Encyclopedia of Civil War Military Biography – Sac-Sha
SACKET, Delos Bennet, soldier, born in Cape Vincent. New York, 14 April, 1822; died in Washington, D. C, 8 March, 1885. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1845, assigned to the 2d Dragoons, and served in the Mexican War, being brevetted 1st lieutenant, 9 May, 1846, for gallant and meritorious conduct at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Texas. On 30 June, 1846, he became 2d lieutenant, and he was made 1st lieutenant on 27 December,1848. He was engaged in scouting in 1850, and was assistant instructor of cavalry tactics in the U.S. Military Academy from 10 December, 1850, till 16 April. 1855. On 3 March.1855, he became captain of 1st U.S. Cavalry, he was a member of the board to revise the army regulations in Washington in 1856-'7, served on frontier duty in the Kansas disturbances in 1856-'7, and on the Utah and Cheyenne Expedition in 1858. He was appointed major of 1st U.S. Cavalry on 31 January, 1861, lieutenant-colonel of 2d U.S. Cavalry on 3 May, 1861, and inspector-general on 1 October, 1861. Joining the Army of the Potomac, he served on the staff of the commanding general in the Virginia Peninsula and the Maryland and Rappahannock Campaigns, participating in the chief engagements. He was in charge of the inspector-general's office in Washington. D. C, from 10 January till 26 May, 1863, and afterward a member of the board to organize invalid corps and treat for retiring disabled officers. From 1 April, 1864, till August, 1865. he was on inspection duty in the departments of the Tennessee, Cumberland, Arkansas, and New Mexico. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general and major-general for gallant and meritorious services in the field and during the Civil War. After the war he was inspector-general of the Department of the Tennessee and of the divisions of the Atlantic and the Missouri. On the retirement of General Randolph B Marcy on 2 January, 1881, he became senior inspector-general of the army with the rank of brigadier-general. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 364.
SACKETT, William Augustus, 1811-1895, New York, lawyer, politician. Elected to U.S. House of Representatives from New York as a member of the Whig Party. Served in Congress two terms from 1849-1853. Opposed extension of slavery into the New territories and the fugitive slave laws. Early member of the Republican Party. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 364-365)
SACKETT, William Augustus, Congressman, born in Aurelius, Cayuga County, New York, 18 November, 1812. His ancestors came from England in 1632, settled in Massachusetts, and continued to live in New England until 1804, when his father moved to Cayuga County, New York. He received an academic education, studied law in Seneca Falls and Skaneateles, was admitted to the bar in 1834, and soon secured a lucrative practice. Elected to Congress as a Whig, he served from 3 December, 1849, till 3 March, 1853. He took part in the controversy in relation to the admission of California as a free state, and both spoke and voted for admission. He earnestly opposed the Fugitive-Slave Law, and was uncompromisingly in opposition to slavery and the admission of any more slave states. From the committee on claims he made a report on the power of consuls, which had an influence in the final modification of those powers. He moved to Saratoga Springs in 1857, where he still resides. In 1876-'8 he travelled extensively in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land, and wrote letters describing his journeys that were published. He has been a Republican since the organization of the party, and has been active as a public speaker.—His son, WILLIAM, was colonel of the 9th New York Cavalry, and was killed while leading a charge under General Sheridan at Trevillian Station, Virginia. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 364-365.
ST. JOHN, Isaac Munroe, engineer, born in Augusta, Georgia, 19 November, 1827; died in Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, 7 April, 1880. After graduation at Yale in 1845, he studied law in New York City, and moved to Baltimore in 1847, where he became assistant editor of the "Patriot," but chose civil engineering for a profession, and was engaged on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1855 he moved to Georgia, and was employed on the Blue Ridge Railroad until the beginning of the Civil War, when he entered the Engineer Corps of the Confederate Army at Richmond, Virginia, and was assigned to duty under General John B. Magruder. He rendered valuable service in constructing fortifications during General George B. McClellan's first campaign. In May, 1862, he was made major and chief of the mining and nitre bureau, which was the sole reliance of the Confederacy for gunpowder material. He was promoted through the various grades to the rank of brigadier-general, and in 1865 was made commissary-general, and established a system by which supplies for the army were collected directly from the people and placed in depots for immediate transportation. After the war he resumed his profession in Kentucky, became chief engineer of the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Lexington Railroad, and built the short-line to Cincinnati, which was considered a great feat in civil engineering. He was city engineer of Louisville in 1870-'l, made the first topographical map of that city, and established its system of sewerage. From 1871 until his death he was consulting engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and chief engineer of the Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 371.
ST. JOHN, John Pierce, governor of Kansas, born in Franklin County, Indiana, 25 February, 1833. In early years he was employed on his father's farm, and was clerk in a grocer's store. In 1853 he went to California, worked in various capacities, and made voyages to South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Sandwich Islands, and served in wars with the Indians in California and Oregon. In 1860 he moved to Charleston, Illinois, to continue the study of law, which he had begun in his miner's cabin. Early in 1862 he enlisted as a private in the 68th Illinois Volunteers, in which he became a captain. At Alexandria, Virginia, he was detached from his command, and assigned as acting assistant adjutant-general under General John P. Slough. In 1864 he was placed in command of the troops at Camp Mattoon, Illinois, and on the organization of the 143d Regiment he was elected its lieutenant-colonel, serving chiefly in the Mississippi valley. At the close of the war he resumed practice in Charleston, but moved afterward to Independence, Missouri, where he practised law four years with success, and won a reputation as a political orator. He moved to Olathe, Kansas, in 1869, served in the state senate in 1873-'4, and was elected governor of Kansas, as a Republican, in 1878, serving until 1882, when he was defeated as a candidate for a third term. He was the candidate of the Prohibition Party for president of the United States in 1884, and received a vote of 151,809. During the canvass he delivered addresses in various parts of the United States. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 371.
SALM SALM, Prince Felix, soldier, born in Anholt, Prussia, 25 December, 1828; died near Metz, Alsace, 18 August, 1870. He was a younger son of the reigning Prince zu Salm Salm, was educated at the cadet-school in Berlin, became an officer in the Prussian Cavalry, and saw service in the Schleswig-Holstein War, receiving a decoration for bravery at Aarhuis. He then joined the Austrian Army, but was compelled to resign, extravagant habits having brought him into pecuniary difficulties. In 1861 he came to the United States and offered his services to the National government. He was given a colonel's commission and attached to the staff of General Louis Blenker. In November, 1862, he took command of the 8th New York Regiment, which was mustered out in the following spring. He was appointed colonel of the 68th New York Volunteers on 8 June, 1864, serving under General James B. Steedman in Tennessee and Georgia, and toward the end of the war was assigned to the command of the post at Atlanta, receiving the brevet of brigadier-general on 15 April, 1865. He next offered his services to the Emperor Maximilian, embarked for Mexico in February, 1866, and on 1 July was appointed colonel of the general staff. He became the emperor's aide-de-camp and chief of his household, and was captured at Queretaro. Soon after Maximilian's execution he returned to Europe, reentered the Prussian army as major in the grenadier guards, and was killed at the battle of Gravelotte. He published, “My Diary, in Mexico in 1867, including the Last Days of the Emperor Maximilian, with Leaves from the Diary of the Princess Salm Salm” (London, 1868).—His wife, Agnes, born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1842; died in Coblentz, Germany, about 1881, is said to have been adopted when a child in Europe by the wife of a member of the cabinet at Washington, but, after receiving a good education in Philadelphia, to have left her home and become a circus-rider and then a rope-dancer. Afterward she acquired a reputation as an actress under the name of Agnes Leclercq, and lived several years in Havana, Cuba. She returned to the United States in 1861, and married Prince Salm Salm on 30 August 1862. She accompanied her husband throughout his military campaigns in the south, performing useful service in connection with the field-hospitals, and was with him also in Mexico. After the fall of Queretaro she rode to San Luis Potosi and implored President Juarez to procure the release of Maximilian and of his aide, who underwent imprisonment with him. She also sought the intervention of Porfirio Diaz and of Mariano Escobedo, and arranged a conference between the latter general and the archduke. After the death of her husband she raised a hospital brigade, which accomplished much good during the Franco-Prussian War. Subsequently she married Charles Heneage, an attaché of the British embassy at Berlin, but soon separated from him. She published “Ten Years of My Life” (New York, 1875). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 378.
SALOMON, Frederick, soldier, born near Halberstadt, Prussia, 7 April, 1826. After passing through the gymnasium, he became a government surveyor, later a lieutenant of artillery, and in 1848 a pupil in the Berlin School of Architecture. Emigrating soon afterward to the United States, he settled in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, as a surveyor. He was for four years county register of deeds, and in 1857-'9 chief engineer on the Manitowoc and Wisconsin Railroad. He entered the volunteer service in the spring of 1861 as a captain in the 5th Missouri Volunteers, and served under General Franz Sigel, being present at Wilson's Creek. After the three months' term of service had expired he was appointed colonel of the 9th Wisconsin Infantry, which he commanded in the southwest until he was made a brigadier-general, 16 June, 1862, and assigned to the command of a brigade in Kansas. On 30 September he made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Newtonia, Missouri. He served through the war, receiving the brevet of major-general in March, 1865, and was mustered out on 25 August, 1865. General Salomon was subsequently for several years surveyor-general of Utah Territory, where he now (1888) resides.—His brother, Edward, born near Halberstadt, Prussia, in 1828, came with him to this country, became a lawyer, was governor of Wisconsin in 1862-'3, and now practices in New York City. He has gained a high reputation as a political speaker, especially in the German language. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 379.
SALTER, William D., naval officer, born in New York City in 1794; died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 8 January, 1869. He entered the navy as midshipman on 15 November, 1809, was attached to the frigate "Constitution " under Commodore Isaac Hull during the action with the British frigate "Guerriere," on 19 August, 1812, and was the last survivor of those who participated in that action. He became lieutenant on 9 December, 1814, was made master-commandant on 3 March, 1831, captain on 3 March, 1839, and commodore on the retired list on 16 July, 1862. He was in command of the Brooklyn U.S. Navy-yard in 1856-'9, and in 1863 was on a commission to examine vessels, from which duty he was relieved in 1866. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 379.
SAMPSON, William Thomas, naval officer, born in Palmyra, New York, 9 February, 1840. He was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1861, and attached to the frigate " Potomac” with the rank of master. In July, 1862, he was commissioned as lieutenant, and in 1862-'3 he served in the practice-sloop "John Adams." During 1864 he was stationed at the Naval Academy, and he then served in the " Patapsco" with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in 1864-'5, and was in that vessel when she was destroyed in Charleston Harbor in January, 1865. He served in the flag-ship " Colorado," of the European Squadron, in 1865-'7, and was at the Naval Academy in 1868-'71. Meanwhile he had been commissioned lieutenant-commander on 25 July, 1866. His next service was in the " Congress" on special duty in 1872, and on the European Station in 1873, after which, in 1875, he had the "Alert," and was commissioned commander on 9 August, 1874. During 1876-'9 he was at the Naval Academy, and in 1880 was given command of the "Swatara," of the Asiatic Squadron. He was assistant superintendent of the U. S. Naval Observatory in Washington in 1882-'3, and in September, 1886, was appointed superintendent of the U. S. Naval Academy. Commander Sampson was a member of the International Conference at Washington in October, 1884, for the purpose of fixing a prime meridian and a universal day, and in 1885 was appointed a member of the board to report upon the necessary fortifications and other defences for the coast. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 383.
SAMUELS, Samuel, seaman, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 14 March, 1825. He shipped as cabin boy on a coasting-vessel at the age of eleven, studied navigation on shipboard, and after many voyages became at twenty-one captain of a merchantman. He commanded for several years the "Dreadnaught," the fastest of the sailing-packets. In 1863-'4 he was captain of the U. S. steamship “John Rice." In 1864 he was general superintendent of the quartermaster's department in New York City, having charge of the repairing, victualling, and dispatching of vessels. In 1865 he commanded the "McClellan" at the taking of Fort Fisher. He was captain of the "Fulton," the last of the American packet steamers between New York and Havre in 1866, and in the winter commanded the " Henrietta" yacht in her race from New York to Southampton, in 1870 the yacht "Dauntless" in her race with the "Cambria" from Queenstown to New York, making the voyage in twenty-one days, and again in 1887 in her race across the Atlantic with the "Coronet." In 1872 he organized the Samana Bay Company of Santo Domingo with a quasi-understanding that the U. S. government should acquire a part of the bay as a naval station. He was granted a concession by the Dominican executive, which was confirmed by a plebiscite, and took possession in March, 1873, but in 1874 was expelled by the new government. In 1876 he organized the Rousseau Electric Signal Company, and introduced the English system of interlocking switches and signals. He was general superintendent in 1878-'9 of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company at San Francisco, California, and in 1881 he organized the United States Steam Heating and Power Company in New York City. Captain Samuels has published a narrative of his early life and adventures in the merchant service under the title of " From Forecastle to Cabin" (New York, 1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 383-384.
SANBORN, John Benjamin, soldier, born in Epsom, New Hampshire, 5 December, 1826. He was educated at Dartmouth, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in July, 1854. In December of that year he moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he has since resided, engaged in the practice of the law when not in the public service. As adjutant general and quartermaster-general of Minnesota he organized and sent to the field five regiments of infantry, a battalion of cavalry, and two batteries of artillery in 1861, and in the spring of 1862 left the state as colonel of the 4th Minnesota Volunteers, remaining in active service in the field to the close of the war. At Iuka, his first battle, he commanded the leading brigade and was commended in the official report. About 600 of his men, out of 2,200, were killed and wounded in little more than an hour. For this he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, but the senate allowed this appointment to lapse, and after the Vicksburg Campaign, on the recommendation of General McPherson and General Grant, he was again commissioned to date from 4 August, 1863. This appointment was confirmed by the Senate. He participated in the battles of Corinth, Port Gibson. Raymond, Jackson, and Champion Hills, and in the assault and siege of Vicksburg. He was designated to lead the advance into the town after the surrender, and superintended the paroling of the prisoners of war and passing them beyond the lines. This honor was conferred on account of his gallant conduct and that of his command, especially at the battle of Jackson. After October he commanded the District of Southwest Missouri and a brigade and division of cavalry in the field in October and November, 1864, and fought the actions of Jefferson City, Booneville, Independence, Big Blue, Little Blue, Osage, Marias and Newtonia. He was never defeated by the enemy, and never failed of complete success except in the assault of 22 May at Vicksburg. He conducted a campaign against the Indians of the southwest in the summer and autumn of 1865, opened all the lines of communication to the territories of Colorado and New Mexico, and terminated all hostilities with the Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Apaches of the upper Arkansas, by the treaties that he concluded at the mouth of the Little Arkansas in October, 1865. After this, in the winter of 1865–6, under the direction of President Johnson, he adjusted amicably the difficulties growing out of the war between the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Seminoles and their slaves, and declared the slaves of these tribes free. In 1867 General Sanborn was designated by Congress as one of an Indian Commission, and with the other commissioners negotiated several treaties which have remained in force and, in connection with the report of that commission, have had a great influence in the amelioration of the condition of the Indians. He has been a member of the house and senate of Minnesota on various occasions. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 384-385.
SANDERS, William Price, soldier, born in Lexington, Kentucky, 12 August, 1833; died in Knoxville, Tennessee, 18 November, 1863. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1856, became 1st lieutenant, 10 May, 1861, and on the 14th of that month captain of the 6th U. S. Cavalry. He engaged in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Mechanicsville, and Hanover Court-House during the Virginia Peninsular Campaign, became colonel of the 5th Kentucky Cavalry in March, 1863, was in pursuit of Morgan's raiders in July and August, was chief of cavalry in the Department of the Ohio in October and November, and participated in the actions at Blue Lick Springs, Lenori, and Campbell's Station, where he was mortally wounded. He became brigadier-general of volunteers, 18 October, 1863. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 386.
SANDERSON John Philip, soldier, born in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, 13 February, 1818: died in St. Louis, Missouri, 14 Oct, 1864. He was admitted to the bar in 1839, and served in the legislature in 1845, and in the state senate in 1847. He edited the Philadelphia " Daily News" in 1848-"56, and became chief clerk of the U. S. War Department in 1861, but resigned to become lieutenant-colonel of the 15th U. S. Infantry. He was appointed its colonel in July, 1863, and in February, 1864, became provost-marshal-general of the Department of the Missouri. His most important public service was the full exposition that he made during the Civil War of the secret political organization in the northern and western states, known as the " Knights of the Golden Circle" or the "Order of American Knights." He published "Views and Opinions of American Statesmen on Foreign Immigration" (Philadelphia, 1H43). and "Republican Landmarks" (1856). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 386
SANDS, Alexander Hamilton, lawyer, born in Williamsburg, Virginia, 2 Mav, 1828; died in Richmond, Virginia, 22 December, 1887. He studied at William and Mary in 1838-'42, but was not graduated, read law, and in 1843 became deputy clerk of the state superior court. In 1845-'9 he held the same office in the U. S. Circuit Court. He was a judge-advocate in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and a short time before his death entered the Baptist ministry, serving congregations in Ashland and Glen Allan, Virginia. Besides contributions to periodicals, he published " History of a Suit in Equity" (Richmond, 1854); a new edition of Alexander Tate's "American Form-Book" (1857); "Recreations of a Southern Barrister" (Philadelphia, 1800); "Practical Law Forms" (1872): and "Sermons by a Village Pastor." He compiled " Hubbell's Legal Directory of Virginia Laws and was the editor of the "Quarterly Law Review" and the "Evening Bulletin" (1859), both in Richmond. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 387-388.
