Encyclopedia of Civil War Military Biography – D
DABNEY, Robert Lewis, clergyman, born in Louisa County, Virginia, 5 March, 1820. He studied at Hampden Sidney College, and was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1842. After teaching for two years, he studied at the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, was licensed to preach in l840. He was ordained by the Lexington Presbytery in July, 1847, and became pastor of Tinkling Spring Church in Augusta County, Virginia, where he remained for six years. In 1853 he accepted the professorship of church history in Union Seminary, Virginia, and remained until 1883, except during the Civil War, when he was actively engaged in the Confederate service as chaplain of the 18th Virginia Regiment, and afterward as chief of staff to General Thomas J. Jackson. In 1883 he was elected to the chair of moral philosophy in the University of Texas. The degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Hampden Sidney College in 1853, and that of LL.D. by the Southwestern Presbyterian University, Tennessee, in 1877, and simultaneously by Hampden Sidney College. Besides being a voluminous contributor to periodical literature, Dr. Dabney has published "Life of Reverend Dr. F. S. Sampson" (Richmond, 1854); "Life of General T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson" (London, 1864); "Sacred Rhetoric" (Richmond, 1866); "Defence of Virginia and the South " (New York, 1868); " Sensualistic Philosophy of the Nineteenth Century Considered " (1876); "A Course of Systematic and Polemic Theology" (St. Louis, 1878); and " The Christian Sabbath " (Philadelphia, 1881) Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 51.
DABNEY, Virginias, author, born at Elmington, Gloucester County, Virginia, 15 February, 1835. He was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1855, and practised law. But he had abandoned this profession for literature when the Civil War began in 1861. He became a staff officer in the Confederate Army, and served through the war. He has published "The Story of Don Miff, as told by his Friend, John Bouche Whacker, a Symphony of Life" (Philadelphia, 1886). This book reached its fourth edition in six months. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 51.
DAHLGREN, John Adolph, naval officer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 13 November, 1809; died in Washington, D. C, 12 July, 1870. His father, Bernard Ulric Dahlgren, was Swedish consul at Philadelphia till his death in 1824 The great object of the son's early ambition was to enter the Navy of the United States, and he received his midshipman's warrant on 1 February, 1826, making his first cruise in the " Macedonian," of the Brazil Squadron, in 1827-'9. He was attached to the sloop " Ontario," of the Mediterranean Squadron, in 1830-'2, and made passed midshipman in the latter year, and in 1834, owing to his mathematical proficiency, detailed for duty on the U.S. Coast Survey. In this year he wrote a series of letters on naval topics to the Philadelphia "National Gazette," signed "Blue-Jacket." He was commissioned lieutenant in 1837, and in the same year his hitherto exceptionally fine sight became so impaired by incessant labor as to threaten entire loss of vision, and an absolute rest was needed. During this period of enforced inaction Lieutenant Dahlgren resided on a farm. In 1842 he resumed duty, and in 1843 went to the Mediterranean in the frigate "Cumberland," returning late in 1845 to the United States, the cruise having been shortened by the prospect of a war with Mexico. In January, 1847, Lieutenant Dahlgren was assigned to ordnance duty at Washington, although he desired, and made an effort to obtain, active duty at sea. Then began those labors as an ordnance officer which for sixteen years demanded the most extraordinary energy, and which finally made Dahlgren chief of ordnance, and gave him the world's recognition as a man of science and inventive genius. He saw almost at once the defects in gunnery then existing, and soon offered the remedy in the style of cannon known by his name, which for so many years constituted the naval armament of the United States. It was proposed by him in 1850, and the first gun according to his design was cast in May of that year. These guns are of iron, cast solid, and cooled from the exterior. They are distinguished by great thickness at the breech, rapidly diminishing from the trunnions to the muzzle, and were the first practical application of results obtained by experimental determination of pressures at different points along the bore. They are chiefly smooth-bores of nine and eleven-inch calibre; but Dahlgren also invented a rifled cannon, and introduced boat-howitzers with iron carriages, which were unsurpassed for combined lightness and accuracy. Under the sole direction of Lieutenant Dahlgren, the Ordnance Department at Washington acquired the most extensive additions, including the foundry for cannon, gun-carriage shops, the experimental battery, and equipment of all kinds. He was made commander in 1855, and, in order to introduce innovations that completely revolutionized the armament of the U.S. Navy, and to remove objections particularly to his eleven-inch gun, which was then considered too heavy for use at sea, he was permitted to equip the sloop-of-war "Plymouth entirely as he wished. The experimental cruise of this vessel lasted from 1857 till 1859. He was on ordnance duty at the Washington Navy-yard in 1860-'l, and on 22 April, 1861, after the resignation of Franklin Buchanan, who entered the Confederate Service, was given command of the yard, which was not only of great importance on account of naval resources, but also as the key of the defences of Washington on the left. Commander Dahlgren hastened to secure the only route left to the capital by the Potomac River, and, when Alexandria was seized, he moved down the left wing of the column under Colonel Ellsworth. He was appointed chief of the Ordnance Bureau on 18 July, 1862, and shortly afterward promoted to be captain, his commission being antedated to 16 July. On 7 February, 1863, he was made a rear-admiral, receiving at the same time the thanks of Congress, and ten years additional on the active list, which, however, he did not live to enjoy. In July, 1863, he was ordered to relieve Admiral Dupont in the command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In July, August, and September of that year he co-operated with the land forces under General Gillmore in various attacks on the defences of Charleston, and succeeded, by silencing Fort Sumter and the batteries on Morris Island, in obtaining for the monitors a safe anchorage inside the bar, thus putting a stop to blockade-running. His failure to take Charleston provoked some hostile criticism, but his operations had the continuous approval of the Navy Department. He led a successful expedition up St. John's River in February, 1864, to aid in throwing a military force into Florida, co-operated with Sherman in the capture of Savannah, on 23 December, and entered Charleston with General Schimelpfennig on its evacuation in February, 1865. In 1866 he was given command of the South Pacific Squadron. He was again chief of the Ordnance Bureau in 1868-'70, and a few months before his death was relieved at his own request and appointed to the command of the Washington Navy-yard. His death was the result of heart-disease. Admiral Dahlgren was a man of great personal bravery, dignified in manner, and of exemplary character. He published many scientific works on ordnance, which have been used as textbooks in the U.S. Navy. They include "Thirty-two-pounder Practice for Rangers" (1850): " System of Boat-Armament in the U. S. Navy " (1852: French translation, 1855); "Naval Percussion Locks and Primers" (1852); "Ordnance Memoranda " (1853); "Shells and Shell-Guns," explaining his own system (1856); and various reports on ordnance, armored vessels, and coast defences. After his death appeared "Notes on Maritime and International Law," with a preface by his widow, indicating the plan of an uncompleted work (Boston, 1877). See "Memoir of John A. Dahlgren," by his widow (Boston, 1882).—His son, Ulric, born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1842; died near King and Queen's Court-House, Virginia, 4 March, 1864, removed to Washington with his father in 1848. In the intervals of study he spent his time in the U.S. Navy-yard, where he became familiar with the construction and use of artillery, and was taught by the sailors to swim and row. He began the study of civil engineering in 1858, and in 1860 began also to study law in Philadelphia; but, at the beginning of the Civil War, he returned to Washington, and just after the first battle of Bull Run was sent by his father to place and take charge of a naval battery on Maryland Heights. He then became aide to General Sigel, and served through Fremont's mountain campaign and through Pope's campaign, acting as Sigel's chief of artillery at the second battle of Bull Run. In November, 1862, he attacked Fredericksburg at the head of Sigel's body-guard of 57 men, and held the town for three hours, returning with 31 prisoners, and for his gallantry was detailed as special aide on General Burnside's staff. He was afterward on General Hooker's staff, distinguished himself at Chancellorsville, and as aide to General Meade performed much dangerous and important service in the Gettysburg Campaign at the head of a hundred picked men. On the retreat of the enemy from Gettysburg he led the charge into Hagerstown, and was severely wounded in the foot. His leg was amputated, and for a time his life was in danger; but he recovered, was promoted to colonel for his gallantry, and, though obliged to walk on crutches, returned at once to active service. He lost his life in a raid planned by him, in concert with General Kilpatrick, to release the Union prisoners at Libby prison and Belle Isle. A memoir of him, written by his father, was revised and published by his stepmother (Philadelphia, 1872).— Admiral Dahlgren's second wife, Madeleine Vinton, born in Gallipolis, Ohio, about 1835, is a daughter of Samuel F. Vinton, for over twenty years a leader of the Whig Party. At an early age she married Daniel Convers Goddard, of Zanesville, who died, leaving t wo children. She married Admiral Dahlgren on 2 August, 1865, and has three children of this marriage. As early as 1859 she published sketches and poems under the pen-name of " Corinne." In 1870-'3 she actively opposed the movement for female suffrage, and drew up a petition to Congress, which was extensively signed, asking that the right to vote should not be extended to women. The literary Society of Washington, of which she was one of the founders, held its meetings in her house for six years, and she was elected its vice-president. She was for some time president of " The Ladies' Catholic Missionary Society of Washington," and has built the chapel of "St. Joseph's of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in South Mountain, Maryland Mrs. Dahlgren's works include "Idealities" (Philadelphia, 1859); "Thoughts on Female Suffrage" (Washington, 1871); "South Sea Sketches " (Boston, 1881); "Etiquette of Social Life in Washington " (Philadelphia, 1881); "South Mountain Magic" (1882); "A Washington Winter" and " Memoirs of John A. Dahlgren" (1882); and "The Lost Name " and " Lights and Shadows of a Life " (Boston, 1886). She has translated from the French, Montalembert's "Pius IX" and De Chambrun's "Executive Power" (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1874), the preface to the latter being written by James A. Garfield, and from the Spanish, Donoso Cortes's " Catholicism. Liberalism, and Socialism," for which she received the thanks of Pius IX. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 53-54.
DAKIN, Thomas Spencer, merchant, born in Orange County, New York, in 1831; died in Brooklyn, 13 May, 1878. He was the eldest of four children, and, until he was seventeen years of age, worked on his father's farm. He then walked, about seventy-five miles, to New York, and began life as an office-boy. In 1858 he established the firm of Thomas S. Dakin & Company, commission agents, continuing it until 1861, when he engaged in the oil trade, and became the head of the firm of Dakin & Gulick. In 1870 he retired from business. He was elected captain in the 13th Regiment, Brooklyn, in 1862, and served in the Virginia Campaign as a member of the staff of General Crook, who then commanded the 5th Brigade. After the war he became major-general of militia, and was widely known as a member of the American rifle team. He especially practised shooting at long range, and took part in the first international contest at Creedmoor in September, 1874, when the Irish team, under Major Leech, was defeated by the American team. In the following year the Americans again defeated the Irish team at Dolly Mount, Ireland, when General Dakin made the remarkable score of 165 in a possible 180. He was afterward elected a member of the legion of honor of France. In the international match in 1876, when the Americans defeated teams from Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and Canada, their success was mainly due to the instructions of General Dakin. In the first day's shooting he made the highest score, 203. He also took part in the Irish-American return match of the same year, when his score was again the highest, reaching 208. He was the only rifleman that shot in every international contest held either in this country or in Europe. He was a director in the National and several other rifle associations. In 1876 he was the Democratic nominee for Congressman in the third Congressional District, but was defeated by a small majority Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 56.
DALE, William Johnson, physician, born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, 5 September, 1815. His grandfather, William Johnson, fought at Bunker Hill; his paternal grandfather, Ebenezer, at Lexington; and his father, Ebenezer, was a surgeon in the war of 1812. He was graduated at Harvard in 1837, at its normal school in 1840, and began practice in Boston. In June, 1861, he was commissioned surgeon-general of Massachusetts, holding the rank of colonel, and in December of that year was appointed acting assistant surgeon of the U. S. Army, which place he retained till the close of the war. He was on duty in Boston, Massachusetts, during the Civil War, and had general supervision of all matters connected with the medical staff and the care and treatment of the sick and wounded that were sent home. In October, 1868, he was raised to the rank of brigadier-general, in connection with his appointment as surgeon-general of Massachusetts. In recognition of his services, the U. S. authorities gave his name to a general hospital established at Worcester, Massachusetts, opened in September, 1863. He is a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and was its anniversary chairman. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 57.
DALTON, Edward Barry, physician, born in Lowell, Massachusetts, 21 September, 1834; died in Santa Barbara, California, 13 May, 1872. He was graduated at Harvard in 1855, and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, in 1858. Dr. Dalton then settled in New York, and was resident physician of St. Luke's Hospital when the Civil War began. He at once volunteered as a surgeon, and served from April, 1861, till May, 1865. At first he was a medical officer in the U.S. Navy, after which he was commissioned surgeon of the 36th New York Volunteers, and subsequently surgeon of U. S. Volunteers, serving as medical inspector of the 6th Army Corps, and as medical director of the Department of Virginia. In March, 1864, he was transferred to the Army of the Potomac, where he remained throughout the campaign of that year, from the Wilderness to City Point, having charge of all the wounded, and establishing and moving the hospitals. At City Point he was made chief medical officer of the depot field-hospitals, Army of the Potomac, till the final campaign in March and April, 1865, when he accompanied the troops as medical director of the 9th Army Corps. After his discharge he was successively appointed brevet lieutenant-colonel and colonel of volunteers. In March, 1866, he was appointed sanitary superintendent of the New York Metropolitan Board of Health, in which office he remained until his resignation in January, 1869. In 1869 he originated the present city ambulance system for the transportation of the sick and injured. His health had then begun to fail, and, after trying various resorts, he finally visited California, where he died from consumption. He published papers on "The Disorder known as Bronzed Skin, or Disease of the Supra-renal Capsules" (1860); "The Metropolitan Board of Health" (1868); and "Reports of the Sanitary Superintendent, of the Metropolitan Board of Health " from 1866 till 1869. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 60.
DANA, Charles Anderson, 1819-1897, New Hampshire, newspaper editor, author, government official, anti-slavery activist and abolitionist leader. Proprietor and managing editor of Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune. As editor, he had the Tribune actively advocate for the anti-slavery cause. The Tribune became one of the leading newspapers promoting anti-slavery. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 64-65; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 49; Wilson, J. H., Life of Charles A. Dana. New York, 1907)
DANA, Charles Anderson, editor, born in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, 8 August, 1819; died near Glen Cove, Long Island, 17 October, 1897. He was a descendant of Richard, progenitor of most of the Danas in the United States. His boyhood was spent in Buffalo, New York, where he worked in a store until he was eighteen years old. At that age he first studied the Latin grammar, and prepared himself for college, entering Harvard in 1839, but after two years a serious trouble with his eyesight compelled him to leave. He received an honorable dismissal, and was afterward given his bachelor's and master's degrees. In 1842 he became a member of the Brook Farm Association for agriculture and education, being associated with George and Sophia Ripley, George William Curtis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Theodore Parker, William Henry Channing, John Sullivan Dwight, Margaret Fuller, and other philosophers more or less directly concerned in the remarkable attempt to realize at Roxbury a high ideal of social and intellectual life. One of the survivors of Brook Farm speaks of Mr. Dana as the only man of affairs connected with that Unitarian, humanitarian, and socialistic experiment. His earliest newspaper experience was gained in the management of the “Harbinger,” which was devoted to social reform and general literature. After about two years of editorial work on Elizur Wright's Boston “Chromotype,” a daily newspaper, Mr. Dana joined the staff of the New York “Tribune” in 1847. The next year he spent eight months in Europe, and after his return he became one of the proprietors and the managing editor of the “Tribune,” a post which he held until 1 April, 1862. The extraordinary influence and circulation attained by that newspaper during the ten years preceding the Civil War was in a degree due to the development of Mr. Dana's genius for journalism. This remark applies not only to the making of the “Tribune” as a newspaper, but also to the management of its staff of writers, and to the steadiness of its policy as the leading organ of anti-slavery sentiment. The great struggle of the “Tribune” under Greeley and Dana was not so much for the overthrow of slavery where it already existed as against the further spread of the institution over unoccupied territory, and the acquisition of slave-holding countries outside of the Union. It was not less firm in its resistance of the designs of the slave-holding interest than wise in its attitude toward the extremists and impracticables at the north. In the “Tribune's” opposition to the attempt to break down the Missouri compromise and to carry slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and in the development and organization of that popular sentiment which gave birth to the Republican Party and led to the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Mr. Dana bore no unimportant part. Writing of the political situation in 1854, Henry Wilson says, in his “Rise and Fall of the Slave Power”: “At the outset, Mr. Greeley was hopeless and seemed disinclined to enter the contest. He told his associates that he would not restrain them, but, as for himself, he had no heart for the strife. They were more hopeful; and Richard Hildreth, the historian, Charles A. Dana, the veteran journalist, James S. Pike, and other able writers, opened and continued a powerful opposition in its columns, and did very much to rally and reassure the friends of freedom and to nerve them for the fight,” In 1861 Mr. Dana went to Albany to advance the cause of Mr. Greeley as a candidate for the U. S. Senate, and nearly succeeded in nominating him. The caucus was about equally divided between Mr. Greeley's friends and those of Mr. Evarts, while Ira Harris had a few votes which held the balance of power, and, at the instigation of Thurlow Weed, the supporters of Mr. Evarts went over to Judge Harris. During the first year of the war the ideas of Mr. Greeley and those of Mr. Dana in regard to the proper conduct of military operations were somewhat at variance; and this disagreement resulted in the resignation of Mr. Dana, after fifteen years' service on the “Tribune.” He was at once employed by Secretary Stanton in special work of importance for the War Department, and in 1863 was appointed assistant Secretary of War, which office he held until after the surrender of Lee. His duties as the representative of the civil authority at the scene of military operations brought him into close personal relations with Mr. Stanton and Mr. Lincoln, who were accustomed to depend much upon his accurate perception and just estimates of men and measures for information of the actual state of affairs at the front. At the time when General Grant's character and probable usefulness were unknown quantities, Mr. Dana's confidence in Grant's military ability probably did much to defeat the powerful effort then making to break down the rising commander. Of this critical period General Sherman remarks in his “Memoirs”: “One day early in April, 1868, I was up at Grant's headquarters [at Vicksburg], and we talked over all these things with absolute freedom. Charles A. Dana, assistant Secretary of War, was there, and Wilson, Rawlins, Frank Blair, McPherson, etc. We all knew, what was notorious, that General McClernand was intriguing against General Grant, in hopes to regain command of the whole expedition, and that others were raising clamor against Grant in the newspapers of the north. Even Mr. Lincoln and General Halleck seemed to be shaken; but at no instant did we (his personal friends) slacken in our loyalty to him.” Mr. Dana was in the saddle at the front much of the time during the campaigns of northern Mississippi and Vicksburg, the rescue of Chattanooga, and the marches and battles of Virginia in 1864 and 1865. After the war his services were sought by the proprietors of the Chicago “Republican,” a new daily, which failed through causes not within the editor's control. Returning to New York, he organized in 1867 the stock company that now owns the “Sun” newspaper, and became its editor. The first number of the “Sun” issued by Mr. Dana appeared on 27 January, 1868, and for nearly twenty years he was actively and continuously engaged in the management of that successful journal, and solely responsible for its conduct. He made the “Sun” a Democratic newspaper, independent and outspoken in the expression of its opinions respecting the affairs of either party. His criticisms of civil maladministration during General Grant's terms as president led to a notable attempt on the part of that administration, in July, 1873, to take him from New York on a charge of libel, to be tried without a jury in a Washington police court. Application was made to the U. S. District Court in New York for a warrant of removal; but in a memorable decision Judge Blatchford, now a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, refused the warrant, holding the proposed form of trial to be unconstitutional. Perhaps to a greater extent than in the case of any other conspicuous journalist, Mr. Dana's personality was identified in the public mind with the newspaper that he edited. He has recorded no theories of journalism other than those of common sense and human interest. He was impatient of prolixity, cant, and the conventional standards of news importance. Mr. Dana's first book was a volume of stories translated from the German, entitled “The Black Ant” (New York and Leipsic, 1848). In 1855 he planned and edited, with George Ripley, the “New American Cyclopædia.” The original edition was completed in 1863. It has since been thoroughly revised and issued in a new edition under the title of “The American Cyclopædia” (16 vols., New York, 1873-'6). With General James H. Wilson he wrote a “Life of Ulysses S. Grant” (Springfield, 1868). His “Household Book of Poetry, a collection of the best minor poems of the English language,” was first published in 1857, and has passed through many editions, the latest, thoroughly revised, being that of 1884. His “Reminiscences of the Civil War” appeared in 1898, after his death, in “McClure's Magazine.” Appleton’s 1900 pp. 64-65.
DANA, Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh, nephew of Samuel Luther and James Freeman, soldier, born in Fort Sullivan, Eastport, Maine, 15 April, 1822. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1842, and, after being appointed in the 7th Infantry as second lieutenant, served on garrison duty in the southwest. During the Mexican War he served with distinction, and was present at many of the important engagements, being severely wounded in storming the intrenchments at the battle of Cerro Gordo. He became captain on the staff and assistant quartermaster in March, 1848, and until 1855 served in garrison duty, principally in Minnesota. From 1855 till 1861 he was a banker in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was brigadier-general of the militia from 1857 till 1861. During the Civil War he accompanied the 1st Minnesota Infantry as colonel to the front, becoming brigadier-general of volunteers in February, 1862, and attached to the Army of the Potomac. He served in the battles before Richmond, and at Antietam commanded a brigade in General John Sedgwick's Division of General Edwin V. Sumner's Corps, and was severely wounded. He was commissioned major-general of volunteers in November, 1862, and was in command of the defences of Philadelphia during the invasion of Pennsylvania by the Confederate Army in 1863. Afterward he joined the Army of the Gulf, and commanded the expedition by sea to the Rio Grande, landing at Brazos Santiago, and driving the Confederate forces as far as Laredo, Texas. He then successively commanded the 13th Army Corps, the District of Vicksburg, the 16th Army Corps, the Districts of West Tennessee and Vicksburg, and finally the Department of the Mississippi. In Mav, 1865, he resigned from the army and engaged in mining operations in the western states. From 1866 till 1871 he was general agent of the American-Russian Commercial Company of San Francisco, in Alaska and Washington, after which he became superintendent of railroads in Illinois, and in 1878 of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quiney Railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 68
DANIEL, John Moncure, editor, born in Stafford County, Virginia, 24 October, 1825; died in Richmond, Virginia, 30 March, 1865. His father was the son of an eminent surgeon in the U. S. Army, who married a daughter of Thomas Stone, of Maryland, signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Moncure was educated mainly by his father, and studied law with Judge Lomax in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but did not complete his studies, his father's death rendering it necessary to earn a support for himself and aid his brothers. In 1845 he went to Richmond, where he obtained the place of librarian in a small public library, which, though it brought little money, supplied opportunity for indulging his passion for reading. The first exhibition of his prowess as a writer was on an agricultural monthly, "The Southern Planter," to which he attracted so much notice that he was invited to a place on the staff of a new Democratic newspaper (1847), the "Richmond Examiner," which speedily became the leading paper of the south. The brilliant invective of the paper led to his fighting several duels. Mr. Daniel’s " Democratic " principles were of the philosophical European school, and he was enabled to harmonize his pro-slavery radicalism with these by the adoption of Carlyle's theory (in "The Nigger Question "), which he interpreted as meaning that Negroes were not to be considered as men in the same sense as whites. He was heretical in religious opinions, and his columns bore witness to much admiration for Emerson and Theodore Parker. He even published Parker's famous sermon on Webster in his paper. The literary character of the "Examiner was very high. Mr. Daniel was a friend of. Edgar A. Poe, whom he aided with money, and of whom he wrote a remarkable sketch in the "Southern Literary Messenger." Some of Poe's poems were revised for this paper. Mr. Daniel was perhaps the earliest, apostle of the secessionists in Virginia, In 1853 he was appointed by President Buchanan minister to the court of Victor Emanuel, and while there he took high ground in demanding the same immunities for an Italian naturalized in the United States and visiting Sardinia as for any other American, and was indignant that Mr. Marcy did not support him in threatening a rupture of diplomatic relations. He caused some scandal by escorting to a royal ball at Turin (on occasion of the betrothal of Prince Napoleon and Princess Clotilde) the Countess Marie de Solms (afterward Madame Katazzi), who had not been invited. This matter was the subject of a curious correspondence between Cavour and his minister at Washington. Garibaldi requested Daniel to annex Nice to the American republic, which Daniel declined on the ground that it was contrary to the Monroe Doctrine. His social relations at Turin were for a time rendered unpleasant through the imprudent publication by a friend in Richmond if a private letter in which he ridiculed the habitual of the court, the letter having found its way to Turin. Nevertheless. Daniel passed more than seven agreeable years abroad. At the beginning of the Civil War he hastened home, and served on the staff of General A. P. Hill. His arm being shattered, he resumed editorship of the Richmond "Examiner." He attacked Jefferson Davis and Mr. Elmore (Confederate Treasurer) with great severity, was challenged in 1864 by the latter, and met him in a duel, where he was unable to point his pistol on account of his wounded arm. He was shot in the leg in this duel. He predicted the collapse of the Confederacy, and died three days before it occurred. Frederick S. Daniel has printed privately a volume containing his brother's leading articles during the war, with a memoir. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 74-75.
DANIEL, John Warwick, senator, born in Lynchburg, Virginia, 5 September, 1842, received a classical education, and in May, 1861, volunteered in the Confederate Army, in which he served throughout the war, rising to be major and adjutant-general of Early's Division in the Army of Northern Virginia. In 1865-'6 he studied law at the University of Virginia, and soon after entering upon practice gained a high reputation as an advocate. He has published "Attachments" (1869) and “Negotiable Instruments" (1876). He was elected to the state house of delegates in 1869. and to the state senate in 1875 and 1879. In 1876 he was an elector-at-large on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket. He was nominated for governor, in 1881, by the debt-paying democracy, and resigned from the state senate to accept the nomination, but was defeated by William E. Cameron, the readjuster candidate. On 4 November, 1884, he was elected a representative in Congress, and on 15 December 1885, was chosen U. S. Senator to succeed William Mahone, whose term expires 3 March, 1887. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 75-76.
