Encyclopedia of Civil War Military Biography – Whi-Wyt
WHIPPLE, Amiel Weeks, soldier, born in Greenwich, Massachusetts, in 1818; died in Washington, D. C., 7 May, 1863. He studied at Amherst, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1841, was engaged immediately afterward in the hydrographic survey of Patapsco River, and in 1842 in surveying the approaches to New Orleans and the harbor of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1844 he was detailed as assistant astronomer upon the northeastern boundary survey, and in 1845 he was employed in determining the northern boundaries of New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In 1849 he was appointed assistant astronomer in the Mexican boundary commission, and in 1853 he had charge of the Pacific Railroad Survey along the 35th parallel. In 1856 he was appointed engineer for the southern light-house district and superintendent of the improvements of St. Clair Flats and St. Mary's River. At the opening of the Civil War he at once applied for service in the field, and was assigned as chief topographical engineer on the staff of General Irvin McDowell. In this capacity he was the author of the first maps of that part of Virginia that were issued during the war, and performed creditable service at the first battle of Fredericksburg. Upon the second advance of the army he was attached, as chief topographical engineer, to the staff of General George B. McClellan, but, being appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, was recalled in May, 1862, and assigned to the command of the defences of Washington south of Potomac River. His service here was so well performed that he received in orders the thanks of the president of the United States. His division was assigned in October, 1862, to the 9th Corps, and took part in the movement down the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, upon the skirts of Lee's retreating army. At Waterloo his division was attached to the 3d Army Corps, and he led it at the battle of Fredericksburg. At the battle of Chancellorsville it was much exposed, and suffered more, probably, in that engagement than any other division of the army. He was shot on Monday, 4 May, 1863, when the battle was practically at an end, and, living three days, was appointed major-general of volunteers for gallantry in action. He had received the brevets of lieutenant-colonel for the Manassas Campaign, colonel for Fredericksburg, brigadier-general for Chancellorsville, and major-general for services during the war—all in the regular army.—His son, Charles William, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1868, and is now chief ordnance officer of the Department of the Missouri, with the rank of captain. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 459-460.
WHIPPLE, William Denison, soldier, born in Nelson, Madison County, New York, 2 August, 1826. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1851, and became 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Infantry on 9 September of that year. After six years of uneventful service in New Mexico, he participated in the Gila Expedition against the Apaches in 1857, the Navajo Expedition of 1858. and the defence of Fort Defiance, N. M., in 1860. He became 1st lieutenant in December, 1856, and on the opening of the Civil War was on quartermaster's duty at Indianola, Texas. After the capture of the U. S. property he escaped through the enemy's lines, was commissioned captain and assistant adjutant-general, and in that capacity was present at the battle of Bull Run and at the headquarters of the Departments of Pennsylvania and Virginia, respectively, to June, 1862, when, becoming lieutenant-colonel and additional aide-de-camp, he was on duty in the Middle Department and 8th Army Corps, and as chief of staff to General Cadwallader. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers on 17 July, 1863, and assigned as chief of staff to General George H. Thomas, being present during the operations near Chattanooga, the siege of Atlanta, the battles of Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, and Nashville and at the headquarters of the Department of the Cumberland in 1853-'5. He received the brevets of brigadier and major-general in the regular army on 13 March, 1865, for gallant service in the Atlanta Campaign and battles before Nashville. Since the war General Whipple has been on duty as assistant adjutant-general at the headquarters of the principal military divisions, and in 1873-'81 as aide-de-camp to the general of the army. He was promoted colonel in the adjutant-general's department, 28 February, 1887. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 463.
WHISTLER, John, soldier, born in Ulster, Ireland, about 1756; died in St. Louis, Missouri, 3 September, 1829. He ran away from home when a boy, enlisted in the British Army, and served under General Burgoyne during the war of the Revolution. Upon his return to England he was honorably discharged, and soon afterward, forming an attachment for a daughter of Sir Edward Bishop, a friend of his father, he eloped with her, and, coming to this country, settled at Hagerstown, Sid. He shortly afterward entered the U. S. Army, served in the ranks, and was severely wounded in the disastrous campaign against the Indians in 1791. He was promoted captain, 1 July, 1797, and in the summer of 1803 was sent with his company of the 1st U.S. Infantry from Detroit to the head-waters of Lake Michigan, where, before the close of the year, he completed Fort Dearborn on the site of the city of Chicago. Having attained the brevet rank of major, he was appointed in 1815 military store-keeper at Newport, Kentucky, and afterward at Jefferson barracks, near St. Louis, where he remained till his death.—His son, William, soldier, born in Maryland in 1780; died in Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 December, 1863, was appointed a lieutenant of infantry, 8 June, 1801, and took part in the battle of Maguaga, Michigan, 9 August, 1812. He was promoted captain in December, 1812, major of the 2d U.S. Infantry, 28 April, 1826. lieutenant-colonel of the 7th U.S. Infantry, 21 July, 1834, and colonel of the 4th U.S. Infantry, 15 July. 1845. He retired from the service on 9 October, 1861. At his death he was the oldest army officer in the United States, with the exception of General Winfield Scott.—William's son, Joseph Nelson Garland, soldier, born in Green Bay, 19 October, 1822, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1846, and entered the army as 2d lieutenant of the 8th U.S. Infantry, but six months later was transferred to the 3d U.S. Infantry. He served in the war with Mexico, being engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, the principal battles of the campaign that followed, and the capture of the city of Mexico. He was promoted 1st lieutenant in June, 1852, in 1861 was captured in Texas by the Confederates and paroled as a prisoner of war, and promoted captain in May, 1861. He was then on duty at the U. S. Military Academy as assistant instructor of infantry tactics till March, 1863. His services in the volunteer army date from May, 1863, when he was made colonel of the 2d New York Artillery. He served in the Richmond Campaign, participating in the battles of Spottsylvania, North Anna, Tolopotomy, Cold Harbor, and the assaults on Petersburg, where he was wounded during the siege. From July, 1864, till September, 1865, he commanded a brigade in the defences of Washington. In December, 1865, he was mustered out as brevet brigadier-general of volunteers. In September, 1866, he was transferred to the 31st U.S. Infantry, and in March, 1869, to the 22d U.S. Infantry. In February, 1874, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 5th U.S. Infantry, and in May, 1883. he became colonel of the 15th U.S. Infantry. At the time of his retirement, 19 October, 1886, he was in command at Fort Buford, Dakota. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 463-464.
WHITAKER, Walter C., soldier, born in Shelby County, Kentucky, in August, 1823; died in Lyndon, Kentucky, 9 July, 1887. He received his education at Bethany College, West Virginia, under the presidency of Alexander Campbell, and had begun the study of law, when, at the opening of the war with Mexico, he entered the regiment of Kentucky volunteers as a lieutenant and served with gallantry. At the end of the war he resumed his legal studies, and soon afterward he opened an office at Shelbyville, Kentucky, devoting himself chiefly to criminal law, in which he won reputation. He also carried on a large farm, and took an active part in politics. He was a member of the state senate in 1861, when Kentucky was invaded by the Confederate Army, which, early in September, took possession of Columbus. He offered the resolution, which was almost unanimously adopted, "that the governor be requested to call out the military force of the state to expel and drive out the invaders." This resolution terminated the sham neutrality the state had undertaken to uphold. Soon afterward senator Whitaker entered the military service as colonel of the 6th Kentucky Infantry, which was mustered in early in September, and moved to meet General Simon B. Buckner's advance to Muldraugh's Hill. From that time till the close of the war his service was constant. He took an active part in the battle of Shiloh, in which his regiment lost 103 killed or wounded, and also in the battle of Stone River, and on 25 June, 1863, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. At Chickamauga, his brigade was in the reserve corps that marched upon the field at the critical moment and repelled the assault of the enemy on the National right. At the capture of Lookout Mountain, he was wounded, but he continued on the field. He was subsequently in all the engagements of the Atlanta Campaign and the battle of Nashville, and was promoted brevet major-general for gallant services. At the end of the war he returned to the practice of his profession at Louisville, and became connected with some of the most famous criminal trials in that region. He was a man of marked individuality of manner and character, and of an impetuous temper, which involved him in numerous personal difficulties, and led to his becoming for a time an inmate of an insane asylum. But in his later years he fully recovered his health, and had his share of legal practice. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 465.
WHITE, Edward Douglas, jurist, born in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, 3 November, 1845, was educated at Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, and the Jesuit's College in New Orleans. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate Army. He then studied and practised law, was a state senator in 1874-'8 and judge of the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1878-'80, and on 29 May, 1888, was elected U. S. Senator for the term beginning on 4 March, 1889. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 469.
WHITE, Francis J., soldier, born in New York City in 1842; died in San Francisco, 29 August, 1875. He was the eldest son of James H. White, who was at one time judge of the Superior Court of New York. Francis received a good education, and early in life contributed articles to magazines. At the opening of the Civil War he joined the 10th New York Regiment, participated in the battle of Bull Run, and was subsequently on the peninsula with General Benjamin F. Butler. He then served under Fremont, and in October, 1861, at the head of his "prairie scouts," recaptured Lexington, Missouri. In the autumn of 1861 he was transferred to the Army of the Mississippi, and in the autumn of 1862 he followed Porter, the guerilla chief, for thirteen days and routed his band. At one period of the war he was provost-marshal and judge-advocate-general in central Missouri, and in the closing years of the contest he was governor of the eastern shore of Maryland. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865, and was offered a captaincy in the regular army, which he declined. After serving a short time in Texas, he moved to St. Louis, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and elected to the legislature. He subsequently went to California, where he resided till his death, which was the result of disease contracted during the war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 470.
WHITE, George Leonard, educator, born in Cadiz, Cattaraugus County, New York, 20 September, 1838. He was the son of a blacksmith, and while attending school assisted his father in the shop. When he was fourteen years old his father's health gave way, and the support of the family devolved upon him and his sisters. He conducted his father's business, but studied in leisure hours, moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, and began to teach. In 1862 he enlisted in the 73d Ohio Regiment, and fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Valley, and Lookout Mountain. At the close of the war he entered the employ of the Freedmen's Bureau, but in 1868 he resigned to give his entire time to the work of Fisk University. Mr. White had heard the simple Negro songs that came into being during the days of slavery, and he resolved to form a band of his best voices to sing these songs in the large cities of the north in aid of the university. His means were limited, but, embarking his all in the enterprise, he left Nashville with his jubilee singers on 6 October, 1871. By May, 1872, he had remitted to the college $20,000. The troupe was everywhere received with enthusiasm, and a second tour netted as much as the first. Early in 1874 they went to Europe, where a like reception met them. They sang before Queen Victoria and nearly every crowned head on the continent, and returned with a gain of $50,000. The total sum that was realized to the institution was $155,000. With the funds thus acquired twenty-five acres on a commanding eminence near Nashville have been purchased, and a fine building has been erected, which has been called Jubilee Hall. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 470.
WHITE, Harry, soldier, born in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, 12 January, 1834. He received a collegiate education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1855, and practised at Indiana, Pennsylvania, till the beginning of the Civil War, when he entered the National service as major of the 67th Pennsylvania Infantry. While in the army he was elected a state senator, serving in the winter of 1862-'3. He afterward returned to his command, was captured by the Confederate troops, and retained as a prisoner sixteen months, but escaped and reached the National lines near Atlanta in October, 1864. He returned to his command, served till the end of the war, was promoted to a colonelcy, and was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 2 March, 1865. He was re-elected to the Senate of Pennsylvania in 1865, and served by successive elections till 1874, being speaker at the close of the term of 1871. In 1872 he was elected a delegate-at-large to the State Constitutional Convention, and he served in Congress from Pennsylvania in 1877-'81, having been chosen as a Republican. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 470.
WHITE, Edward Brickell, architect, born in Charleston, 29 January, 1806; died in New York City, 10 May, 1882. Entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1822, and was graduated four years later. He served in the army for ten years, resigning in 1836, and during that time was frequently detached for engineering duties. Settling in Charleston, he followed successfully his profession as an engineer, being engaged in the building of various railroads. He erected also numerous residences, built Trinity church in Charleston, and designed the monument to Colonel William Washington, at Eutaw Springs, and that to William G. Simms, in Charleston. He entered the Confederate Army, and served though out the war. In 1865 he moved to New York, where he remained until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 473.