SANDS, Benjamin Franklin, naval officer, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 11 February, 1811; died in Washington, D. C, 30 June, 1883. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 April, 1838, and was commissioned lieutenant, 16 March, 1840. During the latter part of the Mexican War he was in the Gulf Squadron, and took part in the expedition up the Tabasco River and at Tuspan. He cruised in the sloop "Yorktown " and in command of the brig "Porpoise" off the coast of Africa, for the suppression of the slave trade, in 1848-51. He was attached to the U.S. Coast-Survey service in 1851-'9, during which period he was promoted to commander, 14 September, 1855. He was next attached to the Bureau of Construction in the Navy Department until the Civil War. He was commissioned captain, 16 July, 1862, commanded the steamer "Dacotah " on the blockade, participating in the engagement with Fort Caswell at the mouth of Cape Fear River. He was senior officer in command of the division on the blockade off Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1862-'5, and also took part in both attacks on Fort Fisher in command of the steamer " Fort Jackson." He had charge of the division on the blockade off the coast of Texas from February to June, 1865, and on 2 June, 1865, he hoisted the U. S. flag at Galveston, the last place that was surrendered by the Confederates, He was commissioned commodore, 25 July, 1866, and appointed superintendent of the Naval Observatory at Washington in 1867, where he remained until the latter part of 1873. He was commissioned rear-admiral, 27 April, 1871, placed on the retired list, 11 February, 1874, and was then a resident of Washington until his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 388.
SANDS, Joshua Ratoon, naval officer, born in Brooklyn, New York, 13 May, 1795: died in Baltimore, Maryland, 2 October, 1883. His father, Joshua Sands, was collector of the port of New York, and a representative in Congress in 1803-'5 and 1825-'7. The son entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 18 June, 1812, and immediately entered upon his duties in Commodore Chauncey's squadron on Lake Ontario, He participated in the action with the "Royal George," 5 November, 1812. The next season he was attached to the "Madison," and in the action that resulted in the capture of Toronto he carried the orders of the commodore by pulling in a small boat to the different vessels until the enemy surrendered. In May, 1813, he served in the "Pike," and fought several engagements with the British Squadron under Sir James Yeo. In 1814 he was with a battery on shore and in the frigate "Superior" until pence was proclaimed in 1815. He was commissioned lieutenant, 1 April, 1818, and commander, 23 February, 1841. During the Mexican War he had charge of the steamer "Vixen," in which he assisted at the capture of Alvarado, Tabasco, and Laguna. He was governor of the last-named place until the investment of Vera Cruz, where he rendered service by taking the "Vixen" close under the batteries and to the castle of San Juan d' Ulloa. He co-operated in the capture of Tuspan, and in 1847 brought home the flags, trophies, and brass cannon, with a complimentary letter to the Navy Department for his creditable services. In 1851 he commanded the frigate "St. Lawrence" with the government exhibits for the World's Fair at London, and prior to his departure he was given a banquet and presented by the citizens of Brooklyn with a sword and epaulets, which he gave to the Historical Society of Brooklyn, together with a gold snuff-box inlaid with diamonds that had been presented to him by Queen Victoria. He assisted in laying the submarine cable in 1857, took part in the expedition to Central America against the filibusters, was promoted to captain, 25 February, 1854, and was flag-officer in command of the Brazil station in 1859-61. He was retired on 21 December, 1861 as he was more than sixty-two years of age, but was commissioned commodore, 16 July, 1862, and served as light-house inspector on the lakes until 1866. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 25 July, 1866, and was port-admiral at Norfolk from 1869 till 1872. After that he resided at Baltimore until his death, at which time he was the senior officer of the navy on the retired list. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 388-389.
SANFORD, Charles W., lawyer, born in Newark, New Jersey, 5 Mav, 1796; died in Avon Springs, Livingston County, New York, 25 July. 1878. He studied law in the office of Ogden Hoffman in New York City, and was admitted to the bar there, where he remained in continuous practice throughout his life. He was counsel for the Harlem Railroad for more than twenty year's, and became well known from his connection with several important suits. He was vice-president of the Bar Association and a member of the Law Institute. He enlisted as a private in the 3d New York Militia Regiment, and was promoted until he was placed in command of the 1st Division. In 1867 he was retired by Governor Reuben E. Fenton, after being at the head of the military organization in New York City for more than thirty years. On him devolved the responsibility of directing the troops that were called out to suppress the Astor Place, Flour, Street-preachers', and Draft Riots. At the beginning of the Civil War he responded to the first call for three-months volunteers, and was placed at the head of a division under General Robert Patterson. He was in command at Harper's Ferry during the battle of Bull Run. In his early life General Sanford had some experience as a manager, but having lost both of his theatres by fire, he abandoned that field of speculation. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 389-390.
SARGENT, Horace Binney, soldier, born in Quincy, Massachusetts, 30 June, 1821, was graduated at Harvard in 1843, and at the law department there in 1845. At the opening of the Civil War he was senior aide on the staff of Governor John A. Andrew, was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Regiment, Massachusetts Cavalry, in 1861, became colonel of the same regiment in October, 1862, was on duty with the forces in South Carolina, in the Army of the Potomac and the Department of the Gulf, participating in the engagements of Secessionville, Culpeper, and Rapidan Station, and in the battles of Antietam, South Mountain, Chancellorsville, and in the Red River Campaign under General Banks, where he was wounded in action, 21 March, 1864, was brevetted brigadier-general for “gallantry and good conduct,” and 29 September, 1864, was mustered out on account of wounds received in action. He has been a frequent contributor to periodical literature and the press, and has delivered numerous addresses. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 398.
SARGENT, Lucius Manlius, soldier, born in Boston, 15 September, 1826; died near Bellefield, Virginia, 9 December, 1864, was graduated at Harvard in 1848, and at the medical department there in 1857, becoming house surgeon and dispensary physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was commissioned surgeon in the 2d Massachusetts Volunteers in May, 1861, but resigned in October of that year, and became captain in the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, was ordered to the Army of the Potomac, and participated in the battles of Kelly's Ford, Antietam, South Mountain, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He became major in his former regiment, 2 January, 1864, lieutenant-colonel, 30 September, and was mortally wounded in an engagement on Meherrin River. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 399.
SARGENT, Charles Sprague, arboriculturist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 24 April, 1841, was graduated at Harvard in 1862, became lieutenant and aide-de-camp of U. S. volunteers in November of that year, aide-de-camp in 1863, and was brevetted major of volunteers in 1865. He was chosen director of the Botanic Garden and Arnold Arboretum of Harvard in 1873, and professor of arboriculture in 1879. Professor Sargent planned the Jesup collection of North American woods in the American Museum of Natural history, New York City, in 1880. He was chairman of a commission to examine the Adirondack Forests and devise measures for their preservation in 1885, and in 1888 became editor and general manager of "Garden and Forest," a weekly journal of horticulture and forestry. His publications include a "Catalogue of the Forest Trees of North America" (Washington, D.C., 1880); “Pruning Forests and Ornamental Trees,” translated from the French of Adolphe Des Cars (Boston, 1881); “Reports on the Forests of North America” (Washington, 1884); “The Woods of the United States, with an Account of their Structure, Qualities, and Uses” (New York, 1885); and “Report of the Forest Commission of the State of New York” (Albany, 1885). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 399-400.
SARTORI, Lewis Constant, naval officer, born in Bloomsbury, Burlington County, New Jersey, 3 June, 1812. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 2 February, 1829, was promoted to lieutenant, 8 September, 1841, and during the Mexican War was attached to the bomb-brig “Stromboli,” in which he participated in the capture of Goatzacoalcas and Tabasco in 1847-'8. He next served in the Mediterranean Squadron, and was in the sloop "John Adams,” of the Pacific Squadron, in 1855–6, during which time he commanded an expedition, and had engagements with the Feejees. Upon his return from this cruise he was on duty at the Philadelphia U.S. Navy-yard in 1857-'8. He was promoted to commander, 7 April, 1861, and assigned to the steamer “Flag” on '. South Atlantic Blockade. He commanded the sloop-of-war “Portsmouth " in the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron in 1863–75, and the steamer “Agawam,” of the North Atlantic Squadron, in 1865–6. He was promoted to captain, 26 September, 1866, served in the North Pacific Squadron in 1868-'70, was made commodore, 12 December, 1873, and retired, 3 June, 1874. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 402.
SATTERLEE, Richard Sherwood, surgeon, born in Fairfield, Herkimer County, New York, 6 December, 1798: died in New York City, 10 November, 1880. His father, Major William Satterlee, served in the Revolutionary Army. After a collegiate course the son studied medicine, was admitted to practice, and in 1818 settled in Seneca County, New York, subsequently removing to Detroit. He became assistant surgeon in the U. S. army in 1823. served in the first and second Florida Wars, and in 1846 was assigned to duty under General William J. Worth, as chief surgeon of the 1st Division of regulars. After the capture of Mexico he became medical director on the staff of General Winfield Scott. He became U. S. Medical Purveyor in 1853, held that office till the close of the Civil War, and in 1864 was brevetted "lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brigadier-general for diligent care and attention in procuring proper army supplies as medical purveyor, and for economy and fidelity in the disbursement of large sums of money." He became lieutenant-colonel and Chief Medical Purveyor in July, 1866, and was retired, 22 February, 1869. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 403.
SAVAGE, John, journalist, born in Dublin, Ireland, 13 December, 1828. He was educated in his native city, and studied in the art school of the Royal Dublin Society, winning several prizes. He became active in revolutionary clubs, established two journals that were suppressed by the British government, and afterward organized and led armed peasants in the south of Ireland. When the cause was lost, he escaped to New York in 1848, and became a proof-reader for the New York “Tribune.” Afterward he was literary editor of “The Citizen,” wrote for the “Democratic Review” and “American Review.” In 1857 he moved to Washington, where he was chief writer for “The States.” the organ of Stephen A. Douglas, of which paper he became the proprietor. He was active in organizing the Irish Brigade and the Irish Legion for the National army during the Civil War, and served in the 69th New York Regiment. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by St. John's College, Fordham, New York, in 1875. Mr. Savage wrote several popular war-songs. including “The Starry Flag” and “The Muster of the North.” He is the author of “Laws of the Fatherland” (New York, 1850); “'98 and '48: the Modern Revolutionary History and Literature of Ireland” (1856); “Our Living Representative Men” (Philadelphia, 1860); “Faith and Fancy,” poems ' York, 1863): “Campaign Life of Andrew Johnson” (1864); “Life and Public Services of Andrew Johnson” (1866); “Fenian Heroes and Martyrs” (Boston, 1868); “Poems: Lyrical, Dramatic, and Romantic" (1870); “Picturesque Ireland” (1878–83); and several plays, including “Sybil,” a tragedy, which was produced in 1858 (1865); “Waiting for a Wife,” a comedy (1859); and “Eva, a Goblin Romance” (1865). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 406.
SAVAGE, John Houston, lawyer, born in McMinnville, Warren County, Tennessee, 9 October, 1815. He received a public-school education, and before he was of age served as a private under General Edmund P. Gaines on the Texas frontier, and also for six months against the Seminoles in Florida. Afterward he studied law, and began to practise in Smithville, Tennessee. He was made colonel of Tennessee Militia, and in 1841–’7 was attorney-general of the 4th District of his state. In 1844 he was an elector on the Polk ticket. In 1847 he was appointed major of the 14th Infantry, U. S. Army, and served in the Mexican War, being wounded at Chapultepec, was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 11th U.S. Infantry, and, after the death of Colonel William M. Graham, commanded this regiment until the close of the war. On returning to Tennessee he resumed the practice of law, and was elected to Congress as a Democrat, serving from 3 December, 1849, till 3 March, 1853, and again from 3 December, 1855, till 3 March, 1859, being a member of the committee on Military Affairs. During the Civil War he was colonel of the 16th Tennessee Confederate Infantry, and was wounded at Perryville and at Murfreesboro’. He served in the legislature of Tennessee in 1877, 1879, and 1887, and now (1888) practices law in McMinnville. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 406.
SAWTELLE, Charles Greene, soldier, born in Norridgewock, Maine, 10 May, 1834. His father, Cullen Sawtelle, was a member of Congress in 1845–’7 and 1849–’51. After graduation at the U.S. Military Academy in 1854, he served in quelling Kansas border disturbances, in the Utah Expedition in 1858, and on garrison duty in California in 1859–60. On 17 May, 1861, he became captain of the staff and assistant quartermaster. He superintended the forwarding of troops and supplies for the Army of the Potomac until 17 August, 1862, and the embarkation during the Maryland Campaign. He was chief quartermaster of the 2d Corps in the Rappahannock Campaign, and engaged on General Stoneman's raid toward Richmond in May, 1863. From 21 June till 6 August, 1863, he was assistant chief quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac, and forwarded supplies from Washington and Alexandria, Virginia, for the Pennsylvania Campaign. He was chief quartermaster of the cavalry bureau in Washington from 6 August, 1863, till 15 February, 1864, and then was transferred to Brownsville, Texas, and was in charge of the transports and supplies for General Nathaniel P. Banks's army on its return from Red River, which he met at Atchafalaya. He constructed a bridge of 900 feet across the river, using 21 steamers as pontoons. From 19 May till 6 June, 1864, he was in charge of steam transportation in the Department of the Gulf, and was chief quartermaster in the military Division of West Mississippi, from 6 June, 1864, till 2 July, 1865. He received the brevets of major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and brigadier-general, U.S. Army, on 13 March, 1865. In 1881 he attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and has since served in the quartermaster's departments of the Columbia and of the South, and of the military Divisions of the Atlantic and of the East, and is now (1888) in the Quartermaster's Department in Washington, D. C. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 406-407.
SAXTON, Rufus, soldier, born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, 19 October, 1824. He attended Deerfield Academy, worked on a farm until his twentieth year. Saxon entered the U. S. Military Academy, and was graduated in 1849. He entered the 3d U.S. Artillery, became 1st lieutenant in 1855, and in 1853–4 led a surveying party across the Rocky Mountains. In 1855–'9 he was employed in the U.S. Coast Survey, and made improvements in the instruments for deep-sea soundings, one of which, a self-registering thermometer, bears his name. In 1859 he became an instructor at the U. S. Military Academy. At the opening of the Civil War he was at St. Louis acting as quartermaster with the rank of captain, and was engaged in breaking up Camp Jackson. (See LYON, NATHANIEL.) He joined General George B. McClellan in western Virginia, afterward accompanied General Thomas W. Sherman to Port Royal as quartermaster, and on 15 April, 1862, was made brigadier-general of volunteers. For a short time after the retreat of General Nathaniel P. Banks from the Shenandoah, General Saxton commanded at Harper's Ferry, and successfully resisted an attack on his position by Confederate troops under General Ewell. He was military governor of the Department of the South in 1862–'5, and was appointed quartermaster with the rank of major in July, 1866. He was brevetted brigadier-general, U.S. Army, 13 March, 1865, for faithful and meritorious services during the war, and promoted lieutenant-colonel and deputy quartermaster-general, 6 June, 1872, and colonel and assistant quartermaster-general, 10 March, 1882. From 1883 till 1888 he was in charge of the Jeffersonville Department at Louisville, Kentucky. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 410.
SCALES, Alfred Moore, governor of North Carolina, born in Reedsville, Rockingham County, North Carolina, 26 November, 1827. He was educated at the University of North Carolina, but was not graduated. He afterward taught for a time, then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1851, and in 1853 became solicitor of Rockingham County. He was a member of the lower house of the legislature in 1852, 1853, and 1856, and was then elected to Congress as a Democrat, serving from 7 December, 1857, till 3 March, 1859. He became clerk and master of the Court of Equity of Rockingham County in 1859, which office he held till the Civil War. In 1860 he was a presidential elector on the Breckinridge ticket, and at the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as a private. He was elected captain, subsequently promoted colonel, and then made brigadier-general. He took part in the battle of Williamsburg and in the engagements near Richmond, and, after General Pender was wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg, took command of his brigade. He was severely wounded at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and was present at most of the other battles till the close of the war. He resumed the practice of his profession after the war, was elected to the legislature of North Carolina in 1866–77, and served in Congress by successive elections from 1875 till 1885. On 4 November, 1884, he was elected governor of North Carolina for the term that will end in January, 1889. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 412.
SCAMMON, Elihu Parker, soldier, born m Whitefield, Maine, 27 December, 1816, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1837, and promoted 2d lieutenant of artillery. In 1838 he was appointed 2d lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, and he was assistant professor of mathematics at West Point from 1837 till 1838, and of ethics from 1841 till 1846. He was aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott in Mexico in 1846-'7, engaged on the survey of the northern lakes in 1847-54, in 1853 became captain. In 1856 he was dismissed the army for "disobedience of orders." He was then professor in Mount St. Mary's College, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856-'8, and president of the Polytechnic College in that city from 1859-'61. He became colonel of the 23d Ohio Regiment in June, 1861, served in western Virginia and Maryland, and was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, 15, October, 1862, for gallant conduct at the battle of South Mountain, Maryland. He commanded the District of Kanawha from November, 1862, till 3 February, 1864, was a prisoner of war from the latter date till 3 August, and then led a separate brigade at Morris Island, South Carolina. From November, 1864, till April, 1865, he was in charge of the District of Florida. He was U. S. consul in Prince Edward Island from 1866 till 1870, and afterward professor of mathematics and history in Seton Hall College, Orange, New Jersey.—Another brother. Charles Mellville, navigator, born in Pittston, Maine, 28 May, 1825, became a ship-captain and sailed to California in 1850. He engaged in the whale-fishery and discovered the habitat of the gray whale in a bay on the coast of California, which was named Scammon Lagoon. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 he became commander of a U. S. revenue cutter in San Francisco, and he was subsequently appointed captain in that branch of the service, in which he still remains. He is the author of a work on "The Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of America and the American Whale Fishery " (San Francisco, 1874). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 413.
