreciated by those who had known him long and intimately. In a campaign he gathered information from all who approached him, however sinister their motive might be. By comparison and elimination he gained a knowledge that was often surprising as to the position and designs of the enemy. In battle he was vigilantly active, though quiet in bearing; calm and considerate, though stern and inflexible; but when the excitement of danger and strife had subsided, he had a further tenderness and care for the wounded, and none more sincerely mourned for those who had bravely fallen in the line of their duty. Before his nomination for the presidency General Taylor had no political aspirations and looked forward to the time when he should retire from the army as the beginning of a farmer's life. He had planned for his retreat a stock-farm in the hills of Jefferson County, behind his cotton-plantation on the Mississippi River. In his case, as in some other notable instances, the fact of not desiring office rather increased than diminished popular confidence, so that unseeking he was sought. From early manhood he had served continually in the U. S. Army. His duties had led him to consider the welfare of the country as one and indivisible, and his opinions were free from party or sectional intensity. Conscious of his want of knowledge of the machinery of the civil service, he formed his cabinet to supplement his own information. They were men well known to the public by the eminent civil stations they had occupied, and were only thus known to General Taylor, who as president hail literally no friends to reward and no enemies to punish. The cabinet was constituted as follows: John M. Clayton, of Delaware, Secretary of State; William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Treasury; George W. Crawford, of Georgia, Secretary of War; W. Ballard Preston, of Virginia, Secretary of the Navy; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, attorney-general; Alexander 11. H. Stuart, of Virginia, Secretary of the Interior. All these had served in the U. S. Senate or the House of Representatives, and all were lawyers. Taylor was the popular hero of a foreign war which had been victoriously ended, bringing to the United States a large acquisition of territory with an alluring harvest of gold, but. all unheeded, bringing also a large addition to the elements of sectional contention. These were soon developed, and while the upper air was calm and the sun of prosperity shone brightly on the land, the attentive listener could hear the rumbling sound of approaching convulsion. President Taylor, with the keen watchfulness and intuitive perception that had characterized him as a commander in the field, easily saw and appreciated the danger; but before it had reached the stage for official action he died. His party and local relations, being a Whig and a southern planter, gave him the vantage-ground for the exercise of a restraining influence in the threatened contest. His views, matured under former responsibilities, were tersely given to confidential friends, and as none of his cabinet (except Attorney-General Stuart) survive, their consultations I cannot be learned unless from preserved manuscript. During the brief period of his administration the rules that would govern it were made manifest, and no law for civil-service reform was needful for his guidance. With him the bestowal of office was a trust held for the people; it was not to be gained by proof of party zeal and labor. The fact of holding Democratic opinions was not a disqualification for the office. Nepotism had with him no quarter. So strict was he in this that to be a relative was an obstacle to appointment. General Winfield Scott related to the writer an anecdote that may appropriately close this sketch. He said he had remarked to his wife that General Taylor was an upright man, to which she replied: "He is not"; that he insisted his long acquaintance should enable him to judge better than she. But she persisted in her denial, and he asked: "Then what manner of man is he?'" When she responded: "He is a downright man." As president he had purity, patriotism, and discretion to guide him in his new field of duty, and had he lived long enough to stamp his character on his administration, it would have been found that the great soldier was equally fitted to bo the head of a government. General Taylor's life was written by Joseph R. Fry and Robert T. Conrad (Philadelphia, 1848) and by John Frost (New York, 1848).—His wife, Margaret, born in Calvert County, Maryland, about 1790;diednear Pascagoula, Louisiana, 18 August, 1852, was the daughter of Walter Smith, a Maryland planter. She received a home education, married early in life, and, until her husband's election to the presidency, resided with him chiefly in garrisons or on the frontier. During the Florida war she established herself at Tampa bay, and did good service among the sick and wounded in the hospitals there. Mrs. Taylor was without social ambition, and when General Taylor became president she reluctantly accepted her responsibilities, regarding the office as a "plot to deprive her of her husband's society and to shorten his life by unnecessary care." She surrendered to her youngest daughter the superintendence of the household, and took no part in social duties.—Her eldest daughter, Sarah, became the wife of Jefferson Davis. — Another daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1826, was educated in Philadelphia, married Maj. William W. S. Bliss in her nineteenth year, and, on her father's inauguration, became mistress of the White House. Mrs. Bliss, or Miss Betty, as she was popularly called, was a graceful and accomplished hostess, and, it is said, "did the honors of the establishment with the artlessness of a rustic belle and the grace of a duchess." After the death of her father in 1850, and her husband in 1853, she spent several years in retirement, subsequently marrying Philip Dandridge, of Winchester. Virginia. whom she survives.— His only son, Richard, soldier, born in New Orleans, 27 January 1826; died in New York City, 12 April. 1879. was sent to Edinburgh, Scotland, when thirteen years old. where he spent three years in studying the classics, and then a year in France. He entered the junior class at Yale in 1843, and was graduated there in 1845. He was a wide and voracious though a desultory reader. From college he went to his father's camp on the Rio Grande, and he was present at Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma. His health then became impaired, and he returned home. He resided on a cotton-plantation in Jefferson County. Mississippi, until 1849, when he moved to a sugar-estate in St. Charles parish, Louisiana, almost twenty miles above New Orleans, where he was residing when the Civil War began. He was in the state senate from 1856 to 1860, was a delegate to the Charleston Democratic convention in 1860, and afterward to that at Baltimore, and was a member of the Secession convention of Louisiana. As a member of the military committee, he aided the governor in organizing troops, and in June, 1861. went to Virginia as colonel of the 9th Louisiana Volunteers. The day he reached Richmond he left for Manassas, arriving there at dusk on the day of the battle. In the autumn he was made a brigadier-general, and in the spring of 1862 he led his brigade in the valley campaign under " Stonewall " Jackson. He distinguished himself at Front Royal, Middletown, Winchester, Strasburg, Cross Keys, and Port Republic, and Jackson recommended him for promotion. Taylor was also with Jackson in the seven days' battles before Richmond. He was promoted to major-general, and assigned to the command of Louisiana. The fatigues and exposures of his campaigns there brought on a partial and temporary paralysis of the lower limbs; but in August he assumed command. The only communication across the Mississippi retained by the Confederates was between Vicksburg and Port Hudson; but Taylor showed great ability in raising, organizing, supplying, and handling an army, and he gradually won back the state west of the Mississippi from the National forces. He had reclaimed the whole of this when Vicksburg fell, 4 July, 1863, and was then compelled to fall back west of Berwick's bay. General Taylor's principal achievement during the war was his defeat of General Nathaniel P. Banks at Sabine Cross-Roads, near Mansfield, De Soto parish, Louisiana, 8 April, 1864. With 8,000 men he at tacked the advance of the northern army and routed it, capturing twenty-two guns and a large number of prisoners. He followed Banks, who fell back to Pleasant hill, and on the next day again attacked him, when Taylor was defeated, losing the fruits of the first day's victory. These two days' fighting have been frequently compared to that of Shiloh—a surprise and defeat on the first day, followed by a substantial victory of the National forces on the second. In the summer of 1864 Taylor was promoted to be a lieutenant-general, and ordered to the command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, etc. Here he was able merely to protract the contest, while the great armies decided it. After Lee and Johnston capitulated there was nothing for him, and he surrendered to General Edward R. S. Canby, at Citronelle, 8 May, 1865. The war left Taylor ruined in fortune, and he soon went abroad. Returning home, he took part in politics as an adviser, and his counsel was held in special esteem by Samuel J. Tilden in his presidential canvass. During this period he wrote his memoir of the war, entitled "Destruction and the construction" (New York, 1879).—His brother, Joseph Pannel, soldier, born near Louisville, Kentucky, 4 May, 1796;died in Washington, D. C, 29 June, 1864, served in the ranks on the Canadian frontier during the war of 1812, was appointed a lieutenant of U. S. infantry on 20 May, 1813, served through the war with Great Britain, and was retained on the. peace establishment as lieutenant of artillery, becoming a captain in July, 1825. He was appointed commissary of subsistence in 1829, and thenceforth served in that department, becoming assistant commissary-general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in 1841. On 30 May, 1848, he was brevetted colonel for his services in prosecuting the war with Mexico, during which he was chief commissary of the army on the upper line of operations. In September, 1861, he was made colonel and commissary-general, and on 9 February, 1863, was promoted brigadier-general, his wife was a daughter of Justice John McLean.—Their son, John McLean, soldier, born in Washington, D. C., 21 November, 1828; died in Baltimore, Mil., 21 November, 1875, entered the U. S. Army as 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Artillery on 3 March, 1848, and was promoted 1st lieutenant on 30 June, 1851, and captain and commissary of subsistence on 11 May, 1851. He served faithfully in his department during the Civil War, becoming major on 9 February, 1863, and receiving the brevets of lieutenant-colonel and colonel to date from 13 March, 1865.—Another son, Joseph Hancock, soldier, born in Kentucky, 26 January. 1836;died in Omaha. Nebraska, 13 March, 1885, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1856, and commissioned 2d lieutenant of cavalry on 16 January, 1857. He served in Kansas, in the Utah Expedition, and in a campaign in 1860 against the Kiowa and Comanche Indians of Colorado. He was promoted 1st lieutenant on 22 April, 1861, and captain on 14 May, and was appointed acting adjutant-general of General Edwin V. Sumner's division on 27 November, 1861. During the Peninsula Campaign, and subsequently in the Maryland Campaign, he served as acting assistant adjutant-general of the 2d Corps, winning the brevet of major at Fair Oaks, and that of lieutenant-colonel at the Antietam. He was assistant adjutant-general at Fredericksburg, and assistant inspector-general of cavalry in Stoneman's raid. On 1 June, 1863, he was assigned to duty as assistant adjutant-general of the department at Washington. He was appointed a major on the staff on 30 March, 1866, and on 13 August was brevetted colonel for faithful services during the war. He was on duty in different military departments till his death, which was due to disease that he had contracted in the line of duty. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 51-56.
TEALL, Francis Augustus, editor, born in Port Anne, Washington County, New York, 16 August, 1822. He entered a printing-office in 1836, afterward supplemented his common-school education by the study of languages, and in 1841 went to New York City. Here he worked at the case, with Walt Whitman as a fellow-compositor, and was soon advanced to the place of proof-reader. In this capacity he has rendered much critical service of an editorial character on a large variety of works. Among other interesting things that received his attention were the original proofs of Edgar A. Poe's " Raven " and "Bells." He assisted Ephraim G. Squier in preparing his " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (Washington, 1848), and John R. Bartlett in the first edition of his "Dictionary of Americanisms," and made the analytical index to the American edition of Napier's "Peninsular War." For some time he was on the editorial staff of the ' American Whig Review," and in 1853 succeeded Mr. Whitman as editor of a newspaper at Huntington, L. I. He acted as proof-reader, contributor, and associate editor on the different editions of the "American Cyclopaedia," and he noted the pronunciation of the titles in the volume of index to the second edition and in the text of the condensed edition. Since 1882 he has been employed in the compilation of the "Century Dictionary." The University of Rochester gave him the degree of A. M. in 1875. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 57.
TELLER, Henry Moore, senator, born in Granger, Allegany County. New York, 23 May, 1830. He was educated at Alfred University, New York, studied law, was admitted to the bar in Binghamton, New York, in 1858, and moved to Illinois in the same year, and to Colorado in 1861. He was major-general of Colorado Militia in 1862-'4, but held no political office till, on the admission of Colorado as a state in 1876, he was chosen U. S. Senator as a Republican, and took his seat, 4 Dec 1876. He was re-elected for the term that ended in 1883, and in 1877-'8 served as chairman of a special committee on election frauds, that was known as the Teller committee. On 17 April, 1882, he resigned, on his appointment by President Arthur to the portfolio of the interior, which he held till the close of the latter's administration. He was then re-elected to the Senate for the term that will end in 1891. Alfred University gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 60.
TEMPLE, William Grenville, naval officer, born in Rutland, Vermont, 23 March, 1824. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 18 April, 1840, was graduated at the Naval Academy in 1846, and was attached to the " Boston" when she was wrecked at Eleuthera, Bahama Islands, 15 March, 1846, taking charge of the sick men from the wreck in the schooner "Volant."' In February, 1847, he was ordered to the steamer "Scourge," in which he participated in the bombardment and capture of Vera Cruz and in the engagements at Alvarado, Tuspan, and Tabasco, sometimes having command of batteries and landing parties in operations on shore against the Mexicans. He assisted in the survey of the interoceanic canal and railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in 1850-'2, was promoted to master, 21 July, 1854, and to lieutenant, 18 April, 1855. After cruising in the frigate “Lancaster " on the Pacific Station in 1859-'61, he commanded the steamer "Flambeau" at New York for one month, and was on duty as ordnance officer there for seven months. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, and commanded the gun-boat "Pembina," in the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. From November, 1862, he was fleet-captain of the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron until 19 September, 1864. While he was fleet-captain he at times commanded the "San Jacinto" on special service, and in July, 1864, he led a force of sailors in defence of the approaches to Washington. He commanded the steamer "Pontoosuc " from November, 1864, till May, 1865, participating in both attacks on Fort Fisher, in the capture of Wilmington, North Carolina, in the bombardment of forts on James River, at Dutch gap, and at the capture of Petersburg and Richmond. He was promoted to commander, 3 March, 1865, had the steamer "Tacony" in the North Atlantic Squadron in 1865-'6, and was on ordnance duty in 1866-'70. He was made captain, 28 August, 1870, and in December, 1884, was delegated to escort King Kalakaua, of the Sandwich Islands, in his visit to this country, for which service Congress allowed him to accept the decoration of knight commander of the royal order of Kamehameha I. He was promoted to commodore, 5 June, 1878, was a member of the examining and retiring board in 1879-'81, and became its president in June, 1881. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 22 February, 1884, and voluntarily retired from active service on 29 February, 1884. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 61.
TEN EYCK, John Conover, 1814-1879, lawyer. Republican U.S. Senator from New Jersey. Was a Whig until 1856. Joined Republican Party in 1856. Chosen senator in 1859. Served until March 1865. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 62; Congressional Globe)
TEN EYCK, John Conover, senator, born in Freehold, New Jersey, 12 March, 1814; died in Mount Holly, New Jersey, 24 August, 1879. He received his education from private tutors, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1835, and practised in Mount Holly, New Jersey. He served as prosecuting attorney for Burlington County in 1839-49,and was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1844. Mr. Ten Eyck was a Whig till 1856, when he joined the Republican party, and he was afterward chosen to the U. S. Senate, where he held his seat from 5 December, 1859, till 3 March, 1865. In the Senate Mr. Ten Eyck took part in various debates, including that on the electoral vote of Louisiana in 1865, but his principal services were performed on the judiciary and other committees. On 24 April, 1875, he was appointed a member of a commission to revise the New Jersey constitution, and on the death of Abram 0. Zabriskie he became its president. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 62.