WHITE, Octavins Augustus, physician, born in Charleston, 8 February, 1826, was graduated at the College of South Carolina in 1846, and at South Carolina Medical College two years later. He began and continued the practice of medicine with success, until the opening of the Civil War, when he received the commission of surgeon in the Confederate Army. At the close of the war he moved to New York, where he has since resided. He is a member of the New York Academy of Medicine, and other medical societies. […]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 473.
WHITE, Julius, soldier, born in Cazenovia. Madison County, New York, 29 September, 1816. He moved to Illinois in 1836, and has resided in that state and in Wisconsin, where he has engaged in commercial pursuits. In 1849 he was a member of the Wisconsin Legislature. He was made collector of customs at Chicago, Illinois, in the spring of 1861, but resigned that office on his appointment as colonel of the 37th Illinois Volunteers, then known as the Fremont Rifle Regiment. He commanded it during General John C. Fremont's Expedition to southwest Missouri in the autumn of 1861, and was afterward placed at the head of a brigade, accompanying General Samuel K. Curtis into Arkansas during the succeeding winter. He participated in the battle of Pea Ridge, and his appointment of brigadier-general of volunteers dated from that battle, 9 June, 1862. He was then assigned to the Department of the Shenandoah, and was subsequently ordered to report to General John E. Wool. He was at Martinsburg in September, 1862, and, when that town became untenable, retired to Harper's Ferry, where he volunteered to serve as second in command under his inferior officer, Colonel Dixon S. Miles, who was in charge of that post. When Harper's Ferry was surrendered, on 15 September, 1862, to General Ambrose P. Hill, he became a prisoner of war, but was released on parole. He was then placed under arrest by the U. S. government, and, at his own request, a court of inquiry was called, which found that he acted with capability and courage. He resigned in 1864, and on 13 March, 1863, was brevetted major-general of volunteers, He has since been in business in Illinois. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 473-474.
WHITELEY, Richard Henry, congressman, born in Ireland, 22 December, 1830. He was taken to Georgia in 1836, and engaged in the manufacturing business in early boyhood, but in 1860, having studied law, was admitted to the bar. He opposed secession, but served in the Confederate Army in 1861-'5. In 1867 he was chosen as a Republican to the State Constitutional Convention, and in the following year he was a Republican candidate for Congress and was appointed solicitor-general of the southwestern circuit. In February. 1870, he was elected U. S. Senator, but not admitted to a seat. Meanwhile he and his Democratic opponent had been contesting the Congressional election of 1868, and the seat was finally awarded to Mr. Whiteley in February, 1871, at the close of the session. He served from this time till 1875, and was a defeated candidate for the two following Congresses. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 480.
WHITELEY, Robert Henry Kirkwood, soldier, born near Cambridge, Maryland, 15 April, 1809. He was appointed from Delaware to the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1830, and, being assigned to the 2d U.S. Artillery, served in various arsenals and garrisons, including that of Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, in 1832-'3, during the threatened nullification troubles. He was promoted 1st lieutenant, 28 December, 1835, brevetted captain. 19 July, 1836, for gallant conduct in the Florida War, and in 1838 was transferred to the ordnance. He was promoted captain in 1842, and commanded successively the arsenal at, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that in St. Louis, Missouri, the New York Ordnance Depot, and the arsenal at San Antonio, Texas, till the last-named was seized by the state on its secession in 1861. During the Civil War he was in charge of the New York Arsenal till 1862, and then of Alleghany Arsenal, Pennsylvania, which latter post he held till his retirement from active service on 14 April, 1875. He became major, 3 August, 1861, lieutenant-colonel, 1 June, 1863, and colonel, 6 April, 1866, and on 13 March, 1865, was brevetted colonel and brigadier-general. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 480.
WHITING, Daniel Powers, soldier, born in Troy, New York. 31 July, 1808. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1832, and assigned to the 7th U.S. Infantry, with which he served in various garrisons, becoming 1st lieutenant, 8 June, 1836, and captain, 18 April, 1845. During the Mexican War he was engaged at Fort Brown, Monterey, Vera Cruz, and Cerro Gordo, where he was brevetted major. After serving against the Seminoles, on the frontier, and in the Utah Expedition in 1859, he attained full rank on 20 December, 1860. He was in command of Fort Garland, Colonel, in 1861-'2. became lieutenant-colonel, 15 February, 1862, served on a board of examination at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1862-'3, and on 4 November, 1863, was retired "for disability, resulting from long and faithful service, and from sickness and exposure in the line of duty." He has published “The Army Portfolio," a series of lithographed views illustrating the Mexican War (Washington, 1849). It was intended to continue the series, but Colonel Whiting's sketches were lost on a steamboat that sank in the Mississippi River. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 482.
WHITING, William B., naval officer, born in Troy, New York, 13 November, 1813; died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 16 December, 1883. He was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy, 2 February, 1829, and cruised on the Pacific Station in 1831-'4, principally engaged on surveys. He became a passed midshipman. 4 June, 1836, served on coast-survey duty in 1837-'43. in the frigate "Macedonian," on the coast of Africa, on surveying duty in 1843-'5, and at the naval observatory at Washington in 1845-50. during which he drew plans of the defences of Vera Cruz preliminary to the expedition of the navy and General Winfield Scott's army. He was again on the coast survey in 1851—'2, and cruised in the sloop" Vandalia," 1852-6, measuring the coasts of China and Japan. He was placed on the reserved list by the notorious retiring board of 1855 because his entire service had been in surveying duty rather than the military duties of the naval profession. He was then attached to the U. S. Naval Observatory at Washington until 1871, where he rendered valuable services in astronomical work. In recognition of his scientific attainments, he was promoted to commander and captain in 1867, and to commodore in 1871. After this last promotion he was relieved from active duty. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 483.
WHITING, William Danforth, naval officer, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 27 May, 1823. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman. 1 March, 1841, and served in the sloop " Levant " in 1846-'7, at the capture of Monterey, California, when the American flag was first hoisted on that shore, 7 July, 1846. He attended the naval academy in 1847-'8, was graduated, and-became a passed midshipman, 10 August, 1847. He was promoted to master, 1 May, 1855, and to lieutenant, 14 September, 1855, and was attached to the steam frigate "Niagara" when the first Atlantic cable was laid in 1857. He was executive of the sloop "Vandalia" at the capture of Port Royal in 1861, and commanded the steamer "Wyandotte " on the South Atlantic Blockade and in the Potomac Flotilla. Lieutenant Whiting was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, and in the gun-boat "Ottawa" participated in the attacks on the defences of Charleston, engaged Battery Gregg and Fort Wagner, and assisted in the capture of the lower end of Morris Island in 1863-'4. In 1864-'5 he commanded the " Savannah," in the Eastern Gulf Station. He was commissioned a commander, 25 July, 1866, had the steamer " Tioga" on the coast of Maine and in the Gulf, was at the New York Navy-yard in I867-'9 and 1871—'2, and commanded the sloop "Saratoga" and the monitor "Miantonomoh" in the North Atlantic Squadron in 1869-'70. He was promoted to captain, 19 August, 1872. and commanded the steam sloop "Worcester," flag-ship of the North Atlantic Squadron, in 1871-'5. In the first year of that cruise he took out contributions of food and clothing from the American people for the relief of the French sufferers in the Franco-Prussian War. Owing to the want of means to transport these contributions to the needed districts in the east of France, the stores were taken to Liverpool and London, where a favorable market realized a much larger sum of money than that which was expended for the purchase of these stores in this country. The American relief committee in France also urged that the money was more needed than contributions in any other shape. He was present at New Orleans during the political excitement owing to the overthrow of the Packard government, and won the confidence of the citizens by wise measures, contributing to allay the excitement. On 11 June, 1878, he was appointed chief of Bureau of Navigation and office of detail, with the rank of commodore. Failing health and almost total blindness resulting from exposure incidental to the service compelled him to be relieved from this duty, 12 October, 1881, from which date he was placed on the retired list, with the rank of commodore, by special act of Congress. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 483-484.
WHITING, William Henry Chase, soldier, born in Mississippi about 1825; died on Governor's Island, New York Harbor, 10 March. 1865. His father, Levi, a native of Massachusetts, was an officer of the regular army from 1812 until his death in 1852, when he was lieutenant-colonel of the 1st artillery. The son was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1845 at the head of the class in which were Charles P. Stone, Fitz-John Porter, and Gordon Granger. He was assigned to the Engineer Corps, and engaged in the construction of forts and internal improvements in the west and south, becoming a captain, 13 December, 1858. He resigned on 20 February, 1861, entered the Confederate service, and in June and July of that year was chief engineer, with the rank of major, of the Army of the Shenandoah, under General Joseph E. Johnston. He was promoted brigadier-general on 27 August, 1861, and commanded the brigade whose timely arrival won the battle of Bull Run for the Confederates. He took part in the battle of West Point, Virginia. 7 May, 1862, was made a major-general in 1863, and built Fort Fisher, N. C., of which he took command in the autumn of 1864. He defended the fort during the unsuccessful attack by General Benjamin F. Butler, and the successful one by General Alfred Terry (q. v.), and on its capture was severely wounded and taken prisoner. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 484.
WHITMAN, Walt, 1819-1892, poet, essayist, journalist. Wrote antislavery poetry. Supported the Wilmot Proviso and was opposed to the inclusion of slavery in the new territories. His poetry presented his views on the equality of the races. Supported the abolition of slavery, but did not necessarily support the tactics of the abolitionist movement. In 1856, he wrote to the people of the South, in an unpublished work, “You are either to abolish slavery, or it will abolish you.” (Hughes, Meltzer, & Lincoln, 1968; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 485-486; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 143)
WHITMAN, Walt, or Walter, poet, born in West Hills, Long Island, New York, 31 May, 1819. He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn and New York City, and learned printing, working at that trade in summer and teaching in winter. Subsequently he also acquired skill as a carpenter. For brief periods he edited newspapers in New Orleans and in Huntington, Long Island. In 1847-'8 he made long pedestrian tours through the United States, generally following the courses of the great western rivers, and also extended his journey through Canada. His chief work, “Leaves of Grass” (New York, 1855), is a series of poems dealing with moral, social, and political problems, and more especially with the interests involved in 19th century American life and progress. In it he made a new and abrupt departure as to form, casting his thoughts in a mould the style of which is something between rhythmical prose and verse, altogether discarding rhythm and regular metre, but uttering musical thoughts in an unconventional way which is entirely his own. Expecting the opposition and abuse with which his volume was assailed, he speaks of it as a sortie on common literary use and wont, on both spirit and form, adding that a century may elapse before its triumph or failure can be assured. For thirty years Whitman has been correcting and adding to this work, and he says that he looks upon “Leaves of Grass” “now finished to the end of its opportunities and powers, as my definitive carte visite to the coming generations of the New World, if I may assume to say so.” In the war Whitman's brother was wounded on the battle-field, which led to the poet's at once hastening to join him in the camp, where he afterward remained as a volunteer army nurse at Washington and in Virginia in 1862-'5. His experiences during this service are vividly recorded in “Drum-Taps” (1865) and “Memoranda during the War” (1867). His fatigue and night-watching in 1864 brought on a serious illness, from which he has never entirely recovered. In 1870 he published a volume of prose essays called “Democratic Vistas,” a new edition of which has been issued by Walter Scott (London, 1888), with a preface written by Whitman in April of the same year. In this volume he explains that he uses the word “Democrat” in its widest sense as synonymous with the American form of government. From 1865 till 1874 Whitman held a government clerkship in Washington. In February, 1873, the lingering effects of his nursing fatigues and illness during the war culminated in a severe paralytic attack. He left Washington for Camden, New Jersey, and was recovering when in May of the same year his mother died somewhat suddenly in his presence. This shock caused a relapse. He abandoned Washington and has continued to reside at Camden. Mr. Whitman has been called “the good gray poet.” His admirers, especially in England, have been extravagant in their praise of his works, comparing him with the best of the classic writers, and in this country Ralph Waldo Emerson said on the appearance of “Leaves of Grass”: “I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed . . . . I find incomparable things incomparably said.” On the other hand, the peculiar form of his writings prevents their popularity, and their substance has been widely regarded as of no value. “Leaves of Grass” has even been condemned for indecency on account of its outspokenness, and when a complete edition of the work was published (Boston, 1881) the Massachusetts authorities objected to its sale in that state on the ground of immorality. Besides the works already mentioned, Whitman has published “Passage to India” (1870); “After All, not to Create Only” (1871); “As Strong as a Bird on Pinions Free” (1872); “Two Rivulets,” including “Democratic Vistas” and “Passage to India” (1873); “Specimen Days and Collect” (1883); “November Boughs” (1885); and “Sands at Seventy” (1888). A selection of his poems, by William M. Rossetti, was published (London, 1868). Besides the complete edition of “Leaves of Grass” that has been mentioned, another, edited by Professor Edward Dowden, has since been issued (Glasgow, Scotland). A popular selection, with introduction by Ernest Rhys, was published by Walter Scott (London, 1886). See “The Good Gray Poet, a Vindication,” by William D. O’Connor (New York, 1866), and “Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person,” by John Burroughs (1866). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 485-486.