DAVENPORT, Henry Kallock, naval officer, born in Savannah, Georgia, 10 December, 1820; died in Franzensbad, Bohemia, 18 August, 1872. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman in February, 1838, and served on various vessels until 1844, when he was made passed midshipman and attached to the U.S. Coast Survey. Later he sailed on the "Columbia," and from 1849 till 1853 was connected with the mail-steamship service. After being promoted to lieutenant in December, 1852, he spent some time on sea duty in various squadrons, being present at the capture of the Barrier forts, Canton River, in 1856, and later on shore duty at the U. S. Observatory in Washington. During the Civil War he was attached to the "Cumberland." and was present at the engagement off Hatteras Inlet. From 1861 till 1864 commanded the steamer "Hetzel," and was engaged in the naval fight on James River in 1861, in the battle of Roanoke Island, at Newbern, and was senior officer in command of the sounds of North Carolina in 1862-'4, during which time he was in several battles and expeditions in these waters, covering the flanks of the army. He became commander in July, 1862, and from 1864 till 1866 served in the Pacific Squadron, commanding the Lancaster" and "Powhatan." In 1868 he was promoted captain, and, after being engaged in navigation duty in Washington Navy-yard during 1867-'70, was given command of the "Congress”, of the European squadron. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 82-83.
DAVIDSON, John Wynn, soldier, born in Fairfax County, Virginia, 18 August, 1824; died in St. Paul, Minnesota, 26 June, 1881. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1845, assigned to the 1st Dragoons, and accompanied General Kearny to California in 1846, in charge of a howitzer battery. During the Mexican War he served in the Army of the West, being present at the combats of San Pasqual, San Bernardo, San Gabriel, and Mesa. He was a scout in 1850, and was at the action of Clear Lake, 17 May, and at Russian River, 17 June, under Captain Nathaniel Lyon. From this time till the Civil War he continued on frontier and garrison duty. He fought the battle of Cieneguilla, New Mexico, on 30 March, 1854, against the Apache and Utah Indians, losing three fourths of his command, and, being himself wounded. He was promoted to captain on 20 January, 1855, to major on 14 November, 1861, and, after serving in defence of Washington, was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on 3 February, 1862. In the Virginia Peninsular campaign of 1862 he commanded a brigade in General Smith's Division , and received two brevets for gallant conduct—that of lieutenant-colonel for the battle of Gaines's Mills, and that of colonel for Golding's Farm. He was also engaged at Lee's Mills, Mechanicsville, Savage Station, and Glendale. He commanded the St. Louis District of Missouri from 6 August, till 13 November, 1862, the Army of Southeast Missouri till 28 February, 1863, and the St. Louis District again till 6 June, co-operating with General Steele in his Little Rock Expedition and directing the movements of troops against Pilot Knob and Fredericktown, and in the pursuit of the enemy during Marmaduke's raid into Missouri. He led a cavalry division from June till September, commanded in the actions at Brownsville, Bayou Metre, and Ashley's Mills, Arkansas, and took part in the capture of Little Rock. He was made chief of cavalry of the Military Division west of the Mississippi on 26 June, 1864, and on 24 November led a cavalry expedition from Baton Rouge to Pascagoula. He was brevetted brigadier-general in the regular army on 13 March, 1865, for the capture of Little Rock, and major-general for his services during the war. He was made lieutenant-colonel of the 10th U.S. Cavalry on 1 December, 1866, was acting inspector-general of the Department of the Missouri from November, 1866, till December, 1867. He was mid professor of military science in Kansas agricultural College from 1868 till 1871. He then commanded various posts in Idaho and Texas, and, in 1877-'8, the District of Upper Brazos, Texas. On 20 March, 1879, he was made colonel of the 2d U.S. Cavalry. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 87.
DAVIES, Thomas Alfred, soldier, born in St. Lawrence County, New York, in December, 1809, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1829, and assigned to the 1st Infantry. After serving on frontier duty, he resigned on 31 October, 1831, and was employed on the Croton Aqueduct as a civil engineer till 1833, when he became a merchant in New York City, but was again employed on the aqueduct in 1840-'l. He re-entered the national service on 15 May, 1861, as colonel of the 16th New York Regiment, was at the battle of Bull Run, and in the defenses of Alexandria from November, 1861, till 7 March. 1862, when he was made brigadier-general of volunteers. He was engaged in the siege of Corinth in April and May, 1862, the battle of Corinth on 3-4 October, and commanded the District of Columbus, Kentucky, in 1862-'3, that of Holla, Missouri, in 1863-'4, that of North Kansas in 1864-'5, and that of Wisconsin from April till June, 1865. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers on 11 July, 1865, and shortly afterward returned to New York City. He has published "Cosmogony: or Mysteries of Creation," an analysis of the natural facts stated in the Hebraic account of creation (New York, 1858); "Adam and Ha-Adam" (1859); "Genesis Disclosed" (1860); "Answer to Hugh Miller and Theoretical Geologists" (1861); "How to make Money, and How to Keep It" (1866); and " Appeal of a Layman to the Committee on the Revision of the English Version of the Holy Scriptures, to have Adam and Ha-Adam restored to the English Genesis where left out by former Translators" (1875). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 90-91.
DAVIES, Henry Eugene, lawyer, born in New York City, 2 July, 1836, was educated at Harvard, Williams, and Columbia, where he was graduated in 1857. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice. He entered the army in April, 1861, as a captain in the 5th New York Volunteers, became major in the 2d New York Cavalry in July, and subsequently its colonel. He was made a brigadier-general of volunteers on 16 September. 1863, and served with distinction in the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac till the close of the war. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers, 1 October, 1864, given his full commission on 4 May. 1865, and commanded the middle District of Alabama till his resignation on 1 January. 1866. He was public administrator of New York City in 1866-'9, assistant district attorney of the Southern District of New York in 1870-'2, and since 1873 has been engaged in law practice. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 91.
DAVIS, Benjamin Franklin, soldier, born in Alabama in 1832; died at Beverly Ford, Virginia, 9 June, 1863. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1854, and distinguished himself in both the infantry and cavalry service in New Mexico. In 1862 he became colonel of the 8th New York Cavalry . He was instantly killed while commanding a brigade at Beverly Ford, Virginia Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 93.
DAVIS, Cushman Kellogg, senator, born in Henderson, Jefferson County, New York, 16 June, 1838. He moved with his parents, when a child, to Waukesha, Wisconsin, attended Carroll College in that town, and was graduated at Michigan University in 1857. He then studied law, and in 1859 began practice at Waukesha. He became a 2d lieutenant in the 28th Wisconsin Regiment in 1861, and served as assistant adjutant general during most of the Civil War on the staff of General Willis A. Gorman. He was compelled to leave the army in 1864 by an attack of typhoid fever, and in 1865 went to Minnesota and resumed the practice of his profession at St. Paul. He was elected to the Minnesota legislature in 1866, was U. S. District Attorney for Minnesota in 1867-71, and in 1873 was elected governor of the state on the Republican ticket, serving one term, and declining a re-nomination. He was an unsuccessful candidate for U. S. Senator in 1875, and again in 1881, but on 18 January, 1887, was elected to the office. Michigan University gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1886. He has delivered many lectures, of which the best known is "Modern Feudalism" (1870), and has published " The Law in Shakespeare " Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 94.
DAVIS, Daniel, lawyer, born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, 8 May, 1762; died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 27 October, 1835. He settled in Portland (then called Falmouth) in 1782, and held offices in Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a part. In 1804 he moved to Boston, and in 1832 to Cambridge. He was U. S. Attorney for Maine in 1796-1801, and solicitor-general of Massachusetts in 1800-'32. He was author of several legal works, the principal ones being " Criminal Justice " (Boston, 2d ed., 1828) and "Precedents of Indictments" (Boston, 1831). —His son, Charles Henry, naval officer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 16 January, 1807; died in Washington, D. C, 18 February, 1877. He entered the U. S. Navy as a midshipman in 1823, and was attached to the frigate " United States,” of the Pacific Squadron, in 1827-8. In March, 1829, he became passed midshipman, and was ordered to the "Ontario," of the Mediterranean Squadron. He received his commission as lieutenant in March, 1834, and, after serving in 1837-'8 on the " Vincennes," of the Pacific Squadron, and in 1840-'l on the "Independence, of the Brazil Squadron, was on special duty from 1842 till 1856, being engaged first on ordnance duty and then as assistant in the U.S. Coast Survey. During 1846-'9 he was occupied in a survey of the waters about Nantucket, in the course of which he discovered the "new south shoal" and several smaller shoals directly in the track of vessels sailing between New York and Europe, and of coasting vessels from Boston. These discoveries were thought to account for several wrecks and accidents before unexplained, and called forth the special acknowledgments of insurance companies and merchants, He became commander in June, 1854, and was given the " St. Marys," in the Pacific Squadron, during 1857-'9, after which he was appointed superintendent of the "American Nautical Almanac." He had filled this place in 1849-56, and the existence of the "Almanac" was largely due to his efforts. In November, 1861, he became captain, and during that year was a member of the board of officers convened for the purpose of making a thorough investigation of the southern coast and harbors, their access and defences. The information thus acquired led to the organization of the expedition against Port Royal, South Carolina, in which Captain Davis was chief of staff and fleet-officer. In May, 1862, he was appointed flag-officer of the Mississippi Flotilla, succeeding Andrew H. Foote in that capacity. Soon after his arrival, the Confederate fleet lying below Fort Pillow, consisting of eight iron-clad steamers, four of which were fitted up as rams, steamed up for an engagement. The flotilla was quickly put in motion to receive them, and, after an action lasting about an hour, three of the Confederate gun-boats were disabled, and the fleet retreated under the guns of Fort Pillow. Subsequently (5 June) the fort was abandoned. Three days later the flotilla moved down the river near Memphis, and again engaged the Confederate fleet. A running fight ensued, in which all the Confederate vessels were either captured or destroyed, except the "Van Horn." After the engagement Captain Davis received the surrender of Memphis, then joined Admiral Farragut and was engaged in operations around Vicksburg, and in expeditions up the Yazoo River. He was commissioned commodore in July, 1862, and became chief of the Bureau of Navigation in Washington, and was made rear-admiral, to date from February, 1863. In 1865 he was appointed superintendent of the Naval Observatory in Washington, and in 1867 commanded the South Atlantic Squadron. He returned to Washington in 1869, and, after being made a member of the Light-House Board, became commander of the Norfolk Navy-yard, but later resumed his old place of superintendent of the Naval Observatory. He was a member of numerous scientific societies, and in February, 1877, was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Admiral Davis, during his connection with the coast survey, was led to investigate the laws of tidal action, and published a "Memoir upon the Geological Action of the Tidal and other Currents of the Ocean," in the "Memoirs of the American Academy" (Boston, 1849), and " The Law of Deposit of the Flood Tide; its Dynamical Action and Office." being vol. iii. of the "Smithsonian Contributions" (Washington, 1852). He contributed various translations and articles on mathematical astronomy and geodesy to periodicals, and was the author of an English translation of Gauss's " Theria Motus Corponim Coelestium " (Boston, 1858).—His son. Charles Henry, naval officer, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 28 August, 1845, was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1864, and served in the Mediterranean Squadron till 1867. meanwhile becoming ensign and master in 1866. From 1867 till 1870 he was on the "Guerriere" in the South Atlantic Squadron, and from 1872 till 1874 on the Pacific. He received his commission as lieutenant in March, 1868, and became a lieutenant-commander in December of the same year. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 94-95.
DAVIS, Jefferson, statesman, born in that part of Christian County, Kentucky, which now forms Todd County, 3 June, 1808; died in New Orleans, 6 December, 1889. His father, Samuel Davis, had served in the Revolution, and, when Jefferson was an infant, moved with his family to a place near Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi Young Davis entered Transylvania College, Kentucky, but left in 1824, on his appointment by President Monroe to the U. S. Military Academy. On his graduation, in 1828, he was assigned to the 1st U.S. Infantry, and served on the frontier, taking part in the Black Hawk war of 1831-'2. He was promoted to first lieutenant of dragoons on 4 March, 1833, but, after more service against the Indians, abruptly resigned on 30 June, 1835, and having married at one of the family homes, the daughter of Zachary Taylor, then a colonel in the army, settled near Vicksburg, Mississippi, and became a cotton-planter. Here he pursued a life of study and retirement till 1843, when he entered politics in the midst of an exciting gubernatorial canvass. He was chosen an elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket in 1844, made a reputation as a popular speaker, and in 1845 was sent to Congress, taking his seat in December of that year. He at once took an active part in debate, speaking on the tariff, the Oregon question, and military matters, especially with reference to the preparations for war with Mexico. On 6 February, 1846, in a speech on the Oregon question, he spoke of the “love of union in our hearts,” and, speaking of the battles of the Revolution, said: “They form a monument to the common glory of our common country.”
In June, 1846, he resigned his seat in the house to become colonel of the 1st Mississippi Volunteer Rifles, which had unanimously elected him to that office. Having joined his regiment at New Orleans, he led it to re-enforce General Taylor on the Rio Grande. At Monterey he charged on Fort Leneria without bayonets, led his command through the streets nearly to the Grand Plaza through a storm of shot, and afterward served on the commission for arranging the surrender of the place. At Buena Vista his regiment was charged by a Mexican brigade of lancers, greatly its superior in numbers, in a last desperate effort to break the American lines. Colonel Davis formed his men in the shape of a letter V, open toward the enemy, and thus, by exposing his foes to a covering fire, utterly routed them, though he was unsupported. He was severely wounded, but remained in the saddle till the close of the fight, and was complimented for coolness and gallantry in the commander-in-chief's despatch of 6 March, 1847. His regiment was ordered home on the expiration of its term of enlistment, and on 17 May, 1847, Colonel Davis was appointed by President Polk a brigadier-general, but declined the commission on the ground that a militia appointment by the Federal executive was unconstitutional. He was appointed by the governor of Mississippi to fill a vacancy in the U. S. Senate in August, 1847, and in January, 1848, the legislature unanimously elected him senator, and re-elected him in 1850 for a full term. He was made chairman of the Senate committee on Military Affairs, and here, as in the house, was active in the discussions on the various phases of the slavery question and the important work of the session, including the fugitive-slave law, and the other compromise measures of 1850. Mr. Davis proposed the extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, and continued a zealous advocate of state rights. He was the unsuccessful state-rights or “resistance” candidate for governor of his state in 1851, though by his personal popularity he reduced the Union majority from 7,500 to 999. He had resigned his seat in the Senate to take part in the canvass, and, after a year of retirement, actively supported Franklin Pierce in the presidential contest of 1852. After the election of General Pierce, Mr. Davis received the portfolio of war in his cabinet, and administered it with great credit. Among other changes, he proposed the use of camels in the service on the western plains, introduced an improved system of infantry tactics, iron gun-carriages, rifled muskets and pistols, and the use of the Minié ball. Four regiments were added to the army, the defences on the sea-coast and frontier were strengthened, and, as a result of experiments, heavy guns were cast hollow, and a larger grain of powder was adopted. While in the Senate, Mr. Davis had advocated the construction of a Pacific Railway as a military necessity, and a means of preserving the Pacific Coast to the Union, and he was now put in charge of the organization and equipment of the surveying parties sent out to examine the various routes proposed. He also had charge of the appropriation for the extension of the capitol. Mr. Davis left the cabinet at the close of President Pierce's term in 1857, and in the same year entered the Senate again. He opposed the French spoliation bill, advocated the southern route for the Pacific Railroad, and opposed the doctrine of “popular sovereignty,” often encountering Stephen A. Douglas in debate on this question. After the settlement of the Kansas contest by the passage of the Kansas Conference Bill, in which he had taken a chief part, he wrote to the people of his state that it was “the triumph of all for which we contended.” Mr. Davis was the recognized Democratic leader in the 36th Congress. He had made a tour of the eastern states in 1858, making speeches at Boston, Portland, Maine, New York, and other places, and in 1859, in reply to an invitation to attend the Webster birthday festival in Boston, wrote a letter denouncing “partisans who avow the purpose of obliterating the landmarks of our fathers,” and containing strong Union sentiments. He had been frequently mentioned as a Democratic candidate for the presidency, and received many votes in the convention of 1860, though his friends announced that he did not desire the nomination. Before Congress met, in the autumn of 1860, Mr. Davis was summoned to Washington by members of President Buchanan's cabinet to suggest some modifications of the forthcoming message to Congress. The suggestions were made, and were adopted. In the ensuing session Mr. Davis made, on 10 December, 1860, a speech in which he carefully distinguished between independence, which the states had achieved at great cost, and the Union, which had cost “little time, little money, and no blood,” taking his old state-rights position. He was appointed on the Senate committee of thirteen to examine and report on the condition of the country, and, although at first excused at his own request, finally consented to serve, accepting the appointment in a speech in which he avowed his willingness to make any sacrifice to avert the impending struggle. The committee, after remaining in session several days, reported, on 31 December, their inability to come to any satisfactory conclusion. On 10 January, 1861, Mr. Davis made another speech on the state of the country, asserting the right of secession, denying that of coercion, and urging the withdrawal of the garrison from Fort Sumter. Mississippi had seceded on 9 January, and on 24 January, having been officially informed of the fact, Mr. Davis withdrew from the Senate and went to his home, having taken leave of his associates in a speech in which he defended the cause of the south, and, in closing, begged pardon of all whom he had ever offended.
Before he reached home he had been appointed by the convention commander-in-chief of the Army of Mississippi, with the rank of major-general; but on 18 February, 1861, he exchanged this office for that of President of the Confederate States, to which the provisional Congress at Montgomery had elected him on 9 February He selected for his cabinet Robert Toombs, of Georgia, as Secretary of State; Leroy P. Walker, of Alabama, Secretary of War; Charles G. Memminger, of South Carolina, Secretary of the Treasury; Stephen R. Mallory, of Florida, Secretary of the Navy; Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, Attorney-General; and John H. Reagan, of Texas, Postmaster-General. The last three continued in the cabinet as long as the Confederate government maintained its existence. Toombs, Walker, and Memminger were succeeded by others. In his inaugural address Mr. Davis asserted that “necessity, not choice,” had led to the secession of the southern states; that the true policy of the south, an agricultural country, was peace; and that “the constituent parts, but not the system,” of the government had been changed. The attack on Fort Sumter, on 13 April, precipitated the war, and Mr. Davis, in his first message to the provisional Confederate Congress, on 29 April, after a review of events (from the formation of the United States Constitution till 1861), which, in his judgment, had led to the contest, commended this act, while avowing a desire to prevent the shedding of blood. The message also condemned, as illegal and absurd, President Lincoln's proclamation calling for troops, and that announcing a blockade of southern ports, and ended with the famous words, “All we ask is, to be let alone,” followed by a promise to resist subjugation to the direst extremity. Shortly after the change of the Confederate capital from Montgomery to Richmond, which he had strongly advised, Mr. Davis removed thither, and was met on his way with many marks of popular favor, every railway station swarming with men, women, and children, who greeted him with waving handkerchiefs. Soon after his arrival the fine residence of James A. Seddon was bought and put at Mr. Davis's disposal by citizens of Richmond. His first days in the new capital were spent in reviewing troops and in speech-making. He exhorted his hearers to remember the dignity of the contest, and “to smite the smiter with manly arms, as our fathers did before us,” and declared his willingness to lay down his civil office and take command of the army, should the extremity of the cause ever warrant such action. Before his arrival in Virginia an army of about 30,000 men had been raised, and as fast as new troops arrived their officers were assigned to a rank in the Confederate service, regulated by that which they had formerly held in the U. S. Army. On 20 July, Mr. Davis sent his second message to the Provisional Congress, then in session at Richmond. In this message he complained of barbarities committed by National troops, and again asserted the impossibility of subduing the south. On the morning succeeding the delivery of this message he set out for Manassas, where a contest was thought to be impending, and arrived there in time to witness the close of the battle of Bull Run, reaching the field when victory had been assured to the Confederates.
The battle of Bull Run was followed by a period of inaction, and Mr. Davis was blamed by many for this policy, as well as for his “failure to organize the troops of the several states into brigades and divisions formed of the soldiers of each,” as the law directed. In answer to these complaints, he has urged the length of time necessary to organize “the terrible machine, a disciplined army,” and protested that, as far as in him lay, he favored an advance and endeavored to comply with the legal plan of army organization. The question of the treatment of Confederate prisoners by the National authorities soon demanded his attention. On 17 April, 1861, two days after Mr. Lincoln's call for troops, Mr. Davis had issued a proclamation inviting applications for letters of marque and reprisal. The “Savannah,” a private vessel commissioned in accordance with this offer, was captured off Charleston, and her officers and crew were tried for piracy in New York and sentenced to death. Later the captain and crew of the privateer “Jefferson Davis” were similarly convicted in Philadelphia. Thereupon, in November, 1861, Mr. Davis ordered retaliatory measures to be taken, and fourteen Union prisoners were selected by lot and held as hostages for the safety of the condemned men. The latter were ultimately put on the footing of prisoners of war by order of the National government, and subsequently a cartel was adopted for the exchange of prisoners, which remained in force till its suspension in 1864, caused by disagreement as to the status of Negro soldiers. In November, 1861, a presidential election was held in the Confederacy, and Mr. Davis was chosen president for six years without opposition. In his message to the Provisional Congress at its last session, 18 November, 1861, he briefly sketched the situation at the close of the first year of the war, alluding to the Confederate successes, the contest for the possession of Kentucky and Missouri, and to the “Trent” affair. (See Wilkes, Charles.) He urged the construction of another railway line through the Confederacy, asserted the improvement of the south in military means and financial condition, and the inefficiency of the blockade, and said: “If it were indeed a rebellion in which we were engaged, we might find ample vindication for the course we have adopted in the scenes which are now being enacted in the United States.” The first Congress under the permanent constitution met in Richmond, on 18 February, 1863, and Mr. Davis was inaugurated on 23 February The Confederacy had just met with its first serious reverses in the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson; but in his inaugural, after a vindication of the right of secession, Mr. Davis indulged in many favorable hopes. “The final result in our favor,” said he, “is not doubtful. Our foes must sink under the immense load of debt which they have incurred. . . . In the heart of a people resolved to be free, these disasters tend but to stimulate to increased resistance.” In his short messages of 35 February and 15 August he suggested various measures for the improvement of the Confederate forces. The result of the reverses in the early months of the year, to which had now been added the capture of New Orleans, began to show itself in a growing opposition to Mr. Davis's administration, which up to this time had seemed all but universally popular, and this opposition increased in force up to the latest days of the war. One of the first acts of the Congress was to pass a sweeping conscription law, to which Mr. Davis reluctantly assented. This was stoutly resisted in some quarters, and led to a spirited correspondence between Mr. Davis and Governor Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia, who disputed the constitutionality of the measure. Congress also authorized the suspension of the habeas corpus act for ten miles around Richmond, and the formation of a military police, for the alleged reason that the government was continually in danger from the presence in Richmond of National spies, and the consequent plots and intrigues. Mr. Davis was present with General Lee at the battle of Fair Oaks on 31 May, and, after the wounding of General Joseph E. Johnston in that engagement, assigned Lee to the command of the Army of Northern Virginia, having previously, on 13 March, charged him, “under the direction of the president, with the conduct of military operations.” During a visit to the army in the western department, in December, 1862, Mr. Davis, in an address to the Mississippi legislature, defended the conscription law and declared that “in all respects, the Confederacy was better prepared for war than it was a year previous.”
The Proclamation of Emancipation by President Lincoln, to take effect 1 January, 1863, called out from Mr. Davis a retaliatory proclamation, dated 23 December, 1862, in which, after reciting, among other acts, the hanging of William B. Mumford for tearing down the United States flag at New Orleans, after the city was captured by the National forces, General Benjamin F. Butler was declared a felon, and it was ordered that all commissioned officers serving under him, as well as any found serving in company with slaves, should be treated as “robbers and criminals deserving death.” These threats, however, were not generally executed, though supported by the legislation of the Congress. In his message of January, 1863, Mr. Davis announced his intention of turning over National prisoners for prosecution in state courts, as abettors of servile insurrection; but this proposition was rejected by Congress, and provision made for their trial by military tribunals. The two long messages sent by Mr. Davis to Congress in 1863 consist largely of discussions of the position of foreign powers, especially Great Britain, with reference to the war. The one dated 7 December announces the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and urges “the compulsory reduction of the currency to the amount required by the business of the country,” together with other measures for improving the finances, which had become hopelessly depreciated. They had never been on a sound basis, and the currency had declined in value till it was nearly worthless. In April, 1863, in compliance with a request of the Confederate Congress, Mr. Davis had issued an address to the people of the south, in which he drew the happiest conclusions as to the success of the Confederacy, from the way in which, in the face of obstacles, it had already organized and disciplined armies. “At no previous period of the war,” said he, “have our forces been so numerous, so well organized, and so thoroughly disciplined, armed, and equipped as at present.”
The disasters of July—at Gettysburg and Vicksburg—coming in the face of this assertion, and the state of the currency just mentioned, emboldened the opposition party in all parts of the Confederacy fiercely to assail the administration. Mr. Davis was held responsible for the advance into Pennsylvania, and accused of partiality in appointing Pemberton to command in the west. Charles C. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury, resigned, and his place was filled by George A. Trenholm; but the new secretary was unable to stop the depreciation of the currency. The lack of coin in the country, the inability of the people to bear more taxation, and the spirit of speculation fostered by the enormous issues of paper money, hastened the financial ruin of the Confederacy. Food, too, was scarce. Kentucky and Tennessee, whence had come most of the meat supplies, were lost to the Confederacy, and the army was on half-rations. At this time there was a clamor against the commissary-general, Colonel Northrop. A committee of the Confederate Congress investigated the matter and exonerated him; but the opponents of the administration have continued to hold him, and Mr. Davis through him, responsible for the scarcity of food in the Confederacy, and therefore, indirectly, for much of the sufferings of Union prisoners during the war. The exchange of prisoners had been interrupted for some time by the refusal of the Confederate government to recognize Negroes as National soldiers, and after many futile attempts to come to an understanding with the National government, “We offered,” says Mr. Davis (“Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,” vol. ii., p. 601), “to the United States government their sick and wounded, without requiring any equivalents.”