THACHER, Moses, North Wrentham, Massachusetts, abolitionist. Manager, 1833-1837, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)
TENNEY, William Jewett, author, in Newport, R. I., in 1814; died in Newark, New Jersey, 20 September, 1883. He was graduated at Yale in 1832, and studied medicine in Boston, but abandoned it for law, which he studied in New Haven, Connecticut After his admission to the bar he opened an office in New York City, but was connected with the " Journal of Commerce " in 1841 and with the "Evening Post" in 1842-'3 and 1847-8. In 1853 he edited the “ Mining Magazine," and in the same year entered the employ of the firm of D. Appleton and County, whose "Annual Cyclopaedia" he edited from its inception till his death (1861-82). He resided for a long time in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was several times chosen a freeholder, and was for fourteen years in the city council. He prepared the plan for organizing the public-school system there, was president of the school board, and during Buchanan's administration collector of the port. For two years he was presiding judge of one of the criminal courts in Brooklyn, New York, and he was usually known as Judge Tenney. He became a convert to Roman Catholicism. He added a sixteenth volume to Thomas H. Benton's "Abridgment of the Debates of Congress." and indexed the work (16 vols., New York, 185760), edited "The Queens of England" (1852), and was the author of a "Military and Naval History of the Rebellion in the United States" (1865) and a work on "Grammatical Analysis" (1866). — His wife, Sarah Brownson, author, born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, 7 June. 1839; died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 30 October, 1876, was the only daughter of Dr. Orestes A. Brownson, and inherited much of her father's power of analysis. She was the author of " Marian Elwood, or How Girls Live" (New York, 1859); "At Anchor" (1865); and "Life of Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, Prince and Priest" (1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 63.
TERRILL, William Rufus, soldier, born in Covington, Virginia, 21 April. 1834; died near Perryville, Kentucky, 8 October, 1862. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1853, assigned to the 3d U.S. Artillery, was assistant professor of mathematics there in 1853-'4, on duty in Kansas in 1854-'5, and assistant in the U. S. coast survey from 1855 till 1861. He was appointed captain in the 5th U.S. Artillery, 14 August, 1861, and took part with great credit in the battle of Shiloh. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 9 September, 1862, and was killed in the battle of Perryville in the following month.—His brother, James Barbour, soldier, born in Warm Springs, Bath County, Virginia, 20 February, 1838; died near Bethesda Church, Virginia, 31 May, 1864, was graduated at Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, in 1858, and after attending the law-school of Judge Brockenborough began practice in the courts of his native county in 1860. In May, 1861, he was appointed major of the 13th Virginia Infantry. He was promoted to the colonelcy, and was with his regiment at the first and second battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Cross Keys, Port Republic, Cedar Run, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania, and was killed at Bethesda Church. His commanding general said his regiment, "the 13th, was never required to take a position that they did not take it, nor to hold one that they did not hold it." His nomination as brigadier-general was confirmed by the Confederate Senate on the day of his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 65.
TERRY, Alfred Howe, soldier, born in Hartford, Connecticut, 10 November, 1827. He was educated in the schools of New Haven and at the Yale law-school, but, having been already admitted to the bar, he was not graduated. He began the practice of his profession in 1849, and was clerk of the superior and supreme courts of Connecticut from 1854 till 1860. He had been an active member of the Connecticut Militia, and was in command of the 2d Regiment of state troops when the Civil War began. In response to President Lincoln's call for three months' troops, he was appointed colonel of the 2d Connecticut Volunteers, and with that regiment was present at the first battle of Bull Run. At the expiration of the term of service he returned to Connecticut, organized the 7th Connecticut Volunteers, of which he was appointed colonel, and on 17 September was again mustered into the National service. He was present in command of his regiment at the capture of Port Royal, South Carolina, and also at the siege of Fort Pulaski, of which he was placed in charge after its capitulation. On 25 April, 1862, he was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, and he served as such at the battle of Pocotaligo and in the operations against Charleston. He commanded the successful demonstration up Stono River during the descent on Morris Island, and at the action on James Island. His force was then withdrawn, and he was assigned by General Quincy A. Gillmore to the command of the troops on Morris Island, which post he held during the siege of Forts Wagner and Sumter. After the reduction of Fort Wagner he was assigned to the command of the northern district of the Department of the South, including the islands from which operations against Charleston had been carried on. General Terry commanded the 1st Division of the 10th Army Corps, Army of the James, during the Virginia Campaign of 1864, and at times the corps itself. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers on 20 August, 1864, became permanent commander of the 10th Corps in October, and held that place until the corps was merged in the 24th in the following December, when he was assigned to lead the 1st Division of the new corps. He commanded at the action of Chester Station, and was engaged at the battle of Drewry's Bluff, the various combats in front of the Bermuda Hundred lines, the battle of Fussell's Mills, the action at Deep Bottom, the siege of Petersburg, the actions at Newmarket heights on the Newmarket road, the Darbytown road, and the Williamsburg road. On 2 January, 1865, after the failure of the first attempt to take Fort Fisher, which commanded the sea approaches to Wilmington, North Carolina. General Terry was ordered to renew the attack with a force numbering a little over 8,000 men. On the 13th he debarked his troops about five miles above the fort, and, finding himself confronted by General Robert P. Hoke's Confederate division, proceeded to throw a line of strong intrenchments across the peninsula between the sea and Cape Fear River, facing toward Wilmington, and about two miles north of the fort. After the landing of the troops, the co-operating fleet, under Admiral David D. Porter, numbering 44 vessels and mounting upward of 500 guns, opened fire upon the work, and from 4.30 to 6 p. m. four shots a second, or 20,000 in all, were fired. This was the heaviest bombardment of the war. On the 14th the line of intrenchment was completed, and General Charles J. Paine's division of infantry was placed upon it. While this was in progress, General Terry made a reconnaissance of the fort, and, in view of the difficulty of landing supplies for his troops and the materials for a siege upon an open, unprotected beach in midwinter, he determined to carry the work by assault the next day, and the plan of attack was arranged with Admiral Porter. At 11 A. m. on the 15th the entire fleet opened fire, silencing nearly every gun in the fort. General Newton M. Curtis's brigade of General Adelbert Ames's division was then pushed forward by regiments to a point 200 yards from the fort, where it sheltered itself in shallow trenches, and the remainder of the division was brought up within supporting distance. Admiral Porter had landed 2,000 sailors and marines, and their commander pushed a line of skirmishers up within 200 yards of the eastern extremity of the northern face of the work, the attack of the troops being upon the western extremity of that face. At 3.30 p. m., on a signal from General Terry to Admiral Porter, the fire of the fleet was diverted from the points of attack, and the leading brigade rushed upon the work and gained a foothold upon the parapet. The column of sailors and marines followed the example of the troops, but, having to advance for a distance of about 600 yards along the open beach, they were unable to stem the fire of the work. Some of them reached the foot of the parapet, but the mass of them, after a display of great gallantry, was forced to fall back. After General Curtis had gained the parapet. General Ames ordered forward in succession the second and third brigades of his division, and they entered the fort. This was constructed with a series of traverses, each of which was stubbornly held. Hand-to-hand fighting of the most obstinate character ensued, the traverses being used successively as breastworks, over the tops of which the opposing parties fired into one another's faces. By five o'clock nine of these traverses had teen carried. General Terry then ordered up re-enforcements, consisting of a brigade and an additional regiment from the intrenched line, the sailors and marines taking their places there; by nine o'clock two more traverses were carried, and an hour later the occupation of the work was complete. The Confederate force fell back disorganized to a small work near the point of the peninsula, where, being immediately pursued, it surrendered unconditionally. The garrison originally numbered 2,500 men, of whom 1,971 men, with 112 officers, were captured; the others were killed or wounded. The fall of the fort was followed by the abandonment of Fort Caswell and the other defences of the Cape Fear River. In these works were captured 169 pieces of artillery, 2,000 small arms, and a considerable quantity of ammunition and commissary stores. The National loss was 681 men, of whom 88 were killed. For this General Terry was promoted to be brigadier-general in the regular army and major-general of volunteers, and Congress passed a vote of thanks "to Brevet Major General A. H. Terry and the officers and soldiers under his command for the unsurpassed gallantry and skill exhibited by them in the attack upon Fort Fisher, and the brilliant and decisive victory by which that important work has been captured from the rebel forces and placed in the possession and under the authority of the United States, and for their long and faithful service and unwavering devotion to the cause of the country in the midst of the greatest difficulties and dangers." General Terry was engaged in the capture of Wilmington. North Carolina, and commanded at the combat at Northeast Creek, which followed. In April, 1865, the 10th Army Corps was reconstituted, and General Terry was assigned to its command, and with it took part in the subsequent operations under General William T. Sherman in North Carolina. He was brevetted major-general in the regular army on 13 March, 1865, for his services at the capture of Wilmington. Since the close of the war he has commanded in succession the Departments of Virginia, Dakota, and the South, and again the Department of Dakota. He was promoted to the rank of major-general, 3 March, 1886. and was in charge of the Division of the Missouri, with headquarters at Chicago, until his voluntary retirement from the army in April, 1888. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 65-66.
TERRY, Henry Dwight, soldier, born in Hartford, Connecticut, 16 March, 1812; died in Washington, D. C, in June, 1869. He early settled in Michigan, where he entered the legal profession, and settled in Detroit. Although he was in active practice, he had for many years devoted considerable attention to military matters, and when the first call was made for troops in June, 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, he raised the 5th Michigan Infantry, of which he was appointed colonel. The regiment was mustered into service on 28 August, 1861, and ordered to the Army of the Potomac. He soon gained the command of a brigade, and on 17 July, 1862, was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He served through the war in the Army of the Potomac, and when he was mustered out of service, in 1865, resumed the practice of his profession in Washington, D. C. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 67.
TERRY, William, soldier, born in Amherst County, Virginia, 14 August, 1824; died near Wytheville, Virginia, 5 September, 1888. He was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1848, studied law, and in 1851 was admitted to the bar. Settling in Wytheville, he practised his profession and was one of the editors and owners of "The Telegraph," published in that place. In April, 1861, he became a lieutenant in the 4th Virginia Infantry, in General Thomas J. Jackson's brigade. In 1862 he was promoted major, and in February, 1864, became colonel. He was commissioned brigadier-general on 20 May, 1864. At the close of the Civil War he returned to practice in Wytheville, and in 1868 was nominated for Congress, but, being under political disabilities, withdrew. He was afterward elected to Congress from Virginia as a Conservative, and served from 4 March, 1871, till 3 March, 1873, and again from 6 December, 1875, till 3 March, 1877. Subsequently he resumed his legal business. He was drowned while trying to ford Reed creek, near his home. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 67.
TERRY, William Richard, soldier, born in Liberty, Virginia, 12 March, 1827. He was graduated at the Virginia Military Institute in 1850, and then turned his attention to commercial pursuits. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate service as captain of Virginia cavalry, and was soon promoted and given command of the 24th Virginia Regiment. On 20 May, 1864, he was made brigadier-general, and given a command in General George E. Pickett's division in the Army of Northern Virginia, which was known as Kemper's brigade. After the war he served as a member of the Virginia Senate for eight years, and for some time was superintendent of the penitentiary in Richmond. At present he is superintendent of the Lee camp soldiers' home in Richmond. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 67.
THACHER, John Marshall, commissioner of patents, born in Barre, Vermont, 1 July, 1836. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1859, and studied law. For a time he practised in Virginia, but at the beginning of the Civil War he entered the National forces and served as captain in the 13th Vermont Regiment. He was appointed assistant examiner in the patent-office in 1864, and was promoted through the different grades until 1 November, 1874, when he became commissioner, which office he held until 1 October, 1875. He then resigned and moved to Chicago, where he has since practised his profession. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 69.
THARIN, Robert Seymour Symmes, born 1830, Charleston, South Carolina, lawyer (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 70)
THARIN, Robert Seymour Symmes (tha'rin), lawyer, born at Magnolia, near Charleston, South Carolina, 10 January, 1830. The family-seat at Magnolia was also the birthplace of Robert's father, William Cunnington Tharin, grandson of its founder, Colonel William Cunnington, an officer on General Francis Marion's staff. Robert was graduated at the College of Charleston in 1857 and at the law-school of the University of New York in 1863. He began practice in Wetumpka, Alabama, in 1859. During the political excitement of this time, he became known for his Union sentiments and his sympathy with non-slaveholders. He advocated the establishment of small farms and factories, the emigration of the blacks to Africa, the representation of non-slaveholders, who were in the majority, in legislatures, conventions, and congress, and the repeal of the Ordinance of Secession. His Union sentiments led to an attack on him by a mob in 1861, and he fled to Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Tharin then settled in Richmond, Indiana, and enlisted as a, private in the Indiana volunteers, but was mustered out in 1862. While he was in the service he wrote a letter to the London “Daily News,” denouncing his former law-partner, William L. Yancey, who was then commissioner from the southern Confederacy to England. This letter, Mr. Yancey afterward confessed, was worth an army corps to the Union, as it defeated recognition. He returned to the south after the war, and in 1884 was corporation counsel of Charleston, South Carolina In February, 1888, he was tendered, by the Industrial conference at Washington, a nomination for president of the United States, but declined on the ground that the body was not a convention, and that presidential conventions are dangerous to the people who are not represented therein. He is now employed in the auditor's office in Washington. He is the author of “Arbitrary Arrests in the South” (New York, 1863), and “Letters on the Political Situation” (Charleston, South Carolina, 1871). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 70.
THATCHER, Benjamin Bussey, 1809-1840, Boston, Massachusetts, author. Co-founder of the Young Men’s Colonization Society of Boston. Published and edited, in 1833, The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom, published monthly. Defended the American Colonization Society and colonization. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 70-71; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 393; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 201, 204, 210, 223)
THATCHER, Benjamin Bussey, author, born in Warren, Maine, 8 October, 1809; died in Boston, 14 July, 1840. His father, Samuel, a graduate of Harvard in 1793 and a lawyer, represented Massachusetts in Congress in 1802-'5, serving afterward eleven years in the legislature. He was a trustee of Harvard and a founder of Warren Academy. The son, upon his graduation at Bowdoin in 1826, studied law and was admitted to the bar in Boston, but devoted himself to literature. In 1836-'8 he travelled in Europe for his health, contributing during the time to British and American periodicals. He wrote for the “North American Review” in 1831, and contributed to the “Essayist” several critiques on American poets which attracted notice. He edited the “Boston Book” in 1837, the “Colonizationist,” a periodical in the interests of the Liberian cause, which he further aided by eloquent speeches, and a volume of Mrs. Hemans's poems, to which he contributed a preface. He left in manuscript an account of his residence in Europe. His poems, some of which are in Griswold's “Poets and Poetry of America” (1842), and his reviews and essays, have never been collected. He published “Biography of North American Indians” (2 vols., New York, 1832; new ed., 1842); “Memoir of Phillis Wheatley” (Boston, 1834); “Memoir of S. Osgood Wright” (1834); “Traits of the Boston Tea-Party” (1835)”; “Traits of Indian Manners, etc.” (1835); and “Tales of the American Revolution” (1846). Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 70-71
THATCHER, Ezekiel, Banstable, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1854-1860-.