SCATES, Walter Bennett, jurist, born in South Boston, Virginia, 18 January, 1808; died in Chicago, Illinois, 26 October, 1887. His parents moved to Kentucky, where he remained till 1831, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He settled at Frankfort, Illinois, was appointed attorney-general, and then resided at the capital, Vandalia. In 1836 he was made judge of the 3d Judicial District, and in 1841 he was called to the supreme bench of the state. In 1847 he resigned his post and resumed his law practice at Mt. Vernon, Illinois. In 1853 he was again elected to the supreme court bench, and again resigned, to return to his law-practice in Chicago. In 1862 Judge Scates was commissioned major on the staff of General McClernand, and before the close of the Civil War was assistant adjutant-general. When he was mustered out of service in 1866 he was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers. On his return to Chicago he completed his revision of the statutes of Illinois and practised law till his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 414.
SCHARF, John Thomas, author, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 1 May, 1843. He entered the counting-house of his father, Thomas G. Scharf, of Baltimore, when sixteen years of age. In the beginning of the Civil War he joined a Confederate battery, was engaged in the battles around Richmond in 1862, was wounded at Cedar Mountain, at the second battle of Bull Run, and again at Chancellorsville, and on 20 June, 1863, was appointed a midshipman in the Confederate Navy. In January, 1864, he took part in the capture of the steamer “Underwriter,” near New Berne, North Carolina. He rejoined the army after all the ports were blockaded, and was captured in Maryland while on his way to Canada with despatches. After the war he engaged in mercantile business, then in journalism, and in 1874 was admitted to the bar. In 1878 he was a member of the legislature. Since 1884 he has been commissioner of the Land Office of Maryland. Georgetown College gave him the degree of LL.D. in 1885. He has been editor of the Baltimore “Telegram” and “Morning Herald.” Besides many historical addresses and magazine articles, he has published “Chronicles of Baltimore." (Baltimore, 1874); “History of Maryland” (3 vols., 1879); “History of Baltimore City and County.” (Philadelphia, 1881); “History of Western Maryland” (2 vols., 1882): “History of St. Louis” (2 vols., 1884): “History of Philadelphia” (3 vols., 1884): “History of Westchester County, New York.” (2 vols., 1886): “History of the Confederate States Navy from the Laying of the First Keel to the Sinking of the Last Vessel” (1887); and “History of the State of Delaware” (1888). He is now (1888) preparing a life of Jefferson Davis and a the first German monthly in this country, and, with “Biographical Dictionary of Maryland.” Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 416
SCHENCK, James Findlay, naval officer, born in Franklin, Ohio, 11 June, 1807; died in Dayton, Ohio, 21 December, 1882. His ancestor, Roelof Martense Schenck, emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1650. He was appointed to the U. S. Military Academy in 1822, but resigned in 1824, and entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 March, 1825. He became passed midshipman, 4 June, 1831, and lieutenant, 22 December, 1835, and in August, 1845, joined the "Congress," in which he served as chief military aide to Commodore Robert F. Stockton at the capture of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Pedro, California. He also participated in the capture of Guaymas and Mazatlan, Mexico, and in October, 1848, returned home as bearer of despatches. He was commended for efficient services in the Mexican War. Lieutenant Schenck then entered the service of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and commanded the steamer " Ohio" and other steamers between New York and Aspinwall in 1849-'52. He was commissioned commander, 14 September, 1855, and assigned to the frigate " St. Lawrence," 19 March, 1862, on the West Gulf Blockade. On 7 October, 1864, he was ordered to command the "Powhatan" in the North Atlantic Squadron, and he also received notification of his promotion to commodore to date from 2 January, 1863. He led the 3d Division of the squadron in the two attacks on Fort Fisher, and was highly commended for his services. Commodore Schenck had charge of the naval station at Mound City, Illinois, in 1865-'6, was promoted to rear-admiral, 21 September, 1868, and retired by law, 11 June, 1869. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 417.
SCHENCK, Robert Cumming, 1809-1890, diplomat, Union general. Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Three-term Whig Representative to Congress, December 1843-March 1851. Re-elected December 1863, 1864, 1866, 1868. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Son of James Findlay Schenk, naval officer. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 417-418; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 427; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 370; Congressional Globe)
SCHENCK, Robert Cumming, diplomatist, born in Franklin, Ohio, 4 October, 1809, was graduated at Miami University in 1827, and remained as a resident graduate and tutor for three years longer, then studied law with Thomas Corwin, was admitted to the bar, and established himself in practice at Dayton, Ohio. He was a member of the legislature in 1841-'2, displaying practical knowledge and pungent wit in the debates, and was then elected as a Whig to Congress, and thrice re-elected, serving from 4 December, 1843, till 3 March, 1851. He was a member of important committees, and during his third term was the chairman of that on roads and canals. On 12 March, 1851, he was commissioned as minister to Brazil. In 1852, with John S. Pendleton, who was accredited to the Argentine Republic as chargé d'affaires, he arranged a treaty of friendship and commerce with the government of that country and one for the free navigation of the river La Plata and its great tributaries. They also negotiated treaties with the governments of Uruguay and Paraguay. He left Rio Janeiro on 8 October, 1853, and after his return to Ohio engaged in the railroad business. He offered his services to the government when the Civil War began, and was one of the first brigadier-generals appointed by President Lincoln, his commission bearing the date of 17 May, 1861. He was attached to the military department of Washington, and on 17 June moved forward by railroad with a regiment to dislodge the Confederates at Vienna, but was surprised by a masked battery, and forced to retreat. On meeting re-enforcements, he changed front, and the enemy retired. His brigade formed a part of General Daniel Tyler's division at the first Bull Run battle, and was on the point of crossing the Stone Bridge to make secure the occupation of the plateau, when the arrival of Confederate re-enforcements turned the tide of battle. He next served in West Virginia under General William S. Rosecrans, and was ordered to the Shenandoah Valley with the force that was sent to oppose General Thomas J. Jackson. Pushing forward by a forced march to the relief of General Robert H. Milroy, he had a sharp and brilliant engagement with the enemy at McDowell. At Cross Keys he led the Ohio troops in a charge on the right, and maintained the ground that he won until he was ordered to retire. General John C. Frémont then intrusted him with the command of a division. At the second battle of Bull Run he led the first Division of General Franz Sigel's corps. He was wounded in that action by a musket-ball, which shattered his right arm, incapacitating him for active service till 16 December, 1862, when he took command of the Middle Department and Eighth Corps at Baltimore, having been promoted major-general on 18 September After performing effective services in the Gettysburg Campaign, he resigned his commission on 3 December, 1863, in order to take his place in the House of Representatives, in which he served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. He was re-elected in 1864, and was placed at the head of the same committee, where he procured the establishment of the National Military and Naval Asylum. In 1865 he was president of the board of visitors to the U. S. Military Academy, and was one of the Committee of Congress on the Death of President Lincoln, serving also on the Committee on Retrenchment. In 1866 he attended the Loyalists' Convention at Philadelphia and the Soldiers' Convention at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was re-elected to Congress in 1866 and in 1868, when his opponent was Clement L. Vallandigham, serving as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means and of the Ordnance Committee. On 22 December, 1870, he received the appointment of minister to Great Britain. In 1871 he was one of the “Alabama” commission. He resigned his post in 1876 in consequence of the failure of the Emma Silver Mine Company, in which he had permitted himself to be chosen a director, and resumed the practice of law in Washington, D. C. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 417-418.
SCHIMMELPFENNIG, Alexander, soldier, born in Prussia in 1824; died in Minersville, Pennsylvania, 7 September, 1865. He served as an officer of the Prussian Army in Schleswig-Holstein in 1848, and soon afterward came to the United States. At the beginning of the Civil War he was elected colonel of a Pennsylvania regiment, which he commanded during General John Pope's campaign in Virginia. For his services at Bull Run he was nominated brigadier-general. The appointment was at first rejected, but, on being presented again, was confirmed in March, 1863, the commission dating from 29 November, 1862. At Chancellorsville he commanded a brigade in General Carl Schurz's corps, and served with credit at Gettysburg. In February, 1864, he was sent to St. John's Island, near Charleston, and thence crossed to James Island. When Charleston was evacuated on the approach of General William T. Sherman's army, General Schimmelpfennig entered and took possession, 18 February, 1865. He remained in command of the city for some time, but was finally relieved on account of sickness, the result of exposure, which in a short time terminated in his death. He was the author of “The War between Russia and Turkey” (Philadelphia, 1854). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p.
SCHLEY, Winfield Scott, naval officer, born in Frederick County, Maryland, 9 October, 1839. He was graduated at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1860, served on board the frigate “Niagara” in 1860–1, was attached to the frigate “Potomac" of the Western Gulf Squadron, in 1861–2, and subsequently took part, on board the gun-boat “Winona” and the sloops “Monongahela” and “Richmond,” in all the engagements that led to the capture of Port Hudson, being promoted lieutenant on 16 July, 1862. He served on the “Wateree' in the Pacific in 1864-6, quelling an insurrection of Chinese coolies on the Middle Chincha Islands in 1865, and later in the same year landing at La Union, San Salvador, to protect American interests during a revolution. He was instructor at the Naval Academy in 1866-'9, served on the Asiatic Station in 1869-'72, taking part in the capture of the Corean forts on Salee River, after two days of fighting, in June, 1871, and was again at the Naval Academy in 1874–’6, being promoted commander in June, 1874. In 1876–’9 he was on the Brazil Station, and during the cruise sailed in the “Essex” to the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands in search of a missing sealer, and rescued a shipwrecked crew on the islands of Tristan d' Acunha. In 1884 he commanded the relief expedition that rescued Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely and six of his companions at Cape Sabine in Grinnell Land, passing through 1,400 miles of ice during the voyage. He was commissioned chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting at the Navy Department in 1885, and promoted captain in March, 1888. He published, jointly with James Russell Soley, a book entitled “The Rescue of Greely” (New York, 1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 420.
SCHOEPF, Albin Francisco, soldier, born in Potgusch, Hungary, 1 March, 1822; died in Hyattsville, Maryland, 15 January, 1886. He entered the Military Academy at Vienna in 1837, became a lieutenant of artillery in 1841, and was promoted captain on the field for bravery. At the beginning of the Hungarian War for Independence in 1848 he left the Austrian service, enlisted as a private in Louis Kossuth's army, and was soon made captain, and afterward major. After the suppression of the revolution he was exiled to Turkey, served under General Józef Bern against the insurgents at Aleppo, and afterward became instructor of artillery in the Ottoman Service, with the rank of major. In 1851 he came to the United States, and received an appointment in the U. S. Coast Survey. In 1858 he became an assistant examiner in the Patent-Office. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers on 30 September, 1861. General Felix K. Zollicoffer, after a series of successes against the Kentucky Home Guards, attacked his fortified position, called Wildcat Camp, on the hills of Rock Castle County, Kentucky, and was defeated; but the prestige thus gained for the National arms was sacrificed by Schoepfs precipitate retreat, by order of his superior officer, a few weeks later from London to Crab Orchard, which the Confederates called the "Wild-Cat stampede." General George B. Crittenden, thinking to crush Schoepfs force at Fishing creek, or Mill springs, encountered General George Thomas's entire army, and suffered a disastrous defeat. General Schoepfs brigade led in the pursuit of the enemy to Monticello. At Perryville he commanded a division under General Charles C. Gilbert. He served through the war, and was mustered out on 15 January, 1866. Returning to Washington, he was appointed principal examiner in the Patent-Office, which post he continued to fill until his death. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 423.
SCHOFIELD, John McAllister, soldier, born in Chautauqua County, New York, 29 September, 1831. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1853, in the same class with Philip H. Sheridan, James B. McPherson, and John B. Hood. He was assigned to the 1st Regiment of U.S. Artillery and served in garrison in South Carolina and Florida in 1853-'5, and as assistant professor of natural philosophy at the U. S. Military Academy in 1855-'60, being commissioned 1st lieutenant, 31 August, 1855. and captain, 14 May, 1861. On his departure from West Point in 1860 he obtained leave of absence and filled the chair of professor of physics at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, until April, 1861. At the opening of the Civil War he entered the volunteer service as major of the 1st Missouri Volunteers, 26 April, 1861, and was appointed chief of staff to General Nathaniel Lyon, with whom he served during his campaign in Missouri, including the battle of Wilson's Creek, in which Lyon was killed. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 21 November, 1861, and a few days later brigadier-general of Missouri Militia, and he was in command of the latter from November, 1861, till November, 1862, and of the Army of the Frontier and the District of Southwest Missouri from that date to April, 1863. He was appointed major-general of volunteers, 29 November, 1862, and from May, 1863, till February, 1864, was in command of the Department of the Missouri. He was then assigned to the command of the Department and Army of the Ohio, and in April, 1864, joined the forces that were collecting near Chattanooga under General William T. Sherman for the invasion of Georgia. He took part in the Atlanta Campaign, being engaged at the battles of Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, and Atlanta. When Sherman left Atlanta on his march to the sea, Schofield, with the 23d Army Corps, was ordered back to Tennessee to form part of the army that was then being organized under General George H. Thomas to resist Hood's invasion of Tennessee. Schofield retreated skilfully before the superior forces of Hood, inflicted a severe check upon him in a sharp battle at Franklin, 30 November, 1864, and joined Thomas at Nashville, 1 December, 1864. For his services at the battle of Franklin he was made brigadier-general and brevet major-general in the regular army. He took part in the battle of Nashville and the subsequent pursuit of Hood's army. In January, 1865, he was detached from Thomas's command and sent with the 23d Army Corps by rail to Washington, and thence by transports to the mouth of Cape Fear River, the entire movement of 15,000 men with their artillery and baggage over a distance of 1,800 miles being accomplished in seventeen days. He was assigned to the command of the Department of North Carolina on 9 February, 1865, captured Wilmington on 22 February, was engaged in the battle of Kinston, 8-10 March, and joined Sherman at Goldsboro' on 22 March. He was present at the surrender of Johnston's army on 26 April, and was charged with the execution of the details of the capitulation. In June, 1865, he was sent to Europe on a special mission from the State Department in regard to the French intervention in Mexico, and he remained until May, 1866. In August he was assigned to the command of the Department of the Potomac, with headquarters at Richmond. He was in charge of the 1st military District (the state of Virginia) from March, 1867, till May, 1868. General Schofield succeeded Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War, 2 June, 1868, and remained in that office until the close of Johnson's administration, and under Grant until 12 March, 1869, when he was appointed major-general in the U. S. Army and ordered to the Department of the Missouri. He was in command of the Division of the Pacific from 1870 till 1876 and again in 1882 and 1883, superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy from 1876 till 1881, and in command of the Division of the Missouri from 1883 till 1886, when he took charge of the Division of the Atlantic. He is at present (1888) the senior major-general of the U. S. Army, and, under existing laws, will be retired, on reaching the age of sixty-four, in 1895. He was president of the board that adopted the present tactics for the army (1870), went on a special mission to the Hawaiian Islands in 1873, and was president of the board of inquiry on the case of Fitz-John Porter in 1878. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 424.
SCHOULER, William (skool'-er), journalist, born in Kilbarchan, Scotland, 31 December, 1814; died in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, 24 October, 1872. He was brought to this country in 1815, received a common-school education, and engaged in calico printing. He was the proprietor and editor of the Lowell " Courier " in 1841-7, in 1847-53 joint proprietor and editor of the Boston "Daily Atlas," in 1853-'6 one of the editors of the Cincinnati " Gazette," in 1856-'8 editor of the " Ohio State Journal," and in 1858 of the Boston " Atlas and Bee." He was four times elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and once to the Senate. In 1853 he was a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, and was chosen clerk of the House of Representatives. In 1857 he was adjutant-general of Ohio, and from 1860 till 1866 held the same office in Massachusetts. He was the author of " History of Massachusetts in the Civil War" (2 vols., Boston, 1868-'71).—His son, James, lawyer, born in West Cambridge (now Arlington), Massachusetts, 20 March, 1839, was graduated at Harvard in 1859, studied law, and began to practise in Boston. In August, 1862, he joined the National army, and served for nearly a year as a lieutenant in the Signal Service. Since 1884 he has been a lecturer in the Boston University Law-School and in the National Law University, Washington. D. C. He has published legal treatises "On Domestic Relations" (Boston, 1870); "On Personal Property" (2 vols., 1873-'6); "On Bailments, including Carriers" (1880); "On Husband and Wife" (1882); "On Executors and Administrators " (1883): and "On Wills "(1887); also a " History of the United States under the Constitution," of which three volumes have been issued (Washington, 1880-'5), and two others, bringing the narrative down to 1861, are now (1888) ready for the press, and soon to be issued. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 427.