The year 1864 opened with Confederate successes in Florida, the southwest, and North Carolina; and Mr. Davis, in his message of 2 May, said: “The armies in northern Virginia and Tennessee still oppose, with unshaken front, a formidable barrier to the progress of the invader.” That progress, however, was not long to be stayed. By an order issued on 17 July, 1864, Mr. Davis removed General Joseph E. Johnston from the command of the army opposed to General Sherman in Georgia. The cause and alleged injustice of this removal have not yet ceased to be subjects for controversy, it being asserted by Mr. Davis's opponents that personal reasons influenced him against an officer with whom he had never been very friendly, while his supporters, denying this, fully justify the act. The reasons given in Adjt.-General Cooper's brief despatch were, that General Johnston had “failed to arrest the advance of the enemy to the vicinity of Atlanta, and expressed no confidence that he could defeat or repel him.” In answer to which General Johnston wrote: “I assert that Sherman's army is much stronger, compared with that of Tennessee, than Grant's compared with that of northern Virginia. Yet the enemy has been compelled to advance much more slowly to the vicinity of Atlanta than to that of Richmond and Petersburg, and penetrated much deeper into Virginia than into Georgia.” General John B. Hood, successor of General Johnston, was obliged to evacuate Atlanta on 1 September Mr. Davis then visited Georgia and endeavored to raise the spirits of the people there, and to restore harmony between the Confederate and state governments. Governor Brown, who had opposed the conscription act, continued to be hostile to the administration, notwithstanding an interview with Mr. Davis in which the latter tried to convince him that his complaints were unjust. He reviewed and addressed Hood's army on 18 September, and afterward, in speeches made in Macon, Augusta, and elsewhere, strove to inspire the people with the spirit of renewed resistance, and to persuade them that an honorable peace was impossible. As is evident from the tone of these and other speeches, the peace Party in the south was daily gaining strength. Besides those who really desired peace, there were others who hoped that a rejected attempt to treat with the National government might fire the south with indignation. As early as 30 December, 1863, Governor Zebulon B. Vance, of North Carolina, had written to Mr. Davis urging negotiation. The latter, in his answer, dated 8 January, 1864, cited previous unsuccessful attempts to communicate with the authorities at Washington, and concluded that another would be undesirable. In January, 1865, however, after an interview with Francis P. Blair, Sr., who had gone to Richmond, unofficially, in the hope of bringing about peace, Mr. Davis agreed to send three commissioners to confer with the National government. The result was an unsatisfactory meeting on a steamer in Hampton Roads. On the return of the commissioners public meetings were held, at which there seemed to be a return of the enthusiasm of the early days of the war. Peace with the independence of the south was now seen to be impossible, and the horrors of subjugation by the north were painted in gloomy colors by the speakers. Mr. Davis, always an able and impressive speaker, made what has been called the most remarkable speech of his life. But this outburst of enthusiasm was only temporary. The evacuation of Atlanta had been followed by Sherman's march to the sea, and Hood's disastrous campaign in Tennessee. General Hood himself said, in speaking of it, when taking leave of his army in January, 1865: “I alone am responsible for its conception.” These reverses, however, with Grant's steady advance on Richmond, and, above all, the re-election of President Lincoln, had produced a growing conviction in the south that defeat was inevitable. The Confederate Congress that met in November, 1864, was outspoken in opposition to the administration, and in January, 1865, the Virginia delegation urged a change in the cabinet, expressing their want of confidence in its members. As a consequence of this, James A. Seddon, then Secretary of War, sent in his resignation.
In his last message to Congress, dated 13 March, 1865, Mr. Davis, while acknowledging the peril of the Confederacy, asserted that it had ample means of meeting the emergency. On Sunday, 2 April, 1865, while seated in his pew in St. Paul's Church, Richmond, he was handed a telegram from General Lee, announcing the latter's speedy withdrawal from Petersburg, and the consequent necessity for the evacuation of the capital. That evening, accompanied by his personal staff, members of the cabinet, and others, he left by train for Danville. On his arrival there he issued, on 5 April, a proclamation of which he afterward admitted that, “viewed by the light of subsequent events, it may fairly be said it was over-sanguine.” In it he said: “Relieved from the necessity of guarding particular points, our army will be free to move from point to point, to strike the enemy in detail far from his base.” Danville was abandoned in less than a week, and after a conference at Greensboro, North Carolina, with Gens. Johnston and Beauregard, in which his hopes of continuing the war met with little encouragement, he went to Charlotte, where he heard of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. His wife had preceded him with a small escort, and it was just after he had overtaken her, while encamped near Irwinsville, Georgia, that the whole party were captured, on 10 May, by a body of cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel Pritchard. He was taken to Fort Monroe, and kept in confinement for two years.
On 21 September, 1865, the U. S. Senate called on the president for information on the subject of his trial, and in response reports were submitted from the Secretary of War and the attorney-general, their substance being that Virginia was the proper place for the trial, and that it was not yet possible peacefully to hold a U. S. court in that state. On 12 October, in reply to a letter from President Johnson, Chief-Justice Chase said that he was unwilling to hold court in a district still under martial law. On 10 April, 1866, the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives reported that there was no reason why the trial should not be proceeded with, and that it was the duty of the government to investigate, without delay, the facts connected with Lincoln's assassination. On 8 May, 1866, Mr. Davis was indicted for treason by a grand jury in the U. S. Court for the District of Virginia, sitting at Norfolk under Judge Underwood, the charge of complicity in the assassination of the president having been dropped. On 5 June, at a session of the court held in Richmond, James T. Brady, one of Mr. Davis's counsel, urged that the trial be held without delay; but the government declined to proceed on the indictment, urging the importance of the trial and the necessity of preparation for it. The court refused to admit the prisoner to bail. On 13 May, 1867, he was brought before the court at Richmond on a writ of habeas corpus, and admitted to bail in the amount of $100,000, the first name on his bail-bond being that of Horace Greeley. Mr. Davis's release gave much satisfaction to the southern people. The interest taken in him during his imprisonment, and their prevalent idea that he was to suffer as a representative of the south, rather than for sins of his own, and was “a nation's prisoner,” had made him more popular there than he had been since the first days of the war. After an enthusiastic reception at Richmond he went to New York, then to Canada, and in the summer of 1868 visited England, a Liverpool firm having offered to take him as a partner, without capital.
This offer, after investigation, was declined, and, having visited France, he returned to this country, he was never brought to trial, a nolle prosequi being entered by the government in his case in December, 1868, and he was also included in the general amnesty of that month. After his discharge he became president of a life insurance company at Memphis, Tennessee In 1879 Mrs. Dorsey, of Beauvoir, Mississippi, bequeathed to him her estate, where he ever afterward resided, giving much of his time to literary pursuits. In June, 1871, in a speech at a public reception in Atlanta, Georgia, he said that he still adhered to the principle of state sovereignty, was confident of its final triumph, and was “not of those who ‘accept the situation.’ ” In 1876, when a bill was before the House of Representatives to remove all the political disabilities that had been imposed on those who took part in the insurrection, James G. Blaine offered an amendment excepting Jefferson Davis, and supported it by a speech in which he accused Mr. Davis of being “the author of the gigantic murders and crimes at Andersonville.” Senator Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, spoke in reply, defending Mr. Davis from this charge. Again, in 1879, Mr. Davis was specially excepted in a bill to pension veterans of the Mexican War, the adoption of an amendment to that effect being largely the result of a speech by Zachariah Chandler. In October, 1884, at a meeting of Frank P. Blair post, of the Grand Army of the Republic, in St. Louis, General William T. Sherman asserted that he had seen letters and papers showing that Mr. Davis had abandoned his state-rights doctrines during the war, and had become practically a dictator in the south. Mr. Davis, in a letter to a newspaper, denied the charge, and General Sherman then filed with the war department at Washington papers that, in his view, substantiated it. On 28 April, 1886, Mr. Davis spoke at the dedication of a monument to Confederate soldiers at Montgomery, Alabama, and was enthusiastically received. The engraving on the preceding page is a view of his early home in Mississippi.
Two biographies of Mr. Davis have been written, both by southern authors, which illustrate the extremes of southern opinion. That by Frank H. Alfriend (New York, 1868) represents those who are friendly to Mr. Davis, while that by Edward A. Pollard, with the sub-title “Secret History of the Confederacy” (Philadelphia, 1869), holds him responsible for all the disasters of the war. Mr. Pollard, who was an editor of the Richmond “Examiner,” a paper hostile to the administration, concedes that Mr. Davis was thoroughly devoted to the cause of the south, and had indomitable pluck, but accuses him of vanity, gross favoritism, and incompetency. In addition to these works, see Dr. Craven's “Prison Life of Jefferson Davis” (New York, 1866). Mr. Davis himself had published “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government” (2 vols., New York, 1881).—His brother, Joseph Emory, lawyer, born near Augusta, Georgia, 10 December, 1784; died in Vicksburg, Mississippi, 18 September, 1870, was the oldest of the ten children of Samuel Davis, and in 1796 moved with his father to Kentucky. He was placed in a mercantile house at an early age, studied law in Russellville and in Wilkinson County, whither he accompanied his father in 1811, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practised in Pinckneyville, and afterward in Greenville, rising to high rank in the profession. He was the delegate from Jefferson County in the convention that organized the state government in 1817, and took a prominent part in framing the constitution. In 1820 he moved to Natchez, and formed a co partnership with Thomas B. Reed, then the leader of the Mississippi bar. In 1827 he decided to retire from the profession in which he had won success by his learning, argumentative powers, and oratorical ability, in order to become a planter. In this occupation he was also very successful, and at the beginning of the Civil War he possessed one of the finest plantations on the Mississippi River. During the war he was driven from his home with his family, and endured many hardships. He returned to Vicksburg at its close, and, after a controversy with the officers of the Freedmen's bureau, regained possession of his estate, but continued to reside in the city of Vicksburg. Mr. Davis was noted for his benevolence, and many youths of both sexes were indebted to him for a liberal education. Appleton’s, 1900 pp. 98-102.
DAVIS, Jefferson C., soldier, born in Clark County, Indiana, 2 March, 1828; died in Chicago, Illinois, 30 November, 1879. His ancestors were noted in the Indian wars of Kentucky. At the age of eighteen, while pursuing his studies in the Clark County, Indiana, seminary, he heard of the declaration of war with Mexico, and enlisted in Colonel Lane's Indiana Regiment. For gallant conduct at Buena Vista he was on 17 June, 1848, made second lieutenant of the 1st Artillery . He became first lieutenant in 1852, took charge of the garrison in Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in 1858, and was there during the bombardment in April, 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War. In May, 1861, he was promoted to a captaincy and given leave of absence to raise the 22d Indiana Volunteers, of which regiment he became colonel, and was afterward given a brigade by General Frémont, with whom he served in Missouri. He also commanded a brigade under Gens. Hunter and Pope. For services rendered at Milford, Missouri, on 18 December, 1861, where he aided in capturing a superior force of the enemy, with a large quantity of military supplies, he was made brigadier-general of volunteers. At the battle of Pea Ridge he commanded one of the four divisions of General Curtis's army. He participated in the siege of Corinth, and, after the evacuation of that place by the Confederate forces, was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee. On 29 September, 1862, he chanced to meet in Louisville General William Nelson, from whom he claimed to have received treatment unduly harsh and severe. An altercation ensued, and in a moment of resentment he shot Nelson, instantly killing him. He was arrested, and held for a time, but no trial was ordered, and he was released and assigned to duty at Covington, Kentucky He led his old division of the 20th Army Corps into the fight at Stone River, and for his bravery was recommended by General Rosecrans for major-general. In 1864 he commanded the 14th Corps of Sherman's army in the Atlanta Campaign and in the march through Georgia. In 1865 a brevet major-generalship was given him, and he was made colonel of the 23d U.S. Infantry, 23 July, 1866. He afterward went to the Pacific Coast, and commanded the U. S. troops in Alaska, and in 1873, after the murder of General Canby by the Modoc Indians in northern California, took command of the forces operating against them, and compelled them to surrender. Appleton’s 1900 pp. 103-104.
DAVIS, Hasbrouck, soldier, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, 19 April, 1827; drowned at sea, 19 October, 1870, was graduated at Williams in 1845, and afterward studied in Germany. He taught in the Worcester high-school for a year, and was settled as pastor of the Unitarian Society in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1849. He afterward studied law, was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1854, and went to Chicago in 1855. He was mustered into the United States service in 1862 as lieutenant- colonel of the 11th Illinois Cavalry . He served with conspicuous gallantry in Stoneman's pursuit of the Confederates after their retreat from Yorktown in April, 1862, and in the autumn distinguished himself at Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, where he was in command of the Union cavalry, and led them, on the night of 14 September, 1862, through the enemy's lines to Greencastle, Pennsylvania, capturing an ammunition-train on the way. He was promoted colonel, 5 January 1864, and at the close of the war was brevetted brigadier-general. After returning to Chicago, he was elected city attorney. He was lost on the steamer "Cambria" in the voyage to Europe. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 103-104.
DAVIS, John Lee, naval officer, born in Carlisle, Sullivan County, Indiana, 3 September, 1825. He entered the U. S. Naval service as a midshipman on 9 January, 1841, was warranted passed midshipman on 10 August, 1847, and, while serving as acting lieutenant, commanding one of the boats of the "Preble," of the East India Squadron, he boarded a piratical Chinese junk off Macao in November, 1849, with another officer and sixteen men, and captured the vessel and crew. He was commissioned lieutenant on 15 September, 1855, was attached to the Gulf Squadron in 1861, and, as executive officer of the "Water Witch," took part in engagements with the Confederate ram "Manassas" at the head of the Mississippi passes and the Squadron near Pilot Town on the same day, 12 October, 1861. He was commissioned lieutenant-commander on 16 July, 1862, and attacked Fort, McAllister on 19 November, when his vessel was pierced by a solid shot below water. The leak was stopped temporarily, and after the action the vessel was taken on shore and patched at the falling of the tide. He again engaged the fort on 22 January and 1 February, 1863, and on 28 February, when the privateer "Nashville" was destroyed. On 19 March he sank the blockade-running steamer " Georgiana" when she attempted to enter Charleston Harbor. He was transferred to the command of the iron-clad "Montauk," and took part in the engagements with Forts Sumter, Gregg. Moultrie, and Battery Bee. in the beginning of September, 1863, and in the attacks on Fort Sumter on 5, 9, and 10 November, and that on Fort Moultrie on 16 November, 1863. In 1864-'5 he commanded the steamer "Sassacus." of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, which towed the powder-boat "Louisiana" from Norfolk to Fort Fisher in December, and engaged that fort on 24 and 25 December, 1864, 13 and 14 January, 1865; Fort Anderson, in Cape Fear River, on 18 February; and Fort Strong on 20 and 21 February, on which last day the vessel was struck under the water-line, but the leak was kept under till dark, and then effectually stopped. He was commissioned commander on 25 July, 1866, promoted captain on 14 February, 1873, and was a member of the Light-House Board in 1876, and of the board of inspection in 1882. He was promoted commodore on 4 February, 1882, commanded the Asiatic Station in 1883-'6, and on 30 October, 1885, received his commission as rear-admiral, and was in November, 1886, relieved of his command of the Asiatic Squadron and placed on the retired list. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 105.
DAVIS, Nelson Henry, soldier, born in Oxford, Worcester County, Massachusetts, 20 September, 1821. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1846, and assigned to the 3d U.S. Infantry. He served in the war with Mexico, received the brevet of 1st lieutenant for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, and was also at the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro Gordo, and the capture of the city of Mexico. He was promoted 1st lieutenant 8 June, 1849, and then served on the frontier, being engaged in several actions while on the Sierra Nevada Expedition of 1849-'50, and taking part in the Rogue River Expedition of 1853. He was made captain on 3 March, 1855, was at the battle of Bull Run, and from 4 September to 12 November, 1861, was colonel of the 7th Massachusetts Volunteers. He then became major and assistant inspector-general, and served with the Army of the Potomac till the autumn of 1863, receiving the brevet of lieutenant colonel for gallantry at Gettysburg. He was then transferred to New Mexico, was brevetted colonel 27 June, 1865, for his services against the Apache Indians, and also received the brevet of brigadier general for his services in the Civil War. He was inspector-general of the District of New Mexico in 1868, of the Department of Missouri in 1868-'72, was on a tour of inspection till 1876, and then became inspector-general of the Division of the Atlantic. He was commissioned brigadier-general on 11 March, 1885, and retired on 20 September Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p 106.
DAVIS, Thomas, 1806-1895, North Providence, Rhode Island, manufacturer, Member of U.S. House of Representatives, 1853-1855, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1848-52. Disapproved of the Missouri Compromise.
DAVIS, Werter Renick, , clergyman, born in Circleville, Ohio, 1 April, 1815, was educated at Kenyon College, and received the degree of M. D. from the College of Medicine and Surgery in Cincinnati. Subsequently he became a minister in the Methodist Church, and entered the Ohio conference in 1835. He then filled various pastorates in West Virginia and Ohio until 1853. when he was transferred to the Missouri Conference and stationed at St. Louis. In 1854 he became professor of natural sciences in McKendree College, where he remained until 1858, acting as president during his last year at that institution. He was then elected president of Baker University, but afterward resigned, and for fourteen consecutive years was appointed to a presiding eldership. During the Civil War he went to the front as chaplain of the 12th Kansas Infantry, and then was commissioned lieutenant-colonel to raise and organize the 16th Kansas Cavalry in 1862, of which he became colonel, and continued in command of that regiment until the close of the war. Dr. Davis was a member of the first state legislature of Kansas, and also held the office of superintendent of public instruction in Douglas County. He was a member of the general conferences of 1868, 1872, and 1880, and a delegate to the Ecumenical Methodist Conference in London, and to the Centennial Conference held in Baltimore. Maryland. in 1884. He edited, in 1859, "The Kansas Message," the first paper published in Baldwin City, and has published several sermons. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 96.
DAWSON, Samuel Kennedy, soldier, born in Pennsylvania about 1818. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1839, and assigned as second lieutenant to the 1st Artillery . He served on the northern frontier at Plattsburg, New York, during the Canada border disturbances of 1839, and on the Maine frontier, pending the "disputed territory" controversy in 1840. During the war with Mexico he was present at the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Cerro Gordo, and took part in the siege of Vera Cruz. He was promoted to be first lieutenant, 18 June, 1840, brevet captain, 18 April, 1847, captain, 31 March, 1853, and major of the 19th U.S. Infantry, 14 May, 1861. Captain Dawson took part in the campaigns against the Seminoles, 1851-'6, and was attached to the party engaged in the pursuit of Cortinas's Mexican marauders in 1859. During the Civil War he was present at the bombardment of Fort Pickens, in 1861, and served in the Tennessee Campaign of 1863, being severely wounded at the battle of Chickamauga, for which he was promoted to be brevet colonel, and subsequently brevet brigadier-general, for gallant and meritorious services during the war. He was commissioned colonel of the 19th U.S. Infantry, 28 July, 1866. In 1865 and 1866 he commanded a detachment of the 15th U.S. Infantry at Mobile, mid the entire regiment at Macon. Georgia Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 110.
DAY, Hannibal, soldier, born in Vermont about 1802. He is the son of Dr. Sylvester Day, assistant surgeon. U. S. Army. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1823, and made second lieutenant in the 2d Infantry. On 4 April, 1832, he was commissioned first lieutenant, and in the fame year took part in the Black Hawk Expedition, but was not on duty at the seat of war. He also served in the Florida wars in 1838-'9 and 1841-2, and in the war with Mexico in 1846-'7. He was commissioned captain, 7 July, 1838, major, 23 February, 1852, lieutenant-colonel, 25 February, 1861, and colonel, 7 January, 1862. He commanded a brigade of the 5th Corps in the Pennsylvania Campaign in 1863, taking part in the battle of Gettysburg. He was retired from active duty, “on his own application after forty consecutive years of service,” 1 August, 1863, and employed on military commissions and courts-martial from 25 July, 1864. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general for long service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 111.
DEARING, James, soldier, born in Campbell County, Virginia, 25 April, 1840; died in Lynchburg in April, 1865. He was a great-grandson of Colonel Charles Lynch, of Revolutionary fame, who gave his name to the summary method of administering justice now known as "Lynch Law," through his rough-and-ready way of treating the tories. He was graduated at Hanover, Virginia, Academy, and was appointed a cadet in the U. S. Military Academy, but resigned in 1861, to join the Confederate Army when Virginia passed the ordinance of secession. He was successively lieutenant of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, captain of Latham's battery, major and commander of Denny's Artillery Battalion, and colonel of a cavalry regiment from North Carolina, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general for gallantry at the battle of Plymouth. He participated in the principal engagements between the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac. On the retreat of the Confederate forces from Petersburg to Appomattox Court-House, he was mortally wounded near Farmville in a singular encounter with Brigadier-General Theodore Read, of the National Army. The two generals met, on 5 April, at the head of their forces, on opposite sides of the Appomattox, at High Bridge, and a duel with pistols ensued. General Rend was shot dead, but General Dearing lingered until a few days after the surrender of Lee, when he died in the Old City Hotel at Lynchburg, Virginia Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 117-118.
DE BOLT Rezin A., jurist, born in Fairfield County, Ohio, 20 January, 1828. He received a common-school education and worked on a farm till his seventeenth year, when he was apprenticed to a tanner. After serving his time he followed his trade for a few years, but in the meantime studied law, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1856. He moved to Trenton, Grundy County, Missouri, in 1858, and began the practice of law. He was appointed school commissioner of Grundy County in 1859, and re-elected to the same office in 1860, serving until the beginning of the Civil War. He entered the National service in 1861 as captain in the 33d Missouri Infantry, was captured at the battle of Shiloh, 6 April, 1862, and held as prisoner until the following October. In 1863 he resigned his commission on account of impaired health, and resumed his profession, but in 1864 re-entered the army as major in the 44th Missouri Infantry, and was mustered out of service in August, 1865. He was elected judge of the circuit court for the 11th District of Missouri in November, 1863, which office he held until his election as a representative from Missouri in the 44th Congress, closing his Congressional career in 1877. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 119.
DE CAMP, John, naval officer, born in New Jersey in 1812; died in Burlington, New Jersey, 25 June, 1875. He was appointed to the U.S. Navy from Florida in October, 1827, and served on the sloop "Vandalia," of the Brazil Squadron, in 1820-'30. He was promoted to passed midshipman in 1833, was in the West India Squadron till 1837, and commissioned lieutenant in 1838, and served on the frigate "Constitution" along the coast of Africa in 1854. He was commissioned commander in 1855, and served in the U.S. Navy-yard, New York, U.S. Light-House Inspector, and as commander of the store-ship " Relief." He commanded the steam sloop "Iroquois" at the attack upon Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and the capture of New Orleans (April, 1862), and participated in various actions on the Mississippi, including Vicksburg, while in command of the "Wissahickon." He was commissioned captain in 1862, and was in the South Atlantic Squadron in 1863-'4. He was promoted to the rank of commodore in 1866, commanded the receiving ship "Potomac" in 1868-'9, and was retired in 1870 with the rank of rear-admiral. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 119-120.
DE FOREST, John William, author and soldier, born in Humphreysville (now Seymour), Connecticut, 31 March, 1826. He attended no college, but pursued independent studies, mainly abroad, was a student in Latin, and became a fluent speaker of French, Italian, and Spanish. While yet a youth, he passed four years travelling in Europe, and two years in the Levant, residing chiefly in Syria. Again, in 1850, he visited Europe, making extensive tours through Great Britain. France, Italy, Germany, Greece, and Asia Minor. From that time until the Civil War began he wrote short stories for periodicals, having already become an author of several books. In 1861, as captain, he recruited a company for the 12th Connecticut Volunteers, and served constantly in the field till January, 1865, taking an active part under Generals Weitzel and Banks in the southwestern states, and under General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and leaving the army with the brevet of major. Graphic descriptions of battle-scenes in Louisiana, and of Sheridan's battles in the valley of the Shenandoah, were published in "Harper's Monthly" during the war by Major De Forest, who was present on all the occasions thus mentioned, and was fortunate enough, while experiencing forty-six days under fire, to receive but one trifling wound. He was one of only two or three American literary men that laid down the pen for the sword. From 1865 till 1868 he remained in the army as adjutant-general of the Veteran Reserve Corps, and afterward as chief of a district under the Freedman's Bureau. Since then he has resided in New Haven, except when travelling in Europe. The honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Amherst College in 1859. Besides essays, a few poems, and about fifty short stories, numerous military sketches, and book-reviews, most of which were anonymous, he, in 1873, contributed to the "Atlantic Monthly" a short serial story, entitled "The Lauson Tragedy." He has published " The History of the Indians of Connecticut, from the… Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 123-124.
DEITZLER, George Washington, 1826-1884, abolitionist. (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 201)
DEITZLER, George Washington, soldier, born in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 30 November, 1826; died near Tucson, Arizona, 11 April, 1884. He received a common-school education, moved to Kansas, and "grew up with the state." He was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives in 1857-'8. and again in 1859-'60, and during the former period was elected speaker. He was subsequently mayor of Lawrence, and treasurer of the University of Kansas. At the beginning of the war he was made colonel of the 1st Regiment of Kansas Volunteers. He was promoted to be brigadier-general, 29 November, 1862, but resigned in August of the year following. In 1864 he was commissioned major-general of Kansas militia. He was killed by being thrown from a carriage. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 125.
DE KAY, Joseph Rodman Drake, soldier, born 21 October, 1836; died in New York City, 9 June, 1886, served with credit during the Civil War on the staffs of Generals Mansfield, Pope, and Hooker, and won the brevet of lieutenant-colonel for gallantry in several battles.—Another son of George Coleman, George Coleman, soldier, born 34 August, 1842; died in New Orleans, 27 June, 1862, left his studies in Dresden, Saxony, in 1861, returned to the United States, and entered the National service as lieutenant of artillery, and afterward was on the staff of General Thomas Williams till he received a mortal wound in a fight with bushwhackers at Grand Gulf. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 126.
DE KAY, Sidney, soldier, born 7 March, 1845, ran away from school in the second year of the Civil War and joined the 71st New York Volunteers. He was afterward made lieutenant in the 8th Connecticut Regiment, served on the staffs of Generals B. P. Butler, Devens, and Terry, and received the brevet of major. After the war he went to Crete to assist the Greeks against the Turks. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 126.
DE KRAFFT, James Charles Philip, naval officer, born in the District of Columbia, 12 January, 1826; died there, 29 October, 1885. He was appointed midshipman from Illinois in 1841, and attached to the frigate "Congress," in the Mediterranean Squadron. During the Mexican War he took part in the first attack on Alvarado in 1846. He was commissioned lieutenant, 15 September, 1855, and detailed to the command of the frigate "Niagara" in 1860, in which vessel he was present at the assault on Fort McCrean, one of the defences of Pensacola, the following year. In 1862-'3 he was on duty in the U.S. Navy-yard at Washington, and commanded the steamer "Conemaugh, Western Gulf-Blockading Squadron, in 1864-'6, during which period he assisted in the operations against Fort Powell, Mobile Bay. Commissioned as commander in 1866, and as captain in 1872, he served subsequently as captain of the "Hartford," as chief of staff of the Asiatic Station, and had charge of the Washington and Philadelphia Navy-yards. He was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral in June, 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 126.