THATCHER, Henry Knox, naval officer, born in Thomaston. Maine, 26 May, 1806, died in Boston, Massachusetts, 5 April, 1880. He was a grandson of General Henry Knox. He received his early education in the schools of Boston, and in 1822 was admitted as a cadet at the U. S. Military Academy. The records of the academy show that he was absent on sick leave from 28 November, 1822, till April, 1823, when his resignation is recorded. He had exchanged his cadetship for the appointment in the U.S. Navy, which he entered as a midshipman, 4 March, 1823. He became a passed midshipman, 23 March, 1829, and was commissioned lieutenant, 28 February. 1833. After serving in various parts of the world, he was promoted to commander by action of the naval retiring board, 14 September, 1855. He commanded the sloop "Decatur," Pacific station. Early in 1862 he was ordered to command the sailing-sloop " Constellation" on the Mediterranean station, and he was thereby prevented from engaging in active operations during the first years of the Civil War. He was promoted to the grade of commodore, 16 July, 1862, without having had any commission as a captain. In July. 1863, he returned from the Mediterranean and took charge of the steam frigate "Colorado " on the North Atlantic blockade, and in her commanded the first Division of Commodore David D. Porter’s fleet in both attacks on Fort Fisher. He was then appointed acting rear-admiral in advance of his regular promotion to that grade, and was ordered to succeed Vice-Admiral Farragut in command of the Western Gulf Squadron at Mobile. There he conducted combined operations with General Edward R. S. Canby which resulted in the surrender of the city and the Confederate fleet after its flight and pursuit up Tombigbee River. The navy department sent him congratulations on the successful results at Mobile. Other points on the Gulf were quietly surrendered, and on 2 June. 1865, Galveston, Texas, was occupied by Thatcher’s squadron without opposition, and the entire coast was restored to the Union. He was placed in command of the consolidated Gulf Squadrons until May, 1866, after which he commanded the North Pacific Squadron until August, 1868. He was commissioned rear-admiral, 25 July, 1866, and was placed on the retired list, 26 May, 1868. After his return home he was port-admiral at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1869-'71, after which he was unemployed until his death. Upon his death the Secretary of the Navy published an obituary order and directed salutes of thirteen minute-guns to be fired in his honor, and flags to be displayed at half-mast. He was a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. While in command of the North Pacific Squadron he was presented with a medal and made a knight of the order of Kamehameha I. by the king of the Hawaiian Islands, which honors he was allowed to accept by act of Congress. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 71.
THATCHER, Moses, N. Wrentham, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1833-37, New England Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, co-founder
THATCHER, Tyler, , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1843-44
THAYER, Eli, 1819-1899, Worcester, Massachusetts, abolitionist, educator, Congressman, established Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society, 1854, which changed to New England Aid Company in 1855 (Filler, 1960, pp. 238-239; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 56; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 71-72; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 402; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 488)
THAYER, Eli, educator, born in Mendon, Massachusetts, 11 June, 1819. He was graduated at Brown in 1845, was subsequently principal of the Worcester Academy, and in 1848 founded the Oread institute, collegiate school for young ladies, in Worcester, Massachusetts, of which he is treasurer. He was for several years a member of the school board of Worcester, and in 1853 an alderman of the city. In 1853-'4 he was a representative in the legislature, and while there originated and organized the Emigrant aid Company, laboring till 1857 to combine the northern states in support of his plan to send anti-slavery settlers into Kansas, Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, and Ossawatomie were settled under the auspices of his company. Governor Charles Robinson, at the quarter-centennial celebration of Kansas, at Topeka, said: “Without these settlements Kansas would have been a slave state without a struggle; without the Aid society these towns would never have existed; and that society was born of the brain of Eli Thayer.” Charles Sumner also said that he would rather have the credit that is due to Eli Thayer for his Kansas work than be the hero of the battle of New Orleans. In 1857-'61 Mr. Thayer sat in Congress as a Republican, serving on the committee on militia, and as chairman of the committee on public lands. In 1860 he was a delegate for Oregon to the National Republican convention at Chicago and labored for the nomination of Lincoln. He has patented many inventions, which cover a wide field. Among these are a hydraulic elevator in use in this country and in Europe, a sectional safety steam boiler, and an automatic boiler-cleaner, or sediment-extractor. He has published a volume of congressional speeches (Boston, 1860); several lectures (Worcester, 1886); and is now writing a history of the Emigrant aid Company that he organized and its influence on our national history. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 71-72.
THAYER, John Milton, governor of Nebraska, born in Bellingham, Massachusetts. 24 January, 1820. After his graduation at Brown in 1841 he studied and practised law, and in 1854 moved to Nebraska, where he was a member in I860 of the territorial legislature, and in 1866 of the Constitutional convention. Previous to his civil appointments he had been made brigadier-general of militia, and organized and commanded several expeditions against the Indians. In the Civil War. as colonel of the 1st Regiment of Nebraska Infantry, he led a brigade at Donelson and Shiloh, and was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 4 October, 1862. His appointment expired on 4 March, 1863, but he was reappointed on 13 March. He commanded a brigade and division at Vicksburg and Jackson, and led a storming column at Chickasaw Bayou, for which and for his services at Vicksburg he was brevetted major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865. He resigned, 19 July, 1865, and, returning to Nebraska, he served as U. S. Senator in 1867-'71, having been chosen as a Republican, and was then appointed by General Grant governor of Wyoming territory. In 1886 he was elected governor of Nebraska by a majority of about 25,000, which office he still holds (1888). He was department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in the state of Nebraska in 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 72.
THAYER, Martin Russell, born 1819, jurist. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. In Congress 1862-1867. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 73; Congressional Globe)
THAYER, Martin Russell, jurist, born in Petersburg, Virginia, 27 January, 1819, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1840, admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1842, and began to practise in that city. In 1862-'7 he sat in Congress, having been elected as a Republican, serving in the committee on the bankrupt law and as chairman of the committee on private land claims. In 1862 he was appointed a commissioner to revise the revenue laws of Pennsylvania, and in 1867, declining re-election to Congress, he was appointed one of the judges of the district court of the County of Philadelphia, and he has recently been re-elected. In 1873 he was appointed on the board of visitors to West Point, and wrote the report. In the succeeding year he became president-judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia. He is the author of “The Duties of Citizenship” (Philadelphia, 1862); “The Great Victory: its Cost and Value” (1865); “The Law considered as a Progressive Science” (1870); “On Libraries” (1871); “The Life and Works of Francis Lieber” (1873); and “The Battle of Germantown” (1878). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 73.
THAYER, Sylvanus, soldier, born in Braintree, Massachusetts, 9 June, 1785; died in South Braintree, Massachusetts, 7 September. 1872. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1807, at the U. S. Military Academy in 1808, and assigned to the Corps of Engineers. During the next four years he was employed on engineer service on the eastern coast, and as instructor of mathematics at the academy, receiving promotion as 1st lieutenant, 1 July, 1812. Being called to the field in the latter year, he served as chief engineer under General Henry Dearborn, on the Niagara frontier; in 1813 under (Jen. Wade Hampton's division on Lake Champlain, receiving promotion to captain of engineers, 13 October, 1813, and in 1814 under General Moses Porter's forces in defence of Norfolk, Virginia, being brevetted major, 20 February, 1815, for distinguished services. In 1815 he was sent to Europe to examine military works and schools, and study the operations of the allied armies before Paris, but he was recalled in 1817 to the superintendency of the academy at West Point, which he assumed on 28 July of that year, and held till his resignation, 1 July, 1833. During the sixteen years of his administration he organized the school on its present basis, and raised it from an elementary condition to the same grade with the best military schools in the world. During his term of office he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 3 March, 1823, made major, 24 May, 1828, and brevetted colonel, 3 March, 1833. Five years after his resignation he was again offered the charge of the academy, with almost absolute control, but he did not accept. On leaving West Point he was made a member of the board of engineers, of which he was president from 7 December, 1838, and for thirty years following he was engaged in the construction of defences in and about Boston harbor, which are models of his engineering skill and standards of economy and stability of construction. On 7 July. 1838, he was made lieutenant-colonel of engineers, and he became colonel, 3 March, 1863. On 1 June, 1863, he was retired from active service, after receiving the brevet; of brigadier-general the day before. The degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Dartmouth in 1810, and by Harvard in 1825, and that of LL. D. by St. John's College, Maryland, in 1830, by Kenyon and Dartmouth in 1846, and by Harvard in 1857. He was also a member of various scientific associations. General Thayer gave about $300,000 for the endowment of an academy, and $32,000 for a free library, at Braintree, and $70,000 for a school of architecture and civil engineering at Dartmouth. His body was reinterred at West Point, 8 November, 1877, and his statue was unveiled there, 11 June, 1883, General George W. Cullum making the presentation. It bears the inscription. " Colonel Thayer, Father of the United States Military Academy," and is represented in the accompanying illustration. A fine full-length portrait by Robert W. Weir is in the library at West Point. He was the author of "Papers on Practical Engineering" (1844). —His cousin, Martin Russell, jurist, born in Petersburg, Virignia, 27 January, 1819, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1840, admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1842. and began to practise in that city. In 1862-'7 he sat in Congress, having been elected as a Republican, serving in the committee on the bankrupt law and as chairman of the committee on private land claims. In 1862 he was appointed a commissioner to revise the revenue laws of Pennsylvania, and in 1867, declining reelection to Congress, he was appointed one of the judges of the district court of the County of Philadelphia, and he has recently been re-elected. In 1873 he was appointed on the board of visitors to West Point, and wrote the report. In the succeeding year he became president-judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia. He is the author of "The Duties of Citizenship" (Philadelphia, 1862); "The Great Victory: its Cost and Value" (1865); "The Law considered as a Progressive Science" (1870); "On Libraries" (1871); "The Life and Works of Francis Lieber" (1873); and "The Battle of Germantown " (1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 73.
THEAKER, Thomas Clarke, commissioner of patents, born in York County, Pennsylvania, 1 February, 1812; died in Oakland. Maryland, 16 July, 1883. He received a good English education, moved to Bridgeport, Ohio, in 1830, and was principally occupied as a machinist and millwright. He served in Congress as a Republican in 1859-61, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the ensuing Congress. He was made a member of a board of commissioners who were appointed to investigate the workings of the patent-office, and was afterward made by President Johnson commissioner of patents, serving from 17 August. 1865. till 6 June, 1868. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 74.
THOM, George (torn), soldier, born in Derry, New Hampshire, 21 February, 1819. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1839, assigned to the Topographical Engineers, and became 2d lieutenant in 1840. He served in connection with the survey of the boundary between the United States and the British provinces under the treaty of Washington, in 1842-'7 and on the staff of General Franklin Pierce in the war with Mexico. He became 1st lieutenant in 1849, and captain for fourteen years' service in July, 1853. In 1853-'6 he served in connection with the survey of the boundary between the United States and Mexico. At the opening of the Civil War he was a major, but was appointed colonel and additional aide-de-camp in November, 1861. Colonel Thom was continuously employed on engineer and other duty on the staff of General Henry W. Halleck till April, 1865, being present during the siege of Corinth. He was also present at the battle of Cedar Creek. Virginia. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of engineers in 1866, and was thereafter in charge of river and harbor improvements in the New England states till 20 February, 1883, when, having been forty years in service, he was, at his own request, retired from active service. He became colonel of engineers in 1880, and was brevetted brigadier-general U. S. army, " tor faithful and meritorious services during the rebellion." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 76.
THOMAS, Amos Russell, physician, born in Watertown, New York, 3 October, 1826. He acquired his education while working on a farm, taught school, and was graduated at Syracuse Medical College in 1854. He moved to Philadelphia, was appointed to the chair of anatomy in the Penn Medical University, and also was lecturer on artistic anatomy in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for fifteen years. In 1863 he received a similar appointment in the School of design for women. During the Civil War he volunteered and served as army surgeon. In 1867 he connected himself with the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, of which he is now the dean. He has contributed numerous papers to medical literature, is the author of " Post-mortem Examinations and Morbid Anatomy" (Philadelphia. 1870), and general editor of the " Homoeopathic Materia Medica." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 77.
THOMAS, Charles, soldier, born in Pennsylvania about 1800; died in Washington, D. C., 1 February, 1878. He entered the army and became a lieutenant, of ordnance, 13 August, 1819, assistant quartermaster in May, 1826, captain in April, 1833, quartermaster with, the rank of major in July, 1838, and brevet lieutenant-colonel for meritorious services in Mexico, 30 May, 1848. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel and deputy quartermaster-general, U. S. Army, in May, 1850, colonel and assistant quartermaster-general in August, 1856, and brevet major-general, 13 March, 1865, for meritorious services during the Civil War. He was retired from active service in July, 1866, after having been in the army for more than forty-five years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 77.
THOMAS, David, manufacturer, born near Neath, Glamorganshire, Wales, 3 November, 1794: died in Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 20 June, 1882. He was employed in the business of manufacturing iron after 1812, and in 1839 came to this country and built the first of the furnaces of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company. He remained with this company till 1854, when, with his sons and others, he organized the Thomas iron Company, and built two blast-furnaces at Hokendauqua. They were at the time the largest and most productive anthracite blast-furnaces in the country. Afterward other furnaces were built by the company, and successfully operated. He was one of the proprietors of the Catasauqua manufacturing company which was organized to roll plate and bar-iron, for many years served as its president, and was an owner of the Lehigh fire-brick works at Catasauqua. Mr. Thomas was the first in this country to make the manufacture of anthracite pig-iron commercially successful, and was the first person in the world fully to realize the value of powerful blowing engines in the working of blast-furnaces. He supported the cause of the Union during the Civil War. In 1866 he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 78.
THOMAS, Francis, 1799-1876, lawyer, statesman. Opposed slavery in Maryland State Constitutional Convention of 1850. Governor of Maryland, 1841-1844. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland. In Congress December 1831-March 1841 and 1861-1869. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, p. 78; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 429; Congressional Globe)
THOMAS, Francis, governor of Maryland, born in Frederick County, Maryland, 3 February, 1799; died near Frankville. Maryland, 22 January, 1876. He was graduated at St. John's College, Annapolis, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1820, and began practice in Frankville. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1822, 1827, and 1829, being speaker the last year, was elected to five consecutive congresses, serving from 5 December, 1831, till 3 March, 1841, was president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company in 1839-'40, and governor of Maryland in 1841-'4. During his canvass for the governorship he fought a duel with William Price. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1850, and was instrumental in having a measure adopted that weakened the power of the slave-holding counties. He was again in Congress from 1861 till 1869. During the Civil War Mr. Thomas supported the Union cause, raised a volunteer brigade of 3,000 men, but he refused a command. He was a delegate to the Loyalist Convention of 1866, and subsequently opposed President Johnson. He was appointed collector of internal revenue for the Cumberland District, and served from April, 1870, till he was appointed minister to Peru, 25 March, 1872. He held this post till 9 July, 1875, and afterward retired to his farm near Frankland, where he was killed by a locomotive while walking on the railroad-track. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 78.
THOMAS, James H., Edgartown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40.
THOMAS, John, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971).
THOMAS, Lorenzo, 1804-1875, Major General, U.S. Army (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 85; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 441; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 516)
THOMAS, Lorenzo, soldier, born in New Castle, Delaware, 26 October, 1804; died in Washington, D. C., 2 March, 1875. His father, Evan, was of Welsh extraction, and served in the militia during the war of 1812, and one of his uncles was a favorite officer of General Washington. He was at first destined for mercantile pursuits, but received an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy, and was graduated there in 1823. He served in the 4th U.S. Infantry in Florida till 1831, and again in the Florida war of 1836-'7, and as chief of staff of the army in that state in 1839-'40, becoming captain, 23 September, 1836, and major on the staff and assistant adjutant-general, 7 July, 1838. He there did duty in the last-named office at Washington till the Mexican war, in which he was chief of staff of General William O. Butler in 1846-'8, and of the Army of Mexico till June, 1848, and received the brevet of lieutenant-colonel for gallantry at Monterey. He was then adjutant-general at army headquarters, Washington, till 1853, and chief of staff to General Winfield Scott till 1861, when he was brevetted brigadier-general on 7 May, and made adjutant-general of the army on 3 August, with the full rank of brigadier-general. Here he served till 1863, when he was intrusted for two years with the organization of colored troops in the southern states. When President Johnson removed Edwin M. Stanton from his post as Secretary of War he appointed General Thomas secretary ad interim, 21 February, 1868, but, owing to Stanton's refusal to vacate, Thomas did not enter on the office. He was brevetted major-general, United States army, on 13 March, 1865, for services during the civil war, and on 22 February, 1869, he was retired. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 85.