SCHRIVER, Edmund, soldier, born in York, Pennsylvania, 16 September, 1812. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1833, and assigned to the 2d U.S. Artillery. On 1 November, 1836, he became 1st lieutenant, and on 7 July, 1838, captain on the staff and assistant to the adjutant-general, serving in the Florida War of 1839. He held the rank of captain in the 2d U.S. Artillery from 17 August, 1842, till 18 June, 1846, resigned his commission on 31 July, 1846, and was treasurer of the Saratoga and Washington Railroad Company, New York, from 1847 till 1852, of the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad from 1847 till 1861, and of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad from 1847 till 1861, being president of the last road from 1851 till 1861. He re-entered the army on 14 May, 1861, as lieutenant-colonel of the 11th Infantry, became aide-de-camp to Governor Edwin D. Morgan, of New York, recruited, organized, and instructed his regiment at Fort Independence, Massachusetts, and became colonel on the staff and additional aide-de-camp on 18 May, 1862, having been made chief of staff of the 1st Corps in the Army of the Potomac He served in the Shenandoah and the Northern Virginia Campaigns, and was appointed colonel on the staff and Inspector-General, U. S. Army, on 13 March, 1863, after serving as acting Inspector-General from January till March, 1863. He was at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and afterward bore thirty-one battle-flags and other trophies to the War Department. He participated in the Richmond Campaign from the Rapidan to Petersburg, was on special duty under the orders of the Secretary of War from 22 March till 23 June, 1865, and was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, for faithful and meritorious services in the field on 1 August, 1864, and major-general, U.S. Army, on 13 March, 1865. From 10 December, 1865, till 15 April, 1871, he was on special duty in the Secretary of War's office and in charge of the Inspection Bureau, and in 1866-'71 was inspector of the U.S. Military Academy, was on a tour of inspection in Texas, New Mexico, and Kansas, and of the recruiting service in 1872–3, prepared reports in Washington, D.C., particularly upon the affairs of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1873, was on duty in the War Department in 1873-'6, and was made inspector of the Division of the Pacific on 29 May, 1876. From 16 November to 15 December, 1877, he was a member of the retiring board in San Francisco, and of the board to examine the case of Dr. William A. Hammond (q.v.), U.S. Army. He was retired in January, 1881. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 427-428.
SCHURZ, Carl, 1829-1906, abolitionist leader, political leader, journalist, lawyer, Union general, Secretary of the Interior. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 428-429; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 466; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 726-729)
SCHURZ, Carl, statesman, born in Liblar, near Cologne, Prussia, 2 March, 1829. After studying at the gymnasium of Cologne, he entered the University of Bonn in 1846. At the beginning of the revolution of 1848 he joined Gottfried Kinkel, professor of rhetoric in the university, in the publication of a liberal newspaper, of which he was at one time the sole conductor. In the spring of 1849, in consequence of an attempt to promote an insurrection at Bonn, he fled with Kinkel to the Palatinate, entered the revolutionary army as adjutant, and took part in the defence of Rastadt. On the surrender of that fortress he escaped to Switzerland. In 1850 he returned secretly to Germany, and effected the escape of Kinkel from the fortress of Spandau. In the spring of 1851 he was in Paris, acting as correspondent for German journals, and he afterward spent a year in teaching in London. He came to the United States in 1852, resided three years in Philadelphia, and then settled in Watertown, Wisconsin. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he delivered speeches in German in behalf of the Republican Party, and in the following year he was an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant-governor of Wisconsin. During the contest between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln for the office of U. S. Senator from Illinois in 1858 he delivered his first speech in the English language, which was widely published. Soon afterward he moved to Milwaukee and began the practice of law. In 1859-'60 he made a lecture-tour in New England, and aroused attention by a speech in Springfield, Massachusetts, against the ideas and policy of Mr. Douglas. He was a member of the Republican National Convention of 1860, and spoke both in English and German during the canvass. President Lincoln appointed him minister to Spain, but he resigned in December, 1861, in order to enter the army. In April, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and on 17 June he took command of a division in the corps of General Franz Sigel, with which he participated in the second battle of Bull Run. He was made major-general of volunteers, 14 March, 1863, and at the battle of Chancellorsville commanded a division of General Oliver O. Howard's corps. He had temporary command of this corps at Gettysburg, and subsequently took part in the battle of Chattanooga. During the summer of 1865 he visited the southern states, as special commissioner, appointed by President Johnson, for the purpose of examining their condition. In the winter of 1865-'6 he was the Washington correspondent of the New York “Tribune,” and in the summer of 1866 he moved to Detroit, where he founded the “Post.” In 1867 he became editor of the “Westliche Post,” a German newspaper published in St. Louis. He was temporary chairman of the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1868, where he moved an amendment to the platform, which was adopted, recommending a general amnesty. In January, 1869, he was chosen U. S. Senator from Missouri, for the term ending in 1875. He opposed some of the chief measures of President Grant's administration, and in 1872 took an active part in the organization of the Liberal Party, presiding over the convention in Cincinnati that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency. After the election of 1872 he took an active part in the debates of the Senate in favor of the restoration of specie payments and against the continuation of military interference in the south. He advocated the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in the presidential canvass of 1876, and in 1877 President Hayes appointed him Secretary of the Interior. He introduced competitive examinations for appointments in the interior department, effected various reforms in the Indian Service, and adopted systematic measures for the protection of the forests on the public lands. After the expiration of the term of President Hayes he became editor of the “Evening Post” in New York City, giving up that place in January, 1884. In the presidential canvass of that year he was one of the leaders of the “Independent” movement, advocating the election of Grover Cleveland. He remained an active member of the Civil Service Reform League. Among his more celebrated speeches are “The Irrepressible Conflict” (1858): “The Doom of Slavery” (1860); “The Abolition of Slavery as a War Measure” (1862); and “Eulogy on Charles Sumner” (1874). Of his speeches in the Senate, those on the reconstruction measures, against the annexation of Santo Domingo, and on the currency and the national banking system attracted much attention. He has published a volume of speeches (Philadelphia, 1865) and a “Life of Henry Clay” (Boston, 1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 428-429.
SCOTT, Gustavus Hall, naval officer, born in Fairfax County, Virginia, 13 June, 1812; died in Washington, D. C, 23 March, 1882. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 August, 1828, became passed midshipman, 14 June, 1834, and made two cruises in the West Indies in the " Vandalia" in 1835-6 and 1839-'40, in which he participated in the Seminole War. He was also present off Charleston, South Carolina, during the nullification excitement. He was commissioned lieutenant, 25 February, 1841, and was flag lieutenant of the Pacific Squadron in the frigate "St. Lawrence" in 1852-'3. He was commissioned commander, 27 December, 1856, and served as light-house inspector in 1858-'60. When the Civil War began he resisted the efforts of partisans in his native state to make him join the Confederates. In June, 1861, he commanded the steamer " Keystone State," went in pursuit of the Confederate privateer "Sumter," and capturing the steamer "Salvor" off Tampico, towed her to Philadelphia. He commanded the steamer "Marantanza" in the operations with the army in James River, rendered valuable service in saving stores that were left by the army at Acquia Creek, was on the blockade, and had numerous engagements with Confederate batteries in the sounds of North Carolina in 1862-'3. He was commissioned captain, 4 November, 1863, and commanded the steamer " De Soto," in which he captured several blockade runners in 1864. Subsequently he took charge of the steam sloop "Canandaigua" on the blockade, and was senior officer at the surrender of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1865. He was a member of the examining board for the admission of volunteer officers to the regular navy in 1868, served as light-house inspector in 1869-71, and was promoted to commodore, 10 February, 1869, and to rear-admiral, 14 February, 1873. He was then commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Squadron until 13 June, 1874, when he was retired, having reached the age of sixty-two years. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 436.
SCOTT, Julian, artist, born in Johnson, Lamoille County, Vermont, 14 February, 1846. At the opening of the Civil War, in 1861, he entered the National Army. Some of his sketches in a military hospital having attracted attention, he became a student at the National Academy, New York, in 1863, and he subsequently studied under Emmanuel Leutze until 1868. He first exhibited at the Academy of design in 1870, and was elected an associate the following year. He was chosen a life-fellow of the American Geographical Society in 1873. Among his works, mostly pictures of army life, are "Rear Guard at White Oak Swamp," owned by the Union league club (1869-'70); "Battle of Cedar Creek," in the state-house at Montpelier, Vermont (1871-'2); "Battle of Golding's Farm " (1871); "The Recall" (1872); "On Board the ' Hartford'" (1874); "Old Records" (1875); "Duel of Burr and Hamilton" (1870); "Reserves awaiting Orders" (1877); "In the Cornfield at Antietam " (1879): "Charge at Petersburg" (1882); "The War is Over" (1885); and " The Blue and the Gray " (1886). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 437.
SCOTT, Robert Kingston, soldier, born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, 8 July, 1826. His grandfather fought in the Revolution, and his father in the War of 1812–15. The son received a good education, studied medicine, and began practice in Henry County, Ohio. In October, 1861, he became lieutenant-colonel of the 68th Ohio Regiment, of which he was made colonel in 1862. He served at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Corinth, led a brigade at Hatchie River, Tennessee, commanded the advance of General John A. Logan's division on the march into Mississippi, and was engaged at Port Gibson, Raymond, and Champion Hills. He was afterward at the head of a brigade in the 17th Corps, was made prisoner near Atlanta, but was exchanged on 24 September, 1864, and was in Sherman's operations before that city and in the march to the sea. He was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, 12 January, 1865, and also received the brevets of brigadier and major-general in the volunteer army, to date from 26 January and 2 December, 1865, respectively. General Scott was assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Fureau in South Carolina in 1865–8, resigned from the army on 6 July of the latter year, and in 1868 became the first governor of the reconstructed state, having been chosen as a Republican. He was re-elected in 1870 by a majority of 33,534 in a total vote of 136,608. In the autumn of 1871 the governor and other state officers were openly charged with a fraudulent over-issue of state bonds. Governor Scott justified his course in a message to the legislature, and a resolution of impeachment was defeated in that body. Much excitement was also caused in this year by " Ku-klux " outrages, and Governor Scott's appeal to the president to aid in suppressing them, which was done by the use of U. S. troops. Governor Scott afterward moved to Napoleon, Ohio. On 25 December, 1880, he shot and killed Warren G. Drury, aged twenty-three years. Drury and a son of General Scott had been drinking together, and while searching for the boy General Scott met the former, when the shooting took place. He was tried, and acquitted on 5 November, 1881, the defence being that the discharge of the pistol was accidental. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 438-439.
SCOTT, Thomas Alexander, railroad-manager, born in Loudon, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, 28 Dee., 1824; died in Darby, Pennsylvania, 21 May, 1881. His father, Thomas, who died when the son was ten years old, kept a tavern on the turnpike between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. The boy worked on a farm, attended a village school, served in country stores, and became, on 1 August, 1841, clerk to Major James Patton, collector of tolls on the state road at Columbia, Pennsylvania. In 1847 he was made chief clerk to the collector of tolls at Philadelphia, and in 1850 he became connected with the partially constructed Pennsylvania Railroad, was appointed its general superintendent in 1858, and in 1859 was chosen vice-president. He soon became known as one of the most enterprising railroad men in the country. At the beginning of the Civil War he was appointed on the staff of Governor Andrew G. Curtin, and was very energetic in equipping volunteers and sending them forward to Washington. On 27 April, 1861, he was asked by the Secretary of War to open a new line from Washington to Philadelphia, which he did by way of Annapolis and Perrysville with surprising quickness. He was commissioned colonel of volunteers on 3 May, and on 23 May was given charge of all government railways and telegraphs. On 1 August he was appointed assistant Secretary of War, which office he was the first to hold. Colonel Scott was sent in January, 1862, to organize transportation in the northwest, and in March to perform the same duty on the western rivers. On 1 June he resigned to devote himself to his railway affairs, but on 24 September, 1863, he entered the government service again for a time, and superintended the transportation of two army corps to relieve General William S. Rosecrans at Chattanooga. This he did with remarkable speed, connecting different lines by improvised tracks, and sending out trains in great numbers by every available route. Colonel Scott was instrumental in furthering the policy by which the Pennsylvania Road secured control of its western lines. In 1871, when a separate company was chartered to operate these, he became its president. He was also president of the Union Pacific Railroad from March, 1871, till March, 1872, and in 1874 succeeded to the presidency of the Pennsylvania Road. Failing health forced him to travel abroad in 1878, and on 1 June, 1880, he resigned. To the energy, alertness, and sound business principles of Colonel Scott may be attributed much of the prosperity that has been attained by the road of which he was an officer. Besides his connection with the Pennsylvania system, he was the projector of the Texas Pacific Road, and for many years its president. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 439.
SCOTT, Robert Nicholson, soldier, born in Winchester, Tennessee, 21 January, 1838; died in Washington, D.C., 5 March, 1887, attended school in Hartford, Connecticut, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and studied law in San Francisco, California , but was appointed from California 2d lieutenant of infantry, 21 January, 1857, and served on the Pacific Coast till the Civil War, commanding the U.S. steamer “Massachusetts” during the San Juan difficulties in 1859. He was promoted captain in September, 1861, and afterward served on staff duty in the adjutant-general's department. He was with the Army of the Potomac till June, 1863, receiving a major's brevet for gallantry at Gaines's Mill, where he was wounded, and in 1863–4 was senior aide-de-camp to General Henry W. Halleck. He continued to serve on staff duty till 1870, was professor of military science in a school at Faribault, Minnesota, in 1872–’3, and in 1873-'7 commanded Fort Ontario, New York. From 1877 till his death he was in charge of the publication of war records in Washington. He was promoted major in 1879, and lieutenant-colonel in 1885. In 1878 he served as military secretary to a congressional committee on the reorganization of the army. Colonel Scott published “Digest of the Military Laws of the United States” (1872). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 440.
SCOTT, Winfield, soldier, born in Dinwiddie County, near Petersburg, Virginia, 13 June, 1786; died at West Point, New York, 29 May, 1866. He was educated at William and Mary College, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1806, and in 1808 entered the army as a captain of light artillery. While stationed at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1809, he was court-martialed for remarks on the conduct of his superior officer, General Wilkinson, and was suspended for one year, which he devoted to the study of military tactics. In July, 1812, he was made lieutenant-colonel and ordered to the Canada frontier. Arriving at Lewiston while the affair of Queenstown Heights was in progress, he crossed the river, and the field was won under his direction; but it was afterward lost and he and his command were taken prisoners from the refusal of the troops at Lewiston to cross to their assistance. In January, 1813, he was exchanged and joined the army under General Dearborn as adjutant-general with the rank of colonel. In the attack on Fort George, 27 May, he was severely hurt by the explosion of a powder-magazine. In the autumn he commanded the advance in Wilkinson's descent of the St. Lawrence—an operation directed against Montreal, but which was abandoned. In March, 1814, he was made a brigadier-general, and established a camp of instruction at Buffalo. On 3 July, Scott's and Ripley's brigades, with Hindman's Artillery, crossed the Niagara River and took Fort Erie and a part of its garrison. On the 5th was fought the battle of Chippewa, resulting in the defeat of the enemy, and on 25 July that of Lundy's Lane, or Bridgewater, near Niagara Falls, in which Scott had two horses killed under him and was twice severely wounded. His wound of the left shoulder was critical, his recovery painful and slow, and his arm was left partially disabled.
At the close of the war Scott was offered and declined a seat in the cabinet as Secretary of War, and was promoted to be major-general, with the thanks of Congress and a gold medal for his services. He assisted in the reduction of the army to a peace establishment, and then visited Europe in a military and diplomatic capacity. He returned to the United States in 1816, and in 1817 married Miss Mayo, of Richmond, Virginia. A part of his time he now devoted to the elaboration of a manual of firearms and military tactics. In 1832 he set out from Fort Dearborn (now Chicago, Illinois.) with a detachment to take part in the hostilities against the Sacs and Foxes, but the capture of Black Hawk ended the war before Scott's arrival on the field. In the same year he commanded the Federal forces in Charleston Harbor during the nullification troubles, and his tact, discretion, and decision did much to prevent the threatened civil war. In 1835 he went to Florida to engage in the war with the Seminoles, and afterward to the Creek country. He was recalled in 1837 and subjected to inquiry for the failure of his campaigns, the court finding in his favor. In 1838 he was efficient in promoting the peaceful removal of the Cherokees from Georgia to their present reservation beyond the Mississippi. The threatened collision with Great Britain, growing out of the disputed boundary-line between Maine and New Brunswick, was averted in 1839, mainly through the pacific efforts of Scott, and the question was finally settled by the Webster Ashburton Treaty of 1842.
By the death of General Macomb in 1841 Scott became Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States. In 1847 he was assigned to the chief command of the army in Mexico. Drawing a portion of Taylors troops operating from the Rio Grande, and assembling his force at Lobos Island, on 9 March he landed 12,000 men and invested Vera Cruz. The mortar battery, opened on the siege-guns two days later, and on the 26th the city and the castle of San Juan d' Ulloa capitulated, after nearly 7,000 missiles had been fired. The garrison of 5,000 men grounded arms outside of the city on the 29th. On 8 April, Scott began his march toward Jalapa, and on the 17th reached the Mexican Army under Santa-Anna, which occupied the strong mountain-pass of Cerro Gordo, in a defile formed by the Rio del Plan. On the following morning at sunrise the Americans, 8.500 strong, attacked the Mexican army of more than 12,000, and at 2 p. m. had driven the enemy from every point of his line, capturing 5 generals, 8,000 men, 4,500 stand of arms, and 43 cannon, and killing and wounding more than 1,000, with a loss of less than 500. Paroling his prisoners and destroying most of the stores, Scott advanced on the next day to Jalapa, which he captured on 19 April. Perote was occupied on the 22d, and Puebla on 15 May. Here the army remained, drilling and waiting for re-enforcements till 7 August General Scott had vainly asked that the new troops should be disciplined and instructed in the United States before joining the army in Mexico, and the failure to do this gave Santa-Anna an opportunity to create a new army and fortify the capital. Scott began on 7 August to advance toward the city of Mexico by the National road, and, while diverting the attention of the enemy by a feint on the strong fortress of El Penon on the northwest, made a detour to San Augustin on the south. He then attacked and carried successively Contreras and Churubusco, and could have taken the capital, but an armistice till 7 September was agreed upon to allow the peace commissioner, Nicholas P. Trist, an opportunity to negotiate. At its close, operations were resumed on the southwest of the city, defended by 14,000 Mexicans occupying Molino del Rey, and General Worth's loss was in storming Molino del Rey before the attack on the wooded and strongly fortified eminence of Chapultepec. On 8 September, General Worth with 3,500 men attacked Molino del Rey, capturing much materiel and more than 800 prisoners, but losing one fourth of his command, including fifty-eight officers. On the 13th Chapultepec was stormed and carried, and on the morning of the 14th Scott's army marched into the city and occupied the national palace. There was some street-fighting and firing upon the troops from the buildings, but this was soon suppressed, order was established, and a contribution levied on the city of $150,000, two thirds of which General Scott remitted to the United States to found military asylums. Taxes were laid for the support of the army, and a civil organization under the protection of the troops was created. The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, negotiated by Mr. Trist and other commissioners, Judge Clifford, afterward of the supreme court, of the number, was signed on 2 February, 1848, and soon after Mexico was evacuated by the U. S. troops.