DELAFIELD, Richard, military engineer, son of John, senior; born in New York City, 1 September, 1798; died in Washington, 5 November, 1873. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1818 at the head of his class, and was immediately promoted to be 2d lieutenant of engineers, being assigned to duty with the American Boundary commission under the treaty of Ghent. In 1820 he received his Commission as 1st lieutenant, and in 1828 was made captain. From 1819 till 1838 he was employed in the construction of the defences of Hampton Roads, as superintending engineer on the fortifications in the vicinity of the Mississippi, and those on or near Delaware River and Bay. Promoted to the rank of major in 1838, he was appointed superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, where he remained for seven years, and subsequently held the office from 1856 till March, 1861, when he was relieved, at his own request. From 1846 till 1855 he superintended the defences of New York Harbor and the Hudson River improvements, with the exception of ten months, when he acted as chief engineer of the Department of Texas. During the Crimean war (1855-'6) he was ordered to Europe in company with Captain (afterward Major General) McClellan and Major Mordecai to report on any changes that had been made in modern warfare. His elaborate report was printed by Congress in 1860. He was made lieutenant-colonel in 1861, colonel in 1863, brigadier-general and chief of engineers in 1864, and received the brevet rank of major-general, 13 May, 1865, " for faithful, meritorious, and distinguished services in the engineer department during the rebellion." He was retired 8 August, 1866, his name having been borne on the army register for over forty-five years. He rendered valuable service to the government during the Civil War, on the staff of Governor Morgan, of New York (1861-'3), in the reorganization and equipment of the state forces. From 1864 till 1870 he was on duty at Washington as commander of the Engineer Corps, and in charge of the Bureau of Engineers of the War Department, and served as inspector of the Military Academy, as member of the Light-house Board, and of the commission for the improvement of Boston Harbor. He was also one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 128.
DELANY, Martin Robinson, 1812-1885, free African American, publisher, editor, journalist, writer, physician, soldier. Publisher of abolitionist newspaper, North Star in Rochester, New York, with Fredrick Douglass. Published The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, 1852. Published The Ram’s Horn in New York. Supported colonization of African Americans in 1854. Led National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1854. Recruited thousands of African Americans for service in the Civil War. First African American major in the U.S. Army. (Mabee, 1970, pp. 133, 145, 400n18; Pease, 1965, pp. 319-330; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 32, 50, 55, 164, 192, 251-252, 264, 275, 704-705; Sernett, 2002, pp. 151, 240, 314n61; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 219; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 382)
DE LEON, David Camden, surgeon, born in South Carolina in 1822; died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3 September, 1872. He was educated in his native state, and graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1836. He entered the U. S. Army as assistant surgeon on 21 August, 1838, served in the Seminole War, and was then stationed for several years on the western frontier. At the beginning of the Mexican War he went with General Taylor to the Rio Grande, was present at most of the battles in the campaign toward Mexico, and entered that city when it surrendered. For these services, as well as for gallantry in action, where he several times took the place of commanding officers who had been killed or wounded, Dr. De Leon twice received the thanks of Congress, but was again assigned to frontier duty in Mexico, on the ground of his great energy and hardihood. He was promoted to surgeon, with the rank of major, on 29 August, 1856, and on, 19 February, 1861, resigned his commission and was placed at the head of the medical department of the Confederate Army. At the close of the war he went to Mexico, but after a year's residence in that country he returned to New Mexico, where he had been stationed for many years, and owned property, continuing in practice until his death. He was a man of fine literary culture, and a vigorous writer. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 135.
DEMING, Henry Champion, 1815-1872, lawyer, soldier. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut, 1863, 1865. Colonel, commanding 12th Connecticut Regiment. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 138-139; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 230; Congressional Globe)
DEMING, Henry Champion, lawyer, born in Middle Haddam, Connecticut, in 1815; died in Hartford, 9 October, 1872. He was graduated at Yale in 1836, and at Harvard law-school in 1839. He then opened a law office in New York City, but devoted himself chiefly to literature, being engaged with Park Benjamin in editing the "New World," a literary monthly. He moved to Hartford in 1847, served in the lower house of the legislature in 1849-50 and 1859- 61, and in 1851 was a member of the state senate. He was mayor of Hartford in 1854-'8 and in 1860-2, having been elected as a Democrat. Early in the war he opposed coercion, even after the fall of Sumter, and when asked to preside at a war-meeting on 19 April, 1861, declined in a letter in which he said that he would support the Federal government, but would not sustain it in a war of aggression or invasion of the seceded states." When Washington was threatened, however, he favored the prosecution of the war, and on 9 October, 1861, was elected by acclamation speaker pro tempore of the state house of representatives, the Republican majority thus testifying their approval of his course. In September, 1861, he accepted a commission as colonel of the "charter oak regiment (the 12th Connecticut), reassigned especially for General Butler's New Orleans Expedition. After the passage of the forts his regiment was the first to reach New Orleans, and was assigned by General Butler the post of honor at the custom-house. Colonel Deming was on detached duty, acting as mayor of the city from October, 1862, till February, 1863. He then resigned, returned home, and in April, 1863, was elected to Congress as a Republican, and served two terms, being a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, and chairman of that on expenditures in the War Department. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists' Convention in Philadelphia, and from 1869 till his death was U. S. collector of internal revenue for his district. Mr. Deming was one of the most eloquent public speakers in New England, a gentleman of fine culture and of refined literary taste. He published translations of Eugene Sue's "Mysteries of Paris " and " Wandering Jew " (1840), a eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, delivered by invitation of the Connecticut legislature in 1865, "Life of Ulysses S. Grant" (Hartford, 1868), and various addresses. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 138-139.
DENISON, Andrew Woods, soldier, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 15 December, 1831; died there. 24 February 1877. In 1862 he raised the 8th Maryland Regiment for the National Army, and in August of that year became its colonel, serving till the close of the war. He commanded the Maryland Brigade of Robinson's Division at Laurel Hill, where he lost an arm, and was again wounded at White Oak Ridge, near Petersburg, he was brevetted brigadier-general for gallantry in the first-named battle on 9 August, 1864, and major-general for the second, 31 March, 1865. General Denison was appointed postmaster of Baltimore, 19 April, 1869, and held the office till his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 140.
DENISON, Charles Wheeler, 1809-1881, New York City, abolitionist leader, author, clergyman, newspaper editor. Editor of The Emancipator, the first anti-slavery newspaper in New York. Co-founder and organizer of the Baptist Anti-Slavery Society in 1840 and the American Baptist Free Mission Society in 1843. Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833. Lecturing Agent for the AASS in Connecticut and Eastern New York. Co-founder of the Delaware State Anti-Slavery Society. (Dumond, 1961, p. 182; Sorin, 1971; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 140)
DENISON, Charles Wheeler, author, born in New London, Connecticut, 11 November, 1809; died 14 November, 1881. Before he was of age he edited a newspaper in his native town. He afterward became a clergyman, edited the "Emancipator," the first anti- slavery journal published in New York, and took part in other similar publications. In 1853 he was U. S. consul in British Guiana. He spent some time among the operatives of Lancashire, speaking in behalf of the National cause during the American Civil War, and in 1867 edited an American paper in London, being at the same time pastor of Grove Road Chapel, Victoria park. During the last two years of the war he served as post chaplain in Winchester, Virginia, and as hospital chaplain in Washington. He published "The American Village and other Poems" (Boston, 1845); "Paul St. Clair," a temperance story; "Out at Sea," poems (London, 1867); "Antonio, the Italian Boy" (Boston, 1873); "The Child Hunters," relating to the abuses of the padrone system (Philadelphia, 1877); and a series of biographies published during the war, including " The Tanner Boy" (Grant); "The Bobbin Boy" (Banks); and "Winfield; the Lawyer's Son" (Hancock).—His wife, Mary Andrews, author, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 26 May, 1826, became connected, on her marriage with Mr. Denison, with the "Olive Branch," of which he was assistant editor. She continued to contribute to magazines, and, when living in British Guiana, wrote tropical sketches for American periodicals. She also contributed to English magazines while in London. Her books are mostly tales of home-life, and include "Home Pictures," a collection of sketches written for periodicals (New York, 1853); "Gracie Amber" (1857); "Old Hepsey, a Tale of the South" (1858); "Opposite the Jail" (1858); "The Lovers' Trials" (Philadelphia, 1865); "Annie and Teely" (1869); "That Husband of Mine," an anonymous book, which reached a sale of over 200,000 copies in a few weeks (Boston, 1874); "That Wife of Mine"(1877): "Rothmell" (1878); "Mr. Peter Crewett" (1878); "His Triumph" (1883); "What One Boy can Do "(1885); and numerous Sunday-school books. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 140
DENISON, Frederic, clergyman, born in Stonington, Connecticut, 28 September, 1819. He was graduated at Brown in 1847. Besides having been pastor of several Baptist Churches. Mr. Denison served during three years of the late war as chaplain of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry and the 3d Rhode Island Heavy Artillery. He has written a great number of poems and articles for periodicals, and is author of the following works: "The Supper Institution," The Sabbath Institution," "The Evangelist, or Life and Labors of Reverend Jabez S. Swan" (New Haven, 1878); "History of the First Rhode Island Cavalry "; "Westerly and its Witnesses for Two Hundred and Fifty Years"; "Picturesque Narragansett, Sea and Shore "; "Illustrated New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket"; "History of the Third Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment ": and " Picturesque Rhode Island."—His brother, John Ledyard, educator, born in Stonington, Connecticut, 19 September, 1826. His education was received at the Connecticut literary institution and at Worcester Academy, and he established the Mystic River Academy. Settling in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1855, he became subsequently secretary and treasurer of the Henry Bill Publishing Company, and president of the Connecticut Baptist Education Society. He received the degree of A. M. from Brown in 1855. He is the author of a " Pictorial History of the Wars of the United States," and has edited an "Illustrated History of the New World," in English and in German. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 140-141.
DENT, Frederick F., lawyer, born in Cumberland, Maryland, in 1786; died in Washington, D. C, 15 December 1873. He was trained in commercial pursuits, and became a merchant in Pittsburg and subsequently in St. Louis, accumulated wealth, and had a wide reputation for hospitality. He was the father of Mrs. U. S. Grant. In politics Mr. Dent was a rigid and aggressive Democrat, his views coinciding with the Benton-Jackson school, and he held these opinions tenaciously to the last of his life. John W. Forney, in his "Anecdotes of Public Men," refers to him as a very interesting old gentleman, kind, humorous, and genteel, indicating an independent spirit in his views, and exhibiting a wonderfully retentive memory for by-gone days. Mr. Dent was a member of his son-in-law's household after General Grant became commander of the National armies, and his farm, "White Haven," near St. Louis, became the General's property.— His son, Frederick Tracy, soldier, born in White Haven, St Louis County, Missouri, 17 December, 1820. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1843, made brevet 2d lieutenant, and served on frontier duty and in garrison prior to the Mexican War, which he entered in 1847. He was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, the capture of San Antonio, and the battles of Churubusco, where he was severely wounded, and Molino del Rey, receiving for gallant and meritorious conduct the brevets of 1st lieutenant and captain. He served thereafter on the Pacific Railroad survey, on frontier duty in Idaho, in removing the Seminole Indians, and at various points in Texas, Virginia, and Washington territory, until he joined the Yakima Expedition in 1856. He participated in the Spokane Expedition in Washington territory, being engaged in the combat of "Four Lakes" in 1858, in that of Spokane Plain in the same year, and in the skirmish on that river. After frontier duty at Fort Walla Walla he became a member of the Snake River, Oregon, Expedition, to rescue the survivors of the massacre of Salmon Fall (I860), at which time, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of major, and was in command of a regiment in the Army of the Potomac in 1863, in New York City called to suppress anticipated riots, from September, 1863, till January, 1864, serving as a member of the military commission for the trial of state prisoners from January till March, 1864, becoming then a staff officer with Lieutenant-General Grant, having the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Aide-de-camp during Grant’s whole time as lieutenant-general, he was present in the battles and military operations of the Richmond Campaign, and as military commander of the city of Richmond, and of the garrison of Washington, D. C, in 1865, and on the staff of the general-in-chief at Washington after 1866, as colonel, aide-de-camp, and secretary to President Grant daring his first term. For his gallant and meritorious services in the field during the Civil War he was brevetted brigadier-general U. S. A. and brigadier-general of volunteers. He was transferred to the 14th U.S. Infantry in 1866, was made lieutenant-colonel of the 32d U.S. Infantry in 1867, colonel of the 1st U.S. Artillery in 1881. At his own request, after forty years of service, was retired in December, 1883.
DENVER, James W., politician, born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1818. He received a public-school education, emigrated in childhood with his parents to Ohio, moved to Missouri in 1841, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was appointed captain of the 12th Infantry in March, 1847, and served in the war with Mexico till its close in July, 1848. Moving to California in 1850, he was appointed a member of a relief committee to protect emigrants, and was chosen a state senator in 1852. While a member of this body in 1852, he had a controversy with Edward Gilbert, ex-member of Congress, in regard to some legislation, which resulted in a challenge from Gilbert, that was accepted by Denver. Rifles were the weapons, and Gilbert was killed by the second shot. In 1853 Mr. Denver was appointed secretary of state of California, and from 1855 till 1857 served in Congress. He was appointed by President Buchanan Commissioner of Indian Affairs, but resigned, and was made governor of Kansas. Resigning this post in 1858, he was reappointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which office he held till March, 1859. In 1861 he entered the National service, was made brigadier-general, served in the western states, and resigned in March, 1863. Afterward he settled in Washington, D. C, to practice his profession as an attorney. John W. Forney, in his "Anecdotes of Public Men," says: "General Denver, while in Congress, as chairman of the Committee on the Pacific Railroad, in 1854-'5, presented in a conclusive manner the facts demonstrating the practicability of that great enterprise, and the advantages to be derived from it." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 144.
DE PEYSTER, John Watte, Jr., soldier, son of the preceding, born in New York, 2 December, 1841; died there 12 April, 1873. In March, 1862, he left the law school of Columbia College and joined the staff of General Philip Kearny as volunteer aide, participating in the battle of "Williamsburg. He for a time commanded a company of New York cavalry, was afterward major of the 1st New York Artillery, and still later served on the staff of General Peck. He was then prostrated by fever, and, after a severe illness of several months, returned to the field in the winter of 1863. For his zeal, capacity, and energy, displayed in the Chancellorsville Campaign and in the battle of Fredericksburg, he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel and colonel. He remained with the army until midsummer of the same year, when his increasing weakness compelled him to resign. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 146.
DE ROSSET, Moses John, physician, born in Pittsboro, North Carolina, 4 July, 1838; died in Wilmington, 1 May, 1881, in youth showed remarkable aptitude for languages and mathematics. He passed three years in Geneva at the famous school of Diedrich, and spent six months in Cologne to perfect himself in German. He was graduated at the medical department of the University of New York in 1859, was appointed resident physician at Bellevue Hospital, New York, and entered upon the duties in 1859. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as assistant surgeon, and, after serving through Stonewall Jackson's valley Campaign, was promoted to full surgeon, and assigned to duty in Richmond. Subsequently he was detached as inspector of hospitals of the Department of Henrico. At the close of the war he moved to Baltimore, where he was appointed adjunct professor of chemistry in the medical department of the University of Maryland. He was also professor of chemistry in the dental college in that city. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 148-149.
DE RUSSY, Louis G., soldier, born in New York in 1796; died in Grand Ecore, Louisiana, 17 December, 1864. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1814, and made 3d lieutenant in the 1st Artillery He served in the war of 1812-'5, with Great Britain, as acting assistant engineer in erecting temporary defences for New York City and its environs, and was in garrison in New York Harbor in 1815-'6, when he was made battalion adjutant of artillery. In 1819 he became topographer of a commission to establish the northern boundary of the United States under the treaty of Ghent. He became captain of the 3d Artillery in 1825, and in the following year was made paymaster and major. In 1842 he was dropped from the army, and became a planter at Natchitoches, Louisiana In 1846 he served in the Mexican War at Tampico, and became colonel of the 1st Louisiana Volunteers. He completed the defences of the place, opened a new channel to Tamessie River, held various civil offices, and was engaged in the fight at Callabosa River and in the skirmish of Tantayuka. He was a civil engineer from 1848 till 1861, employed in making improvements in navigation, and from 1851 till 1853 was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and from 1853 till 1855 of the Senate. He was major-general of Louisiana militia from 1848 till 1861, when he entered the Confederate Army. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 149.
DE RUSSY, Rene Edward, soldier, born in New York City in 1791; died in Sun Francisco. 26 November, 1865. He was a son of Thomas De Russy, of St. Malo, France, who came to New York in 1791, and moved to Old Point Comfort, Virginia, where he resided many years. The son was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1812, and made 2d lieutenant of engineers. He served in the war of 1812-'5, with Great Britain, as assistant engineer in constructing defences at New York and at Sackett's Harbor, New York, and participated in the campaigns on the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain. In 1814 he was brevetted captain for gallant conduct at the battle of Plattsburg. He was chief engineer of General Macomb's army in 1814, and captain of the Corps of Engineers in 1815. He was assistant engineer in the construction of the fort at Rouse's Point, New York, in 1816, superintending engineer of the repairs and construction of fortifications in New York Harbor in 1818, and of defensive works on the Gulf of Mexico in 1821. In 1824 he was brevetted major. He was superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy from 1833 till 1838, and lieutenant-colonel of engineers from 1838 till 1863. At the beginning of the Civil War he was ordered to the defence of the Pacific Coast, and constructed the fortifications of San Francisco Harbor. He was also president of the board of engineers for devising projects and alterations in the land defences of San Francisco. In 1865 he was brevetted major-general in the U. S. Army for long and faithful service.—his son, Gustavus Adolphus, soldier, born in Brooklyn, New York, 3 November, 1818, having been three years at West Point, was appointed from Virginia, 2d lieutenant in the 4th U. S. Artillery , 8 March, 1847. He served in the Mexican War, having been brevetted 1st lieutenant "for gallant and meritorious conduct" at Contreras and Churubusco, and captain, 13 September, 1847, for gallantry at Chapultepec. He was regimental quartermaster from 1847 till 1857, and stationed at Fort Monroe in 1848. He was made 1st lieutenant, 16 May, 1849; captain, 17 August, 1857; brevet major, 25 June, 1862, for bravery displayed in the action near Fair Oaks, Virginia; brevet lieutenant-colonel, for the same cause in the battle of Malvern Hill, and brevet colonel, 17 March, 1863. He was promoted to be brigadier-general of volunteers, 23 May, 1863; brevet colonel, 13 March, 1865 (for services in the war of the rebellion); and brevet brigadier general, for the same cause, on the same day. He was mustered out of the volunteer service, 13 January, 1866; promoted to be major in the regular army, 26 July, 1866; lieutenant-colonel, 25 August, 1876; colonel 30 June, 1882; and was retired by operation of law, 3 November, 1882. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 149.
DE SAUSSURE, Wilmot Gibbes, lawyer, born in Charleston, South Carolina, 23 July, 1822; died 1 February, 1880, was graduated at South Carolina College in 1840, and admitted to the bar in 1843. He was a member of the legislature for ten years, was in command of the state troops that took possession of Fort Moultrie when Major Anderson evacuated it in December, 1860, as lieutenant-colonel was in command of the artillery on Morris Island during the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April, 1861, and was treasurer, and subsequently adjutant and inspector-general, of South Carolina. He was president of the state Society of the Cincinnati, the St. Andrews Society, the Charleston Library Society, the St. Cecilia Society, and the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. His published addresses include "The Stamp-Act of Great Britain, and the Resistance of the Colonies," showing that South Carolina, on 20 March, 1770. adopted a constitution by which the royal government ceased to exist there; "The Causes which led to the Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown "; " The Centennial Celebration of the Organization of the Cincinnati "; "Memoir of General William Moultrie "; and "Muster-roll of the South Carolina Soldiers of the Continental Line and Militia who served during the Revolution." He also prepared an address on the celebration by the Huguenot Society of America of the bicentennial anniversary of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (New York, 1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 150.
DETMOLD, William Ludwig, surgeon, born in Hanover, Germany, 27 December, 1808. His lather was court physician to the king of Hanover. William received his medical degree from the University of Gottingen in 1830, and enlisted as surgeon in the royal Hanoverian grenadier-guard. He came to the United States on leave of absence in 1837, and sent his resignation from New York. He became professor of military surgery and hygiene at Columbia in 1862, and was made professor emeritus in 1866. Dr. Detmold introduced orthopedic surgery into the United States, and during the Civil War acted as volunteer surgeon in Virginia. He introduced a knife and fork for one-handed men, which was put by Surgeon-General Barnes on the supply list, under the name of "Detmold's knife." Among his numerous contributions to medical literature is ''Opening an Abscess in the Brain." in the "Journal of the Medical Sciences” for February, 1850.— His brother, Christian Edward, engineer, born in Hanover. 2 February. 1810, was educated at the Military Academy in his native city, and came to New York in 1826, with the intention of embarking for Brazil, and entering the military service of Dom Pedro I. But unfavorable accounts of the condition of that country induced him to remain here, and he became well known as an engineer. In 1827 he made many surveys in Charleston, South Carolina, and vicinity, and in 1828 made the drawings for the first locomotive built by the Messrs. Kemble in New York. In 1833-'4 he was in the employ of the U. S. War Department, and superintended the laying of the foundations of Fort Sumter during the illness of the engineer in charge of the work. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 154-155.
DE TROBRIAND, Philippe Regis, soldier, h. in the Chateau des Rochettes, near Tours, France, 4 June, 1816. His full name and title were Philippe Regis Denis de Keredern, Baron de Trobriand; But, on becoming an American citizen, he modified the name and dropped the title. His early education was for a military career. He studied at the College Saint Louis in Paris, the College of Rouen, where his father was in command, and the College of Tours; but the revolution of 1830 changed his prospects, and he was graduated at the University of Orleans as bachelier-es-lettres in 1834, and at Poitiers as licencie-en-droit in 1838. He came to the United States in 1841, edited and published the "Revue de nouveau monde" in New York in 1849-1850, and was joint editor of the " Courrier des Etats-Unis" in 1854-'61. On 28 August of the last named year he entered the National Army as colonel of the 55th New York Regiment. He was engaged at Yorktown and Williamsburg, commanded a brigade of the 3d Army Corps in 1862-'3, and was at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers in January, 1864, and commanded the defences of New York City from May till June of that year. As commander of a brigade in the 2d Army Corps he was at Deep Bottom, Petersburg, Hatcher's Run, and Five Forks, and was at the head of a division in the operations that ended in Lee's surrender. For his services in this campaign he was brevet ted major-general of volunteers on 6 April, 1865. He entered the regular army as colonel of the 31st U.S. Infantry on 28 July, 1866, was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, 2 March, 1867, and commanded the District of Dakota in August of that year. He was transferred to the 13th U.S. Infantry on 15 March, 1869, and commanded the District of Montana, and afterward that of Green River. He was retired at his own request, on account of age, on 20 March, 1879, and is now (1887) a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana He has published " Les gentilshommes de l'ouest," a novel (Paris, 1841), and "Quatre ans de campagnes a l'armee du Potomac" (2 vols., Paris et Bruxelles, 1867). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 155.
DEVENS, Charles, jurist, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 4 April, 1820. He was graduated at Harvard in 1838, studied in the law-school at Cambridge, and practised from 1841 till 1849 in Franklin County, Massachusetts. He was a member of the state senate from that county in 1848 and 1849. From 1849 till 1853 he held the office of U. S. marshal for the District of Massachusetts. During this period Thomas Sims was remanded as a fugitive slave, and Mr. Devens, in obedience to what he considered the exigencies of his office, caused the process to be executed. After the rendition he endeavored, through the Reverend L. A. Grimes, in 1855, to obtain the freedom of Sims, offering to pay whatever sum was necessary for the purpose, but the effort was fruitless. At a later period, hearing that Mrs. Lydia Maria Child was making applications for money to purchase the freedom of Sims, Mr. Devens addressed her letter requesting the return of the sums she had collected for this purpose, and that she allow him the privilege of paying the whole sum. To this Mrs. Child assented; but, before the affair could be arranged, the war rendered negotiation impossible. Sims was eventually liberated by the progress of the National armies, was pecuniarily aided by Mr. Devens in establishing himself in civil life, and at a later period appointed by him. while attorney-general of the United States, to an appropriate place in the department of justice. In 1854 Mr. Devens resumed the practice of law in Worcester. On 19 April, 1861, he accepted the office of major, commanding an independent battalion of rifles, with which he served three months, and in July was appointed colonel of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteers. With this regiment he served until April, 1862. and was wounded in the battle of Ball's Bluff. He was made brigadier-general in 1862, commanded a brigade during the Peninsular Campaign, was disabled by a wound at Fair Oaks, and was in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. In 1863 he commanded a division in the 11th Corps at the battle of Chancellorsville, where he was severely wounded. Returning to the field in the spring of 1864, he was appointed to the command of a division in the 18th Army Corps, reorganized as the 3d Division of the 24th Corps, and his troops were the first to occupy Richmond when it was evacuated by the Confederates. General Devens was brevetted major-general for gallantry and good conduct at the capture of Richmond, and remained in the service for a year after the termination of hostilities, his principal duty being as commander of the District of Charleston, which comprised the eastern portion of South Carolina. In June, 1866, at his own request, he was mustered out of service, and immediately resumed the practice of his profession in Worcester. In April, 1867, he was appointed one of the justices of the superior court of Massachusetts, and in 1873 was made one of the justices of the supreme court of the state. In 1877 he became attorney-general in the cabinet of President Hayes. On his return to Massachusetts in 1881 he was reappointed one of the justices of the supreme court of the state, which office he now holds (1887). His only publications are his legal opinions and addresses on public occasions. Of his addresses the most important are those at the centennial celebration of the battle of Bunker Hill, at the dedication of the soldiers' monuments in Boston and Worcester, on the deaths of General Meade and General Grant, and as presiding officer at the 250th anniversary of Harvard. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 155-156.