THOMAS, Robert Harper, journalist, born in Philadelphia, 28 January, 1834, received a good English education, served as aide with the rank of colonel on the staff of Governor Andrew G. Curtin, and was commissioner of internal revenue from 1862 till 1866. In 1870 he purchased the "Valley Democrat," of Mechanicsburg, changing the name to the " Independent Journal," and subsequently to the "Farmer's Friend and Grange Advocate." He was commissioner from Pennsylvania to the World's industrial and cotton centennial exhibition at New Orleans in 1884-'5, and also to the American exposition at London in 1887. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
THOMAS, George Henry, soldier, born in Southampton County, Virginia, 31 July, 1816; died in San Francisco, California, 28 March, 1870. He was descended, on his father's side, from Welsh ancestry, and, on his mother's, from a French Huguenot family. Not much is known of his youth. He was early distinguished for the thoroughness with which he mastered everything he undertook. His home life was pleasant and genial, and he was carefully educated in the best schools and academies of the region. At the age of nineteen he began the study of law, but the next year he received an appointment as cadet at the U. S. Military Academy. At the academy he rose steadily in rank, from 26th at the end of the first year to 12th at graduation. He was nicknamed, after the fashion of the place, "George Washington," from a fancied resemblance in appearance and character to the great patriot. He was graduated and commissioned 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Artillery, 1 July, 1840, and entered upon duty at New York, but was soon sent to Florida to take part in the Indian war, where, in 1841, he gained a brevet for gallantry. After a short stay at various posts on the south Atlantic coast, he was, in the autumn of 1845, sent to Texas. When the Mexican war began, he accompanied the column under General Zachary Taylor, distinguishing himself at Monterey, where he was brevetted captain, and at Buena Vista, 22 and 23 February, 1847, bore a more decisive part. The success of that battle was largely due to the artillery. "Without it," says General John E. Wool in his report, " we would not have maintained our position a single hour." Captain Thomas W. Sherman said: "Lieutenant Thomas more than sustained the reputation he has long enjoyed as an accurate and scientific artillerist." He was again brevetted for gallantry, thus earning three brevets in a little more than six years after entering the service. The citizens of his native county in the following July presented him with a superb sword. He remained on duty in Mexico and Texas till 1849, and was again sent to Florida. In 1851 he was detailed as instructor of artillery and cavalry at the military academy, where he remained until 1 May, 1854. Soon afterward two cavalry regiments were added to the army, and of one of them, the 2d, brevet Major Thomas was, on 12 May, 1855, appointed junior major. In the composition of this new regiment unusual care was taken in the selection of officers. Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War, and the choice was dictated not merely by ability but also by locality. Of the fifty-one officers that served in it prior to the beginning of the Civil War, thirty-one were from the south, and of these twenty-four entered the Confederate service, twelve of whom became general officers. Among these were Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, William J. Hardee, Earl Van Dorn, E. Kirby Smith, John Bell Hood, and Fitzhugh Lee. In the seclusion of garrison life in Texas during the exciting period from 1855 to 1861, Major Thomas watched with increasing apprehension the gradual approach of the inevitable conflict. In affection for and pride in his native state he was a Virginian of the Virginians; but he never for a moment doubted where his duty lay. Early in November, 1860, he left Texas on a long leave of absence. Before its expiration he was ordered, 11 April, 1861, to take charge of his regiment, which had been treacherously surrendered in Texas, and was now arriving in New York. He obeyed the order with alacrity and conducted the regiment to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Barracks. On his way there, he heard of the assault on Fort Sumter, and on reaching the place he renewed his oath of allegiance to the United States. On the 17th the Virginia convention adopted the ordinance of secession, and Robert E. Lee, colonel of his regiment, tendered his resignation on the 20th. Hardee, Van Dorn, Kirby Smith, and Hood had already resigned Thomas, unmoved, continued with ardor the preparations necessary to sustain the cause of his country. At the head of a brigade he soon crossed the Potomac into Virginia, where, on 2 July, he met and put to flight an insurgent militia force of his own state, under command of Colonel Thomas J. Jackson, drawn up to resist his movements. From that day till the end of the war he did not have or seek a single hour's respite from exacting labors in the field. He led the advance of Patterson's column toward Winchester prior to the battle of Bull Run, and at the close of that campaign he was appointed, 17 August, 1861, brigadier-general of volunteers, and assigned to duty in the Department of the Cumberland, which included Kentucky and Tennessee. He found the whole of Kentucky in a turmoil, when, on 10 September, he entered upon his work at Camp Dick Robinson, 100 miles south of Cincinnati. The Confederate Army had occupied Columbus in spite of the formal protest of legislature and governor, and Thomas was menaced with personal violence. The camp was swarming with unorganized Kentucky regiments and crowds of refugees from east Tennessee, eager to be armed and led back to drive the enemy from their homes. For the first few months General Thomas was fully occupied in instructing the raw recruits. It required infinite patience to work over these independent backwoodsmen into any semblance to soldiers. Little by little the task was accomplished, and the troops so organized became the first brigade of the Army of the Cumberland. General Robert Anderson was soon relieved from duty on account of failing health, and, after a short interregnum, General Don Carlos Buell was placed in command of the department. Under his orders, General Thomas continued his preparations for a movement in east Tennessee. Early in January, 1862, he placed the head of his column at Somerset, fifty miles south of Camp Dick Robinson, and on the night of the 18th encamped at Logan's Cross-Roads, ten miles from the enemy's position, with seven regiments of infantry, one squadron of cavalry, and two batteries. At early dawn the next morning he was attacked by a force consisting of nine regiments of infantry, two squadrons and two companies of cavalry, and two batteries. After a stout resistance General Thomas succeeded in placing one of his regiments on the flank of the enemy's line, when a charge was ordered, and the whole Confederate force was driven in confusion from the field, with the loss of its leader, General Felix K. Zollicoffer. Pursuit was continued till dark, when the enemy's works were reached. During the night that followed, most of the Confederate Army escaped across the river, leaving guns, small-arms, and other spoils. This contest, which is known as the battle of Mill Springs, was the first real victory for the National cause since the disaster at Hull liuu, six months before. The loss was 39 killed and 207 wounded on the National side, against 125 Confederates killed and 309 wounded. Immediately afterward the whole army entered upon the movements that culminated in the battle of Shiloh and the expulsion of the Confederate armies from the entire region between the Cumberland mountains and the Mississippi. General Thomas shared in all these operations. On 25 April, 1862, he was made major-general, and was assigned to the command of General Grant's army, the latter being made second in general command under Halleck, and thus virtually retired from active command for the time being. Soon after the occupation of Corinth, General Thomas returned to his old command, and with it went through the exhausting campaign by which, at the end of September, General Buell's whole army, save the isolated garrison at Nashville, was concentrated at Louisville, prepared to give battle to General Bragg, who had audaciously led his army from Chattanooga to the Ohio River. At Louisville, on 29 September, the command of the National Army was offered to General Thomas, but he declined it. On 30 October General Buell was superseded by General William S. Rosecrans, and General Thomas was placed in command of five divisions, forming the centre of the army. On 31 December, 1862, the contending forces, under Rosecrans and Bragg, met in bloody conflict on the banks of Stone River, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. By an impetuous and overwhelming charge of the enemy at dawn, the whole right wing of the National Army was swept back three miles, and its very existence was imperilled. But the centre, under Thomas, firmly held its ground and repelled every assault till nightfall. The contest was renewed on 2 January, 1863, when, by a bold and fiery attack of a part of Thomas's force on the enemy's right, the Confederate position was endangered, and Bragg, in the night of the 3d, retreated. The National Army lay nearly motionless until June, when it entered on that series of brilliant flanking movements which, without any serious conflict, drove the enemy from Tennessee and compelled the abandonment of Chattanooga on 8 September. The terrible battle of Chickamauga followed, when, on 19 and 20 September, the Confederate army, re-enforced by Longstreet's corps from Virginia and some troops from Mississippi, put forth almost superhuman efforts to overwhelm the National forces in detail, and thus secure, once more, the prize of Chattanooga, the gateway to the heart of the Confederacy. Again, as at Stone River, the right was swept away, carrying with it the commander of the army and two corps commanders. General Thomas was thus left with but little more than six out of thirteen divisions to maintain his ground against five corps flushed with seeming victory and eager with the hope of making him an easy prey. From noon till night the battle raged. Every assault of the enemy had been repelled, the National troops were full of confidence and ardor, and the final assault of the day was made by a National brigade following up with the bayonet a retreating Confederate division. In the night, by orders of the army commander, General Thomas fell back to Rossville, five miles, and there awaited all the next day the expected attack; but the enemy was in no condition to make it. For the only time in its history, the Army of the Cumberland left the enemy to bury its dead. General Daniel H. Hill, commanding a Confederate corps in that battle, who had served in both eastern and western armies, said: "It seems to me the elan of the southern soldier was never seen after Chickamauga. That barren victory sealed the fate of the southern Confederacy." Following this great battle, General Thomas on 19 October was placed in command of the Army of the Cumberland. Its affairs were in a most critical condition. All communication with its base of supplies was cut off, an almost impassable river was in its rear, from the heights of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge the enemy looked down on the beleaguered force, slowly starving in its stronghold. Immediate measures were taken for its relief, and from every quarter troops were hurried toward Chattanooga, both to open communications and to re-enforce the army for active operations. Two corps from the Potomac and two from Mississippi were speedily forwarded, and all were placed under command of General Grant. To his almost despairing message to General Thomas to hold the place, came the cheering reply, " We will hold the town till we starve." Thomas had then in store six days' supply for 50,000 men. Preparations were at last completed, and on 23 November the forces from Mississippi, aided by a division from Thomas, attacked the northern end of Mission ridge, and gained some ground. On the 24th Lookout mountain was captured by the forces from the Potomac, strengthened by two of Thomas's brigades. On the 25th, under Thomas's leadership, the Army of the Cumberland, released from its long imprisonment, stormed and carried the three lines of rifle-pits at the base, midway, and on the summit of Mission ridge, and drove the Confederate Army, in utter rout, from the fortified position it had held so confidently for two months. As the jubilant National troops reached the summit, of the ridge, the whistle of the first steamboat, loaded with supplies, told that the siege was indeed ended. In the spring of 1864 General Thomas entered upon the Atlanta Campaign, at the head of 65,000 veterans, being two thirds of the grand army commanded by General Sherman. He occupied the centre of the line. From Chattanooga to Atlanta it was an almost continuous battle of a hundred days. The relative amount of work done by each of the three armies is indicated by the losses. The Army of the Cumberland lost, in killed and wounded, 32 per cent., the Army of the Tennessee 20 per cent., the Army of the Ohio 16 per cent. On 1 September, at Jonesboro, the 14th Army Corps of Thomas's army made a successful assault, completely driving from the field the enemy's right, and on the 2d the 20th Corps, also of Thomas's command, entered Atlanta, and the campaign was ended. When General Hood placed his whole force across the railroad north of Atlanta, and, turning his cavalry loose in Tennessee, threatened to cut off supplies from Sherman's army, General Thomas was sent to Nashville, while General Sherman prepared for his march to the sea. At the end of October the 4th and 23d Corps were sent to Tennessee, with instructions to General Thomas to use them in guarding the line of the river during Sherman's absence. It was supposed that Hood would follow Sherman's army through Georgia, but it was soon found that the entire force that had confronted Sherman on his way to Atlanta was now threatening Thomas. All the available troops were concentrated, and Hood's advance was resisted to the utmost. After a series of escapes from desperate hazards, a part of the two National corps under General John M. Schofield, on the afternoon of 30 November, 1864, at Franklin, Tennessee. signally defeated the repeated assaults of Hood's army, inflicting upon it irreparable losses, including six generals killed and a large number wounded. That night the National force retired to Nashville, where it was re-enforced by a corps from Missouri and a division from Chattanooga. Hood boldly advanced to the vicinity and fortified himself. Nearly all Thomas's mounted force had accompanied Sherman, leaving all the remaining cavalry to be remounted. The troops from Missouri and Chattanooga were destitute of transportation. Thus in midwinter, at 200 miles from the main base of supplies, and in the presence of a bold and active enemy, he had thrust upon him a task that at any time was almost overwhelming. Some called him “slow," yet, within two weeks from the day when his unsupplied and dismounted army reached Nashville, it was ready to take the field. But. General Grant at City Point grew so impatient over what he considered needless delay, that he issued an order dismissing General Thomas from command, and directing him to report to one of the corps commanders. After a fuller explanation of the causes of the delay, this unexampled order was suspended, but General Grant himself set out for the scene of operations. A terrible storm of sleet and rain, freezing as it fell, came up on 9 December, rendering all movement impossible. On the 14th a thaw began. On the 15th and 16th, in exact accordance with the detailed order of battle, the confident troops of General Thomas, who had never lost faith in their leader, by skilful and energetic movements, completely overthrew the last organized Confederate Army in the southwest. A feeble remnant, despoiled of guns and transportation, came together some weeks later at Tupelo, Mississippi, nearly 250 miles distant. As an army it never again took the field. What General Thomas accomplished in this campaign, and with what means, cannot be better told than in the words of his despatch to General Halleck on 21 December: "I fought the battles of the 15th and 16th with the troops but partially equipped; and notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather and the partial equipment, have been enabled to drive the enemy beyond Duck River, crossing two streams with my troops without the aid of pontoons, and without little transportation to bring up supplies of provisions and ammunition. . . . Too much must not be expected of troops that have to be reorganized, especially when they have the task of destroying a force, "in a winter campaign, which was enabled to make an obstinate resistance to twice its numbers in spring and summer." Following this great victory came the operations of the cavalry as organized by General Thomas in Alabama and Georgia, resulting in the taking of Selma and the capture of Jefferson Davis. But the battle of Nashville was substantially the end of the rebellion in that quarter. For it he received the appointment of major-general in the U. S. Army, accompanied by the assurance of the Secretary of War that "no commander has more justly earned promotion by devoted, disinterested, and valuable services to his country." He also received the thanks of Congress and of the legislature of Tennessee, together with a gold medal presented to him by the latter body on the first anniversary of the battle. With the close of the war, General Thomas bent all his energies to the restoration of peace and order throughout his command. In May. 1869, he was placed in command of the Military Division of the Pacific, and held it until his death. Though he had seen more continuous, varied, and active service than any officer of his age and rank in the army, General Thomas was emphatically a lover of peace. His whole nature and disposition were orderly, gentle, and kindly. He abhorred war, not merely because of its cruelty, but also because of the turmoil and disorder it occasioned. Though a lover of home life, he never was allowed to remain long in one place, the average length of time that he was stationed at any one post being less than five months. He enjoyed the calm and peaceful life of nature, loving trees and flowers and the open air. His range of reading was not very wide, but he was well acquainted with natural science, was a good geologist, expert in woodcraft, and well versed in botany. The museums of the Smithsonian nstitution contain rare and curious specimens contributed by him. In his own profession he was thoroughly trained in all departments, so that, when he was placed in command of a corps, he had had personal experience of every arm of the service. When the war ended he was the only general officer of high rank and distinction (except Sheridan and Hancock) who had served uninterruptedly in the army. He had carefully studied military and international law. and especially the constitution of the United States, and was a thorough believer in the ideas on which the government was based. No man was ever more scrupulous to subordinate the military to the civil power. The general of the army, his classmate and life-long friend, in announcing his death, said: "The very Impersonation of honesty, integrity, and honor, he will stand to posterity as the beauty of the soldier and gentleman. Though he leaves no child to bear his name, the old Army of the Cumberland, numbered by tens of thousands, called him father, and will weep for him in tears of manly grief." He was buried with all the honors of his rank at Troy, New York, on 8 April, 1870. A fine equestrian statue, in bronze, by J. Q. A. Ward, erected by the soldiers of his old army, perpetuates his appearance and features in the capital of the country. (See illustration.) His biography has been written by Thomas B. Van Home (New York, 1882). See also John W. De Peyster's "Sketch of G. H. Thomas" (1870) and James A. Garfield's "Oration before the Society of the Army of the Cumberland," 25 November, 1870 (Cincinnati, 1871). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 79-82.