A court of inquiry into the conduct of the war only redounded to the fame of Scott. In 1852 he was the candidate of the Whig Party for the presidency, and received the electoral votes of Vermont, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Tennessee, all the other states voting for the Democratic candidate, General Pierce. In 1859 General Scott as commissioner successfully settled the difficulty arising from the disputed boundary-line of the United States and British America through the Straits of Fuca.
Age and infirmity prevented him from taking an active part in the Civil War, and on 31 October, 1861, he retired from service, retaining his rank, pay, and allowances. Soon afterward he made a brief visit to Europe, and he passed most of the remainder of his days at West Point, remarking when he arrived there for the last time: "I have come here to die." Two weeks he lingered, and then fell for a short time into a stupor, from which he aroused, retaining entire possession of his mental faculties and recognizing his family and attendants to the last. A few minutes after eleven on the morning of 29 May he passed away so calmly that the exact moment of his death was not known. As Frederick the Great's last completely conscious utterance was in reference to his favorite English greyhound, Scott's was in regard to his magnificent horse, the same noble animal that followed in his funeral procession a few days later. Turning to his servant, the old veteran's last words were: "James, take good care of the horse." In accordance with his expressed wish, he was buried at West Point on 1 June, and his remains were accompanied to the grave by many of the most illustrious men of the land, including General Grant and Admiral Farragut.
General Scott was a man of true courage, personally, morally, and religiously brave. He was in manner, association, and feeling, courtly and chivalrous. He was always equal to the danger—great on great occasions, his unswerving loyalty and patriotism were ever conspicuous and of the loftiest character. All who appreciated his military genius regretted, when the war of the rebellion began, that Scott was not as he had been at the period of his Mexican victories. He had not the popularity of several of his successors among the soldiers. He was too stately and too exacting in his discipline—that power which Carnot calls " the glory of the soldier and the strength of armies." It was to these characteristics that Scott owed his title of “Fuss and Feathers,” the only nickname ever applied to him. Physically he was “framed in the prodigality of nature.” Not even Washington possessed so majestic a presence. As Suwarrow was the smallest and physically the most insignificant looking, so was Scott the most imposing of all the illustrious soldiers of the 19th century, possibly of all the centuries. The steel engraving represents him at upward of threescore and ten. The vignette is from a painting by Ingham, taken at the age of thirty-seven. A portrait by Weir, showing Scott as he was at the close of the Mexican War, is in the U.S. Military Academy. The statue by Henry K. Brown stands in Scott circle, Washington. General Scott was the author of a pamphlet against the use of intoxicating, liquors (Philadelphia, 1821); “General Regulations for the Army” (1825); “Letter to the Secretary of War” (New York, 1827); “Infantry Tactics,” translated from the French (3 vols., 1835): “Letter on the Slavery Question” (1843); “Abstract of Infantry Tactics” (Philadelphia, 1861): “Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Scott, written by Himself” (2 vols., New York, 1864). Biographies of him have been published by Edward Deering Mansfield (New '' 1846); Joel Tyler Headley (1852); and Orville James Victor (1861). See also “Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico,” by Lieut. Raphael Semmes (Cincinnati, 1852).—His son-in-law. Henry Lee, soldier, born in New Berne, North Carolina, 3 October, 1814; died in New York City, 6 January, 1886, was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1833, and entered the 4th U.S. Infantry as 2d lieutenant. After three years' service in the Gulf States he took part in the war against the Seminoles, and in 1837–8 was engaged in removing Cherokees to the west, after which, until 1840, he served with his regiment as adjutant. In 1842 he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott, whose daughter, Cornelia, he had married, and accompanied him to Mexico in the capacity of chief of staff. He attained the rank of captain on 16 February, 1847, and for his gallantry in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battles of Cerro Gordo and Churubusco, and the capture of the city of Mexico, received the brevets of major and lieutenant-colonel. After the war he was acting judge-advocate of the eastern division in 1848–50, and senior aide-decamp to General Scott from 1850 till 1861. He had been made lieutenant-colonel on the staff on 7 March, 1855, was promoted colonel on 14 May, 1861, and was inspector-general in command of the forces in New York City until 30 October, 1861, when he was retired. Colonel Scott took no part in the Civil War, but was accused of disloyalty to the National cause in having communicated important military information to the enemy before Washington while on a visit to his father-in-law, General Scott. He tendered his resignation on 31 October, 1862, but it was not accepted until four years later. He was the author of “A Military Dictionary” (New York, 1861). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 440-442.
SEDDON, James Alexander, lawyer, born in Falmouth, Stafford County, Virginia. 13 July, 1815; died in Goochland County, Virginia, 19 August, 1880. Thomas Seddon, his father, who was first a merchant and then a banker, was descended from John Seddon, of Lancashire, England, who settled in Stafford County, Virginia in colonial days. Susan Alexander, his mother, was a lineal descendant of the Earl of Sterling. Throughout his life Mr. Seddon was of a frail constitution, and, owing to his delicate health, his early education was much neglected. The knowledge of the ancient classics and literature, for which he was noted in after-life, was mainly self-acquired. At the age of twenty-one he entered the law-school of the University of Virginia, where he was graduated with the degree of B. L. He settled in Richmond in the practice of the law, and almost immediately advanced to the front rank of the bar. In 1845 he was nominated by the Democratic Party for Congress, and, though the district was a doubtful one, he was elected by a handsome majority. In 1847 he was renominated, but, not being in accord with the resolutions of the nominating convention, he declined, and the Whig candidate was elected. In 1849 he was re-elected, serving from 3 December, 1849, till 3 March, 1851. Owing to his health, he declined another nomination at the end of his term, and retired to Sabot Hill, his estate on James River above Richmond. While in Congress he took part in most of the important debates of the period, and was recognized as a leader of his party. In 1846 he participated actively in the debates upon the reform revenue bill, advocating the principles of free-trade. In 1860 the excitement of impending war brought him again into politics. On 19 January, 1861, he was appointed by the legislature of Virginia a commissioner with John Tyler and others to the Peace Convention, which met at, the call of Virginia in Washington on 4 February. He represented Virginia in the committee upon resolutions, and, in accordance with the instructions of his state, made a minority report recommending that the constitution should be amended according to the resolutions that had been introduced in the Senate by John J. Crittenden and by a further article expressly recognizing the right of any state peaceably to withdraw from the Union. He became a member of the first Confederate Congress, and in November, 1862, having been chosen by Jefferson Davis as Secretary of War, became a member of his cabinet. He devoted himself to the duties of his office until 1 January, 1865, when he retired finally from public life to his country estate. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 449.
SEDGWICK, John, soldier, born in Cornwall, Connecticut, 13 September, 1813; died near Spottsylvania Court House, Virginia. 9 Mav, 1864. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1837, 24th in a class of fifty members, among whom were General Joseph Hooker, General Braxton Bragg, and General Jubal A. Early. Immediately after his graduation he served in the Florida War against the Seminole Indians. His first engagement was a skirmish near Fort Clinch, 20 May, 1838. The same year he was employed in removing the Cherokees to their new home beyond the Mississippi. He was made 1st lieutenant of artillery, 19 April, 1839. In the Mexican War he was successively brevetted captain and major for gallant conduct at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec. He also distinguished himself at the head of his command in the attack on the San Cosmo gate of the city of Mexico. He was made captain, 26 January, 1849, major of the 1st U.S. Cavalry, 8 March, 1855, and served in Kansas and on the western frontier At the beginning of the Civil War he was lieutenant-colonel of the 2d U.S. Cavalry. On 25 April, 1861, he was promoted to the colonelcy of the 4th U.S. Cavalry, and on 31 August was commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers and placed in command of a brigade of the Army of the Potomac, which in the subsequent organization of the army was assigned to the 2d Corps, under General Sumner, General Sedgwick assuming command of the 3d Division. In this capacity he took part in the siege of Yorktown and the subsequent pursuit of the enemy up the Peninsula, and rendered good service at the battle of Fair Oaks. In all the seven days' fighting, and particularly at Savage Station and Glendale, he bore an honorable part, and at the battle of Antietam he exhibited conspicuous gallantry, exposing himself recklessly. On this occasion he was twice wounded, but refused for two hours to be taken from the field. On 23 December he was nominated by the president a major-general of volunteers, and in the succeeding February he assumed command of the 6th Army Corps. At the head of these troops he carried Marye's Heights in the rear of Fredericksburg during the Chancellorsville Campaign in May, 1863, and, after the retreat of General Joseph Hooker across the Rappahannock, succeeded only by very hard fighting in withdrawing his command in the face of a superior force, against which he had contended for a whole day, to the left bank of the river. He commanded the left wing of the Army of the Potomac during the advance from the Rappahannock into Maryland in June, and also at the succeeding battle of Gettysburg, where he arrived on the second day of the fighting, after one of the most extraordinary forced marches on record, his steady courage inspiring confidence among his troops. During the passage of Rapidan River on 7 November, 1863, he succeeded, by a well-executed manoeuvre, in capturing a whole Confederate division with guns and colors, for which he was thanked by General Meade in a general order. In command of his corps he took part in the spring campaign of the Wilderness under General Grant, and on 5 and 6 May had position on the National right wing, where the hardest fighting of those sanguinary engagements took place. Three days later, while directing the placing of some pieces of artillery in position in the intrenchments in front of Spottsylvania Court-House, he was struck in the head by a bullet from a sharpshooter and instantly killed. General Sedgwick was one of the oldest, ablest, and bravest soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, inspiring both officers and men with the fullest confidence in his military capacity. His simplicity and honest manliness endeared him, notwithstanding he was a strict disciplinarian, to all with whom he came in contact, and his corps was in consequence one of the best in discipline and morale in the army. He declined the command of the Army of the Potomac just before it was given to General Meade, but several times held it temporarily during that general's absence. A fine bronze statue of General Sedgwick stands on the plateau at West Point. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 449-450.
SEDGWICK, Arthur George, lawyer, born in New York City, 6 October, 1844, was graduated at Harvard in 1864, became 1st lieutenant in the 20th Massachusetts Regiment, was captured at Deep Bottom, Virginia, and confined in Libby Prison during the latter part of the summer of 1864. His confinement having produced an illness which incapacitated him for further service, he entered Harvard Law-School, and after graduation was admitted to the Boston Bar, where he practised law for several years, during part of this time editing the “American Law Review” with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Returning to New York in 1872, he practised, and was also for some time one of the editors of the “Evening Post,” and also of the “Nation,” to which he constantly contributed legal, political, and critical articles. He edited the 5th edition of his father's work on “Damages” (New York, 1869), and with G. Willett Van Nest the 7th (1880). He also published, with F. S. Wait, “A Treatise on the Principles and Practice governing the Trial of Title to Land” (1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 452.
SELFRIDGE, Thomas Oliver, naval officer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 24 April, 1804. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 January, 1818, was promoted to lieutenant, 3 March, 1827, and served in the West Indies, Brazil, and the Mediterranean. He was commissioned commander, 11 April, 1844, and was assigned to the ship "Columbus," which was the flag-ship of the East India Squadron in 1845-6, and subsequently of the Pacific Squadron during the Mexican War, 1846-'7. In May. 1847, he was transferred to the sloop " Dale," in which he participated in the engagement and capture of Mazatlan and Guaymas; at the latter place he received a severe wound, in consequence of which he was obliged to relinquish the command of the " Dale," and returned home in June, 1848. He was then on leave and on duty at the Boston U.S. Navy-yard until 1861, when he had command of the steam frigate "Mississippi," in the Gulf Squadron, for a few months. His wound incapacitated him for sea service, and he had charge of the U.S. Navy-yard at Mare Island, California , in 1862-'5. He was promoted to captain, 14 September, 1855, and to commodore, 16 July, 1862, and was retired on 24 April, 1866. He was president of the examining board in 1869-'70, lighthouse inspector at Boston, and also member of the examining board in 1870-'l, since which time he has been on waiting orders, and is now the senior officer of the navy on the retired list. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 25 July, 1866.—His son, Thomas Oliver, naval officer, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 6 February, 1837, was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy at the head of his class in 1854. He was promoted to lieutenant, 15 February, 1860, and was 2d lieutenant of the "Cumberland" when she was sunk by the "Merrimac" in Hampton Roads, Virginia. He was detailed to command the " Monitor " after the engagement with the "Merrimac," but was transferred as flag-lieutenant of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, and commanded the iron-clad steamer " Cairo," which was blown up by a torpedo in Yazoo River, near Vicksburg. He had charge of a siege-battery in the capture of Vicksburg, and the steamers " Conestoga" and "Manitou." He commanded the iron-clad "Osage" in the Red River Expedition, during which he inflicted a loss of 400 killed and wounded on the Confederates at Blair's Plantation. He next commanded the " Vindicator" and the 5th Division of the Mississippi River Fleet until 1864. He had charge of the steamer "Huron " in both attacks on Fort Fisher, and commanded the 3d Division of the lauding party of sailors that stormed the fort. He was promoted to commander, 31 December, 1869, and in that year took charge of surveys for an interoceanic canal across the Isthmus of Darien. He surveyed the San Bias route in 1870, the lines near Caledonia Bay, the De Puydt route, and the Gorgoza route in 1871, and the Atrato River in 1871-'3. He was also a member of the International Congress at Paris on the subject of the canal in 1876. The official reports of these surveys were published by Congress. He commanded the steamer "Enterprise," North Atlantic Station, in 1877-80, during which cruise he surveyed Amazon River. He was commissioned captain, 24 February, 1881, and in January took charge of the torpedo station at Newport, Rhode Island, where he remained until 1885. During his service at the torpedo station he invented a device to protect a ship by suspending torpedoes to a net by which an attacking torpedo would be destroyed. In 1885-'7 he commanded the "Omaha," of the Asiatic Squadron, and in March, 1877, after he had engaged in target practice off the island of Ike-Sima, Japan, the bursting of an unexploded shell caused the death of four natives of the island. He was tried by court-martial for criminal carelessness in Washington in 1888, but was acquitted. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 457.
SEMMES, Alexander Aldebaran, naval officer, born in Washington, D. C, 8 June, 1825; died in Hamilton, Virginia, 22 September, 1885. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 22 October, 1841, attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and became a passed midshipman, 10 August, 1847. He was promoted to master, 11 August, 1855, and to lieutenant, 15 September, 1855. During the Civil War he rendered creditable service in command of the steamer "Rhode Island" on the Atlantic Coast blockade in 1861, and in the steamer " Wamsutta" on the South Atlantic Blockade, during which he conducted numerous engagements with forts and batteries on the coasts of Georgia and Florida, where he captured several blockade-runners in 1862-'3. He commanded the monitor "Lehigh" in the bombardment of Fort Pringle, and participated in the operations at Charleston until that city surrendered. He cooperated with Grant's army, fought the Howlett house batteries, and was present at the fall of Richmond in 1865. He was commissioned a commander, 25 July, 1866, promoted to captain, 24 August, 1873, and stationed at the Pensacola U.S. Navy-yard in 1873-'5. In 1880 he was president of the Board of Inspection, after which he was commandant of the U.S. Navy-yard at Washington. He was commissioned commodore, 10 March, 1882, and was in command of the navy-yard at the time of his death, but had left the city on account of his health. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 459.