DEVEREUX, John Henry, railroad manager, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 5 April, 1832; died in Cleveland, Ohio, 17 March, 1886. He was educated in the Portsmouth. New Hampshire, Academy, and in 1848 went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he served as construction engineer on several railroads. He moved to Tennessee in 1852, and became prominent in railroad affairs there. At the beginning of the Civil War he offered his services to the government, and aided the Union cause as superintendent of military railroads in Virginia. He resigned in 1864, and returned to Cleveland, where he became one of the foremost railroad men in the west. He was chosen president of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Railroad in June, 1873, of the Atlantic and Great Western in 1874, and of the Indianapolis and St. Louis in 1880, being receiver of the last-named road from May till September, 1882. In 1877 General Devereux, by his personal courage, prevented 800 of his men from joining in the railroad riots. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 156.
DE VILLIERS, Charles A., soldier, born in 1826. He had been an officer in the French Army, and afterward became colonel of the 11th Ohio Volunteers. At the beginning of the Civil War in the United States he was taken prisoner, 17 July, 1861, and sent to Richmond. About the middle of September following he eluded the guards and escaped. Under the guise of a mendicant Frenchman, aged, infirm, and nearly blind, he succeeded in obtaining the commandant's permission to go to Fort Monroe, under a flag of truce, that he might embark "for his dear old home in France." After two weeks' delay the supposed Frenchman was assisted on board a "transport at Norfolk and taken to the Union boat. When safely under his own flag, he cast off his pack, green goggles, and rags, thanked the officers for their politeness, shouted a loud huzza for the stars and stripes, and gave them the pleasing information that they had just parted with Colonel De Villiers, of the 11th Ohio. He arrived safely in Washington, rejoined his regiment, and was made brigadier-general, 10 October, 1861. He had been the military instructor of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth. He received his discharge from the army on 23 April, 1862, and returned to France. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 156.
DEVIN, Thomas C, born in New York City in 1822; died there, 4 April, 1878. He received a common-school education, followed the trade of a painter, and became lieutenant-colonel of the 1st New York Militia Regiment. Just after the battle of Bull Run, Mr. Devin accosted Thurlow Weed, at that time a stranger to him, and said that he wished authority to raise a cavalry company for immediate service. Mr. Weed telegraphed to Governor Morgan for a captain's commission for Mr. Devin, obtained it, and in two days the company had been recruited and was on its way to Washington. At the end of the three months for which he had enlisted he entered the service again as colonel of the 6th New York Cavalry . His command was attached to the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, and participated in all the battles fought by that corps from Antietam to Lee's surrender. At Five Forks he commanded his brigade, and carried the Confederate earthworks. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 15 August, 1864, for bravery at Front Royal, where his command captured two stands of colors, and where he was wounded; and major-general, 13 March, 1865, for his services during the war. He entered the regular army as lieutenant-colonel of the 8th U.S. Cavalry , 28 July, 1866, commanding the District of Montana. On 2 March, 1867, he was brevetted colonel, U. S. Army, for gallantry at Fisher's Hill, and brigadier-general for services at Sailor's Creek. He then commanded the District of Arizona, and on 25 June, 1877, became colonel of the 3d Cavalry. General Grant, in a conversation with Thurlow Weed, called General Devin, next to General Sheridan, the best cavalry officer in the National Army. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 156-157.
DIBRELL, George Gibbs, soldier, born in White County, Tennessee, 12 April, 1822. His common-school education was supplemented by one term at East Tennessee University. He was a farmer and merchant, was elected a member of the state constitutional convention of Tennessee, on the union ticket, in February, 1861, and to the legislature of Tennessee in August. Entering the Confederate Army as a private, he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and was promoted colonel and brigadier-general of cavalry in 1864. He was detailed to escort the executive officers and treasure of the Confederate government after the evacuation of Richmond, and took charge of the archives at Greensboro, North Carolina, after the surrender of Lee's army. He was a member of the constitutional convention of Tennessee in 1870, and was twice elected a representative from that state in Congress, serving from 5 March, 1875, till 5 March, 1879. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 169.
DICKEY, Theophilus Lyle, jurist, born near Paris, Kentucky, 12 November, 1812; died in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 22 July, 1885. He read law in his native state, moved to Ohio, liberated the slaves that he had inherited, and afterward established himself in practice in Illinois. During the Mexican War he served as a captain in Colonel Hardin's regiment, and in the Civil War he was colonel of the 11th Illinois Cavalry, and served for two years under General Grant, on whose staff he served for some months as chief of cavalry. From 30 July, 1868, till the close of President Johnson's Administration he was assistant was judge of the Illinois Supreme Court. See General Jas. Grant Wilson's "Sketches of Illinois Officers" (Chicago, 1803). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 171.
DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, 1842-1932, anti-slavery activist, African American rights activist, women’s rights activist, orator, lecturer, educator, Quaker (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 235-237; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 557; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 171-172; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Supp. 1, p. 244)
DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, orator, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 October, 1842. Her father died when she was two years old, leaving her in poverty, and she was educated in the free schools of the Society of Friends, of which her parents were members. Her early days were a continuous struggle against adverse circumstances, but she read eagerly, devoting all her earnings to the purchase of books. She wrote an article on slavery for the " Liberator" when only fourteen years old, and made her first appearance as a public speaker in 1857, at meetings for discussion held by a body calling themselves "Progressive Friends," chiefly interested in the anti-slavery movement. A sneering and insolent tirade against women, by a person prominent at these meetings, called from the spirited girl a withering reply, her maiden speech. From this time she spoke frequently, chiefly on temperance and slavery. She taught school in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1859-'60, and was employed in the U. S. Mint in Philadelphia from April to December, 1861, but was dismissed for saving, in a speech in West Chester, that the battle of Ball's Bluff "was lost, not through ignorance and incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general" (McClellan). She then made lecturing her profession, speaking chiefly on political subjects. William Lloyd Garrison heard one of her anti-slavery speeches in an annual meeting of the Progressive Friends, held at Kennett, Chester County, Pennsylvania, with great delight, and on his return to Boston spoke of the "girl orator" in such terms that she was invited to speak in the fraternity course at Music Hall, Boston, in 1862, and chose for her subject the "National Crisis." Prom Boston she went to New Hampshire, at the request of the Republican state committee, to speak in the gubernatorial canvass, and thence was called to Connecticut. On election night a reception was tendered her at Hartford, and immediately thereafter she was invited to speak in Cooper Institute by the Union League of New York, and shortly afterward in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, by the Union League of that city. From this time to the end of the Civil War she spoke on war issues. In the autumn of 1863 she was asked by the Republican state committee of Pennsylvania to speak throughout the coal regions in the canvass to re-elect Curtin, the male orators at the committee's command being afraid to trust themselves in a district that had recently been the scene of draft riots. Ohio offered her a large sum for her services, but she decided in favor of Pennsylvania. On 16 January, 1864, at the request of prominent senators and representatives, she spoke in the capitol at Washington, giving the proceeds, over $1,000, to the Freedmen's Relief Society. She also spoke in camps and hospitals, and did much in aid of the national cause. After this her addresses were made chiefly from the lyceum platform. On the termination of the war she spoke on " Reconstruct ion " and on "Woman's Work and Wages." In 1869-70, after a visit to Utah, she lectured on " Whited Sepulchers." Later lectures, delivered in the northern and western states, were "Demagogues and Workingmen," "Joan of Arc," and 'Between us be Truth." the last-named being delivered in 1873 in Pennsylvania and Missouri, where obnoxious bills on the social evil were before the legislatures. In 1876 Miss Dickinson, contrary to the advice of many of her friends, left the lecture platform for the stage, making her first appearance in a play of her own, entitled " A Crown of Thorns." It was not favorably received by the critics, and Miss Dickinson afterward acted in Shakespeare's tragedies, still meeting with little success. "Aurelian " was written in 1878 for John McCullough, but was withdrawn by the author when the failing powers of the great tragedian made it apparent that he would be unable to appear in it. It has never been put upon the stage, but Miss Dickinson has given readings from it. She lectured on "Platform and Stage" in 1879, and in 1880 wrote "An American Girl" for Fanny Davenport, which was successful. Miss Dickinson's published works are "What Answer I" a novel (Boston, 1808); "A Paying Investment" (1876); and "A Ragged Register of People, Places, and Opinions" (New York, 1879). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 171-172.
DIMICK, Justin, soldier, born in Hartford County, Connecticut, 5 August. 1800; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 13 October, 1871. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1819, and assigned to the light artillery. After serving at various posts, and as assistant instructor of infantry tactics at West Point for a few months in 1822, he was promoted to 1st lieutenant in the 1st Artillery , 1 May, 1824, and brevetted captain, 1 May, 1834, for ten years' faithful service in one grade. He was given his full commission in 1835, and brevetted major, 8 May, 1836, for gallant conduct in the Florida War, having on that date killed two Seminole Indians 1 in personal encounter while skirmishing near Hernandez plantation. He was engaged in suppressing the Canada-border disturbances at Rouse's Point, New York, in 1838-'9, and in the performance of his duty seized a vessel laden with ammunition for the Canadian insurgents. For this act he was called upon in 1851-'3 to defend a civil suit in the Vermont courts. He served as lieutenant-colonel of an artillery battalion of the army of occupation in Texas in 1845-'6, and during the Mexican War received two brevets, that of lieutenant-colonel, 20 August, 1847, for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, and that of colonel on 13 September, for his services at the storming of Chapultepec, where he was wounded. Besides these battles, he was at Resaca de la Palma, La Hoya, and the capture of the city of Mexico. He served again against Florida Indians in 1849-'50 and 1856-'7, was made major in the 1st Artillery , 1 April, 1850, lieutenant-colonel, 5 October, 1857, and commanded the Fort Monroe artillery school in 1859-'61. He was promoted to colonel on 26 October, 1861, and commanded the depot of prisoners of war at Fort Warren, Massachusetts, until 1 January, 1864. He was retired from active service on 1 August 1863, and in 1864-'8 was governor of the soldier's home near Washington, D. C. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, "for long, gallant, and faithful services to his country." —His son, Justin E, died near Chancellorsville, Virginia, 5 May, 1863, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1861, served as 1st lieutenant of the 1st Artillery , and received mortal wounds in the battle of Chancellorsville. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 179
DIMITRY, Alexander, educator, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, 7 February, 1805; died there, 30 January, 1883. His father, Andrea Demetrius, a native of the Island of Hydra, on the coast of Greece, went to New Orleans in 1794, and was for many years a merchant there. Alexander was graduated at Georgetown College, D. C, and soon afterward became editor of the New Orleans " Bee." He was a fine pistol shot and an accomplished fencer, and in his early manhood took part in several duels, either as principal or second. He was subsequently a professor in Baton Rouge College, and in 1834 was employed in the general post-office department. On his return to Louisiana in 1842 he created and organized the free-school system there, and was state superintendent of schools in 1848-'51. In 1856 he became translator to the State Department in Washington. He was appointed U. S. minister to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 1858, and served till 1861, when he became chief of a bureau in the Confederate Post-office Department. His son John Bull Smith, born in Washington, D. C, 27 December, 1835, was educated at College Hill, near Raymond, Mississippi, and accompanied his father to Central America as secretary of legation in 1859. He served in the Confederate Army of Tennessee in 1861-'4, and was dangerously wounded at Shiloh. In 1864-'5 he was chief clerk in the Confederate Post-office Department. Another son, Charles Patton, journalist, born in Washington, D. C, 31 July, 1837, was educated at Georgetown College, D. C, and, although not graduated, received from it the degree of M. A. in 1867. He served in the Confederate Army as a private in the Louisiana guard. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 179-180.
DIMMOCK, Charles, soldier, born in Massachusetts in 1800; died in Richmond, Virginia, 27 October, 1863. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1821, assigned to the 1st Artillery , and served as assistant professor of engineering at West Point in 1821-2. He was attached to the artillery school at Fort Monroe in 1825-6 and 1828-'9, being adjutant of the school in the last-named year. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant in 1828, was assistant quartermaster in 1831-'6, and superintended operations at Delaware breakwater in 1831-'3. He was made captain on 6 August, 1836, but resigned on 30 September, and became a civil engineer in the south, being employed on many important railroads, and in 1837-'8 in the location of a U. S. military road to Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1843-'7 he was director of the James River and Kanawha Canal. He was captain of Virginia militia in 1839-'40, lieutenant colonel in 1841-'2, and superintendent of the state armory in 1843-'61. He was a member of the Richmond City Council in 1850,1854, and 1858, and at the beginning of the Civil War entered the Confederate service, became brigadier-general, and was chief of the ordnance department of Virginia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 180.
DIX, Dorothea Lynde, philanthropist, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 1794; died in Trenton, New Jersey, 19 July, 1887. After the death, in 1821, of her father, a merchant in Boston, she established a school for girls in that city. Hearing of the neglected condition of the convicts in the state prison, she visited them, and became interested in the welfare of the unfortunate classes, for whose elevation she labored until 1834, when, her health becoming impaired, she gave up her school and visited Europe, having inherited from a relative sufficient property to render her independent. She returned to Boston in 1837 and devoted herself to investigating the condition of paupers, lunatics, and prisoners, encouraged by her friend and pastor, Reverend Dr. Channing, of whose children she had been governess. In this work she has visited every state of the Union east of the Rocky mountains, endeavoring to persuade legislatures to take measures for the relief of the poor and wretched. She was especially influential in procuring legislative action for the establishment of state lunatic asylums in New York, Pennsylvania. North Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, and other states. In April, 1854, in consequence of her unwearied exertions and petitions that she presented to Congress in 1848 and 1850, a bill passed both houses appropriating 10,000,000 acres to the several states for the relief of the indigent insane; but the bill was vetoed by President Pierce, on the ground that the general government had no constitutional power to make such appropriations. During the Civil War she was superintendent of hospital nurses, having the entire control of their appointment and assignment to duty. After its close she resumed her labors for the insane. Miss Dix published anonymously “The Garland of Flora” (Boston, 1829), and “Conversations about Common Things,” “Alice and Ruth,” “Evening Hours,” and other books for children; also, “Prisons and Prison Discipline” (Boston, 1845); and a variety of tracts for prisoners. She is also the author of many memorials to legislative bodies on the subject of lunatic asylums and reports on philanthropic subjects. Appleton’s 1900, p. 183.
DIX, John Adams, born in Boscawen. New Hampshire, 24 July, 1798; died in New York City, 21 April. 1879. His early education was received at Salisbury, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the College of Montreal. In December, 1812, he was appointed cadet, and going to Baltimore aided his father, Major Timothy Dix of the 14th U. S. Infantry, and also studied at St. Mary's College. He was made ensign in 1813, and accompanied his regiment, taking part in the operations on the Canadian frontier. Subsequently he served in the 21st U.S. Infantry at Fort Constitution, New Hampshire, where he became 2d lieutenant in March, 1814, was adjutant to Colonel John De B. Walback, and in August was transferred to the 3d Artillery. In 1819 he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Jacob Brown, then in command of the Northern military department, and stationed at Brownsville, where he studied law, and later, under the guidance of William West, was admitted to the bar in Washington. He was in 1820 sent as special messenger to the court of Denmark. On his return he was stationed at Fort Monroe, but continued ill-health led him to resign his commission in the army, 29 July, 1828, after having attained the rank of captain. He then settled in Cooperstown, New York, and began the practice of law. In 1830 he moved to Albany, having been appointed adjutant-general of the state by Governor Enos B. Throop. In 1833 Dix was appointed secretary of state and superintendent of common schools, publishing during this period numerous reports concerning the schools, and also a very important report in relation to a geological survey of the state (1836). He was a prominent member of the "Albany Regency," who practically ruled the Democratic Party of that day. Going out of office in 1840, on the defeat of the Democratic candidates and the election of General Harrison to the presidency, He turned to literary Pursuits, and was editor-in-chief of "The Northern light," a journal of a high literary and scientific character, which was published from 1841 till 1843. In 1841 he was elected a member of the assembly. In the following year he went abroad, and spent nearly two years in Madeira, Spain, and Italy. From 1845 till 1849 he was a U. S. Senator, being elected as a Democrat, when he became involved in the Free-Soil movement, against his judgment and will, but under the pressure of influences that it was impossible for him to resist. He always regarded the Free-Soil movement as a great political blunder, and labored to heal the consequent breach in the Democratic Party, as a strenuous supporter of the successive Democratic administrations up to the beginning of the Civil War. In 1848 he was nominated by the Free-Soil Democratic Party as governor, but was overwhelmingly defeated by Hamilton Fish. President Pierce appointed him assistant treasurer of New York, and obtained his consent to be minister to France, but the nomination was never made. In the canvass of 1856 he supported Buchanan and Breckenridge, and in 1860 earnestly opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln, voting for Breckenridge and Lane. In May, 1861, he was appointed postmaster of New York, after the defalcations in that office. On 10 January, 1861, at the urgent request of the leading bankers and financiers of New York, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Buchanan, and he held that office until the close of the administration. His appointment immediately relieved the government from a financial deadlock, gave it the funds that it needed but had failed to obtain, and produced a general confidence in its stability. When he took the office there were two revenue cutters at New Orleans, and he ordered them to New York. The captain of one of them, after consulting with the collector at New Orleans, refused to obey. Secretary Dix thereupon telegraphed: " Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the order I gave through you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell. Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him as a mutineer, and treat him accordingly. If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." At the beginning of the Civil War he took an active part in the formation of the Union Defence Committee, and was its first president; he also presided at the great meeting in Union square, 24 April, 1861. On the president's first call for troops, he organized and sent to the field seventeen regiments, and was appointed one of the four major-generals to command the New York state forces. In June following he was commissioned major-general of volunteers, and ordered to Washington by General Scott to take command of the Arlington and Alexandria Department. By a successful political intrigue, this disposition was changed, and he was sent in July to Baltimore to take command of the Department of Maryland, which was considered a post of small comparative importance; but, on the defeat of the Federal forces at Bull Run, things changed; Maryland became for the time the centre and key of the national position, and it was through General Dix's energetic and judicious measures that the state and the city were prevented from going over to the Confederate cause. In May, 1862, General Dix was sent from Baltimore to Fort Monroe, and in the summer of 1863, after the trouble connected with the draft riots, he was transferred to New York, as commander of the Department of the East, which place he held until the close of the war. In 1866 he was appointed naval officer of the port of New York, the prelude to another appointment during the same year, that of minister to France. In 1872 he was elected governor of the state of New York as a Republican by a majority of 53,000, and, while holding that office, rendered the County great service in thwarting the proceedings of the inflationists in Congress, and, with the aid of the legislature, strengthening the national administration in its attitude of opposition to them. On a renomination, in 1874, he was defeated, in consequence partly of the reaction against the president under the "third-term" panic, and partly of the studious apathy of prominent Republican politicians who desired his defeat. During his lifetime General Dix held other places of importance, being elected a vestryman of Trinity Church (1849), and in 1872 comptroller of that corporation, delegate to the convention of the diocese of New York, and deputy to the general convention of the Episcopal Church. In 1853 he became president of the Mississippi and Missouri Railway Company, and in 1863 became the first president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, an office which he held until 1868, also filling a similar place for a few months in 1872 to the Erie Railway Company. He married Catharine Morgan, adopted daughter of John J. Morgan, of New York, formerly member of Congress, and had by her seven children, of whom three survived him. He was a man of very large reading and thorough culture, spoke several languages with fluency, and was distinguished for proficiency in classical studies, and for ability and elegance as an orator. Among his published works are "Sketch of the Resources of the City of New York " (New York, 1827); " Decisions of the Superintendents of Common Schools" (Albany, 1837); "A Winter in Madeira, and a Summer in Spain and Florence" (New York, 1850; 5th ed.. 1833): "Speeches and Occasional Addressee" (2 vols., 1864); "Dies Irae," translation (printed privately, 1863; also revised ed., 1875); and "Stabat Mater," translation (printed privately, 1868). Son, Charles Temple, artist, born in Albany, 25 February, 1838; died in Rome, Italy, 11 March, 1873, studied at Union, and early turned his attention to art. He had made good progress in his studies when, at the beginning of the Civil War, he was chosen aide-de-camp on the staff of his father, and won credit from his faithful performance of duty. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 183-184.
DOCKERY, Oliver H., Congressman, born in Richmond County, North Carolina, 12 August, 1830. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1848, and studied law, but never practised. He represented his native county in the state legislature in 1858-'9. He was candidate for district elector on the Union ticket, Bell and Everett, in 1860. He was for a short time in the Confederate service, but soon withdrew, and ever afterward was an outspoken advocate of the re-establishment of the Union, and was active in the peace movement of 1864 in his state, under Governor Holden. He was elected a representative from North Carolina in Congress from 13 July, 1868. till 3 March, 1871, and was re-elected as a Republican. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 190.
DODGE, William Earl, born in New York City, 15 February, 1832, has given his time and attention to the administration of an extensive mercantile business. He has been connected with the allotment and sanitary commissions during the Civil War, and is now (1887) president of several religious and benevolent societies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 192.
DODGE, Charles Cleveland, soldier, born in Plainfield, New Jersey, 16 September, 1841, was commissioned as captain of New York mounted rifles on 6 December, 1861, and as major on 30 December, was in command of the outposts at Newport News, and a cavalry column of General Wool's army that marched on Norfolk, and received the surrender before the arrival of his superiors. He commanded in successful engagements at Suffolk, Virginia, and Hertford Ford, North Carolina, was made colonel 14 August, 1862, promoted brigadier-general 29 November, 1862, was in command at Suffolk during Longstreet's siege, and resigned on 12 June, 1863. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 192.
DODGE, Grenville Mellen, soldier, born in Danvers, Massachusetts, 12 April, 1831. He was graduated at Captain Partridge's Military Academy, Norwich, Vermont, in 1850, and in 1851 moved to Illinois, where he was engaged in railroad surveys until 1854. He was afterward similarly employed in Iowa and as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and made one of the earliest surveys along the Platte for a Pacific Railroad. He was sent to Washington in 1861 by the governor of Iowa to procure arms and equipment for the state troops, and on 17 June became colonel of the 4th Iowa Regiment, which he had raised, having declined a captaincy in the regular army tendered him by the Secretary of War. He served in Missouri under Fremont, commanded a brigade in the army of the southwest, and a portion of his command took Springfield 13 February, 1862, opening General Curtis's Arkansas Campaign of that year. He commanded a brigade on the extreme right in the battle of Pea Ridge, where three horses were shot under him, and, though severely wounded in the side, kept the field till the final rout of the enemy. For his gallantry on this occasion he was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 31 March, 1862. In June of that year he took command of the District of the Mississippi, and superintended the construction of the Mississippi and Ohio Railroad. General Dodge was one of the first to organize colored regiments. During the Vicksburg Campaign, with headquarters at Corinth, he made frequent raids, and indirectly protected the flanks of both Grant and Rosecrans, being afterward placed by Grant at the head of his list of officers for promotion. He distinguished himself at Sugar Valley, 9 May, 1864, and Resaca, 14 and 15 May, and for his services in these two battles was promoted to major-general of volunteers on 7 June. 1864. He led the 16th Corps in Sherman's Georgia campaign, distinguished himself at Atlanta on 22 July, where, with eleven regiments, he withstood a whole army corps, and at the siege of that city, on 19 August, was severely wounded and incapacitated for active service for some time. In December, 1864, he succeeded General Rosecrans in the command of the Department of Missouri. That of Kansas and the territories was added in February, 1865, and he carried on in that year a successful campaign against hostile Indians. In 1866 he resigned from the army to become chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad, which was built under his supervision. He resigned in 1869 to accept a similar place in the Texas Pacific Railroad, and since then has been constantly employed in building railroads in the United States and Mexico. He has been for many years a director of the Union Pacific Railroad. General Dodge was elected to Congress from Iowa as a Republican during his absence from the state, and served one term in 1867-'9, declining a re-nomination. He was also a delegate to the Chicago Republican Convention of 1868 and the Cincinnati Convention of 1876. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 192-193.
DODGE, Henry, soldier, born in Vincennes, Indiana, 12 Oct, 1782: died in Burlington, Iowa, 19 June. 1867. His father, Israel Dodge, was a revolutionary officer of Connecticut. Henry commanded a mounted company of volunteer riflemen in August and September, 1812, became major of Louisiana militia under General Howard on 28 September, major in McNair's Regiment of Missouri militia in April, 1813, and commanded a battalion of Missouri mounted infantry, as lieutenant-colonel, from August till October, 1814. He was colonel of Michigan Volunteers from April till July, 1832, during the Black Hawk War, and in the affair with the Indians at Pickatolika, on Wisconsin River, 15 June, totally defeating them. He was commissioned major of U. S. rangers, 21 June, 1832, and became the first colonel of the 1st Dragoons, 4 March. 1838. He was successful in making peace with the frontier Indians in 1834, and in 1835 commanded on important expedition to the Rocky mountains. General Dodge was unsurpassed as an Indian fighter, and a sword, with the thanks of the nation, was voted him by Congress. He resigned from the army, 4 July, 1836, having been appointed by President Jackson governor of Wisconsin territory and Superintendent of Indian affairs. He held this office till 1841, when he was elected delegate to Congress as a Democrat, and served two terms. In 1846 he was again made governor of Wisconsin, and after the admission of that state to the Union was one of its first U. S. Senators. He was re-elected, and served altogether from 23 June, 1848, till 3 March, 1857. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 193.
DODGE, Richard Irving, soldier, born in Huntsville, North Carolina 19 May, 1827. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1848, assigned to the 8th U.S. Infantry, and after serving at various posts was promoted to captain, 3 May, 1861. He commanded the camp of instruction at Elmira, New York, in August and September, 1861, and served as mustering and disbursing officer at various places during the Civil War. He was assistant inspector-general of the 4th Army Corps in 1863, and promoted to major, 21 June, 1864. He was member of a board to perfect a system of army regulations in New York City in 1871—'2, was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 29 October, 1873, and since that time has served against hostile Indians in the west. He was made colonel of the 11th U.S. Infantry on 26 June, 1882. Colonel Dodge has published "The Black Hills" (New York, 1876);" The Plains of the Great West" (1877; republished in London as "Hunting Grounds of the Great West"); and " Our Wild Indians " (1881). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 194.
DODGE, Theodore Ayrault, soldier, born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 28 May, 1842. After receiving a military education at Berlin under Major General Von Frohreich, of the Prussian Army, he studied at University College, London, and at Heidelberg, and was graduated at the University of London in 1861. On his return to this country in that year he enlisted as a private in the national service, and lost his right leg at Gettysburg. He became 1st lieutenant on 13 February, 1862, captain in the veteran reserve corps, 12 November, 1863, and was brevetted major, 17 August, 1864, and colonel, 2 December, 1865. He was made captain in the 44th Regular Infantry, 28 July, 1866. He served as chief of a war department bureau till 28 April, 1870, when he was retired, and has since lived in Boston. Colonel Dodge has lectured and contributed much to periodicals, and has published "The Campaign of Chancellorsville" (Boston, 1881): a "Bird's-Eye View of the Civil War " (1883); and " A Chat in the Saddle " (1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 104.