THOMAS, Henry Goddard, soldier, born in Portland, Maine, 5 April, 1837. He was graduated at Amherst in 1858, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He enlisted as a private in the 5th Maine Volunteers in April, 1861, and was captain in that regiment from June till August, when he was given that rank in the 11th regular Infantry. He was present at the first battle of Bull Run and the action at Snicker's Gap, Virginia, was appointed colonel of the 2d U. S. Colored Regiment in February, 1863, and engaged in the actions of Bristol Station, Rappahannock Station, and Mine Run, Virginia. He then organized the 19th U. S. Colored Regiment, and became its colonel in December, 1863. In February, 1864, he was in command at Camp Birney, Maryland, and he led a brigade in the 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac, from May, 1864, till November, being engaged at the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Petersburg, and Hatcher's Run. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 30 November, 1864, transferred to the Army of the James, led a brigade and division in the 25th Corps of that army, and temporarily commanded the corps. During the war he received the brevets of major, 12 May, 1864, for gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Spottsylvania; lieutenant-colonel, 30 July, 1864, for services at Petersburg; and colonel, brigadier-general, and major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865, for services during the war. He was honorably mustered out of the volunteer service in 1866, but remained in the United States Army, and is now paymaster, with the rank of major. General Thomas was the first regular officer to accept a colonelcy of colored troops. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 82.
THOMAS, John Addison, soldier, born in Tennessee in 1811; died in Paris, France, 26 March, 1858. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1833, assigned to the 3d U.S. Artillery, served in garrison and as assistant instructor of infantry tactics, and became 2d lieutenant on 1 December, 1835, and 1st lieutenant, 30 June, 1837. In 1840-1 he was assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics at West Point, and in 1842-5 he was commandant of cadets and instructor of infantry tactics. He was made captain on 19 November, 1843, and resigned on 28 May, 1846, to practise law in New York City. On 23 July, 1846, he became colonel of the 4th New York Regiment, which had been raised for the war with Mexico, but was not mustered into service. He was chief engineer of New York State in 1853-'4, and from 19 April. 1853, to 15 January, 1854, was advocate of the United States in London, England, under the convention of 8 February, 1853, with Great Britain for the adjustment of American claims. From 1 November, 1855, till 4 April, 1857, he was assistant U. S. Secretary of State in Washington, D. C. He gained reputation by his report of the convention with Great Britain, and by other state papers. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 85.
THOMAS, Philip Francis, governor of Maryland, born in Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, 12 September, 1810. ne is a connection of Sir Philip Francis, the supposed author of the "Junius Letters," for whom he is named. After receiving his education at the academy in Easton and at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and practised in his native town. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1836, and served in the legislature in 1838, and again in 1843-'5. Being elected to Congress as a Democrat, he served from 2 December, 1839, till 3 March, 1841, and declined a renomination to the 28th Congress, and resumed the practice of law. He was governor of the state from 1848 till 1851. He was judge of the land-office of the eastern shore of Maryland, and in 1851 was made comptroller of the treasury, an office that was created by the constitution adopted in that year, but resigned in 1853 and accepted the place of collector of the port of Baltimore. During the Mormon war he was offered the governorship of the territory, which he declined, and he also declined the post of treasurer of the United States which was tendered him by President Buchanan. On 16 February. 1860. he was appointed commissioner of patents, and in December, 1860, he succeeded Howell Cobb as Secretary of the Treasury in Buchanan’s cabinet, serving until 11 January, 1861. He was elected a member of the House of Delegates of Maryland in 1866, and during the session was elected to the U. S. Senate, but was refused a seat on 19 February, 1868 on the ground of "having given aid and comfort to the rebellion," but in 1874 he was chosen to the House of Representatives as a Democrat, and served from 6 December, 1875, till 3 March, 1877. In 1878 he was again elected to the legislature, and after serving one term resumed the practice of his profession in Easton, where he still resides. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
THOMAS, Robert Bally, editor, born in West Boylston, Massachusetts. 24 April, 1766; died there, 19 May, 1846. Annually he prepared for the press the "Farmer's Almanac" (Boston. 1793-1846), which was exceedingly popular and has been continued since his death, attaining a circulation of 225,000. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
THOMAS, Seth, manufacturer, born in Plymouth Hollow (now Thomaston), Connecticut, 1 December 1816: died in Thomaston, Connecticut, 28 April, 1888. His father, Seth (1786-1859), for whom Thomaston was named, was employed as a joiner in the clock-factory of Eli Terry (q. v.) in Plymouth, and afterward began the manufacture of metal-movement clocks. The son enlarged the factory at Thomaston and introduced his clocks into all parts of the world, including China and Japan. His boast was that he had manufactured every kind of time-piece, from a delicate watch to a tower-clock. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
THOMAS, Stephen, soldier, born in Bethel, Windsor County, Vermont, 6 December, 1809. He received a common school education, and was apprenticed to the trade of woollen manufacturing. He served in the legislature in 1838-9. 1845-'6, and 1860-1, was a delegate to the state Constitutional Conventions of 1844 and 1851, state senator in 1848-9, register of the probate court of Orange County in 1842-'6, and judge of the same in 1847-9. On 12 November, 1861, he was appointed colonel of volunteers, and enlisted a regiment of infantry and two batteries. He was mustered into the U. S. service on 21 January, 1862, commanding the 8th Vermont Regiment, and was mustered out on 21 January, 1865. On 1 February, 1865, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers and served until 24 August, 1865. In 1867-8 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Vermont. From 1870 till 1877 he was U. S. pension-agent, and since then has engaged in farming in Vermont. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
THOME, Arthur, Augusta, Kentucky, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1839-1840.
THOME, James A., 1809-1873, August, Kentucky, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist, educator, clergyman. Father was a slaveholder. Thome was a member and Vice President, 1839-1840, of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). He was a lecturing agent for the AASS in Ohio. Professor at Oberlin College. Took part in the famous Lane Seminary debates on slavery in 1833 and 1834. He supported immediate emancipation. He left Lane for Oberlin. He was sent by the AASS to observe the effect of emancipation in the West Indies. He and Horace Kimball, who was the editor of the Herald of Freedom, wrote their account “Emancipation in the West Indies,” which was published in 1838. It was an important report, utilized by the abolitionist cause in determining the feasibility of freeing slaves in the U.S. After the Civil War, Thome raised funds for people newly freed from slavery. (Dumond, 1961m pp., 152, 155, 174; Filler, 1960, pp. 68, 140; Mabee, 1970, p. 272; Pease, 1965, pp. 91-93)
THOMPSON, Cyrus, LeRoy, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1846.
THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce, 1795-1868, Vermont, abolitionist, noted author, novelist, lawyer, political leader. Member of the Liberty Party. Editor, from 1849-1856, of the anti-slavery newspaper, Green Mountain Freeman. (Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 88-89, Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 454)
THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce, author, born in Charlestown (now a part of Boston), Massachusetts, 1 October, 1793; died in Montpelier, Vermont, 6 June, 1868. He was the grandson of Daniel, who was a cousin of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, and was killed at the battle of Lexington. He was brought up on a farm, prepared himself for college under difficulties, taught for one winter, and then entered Middlebury College, where he was graduated in 1820. Going to Virginia as a family tutor, he studied law there, and was admitted to the bar in 1823, after which he returned to Vermont and settled in Montpelier. He was register of probate in 1824, and clerk of the legislature in 1830-'3, and was then appointed to compile the “Laws of Vermont from 1824 down to and including the Year 1834” (Montpelier, 1835). He was judge of probate from 1837 till 1840, from 1843 till 1845 clerk of the supreme and county courts, and from 1853 till 1855 Secretary of State. From 1849 till 1856 he edited a weekly political paper called the “Green Mountain Free man.” He was a popular lecturer before lyceums and orator on public occasions. Mr. Thompson began to contribute poems and sketches to periodicals while he was in college, and continued to write frequently for the newspapers and magazines, besides publishing political pamphlets. He took part in the anti-Masonic controversy, and published a satirical novel on the subject, entitled “The Adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esq., or Freemasonry Practically Illustrated,” which appeared under the pen-name of “A Member of the Vermont Bar” (Middlebury, 1835). In 1835 he wrote for the “New England Galaxy,” of Boston, a prize tale called “May Martin, or the Money-Diggers,” which was issued in book-form (Montpelier, 1835), and reprinted in London. Next appeared “The Green Mountain Boys,” a romance, in which the principal men connected with the history of Vermont in the Revolutionary period are brought into the plot (Montpelier, 1840; republished in Boston and London); “Locke Amsden, or the Schoolmaster” (Boston, 1845); “Lucy Hosmer, or the Guardian and the Ghost” (1848); and “The Rangers, or the Tory's Daughter” (1851). His later romances are “Tales of the Green Mountains” (1852); “Gaut Gurley, or the Trappers of Lake Umbagog” (1857); “The Doomed Chief, or Two Hundred Years Ago,” based on the story of King Philip (Philadelphia, 1860); and “Centeola, and other Tales” (New York, 1864). He was also the author of a “History of Montpelier, 1781-1860, with Biographical Sketches” (Montpelier, 1860). In later life he published monographs on topics of American history and on biographical subjects in various magazines. A novel, with the title of “The Honest Lawyer, or the Fair Castaway,” was left unfinished. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 88-89.
THOMPSON, Edward R., naval officer, born in Pennsylvania about 1808; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 February, 1879. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman on 1 December, 1826, became a lieutenant on 8 March, 1837, served during the Mexican War on the brig " Porpoise" and the frigate "Potomac" in the Gulf of Mexico, cruised on the coast of Africa in the " Porpoise " in 1851-'2, and in command of the "Dolphin " in 1856-'7, having been promoted commander on 14 September. 1855. He had charge of the steamer "Seminole" in the early part of the Civil War, but, being unfit for further active service, was placed on the retired list on 3 December, 1861. On 4 April, 1867, his rank was raised to that of commodore. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 89.
THOMPSON, Edwin, 1809-1888, Lynn, Massachusetts, reformer, orator, clergyman, temperance reformer, abolitionist, Society of Friends, Quaker, traveling anti-slavery lecturer. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 89)
THOMPSON, Edwin, reformer, born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in July, 1809; died in East Walpole, Massachusetts, 22 May, 1888. He was of Quaker descent, and early interested himself in the anti-slavery movement. At the suggestion of Wendell Phillips, he became a public speaker in its furtherance, travelling through the state, often on foot, lecturing in churches and school-houses, and winning a reputation as an orator by his fluency and great fund of anecdotes. While speaking in New Bedford, he roused Frederick Douglass to take up active work in behalf of his race. He was also interested from an early period in the temperance reform, which he did much to promote. Mr. Thompson was ordained as a Universalist clergyman in 1840, and afterward resided at East Walpole. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 89.
THOMPSON, Egbert, naval officer, born in New York City, 6 June, 1820; died in Washington, D. C., 5 January, 1881. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 13 March, 1837, served in Commodore Charles Wilkes's exploring expedition in 1838-'42. and became a passed midshipman, 29 June, 1843. As executive officer of the schooner "Bonita," in the Gulf Squadron during the Mexican War, he participated in the expedition against Front era, and the capture of Tobasco, Tampico, Vera Cruz, and Tuspan. His vessel covered the landing of General Winfield Scott's army at Vera Cruz, and captured several prizes during the war. He served in the steamer " Michigan " on the lakes in 1847-'50, and at Philadelphia Navy-yard in 1850-'l. He was commissioned a lieutenant, 27 September, 1850, and was in the steamer "Fulton" in 1850 when she was wrecked. When the Civil War began he was attached to the steamer " Powhatan," which went to Pensacola Navy-yard, and contributed to the relief of Fort Pickens. He commanded the river ironclad steamer " Pittsburg," in the Mississippi Flotilla, in which he participated in the battle of Fort Donelson, when he was obliged to run her ashore to keep from sinking, ne was commended for gallantry in running the batteries of Island No. 10, for which he received the thanks of the navy department, and he took part in the attacks on Fort Madrid and Fort Pillow, and the battle with the Confederate rams, he was commissioned a commander, 16 July, 1862, served at the rendezvous at Philadelphia in 1863-'4, and commanded the steamer "McDonough" in the South Atlantic Blockade in 1864-'5, and the steamer " Dacotah," of the South Pacific Squadron, in 1866-'7. He was commissioned captain, 26 July, 1867, and was commandant of the Naval Station at Mound City, Illinois, in 1869—'71. He commanded the steam sloop "Canandaigua," of the North Atlantic Squadron, in 1871-'2, and was retired on 6 January, 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 89-90.
THOMPSON, Elizabeth, philanthropist, born in Lyndon, Vermont, 21 February, 1821. She is the daughter of Samuel Howell, a poor farmer, and at the age of nine went to aid in the household duties of a neighbor's family as a maid of all work, receiving as wages twenty-five cents a week. Her education was chiefly self-acquired, but she was remarkably handsome, and, while on a visit to Boston in 1843, so impressed Thomas Thompson, a well-known millionaire of that city, that he sought her acquaintance. Early in 1844 they were married, and until his death in 1869 spent much of their income for charitable purposes. The use of the entire income of his immense estate was then left to Mrs. Thompson. She has given large sums to the cause of temperance, and " Figures of Hell," a tract written by her and filled with much statistical information, has been widely circulated. Mrs. Thompson has given more than $100,000 toward providing with business pursuits the heads of families, hundreds of whom have been enabled to establish themselves by her bounty. Among her many charities is the gift of $10,000 which was expended by a commission authorized by Congress to investigate the yellow fever. She founded the town of Long Mont, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and gave 640 acres of land with $300 to each colonist in Saline County, Kansas. Mrs. Thompson contributed largely to the purchase of the Vassar college telescope, and gave to the Concord school of philosophy the building in which its summer assemblies are held. She suggested the idea of a song-service for the poor, and incurred large expense in putting it into practical operation in many of the large cities of this country. Francis B. Carpenter's painting of the " Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln in the Presence of his Cabinet" was purchased by her and presented to Congress. In consequence of this she was granted the freedom of the floor of the house, a right which no other woman, not even the president's wife, possesses. […]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 90.