WHITTLESEY, Charles, geologist, born in Southington, Connecticut, 4 October, 1808, died in Cleveland, Ohio, 18 October, 1886, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1831, and assigned to the 5th U.S. Infantry. In 1832 he was stationed at Fort Howard, Wisconsin, and, after serving in the Black Hawk War, he resigned on 30 September of the same year. After studying law he followed that profession in Cleveland and in 1836-'7 he was editorially connected with the Cleveland "Herald." In 1837 he was appointed assistant geologist of Ohio, under William W. Mather, and given charge of the topographical and mathematical parts of that survey, which disclosed the rich coal and iron deposits of eastern Ohio that are the foundation of its manufacturing industries. At this time he carefully examined and measured several of the works of the mound-builders, and his plans and notes of twenty of these remains were embodied in Davis and Squire’s "American Monuments of the Mississippi Valley " (Washington, 1848). From 1847 till 1851 he was engaged by the U. S. government in making a mineralogical and geological survey of the region about Lake Superior and the upper Mississippi. Subsequently he was professionally engaged as a mining engineer in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and in 1858 became associated in the geological work of the survey of Wisconsin. In February, 1861, he was enrolled in a company that tendered its services to General Winfield Scott to escort the president-elect, Abraham Lincoln, to Washington. He was made assistant quartermaster-general on the staff of the governor of Ohio on 17 April, 1861, and during the western Virginia Campaign acted as chief engineer of the Ohio troops. At the expiration of his three-months service he was appointed, on 15 August. 1861, colonel of the 20th Ohio Infantry, and detailed as chief engineer of the Department of Ohio, with charge of planning and constructing the defences of Cincinnati. He was present at Fort Donelson, where he led his regiment, and after the surrender was sent to the north in charge of over 10,000 prisoners. At the battle of Shiloh he commanded the 3d Brigade of General Lewis Wallace's division, but failing health compelled his retirement from active service, and he resigned on 19 April, 1862. He then resumed the geological exploration in the Lake Superior and upper Mississippi basin, and continued his literary labors. In 1867 he was active in the founding of the Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society, of which he was president until his death. His bibliography included about 200 titles, and, in addition to his reports for the geological surveys, he published in the “Smithsonian Contributions" "Descriptions of Ancient Works in Ohio" (Washington, 1851); "On Fluctuations of Level in the North American Lakes " (1800); "Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior" (1863); and "On the Fresh-Water Glacial Drift in the Northwestern States " (1866). He is also the author of " Life of John Fitch." in Sparks's "American Biography" (Boston, 1845); and "Early History of Cleveland and Vicinity" (Cleveland." 1867). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 496.
WHITTLESEY, Joseph H., soldier, born in New York in 1821; died in Seattle, W. T., 2 August. 1886. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1844, and assigned to the 2d U. S. Dragoons, becoming 1st lieutenant, 18 October, 1847. He served in the military occupation of Texas and in the war with Mexico, and was brevetted 1st lieutenant for gallantry at Buena Vista in 1847. Until the opening of the Civil War he was on duty in New Mexico and Oregon. As major of the 5th U. S. Cavalry he served with the Army of the Potomac till May, 1862. During the remainder of the war Major Whittlesey was employed in organizing volunteer cavalry. He was retired from active service on account of disability resulting from exposure in the line of duty. He was employed on light duty until February, 1867, when he was ordered to inspect the educational institutions of the United States, for the purpose of devising a system of military instruction for colleges and universities with relation to a scheme for future National defence. He was professor of military science at Cornell in 1868-'70, and treasurer of the Soldiers' Home. Washington, D. C, till 1881. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 496.
WICKERSHAM, James Pyle, educator, born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. 5 March, 1825. He is of the fifth generation in direct descent from Thomas Wickersham, who in 1701 settled on a 1,000-acre tract of land in Chester County that had been deeded by William Penn in 1682 to his father-in-law, Anthony Killingbeck. The Wickersham family came from the parish of Bolney, County of Sussex, England. James received a good education in the public schools and at Unionville Academy, near his birthplace. When he was sixteen years old he was teacher in a public school, and in 1845 he became principal of the Marietta (Pennsylvania) Academy. He was the first county superintendent of Lancaster County in 1854, and in 1855 he opened the normal school at Millersville, Pennsylvania, which in 1859 became the first state normal school in Pennsylvania. In 1866 he was appointed state superintendent of public instruction, and held that post for nearly fifteen years. He assisted in the organization of the Lancaster County Educational Association, and became its second president in 1863. He helped to organize the Pennsylvania state teachers' association, was its fourth president in 1855, assisted at the organization of the National educational association, and was its seventh president in 1865. He was twice elected president of the National Department of School Superintendents. In 1863 he raised a regiment of soldiers for three months' service, and commanded it during the Gettysburg Campaign. Lafayette gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1871. In 1882 he was appointed U. S. minister to Denmark. He has written on educational subjects for magazines and newspapers. For ten years (1871-'81) he was editor of the "Pennsylvania School Journal." His School Economy" (Philadelphia. 1864) and " Methods of Instruction " (1805) have been translated into the Spanish, French, and Japanese languages. His most elaborate work is the " History of Education in Pennsylvania" (1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 497.
WICKHAM, Williams Carter, soldier, born in Richmond, Virginia, 21 September, 1820; died there, 23 July, 1888, was educated at the University of Virginia, adopted the profession of law, served in the state senate, and was an active member of the " old-line " Whig party. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as captain, and became colonel of the 4th Virginia Regiment, rising to the rank of brigadier-general. He served in most of the important battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, and was wounded three times, severely at Williamsburg. In 1864 he was a member of the Confederate Congress. After the war he joined the Republican Party, attaching himself to the conservative branch of that body. He was an admirer and advocate of General Grant, supported him for the presidency, and exerted a pacific influence in the reconstruction of the state. From the first he opposed the adjustment of the state debt as proposed by the followers of William Mahone, and engaged in many controversies with that senator. He was chosen to the state senate in 1882-'3, and in the next election he was returned without opposition. At the time of his death he was a vice-president, general manager, and receiver of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 498.
WIGFALL, Louis Trezevant, senator, born in Edgefield district. S. C. 21 April, 1816; died in Galveston, Texas, 18 February, 1874. He was educated at the College of South Carolina, but left before graduation to go, as a lieutenant of volunteers, to Florida, where he took part in the operations against the Indians. He subsequently studied law at the University of Virginia, was admitted to the bar, and moved to Marshall, Texas, where he practised his profession. He served in the lower branch of the Texas legislature in 1849-'50, and was a member of the state senate in 1857-'8, and again in 1859-'60. During the latter session he was chosen U. S. Senator, and took his seat, 4 January, 1860. In that body he was among the ablest and most uncompromising defenders of the slave power. As he did not take his seat at the called session of the 32d Congress, he was expelled on 11 July, 1861. In the meantime he had been present at the bombardment of Fort Sumter, as a member of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard's staff. On the afternoon of the second day, 13 April, being on Morris Island, and noticing that the fire from the fort had ceased and that the flag had been shot away, Colonel Wigfall, with the approval of General James Simons, in command of the forces on the island, embarked in a skiff, and set out across the bay. On reaching Fort Sumter, he made his way through an open port-hole inside the fortification, where he met Major Robert Anderson, and demanded the unconditional surrender of the fort, on the ground that the work was no longer tenable and that further resistance would be madness. After some parley, Major Anderson consented to have a white flag hoisted, and the surrender was an accomplished fact. Wigfall subsequently became colonel of the 2d Infantry in the provisional Confederate Army, and was promoted brigadier-general, 21 October, 1861. He commanded a brigade composed of three Texas regiments and one of Georgia troops until 20 February, 1862, when he resigned. Besides his military service, he also represented Texas in the provisional Confederate Congress from February, 1861, till February, 1862. He was also senator in the Confederate Congress from February, 1862, until the end of the war. He then went to England, where he resided for several years. In 1873 he settled in Baltimore. He died while visiting Texas on a lecturing tour. General Wigfall was a forcible speaker, being remarkable for his impassioned style, and an ardent partisan, and took part in several duels. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 499.
WILBER, Charles Toppan, physician, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 18 May, 1835, while a student of medicine became connected as a teacher with the New York State Asylum for Idiots, of which his brother was superintendent, and he was thus led to an investigation of the various forms of dementia. In 1858 he was called to assist in the organization of the Ohio State Asylum for Idiots at Columbus, and for some time he acted as its assistant superintendent. In 1859 he moved to Lakeville, Connecticut, and aided in the establishment of a school for feeble-minded children, which was afterward conducted by Dr. Henry M. Knight. In 1860 he was graduated at the Berkshire medical institution and returned to Ohio, settling at Marietta, where he began to practice. The following year he entered the volunteer service, and remained in the army until the end of the Civil War as assistant surgeon and surgeon. In September, 1865, he took charge of the Illinois institution for the education of feeble-minded children at Jacksonville, and he was so successful in its management that the legislature subsequently voted the erection of larger and more appropriate buildings at a cost of $185,000. […]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 503.
WILCOX, Cadmus Marcellus, soldier, born in Wayne County, North Carolina, 29 May, 1826. He studied at Cumberland College, Nashville, his parents having moved to Tennessee during his infancy, then entered the U. S. Military Academy, and was graduated in 1846. He served through the war with Mexico, being engaged as acting adjutant of the 4th U.S. Infantry in the siege of Vera Cruz and the battle of Cerro Gordo, and as aide to General John A. Quitman in the storming of Chapultepec, where he earned the brevet of 1st lieutenant, and in the capture of the city of Mexico. He was promoted 1st lieutenant on 24 August, 1851, served as assistant instructor of tactics at the military academy from 1852 till 1857, then went to Europe for a year on sick-leave, was made captain of infantry on 20 December, 1860, and at the beginning of the Civil War was on frontier duty in New Mexico. Resigning his commission on 8 June, 1861, he was appointed colonel in the provisional army of the Confederacy, and assigned to the command of an Alabama regiment. He joined General Joseph E. Johnston's army with his regiment on 16 July, 1861, marched to Manassas to re-enforce General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, and served with the Army of Northern Virginia till its final surrender, being promoted brigadier-general on 21 October, 1861, and major-general on 9 August, 1863. He commanded a brigade in General James Longstreet's corps at the second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, and a division under General Ambrose P. Hill, which resisted the repeated assaults of General Winfield S. Hancock's troops at the battle of the Wilderness. General Wilcox declined a brigadier-general's commission in the Egyptian Army after the war. In 1886 he was appointed chief of the railroad division of the general land-office in Washington, D. C. He is the author of a book on "Rifles and Rifle Practice " (New York, 1859), and the translator of "Evolutions of the Line, as practised by the Austrian Infantry and adopted in 1853 " (1860). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 504.