DONALDSON, Edward, naval officer, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 17 November, 1810. He entered the U. S. Navy as cadet, midshipman on 21 July, 1835, and served on the " Falmouth," the " Warren," and the "Vandalia" in the West India Squadron. In 1838 he went to the East Indies in the "Columbus," and in 1839 participated in the attack on the forts on the coast of Sumatra. He was promoted passed midshipman in June, 1841, and attached to the Mosquito fleet in Florida during 1841-'2, after which he served on various vessels until 1840, when he was appointed on the U. S. Coast Survey. He received his commission as lieutenant in October, 1847, and was connected with the "Dolphin," the "Waterwitch," the "Merrimac," and the "San Jacinto," and was on special shore duty until 1861. During 1861 he commanded the gun-boat "Sciota," attached to the Western Gulf Squadron, and took part in the bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and the subsequent capture of New Orleans. He participated in the passage of the Vicksburg batteries, and was made commander in July, 1862. After a year in command of the receiving-ship at Philadelphia, he was transferred to the " Keystone State " as executive officer during her trip to the West Indies in search of the Confederate cruiser '"Sumter," and was her commander in 1863-'4. During the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August, 1864, he commanded the " Seminole," and rendered efficient service by his coolness and judgment in piloting his vessel while passing Fort Morgan, the regular pilot being ill. In 1865 he was on ordnance duty in Baltimore. He was made captain in July, 1866, and subsequently had command of the receiving ship at Philadelphia until 1868. when he was assigned to the Brooklyn Navy-yard. In September, 1871, he became commodore, and for a tune had charge of the naval station in Mound City, Illinois. He was promoted to rear-admiral on 21 September 1870, and placed on the retired list a few days later. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 197.
DONALDSON, James Lowry, soldier, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 17 March, 1814; died there, 4 November, 1885. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1836, and became 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Artillery , serving in that capacity during the Florida War in 1836-'8. He was transferred to the 1st U.S. Artillery in May, 1837, and became 1st lieutenant in July, 1838. Subsequently he was on garrison duty until 1846, when he was stationed at Fort Brown during the military occupation of Texas. During the Mexican War he participated in the battles of Monterey and Buena Vista, receiving the brevets of captain and major. He was appointed assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain, in March, 1847, and was on duty as such in Coahuila, Mexico. Subsequent to the war he continued as quartermaster at various posts until he became chief quartermaster of the Department of New Mexico in 1858-'62. During the Civil War he held a like office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with the 8th Army Corps in Baltimore, Maryland, and in the Department of the Cumberland. He was chief quartermaster of the military Division of the Tennessee in June, 1865, and of the military Division of the Missouri until 1860, when he was retired. Meanwhile he had attained the rank of colonel on the staff, and had received the brevet of major-general of volunteers. He resigned on 1 January, 1874. During his administration of the quartermaster's department of the Division of the Tennessee, he became a favorite with General George H. Thomas, to whom he suggested the creation of cemeteries for the scattered remains of soldiers who had fallen in battle, from which has resulted the annual Decoration Day. General Donaldson published "Sergeant Atkins" (Philadelphia, 1871), a tale of adventure founded on events that took place during the Florida War. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 198.
DOREMUS, Sarah Piatt, philanthropist, born m New York City, 3 August, 1802; died there, 29 January, 1877. She was the daughter of Elias Haines, a merchant of New York, and her mother was the daughter of Robert Ogden, a distinguished lawyer of New Jersey. In 1812 she united with her mother in praying for the conversion of the world, and from that time dates her interest in foreign missions. She married, in 1821, Thomas C. Doremus, a merchant, whose wealth thenceforth was freely expended in her benevolent enterprises. In 1828, with eight ladies, she organized the Greek relief mission, and sent Dr. Jonas King to Greece to distribute supplies. Seven years later she became interested in the mission at Grand Ligne, Canada, conducted by Madame Henriette Feller, of Switzerland, and in 1860 was made president of the organization. In 1840 she began visiting the New York City prisons, and after establishing Sabbath services, used her influence in 1842 toward founding the Home for women discharged from prison, now the Isaac T. Hopper home, of which she became president on the death of her friend and cofounder. Miss Catherine M. Sedgwick. She aided in founding, in 1850, the House and School of Industry for Poor Women, becoming its president in 1867, and in 1854 became vice-president of the Nursery and Child's Hospital. In 1855 she assisted Dr. J. Marion Sims in his project of establishing the New York Woman's Hospital, of which she was ultimately president. During the Civil War she co-operated with the work carried on in the hospitals, ministering alike to the wounded from north and south. She founded, in 1860, the Woman's Union Missionary Society, designed to elevate and Christianize the women of heathen lands, and she took an active part as manager in the Presbyterian Home for Aged Women, organized in 1866. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 202-203.
DORNIN, Thomas Aloysius, naval officer, born in Ireland about 1800; died in Norfolk, Virginia, 22 April, 1874. He was appointed midshipman, 2 May, 1815, and lieutenant in 1825. After cruising in the Pacific, he volunteered in the sloop-of-war "Vincennes." bound round the world, and returned in her in 1830. After again cruising in the Pacific, he was appointed to the command of the store ship "Relief" on the fitting out of the South Sea exploring Expedition. While in command of the "Shark," in the Pacific, he was commissioned commander (1841) and given charge of the sloop " Dale.'' which he brought home from a cruise in 1843. In 1851 he sailed in command of the "Portsmouth," and during his cruise he was ordered to charter one of the Panama steamers and endeavor to prevent the invasion of Mexican territory by William Walker's Expedition. In the execution of this design he was completely successful. After discharging his steamer he visited Mazatlan, where he found forty American citizens, who had been peaceably doing business in Guaymas, closely packed in the hold of a schooner, doubly ironed, and chained to the bottom of the vessel. Captain Dornin at once demanded of the governor their immediate release, and after considerable delay that official finally complied. Dornin then sailed for Acapulco, where he learned that a Mexican War vessel had declared a blockade and driven off U. S. mail steamers. He pursued and overhauled the vessel, and notified her commander that such proceedings were in violation of a special treaty between the United States and Mexico. The Mexican, after making a written protest, abandoned the blockade. After being commissioned as captain (1855), and while in command of the "San Jacinto." Dornin captured two slave-vessels on the coast of Africa with over 1,400 slaves on board, and landed them safely in Liberia. During the Civil War he was promoted to the rank of commodore on the retired list (16 July, 1862), and at its close was placed in charge of the Fifth light-house District Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 204.
DOUBLEDAY, Charles William, soldier, born in Leicestershire, England, 28 January, 1820. This surname, of Huguenot origin, was originally Dubaldy. He came to this country early in life, and received a common-school education in Ohio. He went to California in the early days of the "gold fever" and led a life of adventure. Early in 1854 he embarked from San Francisco for New York, by way of Nicaragua, but remained in that country, and espoused the popular cause in the Civil War then in progress, raising and commanding a company of American and English riflemen. He subsequently he came major and colonel, and, after the arrival of Walker and his party (see Walker, William), was with that adventurer in the battles of Rivas and Virgin Bay. After Walker had unfolded to Doubleday his visionary scheme of a southern empire, the latter left, him in disgust and returned to New York late in 1855. But he afterward joined Lockridge's unsuccessful attempt to re-enforce Walker, was injured by the boiler explosion that frustrated that attempt, and subsequently accompanied a party of adventurers that sailed from Mobile, and was shipwrecked on the coast of Central America. In 1861-'2 Colonel Doubleday commanded a company of cavalry in the service of the United States, and was for a time acting brigadier-general. He has published " Reminiscences of the Filibuster War in Nicaragua" (New York, 1880). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 209-210.
DOUBLEDAY, Thomas Donnelly, born in Albany, New York, 18 February, 1816; died in New York City, 9 May, 1864, was engaged in the book trade, and in 1862 became colonel of the 4th New York Artillery . He was run over by an omnibus in Broadway, New York, and fatally injured. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 210.
DOUBLEDAY, Abner, soldier, born in Ballston Spa, New York, 26 June, 1819, was a civil engineer in 1836-'8, when he was appointed to the U. S. Military Academy, and on his graduation in 1842 was assigned to the 3d Artillery . He served in the 1st Artillery during the Mexican War. being engaged at Monterey and at Rinconada Pass during the battle of Buena Vista. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant, 3 March, 1847, to captain, 3 March, 1855. He served against the Seminole Indians in 1856-'8. Doubleday was in Fort Moultrie from 1860 till the garrison withdrew to Fort Sumter on 26 December of that year, and aimed the first gun fired in defence of the latter fort on 12 April, 1861. He was promoted to major in the 17th Infantry on 14 May, 1861, from June till August was with General Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley, and then served in defence of Washington, commanding forts and batteries on the Potomac. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 3 February, 1862, assigned to the command of all the defences of Washington on the same date, and commanded a brigade on the Rappahannock and in the northern Virginia Campaign from May till September, 1862, including the second battle of Bull Run, where on 30 August he succeeded to the command of Hatch's division. In the battle of Antietam his division held the extreme right and opened the battle, losing heavily, but taking six battle-flags. On 29 November, 1862, he was promoted to major-general of volunteers. He was at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and succeeded General John F. Reynolds as chief of the 1st Corps when that officer was appointed to the command of one wing of the army. On 1 July, 1863, he was sent to Gettysburg to support Buford's cavalry, and, on the fall of General Reynolds, took command of the field till the arrival of General Howard, some hours later. His division fought gallantly in the battle that followed, and on the third day aided in the repulse of Pickett's charge. General Doubleday served on courts-martial and commissions in 1863-'5, and on 12 July, 1864, temporarily commanded the southeastern defences of Washington when the city was threatened by Early's raiders. He was brevetted colonel in the regular army on 11 March, 1865, and brigadier and major-general on 13 March, for his services during the war. In November and December, 1866, he was in command at Galveston, Texas, served as assistant commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau there till 1 August, 1867, and, after being mustered out of the volunteer service, was made colonel of the 35th U.S. Infantry, 15 September, 1867. He was a member of the retiring-board in New York City in 1868, and in 1869-'71 superintended the general recruiting service in San Francisco, where in 1870 he suggested and obtained a charter for the first cable street-railway in the United States. After commanding posts in Texas he was retired from active service on 11 December, 1873. He has published " Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'l" (New York, 1870); "Chancellorsville and Gettysburg" (1882): and articles in periodicals on army matters, the water supply of cities, and other subjects. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 210.
DOUBLEDAY, Ulysses, soldier, born in Auburn, New York, 31 August, 1834, was educated at the academy in his native town. He became major in the 4th New York Artillery , 2 January, 1862, lieutenant-colonel of the 3d U. S. Colored Troops, 15 September, 1863, and colonel of the 45th Colored Troops, 8 October, 1864. He commanded a brigade at the battle of Five Forks, and was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 11 March, 1865, for his gallantry there. General Doubleday was for many years a member of the stock exchange in New York City. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 210.
DOUGHTY, William Henry, surgeon, born in Augusta, Georgia, 5 February, 1836. He received an academic education in Augusta, was graduated at the medical department of the University of Georgia in 1855, and in the same year began practice in Augusta, giving especial attention to gynecology. From March, 1862, till April, 1865, he served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army, being exclusively employed in hospital duty. He was surgeon-in-charge in the general hospital at Macon, Georgia, in Walker's Division Hospital at Lauderdale Springs, Mississippi, and at the second Georgia Hospital at Augusta, where he was engaged from October, 1863, till the close of the war. In the course of this long service he tied the subclavian artery at its external third twice, which operations have passed into the permanent records of military surgery. Prom 1867 till 1875 he three times held the professorship of materia medical and therapeutics in the Medical College of Georgia (now the Medical department of the State University). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 211.
DOUGLAS, H. Ford, 1831-1865, African American, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist, military officer, newspaper publisher, born a slave. Active in anti-slavery movement in Ohio. Garrisonian abolitionist. Advocated for African American emigration. Published Provincial Freeman. Published in Canada. Served as African American officer in artillery unit. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 61; American National Biography, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 796)
DOUGLASS, Frederick, 1817-1895, African American, escaped slave, author, diplomat, orator, newspaper publisher, radical abolitionist leader. Published The North Star abolitionist newspaper with Martin Delany. Wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas: An American Slave, in 1845. Also wrote My Bondage, My Freedom, 1855. Manager, American Anti-Slavery Society, 1848-1853.
(Dumond, 1961, pp. 331-333; Filler, 1960; Foner, 1964; Mabee, 1970; McFeely, 1991; Quarles, 1948; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 264-265; Wilson, 1872, 499-511; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 217; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 251-254; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 816; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 309-310; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 67; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)
DOUGLASS, Frederick, orator, born in Tuckahoe, near Eastern, Talbot County, Maryland, in February, 1817; died in Washington, D. C., 20 February. 1895. His mother was a Negro slave, and his father a white man. He was a slave, until at the age of ten he was sent to Baltimore to live with a relative of his master. He learned to read and write from one of his master's relatives, to whom he was lent when about nine years of age. His owner allowed him later to hire his own time for three dollars a week, and he was employed in a ship-yard, and, in accordance with a resolution long entertained, fled from Baltimore and from slavery, 3 September, 1838. He made his way to New York, and thence to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he married and lived for two or three years, supporting himself by day-labor on the wharves and in various workshops. While there he changed his name from Lloyd to Douglass. He was aided in his efforts for self-education by William Lloyd Garrison. In the summer of 1841 he attended an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket, find made a speech, which was so well received that he was offered the agency of the Massachusetts anti-slavery Society. In this capacity he travelled and lectured through the New England states for four years. Large audiences were attracted by his graphic descriptions of slavery and his eloquent appeals. In 1845 he went to Europe, and lectured on slavery to enthusiastic audiences in nearly all the large towns of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. In 1846 his friends in England contributed $750 to have him manumitted in due form of law. He remained two years in Great Britain, and in 1847 began at Rochester, New York, the publication of “Frederick Douglass's Paper,” whose title was changed to “The North Star,” a weekly journal, which he continued for some years. His supposed implication in the John Brown raid in 1859 led Governor Wise, of Virginia, to make a requisition for his arrest upon the governor of Michigan, where he then was, and in consequence of this Mr. Douglass went to England, and remained six or eight months. He then returned to Rochester, and continued the publication of his paper. When the Civil War began in 1861 he urged upon President Lincoln the employment of colored troops and the proclamation of emancipation. In 1863, when permission was given to employ such troops, he assisted in enlisting men to fill colored regiments, especially the 54th and 55th Massachusetts. After the abolition of slavery he discontinued his paper and applied himself to the preparation and delivery of lectures before lyceums. In September, 1870, he became editor of the “New National Era” in Washington, which was continued by his sons, Lewis and Frederick. In 1871 he was appointed assistant secretary to the commission to Santo Domingo; and on his return President Grant appointed him one of the territorial council of the District of Columbia. In 1872 he was elected presidential elector at large for the state of New York, and was appointed to carry the electoral vote of the state to Washington. In 1876 he was appointed U. S. marshal for the District of Columbia, which office he retained till 1881, after which he became recorder of deeds in the District, from which office he was moved by President Cleveland in 1886. In the autumn of 1886 he revisited England, to inform the friends he had made as a fugitive slave of the progress of the African race in the United States, with the intention of spending the winter on the continent and the following summer in the United Kingdom. His published works are entitled “Narrative of my Experience in Slavery” (Boston, 1844); “My Bondage and my Freedom” (Rochester, 1855); and “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass” (Hartford, 1881). Appleton’s 1900, p. 217.
Chapter: “Position of the Colored People. - Frederick Douglass,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.
While the free colored people instinctively distrusted the Colonization Society, and withheld their confidence from it, they at once and heartily accepted the abolition movement. This was especially true of the more intelligent and well-informed. Among the colored ministers there were several who, seeing its religious as well as humane bearings, rendered essential aid to the cause. A few others did something in the same direction, arousing public attention and quickening the zeal of the friends of freedom.
But in 1841 a champion arose in the person of Frederick Douglass, who was destined to play an important part in the great drama then in progress. In him not only did the colored race but manhood itself find a worthy representative and advocate; one who was a signal illustration, not only of self-culture and success under the most adverse circumstances, but of the fact that talent and genius are " color-blind," and above the accidents of complexion and birth. He, too, furnished an example of the terrible necessities of slavery, and its purpose and power to crush out the human soul; as also of the benign energies of freedom to arouse, to develop, and enlarge its highest and noblest faculties, --the one aiming, and almost succeeding in the attempt, to make him a mere mindless and purposeless chattel; the other actually and indissolubly linking his name and labors with the antislavery cause, both in this country and in Europe. As few of the world's great men have ever had so checkered and diversified a career, so it may be at least plausibly claimed that no man represents in himself more conflicting ideas and interests. His life is in itself an epic which finds few to equal it in the realms of either romance or reality.
Frederick Douglass was born on the Eastern Shore, Maryland, about the year 1817. According to the necessities of slavery and the usual practice of slave-masters, he was taken from his mother when an infant, consequently deprived of even the rude care which maternal instinct might have prompted, and placed under the guardianship of his grandmother, with whom he lived until he was seven years of age. At the age of ten he was sent to Baltimore, to be the companion and protector of the son of a young married couple, who, in consequence of general refinement of character and his proposed relation to their darling boy, treated him, at first, kindly. This change Mr. Douglass ever regarded as a providential interposition, as the turning-point where his pathway, leaving the descending grade of slave life, entered upon that which led him in that widely divergent and upward direction it has since pursued. Leaving the rude experience of the plantation, with the barren and desert-like surroundings of the Eastern Shore, for the bustle and necessary companionship of the city, an opportunity of learning to read was afforded him, which he most sedulously and successfully, though surreptitiously, improved. But the friendliness which his master and mistress had so generously extended to him as an ignorant slave, they felt obliged, by the necessities of the system, to withhold from him now that he could read, and had learned to question the rightfulness of slavery and to chafe under its chains.
Returned to the Eastern Shore, he encountered the rigors of plantation life, greatly increased by the drunken caprices of an intemperate master, and doubtless aggravated by his own impatient and contumacious rebellings under such slave-holding restraint. This, however, was but a prelude to an experience graver and still more tragic. Despairing of controlling young Douglass himself, his owner placed him - as men place their unbroken colts under the care of horse-trainers in the hands of a professed Negro-breaker, known through the region as a cruel and merciless man, who had, not only gained that reputation, but found it necessary or for his interest to maintain it. Concerning this change Mr. Douglass remarks, after referring to the " comparative tenderness " with which he had been treated at Baltimore: " I was now about to sound profounder depths in slave life. The rigors of a field less tolerable than the field of battle were before me." That his apprehensions were not groundless these extracts, taken from his autobiography, abundantly show: “I had not been in his possession three whole days before he subjected me to a most brutal chastisement. Under his heavy blows blood flowed freely; the wales were left on my back as large as my little finger. The sores on my back from this whipping continued for weeks." "I remained with Mr. Corey one year, cannot say I lived with him, and during the first six months that I was there I was whipped either with sticks or cowskins every week. Aching bones and a sore back were my constant companions. Frequently as the lash was used, however, Mr. Corey thought less of it, as a means of breaking down my spirit, than of hard and long-continued labor. He worked me steadily up to the point of my powers of endurance. From the dawn of day in the morning till the darkness was complete in the evening, I was kept at hard work in the field or the woods."
He gave accounts of individual cases of brutal chastisement which were revolting almost beyond conception; while his concise description of himself" as a living embodiment of mental and physical wretchedness” seems but a natural result. "A few months of discipline," he says," tamed me. Mr. Corey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed; my intellect languished; the disposition to read departed; the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute."
Having completed his year with Corey, he was hired out to another and more humane master. But the iron of slavery rankled in his soul, and he could not endure its galling restraints, however softened by kindness. After long rumination upon the subject, and conferences with four or five of his companions in bondage, he proposed and planned an attempt to escape. Betrayed, however, by a confederate, they were prevented from carrying their attempt into execution, and were arrested and imprisoned. Instead of being “sold South"-- that dreaded alternative of success, which held back thousands from making the attempt --he was sent again to Baltimore. Being nearly murdered by the carpenters of a ship-yard, because of their jealousy of slave competition with white labor,--a crime for which no indictment could be found, though sought, because no white witnesses would testify against his brutal assailants, --he was sent to another yard to learn the trade of a calker. Becoming an expert workman, he was permitted to make his own contracts, returning his week's wages every Saturday night to his master. At the same time --which was of more importance to him, he was permitted to associate with some free colored men, who had formed a kind of lyceum for their mutual improvement, and by means of which he was enabled to increase materially his knowledge and mental culture. All of this, however, did but increase his sense of the essential injustice of slavery, and make him more restive under its galling chains. Accordingly he made his plans, now successful, and on the third day of September, 1838, he says, “I bade farewell to the city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my abhorrence from childhood." For prudential reasons the particulars of his mode of escape were withheld from the public knowledge, as they were of little comparative importance; while, had they been known then, they might have compromised some and hedged up the way of escape of others. Landing in New York, a homeless, penniless, and friendless fugitive, he thus describes his feelings: " In the midst of thousands of my fellow-men, and yet a perfect stranger! In the midst of human brothers, and yet more fearful of them than of hungry wolves! I was without home, without friends, without work, without money, and without any definite knowledge of which way to go or where to look for succor." In the midst of his perplexities he met a sailor, whose seeming frankness and honesty won, as they deserved, his confidence. He introduced him to David Ruggles, chairman of the Vigilance Committee, a colored gentleman of much intelligence, energy, and worth, who by his position and executive ability did much for his people. This gentleman advised him to go to New Bedford, Massachusetts, assisted him in reaching that city, and introduced him to trustworthy friends there. Here he was employed, mostly as a day laborer on the wharves, encountering the same shameful and unmanly jealousy of colored competition that had nearly cost him his life at Baltimore, and which would not allow him to work at his trade as calker by the side of white men. Being a professing Christian, he was interested in religious meetings, where he was accustomed to pray and exhort, a practice which probably had something to do with his wonderful subsequent success as a public speaker.
The first demonstration of his eloquence which attracted public attention was at a meeting mainly of colored people, in which were specially considered the claims of the Colonization Society. Here began to be emitted specimens of that fiery eloquence from his capacious soul, burning with the indignant and unfading memories of the wrongs, outrages, and the deep injustice which slavery had inflicted on him, and which it was now inflicting upon his brethren in bonds. Of course, the few white Abolitionists of New Bedford were not long in finding out the young fugitive, appreciating his gifts and promise of usefulness, and in devising ways of extending his range of effort for their unpopular cause. Attending an antislavery convention at Nantucket, he was persuaded to address the meeting. His speech here seems to have been singularly eloquent and effective. Among those present was Mr. Garrison, who bore his testimony, both then and afterward, to "the extraordinary emotion it exerted on his own mind, and to the powerful impression it exerted upon a crowded auditory." He declared, too, that “Patrick Henry had never made a more eloquent speech in the cause of liberty than the one they had just listened to from the lips of that hunted fugitive." Nathaniel P. Rogers, editor of the "Herald of Freedom," thus characterized a speech made by him the same year. After speaking of his “commanding figure and heroic port," his head, that “would strike a phrenologist amid a sea of them in Exeter Hall," he adds: "As a speaker he has few equals. It is not declamation, but oratory, power of debate. . . He has wit, argument, sarcasm, pathos, all that first-rate men show in their master efforts."
This language, especially that of Mr. Garrison, seems extravagant, and the laudation excessive; nor could it be accepted as a general and critical estimate of Mr. Douglass as an orator, great as his powers confessedly were and are. His Nantucket speech was unquestionably one of those rare bursts of eloquence, little less than inspiration itself, which are sometimes vouchsafed to a man in his happiest moods; when the speaker seems to rise above himself and to take his audience with him. Besides, there was certainly much in the circumstances and surroundings of that meeting to impress the minds and stir the sensibilities of such an assembly. On that isle of the sea, at some distance from the mainland, one could easily imagine a picture of the nation overshadowed by the dark cloud of slavery, and prostrate beneath a despotism pressing alike on the slaves at the South and on their advocates at the North. Indeed, the latter had just passed through a baptism of fire and blood, during those fearful years of mobs and martyrdom, which had measurably ceased, but had been succeeded by what the earnest Abolitionist deprecated more than violence, and that was the general apathy which then reigned.
In the conflict for freedom of speech and the right of free discussion Abolitionists had achieved a victory. What they had contended for had, at length, been conceded; at least, the principle was no longer contested. They had conquered a peace; but their opponents were determined it should be the peace of the grave. For the wordy warfare of discussion and the brutal violence of lynch laws they would substitute the policy of neglect. To let them severely alone, to belittle their cause, to pass them by with a supercilious sneer, and to frown contemptuously upon their attempts to gain a hearing, became at that time the tactics of the enemies against the advocates of human rights. Of course, what were termed antislavery measures had lost much of their zest and potency; meetings became less numerously attended, and, consequently, less frequent; organizations, losing their interest and effectiveness, began to die out. Something was necessary to revive and reanimate the drooping spirits and the languid movements of the cause and its friends. It was then, at this opportune moment, while they were thus enveloped in the chill and shade of this most uncomfortable and unsatisfactory state of affairs, the young fugitive appeared upon the stage. He seemed like a messenger from the dark land of slavery itself; as if in his person his race had found a fitting advocate; as if through his lips their long pent up wrongs and wishes had found a voice. No wonder that Nantucket meeting was greatly moved. It would not be strange if the words of description and comment of those present and in full sympathy with the youthful orator should be somewhat extravagant.