THOMPSON, George, 1804-1878, English abolitionist, reformer, orator. Helped organize and spoke to more than 150 abolitionist groups in the United States. Worked with abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison. He was often threatened by pro-slavery mobs and was threatened with death in Boston.
(Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 43, 221; Sinha, 2016, pp. 221, 233, 234, 241, 253, 272-275, 278, 290, 434, 565; Wilson, 1872, Vol. 2, p. 69; Yellin, 1994, pp. 28, 49-50, 69, 172-173, 221, 260, 260n, 282, 310-312, 311n, 320n; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 90; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 679-680; Rice, C. Duncan, The Scots Abolitionists, 1833-1861, 1981; Temperely, Howard, British Anti-Slavery, 1833-1870, 1972)
THOMPSON, George, English reformer, born in Liverpool, England, 18 June, 1804; died in Leeds, England, 7 October, 1878. He entered actively into the agitation against slavery in the British colonies, and contributed largely to its downfall, and subsequently to that of the apprentice system. Afterward he joined the Anti-corn-law league, and also took an active part in forming the India association. In 1834, at the request of William Lloyd Garrison and others, he came to the United States to speak in behalf of the abolition of slavery. He addressed meetings in various parts of the northern states, and his efforts led to the formation of more than 150 anti-slavery societies; but he was often threatened by mobs, and finally in Boston, Massachusetts, escaped death only by fleeing in a small row-boat to an English vessel and going to St. John, New Brunswick, whence he sailed for England in November, 1835. Mr. Thompson's visit created such excitement that President Jackson denounced him in a message to Congress. He made a second visit to this country in 1851, and another during the Civil War, when a public reception was given to him in the house of representatives, at which President Lincoln and his cabinet were present. He aided greatly in preventing the recognition of the southern Confederacy by the British Government. Mr. Thompson was also concerned in the work of the National parliamentary reform association. In 1847 he was chosen a member of parliament for the Tower Hamlets. About 1870 a testimonial fund was raised for him by his admirers in this country and England. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 90.
THOMPSON, George, died 1893, American abolitionist. In 1841, planned escape of slaves, and was arrested in Palmyra, Missouri with Alonson Work and James Burr. They were arrested and tried. Thompson served four years and eleven months. Wrote about the experience in Prison Life and Reflections.
THOMPSON, George Washington, lawyer, born in St. Clairsville, Ohio, 14 Mav. 1806; died near Wheeling, West Virginia, 24 February, 1888. He was graduated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1824, studied law in Richmond, Virginia, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in his native town, but afterward moved to western Virginia. He was U. S. district attorney in 1846 and was elected to Congress as a Democrat in the following year, serving from 1 December, 1851, till 30 July, 1852, when he resigned to accept a seat on the bench of the circuit court of his state. He was re-elected in 1860, but, declining to take the test oaths that were required by the reorganized government of Virginia, retired from public life. He had previously served on the commission that was appointed to determine the boundary between Virginia and Ohio. He was a frequent contributor to the Boston "Quarterly Review" in 1839-'42, and, besides numerous legal, political, and educational addresses, has published "Dissertation on the Historical Right of Virginia to the Territory Northwest of the Ohio ": "Life of Linn Boyd "; " The Living Forces of the Universe", (Philadelphia, 1866); and "Deus Semper." When he was eighty years old he wrote " The Song of Eighty," a poem (printed privately, 1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 90-91.
THOMPSON, Henry, radical abolitionist, son-in-law to abolitionist John Brown (see entry for John Brown). (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 206)
THOMPSON, Jacob, cabinet officer, born in Caswell County, North Carolina, 15 Mav, 1810; died in Memphis, Tennessee, 24 March, 1885. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1831, admitted to the bar in 1834, and settled in the Chickasaw Country, Mississippi, where he practised law with success. In 1838 he was chosen to Congress as a Democrat, and he served by continued re-election from 1839 till 1857, advocating the repudiation by Mississippi of part of the state bonds and opposing the compromise measures of 1850, on the ground that they were not favorable enough to the south. While he was in Congress he held for some time the chairmanship of the Committee on Indian affairs, and in 1845 he refused an appointment that was tendered him by the governor of Mississippi to a vacancy in the U. S. Senate. President Buchanan made him Secretary of the Interior in 1857, and he held that office till 8 January, 1861, when he resigned, giving as his reason that troops had been ordered to re-enforce Fort Sumter contrary to an agreement that this should not be done without the consent of the cabinet. In acknowledging his letter the president reminded him that the matter had been decided in a cabinet meeting six days before. In December, 1860, while still in office, he had been appointed by the legislature of Mississippi a commissioner to urge on North Carolina the adoption of an ordinance of secession. In 1862-'4 he was governor of Mississippi, and afterward he served as aide-de-camp to General Beauregard. In the summer of 1864 he was sent as a Confederate Commissioner to Canada, where he promoted the plan to release the prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, and to seize that city. He has also been charged with instigating plots to burn northern cities and commit other outrages. After the war he returned to the United States. At his death an order of Sec. Lucius Q. C. Lamar to fly the National flag at half-mast over the buildings of the interior department caused much excitement at the north. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 91.
THOMPSON, James, jurist, born in Middlesex, Butler County, Pennsylvania, 1 October, 1806; died in Philadelphia, 28 January, 1874. After receiving a good education, he began life as a printer, subsequently studied law, and in 1829 was admitted to the bar. He was chosen to the legislature in 1832, 1833, and 1834, during the latter year serving as speaker of the house, although he was the youngest member. He was a presidential elector in 1836, voting for Martin Van Buren, in 1838 a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, and in 1839 was appointed president-judge of the 6th judicial district of the state, in which office he served until 1844, when he was elected by the Democrats to Congress, being re-elected in 1846 and 1848. In 1855, against his desire, he was again elected to the legislature, where he remained one term, and after that declined nominations for both the legislature and Congress. In 1857 he was elected to the supreme court of the state, and served nine years as justice and six years as chief justice. On the expiration of his term he was renominated by the Democrats, but failed of an election, though running ahead of his ticket. He mingled with his judicial qualities warm affections and genial manners. His judicial opinions are found in the supreme court reports, from vol. xxx. to vol. lxxii. inclusive. After his retirement he resumed the practice of law in Philadelphia, and his death occurred suddenly while he was engaged in arguing a cause before the same court over which he had so recently presided, his opponent in the cause being his predecessor in the office of chief justice, George W. Woodward. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 91.
THOMPSON, John Burton, senator, born near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, 14 December, 1810; died in Harrodsburg, 7 January, 1874. His ancestor came to Virginia from England as a captain in the Royal Navy. John was educated at private schools, studied law under his father, and succeeded to his extensive practice at Harrodsburg. He served as commonwealth's attorney, was chosen to the legislature in 1835 and 1836, and in 1840 was elected to Congress as a Whig to fill a vacancy, serving from 7 December, 1840, till 3 March, 1843. He raised a company of cavalry for the Mexican war, but more than the necessary number of volunteers from his state offered themselves, and it was not accepted. He served again in Congress in 1847-'51, and in the latter year, when Archibald Dixon was nominated by the Whigs for governor, Thompson, who had been a candidate for the office, was given second place on the ticket. Dixon was defeated, but Thompson was elected by a large majority, and in 1853 was sent to the U. S. Senate, where he served a full term. In that body he was a member of the committees on private land-claims and pensions. Mr. Thompson was especially eminent as a jury lawyer, and was also a successful orator. His most noted political speech was that on the Cuban question. He was a man of broad culture, quiet and even reserved in manner. In politics he was a Clay Whig till the disruption of the party just before the Civil War, when he became a Unionist. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 92.
THOMPSON, John Reuben, author, born in Richmond, Virginia, 33 October, 1833, died in New York City, 30 April, 1873. He was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1844, afterward studied law there, and settled in Richmond, with every prospect of success in his profession. But he had always been a lover of literature and a keen student of it, and these proclivities became more dominating after he had completed his education. Accordingly, in 1847, he accepted the editorship of the "Southern Literary Messenger." This magazine was a power in its day, and did no little to foster a literary spirit among the younger race of southern men. Sir. Thompson brought, a great deal of zeal and energy into the editorial chair, and during the twelve years in which he successfully carried forward his literary work in connection with this monthly he imparted to it such a character as no southern magazine has ever had before or since. He did much to bring southern talent to light, and in the pages of the Southern Messenger" Donald G. Mitchell first published his "Reveries of a Bachelor" and "Dream Life." Here too appeared the early writings of John Esten Cooke. Philip Pendleton Cooke. Paul H. Hayne, and Henry Timrod. In 1854 Mr. Thompson went to Europe in search of health. During this absence he wrote papers for the "Southern Messenger," which long afterward he collected in book-form. One copy had been sent to the author, and the edition, except this, was burned in the publishing-house. His health continued so delicate that in 1859 he resigned his editorship in Richmond and went to Augusta, Georgia, where he edited the "Southern Field and Fireside." In 1863 he went abroad again in such delicate health that his friends did not expect him to reach the farther shore alive; but the sea-voyage revived him. and he rapidly improved. He chose London as his residence, where he was regularly engaged on the staff of the "London Index," and contributed to "Blackwood's Magazine." Sometime after the Civil War he returned home in broken health and dispirited. Finding it impossible to do anything in the way of literature in the south, he became literary editor of the " New York Evening Post," continuing as such for several years, until his health failed again. He made a last effort to restore it by going to Colorado in 1873, where he spent the winter, returning in the spring, only to die. Mr. Thompson was a polished and graceful writer, both of prose and verse, but he did his most effective work as a literary editor. Many of his lyrics are household words in the south, especially in his native state, and his influence in fostering the talents of writers that have since distinguished themselves was decided. He was greatly beloved for his genial and refined nature. Among his most admired poems are " The Burial of Latane," "The Death of Stuart," and " The Battle Rainbow." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 92.
THOMPSON, Joseph Parrish, 1819-1979, Berlin, Germany, scholar, author, abolitionist. Wrote Christianity and Emancipation (1863). “Worked unceasingly to arouse public opinion in behalf of Negro slaves” (Scribner’s, p. 465). (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 93; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 464)
THOMPSON, Joseph Parrish, scholar, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7 August, 1819; died in Berlin, Germany, 20 September, 1879. He was graduated at Yale in 1838, studied theology for a few months in Andover seminary, and then at Yale from 1839 till 1840, when he was ordained as a Congregational minister. He was pastor of the Chapel street church in New Haven from that time till 1845, and during this period was one of the founders of the “New Englander.” From 1845 till his resignation in 1871 he had charge of the Broadway tabernacle in New York City. Dr. Thompson devoted much time to the study of Egyptology, in which he attained high rank. In 1852-'3 he visited Palestine, Egypt, and other eastern countries, and from that time he published continual contributions to this branch of learning in periodicals, the transactions of societies, and cyclopædias. He lectured on Egyptology in Andover seminary in 1871, and in 1872-'9 resided in Berlin, Germany, occupied in oriental studies, took an active part in the social, political, and scientific discussions, and was a member of various foreign societies, before which he delivered addresses, and contributed essays to their publications. These have been issued under the title of “American Comments on European Questions” (New York, 1884). In 1875 Dr. Thompson went to England to explain at public meetings “the attitude of Germany in regard to Ultramontanism,” for which service he was rewarded by the thanks of the German government, expressed in person by Prince Bismarck, and Dr. Thompson originated the plan of the Albany Congregationalist convention in 1852, and was a manager of the American Congregational Union and the American Home Missionary Society. He also aided in establishing the New York “Independent.” Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1856, and the University of New York that of LL. D. in 1868. He published “Memoir of Timothy Dwight” (New Haven, 1844); “Lectures to Young Men” (New York, 1846); “Hints to Employers” (1847); “Memoir of David Hale” (1850); “Foster on Missions, with a Preliminary Essay” (1850); “Stray Meditations” (1852; revised ed., entitled “The Believer's Refuge," 1857); “The Invaluable Possession” (1856); “Egypt, Past and Present” (Boston, 1856); “The Early Witnesses” (1857); “Memoir of Reverend David T. Stoddard” (New York, 1858); “The Christian Graces” (1859); “The College as a Religious Institution” (1859); “Love and Penalty” (1860); “Bryant Gray” (1863); “Christianity and Emancipation” (1863); “The Holy Comforter” (1866); “Man in Genesis and Geology” (1869); “Theology of Christ, from His Own Words” (1870); “Home Worship” (1871); “Church and State in the United States” (1874); “Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, for the Young” (1875); “The United States as a Nation,” lectures (1877); and “The Workman: his False Friends and his True Friends” (1879). Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 93.
THOMPSON, Joseph Pascal, 1818-1894, African American, former slave, clergyman, medical doctor, abolitionist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 148)
THOMPSON, Launt, sculptor, born in Abbeyleix. Queen's County, Ireland, 8 February, 1833. At the age of fourteen he went to Albany, New York, and there entered the office of professor of anatomy. While there he spent his leisure hours with drawing, but later entered a medical college. When Erastus D. Palmer, the sculptor, offered to receive him as his pupil, he gladly availed himself of the opportunity, and abandoned medicine for art. He worked in Palmer's studio for nine years, producing several portrait-busts and ideal heads of some merit, and in 1858 moved to New York City. Here, having shown a remarkable talent for medallion portraits, he found ample employment. He became an associate of the Academy of Design in 1859, and three years later his bust, "The Trapper," secured his election as an academician. In 1868-'9 he was in Rome, and in 1875 he went again to Italy, remaining until 1881, in which year he returned to New York. In 1874 he was vice-president of the National Academy. Among his works are "Elaine," a bust; "Morning Glory," a medallion; statues of Abraham Pierson, at Yale College (1874), represented in the accompanying illustration; Napoleon I., at Milford, Pennsylvania; General John Sedgwick, at West Point (1869); Winfield Scott, at the Soldiers' home, Washington, D. C.; Charles Morgan, in Clinton, Conn, (about 1871); and Ambrose E. Burnside. an equestrian statue, at Providence, Rhode Island (1887); "The Color-Bearer," at Pittsfield, Massachusetts; a medallion portrait of John A.-Dix, made for the sanitary fair; and portrait-busts of William C. Bryant, in the Metropolitan museum. New York; James Gordon Bennett, the elder; Robert B. Minturn; Captain Charles H. Marshall; Edwin Booth as " Hamlet"; Stephen H. Tyng (1870); and Charles L. Elliott and Samuel F. B. Morse (1871). Yale conferred on him the honorary degree of M. A. in 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 93.
THOMPSON, Maurice, author, born in Fairfield, Indiana, 9 September, 1844. His parents, who were southerners, moved to Kentucky, and thence to the hill-region of northern Georgia. The son was educated by private tutors, and early became interested in the study of out-door life. He served through the Civil War in the Confederate Army, and at its close went to Indiana, became a civil engineer on a railway survey, and in due season rose to be chief engineer. He then studied law, and opened an office at Crawfordsville. He was elected in 1879 to the legislature, and appointed in 1885 state geologist of Indiana and chief of the department of natural history. He has written much for periodicals, and has published in book-form " Hoosier Mosaics" (New York, 1875); "The Witchery of Archery" (1878); "A Tallahassee Girl " (Boston, 1882); "His Second Campaign " (1882); "Songs of Fair Weather" (1883); "At Love's Extremes" (1885); "Byways and Bird Notes" (1885); "The Bovs' Book of 'Sports" (1886); "A Banker of Bankersville" (1886); "Sylvan Secrets" (1887); "The Story of Louisiana," in the " Commonwealth Series " (1888); and " A Fortnight of Folly" (New York, 1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 94.