SEMMES, Raphael, naval officer, born in Charles County, Maryland, 27 September, 1809; died in Mobile, Alabama, 30 August, 1877. President John Quincy Adams appointed him a midshipman in the U. S. Navy in 1826, but he did not enter upon active service until 1832, the intermediate years being spent in study. In 1834, after returning from, his first cruise, he was admitted to the bar, but decided to remain a seaman. In 1837 he was promoted lieutenant, and in 1842 he moved to Alabama. At the beginning of the war with Mexico he was made flag-lieutenant under Commodore Conner, commanding the squadron in the Gulf, and in the siege of Vera Cruz he was in charge of one of the naval batteries on shore. He was in command of the U. S. brig " Somers " on the blockade of the Mexican Coast, when the brig foundered in a gale, and most of her crew were drowned. Lieutenant then served for several years as inspector of light-houses on the Gulf Coast, in 1855 was promoted commander, and in 1858 became secretary of the Light-House Board at Washington. On the secession of Alabama, 15 February, 1861, he resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy and reported to Jefferson Davis at Montgomery, who instructed him to return to the north and endeavor to procure mechanics skilled in the manufacture and use of ordnance and rifle machinery and the preparation of fixed ammunition and percussion-caps. He was also to buy war material. In Washington he examined the machinery of the arsenal, and conferred with mechanics whom he desired to go south. Within the next three weeks he made a tour through the principal workshops of New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, purchased large quantities of percussion-caps in New York, which were sent to Montgomery without any disguise, made contracts for light artillery, powder, and other munitions of war, and shipped thousands of pounds of powder to the south. He returned to Montgomery on 4 April, to find that he had been commissioned commander in the Confederate Navy, and placed in charge of the Light-House Bureau, which he relinquished within two weeks to go to New Orleans and fit out the “Sumter,” with which he captured eighteen merchantmen. After the blockade of that ship at Tangiers by two U.S. men-of-war, he sold her and went to England, having been promoted meantime to the rank of captain. There the fast steamer “Alabama” was built for him, and in August, 1863, he took command of her at the Azores Islands, put to sea, and captured sixty-two American merchantmen, most of which he burned at sea. Upon her loss in the battle with the “Kearsarge,” on 19 June, 1864 (see WINSLOW, John A.), he returned to England, and in London was presented by officers of the British Army and Navy with a sword to replace that which he had cast into the sea from the deck of his sinking ship. On 3 October, 1864, he sailed for Havana, whence he reached Bagdad, a Mexican port on the Gulf, and passed through Texas and Louisiana. He was appointed rear-admiral, and ordered to the James River Squadron, with which he guarded the water approaches to Richmond until the city was evacuated. At Greensboro’, North Carolina, on 1 May, 1865, he participated in the capitulation of General Johnston's army. He returned to Mobile and opened a law office. There, on 15 December, 1865, he was arrested by order of Secretary Gideon Welles and was imprisoned. The reason, as given by the Attorney-General of the United States, was his liability to trial as a traitor, which he had evaded by his escape after the destruction of the “Alabama.” From his prison he wrote to President Johnson a letter claiming immunity for all past deeds under the military convention, to which he was a party at Greensboro’, and the subsequent quarrel between Mr. Johnson and the Republican majority of Congress interrupted any proceedings looking to his trial. He was released under the third of the president's amnesty proclamations, and in May, 1866, was elected judge of the probate court of Mobile County, but an order from President Johnson forbade him to exercise the functions of the office. He then became editor of a daily paper in Mobile, which he gave up to accept a professor's chair in the Louisiana Military Institute. He afterward returned to Mobile and resumed the practice of law, in which he was occupied till his death. He published “Service Afloat arrival, and did not reach his headquarters at Fort and Ashore during the Mexican War” (Cincinnati, Douglas (now part of Winnipeg) until the spring 1851): “The Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico” (1852); “The Cruise of the Alabama and Sumter” (New York, 1864); and “Memoirs of Service Afloat during the War between the States” (Baltimore, 1869). The action of the British government in permitting the “Alabama” and other similar cruisers to be fitted out in its ports gave rise to the so-called “Alabama claims” on the court of the United States, settled by arbitration in 1872. (See GRANT, ULYSSES S.) Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 459-460.
SEMMES, Alexander Jenkins, surgeon, born in Georgetown, D.C., 17 December, 1828, was educated at Georgetown College, and graduated at the National Medical College, Washington, D.C., in 1854. He subsequently studied in Paris and London, and on his return settled in Georgetown, D.C., but moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. He was commissioned a surgeon in the Confederate Army in 1861, served in that capacity in General Thomas J. Jackson's corps in the Army of Northern Virginia, was surgeon in charge in the Jackson Military Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, became medical inspector of the Department of Northern Virginia in 1862, inspector of hospitals in the Department of Virginia in 1863, and president of the Examining Boards of the Louisiana, Jackson, Stuart, and Winder Hospitals, Richmond, Virginia, in 1865. He was visiting physician to the Charity Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana in 1866–’7, moved to Savannah, Georgia, and in 1870–’6 was professor of physiology in the Savannah Medical College. Subsequently he took orders in the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1886 he became president of Pio Nono College, Macon, Georgia. He was a secretary of the American Medical Association in 1858–'9, a member of several professional societies, and the author of medical and other papers. His publications include “Medical Sketches of Paris” (New York, 1852): “Gunshot Wounds” (1864); “Notes from a Surgical Diary” (1866); “Surgical Notes of the Late War” (1867); “The Fluid Extracts” (1869); “Evolution the Origin of Life” (1873); and the “Influence of Yellow Fever on Pregnancy and Parturition” (1875). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 460.
SERRELL, Edward Wellman, civil engineer, born in New York City, 5 November, 1826. He was educated at schools in his native city, and then studied surveying and civil engineering under the direction of an elder brother. In 1845 he became assistant engineer in charge of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and he subsequently served in a similar capacity on the construction of other roads. He accompanied the expedition that in 1848 located the route of the railroad between Aspinwall and Panama, and on his return, a year later, was engaged in building the suspension-bridge across the Niagara River at Lewiston; also that at St. Johns, New Brunswick. Mr. Serrell was in charge of the Hoosac Tunnel in 1858, and was concerned in the construction of the Bristol Bridge over Avon River, in England, which had the largest span of any bridge in that country at the time it was built. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the 1st New York Volunteers as lieutenant-colonel, soon became its colonel, and served as chief engineer of the 10th Army Corps in 1863. He was chief engineer and chief of staff under General Benjamin F. Butler in 1864,and designed and personally superintended the construction of the "Swamp-angel" battery that bombarded Charleston. Many valuable improvements of guns and processes, that proved of practical service during the war were suggested by him, and the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers was conferred on him on 13 March, 1865. After 1865 he settled in New York, and engaged principally in the building of railroads, becoming in 1887 president and consulting engineer of the Washington County Railroad. In addition to papers on scientific and technical subjects, he has published nearly fifty reports on railroads and bridges. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 464.
SETON, William, author, born in New York City, 28 January, 1835, is son of William Seton, an officer in the U. S. Navy. He is recognized by Burke's " Peerage " as the head of the ancient family of the Setons of Parbroath, senior cadets of the Earls of Winton in Scotland. He was educated at Mount St. Mary's College, Emmettsburg, Maryland, and by private tutors, and served as captain of the 4th New York Volunteers, during the first part of the Civil War, until he was disabled by wounds that he received at Antietam. He is a frequent contributor to periodicals and journals, and has published " Romance of the Charter Oak" (New York, 1870); "The Pride of Lexington; a Tale of the American Revolution "(1871); "Rachel's Fate and Other Tales " (1882); "The Poor Millionaire, a Tale of New York Life " (1884); and " The Shamrock gone West, and Moida, a Tale of the Tyrol" (New York, 1884). He is also the author of " The Pioneer," a poem (1874). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 465.
SETTLE, Thomas, jurist, born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, in 1791; died there, 5 August, 1857. He received a common-school education, was admitted to the bar, and practised at Wentworth, North Carolina. He entered public life in 1816 as a member of the house of commons, and was in Congress in 1817—"21, having been elected as a Democrat. He was again in the legislature in 1826-'8, the last year was speaker of the house, and in 1832-'54 was a judge of the supreme court of North Carolina. Judge Settle was eminent for his virtues, learning, and legal ability.—His son, Thomas, jurist, born in Rockingham County, North Carolina, 23 January, 1831, was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1850, read law, served in the legislature in 1854-'9, was speaker of the house the latter year, and a Presidential Elector in 1850, casting his vote for James Buchanan. He supported Stephen A. Douglas for the presidency in 1860, and used his influence to prevent secession, but, when the Civil War began, entered the Confederate Army as captain in the 3d North Carolina Regiment. After a service of twelve months he returned to civil life and became solicitor of the 4th Judicial District. He united with the Republican Party in 1865, was elected to the state senate in that year, became its speaker, and took an active part in reconstruction measures. He was a judge of the state supreme court in 1868-'71, and resigned to become U. S. minister to Peru, but held office for only a few months on account of the failure of his health, was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 1872, and in June of that year was president of the National Republican Convention, held in Philadelphia. He was reappointed a justice of the state supreme court in 1873, and was defeated for governor in 1876. In 1877 he became United States District Judge of the Northern District of Florida. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 466.
SEWARD, William Henry, 1801-1872, statesman, U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, U.S. Senator from New York, abolitionist, member Anti-Slavery Republican Party.
(Baker, 1884; Dumond, 1961, pp. 292, 302, 355-356; Gienapp, 1987; Holt, 1999; Mitchell, 2007, pp. 9, 10, 54, 119-121, 160, 162, 165-167, 168, 177, 191-192, 198, 247; Pease, 1965, pp. 177-181, 483-485; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 52, 62, 136, 138, 240, 513, 634-636; Sewell, 1976; Van Deusen, 1976; Wilson, 1872, Vol. 2, pp. 164-166; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 470-472; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 8, Pt. 2, p. 615; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 676; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition. Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 613-616)
SEWARD, William Henry, statesman, born in Florida, Orange County, New York, 16 May, 1801; died in Auburn, New York, 10 October, 1872. His father, Dr. Samuel S. Seward, descended from a Welsh emigrant to Connecticut, combined medical practice with a large mercantile business. His mother was of Irish extraction. The son was fond of study, and in 1816 entered Union, after clue preparation at Farmers' Hall Academy, Goshen, New York. He withdrew from college in 1819, taught for six months in the south, and after a year's absence returned, and was graduated in 1820. After reading law with John Anthon in New York City, and John Duer and Ogden Hoffman in Goshen, he was admitted to the bar at Utica in 1822, and in January, 1823, settled in Auburn, New York, as the partner of Elijah Miller, the first judge of Cayuga County, whose daughter, Frances Adeline, he married in the following year. His industry and his acumen and power of logical presentation soon gave him a place among the leaders of the bar. In 1824 he first met Thurlow Weed at Rochester, and a close friendship between them, personal and political, continued through life. In that year also he entered earnestly into the political contest as an advocate of the election of John Quincy Adams, and in October of that year drew up an address of the Republican Convention of Cayuga County, in which he arraigned the “Albany Regency” and denounced the methods of Martin Van Buren's supporters. He delivered an anniversary address at Auburn on 4 July, 1825. He was one of the committee to welcome Lafayette, and in February, 1827, delivered an oration expressive of sympathy for the Greek revolutionists. On 12 August, 1827, he presided at Utica over a great convention of young men of New York in support of the re-election of John Q. Adams. He declined the anti-Masonic nomination for Congress in 1828, but joined that party on the dissolution of the National Republican Party, with which he had previously acted, consequent upon the setting aside of its candidate for Andrew Jackson. In 1830 he was elected as the anti-Masonic candidate for the state senate, in which body he took the lead in the opposition to the dominant party, and labored in behalf of the common schools and of railroad and canal construction. He proposed the collection of documents in the archives of European governments for the “Colonial History of New York,” advocated the election of the mayor of New York by the direct popular vote, and furthered the passage of the bill to abolish imprisonment for debt. At the close of the session he was chosen to draw up an address of the minority of the legislature to the people. On 4 July, 1831, he gave an address to the citizens of Syracuse on the “Prospects of the United States.” On 31 January, 1832, he defended the U.S. Bank in an elaborate speech in the state senate, and at the close of that session again prepared an address of the minority to their constituents. In 1833 he travelled through Europe, writing home letters which were afterward published in the “Albany Evening Journal.” In January, 1834, he denounced the removal of the U. S. bank deposits in a brilliant and exhaustive speech. He drew up a third minority address at the close of this his last session in the legislature. On 16 July, 1834, he delivered a eulogy of Lafayette at Auburn.
The Whig Party, which had originated in the opposition to the Jackson administration and the “Albany Regency,” nominated him for governor on 13 September, 1834, in the convention at Utica. He was defeated by William L. Marcy, and returned to the practice of law in the beginning of 1835. On 3 October of that year he made a speech at Auburn on education and internal improvements. In July, 1836, he quitted Auburn for a time in order to assume an agency at Westfield to settle the differences between the Holland land Company and its tenants. While there he wrote some political essays, and in July, 1837, delivered an address in favor of universal education. He took an active part in the political canvass of 1837, which resulted in a triumph of the Whigs. He was again placed in nomination for governor in 1838, and after a warm canvass, in which he was charged with having oppressed settlers for the benefit of the land company, and was assailed by anti-slavery men, who had failed to draw from him an expression of abolitionist principles, he was elected by a majority of 10,421. The first Whig governor was hampered in his administration by rivalries and dissension within the party. He secured more humane and liberal provisions for the treatment of the insane, a mitigation of the methods of discipline in the penitentiary, and the improvement of the common schools. His proposition to admit Roman Catholic and foreign-born teachers into the public schools, while it was applauded by the opposite party, drew upon him the reproaches of many of the Protestant clergy and laity, and subjected him to suspicion and abuse. His recommendations to remove disabilities from foreigners and to encourage, rather than restrict, emigration, likewise provoked the hostility of native-born citizens. His proposition to abolish the court of chancery and make the judiciary elective was opposed by the bench and the bar, yet within a few years the reform was effected. At his suggestion, specimens of the natural history of the state were collected, and, when the geological survey was completed, he prepared an elaborate introduction to the report, reviewing the settlement, development, and condition of the state, which appeared in the work under the title of “Notes on New York.” In the conflict between the proprietors and the tenants of Renselaerwyck he advocated the claims of the latter, but firmly suppressed their violent outbreaks. He was re-elected, with a diminished majority, in 1840. A contest over the enlargement of the Erie Canal and the completion of the lateral canals, which the Democrats prophesied would plunge the state into a debt of forty millions, grew sharper during Governor Seward's second term, and near its close the legislature stopped the public works. His projects for building railroads were in like manner opposed by that party.
In January, 1843, Seward retired to private life, resuming the practice of law at Auburn. He continued an active worker for his party during the period of its decline, and was a frequent speaker at political meetings. In 1843 he delivered an address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Union College on the “Elements of Empire in America.” He entered largely into the practice of patent law, and in criminal cases his services were in constant demand. Frequently he not only defended accused persons gratuitously, but gave pecuniary assistance to his clients. Among his most masterly forensic efforts were an argument for freedom of the press in a libel suit brought by J. Fenimore Cooper against Horace Greeley in 1845, and the defence of John Van Zandt, in 1847, against a criminal charge of aiding fugitive slaves to escape. At the risk of violence, and with a certainty of opprobrium, he defended the demented Negro Freeman, who had committed a revolting murder, emboldened, many supposed, by Seward's eloquent presentation of the doctrine of moral insanity in another case. In September, 1847, Seward delivered a eulogy on Daniel O'Connell before the Irish citizens of New York, and in 1848 a eulogy on John Quincy Adams before the New York Legislature. He took an active part in the presidential canvass, and in a speech at Cleveland described the conflict between freedom and slavery, saying of the latter: “It must be abolished, and you and I must do it.”
In February, 1849, Seward was elected U. S. Senator. His proposal, while governor, to extend suffrage to the Negroes of New York, and many public utterances, placed him in the position of the foremost opponent of slavery within the Whig Party. President Taylor selected Seward as his most intimate counsellor among the senators, and the latter declined to be placed on any important committee, lest his pronounced views should compromise the administration. In a speech delivered on 11 March, 1850, in favor of the admission of California, he spoke of the exclusion of slavery as determined by “the higher law,” a phrase that was denounced as treasonable by the southern Democrats. On 2 July, 1850, he delivered a great speech on the compromise bill. He supported the French spoliation bill, and in February, 1851, advocated the principles that were afterward embodied in the homestead law. His speeches covered a wide ground, ranging from a practical and statistical analysis of the questions affecting steam navigation, deep-sea exploration, the American fisheries, the duty on rails, and the Texas debt, to flights of passionate eloquence in favor of extending sympathy to the exiled Irish patriots, and moral support to struggles for liberty, like the Hungarian Revolution, which he reviewed in a speech on “Freedom in Europe,” delivered in March, 1852. After the death of Zachary Taylor many Whig Senators and representatives accepted the pro-slavery policy of President Fillmore, but Seward resisted it with all his energy. He approved the nomination of Winfield Scott for the presidency in 1852, but would not sanction the platform, which upheld the compromise of 1850. In 1853 he delivered an address at Columbus, Ohio, on ”The Destiny of America,” and one in New York City on “The True Basis of American Independence.” In 1854 he made an oration on “The Physical, Moral, and Intellectual Development of the American People” before the literary societies of Yale College, which gave him the degree of LL. D. His speeches on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and on the admission of Kansas made a profound impression. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1855, in spite of the vigorous opposition of both the Native American Party and the Whigs of southern sympathies. In the presidential canvass of 1856 he zealously supported John C. Frémont, the Republican candidate. In 1857 he journeyed through Canada, and made a voyage to Labrador in a fishing-schooner, the “Log” of which was afterward published. In a speech at Rochester, New York, in October, 1858, he alluded to the “irrepressible conflict,” which could only terminate in the United States becoming either entirely a slave-holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation. He travelled in Europe, Egypt, and Palestine in 1859.