The Massachusetts Antislavery Society at once made overtures to Mr. Douglass, and he became one of its accredited agents. For this new field of labor, which he reluctantly and hesitatingly entered, and for which he modestly said he “had no preparation," the event proved that he was admirably fitted. In addition to that inborn genius and those natural gifts of oratory with which he was so generously endowed, he had the long and terrible lessons which slavery had burned into his soul. The knowledge, too, which he had stolen in the house of bondage, had enabled him to read the " Liberator " from week to week, as he was engaged in his hard and humble labors on the wharves of New Bedford, and thus to become acquainted with the new thoughts and reasonings of others. Doubtless many things which had long lain in his own mind formless and vague he found there more clearly defined and more logically expressed; while the fierceness and force of its utterances tallied only too well with the all-consuming zeal of his own soul. Thus fitted and commissioned he entered upon the great work of his life. Though distrustful of his abilities, no knight-errant ever sallied forth with higher resolve, or bore himself with more heroic courage. With whatever diffidence he undertook the proposed service, there was no lack of earnestness and devotion. Nor was his range a limited one. Fitted by his talents to move thousands on the platform, he was prepared by his early experience to be equally persuasive in a little meeting in a country school-house. In hall or church or grove he was alike effective. He could make himself at home in the parlors of the great or by the firesides of the humble: He could ride in the public conveyances from State to State, or tramp on foot from neighborhood to neighborhood. Fertile in expedients and patient in endeavor, he was not easily balked or driven from his purpose. In the midst of the prejudices of caste, hardly less strong and cruel in Massachusetts than in Maryland, he never permitted these, however painful, to divert him from his purpose. If he could not ride inside the stage, he would ride outside; if he could not ride in the first-class car, he rode in the second class; if he could not occupy the cabin of the steamer, he went into the steerage; but to these insults to his manhood he generally interposed his earnest protest, and often only yielded to superior force.
The character, culture, and eloquence displayed by his addresses provoked the insinuation that he was an impostor, and that he had never been a slave. To silence this imputation, he prepared and published, in the spring of 1845, an autobiography, which was widely circulated. As in it he gave the names of persons, places, and' dates, by which his claims and statements could be verified, it was soon known in Maryland, and he and his friends were given to understand that efforts would be made for his recapture. To place himself out of the reach of his pursuers, and, at the same time, help forward his great work, it was proposed that he should visit England. He was very kindly received there, and visited nearly all the large towns and cities of the kingdom. In a lecture in Finsbury's Chapel, in London, to an audience of three thousand, he thus answered the question why he did not confine his labors to the United States.
“My first answer is, because slavery is the common enemy of mankind, and that all mankind should be made acquainted with its abominable character. My second answer is, that the slave is a man, and as such is entitled to your sympathy as a man and a brother. He has been the prey, the common prey, of Christendom during the last three hundred years; and it is but right, just, and proper that his wrongs should be known throughout the world. I have another reason for bringing this matter before the British public, and it is this: slavery is a system of wrong so blinding to all around it, so hardening to the heart, so corrupting to the morals, so deleterious to religion, so sapping to all the principles of justice in its immediate vicinity, that the community thus connected with it lack the moral power necessary to its removal. It is a system of such gigantic evil, so strong, so overwhelming in its power, that no one nation is equal to its removal. It requires the humanity of Christianity, the morality of the civilized world, to remove it. Hence I call upon the people of Britain to look at this matter, and to exert the influence I am about to show they possess for the removal of slavery from America. I can appeal to them as strongly by their regard for the slaveholder as by 'their regard for the slave to labor in this cause. There is nothing said here against slavery that will not be recorded in the United States. I am here, also, because the slaveholders do not want me to be here. I have adopted the maxim laid down by Napoleon, never to occupy ground which the enemy would like me to occupy. The slaveholders would much rather have me, if I will denounce slavery, denounce it in the Northern States, where their friends and supporters are, who will stand by them and mob me for denouncing it…The power I exert here is something like the power that is exerted by the man at the end of the lever; my influence now is just in proportion to my distance from the United States."
In the same speech, referring to the barbarous laws of the slave code, denying that he was inveighing against the institutions of America, and asserting that his only purpose was to strip this anomalous system of all concealment, he said: " To tear off the mask from this abominable system; to expose it to the light of heaven, ay, to the heat of the sun, that it may burn and wither it out of existence, --is my object in coming to this country. I want the slaveholder surrounded as by a wall of antislavery fire, so that he may see the condemnation of himself and his system glaring down in letters of light. I want him to feel that he has no sympathy in England, Scotland, or Ireland; that he has none in Canada, none in Mexico, none among the poor wild Indians; that the voice of the civilized, ay, the savage world is against him. I would have condemnation blaze down upon him in every direction, till, stunned and overwhelmed with shame and confusion, he is compelled to let go the grasp he holds upon the persons of his victims and restore them to their long-lost rights." That, like other prominent Abolitionists of those days, he overrated the power of truth, and underestimated the power of slavery and its tenacity of life, appears in the same speech, and in this connection, when he says: “I expose slavery in this country because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death. Expose slavery, and it dies. Light is to slavery what the heat of the sun is to the root of a tree; it must die under it." Mr. Douglass had not to live long --his own career furnishing the most convincing evidence of the fact --to see that something more than “light " was necessary to destroy slavery. To expose it was not to kill it.
Of this, too, he received substantial evidence in England and Scotland, especially the latter ; in England, by the refusal of the Evangelical Alliance, at the instance of the American delegation, to exclude the representatives of slaveholding churches from its platform ; in Scotland, where he found the Free Church not only receiving contributions for its church-building fund from such churches, but sturdily defending its propriety by the voice of its prince of scholars and clergymen, Dr. Chalmers, and by that of its hardly less honored leaders, Dr. Cunningham and Dr. Candlish. And this latter was done in spite of the earnest remonstrances of himself and others, among them that most eloquent Englishman, George Thompson, urging them not to receive that “price of blood," but to "send back the money."
Mr. Douglass remained in Great Britain nearly two years; in which time he visited England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, everywhere pressing upon the public mind the evils of slavery and the duty of laboring for its overthrow. He was cordially received, and treated with the utmost consideration. His friends, without solicitation from him, raised one hundred and fifty pounds for his manumission, and twenty-five hundred dollars with which to establish a press in this country, which he subsequently did, at Rochester, New York. His journal was first called the “North Star," and afterward "Frederick Douglass's Paper," and was ably conducted and well sustained till after the abolition of slavery. Thus by voice, pen, and personal influence has he contributed in no small measure to those manifold labors which the last thirty years have witnessed for the removal of slavery, and for the rehabilitation of his race with those rights of which it had so long been despoiled, and for the still higher purpose of preparing it for the new position it now occupies.
The main interest and importance, however, of Mr. Douglass's career, are public, rather than personal. Full of thrilling adventure, striking contrasts, brilliant passages, and undoubted usefulness, as his history was, his providential relations to some of the most marked facts and features of American history constitute the chief elements of that interest and importance which by common consent belong to it. Lifting the curtain, it revealed with startling vividness and effect the inner experience and the workings of slavery, not only upon its victims, but upon all connected with it. In it, as in a mirror, are seen how unnatural, how inhuman, and how wicked were its demands. Torn from his mother's arms in infancy, he was treated with the same disregard of his comfort and the promptings of nature as were the domestic animals of the farm-yard. As he was transferred from one master to another, everyone can see what the hazards of a “chattel personal” were, and how the kindness of one only aggravated the harshness of another. In the extreme solicitude manifested by his kind master and mistress at Baltimore that he should not learn to read, and their marked· displeasure and change of treatment when he had thus learned, are seen not only the stern necessities of slavery, but how it quenched the kindlier feelings and turned to bitterness even affection itself. In the terrible struggle with Corey which he so graphically describes, when " the dark night of slavery shut in upon him," and he was "transformed to a brute," is disclosed something of the process by which manhood was dethroned, and an immortal being was transformed by something more than legal phrase into a chattel,--a thing. Had he, after his first unsuccessful attempt to escape, been " sold South," as he had reason to apprehend, and had not been sent north to Baltimore, that night would have remained unbroken, and that transformation would have been complete; and the world now knows what a light would have been extinguished and what a sacrifice would have been made. He escaped, indeed; but how many did not? Not all were so richly endowed, though none can tell how many " village Hampdens," how many " mute, inglorious Miltons" have thus been lost to letters and to man; while many have learned to sympathize with Dr. Campbell, at Finsbury's Chapel, when he exclaimed: " My blood boiled within me when I heard his address to-night, and thought that he had left behind him three millions of such men."
And sadder still when it is seen that all this was done, if not in the name of the Christian religion, in spite of it, by those professing its holy faith, -- his owner, and tormentor, Corey, both being members of the church; the latter punctilious and pretentious in his church-going, praying, and psalm singing, adding the latter generally to his daily family worship, -- and saddest of all, that, when Mr. Douglass, rescued as from the lion's den, bore a testimony which could not be gainsaid, the multitudes, though fascinated by his thrilling story and matchless eloquence, withheld from him what he earnestly sought, while only the few were willing to receive the unpopular doctrines of his Abolitionism. For twenty years he labored as few others could, addressing thousands upon thousands in the New England, Middle, and Western States; and yet till the beginning of the Rebellion he belonged to a despised minority, while the system that had so outraged him and his people still dominated the State, and was sanctioned, if not sanctified, by the church. In the light of such a history this mountain of national guilt assumes more towering proportions, and its base is seen to rest not upon the South alone, but upon the whole land. The crime was gigantic; and, though its expiation has already been terrible, who shall say that it has been commensurate with the crime itself?
Few have forgotten the closing utterances of Mr. Lincoln's second Inaugural concerning the war still raging, sounding as if they fell from the judgment-seat and were the words of doom itself: " Yet, if God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so it still must be said, ' The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'" The solemn significance of this language is still worthy of thought, though the war has ceased and the ·great armies then in the· field have been recalled.
Source: Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 1. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 499-511.
DOW, Neal, born 1804, abolitionist (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 218-219; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 411)
DOW, Neal, temperance reformer, born in Portland, Maine, 20 March, 1804. He is of Quaker parentage, attended the Friends' Academy in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and was trained in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits. He was chief engineer of the Portland Fire Department in 1839, and in 1851 and again in 1854 was elected mayor of the city. He became the champion of the project for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, which was first advocated by James Appleton in his report to the Maine legislature in 1837, and in various speeches while a member of that body. (See Appleton, James.) Through Mr. Dow's efforts, while he was mayor, the Maine Liquor Law, prohibiting under severe penalties the sale of intoxicating beverages, was passed in 1851. After drafting the bill, which he called " A bill for the suppression of drinking houses and tippling-shops," he submitted it to the principal friends of temperance in the city, but they all objected to its radical character, as certain to insure its defeat. It provided for the search of places where it was suspected that liquors intended for sale were kept; for the seizure, condemnation, and confiscation of such liquors, if found; and for the punishment of the persons keeping them by fine and imprisonment. Notwithstanding the discouragement of friends, he went to the legislature, then in session at Augusta, had a public hearing in the hall of representatives which was densely packed by the legislators and citizens of the town, and at the close of the hearing the bill was unanimously accepted by the committee. It was printed that night, was laid on the desks of the members the next morning, and on that day, the last, of the session, was passed through all its stages, and was enacted without any change whatever. Mr. Dow was a member of the Maine legislature in 1858-'9. On 31 December, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 13th Maine Volunteers, and with his regiment he joined General Butler's expedition to New Orleans, he was commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers, 28 April, 1862, and placed in command of the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi, and afterward of the District of Florida. He was wounded twice in the attack on Port Hudson, 27 May, 1863, and taken prisoner while lying in a house near. After imprisonment for over eight months in Libby Prison and at Mobile, he was exchanged. He resigned on 30 November, 1864. In 1857, and again in 1866 and 1874, Mr. Dow went to England at the invitation of the United Kingdom Temperance Alliance, and addressed crowded meetings in all the large cities. He has spent many years in endeavoring, by public speeches in the United States and Canada, as well as in Great Britain, and by frequent contributions to magazines and newspapers, to win the popular sanction for prohibitory legislation. In 1880 he was the candidate for the National Prohibition Party for president of the United States, and received 10,305 votes. In 1884 an amendment to the constitution of Maine was adopted by a popular vote of nearly three to on, in which it was declared that the manufacture, sale, and keeping for sale of intoxicating beverages was forever forbidden, and commanding the legislature to enact suitable laws for the enforcement of the prohibition. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 219.
DOWELL, Greensville, physician, born in Albemarle County, Virginia, 1 September, 1822; died in Galveston, Texas, in 1881. He was educated at the University of Louisville and at Jefferson Medical College, and was graduated M. D., from the latter. After practicing in various states he finally established himself in Galveston, Texas, and was for fifteen years preceding his death, professor of surgery in the Texas Medical College. He was a surgeon in the Confederate Army, from 1863 to 1865, was editor and publisher of the " Galveston Medical Journal." originated the Dowell system for the treatment of hernia, and was the author of several books on that subject and yellow fever. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 219.
DOWNES, John A., naval officer, born in Massachusetts, 25 August, 1822; died in New Orleans, 20 September, 1865, entered the U.S. Navy on 4 September, 1837; became passed midshipman in 1843, lieutenant in 1851, and a commander in 1862. During the Civil War he commanded the iron-clad "Naliant" at the bombardment of Fort McAlister, 3 March, 1863, and in the first attack upon Fort Sumter, 7 April, 1863. In the report of Rear-Admiral Dupont he is mentioned as one of those "who did everything that the utmost gallantry and skill could accomplish in the management of their untried vessels." He aided in the capture of the Confederate ironclad "Atlanta." He was on special duty at Boston a short time, and was then given command of the Gulf Squadron, in which service he died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 221
DRAKE, Samuel Adams, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 20 December, 1833, was educated in the public schools of his native city. He went to Kansas in 1858 as telegraphic agent of the New York associated press, became the regular correspondent of the St. Louis "Republican" and the Louisville "Journal," and for a while edited the Leavenworth " Times." On the organization of the state militia at the beginning of the Civil War he became adjutant-general of the northern division, and in 1861 was a captain of militia in the service of the United States. He had risen to the rank of brigadier-general of militia in 1861, and in 1864 was colonel of the 17th Kansas Volunteers, commanding the post of Paola, Kansas, during Price's invasion of Missouri in that year. In 1871 General Drake returned to Massachusetts. His first publication was " Hints for Emigrants to Pike's Peak" (a pamphlet, 1866). He has since written "Old Landmarks of Boston" (1872); "Old Landmarks of Middlesex " (1873); "Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast" (1875); "Bunker Hill" (1875); "Captain Nelson" (1879); "History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts" (1880); "Heart of the White Mountains" (1881); "Around the Hub" (1881); "New England Legends" (1883); "Our Great Benefactors (1885); and "The Making of New England'' (1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 226.
DRAPER, Alonzo Granville, soldier, born in Brattleboro, Vermont, 6 September 1835; died in Brazos, Texas, 3 September, 1865. He early settled in Boston, and was graduated at the English high-school in 1854. after which he moved to Lynn, where he edited the "New England Mechanic," and held office in the city government. At the beginning of the Civil War he recruited a company of volunteers for the 14th Massachusetts Regiment, and was commissioned captain, 6 May, 1861. In January, 1863, he was promoted major, and, after being transferred to the 2d National Colored Regiment, was made colonel in August, 1863, and afterward attached to the 25th Corps, where for a month he had charge of a brigade in Major-General Paine's division, and where he won the title of brevet brigadier-general 28 October, 1864. A few months previous to his death he left Virginia in command of a brigade, and died from wounds received in Texas. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 226.
DRATON, Thomas Fenwick, son of the second William, born in South Carolina about. 1807, was originally named Thomas. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1828, and served in garrison in Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and Newport, Kentucky, in 1828-'32, and then on topographical duty, but resigned on 15 August, 1836, and became a civil engineer in Charleston, Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. He was also a planter in St. Luke's Parish, South Carolina, in 1838-'61, was a state senator in 1853-'6, and president of the Charleston and Savannah Rail Road in 1868-'61. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate service, was commissioned brigadier-general, and commanded the Confederate troops on Hilton Head Island at the time of the Port Royal Expedition, in which his brother, Captain Percival Drayton, commanded a national vessel. After the war General Drayton became a farmer in Georgia, and in 1878 was made president of the South Carolina Immigrant Association, and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 230.
DRAYTON, Percival, naval officer, born in South Carolina, 25 August, 1812; died in Washington, D. C., 4 August, 1865, entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 December, 1827, was promoted to lieutenant, 28 February, 1838, and served on the Brazilian, Mediterranean, and Pacific Squadrons. He was attached to the Naval Observatory in Washington in 1852, and soon afterward was associated with Commander, afterward Admiral, Farragut in ordnance experiments, forming a close intimacy with that officer that lasted through life. He was made commander, 14 September, 1855, took part in the Paraguay Expedition of 1858, and in 1860 was on ordnance duty at the Philadelphia Navy-yard. Though strongly bound by family ties to the seceding states, he rejected all offers of place in the southern confederacy, and remained loyal to the national government. He commanded the " Pocahontas" in the Port Royal Expedition, and was afterward transferred to the "Pawnee," in which he made valuable reconnaissance’s of St. Helena sound and adjacent waters. He was promoted to captain on 16 July, 1862, and in the autumn of that year was ordered to the new Ericsson monitor "Passaic." In this iron-clad he bombarded Fort McAllister, and was in the first attack on Fort Sumter under Admiral Du Pont, who spoke in the highest terms, in his last report, of Drayton's “capacity and courage." He afterward became fleet-captain of the West Gulf Squadron, and commanded Farragut's flag-ship, the "Hartford," in the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August, 1864. In his detailed report of that action Farragut spoke of Drayton's "coolness and ability," and said: “He is the fleet-captain of my squadron, and one of more determined energy, untiring devotion to duty, and zeal for the service, tempered by great calmness, I do not think adorns any navy." Captain Drayton afterward accompanied Farragut to New York, where a formal reception was given to the two officers on 12 December, 1864. On 28 April, 1865, Captain Drayton was made chief of the bureau of navigation, and died while discharging the duties of that office. He was especially distinguished as a flag-officer, and his refined manners and knowledge of languages caused his services in that position to be sought by every commanding officer with whom he sailed. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 230.
DRUM, Richard Coulter, soldier, born in Pennsylvania, 28 May, 1825. He studied at Jefferson College, entered the army as a private in the 1st Pennsylvania Volunteers on 8 December, 1846, was engaged at the siege of Vera Cruz, and appointed a 2d lieutenant of U. S. Infantry on 18 February, 1847. He was brevetted 1st lieutenant for bravery at Chapultepec and the capture of the City of Mexico. After the war with Mexico he was transferred to the artillery, was engaged in the action at Blue Water, Nebraska, served as aide- de-camp to General Harney in the Sioux Expedition, and was in Kansas during the troubles of 1856. From 1856 till 1858 he served as acting assistant adjutant-general at the headquarters of the Department of the West, and subsequently as adjutant in the artillery-school. At the beginning of the Civil War he was appointed assistant adjutant-general of the U. S. Army, and promoted to captain on 14 May, 1861, major on 3 August, 1861, and lieutenant-colonel on 17 July, 1862. On '24 September, 1864, he was brevetted colonel, "and on 13 March, 1865, brigadier-general for services during the war. He continued in the adjutant-general's department, was stationed in 1866-'8 at Philadelphia, in 1868-'9 at Atlanta, the headquarters of the Department of the South, receiving promotion as colonel on 22 February, 1869, and on 15 June, 1880, succeeded General Townsend, on the latter's retirement, as adjutant-general of the army, with the rank of brigadier-general.—His elder brother, Simon Henry, soldier, born in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in June, 1807; killed in action at the storming of the city of Mexico, 13 September, 1847, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1830. He was assistant instructor of infantry tactics there in 1830-'2, was engaged in the Florida War and the Canada border disturbances, and as captain of artillery in the occupation of Texas in 1846, served through the Mexican War, distinguished himself at Contreras, where he recaptured two field-pieces taken from his regiment at Buena Vista, and fell at the assault on the city of Mexico after he had entered the Belen gate while directing the fire of a gun he had captured. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 233-234.
DUANE, James Chatham, military engineer, born in Schenectady, New York, 30 June, 1824. He was graduated at Union College in 1844, and at the U. S. Military Academy in 1848. From 1848 till 1854 he served with the Engineer Corps, and as assistant instructor at West Point. He was then employed in the construction of fortifications till 1856, was light-house inspector at New York in 1856-'8, commanded the engineer company in the Utah Expedition of 1858, and was afterward instructor of engineering at the Military Academy till the beginning of the Civil War. He was stationed at Fort Pickens, Florida, in 1861. During the winter following he organized engineer equipage for the Army of the Potomac, went to Harpers Ferry in February, 1862, to bridge the Potomac, commanded the engineer battalion at the siege of Yorktown, constructed bridges across Chickahominy and White Oak Swamps, was engaged at Gaines's Mill on 27 June, 1862, and in the subsequent operations of the Peninsular Campaign made roads, field-works, and bridges, notably one 2,000 feet long across the Chickahominy. In the Maryland Campaign he served as chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac, and was engaged at South Mountain and Antietam. In 1863, as chief engineer of the Department of the South, he took part in the attack on Fort McAllister, Georgia, and in operations against Charleston. From 15 July, 1863, he was again attached to the Army of the Potomac, and was engaged at Manassas Gap, Rappahannock Station, the Wilderness, and Cold Harbor, and distinguished himself at the siege of Petersburg. He became captain of engineers on 6 August, 1861, major on 3 March, 1863, and was brevetted colonel on 6 July, 1864, and brigadier-general at the close of the war. From 1865 to 1868 he superintended the construction of the fort at Willet's Point, New York, receiving promotion as lieutenant-colonel on 7 March, 1867. He served subsequently as superintendent of fortifications on the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, as light-house engineer of the northeast coast, as a member of various engineer boards, and as president of the board of engineers in New York City. He was promoted colonel on 10 January, 1883, and in the autumn of 1886 was appointed chief of engineers, with the rank of brigadier-general. He has published a "Manual for Engineer Troops" (New York, 1862). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 236.
DUFFIE, Alfred Nattie, soldier, born in Paris, France, 1 May, 1835; died in Cadiz, Spain, 1 November, 1880, He studied at several military academies in Paris, and was graduated at the military College of St. Cyr in 1854 as 2d lieutenant. He served in Algiers and Senegal, and in the Crimea during the war with Russia, where he was promoted to 1st lieutenant of cavalry. He afterward took part in the campaign against Austria, and gained several medals of honor. He came to the United States in 1860, accepted a captaincy in the 1st New Jersey Cavalry at the beginning of the Civil War, and was promoted major of the Harris Light Cavalry of New York. In July, 1862, he became colonel of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry , and on 23 June, 1863, was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers. After the war General Duffie was appointed U. S. consul in Cadiz, where he served until his death, a period of ten years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 247-248.
DUFFIELD, William Ward, soldier, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 19 November, 1823, was graduated at Columbia in 1842. He served in the Mexican War, was wounded at Cerro Gordo, 18 April, 1847, and also at Contreras, 20 August, 1847, while acting adjutant of the 2d Tennessee Infantry and on General Gideon J. Pillow's staff. After the close of the war he became a civil engineer. He was resident engineer of the Hudson River Railroad in 1851, chief engineer of the Oakland and Ottawa Railroad, Michigan, and located that line from Pontiac to Grand Haven; chief engineer of the Central military tract Railroad, Illinois, in 1854 (now part of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad), and built that line; division engineer of the Grand trunk Railroad, and built the line from Detroit to Port Huron. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Michigan Infantry in 1861, and was in the first battle of Bull Run. On 10 September, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 9th Michigan Infantry. He joined General Sherman at Louisville, Kentucky, and was sent by him to occupy and fortify the pass through Muldraugh Hill, West Point, Kentucky, 22 January, 1862. He was appointed by General Buell commander of the 23d Brigade. Army of the Cumberland, 22 April, 1862, and brigadier-general and president of the examining board under the Act of Congress to test the efficiency of volunteer officers, 2 May, 1862. He overtook the Confederate forces under Colonel John Morgan at Lebanon, and captured the place after a sharp fight. He was assigned by General Buell to command all the forces in Kentucky, 8 May, 1862, and was relieved of this post on 10 September. He rejoined the 14th Corps. Army of the Cumberland, under General Thomas, and served with it until the battle of Murfreesboro, where he was disabled by two severe wounds and captured. Unable to take the field at the time required by the Act of Congress, he resigned, and was appointed chief engineer of the Hudson River Railroad. He was employed in 1869 to survey lands in Colorado, in 1871-'2 was chief engineer of the Kentucky Union Railroad, and located that line from Paris to Hazard. He was elected to the Michigan State Senate in 1880. and m 1882 was employed in surveying government land in Dakota. In 1885 he was re-appointed chief engineer of the Kentucky Union Railroad. He has published "School of Brigade and Evolutions of the Line" (Philadelphia, 1802). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 248.
DUFFIELD, Henry Martin, lawyer, born in Detroit, Michigan, 15 May, 1842, was graduated at Williams in 1861, and enlisted in that year in the 9th Michigan Infantry. He was promoted to be adjutant of his regiment and assistant adjutant of U. S. troops in Kentucky in 1862. In 1863 he was made post-adjutant of Chattanooga, and was wounded in the battle of Chickamauga while serving on the staff of General Thomas. From that date until the close of the war he was assistant provost-marshal-general of the Army of the Cumberland on General Thomas's staff. He was the orator on the occasion of the unveiling of the Garfield statue in Washington, in May. 1887. He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress in 1870, and has been corporation counsel for Detroit since 1876. He is also president of the state military board of Michigan. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 249.
DUGANNE, Augustine Joseph Hickey, author, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1823; died in New York, 20 October, 1884. While quite young he wrote patriotic songs and poems, which were published in newspapers and became popular. These were collected and published in a volume entitled "Hand Poems " (Boston, 1844), which had a large sale. He was one of the founders of the American or "Know-nothing" Party. During the Civil War he joined the 176th Regiment of New York Volunteers, and was commissioned colonel. He was captured by the Confederates and confined in a southern prison. After the war he resumed editorial and literary work, and became connected with the "New York Tribune." He delivered an oration on the heroic succession at the Cooper Institute (5 April, 1867) on the second anniversary of the death of Abraham Lincoln (New York, 1867). His publications are "A Comprehensive Summary of General Philosophy" (1845); "The Iron Harp" (Philadelphia, 1847); "The Lydian Queen," a tragedy, produced at the Walnut street theatre, Philadelphia (1848); "MDCCCXLVIII, or the Year of the People " (1849); "Parnassus in Pillory, a Satire, by Motley Manners, Esq." (New York, 1851); "The Mission of Intellect," a poem read in New York (1852); "Art's True Mission in America" (New York, 1867); "The Gospel of Labor," a poem read in New York (1854); " Poetical Works " (Philadelphia, 1856); "A Class-Book of Government and Civil Society" (New York, 1859); "History of Governments" (1861); "The Ring of Destiny, or the Astrologer's Plot, a Tale of Ancient Days" (Boston, 1861); "Utterances" (New York, 1864); "Camps and Prisons; Twenty Months in the Department of the Gulf " (New York, 1865); " Fighting Quakers a True Story of the War for Our Union (New York, 1866); "Revised Leaves," a series of critiques on contemporary authors, published in "Sartain's Magazine, and papers upon a variety of subjects, under various pen-names, in magazines and journals. His last production was a satire on Robert G. Ingersoll, entitled " Injure Soul." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 249.