THOMPSON, Merriwether Jeff, soldier, born in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 22 January, 1826; died in St. Joseph, Missouri, in July, 1876. He was educated in the common schools, was mayor of the city of St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1859, and was appointed brigadier-general in the Missouri state guards early in 1861, and in the Confederate Army in October of that year. He was a most successful scout and partisan officer, and achieved frequent successes by strategy and daring against greatly superior forces. He was held in high regard by General Sterling Price and General Leonidas Polk, under both of whom he served. He recruited his command personally, and, as a rule, clothed, armed, and subsisted them without expense to the Confederate government. He was the inventor of a hemp-break, which is now in general use, and an improved pistol-lock. He surveyed, as civil engineer, the greater part of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad and parts of the Kansas and Nebraska road. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 94.
THOMPSON, Richard Wigginton, Secretary of the Navy, born in Culpeper County, Virginia, 9 June, 1809. He received a good education, and moved in 1831 to Kentucky, whence, after serving as a store-keeper's clerk in Louisville, he went to Lawrence County, Indiana. There he taught for a few months, and then returned to mercantile business, at the same time studying law at night. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, began to practise in Bedford, Indiana, and served in the lower house of the legislature in 1834-'6, and in the upper house in 1830-'8. He was for a short time president, pro tempore, of the state senate, and acting lieutenant-governor. He was a presidential elector on the Harrison ticket in 1840, zealously supporting General Harrison in public speeches and by his pen, served in Congress in 1841-'3, having been chosen as a Whig, and was a defeated candidate for elector on the Clay ticket in 1844. He served again in Congress in 1847-'9, declining a renomination, and also refused the Austrian mission, which was offered him by President Taylor, the recordership of the land-office, which Fillmore tendered him. He was offered a seat on the bench of the court of claims, which President Lincoln urged him to accept. He was again a presidential elector, on the Republican ticket, in 1864, and delegate to the National conventions of that party in 1868 and 1876. In the latter he nominated Oliver P. Morton for the presidency. In 1867-'9 he was judge of the 18th circuit of the state. On 12 March, 1877. Mr. Thompson entered President Hayes's cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, and he served nearly through the administration, resigning in 1881 to become chairman of the American Committee of the Panama Canal Company. He is also a director of the Panama Railroad. He has written many political platforms, and obtained a reputation for his ability in formulating party-principles. He has published "The Papacy and the Civil Power" (New York, 1876), and a " History of the Tariff" (Chicago, 1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 94.
THOMPSON, Smith, jurist, born in Stanford, Dutchess County. New York, 17 January. 1768; died in Poughkeepsie, New York, 18 December, 1843. He was graduated at Princeton in 1788, studied law with Chancellor James Kent in Poughkeepsie, teaching part of the time, and was admitted to the bar in 1792. He practised for some time in Troy, but, on the removal of Chancellor Kent from Poughkeepsie to New York, Mr. Thompson returned to the former place. In 1800 he was chosen to the legislature, and in 1801 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. In the latter year he was appointed attorney for the middle district of New York, but declined. From 1802 till 1814 he was associate justice of the state supreme court, meanwhile declining the mayoralty of New York City, and in the latter year he became chief justice, which post he held till he was called in 1818 to the portfolio of the navy in President Monroe's cabinet. In 1823 he was raised to the bench of the U. S. Supreme Court, to succeed Judge Brockholst Livingston, where he remained till his death. Judge Thompson was interested in many benevolent enterprises, and at the time of his death was the oldest vice-president of the American Bible society. He made a reputation for sound legal learning on the bench of his native state, which he sustained in the U. S. Supreme Court. His funeral sermon, which was delivered by Reverend A. M. Mann, in the Reformed Dutch church, Poughkeepsie, was published in pamphlet-form (Poughkeepsie, 1844). The vignette of Judge Thompson is copied from the original painting by Asher B. Durand. Yale and Princeton gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1824 and Harvard in 1835. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 94-95.
THOMPSON, Thomas, philanthropist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 27 August, 1798; died in New York City, 28 March, 1869. He was graduated at Harvard in 1817, and studied divinity under William Ellery Channing, but abandoned it to devote himself to the fine arts. His first collection of pictures, which was said to be the finest in Boston at that time and valued at $92,000, was destroyed in the burning of Tremont Temple in 1852. He gathered another collection worth $500,000, and, besides this, possessed property valued at nearly $1,000,000. He had bequeathed this to form a fund the income of which should be used to aid poor needle-women of Boston, but because his property was taxed in that city at what he thought an exorbitant rate, he moved to New York about 1860, cancelled his will, and made another in favor of the needle-women of Brattleboro, Vermont, and Rhinebeck, New York Mr. Thompson's mode of life was eccentric, and it is said that before his removal from Boston he had never travelled on a steamboat or a railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 95.
THOMPSON, John Leverett, soldier, born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, 2 February, 1835; died in Chicago, Illinois, 31 January, 1888, was the son of William C. Thompson. He studied at Dartmouth and Williams, and read law in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Poughkeepsie, New York, and then at Harvard laws school, where he was graduated in 1858. He was admitted to the bar at. Worcester, and continued his studies in Berlin, Munich, and Paris. In 1860 he settled in Chicago, and at the opening of the Civil War enlisted as a private of artillery. He rose to be corporal, and was made lieutenant in the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, in which he was commissioned captain, 3 December, 1861; major, 3 July, 1862; lieutenant-colonel on 11 July; and colonel on 4 January, 1863. In March, 1864, He took command of the 1st New Hampshire Cavalry. He served first with the Army of the Potomac, and in 1864 with Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley, taking part in many engagements, and at the close of the war received the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1866 he formed a law-partnership with Norman Williams. General Thompson was connected with the work of the Citizens' association, and was president of the Union League Club of Chicago. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 95.
THOMPSON, Waddy, lawyer, born in Pickensville, South Carolina, 8 September, 1798; died in Tallahassee, Florida, 23 November, 1868. He was graduated at South Carolina College in 1814 and admitted to the bar in 1819. He was a member of the legislature from 1826 till 1830, when he became solicitor of the western circuit. During the nullification excitement in 1835 he was elected by the legislature brigadier-general of militia. From 1835 till 1841 he was a member of Congress, and was active in debate as a leader of the Whig Party, and serving in 1840 as chairman of the committee on military affairs. In 1842 he was appointed minister to Mexico. During his mission, he made two important treaties, and procured the liberation of more than 200 Texan prisoners, many of whom were sent home at his own charge. On his return he published "Recollections of Mexico," which is valuable as a calm estimate of that country written on the eve of the war with the United States (New York, 1846). He was a cotton-planter in Florida, but spent most of his time after his return from Mexico on his estate near Greenville, South Carolina. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 95.
THOMPSON, William Tappan, humorist, born in Ravenna, Ohio, 31 August, 1812; died in Savannah, Georgia, 24 March, 1882. His father was a Virginian and his mother a native of Dublin, Ireland, and the son was the first white child that was born in the Western Reserve. He lost his mother at the age of eleven, and moved to Philadelphia with his father, who died soon afterward, and the lad entered the office of the Philadelphia "Chronicle." This he left to become secretary to James D. Wescott, territorial governor of Florida, with whom he also studied law, but in 1835 he went to Augusta, Georgia. and became associated with Judge Augustus B. Longstreet in editing the " States Rights Sentinel." He served as a volunteer against the Seminoles in 1835-6, and in the autumn of the latter year established at Augusta the " Mirror," the first purely literary paper in the state. It was not a financial success, and was merged in the " Family Companion" at Macon, whither Mr. Thompson moved. Afterward he conducted the "Miscellany" in Madison, Georgia, to which he contributed his "Major Jones Letters," which first won him a reputation, and which were afterward collected in book form as "Major Jones's Courtship" (Philadelphia, 1840; unauthorized ed., entitled "Rancy Cottem's Courtship, by Major Joseph Jones "). In 1845 he became associated with Park Benjamin in the publication at Baltimore of the " Western Continent," a weekly, of which he was afterward sole editor and proprietor, but he sold it in 1850, and, removing to Savannah, founded the "Morning News," with which he remained connected till his death. During the Civil War he was aide to Governor Joseph E. Brown, and in 1864 he served in the ranks as a volunteer. He was at one time one of the wardens of the Port of Savannah, sat in the State Constitutional Convention of 1877, and was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1868. His political editorials were forcible and often bitter, but in private life he was simple and genial. His humorous works at one time were widely popular. Besides the one mentioned above, they include "Major Jones's Chronicles of Pineville" (1843: new and unauthorized ed., entitled " Major Jones's Georgia Scenes"); "Major Jones's Sketches of Travel" (1848); "The Live Indian," a farce; and a dramatization of " The Vicar of Wakefield," which was produced with success in this country and abroad. He also edited " Hotchkiss's Codification of the Statute Laws of Georgia" (1845). After his death another collection of his sketches was published by his daughter, Mrs. May A. Wade, with the title "John's Alive, or the Bride of a Ghost, and other Sketches" (Philadelphia, 1883). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 95-96.
THOMPSON, William, surgeon, born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 28 January, 1833, was educated in the Academy of Chambersburg and under private tutors, and was graduated at Jefferson Medical College in 1855. Soon afterward he had a lucrative practice at Lower Merion, near Philadelphia, which he relinquished in 1861 in order to enter the regular army as assistant surgeon. He was with the Army of the Potomac throughout the Civil War, either in the field or at Washington. For his services after the battle of South Mountain he received the thanks of President Lincoln. He originated two reforms for improving the medical field service: the system of brigade supplies, and the division hospital system. Both these reforms were extended to all the armies by the war department. He was raised to the post of medical inspector of the Department of Washington in 1864, received two brevets, and after the war was sent to Louisiana, but he resigned from the army, 25 February, 1866. Dr. Thomson introduced the local use of carbolic acid as a disinfectant in the treatment of wounds, published an article on the treatment of hospital gangrene by bromine, and was the first, in conjunction with Dr. William F. Norris, successfully to apply the negative process of photography by wet collodion in clinical microscopy. The Army Medical museum has been largely indebted to Dr. Thomson for its success, and in its catalogue he is mentioned as the largest contributor both of papers and specimens. Since his retirement from the army Dr. Thomson has practised his profession in Philadelphia. He was elected vice-president of the ophthalmological section of the International Medical Congress that met in Philadelphia in 1870, has lectured at Wills hospital on diseases of the eye for many veal's, and was elected its emeritus surgeon in 1877. He has been clinical lecturer on diseases of the eye and ear in Jefferson Medical College since 1873, and ophthalmic surgeon to the college hospital since 1877. Among his important contributions to medical literature are a series of papers published in the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences," in conjunction with Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, on the use of the ophthalmoscope in the diagnosis of intracranial tumors, and clinical reports of cases of severe and prolonged headache, dependent upon astigmatism, which have been relieved by the correction of optical defects. He revised the section on diseases and injuries of the eye in Dr. Samuel D. Gross's "System of Surgery," and has invented a new method of diagnosing and correcting ametropia by means of a simple instrument, which is now in general use among ophthalmological surgeons in this country and Europe. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 96-97.
THOMPSON, Frank, railway superintendent, born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 5 July, 1841, was educated at Chambersburg Academy, and in 1858 began to learn the railway business in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's shops at Altoona. Colonel Thomas A. Scott appointed him to a responsible position in the U. S. military railway system early in 1861, and he was sent to Alexandria, Virginia, where he assisted in rebuilding bridges and restoring shops, machinery, and rolling stock. On 1 July, 1862, he was transferred to General Don Carlos Buell's army, but, after accompanying it during its march through Kentucky, he returned to the Army of the Potomac. He was then engaged in directing the lines of railroad that played an important part in the Antietam Campaign, and was subsequently made assistant superintendent of the lines south of Acquia Creek. He co-operated with Colonel Scott in removing the 11th and 12th Corps, with their full equipment of artillery and wagons, to Chattanooga, and was afterward given control of the lines south of Nashville, which he rendered capable of transmitting sufficient re-enforcements and supplies to relieve the National Army from its embarrassments, and enable it to assume the offensive. He resigned from the military service in 1864, and on 1 June of that year became superintendent of the eastern division of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad. While holding this office he organized a system of track-inspection which was adopted by the entire road, and made improvements in the construction of the roadway. In 1873 he was made superintendent of motive power on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and in 1874 became its general manager. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 97.
THOMSON, John Edgar, civil engineer, born in Springfield, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 10 February, 1808; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 27 May, 1874. He was the son of John Thomson, the engineer who planned the first experimental railroad in the United States, and was thoroughly trained and educated in the profession by his father. In 1827 he began his own career in the engineering corps that was employed upon the original surveys of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad,, having received his appointment from the secretary of the Board of Canal Commissioners of Pennsylvania, and three years later he entered the service of the Camden and Amboy Railroad as principal assistant engineer of the eastern division. In 1832 he was appointed chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad, which then controlled the longest line under a single company in this country, and later he was its general manager. In 1847 he became chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and in 1852 he was made its president, which office he held until his death. Mr. Thomson took chief charge of the road before it was finished, and during the twenty-eight years of his administration dividends were regularly paid on the stock with the exception of a single semiannual dividend in 1857. When his presidency began, the Pennsylvania Company owned 246 miles of road and had a capital of $13,000,000; and it has since become a corporation controlling 2,346 miles of railroad and 66 miles of canal, with a capital of $150,000,000. Mr. Thomson possessed remarkable engineering ability and executive skill. He was connected with other railroad enterprises in various parts of the country, and was a director in many companies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 99.
THOMSON, John Renshaw, senator, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 25 September, 1800; died in Princeton. New Jersey, 13 September, 1862. He studied for some time at Princeton, but left without taking his degree, in order to pursue a commercial career. He went to China in 1817, and in 1820 had regularly established himself in the Chinese trade, and opened a house in Canton, where President Monroe appointed him U. S. consul in 1823. He returned to the United States in 1825, married a sister of Commodore Robert F. Stockton, and resided at Princeton. He was appointed a director of the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 1835, which office he held during his lifetime. He canvassed the state in 1842 in support of the Constitutional convention that met in 1844. and was nominated the same year for governor by the Democratic party, but was defeated. On the resignation of Commodore Stockton as U. S. Senator in 1853. Mr. Thomson was elected for the remainder of the term, and he was re-elected in 1857 for six years. His second wife was a daughter of General Aaron Ward, and after Mr. Thomson s death she married Governor Thomas Swann of Maryland. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 99.