In 1860, as in 1856, Seward's pre-eminent position in the Republican Party made him the most conspicuous candidate for the presidential nomination. He received 173½ votes in the first ballot at the convention, against 102 given to Abraham Lincoln, who was eventually nominated, and in whose behalf he actively canvassed the western states. Lincoln appointed him Secretary of State, and before leaving the Senate to enter on the duties of this office he made a speech in which he disappointed some of his party by advising patience and moderation in debate, and harmony of action for the sake of maintaining the Union. He cherished hopes of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and, while declining in March, 1861, to enter into negotiations with commissioners of the Confederate government, he was in favor of evacuating Fort Sumter as a military necessity and politic measure, while re-enforcing Fort Pickens, and holding every other post then remaining in the hands of the National government. He issued a circular note to the ministers abroad on 9 March, 1861, deprecating foreign intervention, and another on 24 April, defining the position of the United States in regard to the rights of neutrals. Negotiations were carried on with European governments for conventions determining such rights. He protested against the unofficial intercourse between the British Cabinet and agents of the Confederate States, and refused to receive despatches from the British and French governments in which they assumed the attitude of neutrals between belligerent powers. On 21 July he sent a despatch to Charles F. Adams, minister at London, defending the decision of Congress to close the ports of the seceded states. When the Confederate Commissioners were captured on board the British steamer “Trent” he argued that the seizure was in accordance with the British doctrine of the “right of search,” which the United States had resisted by the war of 1812. The release of these prisoners, at the demand of the British government, would now commit both governments to the maintenance of the American doctrine; so they would be “cheerfully given up.” He firmly rejected and opposed the proposal of the French emperor to unite with the English and Russian governments in mediating between the United States and the Confederate government. He made the Seward-Lyons Treaty with Great Britain for the extinction of the African slave-trade. The diplomatic service was thoroughly reorganized by Secretary Seward; and by his lucid despatches and the unceasing presentation of his views and arguments, through able ministers, to the European cabinets, the respect of Europe was retained, and the efforts of the Confederates to secure recognition and support were frustrated. In the summer of 1862, the army having become greatly depleted, and public proclamation of the fact being deemed unwise, he went to the north with letters from the president and Secretary of War, met and conferred with the governors of the loyal states, and arranged for their joint proffer of re-enforcements, to which the president responded by the call for 300,000 more troops. Mr. Seward firmly insisted on the right of American citizens to redress for the depredations of the “Alabama,” and with equal determination asserted the Monroe Doctrine in relation to the French invasion of Mexico, but, by avoiding a provocative attitude, which might have involved his government in foreign war, was able to defer the decision of both questions till a more favorable time. Before the close of the Civil War he intimated to the French government the irritation felt in the United States in regard to its armed intervention in Mexico. Many despatches on this subject were sent during 1865 and 1866, which gradually became more urgent, until the French forces were withdrawn and the Mexican empire fell. He supported President Lincoln's proclamation liberating the slaves in all localities in rebellion, and three years later announced by proclamation the abolition of slavery throughout the Union by constitutional amendment. In the spring of 1865 Mr. Seward was thrown from his carriage, and his arm and jaw were fractured. While he was confined to his couch with these injuries President Lincoln was murdered and on the same evening, 14 April, one of the conspirators gained access to the chamber of the secretary, inflicted severe wounds with a knife in his face and neck, and struck down his son, Frederick W., who came to his rescue. His recovery was slow and his sufferings were severe. He concluded a treaty with Russia for the cession of Alaska in 1867. He negotiated treaties for the purchase of the Danish West India Islands and the Bay of Samana, which failed of approval by the Senate, and made a treaty with Colombia to secure American control of the Isthmus of Panama, which had a similar fate. Secretary Seward sustained the reconstruction policy of President Johnson, and thereby alienated the more powerful section of the Republican Party and subjected himself to bitter censure and ungenerous imputations. He opposed the impeachment of President Johnson in 1868, and supported the election of General Grant in that year. He retired from office at the end of eight years of tenure in March, 1869. After a brief stay in Auburn, he journeyed across the continent to California, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska, returning through Mexico as the guest of its government and people. In August, 1870, he set out on a tour of the world, accompanied by several members of his family. He visited the principal countries of Asia, northern Africa, and Europe, being received everywhere with great honor. He studied their political institutions, their social and ethnological characteristics, and their commercial capabilities. Returning home on 9 October, 1871, he devoted himself to the preparation of a narrative of his journey, and after its completion to a history of his life and times, which was not half finished at the time of his death. The degree of LL. D. was given him by Union in 1866. He published, besides occasional addresses and numerous political speeches, a volume on the “Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams” (Auburn, 1849). An edition of his “Works” was published, which contains many of his earlier essays, speeches, and addresses, with a memoir by George E. Baker, reaching down to 1853 (3 vols., New York, 1853). To this a fourth volume was added in 1862, and a fifth in 1884, containing his later speeches and extracts from his diplomatic correspondence. His official correspondence during the eight years was published by order of Congress. The relation of his “Travels Around the World” was edited and published by his adopted daughter, Olive Risley Seward (New York, 1873). Charles F. Adams published an “Address on the Life, Character, and Services of Seward” (Albany, 1873), which was thought by some to have extolled him at the expense of President Lincoln's fame, and elicited replies from Gideon Welles and others. Mr. Seward's “Autobiography,” which extends to 1834, has been continued to 1846 in a memoir by his son, Frederick W., with selections from his letters (New York, 1877). The vignette portrait represents Governor Seward in early life, and the other illustration is a view of his residence at Auburn. There is a bronze statue of Mr. Seward, by Randolph Rogers, in Madison square, New York.—His son, Augustus Henry, soldier, born in Auburn, New York, 1 October, 1826; died in Montrose, New York, 11 September, 1876, was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1847, served through the Mexican War as lieutenant of infantry, afterward in Indian territory till 1851, and then on the coast survey till 1859, when he joined the Utah Expedition. He was made a captain on 19 January, 1859, and on 27 March, 1861, a major on the staff. He served as paymaster during the Civil War, receiving the brevets of lieutenant-colonel and colonel at its close.—Another son, Frederick William, lawyer, born in Auburn, New York, 8 July, 1830, was graduated at Union in 1849, and after he was admitted to the bar at Rochester, New York, in 1851, was associate editor of the Albany “Evening Journal” till 1861, when he was appointed assistant Secretary of State, which office he held for the eight years that his father was secretary. In 1867 he went on a special mission to Santo Domingo. He was a member of the New York legislature in 1875, and introduced the bill to incorporate the New York elevated Railroad and the amendments to the constitution providing for a reorganization of the state canal and prison systems, placing each under responsible heads, and abolishing the old boards. He was assistant Secretary of State again in 1877-'81, while William M. Evarts was secretary. Union conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1878. His principal publication is the “Life and Letters” of his father (New York, 1877), of which the second volume is now (1888) in preparation. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 470-472.
Chapter: “John Quincy Adams. William H. Seward. Salmon P. Chase,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.
Just one year from the disappearance of Mr. Adams from the theatre on which he had borne so prominent and important a part were elected to the Senate of the United States William H. Seward of New York and Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Both were deeply inspired by the spirit of freedom, and had labored earnestly in its behalf. Both were men of large capacity, superior culture; laudable ambition; and tireless industry; and their entrance upon this new and broader sphere of action was welcomed by the antislavery men of the nation with high and exciting hopes that they" would prove worthy champions of a noble cause. Nor were these hopes doomed to disappointment.
In the election of 1848, the Democratic Party of New York had been riven iii twain and completely routed. The Whigs had elected all but one of its thirty-four members of Congress. They had secured four fifths of the legislature, and Hamilton Fish had been elected governor by a plurality of one hundred thousand. . Mr. Seward had done much to retain the antislavery Whigs of that and other Northern States, notwithstanding the rejection of the Wilmot proviso by the national convention. During the presidential canvass he said little of platforms or candidates, but spoke with signal ability in behalf of the Union, equal rights, the diffusion of knowledge, the development of the country, and the abolition of slavery.
During this canvass he addressed a convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and presented the issues growing out of the existence of slavery with singular boldness and distinctness of utterance. At the same time he described with philosophic accuracy and with marvelous force and felicity of language the distinction between the party of freedom and the party of slavery. He declared the antagonistic elements of American Society to be freedom and slavery. “Freedom," he said,” is in harmony with our system of government and with the spirit of the ages and' is therefore passive and quiescent. Slavery is in conflict with that system, with justice, and with humanity, and is therefore organized, defensive, active, and perpetually aggressive. Freedom insists on the emancipation and elevation of labor; slavery demands soil moistened with tears and blood." Resulting from these elements, the American people were divided, he affirmed, into the party of freedom and the party of slavery. “The party of slavery,'' he said,” upholds an aristocracy founded on the humiliation of labor as necessary to the existence of a chivalrous republic. The party of freedom maintains universal suffrage, which makes men equal before the laws, as they are in the sight of a common Creator. The party of slavery cherishes ignorance because it is the only security for oppression. . The party of liberty demands the diffusion of knowledge because it is the safeguard of republican institutions. The party of slavery declares that institution munificent and approved of God, and therefore inviolable. The party of freedom seeks complete and universal emancipation."
Admitting that the Whig Party had fallen from its ancient faith and was comparatively unsound, he claimed that it was the truest and most faithful of the two parties, the one or the other of which must prevail. He gave expression to the pregnant thought that the Whig Party was as faithful to the interests of freedom as the “inert conscience " of the American people would permit it to be, and he urged the duty of making it more faithful. " Slavery," he said,” can be limited to its present bounds, it can be ameliorated, it can be and must be abolished; and you and I can and must do it." Maintaining that the strength of slavery did not lie in the Constitution of the United States, nor in the constitutions and laws of the slaveholding States, but in the erroneous sentiments of the American people, he urged the men of Ohio to " inculcate " the " law of freedom and equal rights of man under the paternal roof, and to see to it that they are taught in the schools and in the churches. “Reform your own code," he continued; "extend a cordial welcome to the fugitive who lays his weary limbs at your door, and -defend him as you would your paternal gods ; correct your own error, that slavery bas any constitutional guaranty which may not be released and ought not to be relinquished. Say to slavery, when it shows its ' bond ' and demands its ' pound of flesh,' that if it draws one drop of blood its life shall be the forfeit."
These sentiments, thus decided, not to say defiant, were expressed in dignified language, with forensic art and the adroitness of the statesman, who made the manner strengthen and enforce the matter of his discourse. He counselled, too, their inculcation with a spirit of moderation and benevolence, and not of retaliation and fanaticism; and he expressed the belief that by so doing they would bring the friends of the country into an effective aggression upon slavery, and that when the public mind should will its abolition a way would be opened to do it. He urged them not to overlook· the attainable in their efforts to secure the unattainable, and to “remember that no human work is done without preparation."
Source: Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 164-166.
—Another son, William Henry, soldier, born in Auburn, New York, 18 June, 1839, was educated by a private tutor, and in 1861 engaged in banking at Auburn. He entered the volunteer service as lieutenant-colonel of the 138th New York Infantry, and was afterward made colonel of the 9th New York heavy Artillery. In 1863 he was sent on a special mission to Louisiana. Colonel Seward was engaged at Cold Harbor and the other battles of the Wilderness Campaign. He afterward commanded at Fort Foote. Maryland, and took part in the battle of Monocacy, where he was wounded, but retained his command. He was commissioned as brigadier-general on 13 September, 1864, was commandant for some time at Martinsburg, Virginia, and resigned his commission on 1 June, 1865, returning to the banking business at Auburn. He is president of the Auburn city Hospital, and an officer in various financial and charitable associations.—William Henry's nephew, Clarence Armstrong, lawyer, born in New York City, 7 October. 1828, was brought up as a member of his uncle's family, his parents having died when he was a child. He was graduated at Hobart in 1848, studied law, and began practice in Auburn as a partner of Samuel Blatchford, whom he assisted in the compilation of the "New York Civil and Criminal Justice" (Auburn, 1850). In 1854 he established himself in New York City. He was judge-advocate-general of the state in 1856-'60. After the attempted assassination of Secretary Seward and his son, Frederick W., he was appointed acting assistant Secretary of State. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention of 1878, and a presidential elector in 1880. His practice has especially related to railroads, express companies, patents, and extraditions. — Another nephew of William Henry, George Frederick, diplomatist, born in Florida, New York, 8 November, 1840, was prepared for college at Seward Institute in his native village, and entered Union with the class of 1860, but was not graduated. In 1861 he was appointed U. S. consul at Shanghai, China. In the exercise of extra-territorial jurisdiction he had to pass judgment on river pirates claiming to be Americans, who infested the Yang-tse-Kiang during the Taeping rebellion, and by his energy and determination checked the evil. In 1863 he was made consul-general, and introduced reforms in the consular service in China. He returned to the United States in 1866 to urge legislation for the correction of abuses in the American judicial establishment in China, which he was only able to effect on a second visit to the United States in 1869. He went to Siam in 1868 to arrange a difficulty that had arisen in regard to the interpretation of the treaty with that country. He was appointed U. S. minister to Corea in 1869, but at his suggestion the sending of a mission to that country was deferred, and he did not enter on the duties of the office. In 1873 he landed the crews of two American vessels-of-war, and, as dean of the consular corps, summoned a force of volunteers for the suppression of a riot which endangered the European quarter. On 7 January, 1876, he was commissioned as minister to China. During his mission he was called home to answer charges against his administration, in Congress, and was completely exculpated after a long investigation. He declined to undertake the task of negotiating a treaty for the restriction of Chinese immigration, and, in order to carry out the views that prevailed in Congress, he was recalled, and James B. Angell was appointed his successor on 9 April, 1880. After his return to the United States, Mr. Seward became a broker in New York City. He was president of the North China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1865-'6. Besides his official reports and diplomatic correspondence, he has written a book on " Chinese Immigration in its Social and Economical Aspects," containing arguments against anti-Chinese legislation (New York. 1881).
SEWELL, William Joyce, senator, born in Castlebar, Ireland, 6 December, 1835. He was left an orphan, came to the United States in 1851, was for a time employed in mercantile business in New York City, made several voyages as a sailor on merchant vessels, afterward engaged in business in Chicago, Illinois. At the beginning of the Civil War, being in the eastern part of the country, he entered the army as a captain in the 5th New Jersey Regiment. He rose to be colonel in October, 1862, and commanded a brigade at Chancellorsville, where he led a brilliant charge and was badly wounded. He was wounded also at Gettysburg, and served creditably on other battlefields. On 13 March, 1865, he received the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers for bravery at Chancellorsville, and that of major-general for his services during the war. He served for nine years in the New Jersey Senate, of which he was president for three years. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1876, 1880, 1884, and 1888. He entered the U. S. Senate on 4 March, 1881, and served till 3 March, 1887. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 474.