WILD, Edward Augustus, 182-1891, Brookline, Massachusetts, homeopathic doctor, Brigadier General in the Union Army, abolitionist. Recruited African American soldiers for the Union Army. Commanded a brigade of U.S. Colored Troops. (Bowe, 1888; Casstevens, 2005; Heitman, 1903; Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 504-505)
WILD, Edward Augustus, soldier, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, 25 November, 1825. He was graduated at Harvard in 1844, and on 21 April, 1861, became captain in the 1st Massachusetts Regiment, with which he served in the Peninsular Campaign, being wounded at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks. He became major of the 32d Massachusetts, 24 July, 1862, lieutenant-colonel on 7 Aug., and colonel of the 35th on 20 Aug., and took part in the battle of South Mountain, where his left arm was shattered. After assisting Governor John A. Andrew in raising and organizing colored troops in February-April, 1863, he was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 24 April, and, with the exception of a few months at the siege of Charleston, served in North Carolina, recruiting colored troops. In December he led an expedition through the eastern counties of the state, and on 18 January, 1864, he took command of the district of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia. He commanded a brigade in the affair at Wilson's wharf, and was in front of Petersburg when he was placed under arrest on 23 June, 1864, for refusing to obey the order of his superior to relieve his brigade quartermaster and take another. The finding of the court-martial was set aside by the commanding general, and this action was subsequently confirmed by the judge-advocate-general at Washington. He afterward served on the expedition to Roanoke River in December, 1864, and then before Richmond till its capture, and in 1865 superintended the operations of the Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia. On 15 January, 1866, he was mustered out of service. Since the war General Wild has been engaged in silver-mining. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 504-505
WILDES, George Dudley, clergyman, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, 19 June, 1819. He was fitted for Harvard, and became usher in mathematics at Chauncey Hall school, Boston. He was graduated at the Virginia Theological Seminary at Alexandria, was ordained deacon in New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1846, by the bishop of Kentucky, and at the same time invited to the professorship of mathematics at Shelby College, Kentucky. He was ordained priest in Dedham. "Massachusetts, in 1848, by Bishop Eastburn. After holding several charges, he became assistant at St. Paul's, Boston, and also supervisor of the Episcopal school of Massachusetts. Afterward he was at Brookline and then at Salem, where he became a member of the State board of education. At the outset of the Civil War Dr. Wildes was instrumental in raising the 23d and 19th Massachusetts Regiments, forming also the field hospital corps, volunteering as its head for service, and being commissioned a chaplain. Since 1867 he has been rector of Christ Church, Riverdale, New York. He received the degree of A. M. from Harvard in 1855, of S. T. D. from Hobart in 1871, and that of D. D. from the College of Kansas in 1886. Since its organization in 1874 he has been general secretary of the church congress, being one of its original founders. In this capacity he has edited eleven volumes of papers and addresses (1872-'88). Dr. Wildes has published sermons and addresses, has edited Bishop Griswold's "Lectures on Prayer," and translated George Herbert's Latin poems. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 507.
WILKES, Charles, naval officer, born in New York City, 3 April, 1798: died in Washington. D. C, 8 February, 1877. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 January. 1818, and was promoted to lieutenant, 28 April, 1826. He was appointed to the department of charts and instruments in 1830, and was the first in the United States to set up fixed astronomical instruments and observe with them. On 18 August, 1838, he sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, in command of a squadron of five vessels and a store-ship, to explore the southern seas. He visited Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, Rio de Janeiro, Tierra del Fuego, Valparaiso, Callao, the Paumotou group, Tahiti, the Samoan group (which he surveyed and explored), Wallis Island, and Sydney in New South Wales. He left Sydney in December, 1839, and discovered what he thought to be an Antarctic continent, sailing along vast ice-fields for several weeks. In 1840 he thoroughly explored the Feejee group, and visited the Hawaiian Islands, where he measured intensity of gravity by means of the pendulum on the summit of Mauna Loa. In 1841 he visited the northwestern coast of America and Columbia and Sacramento Rivers, and on 1 November set sail from San Francisco, visited Manila, Sooloo, Borneo, Singapore, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena, and east anchor at New York on 10 June, 1848. Charges preferred against him by some of his officers were investigated by a court-martial, and he was acquitted of all except illegally punishing some of his crew, for which he was reprimanded. He served on the coast survey in 1842-'3', was promoted to commander, 13 July, 1843, and employed in connection with the report on the exploring expedition at Washington in 1844-'61. He was commissioned a captain, 14 September, 1855, and when the Civil War opened was placed in command of the steamer "San Jacinto" in 1861 and sailed in pursuit of the Confederate privateer "Sumter." On 8 November, 1861, he intercepted at sea the English mail-steamer "Trent," bound from Havana to St. Thomas, W. I., and sent Lieutenant Donald M. Fairfax on board to bring off the Confederate commissioners, John Slidell and James M. Mason, with their secretaries. The officials were removed to the "San Jacinto," in which they were taken to Fort Warren, in Boston harbor. The Navy Department gave Captain Wilkes an emphatic commendation; Congress passed a resolution of thanks, and his act caused great rejoicing throughout the north, where he was the hero of the hour. But on the demand of the British government that Mason and Slidell should be given up. Secretary William H. Seward complied, saying in his despatch that, although the commissioners and their papers were contraband of war, and therefore Wilkes was right in capturing them, he should have taken the "Trent" into port as a prize for adjudication. As he had failed to do so, and had constituted himself a judge in the matter, to approve his act would be to sanction the "right of search," which had always been denied by the U. S. government. The prisoners were therefore released. In 1862 Wilkes commanded the James River Flotilla, and shelled City Point. He was promoted to commodore, 16 July, 1862, and took charge of a special squadron in the West Indies. He was placed on the retired list because of age, 25 June, 1864, and promoted to rear-admiral on the retired list, 25 July, 1866. For his services to science as an explorer he received a gold medal from the Geographical Society of London. The reports of the Wilkes exploring expedition were to consist of twenty-eight quarto volumes, but nine of these were not completed. Of those that were published, Captain Wilkes was the author of the "Narrative" of the expedition (6 vols., 4 vol., also 5 vols., 8vols, Philadelphia, 1845; abridged ed., New York, 1851), and the volumes on "Meteorology" and "Hydrography." Admiral Wilkes was also the author of " Western America, including California and Oregon" (Philadelphia, 1849), and "Theory of the Winds " (New York, 1856). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 508-509.
WILKESON, Samuel, 1781-1848, Buffalo, New York, manufacturer, businessman, real estate, political leader, jurist, president, American Colonization Society (ACS). Director of the ACS, 1839-1841, Member of the Executive Committee, 1839-1841. (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 509-510; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 218; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 237-239, 308)
WILKESON, Samuel, manufacturer, born in Carlisle. Pennsylvania, in 1781; died in the mountains of Tennessee in July. 1848. His father, John, a native of Ireland of Scotch descent, came to this country in 1760. settled in Delaware, and served against the British in the. war of the Revolution. The son received few educational advantages, and worked on a farm till about 1806, when he began his career as a builder and owner of vessels and a trader on Lake Erie and elsewhere. During the war of 1812 he supplied General William Henry Harrison with transports for the use of the troops in invading Canada. In 1814 he settled in Buffalo and engaged in business as a merchant. In 1819 he was an active advocate of the construction of the Erie canal, and in 1822 he was chiefly instrumental in securing the selection of Buffalo as its terminus. He was appointed first judge of the Erie court of common pleas in February, 1821, though he was without a legal education, was elected to the state senate in 1842, and served in that body and in the court for the correction of errors for six years. In 1836 he was elected mayor of Buffalo. He erected and put in operation a furnace in Mahoning County, Ohio, the first in this country to "blow in " on raw bituminous coal and smelt iron with that fuel uncoked, built the first iron-foundry in Buffalo, and established in that city the business of manufacturing steam-engines, stoves, and hollow-ware. He favored a system of gradual and compensated emancipation of the slaves, and advocated the colonization of the Negroes on the west coast of Africa. He afterward moved to Washington, the headquarters of the American colonization society, over which he presided, for two years edited its organ, the "African Repository," directed the affairs of the colony of Liberia, establishing commercial relations between it and Baltimore and Philadelphia, and gathered colonists wherever he could in the south.—His son Samuel, born in Buffalo. New York, 9 May, 1817, was educated at Williams and Union, and was graduated at the latter in 1837. He was for twelve years a staff-writer on the New York “Tribune," and its war-correspondent in the Army of the Potomac, and was the editor and owner of the Buffalo "Democracy" and of the Albany "Evening Journal," having bought out Thurlow Weed in 1865. He has been secretary of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company since March, 1869.—The second Samuel's son, Bayard, born in Albany, N. Y., 17 May, 1844; died near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1 July, 1863, in the first year of the Civil War solicited and obtained a commission as 2d lieutenant in the 4th U. S. Artillery. He served with his battery in and about Fortress Monroe and Norfolk, and took part in the battle of Fredericksburg. He was promoted captain of his battery, and commanded it at the battle of Gettysburg, where he was killed. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of artillery after his death for gallantry in battle. —Another son. Frank, born in Buffalo, New York, 8 March, 1845, has contributed to the New York "Times," the New York " Sun," and other papers, and has published "Recollections of a Private Soldier in the Army of the Potomac" (New York, 1887).—Another son, Samuel, was one of the builders of Tacoma, on Puget sound. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 509-510.
WILKINS, William, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 20 December, 1779; died in Homewood, Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, 23 June, 1865. He attended Dickinson College for a short time, read law at Carlisle, and was admitted to the bar at Pittsburg on 28 December, 1801. He practised law there for more than fifty years, except when engaged in the performance of public duties. He was president of the common councils of the city in 1816-'19, was elected to the legislature in 1820, and was a candidate for speaker, but was defeated and made chairman of the judiciary committee. He resigned on 18 December 1820, when he was appointed president-judge of the 5th judicial district of Pennsylvania. He held this office until 25 May, 1824, when he was made judge of the U. S. District Court for western Pennsylvania. While on the bench in 1828, he was elected to Congress, but declined to serve. In 1831 he was chosen U. S. Senator for the full term of six years, and gave up the judgeship. He was a supporter of Andrew Jackson in opposition to John C. Calhoun's doctrines, and, as Chairman of the Senate Committee, he reported the bill that passed Congress, authorizing the president to use the army to suppress the nullification movement. In 1833 the electoral vote of Pennsylvania was cast for him for vice-president. In 1834 he was appointed minister to Russia. In 1842 he was again elected to the House of Representatives, and served until 19 January, 1844, when he was made Secretary of War by President Tyler. In 1855 he was chosen state senator from Alleghany County. At the opening of the Civil War, although more than eighty years of age, he took an active interest in supporting the government as major-general of the home-guard, being always a stanch war Democrat. From 1805 until the time of his death he was active in any matter for the improvement of Pittsburg. In 1810 he helped to organize the Pittsburg Manufacturing Company, which in 1814 was incorporated as the Bank of Pittsburg, and he was its first president. He was interested in building the bridge across Monongahela River, and aided the Pennsylvania Railroad in reaching the city of Pittsburg. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 510-511.
WILKINSON, John, naval officer, born in Norfolk, Virginia, 6 November, 1821. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 8 December, 1837, attended the naval school at Philadelphia, and became a passed midshipman, 29 June, 1843, served in the "Oregon" on special service in 1844-'5, and in the "Portsmouth" in 1845-'6. He was attached to the "Saratoga" in the later operations on the Gulf coast of Mexico, was commissioned a master, 25 June, 1850, and became lieutenant, 5 November, 1850. He served in the steamer "Southern Star," on the expedition to Paraguay, in 1858-'9, was on duty in the coast survey in 1860-'l. When the Civil War began he resigned his commission, 20 April, 1861, and entered the Confederate Navy as a lieutenant. He was assigned to duty in Fort Powhatan on the James River, and then ordered to command a battery at Acquia Creek. In the spring of 1862 he was appointed executive of the ram "Louisiana," at New Orleans, in which he was taken prisoner at the capture of the city by Farragut. He was exchanged, 5 August, 1862, and on 12 August left Richmond with funds and Confederate bonds with which to purchase and load a vessel in England with a cargo of war material. He there bought the steamer "Giraffe," in which he ran the blockade at Wilmington, North Carolina, having on board machinery to make Confederate paper-money. Shortly afterward the "Giraffe" was renamed the "R. E. Lee." He made regular trips from Wilmington to Bermuda with cotton, and back with cargoes of arms and military stores. In October, 1863. he was ordered to command an expedition to release the Confederate prisoners on Johnson's Island, but the Canadian governor-general learned of the plot, and it was a failure. He served in the iron-clad "Albemarle " in 1864, and in September had command of the "Chickamauga," in which he destroyed a great many merchant-vessels. In 1865 he had charge of the blockade-runner " Chameleon," which he took to Liverpool, where she was seized after the war, and delivered to the U. S. government. He has published "The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner'' (New York, 1877). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 512.
WILLARD, Sidney, soldier, born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, 3 February, 1831; died in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 13 December, 1862, was graduated at Harvard in 1852, and studied and practised law in Boston. During the Civil War he entered the National Army, and was made major of the 35th Massachusetts Regiment on 27 August, 1862, and fell at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 516.