THOMSON, Mortimer, humorist, born in Riga, Monroe County, New York, 2 September, 1832: died in New York City, 25 June, 1875. He was taken to Ann Arbor, Michigan, by his parents in childhood, and entered the University of Michigan, but was expelled, with about forty others, for belonging to college secret societies. After going on the stage, and then travelling as a salesman for a New York firm, he adopted journalism as a profession. He was first brought into notice by his letters from Niagara Falls, in the New York "Tribune," and he also wrote rhymed police-court reports, and a series of sketches of New York fortune-tellers, which was afterward published in book-form as "The Witches of New York " (New York, 1859). His report of the Pierce Butler sale of slaves at Savannah, Georgia, about 1859, occupied several pages of the "Tribune," and was reprinted in the other daily papers, translated into several foreign languages, and circulated by the Anti-slavery society as a tract. During about eight years he delivered many popular lectures, including one in rhyme on " Pluck " and one on " Cheek" in prose. His wife was a daughter of Mrs. Parton, "Tanny Fern." Thomson's books, as well as most of his fugitive writings, appeared under the penname of "Q. K. Philander Doesticks. P. B.," which had been given him by the editor of a university magazine to which his earliest contributions were made. Thomson afterward asserted that it signified "Queer Kritter, Philander Doesticks, Perfect Brick." His works include "Doesticks—What he Says " (New York, 1855); "Plu-ri-bus-tah: a Song that's by No Author," a travesty of Longfellow's "Hiawatha " (1856); "History and Records of the Elephant Club," with "Knight Russ Oekside. M. D." (Edward F. Underhill); "Nothing to Say, being a Satire on Snobbery" (1857); and several smaller humorous collections. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 99.
THOREAU, Henry David, 1817-1862, poet, author of Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), reformer and anti-slavery activist. Wrote antislavery poetry. Gave lectures and wrote on slavery’s immorality. Wrote anti-slavery essay, “Reform and the Reformers” and “Herald of Freedom.” Advocate of passive resistance to civil government. Active participant in Underground Railroad. Supporter of radical abolitionist John Brown.
(Appletons’, 1888, vol. VI, pp. 100-101; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 491; Filler, 1960, pp. 45, 94, 120, 158, 183, 215, 241, 267; Glick, 1972; Gougeon, 1995; Harding, 1982; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 215, 248, 263, 265, 266, 267, 321, 322, 342, 376; Richardson, 1986; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 476-477; Taylor, 1996; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 599)
THOREAU, Henry David, author, born in Concord, Massachusetts, 12 July, 1817; died there, 6 May, 1862. His grandfather, John Thoreau, came from St. Helier, a parish in the Island of Jersey, about 1773, and moved from Boston to Concord in 1800. Henry, the third of four children, went to school in Boston for a little more than a year, then attended the schools in Concord, fitted for college at a private school, entered Harvard in 1833, and was graduated in 1837, a fair scholar but not eminent. The family being in humble circumstances, the father was assisted in paying his small expenses by the boy's aunts, his elder sister, who was then teaching, the beneficiary fund of the college, and Henry's own exertions at school-keeping. Thoreau afterward led a literary life, writing, lecturing, reading, and meeting his modest physical needs by surveying, pencil-making, engineering, and carpentering. He was never married, and never left Concord except for a lecturing-tour, or a pedestrian excursion. Cities he disliked; civilization he did not believe in. Nature was his passion, and the wilder it was the more he loved it. He was a fine scholar, especially in Greek, translated two of the tragedies of Æschylus, was intimate with the Greek anthology, and knew Pindar, Simonides, and all the great lyric poets. In English poetry he preferred Milton to Shakespeare, and was more familiar with the writers of the 17th century than with modern men. He was no mean poet himself; in fact, he possessed the essential quality of the poet—a soaring imagination. He possessed an eye and an ear for beauty, and had he been gifted with the power of musical expression, would have been distinguished. No complete collection of his pieces has ever been made or could be, but fragments are exquisite. Emerson said that his poem on “Smoke” surpassed any by Simonides. That Thoreau was a man of aspiration, a pure idealist, reverent, spiritual, is plain from his intimacy with Bronson Alcot and Emerson, the latter of whom spoke these words at his funeral: “His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a home.” His religion was that of the transcendentalists. The element of negation in it was large, and in his case conspicuous and acrid. Horace Greeley found fault with his “defiant pantheism,” and an editor struck out the following passage from a contribution: “It [the pine-tree] is as immortal as I am, and, perchance, will go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still.” His doctrine was that of individualism. Therein he differed from Emerson, who was sympathetic and began at the divine end. Thoreau began with the ground and reasoned up. He saw beauty in ashes, and “never chanced to meet with any man so cheering and elevating and encouraging, so infinitely suggestive, as the stillness and solitude of the Well-meadow field.” He aimed at becoming elemental and spontaneous. He wrote hymns to the night quite in the pagan fashion. His very aptitudes brought him in contact with the earth. His aspect suggested a faun, one who was in the secret of the wilderness. Mr. Sanborn, his friend and biographer, thus describes him: “He is a little under size, with a huge Emersonian nose, bluish gray eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy weather-beaten face, which reminds one of some shrewd and honest animal's—some retired philosophical woodchuck or magnanimous fox.” Another friend mentions his sloping shoulders, his long arms, his large hands and feet. “I fancy,” he wrote, “the saying that man was created a little lower than the angels should have been a little lower than the animals.” He built a hut on the shore of Walden pond in 1845, and lived there, with occasional absences, about two years and a half. He built on Emerson's land, though he had wished to build elsewhere. The house had no lock to the door, no curtain to the window. It belonged to nature as much as to man, and to all men as much as to anyone. When Thoreau left it, it was bought by a Scotch gardener, who carried it off a little way and used it as a cottage. Then a farmer bought it, moved it still farther away, and converted it into a tool-house. A pile of stones marks the site of Thoreau's hut. He went into the woods, not because he wished to avoid his fellow-men, as a misanthrope, but because he wanted to confront Nature, to deal with her at first hand, to lead his own life, to meet primitive conditions; and having done this, he abandoned the enterprise, recommending no one to try it who had not “a pretty good supply of internal sunshine. . . . To live alone comfortably, he must have that self-comfort which rays out of Nature—a portion of it at least.” At Walden he labored, studied, meditated, edited his first book, the “Week,” and gauged his genius. He redeemed and consecrated the spot. The refusal to pay taxes, and his consequent imprisonment, were due to a more specific cause— namely, his dissent from the theory of human government and from the practice of the American state, which supported slavery. He stood simply and plainly on the rights and duty of the individual. The act was heroic as he performed it, and, when read by the light of his philosophy, was consistent. Thoreau was anything but sour, surly, or morose. He could sing, and even dance, on occasion. He was sweet with children; fond of kittens; a sunbeam at home; the best of brothers, gentle, patient, helpful. Those he loved he gave his heart to, and if they were few it was perhaps because his affections were not as expansive as they were deep. But he showed little emotion, having learned, like the Indian, to control his feelings. He cultivated stoicism. He had the pride as well as the conceit of egotism, and while the latter gave most offence to those who did not know him well, the former was the real cause of his conduct. Thoreau had no zeal of authorship, yet he wrote a great deal, and left a mass of manuscripts, mostly in prose, for he produced very few verses after he was thirty years old. The “Dial,” the “Democratic Review,” “Graham's Magazine,” “The Union Magazine,” “Putnam's Magazine,” the “Atlantic Monthly,” the “Tribune,” all contained contributions from him. Every volume of the “Dial” had something; the third volume many articles. The essay on “Resistance to Civil Government” was printed in “Æsthetic Papers.” Only two of the seven volumes of his printed works appeared in his lifetime—“A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers” (Boston, 1849) and “Walden, or Life in the Woods” (1854). The others are “Excursions in Field and Forest,” with a memoir by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1863); “The Maine Woods” (1864); “Cape Cod” (1865); “Letters to Various Persons,” with nine poems (1865); and “A Yankee in Canada,'” with anti-slavery and reform papers (1866). His life has been written by William Ellery Channing under the title “The Poet-Naturalist” (1873), and by Franklin B. Sanborn in the “American Men of Letters” series (1882). The former is a rhapsody rather than a biography, and is largely composed of extracts from Thoreau's journals, which had never seen the light before. It also contains a full list of his publications. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 100-101.
THORNBURGH, Thomas T., soldier, born in Tennessee about 1843; died near White River Agency, Wyoming, 29 September, 1879. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy, and promoted 2d lieutenant in the 2d U.S. Artillery in 1867. At the opening of the Civil War and prior to his admission to West Point he enlisted in the 6th East Tennessee Volunteers in 1861, and passed rapidly through the grades of private, sergeant-major, lieutenant, and adjutant. He took part in the battle of Mill Spring, Morgan's retreat to the Ohio, and of Stone River. As an officer of artillery he served in garrison in California (excepting a tour of duty at the artillery-school) until 1870, and as professor of military science at East Tennessee University till 1873, having been promoted 1st lieutenant in April, 1870. In April, 1875, he was appointed paymaster with rank of major, serving in that department until May, 1878, when he exchanged into the 4th U. S. Infantry, with the same rank. He commanded the post of Fort Fred Steele, Wyoming, until 1879, when he was killed while in command of an expedition against the Ute Indians. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 102.
THORTON, Gustavus Brown, sanitarian. born, in Bowling Green, Virginia. 22 February, 1835. was graduated at the Memphis Medical College in 1858, and at the medical department of the University of New York in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army, and in 1862-'5 was chief surgeon of a division. In 1868 he was appointed physician in charge of the Memphis City hospital, and continued so until in 1879, when he became president of the Memphis board of health; also since 1880 he has been a member of the Tennessee state board of health, both of which appointments he still holds. Dr. Thornton acquired reputation by his heroism and skill during the three great yellow-fever epidemics In Memphis in 1873-'8 and 1879. He is a member of various sanitary and medical societies, and was in 1882 president of the Tennessee State Medical Society. In addition to his official reports as president of the Memphis board of health, he has contributed numerous memoirs on sanitary subjects to the "Proceedings of the American Public Health Association" and to the transactions of other societies of which he is a member. These include "Yellow Fever, Pathology and Treatment" (1880); "Memphis Sanitation and Quarantine in 1879 and 1880'' (1880); "The Negro Mortality of Memphis" (1882); "Sanitation of the Mississippi Valley " (1884); "Gulf Coast Quarantine " (1884); and " Six Years' Sanitary Work in Memphis " (1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 103.
THORNTON, James Shepard, naval officer, born in Merrimack, New Hampshire, 25 February, 1820; died in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 14 May, 1875. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 15 January, 1841, served in the sloop "John Adams" in the Gulf Squadron during the Mexican War, and became a passed midshipman, 10 August, 1840. He resigned from the navy, 9 May, 1850, but was reinstated in 1854, promoted to master, 14 September. 1855, and to lieutenant the next day. During the civil war he served in the brig "Bainbridge " on the Atlantic coast in 1861, was executive officer of the flag-ship " Hartford "at the passage of the forts and batteries below New Orleans, and in the engagement with the Confederate fleet, with the ram "Arkansas " and the batteries at Vicksburg, during which he served with great credit. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 10 July, 1862, and had charge of the steam gunboat " Winona" in engagements at Mobile, where he made a reconnaissance of Fort Gaines in sounding approaches under fire, and destroyed several Confederate steamers. He was the executive officer of the "Kearsarge" in the fight with the "Alabama," off Cherbourg, and was given a vote of thanks, and advanced thirty numbers in his grade for his gallantry in this victory. He served at the U.S. Navy-yard at Portsmouth, NEW HAMPSHIRE, in 1866-'7, was promoted to commander, 25 July, 1866, and commissioned captain, 24 May, 1872. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 104.
THORNTON, Jessy Quinn, 1810-1888, jurist, lawyer. Chief Justice of the Oregon Provisional Government, 1847. Supporter of “Wilmot Proviso” to prohibit extension of slavery in the new territories acquired after war with Mexico. (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 502; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 607)
THORNTON, Thomas C. clergyman, born in Dumfries, Virginia, 12 October, 1794: died in Mississippi, 23 March, 1860. He was educated in his native place, became an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal church at the age of sixteen, and was received into the Baltimore conference three years later. In 1841 he was appointed president of a college in Mississippi. He left the Methodist church in 1845, and attached himself to the Protestant Episcopal church, but returned to his former connection in 1850, and in 1853 was readmitted to the Mississippi conference. He was the author of "Inquiry into the History of Slavery in the United States" (Washington, 1841). in which he replied to the antislavery arguments of William E. Channing, and of "Theological Colloquies." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 104.
THORNTON. William A., soldier, born in New York state in 1803: died on Governor's Island, New York harbor, 6 April, 1866. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1825, and assigned to the artillery. He was made captain of ordnance on 7 July, 1838, commanded the ordnance depot in New York and the Watervliet and St. Louis Arsenals, served on boards for the trial of small arms and cannon, and was inspector of contract arms in 1858-'61. He was promoted major on 28 May, 1861, and was commander of Watervliet Arsenal till 1863, and subsequently inspector of contract arms and ordnance till his death, being promoted lieutenant-colonel of ordnance on 3 March, 1863, colonel on 15 September, 1863, and brigadier-general by brevet on 13 March. 1865. During the last year of his life he was commandant of the New York Arsenal on Governor's Island. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 105.
THORNWELL, James Henley, clergyman, born in Marlborough district, South Carolina, in 1812; died in Charlotte, North Carolina, 1 August, 1862. He was graduated at South Carolina College in 1829, and entered upon the study of the law, which he soon abandoned to devote himself to the ministry in the Presbyterian church. He was chosen, in 1836, professor of logic and belles-lettres in South Carolina College, in 1842 professor of the evidences of Christianity and chaplain, and in 1852 its president. In 1856 he became a professor in the Presbyterian theological seminary at Columbia. For a short time he was pastor of the Globe Street Presbyterian church in Charleston. Dr. Thornwell was one of the ablest men that the south has ever produced. To logical and metaphysical faculties of a high order he added a fine literary style, and an easy and effective address. He was an uncompromising champion of the old-school Presbyterian theology, and m politics advocated extreme southern views. He was the author of several published sermons and addresses, "Arguments of Romanists Discussed and Refuted " (New York, 1845); ' Discourses on Truth " (1854); "Rights and Duties of Masters" (1861); "The State of the Country " (1861); and numerous articles in defence of slavery and secession in the "Southern Presbyterian Review." His collected works were edited by Reverend John B. Adger (2 vols., Richmond, 1874). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 105.
THORPE, Thomas Bangs, author, born in Westfield. Massachusetts, 1 March, 1815; died in New York City in October, 1878. He was for three years at Wesleyan University, and while at college gave evidence of literary and artistic talent. One of his early paintings, "The Bold Dragoon, "adapted from Washington Irving's story, was highly commended. After leaving college on account of his health. Mr. Thorpe made a tour of the south, west, and finally settled in Louisiana in 1836. His first literary production of note, " Tom Owen, the Bee-Hunter," was widely quoted, and his next contribution to periodical literature—the mirth provoking sketch entitled "The Big Bear of Arkansas"— placed him in the foremost rank of early American humorists. He was for a time editor of a Whig newspaper in New Orleans. In 1844 he edited the " Concordia Intelligencer," and in 1846 established "The Conservator" at Baton Rouge, but sold the paper a few years later, and in 1859 became the editor and publisher of the New York "Spirit of the Times." Mr. Thorpe served in the Mexican war, and attained the rank of colonel. His contributions to periodical literature, particularly "Blackwood's, the "Knickerbocker," and "Harper's Magazine," show versatile talent of a high order, and several of his paintings, notably "Niagara as it Is," display ability. His published works include " Our Army of the Rio Grande" (Philadelphia, 1846); "Mysteries of the Backwoods" (1846); "Our Army at Monterey" (1847); "Lynde Weiss, an Autobiography " (1854); "The Hive of the Bee-Hunter" (New York, 1854); "A Voice to America" (1855); "Scenes in Arkansas" (1858); and "Reminiscences of Charles L. Elliott." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 105.