SEYMOUR, Horatio, statesman, born in Pompey Hill, Onondaga County, New York, 31 May, 1810; died in Utica, New York, 12 February, 1886. He attended school in his native village until he was ten years of age, when he was sent to Oxford Academy. In the spring of 1824 he entered Geneva Academy (now Hobart College), and remained there a year, going thence to Partridge's Military School at Middletown, Connecticut. He studied law with Greene C. Bronson and Samuel Beardsley, and was admitted to the bar in 1832, but he never practised his profession, the care of the property he had inherited taking up much of his time. He became military secretary of Governor William L. Marcy in 1833, and held the place until 1839. In 1841 he was elected to the state assembly as a Democrat, and in 1842 was elected mayor of Utica by a majority of 130 over Spencer Kellogg, the Whig candidate. In 1843 he was renominated, but was beaten by Frederick Hollister by sixteen votes. In the autumn of the same year he was elected again to the assembly, and in the session that began in 1844 he distinguished himself among men like John A. Dix, Sanford E. Church, and Michael Hoffman. He was chairman of the committee on canals, and presented an elaborate report, which was the basis of the canal policy of the state for many years. He advocated the employment of the surplus revenue to enlarge the locks of the Erie Canal and proceed with the construction of the Black River and Genesee Valley canals, and he showed thorough confidence in the development of trade with the west. He was once more elected to the assembly in the autumn of 1844, and was chosen speaker in the legislature of 1845. In 1850 he became the candidate of the Democratic Party for governor, as a man acceptable to all its factions; but he was defeated by the Whig candidate, Washington Hunt, by a majority of 262, though Sanford E. Church, his associate on the Democratic ticket, was elected lieutenant-governor. In 1852 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, and did all in his power to have the vote of the New York delegation cast wholly for William L. Marcy, but failed. The same year he was again nominated as the Democratic candidate for governor, and was elected by a majority of 22,596 over his former competitor, Washington Hunt. During his term there was a strong temperance movement in the state, and the legislature passed a prohibitory law, which Governor Seymour vetoed, declaring its provisions to be unconstitutional, and denying its good policy. In 1854 he was renominated for the governorship, and received 156,495 votes, to 156,804 cast for Myron H. Clark, the Whig and temperance candidate, 122,282 for Daniel Ullman, the " Know-Nothing " candidate, and 33,500 for Greene O. Bronson, the candidate of the "Hard-shell" Democrats. The vetoed law was again passed by the legislature, approved by Governor Clark, and afterward declared unconstitutional by the court of appeals. In 1856 Mr. Seymour was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati, and he supported the Democratic candidates, Buchanan and Breckinridge, actively in the presidential canvass of that year. In a speech delivered at Springfield, Massachusetts, 4 July, 1856, he set forth the political principles that he had previously followed and afterward adhered to. It gives the key to his whole political career. He argued against centralization and for local authority: "That government is most wise which is in the hands of those best informed about the particular questions on which they legislate, most economical and honest when controlled by those most interested in preserving frugality and virtue, most strong when it only exercises authority which is beneficial to the governed." He argued against the attempt to reform by legislative restraint, instancing a prison as a type of society perfectly regulated and yet vicious. He argued for a liberal policy in regard for immigration, saying that it was bringing acquisitions of power, peacefully and easily, such as no conqueror had ever won in war: but he did not deny the right of the people of this country to regulate immigration or even to forbid it altogether, which he asserted many years afterward in regard to the importation of Chinese. He argued that the growth of the north was so much more rapid than that of the south that political supremacy had passed into the hands of the free states. He argued for the right of the people of the territories to settle the slavery question for themselves, assuming that under such a policy there would be a rapid increase of free states. In 1857 Mr. Seymour received from President Buchanan the offer of a first-class foreign mission, but declined it; and he took no prominent part in politics again until the secession movement began. He was a member of the committee on resolutions at the convention held in Tweddle Hall, Albany, 31 January, 1861, after the secession of six states, to consider the feasibility of compromise measures; and he delivered a speech designed mainly to show the peculiar dangers of civil war. When the war began in 1861, Mr. Seymour was in Madison, Wisconsin, and the Democratic members of the legislature, then in session, called him into consultation as to the proper course of political action. He counselled the simple duty of loyalty, to obey the laws, and maintain the national authority, and he was active in raising one of the first companies of Wisconsin volunteers. When he returned home in the autumn he spoke at a Democratic ratification meeting held in Utica, 28 October, 1861, saying: "In common with the majority of the American people, I deplored the election of Mr. Lincoln as a great calamity; yet he was chosen in a constitutional manner, and we wish, as a defeated organization, to show our loyalty by giving him a just and generous support.'' He was an active member of the committee appointed by Governor Edwin D. Morgan to raise troops in Oneida County, and he contributed liberally to the fund for the volunteers. In the following winter he delivered at Albany an address on the state and national defences; at a meeting of representative Democrats, held in the state capital in the disastrous summer of 1862, he introduced a resolution that "we were bound in honor and patriotism to send immediate relief to our brethren in the field "; and, at the request of the adjutant-general of the state, he became chairman of the committee to take charge of recruiting in his own neighborhood. On 10 September, 1862, the Democratic State Convention nominated him for governor. In his address to that body, accepting the nomination, he intimated that compromise measures might have prevented the war, justified the maintenance of party organization, criticised the spirit of congress as contrasted with that of the army as he had found both during a visit to the national capitol and the camps, and argued that the Republican Party could not, in the nature of things, save the nation. After a canvass in which he asserted on all occasions the right of criticising the administration and the duty of sustaining the government, he was elected, defeating General James S. Wadsworth by a majority of 10,752 votes. Perhaps the fairest statement of his position in regard to the war at that period is to be found in the following passage from his inaugural message of 7 January, 1863: "The assertion that this war was the unavoidable result of slavery is not only erroneous, but it has led to a disastrous policy in its prosecution. The opinion that slavery must be abolished to restore our Union creates an antagonism between the free and the slave states which ought not to exist. If it is true that slavery must be abolished by the force of the Federal government, that the south must be held in military subjection, that four millions of Negroes must for many years be under the direct management of the authorities at Washington at the public expense, then, indeed, we must endure the waste of our armies in the field, further drains upon our population, and still greater burdens of debt. We must convert our government into a military despotism. The mischievous opinion that in this contest the north must subjugate and destroy the south to save our Union has weakened the hopes of our citizens at home and destroyed confidence in our success abroad." This argument against the probability of success along the path that finally led to it was of course supplemented by an unequivocal declaration in favor of the restoration of the Union and the supremacy of the constitution. On 23 March, 1863, President Lincoln wrote to Governor Seymour a letter seeming to suggest a personal pledge of co-operation, and the governor sent his brother to Washington to convey assurances of loyal support, but along with them a protest against the policy of arbitrary arrests. On 13 April, 1863, Governor Seymour sent to the legislature a message suggesting a constitutional amendment as a necessary preliminary to a law allowing soldiers in the field to vote; and on 24 April he vetoed a bill " to secure the elective franchise to qualified voters of the army and navy of the state of New York," on the ground that it was unconstitutional. The amendment that he had recommended was afterward adopted. In everything pertaining to the raising of troops Governor Seymour's administration showed conspicuous energy and ability, but especially in the effort to meet Lee's invasion of the north in the early summer of 1863. On 15 June the Secretary of War telegraphed to Governor Seymour asking for help, and within three days 12,000 state militia, " well equipped and in good spirits," were on their way to Harrisburg. The good-will for such an achievement was not rare during the war, but it was not often joined with the necessary executive ability, and President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton both sent their thanks to Governor Seymour for his promptitude. On 2 July, Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, telegraphed for aid, and on the two following-days troops were sent to his assistance. During the absence of the New York Militia the draft riots began. They had their pretext, if not their origin, in two grievances, which were afterward abolished. One was the commutation clause in the draft law, which provided that any drafted man might obtain exemption by paying the government three hundred dollars. The poor regarded this as a fraud upon them in the desperate lottery of life and death. The other was a discrimination against New York State, and especially New York City, in the allotment of quotas. Governor Seymour had been anxious to have this injustice corrected, and to have the draft postponed; but it began in the metropolis on Saturday, 11 July, 1863. On Sunday the names of those drawn were published, and on Monday the rioting began. The rioters stopped at no outrage, not even the murder of the innocent and helpless. That night the governor reached the city, and the next day he issued two proclamations, the first calling upon all citizens to retire to their homes and preserve the peace, and the second declaring the city in a state of insurrection. The same day he took measures for enrolling volunteers and gathering all available troops. On Tuesday he also spoke to a mob in front of the city-hall. Then, and ever afterward, his impromptu speech was the subject of bitter criticism. It seems clear, from various conflicting and imperfect reports of it, that he promised the crowd that if they had grievances they would be redressed, declared himself their friend, and urged the necessity of obedience to law and the restoration of order. The design of the speech was twofold—to persuade the crowd to disperse, and, in any event, 'to gain time for the concentration of the forces within reach to suppress the riot. Under the direction of General John E. Wool, with but slight aid from the National forces, order was restored within forty-eight hours. The rioting lasted from Monday afternoon until Thursday evening, cost about a thousand lives, and involved the destruction of property estimated at from half a million to three million dollars in value. Shortly afterward Governor Seymour wrote to President Lincoln, pointing out the injustice done in the enrolment, and asking to have the draft stopped, in order that New York might fill her quota with volunteers. The president conceded that there was an apparent unfairness in the enrolment, but refused to stop the draft. A commission, appointed by the War Department to investigate the matter, declared that the enrolment under the act of 3 March, 1863, was imperfect, erroneous, and excessive, especially with reference to the cities of New York and Brooklyn. On 16 April, 1864, a Republican legislature passed a resolution thanking Governor Seymour for his "prompt and efficient efforts" in pointing out the errors of the enrolment and procuring their correction. He took an active part in the state canvass of 1863, making many speeches in defence of his own record and the principles of his party, and attacking the policy of the administration; but in the election the state gave a Republican majority of about 29,000. On 22 April, 1864, the governor sent to the legislature a message urging the payment of interest on the state debt in gold; and this action was construed by political opponents as a covert attack on the national credit. On 3 August, 1864, the Democratic National Convention met in Chicago, and Governor Seymour presided, refusing to be a candidate for the presidential nomination. But he became a candidate for the governorship that year, and was defeated by Reuben E. Fenton, Republican, by a majority of 8,293. After the close of the war Mr. Seymour remained a leader in politics. He made speeches in the state canvasses of 1865, 1866, and 1867, opposing strongly the reconstruction policy of the Republican Party, and criticising sharply its financial methods. He presided over the state conventions of his party, 3 October, 1867, and 11 March, 1868, and over the National Convention that met in New York City, 4 July, 1868. In spite of previous declarations that he would not be a candidate before that body, and in spite of his protestations during its proceedings, the convention nominated him for the presidency, and he allowed himself, against his better judgment, to be over persuaded into accepting the nomination. In the election of 3 November, 1868, he carried the states of Delaware. Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon; Mississippi, Virginia, and Texas did not vote; and the rest of the states voted for General Grant, the Republican candidate. The electoral vote stood 214 for Grant and 80 for Seymour; the popular vote, 3,015,071 for Grant and 2,709,213 for Seymour. This defeat virtually closed Mr. Seymour's political career, for, though mentioned in connection with the presidency regularly every four years, offered the senatorship, and nominated for the governorship, he refused steadily to have anything more to do with public office. The remote origin of his last illness was a sunstroke, which he suffered in 1876 while overseeing the repairing of the roads in Deerfield, near Utica, where he had settled in 1864. See the accompanying view of his residence at Deerfield on the left bank of the Mohawk River. Mr. Seymour was of fair stature, lithely and gracefully built, and had a refined face, lighted up by dark, glowing eyes. In social intercourse he was simple in manner and considerate in spirit. As an orator he was easy, agreeable, and powerful, plausible and candid in ordinary argument, and yet rising often into true eloquence. He made many speeches on other than political occasions; he loved farming, and often delivered addresses at agricultural gatherings; he was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and frequently took part in its conventions as a lay delegate; he was a member of the commission for the state survey, and was in an especial way the £ of the canal system. It may be said broadly that he was master of everything connected with the history, topography, and institutions of New York. Mr. Seymour married, 31 May, 1835, Mary Bleecker, of Albany, who survived him only twenty days. They had no children. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 475-478.
SEYMOUR, Truman, soldier, born in Burlington, Vermont, 25 September, 1824. His grandfather was first cousin to Moses, noticed above. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1846, assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery, and in the war with Mexico won the brevet of 1st lieutenant for gallantry at Cerro Gordo, and that of captain for Contreras and Churubusco. He was promoted 1st lieutenant, 26 August, 1847, and in 1850-3 was assistant professor of drawing at West Point. He served against the Seminoles in Florida in 1856-'8, was made captain, 22 November, 1860, and took part in the defence of Fort Sumter in 1861, for which he received the brevet of major. He commanded the 5th U.S. Artillery and the U. S. camp of instruction at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from December, 1861, till March, 1862, and was then chief of artillery of General George A. McCall's division till 28 April, 1862, when he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He served in the various campaigns in Virginia and Maryland in 1862, commanding the left wing at Mechanicsville, 26 June, leading a division at Malvern Hill, 1 July, and gaining the brevets of lieutenant-colonel and colonel for South Mountain and Antietam respectively. After 18 November, 1862, he was in the Department of the South, serving as chief of staff to the commanding general from 8 January till 23 April, 1863, leading a division on Folly Island, South Carolina, on 4 July taking part in the attack on Morris Island on 10 July, and commanding the unsuccessful assault on Fort Wagner on 18 July, when he was severely wounded. He was in charge of an expedition to Florida in February, 1864, and took possession of Jacksonville on 7 February He left that town with 5,000 men on the 18th, and on the 20th met the enemy under General Joseph Finegan near Olustee. After a three-hours battle, General Seymour was forced to retire to Jacksonville. He returned to Virginia after commanding the District of Florida till 28 March, 1864, led a brigade in the 6th Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and was taken prisoner in the battle of the Wilderness, 6 May, 1864. After being taken to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was exposed, by order of General Samuel Jones, to the fire of the National batteries on Morris Island, he was exchanged on 9 August, and led a division in the Shenandoah Valley and the Richmond Campaign, being engaged in the assault on the Confederate picket-lines at Petersburg, on 26 March, 1865, and the general attack of 2 April, which ended the siege of that place. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers "for ability and energy in handling his division, and for gallantry and valuable services in action," and brigadier-general, U. S. Army, for gallantry at the capture of Petersburg, both commissions to date from 13 March, 1865. He was present at Lee's surrender, was mustered out of volunteer service, 24 August, 1865, and became major of the 5th U.S. Artillery, 13 August, 1866. After the war he commanded forts in Florida, Fort Warren, Massachusetts, in 1869-'70, and Fort Preble, Maine, in 1870-'5. and on 1 November, 1876, he was retired from active service. Since his retirement he has resided in Europe, chiefly in Florence. Williams College gave him the degree of A. M. in 1865. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 479.
SHACKELFORD, James M, soldier, born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, 7 July, 1827. After receiving an education in private schools, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1854, and practised in Kentucky. He served in the war with Mexico as a lieutenant. During the Civil War he was colonel of the 25th Kentucky Volunteers, and subsequently of the 8th Kentucky Cavalry, and was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers on 2 January, 1863. His command captured General John H. Morgan in Columbiana County, Ohio, in July, 1863. Since the war he has practised his profession in Evansville, Indiana. In 1880 he was a Republican presidential elector for Indiana. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 479.
SHALER, Alexander, soldier, born in Haddam, Connecticut, 19 March, 1827. He was educated in private schools, entered the New York Militia as a private in 1845, and became major of the 7th New Work Regiment, 13 December, 1860. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 65th New York Volunteers in June, 1861, became colonel, 17 July, 1862, and commanded the military prison at Johnson's Island, Ohio, during the winter of 1863–4. He served with the Army of the Potomac, participating in all its battles, until 6 May, 1864, when he was taken Prisoner at the battle of the Wilderness, and was held in Charleston, South Carolina, during the summer of that year. After his exchange, he commanded a division in the 7th Corps and the post of Duval's Bluffs, Arkansas, serving in the southwest until he was mustered out on 24 August, 1865. He was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on 26 May, 1863, and brevetted major-general of volunteers on 27 July, 1865. From 1867 till 1870 he was president of the board of commissioners of the Metropolitan Fire Department, and commissioner of the Fire Department of New York City in 1870–3. He was consulting engineer to the Chicago Board of Police and Fire in 1874–5, being charged with the reorganization and instruction of the Fire Department in that city. From 1867 till 1886 he was major-general of the 1st Division of the National Guard of New York, and was an organizer and president of the National Rifle Association of the United States. While a member of the board for the purchase of sites for armories, he was accused of bribery; but, although he was tried twice, the jury disagreed. General Shaler published a “Manual of Arms for Light Infantry using the Rifle Musket” (New York, 1861). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 480.
SHARPE, George Henry, lawyer, born in Kingston, N. Y„ 26 February, 1828. He was graduated at Rutgers in 1847, studied law at Yale College, was admitted to the bar in 1854, and practised until he entered the army in 1861 as captain in the 20th New York Infantry. He became colonel of the 120th New York Infantry in 1862, and took part in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac. He served upon the staffs of Generals Hooker, Meade, and Grant, and was brevetted brigadier-general in 1864, and major-general in 1865. He was attached to the U. S. legation at Vienna in 1851, and was a special agent of the State Department in Europe in 1867. In 1870-73 he was U. S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York, and took the census that demonstrated the great election frauds of 1868 in New York City, which led to the enforcement of the Federal Election Law for the first time in 1871. He was surveyor of customs for New York from 1873 till 1878. He was a member of the assembly in 1879-83, and in 1880-'l was the speaker. He delivered addresses at Kingston on the centennial anniversary of the organization of the state government in 1877, and before the Holland Society on its visit to Kingston in 1886, both of which were published. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 482.
SHAW, Albert Duane, consul, born in Lyme, Jefferson County, New York, 27 December 1841. He was educated at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, served in the 35th New York Regiment in 1861-'3, and was elected to the legislature in 1867. He was appointed U. S. consul at Toronto. Canada, in 1868, and in 1878 promoted to Manchester, England, where he served till 1885. Mr. Shaw is known for his valuable consular reports to the State Department, on foreign manufactures, and tariff and revenue reform. On his retirement from office in Manchester the citizens gave him a public reception in the city-hall, and presented him, through the mayor, with a silver casket and address. He has been active in politics as a Republican orator. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 484-485.
SHAW, Robert Gould, 1837-1863, abolitionist, Colonel Commanding, 54th Massachusetts Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops, killed in action in the assault on the Confederate fortification, Fort Wagner. He is featured prominently in the memorial to the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in from of the Massachusetts state-house in Boston. Son of abolitionist Francis George Shaw. (Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 67, 144; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 486; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 19, p. 751)
SHAW, Robert Gould, soldier, born in Boston, 10 October, 1837; died at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, 18 July, 1863, entered Harvard in 1856, but left in March, 1859. He enlisted as a private in the 7th New York Regiment on 19 April, 1861, became 2d lieutenant in the 2d Massachusetts on 28 May, and 1st lieutenant on 8 July. He was promoted to captain, 10 August, 1862, and on 17 April, 1863, became colonel of the 54th Massachusetts, the first regiment of colored troops from a free state that was mustered into the U. S. service. He was killed in the assault on Fort Wagner while leading the advance with his regiment. A bust of him has been made by Edmonia Lewis, the colored sculptor, a portrait by William Page is in Memorial Hall at Harvard, and it is proposed to place a memorial of him, consisting of an equestrian figure in high relief, on the front wall of the state-house yard in Boston. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, pp. 486.
SHAW, Thompson Darrah, naval officer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 August. 1801; died in Germantown. Pennsylvania, 20 July, 1874. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 20 May, 1820, was commissioned lieutenant, 17 May, 1828, and served in the West Indies in 1831-'2. He was transferred to the “ Natchez " in April, 1833, and then to the " Lexington " as flag-lieutenant of the Brazil Squadron, and subsequently as an officer of that ship until 1885. He was on leave at Philadelphia for two years, and was then 1st lieutenant of the frigate "Constitution," of the Pacific Squadron, in 1888-'41. During the Mexican War he commanded the schooner "Petrel," and was highly complimented for his conduct in engagements at Tampico, Vera Cruz, and Tuspan in 1846-'7. Upon his return to Philadelphia a committee of citizens presented him with a sword and epaulets. He was commissioned commander, 7 August, 1850, had charge of the naval rendezvous at Philadelphia in 1852—'4, and in 1854—'5 commanded the sloop "Falmouth" in the Home Squadron. He was placed on the reserved list in 1855, but claimed that this did him an injustice, and was restored to his rank by a naval court in 1857. He was then on leave until the Civil War began, when he took command of the steamer " Montgomery," in the Gulf Blockading Squadron. He was retired, 26 February, 1862, on his own application, after more than forty years' service. He was continued on special duty at New York, Philadelphia, and Boston in 1863-'7, and was promoted to commodore on the retired list on 4 April, 1867, after which he was unemployed. See "Defence of Thompson Darrah Shaw before the Naval Court of Inquiry," by his counsel Robert K. Scott (Washington, 1857). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 487.