WILLARD, Sylvester David, physician, in Wilton, Connecticut, 19 June, 1825; died in Albany, N. Y., 2 April, 1865. He was educated in the academy in his native town, graduated at Albany Medical College in 1848, and acquired a large practice in that city. From 1857 till 1865 he was secretary of the New York State Medical Society, whose "Transactions" he edited, and he was president of the Medical Society of Albany County in 1858. He entered the National Army as volunteer surgeon in 1862, and in 1865 became surgeon-general of the state of New York. Being directed by the legislature to report the condition of the insane in the state, Dr. Willard urged the necessity of erecting a large asylum for the poor, and a bill to establish such un asylum was in the state senate at the time of Dr. Willard's death. It afterward passed, and the institution was called the Willard asylum for the insane. It is one of the largest of the kind in this country. Both houses of the legislature passed resolutions of regret upon his death. Dr. Willard devoted much time to historical and antiquarian research, and was the author of many scientific papers, addresses, and contributions to medical journals. He published " Historical Address" (Albany, 1857); "Biographical Memoirs of Physicians of Albany County" (1857); "Memoir of Thomas Spencer, M. D." (1858); and "Annals of the Medical Society of the County of Albany, 1800-'51. with Biographical Sketches" (1864). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 516.
WILLCOX, Orlando Bolivar, soldier, born in Detroit, Michigan, 10 April, 1823. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy, in 1847. eighth in a class of thirty-eight, among whom were Ambrose P. Hill and Ambrose E. Burnside, and was assigned to the 4th U.S. Artillery. He served in the latter part of the Mexican war, on the plains, and in the final campaign against the Seminoles in 1850-7, but resigned his commission on 10 September of the latter year, studied law, and in 1858 was admitted to the bar at Detroit, Michigan, where he practised till the opening of the Civil War. He became colonel of the 1st Michigan Regiment on 1 May, 1861, and his command was the first from the west, to arrive at the seat of war. He was engaged in the capture of Alexandria, Virginia, and commanded a brigade at Bull Run, where he was wounded and captured. After confinement in Charleston and Columbia. South Carolina, till 17 August, 1862, during part of which time he was kept a close prisoner as a hostage for Confederate privateers that were on trial for their lives in New York, he was exchanged and commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from 21 July, 1861. He took part in the Maryland and Rappahannock Campaigns, temporarily commanded the 9th Army Corps and the District of Central Kentucky from 10 April till 9 June, 1863, had charge of the District of Indiana and Michigan during the draft riots, and then engaged in the operations in eastern Tennessee till March, 1864. He commanded a division in the 9th Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the Richmond Campaign, and on 1 August, 1864, was brevetted major-general of volunteers "for distinguished and gallant services in the several actions since crossing the Rapidan." At Petersburg his division was the first to break through, and received the actual surrender of the city. From 26 April till 28 July, 1865, he had charge of the District of Washington, North Carolina, and from 7 August, of that year, till 15 January, 1866, he commanded that of Michigan. On the latter day he was mustered out, and returned to the practice of law at Detroit, where he was also made U. S. assessor of internal revenue; but on 28 July, 1866, he was recommissioned in the regular army, as colonel of the 29th U.S. Infantry, and on 2 March, 1867, he received the brevets of brigadier-general for Spottsylvania, and major-general for the capture of Petersburg. He was transferred to the 12th U.S. Infantry on 15 March, 1869, was superintendent of the general recruiting service in New York City in 1873-'4. and commanded various posts and departments till his promotion to brigadier-general, 13 October, 1886. While in command of the Department of Arizona, he received the thanks of the territorial legislature on 19 February, 1881, for "his constant and vigilant care, his untiring effort and military skill in protecting the people and freeing the territory of Arizona from the cruel and brutal outrages of the hostile Indian tribes within the military department." On 16 April, 1887, he was placed on the retired list, at which time he was in command of the Department of the Missouri. General Wilcox has published "Shoepack Recollections " (Boston. 1856). and "Faca, an Army Memoir, by Major March " (1857). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 516-517.
WILLIAMS, Alpheus Starkey, soldier, born in Saybrook, Connecticut, 10 September, 1810; died in Washington, D. C, 21 December, 1878. He was graduated at Yale in 1831, studied law there, and afterward spent some time in European travel, a part of his tour being in company with Edwin Forrest and Nathaniel P. Willis. In 1836 he began the practice of law in Detroit, Michigan In 1838 he was captain of a local militia company. In 1840 he was appointed judge of probate of Wayne County, and he held that post until 1844, when he was elected recorder of the city of Detroit. At the opening of the war with Mexico he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and served with credit until the close of hostilities, when he returned to Detroit and resumed the practice of law. In 1861, when the Civil War began, he was one of the first to offer his services in support of the government, and as he had always been an active member of the Democratic Party, his example had great influence. On 17 May, 1861, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers. He at once entered upon his duties in the Army of the Potomac, and in the spring of 1862 was made commander of a division in the corps of General Nathaniel P. Banks in the Shenandoah valley. During the retreat of the corps in May, 1862, he did himself great credit by his skill and courage. While still a brigadier-general he commanded, with ability and success, an army corps in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Gettysburg. In the autumn of 1863 he was sent with his corps to Tennessee, and in the following spring, as division commander, he entered upon the Atlanta Campaign. He took an active part in all the battles of that summer. At the head of the 20th Corps he marched with Sherman to the sea, and at Savannah he was promoted to be brevet major general of volunteers to rank from 12 January, 1865, being 39th on the list of such brevet appointments, though far in advance of them all in date of previous commission and in actual service. Perhaps his was the only instance during the Civil War where an officer of his grade was placed in command of a corps, except in a momentary emergency. Notwithstanding this neglect to recognize his merits. General Williams gave his best energies to his work. He shared in the campaign in the Carolinas and in the grand review at Washington, and was retained in service during the reconstruction era in Kentucky and Arkansas, until July, 1866, when he was honorably mustered out. He was soon afterward appointed U. S. minister to San Salvador, where he spent three years in diplomatic duties. He returned in 1870 to his old home, and was in that year an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Michigan. In 1874, and again in 1870, he was elected a representative in Congress. He had established a reputation as an honest and independent legislator, when his career was cut short by death. During his second term in Congress he was chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia, and did much to beautify the capital city. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 519.
WILLIAMS, Edward P., naval officer, born in Castine, Maine, 26 February, 1833; died in Yeddo bay, near Yokohama, Japan, 24 January, 1870. He was graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy, 10 June, 1853. He was commissioned a lieutenant, 16 September, 1855. During the first year of the Civil War he served in the steamer " Paul Jones" on the South Atlantic blockade, and subsequently he was executive of the steamer "Powhatan." He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862. Williams was one of the volunteers that were called for by Admiral Dahlgren to storm Fort Sumter, and on the night of 8 September, 1863, commanded the first division of boats with sailors and marines in that attack. He was captured and sent as prisoner to Columbia, South Carolina, where he remained for one year until exchanged. He was promoted to commander, 25 July, 1866, served at the rendezvous at Boston, 1865-'6, and on ordnance duty at Boston and New York, 1866-'8. On 9 February, 1869, he took command of the steamer " Oneida" on the Asiatic Station. He sailed from Yokohama at 4.30 p. m., 24 January, 1870, and at 6.30 P. M. his vessel was run down by the English mail-steamer " Bombay " and sank in fifteen minutes. The " Bombay" was not injured, and, after backing out to clear her sharp stern from the "Oneida," she steamed away without waiting to give assistance or heeding signals of distress. Twenty-two officers and 115 men were lost, 2 officers and 37 men were saved. Captain Williams stood on the bridge and refused to leave his ship when he was urged to do so by those in the boat. The Secretary of the Navy said in his official report to Congress that, after a thorough investigation of the collision, he concluded that the disaster was due to the recklessness and bad navigation of the English steamer. Another theory was that the captain of the "Bombay" mistook the "Oneida" for a rival merchant steamer of the American Pacific mail line, and ran into her purposely. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 520-521.
WILLIAMS, George Washington, author, born in Bedford Springs, Pa,, 16 October, 1849. He is a mulatto. He served in the Civil War, was a lieutenant-colonel of artillery in the Republican Army of Mexico in 1865-'7, and attended school at Newton Centre, Massachusetts, until 1874. For a year he preached in Boston, but in 1875 he became a journalist. He was graduated at Cincinnati law College in 1877, spent two years in the office of Alphonso Taft, and in 1879-'81 was a member of the Ohio legislature. In 1880-'2 he was judge-advocate-general of the Grand Army of the Republic, and in 1885-'6 he was U. S. minister to Hayti. In 1888 he was a delegate to the world's conference of foreign missions at London. England, where his speech on "The Drink Traffic in the Congo" attracted much attention. He has edited "The Southwestern Review" at Cincinnati and "The Commoner " at Washington, and is the author of "History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 till 1880" (2 vols., New York, 1883); "History of the Negro Troops in the War of the Rebellion" (1887): and "History of the Reconstruction of the Insurgent States "(2 vols., 1889). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 522.
WILLIAMS, John S, lawyer, born in Lockport. New York, 14 December, 1825. He received a liberal education, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in his native place and in Lafayette, Indiana, where he settled in 1853. He was elected mayor of that town in 1856 and 1858, and for some time edited the Lafayette "Daily American." He recruited the 63d Indiana Volunteers in the autumn of 1861, was commissioned as its colonel, and was with his regiment at the second battle of Bull Run, and till July, 1863, when he was compelled through illness to resign. He resumed practice, and in 1866 was appointed by President Johnson collector of internal revenue for the 8th District of Indiana, holding the office till the accession of a new administration in 1869. Subsequently he became the publisher of the Lafayette "Sunday Times."' In April, 1885, President Cleveland appointed him 3d Auditor of the U. S. Treasury Department. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 528.
WILLIAMS, John Stuart, senator, born in Montgomery County, Kentucky, in 1820. He was graduated at Miami University, Oxford. Ohio, in 1838, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and engaged in practice at Paris, Kentucky. He served in the war with Mexico, first as a captain and afterward as colonel, and was in command of the 4th Kentucky Volunteers at the taking of the city of Mexico. After his return he resumed practice, and engaged in agriculture and the breeding of fine stock, took an active part as a Whig in politics, served as a delegate to national conventions and as a presidential elector, and was in the legislature of Kentucky in 1851-'2. Although he had opposed secession, he raised a brigade for the Confederate Army, received a commission as brigadier-general in 1862, and was serving under General Joseph E. Johnston when the surrender took place. Going back to his home, he urged the people to renew their allegiance to the National government. He served again in the legislature in 1873-'4, and was elected a U. S. Senator from Kentucky as a Democrat, and served from 4 March, 1879, till 3 March, 1885. Since that time he has been engaged in farming, in improving lands in southern Florida, and in promoting railways in the mineral regions of Kentucky. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 528.
WILLIAMS, Nelson Grosvenor, soldier, born in Bainbridge, Chenango County, New York, 4 May, 1823. He was educated at Utica Academy, and spent one year at the U. S. Military Academy. At the beginning of the Civil War he was appointed colonel of the 3d Iowa Volunteers, and served in Missouri until March, 1862. He commanded the 1st Brigade of the 4th Division of the Army of the Tennessee at the battle of Shiloh, where a horse was killed under him, and was at the siege of Corinth. He was made brigadier-general on 29 November, 1862, but resigned soon afterward, owing to injuries received at Shiloh. In 1869 he entered the U. S. Custom Service in New York City. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 529.
WILLIAMS, Seth, soldier, born in Augusta. Maine, 22-March, 1822; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 23 March. 1866, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1842, commissioned as 2d lieutenant of artillery on 31 August, 1844, and as 1st lieutenant on 3 March, 1847, and during the Mexican War served as aide-de-camp to General Robert Patterson, participating in all the principal battles, and gaining the brevet of captain for gallantry at Cerro Gordo. He was adjutant of the military academy in 1850-'3, and subsequently served in the adjutant-general's department till his death. He was promoted major on 11 May, 1861, and appointed a brigadier-general in the volunteer army on 23 September, and from 20 August, 1861, till 11 November, 1862, served as adjutant-general on the staff of General George B. McClellan, being promoted lieutenant-colonel on 17 July, 1862. He was adjutant-general of the Army of the Potomac while it was commanded by General McClellan, and continued to serve in that capacity under Generals Ambrose E. Burnside, General Joseph Hooker, and General George G. Meade, wining the brevet of colonel for gallant conduct, at Gettysburg. His health was impaired by continued and arduous duties, and from November, 1864, till the close of hostilities he served on General Ulysses S. Grant's staff as inspector-general of the army. He took part in nearly every important engagement, and received the brevet of major-general of volunteers on 1 August, 1864, for brave conduct in the field in the campaigns from Gettysburg to Petersburg, that of brigadier-general in the U. S. Army on 13 March, 1865, for gallantry in the final campaign near Richmond, and that of major-general on the same date for gallant and meritorious services throughout the war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 530.