DUGAS, Louis Alexander, physician, born in Washington, Georgia, 3 January, 1806. His parents were of French ancestry, and emigrated from Santo Domingo, W. I. He was educated at home, studied medicine with Dr. John Dent, and in 1827 was graduated at the medical department of the University of Maryland. After attending lectures in Baltimore and Philadelphia, and spending several years in study in Europe, he settled in Augusta, Georgia, in 1831. In 1832 he united with five others in founding the Medical College of Georgia, in which he still holds the professorship of surgery. In 1869 the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the University of Georgia. For many years he was president of the Medical Society of Augusta, and he has been president of the Medical Association of Georgia. During the Civil War he was volunteer and consulting surgeon of military hospitals. Prom 1851 till 1858 he was editor of the "Southern Medical and Surgical Journal." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 249-250.
DUMONT, Ebenezer, soldier, born in Vevay, Indiana, 23 November, 1814; died in Indianapolis, Indiana, 16 April, 1871, was educated at Indiana University, but was not graduated, and, after studying law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in his native town. He was chosen to the legislature in 1838, where he was speaker of the house, was treasurer of Vevay County in 1839-'45, and was for many years president of the state bank. He fought in the Mexican War as lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Indiana Volunteers, distinguishing himself at the battle of Huamantla. He was an elector on the Democratic ticket in 1852, and again a member of the legislature in 1850 and 1853. At the beginning of the Civil War he became colonel of the 7th Indiana Regiment, and served with distinction in 1861 at Laurel Hill, Rich Mountain, and Carrick's Ford. He then reorganized the regiment for three years' service, and commanded it in the action of Greenbrier River on 3 October under General Reynolds. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 3 September, 1861, was engaged at Cheat Mountain on 12 September, and commanded the 17th brigade of the Army of the Ohio in January, 1862. He attacked and routed John Morgan at Lebanon, Kentucky, on 5 May, 1862, and in October of that year commanded the 12th Division of General Buell's army. On 28 February, 1863, he resigned his commission on account of failing health, and was elected to Congress as a unionist, serving from 1863 till 1867. General Dumont was appointed governor of Idaho a short time before his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 254.
DUNCAN, Johnson Kelly, soldier, born in York, Pennsylvania, 19 March, 1827; died in Knoxville, Kentucky, 18 December, 1862. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1849, and became 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Artillery , serving in the Florida hostilities against the Seminole Indians. From 1850 till 1853 he was attached to Forts Sullivan and Preble in Maine, on garrison duty, and was then assistant on the Northern Pacific Railroad exploration till December, 1854. He resigned from the army in January. 1855. and became superintendent of repairs in New Orleans, in charge of the branch mint, marine Hospital, quarantine warehouse, and Pas a l' Outre boarding station. From 1859 till 1860 he was professionally occupied as civil engineer, surveyor, and architect in New Orleans, becoming also, in 1860, chief engineer of the board of public works of the state of Louisiana. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as colonel, but soon was appointed brigadier-general from Louisiana. He commanded Forts Jackson and St. Philip at the time of their capture by Admiral Farragut, on 25 April, 1862, and became a prisoner of war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 256.
DUNCAN, Thomas, soldier, born in Kaskaskia, Illinois. 14 April, 1819; died in Washington, D. C, 7 January, 1887. He early became a soldier, and served as a private in the Illinois mounted volunteers in 1832, during the Black Hawk War. Subsequently he was connected for some years with military expeditions, and in 1846 was appointed from Illinois as 1st lieutenant in the U. S. Mounted Rifles, now the 3d Cavalry. He served during the war with Mexico, and was engaged in the siege and surrender of Vera Cruz. Later he was on recruiting duty, was promoted captain in March, 1848, and was on garrison duty at various posts till 1856. He was stationed with his regiment in New Mexico till 1862, had command of Fort Burgwin, Fort Massachusetts, Fort Garland, and Fort Union, participated in the Navajo Expedition of 1858, defeated the Comanche Indians in the action at Hatch's Ranch in May, 1861, and became major of his regiment in June, 1861. During the Civil War he had command of Fort Craig in New Mexico, was in charge of the cavalry forces at the battle of Valverde, N. M„ and of his regiment in the action in Albuquerque, N. M., where a portion of his skull was carried away by a cannon-ball. He was assistant provost-marshal of Iowa in 1863-'6, became lieutenant- colonel of the 5th U. S. Cavalry in July, 1866, and commanded the District of Nashville till September, 1868. He then was ordered to the Department of the Platte, was stationed successively at Fort McPherson and Fort D. A. Russell, and was afterward in charge of the construction of Sidney Barracks, till November, 1871. Failing health compelled him to obtain sick leave till January, 1873, when he was retired from active service. Colonel Duncan received several brevets, including that of brigadier-general, for his services during the Civil War. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 256.
DUNLAVY, James, soldier, born in Decatur County, Indiana, 4 February, 1844. His father was a prominent Democratic politician in Indiana. He enlisted as a private in the 30th Iowa Cavalry , and in 1863 reenlisted in the 3d Iowa Cavalry , and served in Tennessee, Missouri, and Georgia till the close of the Civil War. During the battle of Mine Creek, Kansas, 25 October, 1864, when alone and wounded in one arm, he captured the Confederate General Marmaduke. After the war he entered Keokuk, Iowa, Medical College, was graduated in 1870, and is now (1887) practising his profession at Stiles, Iowa. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 259.
DUNN, Oscar James, lieutenant-governor of Louisiana, born in Louisiana in 1820; died in New Orleans, 20 November, 1871. He was born a slave, and as soon as he was old enough to do manual labor was purchased by a firm in the plastering trade, but after reaching his majority ran away from his owners. When General Butler entered New Orleans he enlisted in the first Regiment of Colored Troops raised in Louisiana, and reached a captaincy, the highest rank then permitted to his race. When an incompetent person was promoted over him to the rank of major, he resigned his commission. After the war Captain Dunn was active in promoting the reconstruction of his state. He had acquired wealth, and in 1868 became lieutenant-governor of Louisiana. John R. Lynch, then secretary of state of Mississippi, in an oration delivered at his funeral, said: "There now he before us the remains of the first colored man who ever held an executive office in this country." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 260.
DUNN, William McKee, lawyer, born in Hanover, Jefferson County, Indiana, 12 December, 1814. He was graduated at the Indiana State University in Bloomington in 1832, and was for three years principal of the preparatory department and professor of mathematics at Hanover College, Indiana. After a graduate course at Yale, where he received the degree of A. M. in 1835, he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised for many years in Madison, Indiana He was a member of the legislature in 1848, a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1850, and was then chosen to Congress as a Republican, serving from 1859 till 1863. When the war broke out he was offered a colonelcy by Governor Morton, and a brigadier-ship by President Lincoln, but declined both. During his second term he was chairman of the committee on patents. He was defeated in the election for the following Congress, and on 13 March, 1863, was appointed major and judge-advocate, U. S. volunteers, in the department of Missouri. On 22 Jane, 1864, he became colonel and assistant judge-advocate-general, U. S. Army, and was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, in March, 1865, for faithful, meritorious, and distinguished services in his department. On the retirement of Judge-advocate-general Holt, he was elected to the place. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' Convention of 1866. General Dunn became judge-advocate-general, with the rank of brigadier-general, on 1 December, 1875, and on 22 January, 1881, was retired from active service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 261.
DUNNELL, Mark Hill, Congressman, born in Buxton, Maine, 2 July, 1823. He was graduated at Waterville College (now Colby University) in 1849, and for five years was the principal of Norway and Hebron Academies. He was a member of the lower house of the Maine legislature in 1854, and in 1855 of the state senate, and from that time till 1859 was state superintendent of common schools. In 1856 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia. He began the practice of the law at Portland in 1860, served in the Union Army as colonel of the 5th Maine Infantry, and in 1862 was U. S. consul at Vera Cruz, Mexico. He moved to Minnesota in 1865, was a member of the legislature there in 1867, and in 1867-'70 was state superintendent of public instruction. He was then chosen to Congress as a Republican, and served four terms in succession, in 1871-'9. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 261.
DU PONT, Samuel Francis, naval officer, son of Victor Marie Du Pont de Ne mours. Born at Bergen Point, New Jersey, 27 September, 1803; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,23 June,1865. He was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy from the state of Delaware in December, 1815, his first sea service being on the "Franklin," in the European Squadron. In 1821 he served for a year on the "Constitution," after which he was attached to the "Congress" in the West Indies and on the coast of Brazil. He was in the Mediterranean in 1824 on the "North Carolina," of which vessel he became sailing-master, four months of this cruise being spent on the "Porpoise," to which he was ordered soon after his promotion as lieutenant, 28 April, 1826. He was attached to the " Ontario" in 1829, made another three years' cruise in European waters, and from 1835 till 1838 was executive officer of the " Warren" and of the "Constellation," and commanded the "Grampus" and the "Warren" in the Gulf of Mexico. In the latter year he joined the " Ohio," the flag-ship of Commodore Hull, in the Mediterranean Squadron, his cruise ending in 1841. He was promoted commander in 1842, and sailed for China on the "Perry," but a severe illness forced him to give up his command and return home. In 1845 he was ordered to the Pacific as commander of the "Congress," the flag-ship of Commodore Stockton. When they reached California the Mexican War had begun, and Du Pont was at once assigned to the command of the "Cyane," 23 July, 1846. With this vessel he captured San Diego, took possession of La Paz, the capital of Lower California, spiked the guns of San Bias, and entered the harbor of Guaymas, burning two gun-boats and cutting out a Mexican brig under a heavy fire. These operations cleared the Gulf of California of hostile ships, thirty of which were taken or destroyed. He took part in the capture of Mazatlan under Commodore Shubrick, 11 November, 1847, leading the line of boats that entered the main harbor. On 15 February, 1848, he landed at San Jose with a naval force, and engaged a large body of Mexicans, marching three miles inland and successfully relieving Lieutenant Heywood's detachment, which was closely besieged in the Mission house and about to surrender. Later he led, or sent out, various expeditions into the interior, which co-operated with Colonel Burton and Lieutenant, (afterward General) Henry W. Halleck, who were moving southward, clearing the country of hostile troops and taking many prisoners. He was ordered home in 1848, became captain in 1855, and two years later went on special service to China in command of the "Minnesota," witnessing while there the naval operations of the French and English forces, notably their capture of the Chinese forts on the Peiho. After visiting Japan, India, and Arabia, he returned to Boston in May, 1859. Placed in command of the Philadelphia Navy-yard, 31 December, 1860, he took the most prompt and energetic measures, on his own responsibility, when communications were cut off with Washington, sending a naval force to the Chesapeake to protect the landing of troops at Annapolis. In June, 1861, he was made president of a board convened at Washington to elaborate a general plan of naval operations against the insurgent states. He was appointed flag-officer in September, and led the expedition that sailed from Norfolk in the following month, no American officer having ever commanded so large a fleet. On 7 November he successfully attacked the fortifications defending Port Royal Harbor, which were ably planned and skilfully executed. This engagement is justly regarded as one of the most brilliant achievements of naval tactics. His unarmored vessels, divided into main and flanking divisions, steamed into the harbor in two parallel columns. The flanking division, after engaging the smaller fort and driving back the enemy's ships, took position to enfilade the principal work, before which the main column, led by the flag-ship " Wabash," passed and repassed in an elliptic course, its tremendous lire inflicting heavy damage. Du Pont actively followed up his victory. Tybee was seized, giving a base for the reduction of Fort Pulaski by the army; a combined naval and military force destroyed the batteries at Port Royal ferry; the sounds and inland waters of Georgia south of the Savannah, and of the eastern coast of Florida, were occupied; St. Mary's, Fernandina, Jacksonville, and other places were captured: Fort Clinch and the fort at St. Augustine were retaken, and fourteen blockading stations were established, all thoroughly effective save that off Charleston, where the vessels at command were insufficient to cover the circuit of twenty-three miles from Bull's Bay to Stono. In recognition of his services, Du Pont received the thanks of Congress, and was appointed rear-admiral, to rank from 16 July, 1862. Toward the close of the year several armored vessels were added to his command, mostly of the monitor type, one of which destroyed the Confederate steamer "Nashville," under the guns of Fort McAllister. Being the first officer to whom the monitors had been assigned, he carefully tested their offensive powers by several attacks upon this work, on which they were unable to make any impression on account of the small number of their guns and the slowness of their fire. Assuming immediate command of his nine armored vessels, mounting thirty-two guns, Du Pont made a resolute attempt, on 7 April, 1863, to take Charleston. Unable to maneuver in the tortuous channels, filled with obstructions, that led to the harbor, the ironclads were exposed to a terrible cross-fire from a hundred guns of the heaviest calibres, and, darkness approaching, the ships were wisely withdrawn, one sinking soon afterward and five others being disabled. This action was fought pursuant to express instructions from the U.S. Navy department, its probable result not having been unforeseen by the admiral, who had given it as his opinion that the co-operation of troops was necessary to secure success. Time has fully confirmed the entire correctness of Du Pont's judgment; his able successor, with a larger force of armored ships, was no more fortunate, and Charleston only fell on the approach of Sherman's army. In June, the iron-clad ram "Atlanta" coming out of Savannah, Du Pont sent two monitors to intercept her, one of which, under Captain John Rodgers, succeeded in capturing her after a brief engagement. This was the last important incident of Admiral Du Pont's command, from which he was relieved on 5 July, 1863. During the intervals of more than twenty-five years of service at sea he was almost constantly employed on duties of importance. He was a member of the board that prepared the plan of organization for the Naval Academy, and was one of the officers that in after years revised and extended the system then adopted. He served on the light-house board, took part in two revisions of the rules and regulations for the U.S. Navy, and was a member of the naval retiring board of 1855. Admiral Du Pont was the author of various papers on professional subjects, including one on corporal punishment in the navy, and one on the use of floating batteries for coast defence, which has been republished, and is largely cited by Sir Howard Douglas in his work on naval gunnery.—Henry Algernon, soldier, son of Henry, born near Wilmington, Del., 30 July, 1838. was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy, 6 May, 1861, at the head of his class, and promoted to 2d lieutenant of the Engineer Corps. On 14 May, he was commissioned 1st lieutenant, 5th Artillery, and became captain 24 March, 1864. He was acting assistant adjutant-general of the troops in New York Harbor in 1862-'3, and commanded a battery in West Virginia from 1863 until 24 May, 1864, participating in the battle of Newmarket. As chief of artillery of that department from the latter date he commanded the artillery in engagements at Piedmont, Lexington, and Lynchburg during the spring and summer of 1864. Later in the year he took part in the battles of Cedar Creek, Halltown, Berryville, Opequan. and Fisher's Hill, in command of the artillery of Crook's Corps, being brevetted major for gallant services in the two last-mentioned engagements, and lieutenant-colonel, 19 October, 1864, for services at Cedar Creek. After the war he was a member of the board to assimilate the tactics for the three arras of the service. Colonel Du Pont resigned in March, 1875. Since 5 May, 1879, he has been president of the Wilmington and Northern Railroad Company. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 265-266.
DURYEE, Abram, soldier, born in New York City, 29 April, 1815. He is of Huguenot descent, and his grandfather served in the Revolutionary war, being at one time a prisoner in the old sugar-house on Liberty Street. His father and two of his uncles served as officers in the war of 1812. Young Duryee was graduated at the Crosby street high school, and trained to mercantile life, accumulating a fortune as a mahogany merchant in New York. He entered the New York state militia in 1833, and served in the 142d Regiment. Five years later he joined the 27th Regiment (now the 7th) as a private, and rose gradually until he became its colonel in 1849, holding that, office for fourteen years. During the Astor place riots he commanded his regiment, and was twice wounded, and he also participated in the subsequent police, city hall, sixth ward, and " dead-rabbit " riots with the 7th. In April, 1861, he raised in less than a week the 5th New York Volunteers, a regiment best known as "Duryee's Zouaves." His command was engaged at Big Bethel, the first battle of the war, and after the fight he was made acting brigadier-general, superseding General E. W. Pierce. In August, 1861, he received his commission as brigadier-general and was given command of a brigade in General James B. Ricketts's division. He participated in the battles of Cedar Mountain, Thoroughfare Gap, second Bull Run, and Chantilly, and with the Army of the Potomac was at South Mountain and Antietam, where he commanded General Ricketts's division when the latter succeeded General Hooker as corps commander. He then obtained a short leave of absence, and on his return to the army found that his brigade had been given to an inferior in rank. His claims for the old position were ignored, and in consequence he resigned in January, 1863. At the close of the war he received the brevet of major- general. Subsequently he was elected colonel of the 71st Regiment, and brigadier-general of the 4th New York Brigade, but both of these honors he declined. Besides his own regiment, the 165th (2d Duryee Zouaves) and the 4th Regiments in the national guard bore his name. In 1873 he was appointed police commissioner in New York City, which office he held for many years. At the time of the communistic gathering in Tompkins Square during January, 1874, with a small force of police he attacked the crowd, captured their banners, and drove them from the square. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 273-274.
DUTTON, Arthur Henry, soldier, born in Wallingford, Connecticut, 15 November, 1838; died in Baltimore, Maryland, 2 July, 1864. He was graduated at West Point in the Engineer Corps in 1861. He served on the staff of General Mansfield in Washington at the beginning of the war, and then had charge of the defences of Fernandina, Florida, until he became colonel of the 21st Connecticut Regiment on 5 September, 1862. While on duty in North Carolina with his regiment, he served as chief of staff to Major-General Peek, and subsequently held a similar position upon the staff of Major-General W. P. Smith. After the battle of Drury's Bluff, in which he greatly distinguished himself, he was placed in command of the 3d brigade. While reconnoitering with his brigade in the neighborhood of Bermuda Hundred on 5 June, 1864, he came upon the enemy strongly intrenched and almost hidden from view. Being, as usual, on the skirmish line, he was mortally wounded in the beginning of the engagement. — His brother, Clarence Edward, soldier, born in Wallingford, Connecticut, 15 May, 1841, was graduated at Yale in 1860, and subsequently spent two years in study at New Haven. In 1862 he became 1st lieutenant and adjutant, and shortly afterward captain, in the 21st Connecticut Volunteers. He was engaged at Fredericksburg, Norfolk, Cold Harbor, Bermuda Hundred, and Drury's Bluff. In 1863 he was admitted to the U. S. Army as 2d lieutenant in the ordnance corps, after passing a severe competitive examination, and was promoted 1st lieutenant in March, 1867. Meanwhile he had been stationed at Watervliet Arsenal in West Troy, in 1865, and came under the influence of Robert P. Whitfield and Alexander L. Holley, who directed his attention to geology and the technology of iron. For five years his leisure was occupied in the study of these subjects, and in 1870 he read his first paper, "On the Chemistry of the Bessemer Process, before the American Association for the advancement of science, at their Troy meeting. He was transferred to the Frankford arsenal in 1870. and in 1871 to the Washington Arsenal, where he remained until May, 1876, having been promoted to captain in June, 1873. While in Washington he renewed his studies in geology and devoted considerable attention to the microscopic examination of rocks. His work was noticed by the officers of the U. S. Geological Survey, and during the summers of 1875- 7 he was detailed for duty in connection with the survey of the Rocky Mountain Region under Major John W. Powell. The winters of these years were spent in the west as chief ordnance officer of the Department of the Platte. In 1878 he was ordered to report to the Secretary of the Interior, and subsequently was associated with the U. S. Geological Survey, being in 1887 geologist in charge of the division of volcanic geology. His work on the geology of the high plateaus of central Utah was begun in 1875 and completed in 1877, and that in the Grand Canyon District was finished in 1880. In 1882 he visited the Hawaiian Islands for the purpose of examining the volcanoes, and then made a special study of the great volcanic fields of the northwest. He began the examination of the Mount Taylor and Zuni District of New Mexico in 1884, and in 1885 began an investigation of the cascade and coast ranges of Northern California and Oregon, on which he is now (1887) still occupied. In 1886 he was employed for a short time in studying the causes of the Charleston earthquake, concerning which he prepared a monograph. Captain Dutton is a member of several scientific societies, and in 1884 was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Besides upward of fifty articles on scientific subjects, he has published the following government reports: "Geology of the High Plateaus of Utah" (Washington, 1880); "Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District" (1882); "Physical "Geology of the Grand Canon District" (1882); Hawaiian Volcanoes" (1884); and "Mount Taylor and the Zuni Plateau" (1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 276.
DUVAL, Isaac Hardin, soldier, born in Wellsburg, Brooke County, Virginia, 1 September, 1824. He received a common-school education, was many years a hunter in the Rocky mountains, commanded the first company that crossed the plains from Texas to California, and travelled in Mexico and Central and South America. In 1846-'7 he was secretary to the commissioners sent by President Polk to treat with the Indians on the Texas frontier. On 1 May, 1861, he entered the U. S. volunteer service as major of the 1st West Virginia Infantry. He was promoted colonel on 1 September, 1862, brigadier-general on 1 November, 1864, assigned to the command of the 1st Division of the 8th Army Corps, and made major-general by brevet at the end of the war. He was two years in the Senate of West Virginia, two years adjutant-general of the state, and in 1868 was elected as a Republican to Congress, serving one term. He was appointed assessor of internal revenue in 1871, and was collector for the first District of West Virginia in 1873-'5. He subsequently followed the insurance business, and in 1886 was elected to the legislature. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 277.
DWIGHT, William, soldier, grandson of Edmund's brother Jonathan, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, 14 July, 1831. attended a military school at West Point in 1846-9, and was at the U. S. Military Academy there in 1849-'53, but resigned before he was graduated and became a manufacturer in Boston, and afterward in Philadelphia. He was commissioned captain in the 13th U. S. Infantry on 14 May, 1861, and in June of that year became lieutenant-colonel of the 70th New York Volunteers, of which Daniel E. Sickles was colonel. At the battle of Williamsburg half the regiment were killed or wounded, Colonel Dwight being wounded three times and left for dead on the field. For his gallantry on this occasion he was promoted to brigadier-general of volunteers on 29 November, 1862, and assigned to the 1st Brigade of Grover's Division, which he led in the attack on Port Hudson. He also served on the commission to settle the terms of surrender of that place. In May, 1864, he was General Banks's chief of staff in the Red River Expedition, succeeding Charles P. Stone, and in July of that year was put in command of the 1st Division of the 19th Army Corps, under Sheridan, with which he rendered important service at Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. He remained in the army till 15 January, 1866, and subsequently moved to Cincinnati. Ohio. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 280.
DWIGHT, Wilder, soldier, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, 23 April, 1833; died in Boonsborough, Maryland. 19 September, 1862, was graduated at Harvard in 1853, and at the law-school in 1855. He practised in Boston from 1857 till 24 May, 1861, when he became major of the 2d Massachusetts Infantry. He distinguished himself in General Banks's retreat through the Shenandoah Valley, and was taken prisoner at Winchester on 25 May, 1862. He was made lieutenant-colonel on 13 June, 1862, was mortally wounded at Antietam, and died in hospital two days later. His " Life and Letters " were published by" his mother, Elizabeth Amelia, daughter of Daniel Appleton White, of Salem, Massachusetts (Boston, 1868). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 280-281.
DYE, William McEntyre, soldier, born in Pennsylvania about 1832. He was appointed from Ohio to the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1853, served in the 8th U.S. Infantry on frontier and garrison duty, was promoted 1st lieutenant in 1850, and captain, 14 May, 1861. After being employed on mustering and recruiting service he became colonel of the 20th Iowa Regiment, 25 August, 1862, served in Missouri and Arkansas in 1862-'3, receiving the brevet of major for gallantry at Vicksburg, and led a brigade in the Red River Campaign of 1864, for which he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel on 28 May. He commanded a brigade at Mobile Bay in September, and, after taking part in several expeditions, was acting assistant provost-marshal-general of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Dakota in 1865. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers. 13 March, 1865, for services during the war, and colonel in the regular army on 9 April for gallantry in the Mobile Campaign. He was promoted major of the 4th U.S. Infantry, 14 January, 1866, served in various garrisons, and on 30 September, 1870. was honorably discharged at his own request. He entered the Egyptian service late in 1873, and served as assistant to the chief of staff in the Abyssinian Expedition, where he was wounded. On its return he was charged by an Egyptian officer with assault and battery, and was to have been court-martialed, but his resignation was accepted before the trial. He subsequently received $5,000 from the Egyptian government in compensation for his wound, and afterward returned to this country. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 284.
DYER, Alexander Brydie, soldier, born in Richmond, Virginia, 10 January, 1815; died in Washington, D. C., 20 May, 1874. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1837, served in garrison at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, in the Florida War of 1837-'8, and on ordnance duty at various arsenals in 1838-'46, was chief of ordnance of the army invading New Mexico in 1846-'8, during a part of which time he was on the staff of General Sterling Price, and was engaged at Canada, Taos, where he was wounded 4 February, 1847, and Santa Cruz de Rosales, Mexico, receiving for his services the brevets of 1st lieutenant and captain. He was afterward in command of North Carolina Arsenal. At the beginning of the Civil War Captain Dyer was active in promoting the efficiency of the ordnance department. He invented the Dyer projectile for cannon. He was in command of the Springfield armory in 1861-4, and greatly extended the manufacture of small-arms for the army. In 1864, as Chief of Ordnance, U. S. Army, he was placed in charge of the ordnance bureau in Washington, D. C, with the rank of brigadier-general, and he retained this office till his death. In March, 1865, he was brevetted major-general, U. S. Army, for faithful, meritorious, and distinguished services. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 285.
DYER, David Patterson, lawyer, born in Henry County, Virginia, 12 February, 1838. He moved to Missouri in 1841, and was educated at the common schools and at St. Charles College, studied law at Bowling Green, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1859. He was elected district prosecuting attorney in 1860, and in 1862-'5 was a member of the legislature. He recruited and commanded the 49th Regiment of Missouri Volunteer Infantry during a part of the Civil War, participated in the campaigns against Mobile in 1865, and in 1866 was chosen secretary of the state senate. He was a delegate to the Chicago National Republican Convention in 1868, and in the same year was elected to Congress from Missouri, serving on the committees on territories and agriculture, and was U. S. attorney for the eastern District of Missouri in 1875-'6. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 285.