WILLIAMS, Robert, soldier, born in Culpeper County, Virginia, 5 November, 1829. His grandfather, James Williams, served in the Virginia line in the Revolutionary War and also in command of Virginia troops during the war of 1812. Robert was educated at the local schools and at the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated and promoted to brevet 2d lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Dragoons in 1851. He served at the cavalry-school for practice and with his regiment in Oregon for six years, in the meantime becoming 2d lieutenant in 1853, and 1st lieutenant in 1855. In 1857 he was assigned to duty as an assistant instructor in tactics at West Point. Having been appointed in May, 1861, captain and assistant adjutant-general, he served as such until October, when he was commissioned colonel of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. He was engaged in operations at Hilton Head, South Carolina, in the attack on Secessionville, James Island, South Carolina, and in central Virginia till October, 1862, when he resigned from the volunteer service and was assigned to duty at the war department, having become major and assistant adjutant-general in July of the same year. He afterward served as adjutant-general, respectively, of the Departments of the Missouri and of the Platte, and of the Division of the Missouri. He was promoted by seniority in his department to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in February, 1869, colonel, 1 July, 1881, and by brevet to the grade of brigadier-general, U. S. Army, 13 March, 1865, "for diligent, faithful, and meritorious services during the rebellion." General Williams married the widow of Stephen A. Douglas. He has published professional papers in periodicals. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 531.
WILLIAMS, Thomas, soldier, born in New York state in 1815; died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 5 August. 1862. He was appointed a cadet in the U. S. Military Academy from Michigan, graduated in 1837, and immediately commissioned as 2d lieutenant of infantry. He served in the Florida Wars and during the Canadian rebellion on the northern frontier, was assistant professor of mathematics at the military academy in 1840-'l, being promoted 1st lieutenant on 5 October, 1840, and from 1844 till 1850 was aide-de-camp to General Winfield Scott. During the Mexican war he was present at Vera Cruz and the other principal engagements of the war, receiving the brevet of captain for bravery at Contreras and Churubusco, and that of major for taking a gallant part in the battle of Chapultepec. He became a captain on 12 September, 1850, was engaged in operations against the Seminoles in Florida in 1856-'7 and in the Utah Expedition in 1858, was promoted major on 14 May, 1861, and made a brigadier-general of volunteers on 28 September, 1861. He took part in the North Carolina Expedition, and remained in command of Fort Hatteras till March, 1862, then took command of a brigade, in the Ship Island Expedition, was engaged in opening the lower Mississippi in April and May, 1862, commanded in the first unsuccessful attack on Vicksburg. He projected and superintended the cutting of a canal that was designed to turn the course of the Mississippi away from that city. On the failure of this enterprise he was placed in command at Baton Rouge, where he successfully repelled the vigorous attack of General John C. Breckinridge, and was killed in the moment of victory while leading to the charge an Indiana regiment whose field-officers had fallen. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 533-534.
WILLIAMSON, James Alexander, soldier, born in Adair County, Kentucky, 8 February, 1829. He was educated at Knox College, Illinois, but was not graduated, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but was mustered into the military service of the United States, 8 August, 1861, as 1st lieutenant and adjutant of the 4th Iowa Infantry. After the battle of Pea Ridge, where he was wounded, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the regiment and immediately afterward he was made its colonel. At the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, near Vicksburg, on 28 December, 1862, he led the "assault of Thayer's brigade on the enemy's lines and was seriously wounded. By order of General Grant he was allowed to inscribe on the colors of his regiment " First at Chickasaw Bayou." He was present at the siege of Vicksburg, and immediately after the surrender was given command of the 2d Brigade of the 1st Division of the 15th Army Corps. Colonel Williamson continued in command of a brigade or division until the capture of Savannah, when he was made a full brigadier-general of volunteers, 13 January, 1865, having previously been promoted by brevet on 19 December, 1864. He was also brevetted major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865. After the capture of Savannah he was ordered to St. Louis, Missouri, to take command of the district of Missouri, where he remained until sometime after the surrender of the armies of the Confederacy, when he was ordered to report to General Grenville M. Dodge for duty in a military and inspecting expedition of posts in the northwest, on Laramie, Powder, and Bighorn Rivers. While on this duty he was mustered out of the military service; but he did not receive the order until his return to St. Louis in October, 1865. General Williamson then resumed his profession, and was commissioner of the general land-office from June, 1876, till June, 1881, and chairman of the public lands commission created by act of Congress, 3 March, 1879. He was elected chairman of the Iowa delegation to the National Republican Convention at Baltimore in 1864, but did not attend in consequence of his military duties, and he was again elected chairman of the delegation in 1868. He is now general solicitor for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 537.
WILLIAMSON, Robert Stockton, soldier, born in New York in 1824; died in San Francisco, California, 10 November, 1882. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1848, assigned to the Topographical Engineers, and took part in various surveys on the Pacific Coast till 1856, when he became 1st lieutenant. From that time till the Civil War he was on the staff of the commanding general of the Department of the Pacific, and in charge of military roads in southern Oregon, with meteorological observations on that coast. On 6 August, 1861, he was promoted captain, and, after reconnaissance on the lower Potomac till March, 1862, he was chief topographical engineer in the operations in North Carolina, being brevetted major, 14 March, 1862, for services at New Berne, and lieutenant-colonel on 26 April for the siege of Fort Macon. He then served with the Army of the Potomac, of which he was chief topographical engineer, from 21 November till 21 December, 1862, and held that post in the Department of the Pacific from 9 February till 3 March, 1863, when he was transferred to the Corps of Engineers, in which he was made major on 7 May. Afterward he served on the Pacific Coast as superintending engineer of various surveys of rivers, harbors, and sites for fortifications. On 22 February, 1869, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Williamson published "Report of a Reconnaissance and Survey in California in Connection with Explorations for a Railway Route to the Pacific " in vol. lii. of " Pacific Railway Reports " (Washington, 1853); "On the Use of the Barometer on Surveys and Reconnaissance’s" (New York, 1868); and "Practical Tables in Meteorology and Hypsometry," being an appendix to the foregoing (1869). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 537-538.
WILLICH, August, born in Gorzyn, in the Prussian province of Posen, in 1810: died in St. Mary's, Mercer County, Ohio, 23 January, 1878. His father, a captain of hussars during the Napoleonic Wars, died when August was three years old. With an elder brother, the boy found a home in the family of Friedrich Schleiermacher, the famous theologian, whose wife was a distant relative. He received a military education at Potsdam and Berlin, and at eighteen years of age was commissioned 2d lieutenant of artillery in the Prussian Army. Incoming a captain in 1841. In 1846, in company with a number of the younger and more ardent officers of his brigade, he became so imbued with republican ideas that he tendered his resignation from the army in a letter written in such terms that, instead of its being accepted, he was arrested and tried by a court-martial. By some means he was acquitted, and afterward was permitted to resign. When the great revolution of 1848 threatened the overthrow of all European monarchies, Willich, with several former army friends, among whom were Franz Sigel, Friederich K. F. Hecker, Louis Blenker, and Carl Schurz, went to Baden and took an active part in the armed attempt to revolutionize Germany. After its failure. Willich and many of his compatriots became exiles. He escaped to Switzerland, but afterward made his way to England, where several of his fellow-exiles had also found refuge. Here he remained till 1853, devoting much of his time and labor to aiding his distressed countrymen to reach the United States. He had learned the trade of a carpenter while in England, and so earned a livelihood. Coming to the United States in 1853, he first found employment at his trade in the U.S. Navy-yard at Brooklyn. Here his attainments in mathematics and other scientific studies were soon discovered, and he found more congenial work in the coast survey. In 1858 he was induced to go to Cincinnati as editor of the "German Republican.'' in which work he continued till the opening of the Civil War in 1861. He enlisted, at the first call to arms, in the 1st German (afterward 9th Ohio) Regiment, which within three days mustered about 1,500 men. He was at once appointed adjutant, and, on 28 May, commissioned major. This regiment afterward became one of the best in the service. In the autumn of 1861 Governor Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana, who was raising a German regiment in that state, commissioned him as its colonel. This was the 32d Indiana Infantry, famous in the Army of the Cumberland for its drill and discipline, as well as for its gallantry in action. Willich devoted himself to this regiment, and with such good results that, on 26 November, 1861, three companies, deployed as skirmishers, repelled in confusion a regiment of Texan Rangers. This affair gave it a prestige that it retained to the end of the war. On 17 July, 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers. At the battle of Stone River, 31 December, 1862, he was captured almost before the action began, and was held a prisoner for several months. He was exchanged in season to take part, at the head of his brigade, in the battle of Chickamauga, 19 and 20 September, 1863, and from that time on he shared in all the movements and battles of the army, including the Atlanta Campaign and the march to the sea and through the Carolinas. He was made brevet major-general, 21 October, 1865, and was mustered out of service, 15 January, 1866. On his return to Cincinnati he was chosen county auditor, which post he held for three years. He was visiting his old home in Germany at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian war, and at once offered his services to the king, whom he had before attempted to dethrone. His offer was gratefully acknowledged, but, on account of his advanced age, it was not accepted. He found consolation, if not more congenial occupation, in attending lectures on philosophy at Berlin. Returning to the United States, he chose St. Mary's, Ohio, as his residence. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 538-539.
WILSON, Harriet E., free African American woman, wrote Our Nig or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, a novel and exposé on racism and exploitation of African Americans in the North (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 62)
WILSON, Henry, 1812-1875, abolitionist leader, statesman, U.S. Senator and Vice President of the United States. Massachusetts State Senator. Member, Free Soil Party. Founder of the Republican Party. Strong opponent of slavery. Became abolitionist in 1830s. Opposed annexation of Texas as a slave state. Bought and edited Boston Republican newspaper, which represented the anti-slavery Free Soil Party. Called for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1815. Introduced bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia and the granting of freedom to slaves who joined the Union Army. Supported full political and civil rights to emancipated slaves. Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 548-550; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 10, Pt. 2, p. 322; Congressional Globe)
Biography from Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography :
WILSON, Henry, statesman, born in Farmington, New Hampshire, 16 February, 1812; died in Washington, D. C., 22 November, 1875. He was the son of a farm-laborer, whose ancestors were from the north of Ireland, and at the age of ten was apprenticed to a farmer till the age of twenty-one. During those eleven years of service he received not more than twelve months' schooling altogether, but read more than a thousand volumes. When his apprenticeship terminated in December, 1833, he set out from Farmington on foot in search of work, which he found at Natick, Massachusetts, in the house of a shoemaker. On attaining his majority he had his name, which was originally Jeremiah Jones Colbaith, changed by legislative enactment to the simpler one of Henry Wilson. He learned the trade of his employer and followed it for two years, earning enough money to return to New Hampshire and study in the academies at Stafford, Wolfborough, and Concord. At the same time he made his appearance in public life as an ardent Abolitionist during the attempts that were made in 1835 to stop the discussion of the slavery question by violent means. The person to whom he had intrusted his savings became insolvent, and in 1838, after a visit to Washington, where his repugnance to slavery was intensified by the observation of its conditions, he was compelled to relinquish his studios and resume shoemaking at Natick. In 1840 he appeared in the political canvass as a supporter of William Henry Harrison, addressing more than sixty Whig meetings, in which he was introduced as the “Natick cobbler.” In that year and the next he was elected to the Massachusetts house of representatives, and then after a year's intermission served three annual terms in the state senate.
He was active in organizing in 1845 a convention in Massachusetts to oppose the admission of Texas into the Union as a slave state, and was made, with John Greenleaf Whittier, the bearer of a petition to Congress against the proposed annexation, which was signed by many thousands of Massachusetts people. In the following year he presented in the legislature a resolution condemnatory of slavery, supporting it with a comprehensive and vigorous speech. In 1848 he went as a delegate to the Whig National Convention in Philadelphia, and on the rejection of anti-slavery resolutions spoke in protest and withdrew. On his return he defended his action before his constituents, and soon afterward bought the Boston “Republican” newspaper, which he edited for two years, making it the leading organ of the Free-Soil party. He was chairman of the Free-Soil state committee in 1849-'52. In 1850 he returned to the state senate, and in the two following years he was elected president of that body. He presided over the Free-Soil National Convention at Pittsburg in 1852, and in the ensuing canvass acted as chairman of the national committee of the party. As chairman of the state committee he had arranged a coalition with the Democrats by which George S. Boutwell was elected governor in 1851 and Charles Sumner and Robert Rantoul were sent to the U. S. Senate. He was a candidate for Congress in 1852, and failed of election by only ninety-three votes, although in his district the majority against the Free-Soilers was more than 7,500. In 1853 he was a member of the state constitutional convention and proposed a provision to admit colored men into the militia organization. In the same year he was defeated as the Free-Soil candidate for governor. He acted with the American Party in 1855, with the aid of which he was chosen to succeed Edward Everett in the U. S. Senate. He was a delegate to the American National Convention in Philadelphia in that year, but, when it adopted a platform that countenanced slavery, he and other Abolitionists withdrew. He had delivered a speech in advocacy of the repeal of the Fugitive-Slave Law and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia shortly after taking his seat in the Senate in February, 1855. On the disruption of the American organization through the secession of himself and his friends, he took an active part in the formation of the Republican Party, with the programme of opposition to the extension of slavery. On 23 May, 1856, the morning after his colleague in the Senate, Charles Sumner, was assaulted by Preston S. Brooks, Mr. Wilson denounced the act as “brutal, murderous, and cowardly.” For this language he was challenged to a duel by Brooks; but he declined on the ground that the practice of duelling was barbarous and unlawful, at the same time announcing that he believed in the right of self-defence.
During the next four years he took part in all the important debates in the Senate, delivering elaborate speeches on the admission of Kansas, the Treasury-note Bill, the expenditures of the government, the Pacific Railroad project, and many other topics. His speeches bore the impress of practical, clear-sighted statesman ship, and if the grace of oratory and polished diction was wanting, they always commanded attention and respect. The congressional records during his long term of service in the Senate show that he was one of the most industrious and efficient members of that body, and that his name stands connected with nearly all the important acts and resolves. Strong in his convictions, he was fearless in their expression, but he was scrupulously careful in his statements, and the facts he adduced were never successfully disputed. In March, 1859, he made a notable reply to James H. Hammond, of South Carolina, in defence of free labor, which was printed and widely circulated through the northern states. He had been continued in the Senate for a full term by an almost unanimous vote of the Massachusetts legislature in the preceding January. In March, 1861, he was made chairman of the committee on military affairs, of which he had been a member during the preceding four years. He induced Congress to authorize the enlistment of 500,000 volunteers at the beginning of hostilities between the states, and during the entire period of the war he remained at the head of the committee, and devised and carried measures of the first importance in regard to the organization of the army and the raising and equipment of troops, as well as attending to the many details that came before the committee. He had been connected with the state militia as major, colonel, and brigadier-general from 1840 till 1851, and in 1861 he raised the 22d Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, and marched to the field as its colonel, serving there as an aide to General George B. McClellan till the reassembling of Congress.
During the session of 1861-'2 he introduced the laws that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, put an end to the “black code,” allowed the enrolment of blacks in the militia, and granted freedom to slaves who entered the service of the United States and to their families. During the civil war he made many patriotic speeches before popular assemblages. He took a prominent part in the legislation for the reduction of the army after the war and for the reconstruction of the southern state governments, advocating the policy of granting full political and civil rights to the emancipated slaves, joined with measures of conciliation toward the people who had lately borne arms against the United States government. He was continued as senator for the term that ended in March, 1871, and near its close was re-elected for six years more. He was nominated for the office of Vice-President of the United States in June, 1872, on the ticket with Ulysses S. Grant, and was elected in the following November, receiving 286 out of 354 electoral votes. On 3 March, 1873, he resigned his place on the floor of the Senate, of which he had been a member for eighteen years, in order to enter on his functions as president of that body. The same year he was stricken with paralysis, and continued infirm till his death, which was caused by apoplexy.
It is but just to say of Henry Wilson that with exceptional opportunities which a less honest statesman might have found for enriching himself at the government's expense, or of taking advantage of his knowledge of public affairs and the tendency of legislation upon matters of finance and business, he died at his post of duty, as he had lived, rich only in his integrity and self-respect. Among his many published speeches may be mentioned “Personalities and Aggressions of Mr. Butler” (1856); “Defence of the Republican Party” (1856); “Are Workingmen Slaves?” (1858); “The Pacific Railroad” (1859); and “The Death of Slavery is the Life of the Nation” (1864). He was the author of a volume entitled “History of the Anti-Slavery Measures of the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth United States Congresses,” in which he relates the progress of the bills relating to slavery and cites the speeches of their friends and opponents (Boston, 1865); of a history of legislation on the army during the Civil War, with the title of “Military Measures of the United States Congress” (1866); of a small volume called “Testimonies of American Statesmen and Jurists to the Truths of Christianity,” being an address that he gave before the Young Men's Christian Association at Natick (1867); of a “History of the Reconstruction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, 1865-'8” (1868); of a series of articles on Edwin M. Stanton that were reprinted from a magazine, with those of Jeremiah S. Black, with the title of “A Contribution to History” (Easton, Pennsylvania, 1868); of a published oration on “The Republican and Democratic Parties” (Boston, 1868); and of a great work bearing the title of “History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,” on which he labored indefatigably during his last illness, yet was not quite able to complete (3 vols., Boston , 1872-'5). See his “Life and Public Services,” which was written by his friend, Thomas Russell, and Reverend Elias Nason, who was his pastor for many years (1872). Congress directed to be printed a volume of “Obituary Addresses,” that were delivered in both houses, on 21 January, 1876 (Washington, 1876). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI. pp. 548-550.
Chapter: “Conclusion,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1878.
The proposed limits of this volume have been reached without taking up all the topics embraced within its original plan. It is to be hoped, however, that sufficient has been said to afford a measurably adequate idea of the progress of events developed by the " irrepressible conflict," and which have led to the present posture of affairs, — results already attained, and those the future will disclose as a natural consequence of the great struggle. Slavery has been traced from its small beginnings to its overshadowing greatness, — from the few seeds planted at Jamestown in 1620 to its woeful harvest covering the land, — from being a system of labor, in bad repute and dying out, or existing by sufferance when the Constitution was framed, to its becoming an "institution," dominating the government, and exerting a commanding if not a controlling influence in society, in the church, and in the commercial world. It has been shown, too, that in the plenitude of its power, impatient of the least restraint or check, anxious to guard against apprehended dangers arising from its local, restricted, and questionable character, it demanded new guaranties, and claimed that it should be no longer sectional but national, not only wandering everywhere at will, but everywhere protected by the aegis of the Constitution, and maintained by the arm of Federal authority. Such guaranties being too humiliating and wicked for any but the most craven to submit to, this Power appealed to arms, determined to rend what it could not rule, and break what it could not control with an unquestioned supremacy. In the war thus inaugurated slavery went down, not, however, for moral but military reasons, not because it was wrong but because it was unsafe, and because it could not continue and the Union endure. The war closed, the work of reconstruction began, the recusant States were brought back, and the flag again waves, if not over loyal hearts, at least as the symbol of restored nationality and authority, where it had been trailed in the dust, and treated with the greatest indignity and hate.
Claiming, as its title imports, only or mainly to give some account of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, this work has proposed nothing like a full and connected military or political history of the war, and of the process of re construction. Its purpose has been rather to seize upon those portions of such history, perhaps not always with the nicest discrimination, which would shed the clearest light upon the subject it was written to examine, elucidate, and improve, and yield the most profitable instruction.
The topics omitted for lack of space are subsidiary, however, and of less real importance than those for which room has been found. Necessary, perhaps, to the completeness of historic detail, they would be only the exponents of principles already enunciated and illustrated in other connections, examples of general facts already recognized and recorded, the carrying out of the new policy entered upon and made possible only by the giving up by Southern members of their seats in Congress, and their mad relinquishment of the power their occupation had given them. Henceforward, with human rights instead of human chattelhood the goal and guide, freedom instead of slavery the polestar of government, members, in their debates and in the details of legislation, whether effected or only attempted, could but exhibit a similarity of argument and appeal. On measures of the same general character and purpose friends and foes could hardly do otherwise than repeat themselves. Without, therefore, the excitement of pending issues, with the uncertainty and anxiety as to what the result would be, there is less of loss, now that excitement has passed and the results are known, in not having the precise details before the mind. Besides, it is almost among the marvels of history how easily some of the most radical legislation of those days was effected, — how noiselessly and almost without division slave-laws were revoked, the very mention of whose repeal before the war would have roused the nation, both North and South, to fierce excitement, been the signal of the wildest clamor, the most frantic expostulations, and the most terrible and defiant threats. One indeed could but stand amazed at the change, be silent with wonder, and almost question his own identity, or that of others, as he saw law after law repealed almost without remonstrance, and that mountain of unrighteous legislation, the crystallized product of the cruelty and fiendish ingenuity of generations, melting away, like icebergs in a summer sea and under the fervors of a tropical sun, in the presence of an aroused indignation, that had hitherto been trammelled by compromise and the sense of constitutional obligations, and suppressed by fear of offending Southern brethren and sacrificing Southern support, but now prepared to indicate its right to be heard, and to enforce the claims of justice and a common humanity.
Perhaps, however, the marvel will not appear so great, at least to those who comprehend the philosophy or rationale of the change. Through the secession of the States from the Union, and of their members from Congress, resulted two or three facts whose importance arid potency can hardly be overestimated. By it they not only removed shackles from Northern limbs, but they put shackles on their own, or they did that which was tantamount thereto. By leaving their places in Congress they disarmed themselves of the only weapons they had ever used with much effect, they abandoned the only tenable position from which they could defend their cherished system or assail its enemies. Everything else was against it, — argument, sentiment, reason, conscience, the laws of nature and the law of God, the claims of justice and the pleadings of humanity, the teachings of philosophy and the sweet voices of poetry, — all, all, as it could not well be otherwise, were arrayed against the "sum of all villanies." But their position in the government, with the three-fifths representation of their slaves, gave them political power, and long practice gave them great astuteness and adroitness in its use, while Northern selfishness, venality, lack of convictions, and what has been justly termed "careless citizenship," afforded a wide and fruitful field for their peculiar strategy. In their citizen ship were the hidings of the slaveholders' power, and by that sign alone they conquered. Had they been content therewith, nothing appears why this might not have continued for years, perhaps generations. For the fact, already stated, may be here repeated, that Mr. Lincoln, when elected to the Presidency, was in a minority of a million, and that on a platform that simply insisted on the non-extension of slavery, while it not only permitted but guaranteed its continuance where existing. And this, it is to be remembered, notwithstanding the light shed by the antislavery agitation of a generation and the faithful warnings thundered in the nation's ear from the Abolition pulpits and platforms of those days of earnest reasoning and appeal; aided, too, in their work of argument and alarm by the continued aggressions of the Slave Power, from the annexation of Texas to the Lecompton infamy, from the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act to the Dred Scott decision. Not ignoring the Divine agency and the possibilities within reach of the Divine arm, humanly speaking, it may be claimed there did not appear to man's finite vision during the summer and autumn of 1860 any reason for believing that the Slave Power could be dethroned, or dislodged from its seemingly impregnable position by any forces then at command or in view. The composition and doings of the Peace Congress; the Crittenden Compromise, with the narrow escape from its adoption, designed to eternize slavery and place it beyond the reach of repeal, however earnestly and largely the people might desire it; the action and tone of Congress during the closing months of Mr. Buchanan's administration, — all lead to the conclusion that had the Slave Power been content, it might have still remained in practical possession of the government.
But the peace the North so earnestly desired and eagerly sought was not to be the reward of such surrender and betrayal, nor were the slaveholders to be placated even by concessions so extreme. On a large scale and in view of the nations was to be exhibited another example of the haughty spirit that goes before a fall, of that judicial blindness that precedes destruction. By the Divine wisdom, made more resplendent by this dark background of human folly, God revealed anew how the wrath of man could be made to praise him, and how the remainder of wrath he could restrain. By a fatuity that hardly finds a parallel in human history, the slaveholders sacrificed slavery to save it, and in their frantic efforts to defend it against all possible danger, they increased those dangers immeasurably, abandoning, as they did, the only stronghold from which defence was possible. Placing in the hands of their antagonists the same weapons they themselves had hitherto used with so much effect, the rest became inevitable, and only a question of time. Slavery fallen, what was created for or enacted by it would very naturally follow. The tyrant dead, his satellites were allowed to die without regret; the system destroyed, its auxiliaries were allowed to pass away without protest. Laws like the Fugitive Slave Act and those forbidding the instruction of slaves fell naturally and necessarily into disuse and became practically repealed, because there were no longer slaves to be returned to bondage or slaves to be kept in enforced ignorance. There were enactments, too, in the interests of slavery which affected others than slaves, and bore heavily upon freemen themselves. Among them were the laws that confined the militia of the slaveholding States to white persons and authorized the barbarous custom of whipping. There, too, was the system of peonage in New Mexico, allowed to exist not so much as a relic of slavery as by sufferance, because a government committed to the grosser and more barbarous form of chattelhood, and dominated by the Slave Power, could hardly be expected to interfere with this milder system of "modified servitude inherited from Mexico," at least from any regard for the primal rights of man. Beside these, there were military organizations in the slaveholding States, Rebel in spirit and purpose, and composed mainly of men who had belonged to the armies of the Confederacy. Such organizations were justly deemed antagonistic to the Union, and little likely to promote continued peace. Though not so much the creatures of slavery as of treason, — and their menace was rather against the authority of the government than against the freedom of the individual, — like peonage in New Mexico and the other laws above mentioned, they owed their origin to slavery, were pervaded by its spirit and purpose, and could not with safety be allowed to exist. Though a bill early introduced by Mr. Wilson for their disbandment failed, a similar measure, moved as an amendment to an appropriation bill, was subsequently carried with little opposition.
On the same day that the above-named amendment was introduced into the Senate, Mr. Trumbull moved to amend the same appropriation bill by a provision prohibiting "whipping or maiming of the person," and it was carried without debate or division. With little more discussion or dissent an amendment to a bill for the temporary increase of the pay of the officers of the army, striking out the word "white" from the militia laws, was adopted.
When New Mexico became a Territory of the Union, there existed a system of peonage, by which when a Mexican owed a debt the creditor had a right to his labor until the debt was paid. The debtor became a domestic servant and practically a slave until its liquidation. There were about two thousand of this class, principally Indians, in the Territory. But a resolution abolishing the system was introduced by Mr. Wilson, and without much ado it was passed; thereby removing another of the relics of the slave system.
It was also proposed to give account of some attempted legislation, as a history of the times and an index of congressional thought and feeling, evinced by those who were striving to use aright the power for the moment in their hands, and thus secure the fruits of the war, guard against similar at tempts in the future, but especially protect the freedmen and the loyal men of the South, hated and oppressed because they had proved themselves true to the Union. A chapter was proposed giving a somewhat detailed account of attempts, beginning as early as the third day of the first session of the XXXIXth Congress, in December, 1865, to secure amendments of the Constitution to prevent the assumption of "Rebel debts," to define "citizenship," and to fix the "basis of representation." They all failed of enactment, and are mainly valuable as matters of historic record, to show how earnest and prompt were the Republican leaders to meet squarely the issues presented, and to provide, if possible, for the exigencies of the hour. This failure of enactment, with the character of the debates, revealed the uncertain and hesitating steps with which members moved along the untraveled path they were called to tread, and grappled with problems for which no precedents could be found; though the arguments urged and the reasons for action were substantially those employed in subsequent discussions, which resulted in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which were finally adopted, and which are now parts of the Constitution. Another subject, of which some account was to have been given, was the process by which the different border slave States, which, though believing in slavery, had not joined the Rebellion, were induced to accept emancipation and adapt their legislation to the new order of things. Of this it is to be said, however, that while those States had much in common, being affected by influences which were general and national, each had its own autonomy, its local history and struggle. While, therefore, the result attained was substantially the same in all, the processes by which it was reached varied materially, according to the different circumstances and leadership in these separate commonwealths. Much depended upon leadership. Always and everywhere true, at least, in greater or less degree, at this juncture of affairs the measures actually adopted by the many were the result largely, if not entirely, of the views and feelings of the few. When all were in a maze, knowing not what to do or expect, the natural leader's voice was listened for, and, if heard, generally heeded. When all were dazed by the resplendent events in progress, not knowing what the next act in the imposing drama was to be, though prepared for almost anything, it is not strange that men, dis trusting themselves, should have looked to others for counsel and guidance. Everything in confusion, the very foundations of society seemingly sliding from beneath their feet, the very stars in their courses appearing to fight against them, Southern men were willing to accept almost any solution that promised repose, and the salvation of anything from the general wreck around them. The voice of leaders at such a time had special potency, and the policy finally adopted unquestionably depended oftentimes far more on the influences to which these leaders chanced to be exposed than upon any well-considered opinions and purposes of the people themselves. This undoubtedly affords some solution of the fact, that while the three border slave States, Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky, rejected the Fourteenth Amendment by a vote of three to one, the State of Missouri accepted it by a vote of one hundred and eleven to forty.
The details, therefore, of State action, not by any means uninstructive and devoid of local and special value, cannot be of that general and historic interest which inheres in the great and providential fact that those States were induced to move at all; that, without any great change of sentiment and feeling on the subject of slavery, they should adopt legislation recognizing its destruction, and adapted thereto. That, and not the special methods pursued in the separate States, is the significant and memorable fact. This recognition, however, did not carry with it anything like a hearty adoption of the Republican policy of which it formed a part. Thus a Democratic convention, held in Kentucky in 1866, resolved, "That we recognize the abolition of slavery as an accomplished fact, but earnestly assert that Kentucky has the right to regulate the political status of the Negroes within their territory." And even what was called a Union convention, a few months later, entered its protest against Negro suffrage, denying that the Thirteenth Amendment gave to Congress the power "to pass any law granting the right of suffrage to persons of African descent." In Maryland, in 1867, the legislature, while resolving that " we regard the abolishment of Negro slavery as a fact achieved, to which the peace and quiet of the country require that we should bow in submission," did "most solemnly and earnestly protest against any action by the Congress of the United States to assign the Negro a social status or endow him with the elective franchise." It also declared "that the loss of private property occasioned by the emancipation of slaves constitutes a valid claim upon the Federal government for compensation, and that the General Assembly ought to provide for ascertaining the extent of such loss, with a view of pressing the claim at an early day."
It was also proposed to give a somewhat detailed account of the trial of President Johnson on articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives, March 2, 1868. The original motion, made by Mr. Ashley of Ohio, January 7, 1867, charging him with "high crimes and misdemeanors" specified that "he has corruptly used the appointing power; that he has corruptly used the pardoning power; that he has corruptly used the veto; that he has corruptly disposed of public property of the United States; that he has corruptly interfered in elections, and committed acts, and conspired with others to commit acts, which, in contemplation of the Constitution, are high crimes and misdemeanors." The articles were read to the Senate sitting as Court of Impeachment, March 4, 1868. The trial proceeded till the 16th of May, when a vote was taken, thirty-five voting Guilty, and nineteen. Not Guilty; and judgment of acquittal was entered. Although a somewhat striking episode, and, for the time being, exciting a widespread interest, this trial cannot be regarded as having any very direct bearing on the history of slavery. That the President's course was utterly indefensible, that he proved himself false to his promises and loudly promulgated opinions as well as to the party which elected him, besides aggravating and greatly increasing the difficulties of reconstruction, is matter of record, and has been referred to in previous chapters of this volume. Himself a product of slavery, which was itself a " gigantic lie," how could he be true to a party or cause based on the grand verities enunciated in the Republican platform, and made the dominating forces of its history? And yet the trial itself was of local and temporary interest and importance, and hardly deserves a very large space or mention in a general history of the Slave Power.
Another chapter was to have been devoted to the presidential election of 1868. But, though occupying, no doubt, a commanding position in the work of reconstruction, — an important link in the chain of events now under review, its main significance and the chief contribution it affords for history appear in the exceedingly disloyal attitude in which it presents the Democratic party. Without even an attempt to conceal its purpose by words, — words that cost and often mean so little, and are indeed so often used by men to "disguise their thoughts" — it proclaimed not only its bitter hostility to the defenders of their country, but it’s too manifest sympathy with those who would destroy it. Both in the platform adopted and in the utterances of its candidates little short of the baldest treason was presented, not in mealy words, but in those most objurgatory and defiant. In its platform and in its arraignment of the Republican party, it spoke of " the unparalleled oppression and tyranny which have marked its career,” having subjected "ten States to military despotism and Negro supremacy," and of its substituting "secret star-chamber inquisitions for constitutional tribunals"; pronounced "the reconstruction acts (so called) of Congress, as such, as usurpations, and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void"; and demanded "amnesty for all past political offences, and the regulation of the elective franchise in these States by their citizens." But the most significant event of the canvass was the letter of Frank P. Blair, the Democratic candidate for Vice-President. On the 30th of June he wrote what became the famous "Brodhead letter," in which he indulged in the most violent and inflammatory language and recommendations. Beside accusing the Republican party of the most heinous political offences, and suggesting the most violent remedies, he said unequivocally: "There is but one way to restore the government and the Constitution, and that is for the President elect to declare these acts null and void, compel the army to undo its usurpations at the South, disperse the carpet-bag State governments, and elect senators and Representatives." For this frank avowal of his treasonable and revolutionary opinions and purposes he was honored with a unanimous vote of the convention on the first ballot for the office of Vice-President, while it required twenty-three ballotings to secure the nomination of Horatio Seymour for the Presidency on the same electoral ticket; so well did the former represent the principles and purposes of the Democratic party. The Republican party simply reaffirmed the principles already enunciated in its platforms, proclaimed its inflexible purpose to maintain them in their entirety, and placed in nomination the distinguished soldier that had led the national forces to victory, with Schuyler Colfax for Vice-President. It triumphed by decisive majorities at the polls, and revealed the welcome fact that the people had not yet forgotten the lessons of the war, and were not quite ready to restore the defenders of the "lost cause” to seats they had so traitorously vacated for the destruction of the government. With this the record must close, though the conflict still rages, and the final issue remains in doubt. With no formal attempt to deduce the lessons this history was written to inculcate, — excepting a simple reference to what has been noted, the dangers of all compromises of moral principles, the prolific and pestiferous nature of national as well as individual sinning, the deteriorating and depressing influence of unrighteous laws on the morality of a people and the grave perils in a republic of "careless citizenship" and the presence of an unfaithful Church, which, instead of faithful testimony borne against wrong-doing, consents thereto and throws around it the sanctions of religion, — it only remains to notice briefly the present posture of affairs and the outlook disclosed thereby. That there have been great and marvellous changes none deny. The abolishment of slavery, the entire repeal or abrogation of the infamous slave-codes, the summary and sudden transformation of four million chattels personal into freemen and enfranchised citizens, with everything that legislation and constitutional amendments can do to maintain their freedom and protect them in its enjoyment, do certainly constitute great and memorable achievements that find few parallels in human history. All admit the greatness of the change, but men differ as to its extent. Nor are these differences mere matters of opinion, or of abstract theories simply, inconsequential and harmless, like views that neither demand nor lead to corresponding action. On the contrary, they enter largely into the purposes and policies of the hour. Thus large numbers, including the whole Democratic party, contend that emancipation and the constitutional amendments, even if accepted as accomplished facts, justify no further infringement on State prerogatives, and that the freed men, still amenable to State authority, must be remanded to the State governments alone for protection. Even so able and astute a statesman as Mr. Bingham, the reputed author of the Fourteenth Amendment, opposed the Civil Rights bill because, he said, in times of peace "justice is to be administered under the Constitution, according to the Constitution, and within the limitation of the Constitution."
The large majority of the Republicans, however, instructed by the sad history of Mr. Johnson's administration, deemed it both unsafe and unpardonable thus to remand the freedmen for protection to those whose tender mercies are cruel. In the pledge of the Proclamation of Emancipation to "maintain" the freedom it proclaimed they see something more than a word. Regarding it a solemn pledge to be fulfilled, they recognize the obligation to provide appropriate legislation therefor, though, as the debates have disclosed, not altogether clear that by so doing they have not transcended limits prescribed by both the letter and spirit of the Constitution. And it still remains an open question, as yet un settled by any general agreement, where State sovereignty ends and the Federal prerogative begins. Though, as Mr. Frelinghuysen said, in his opening speech on the Civil Rights bill, "the whole struggle in field and forum is between national sovereignty and State sovereignty, a struggle between United States citizenship and State citizenship, and the superiority of allegiance due to each, “opinions are as divergent as ever on the answer to be given. It still remains a question not yet answered by those with whom alone rests the authority, whether this is a nation of people or a mere federation of States.
But more serious than constitutional difficulties remain. For, granting that all constitutional differences had been composed, that all questions of government had been answered to mutual satisfaction, and that everything that law, organic or other, can do had been done, there remains the far more serious difficulty of constituency. As never before, the question of man's ability to govern himself stares the nation in the face, and arrests attention by its sudden and startling distinctness. The numbers are increasing who cannot repress their doubts nor silence their misgivings as they contemplate the new dangers that loom up not only in the distant, but in the more immediate future. Manhood suffrage, with all that is involved therein, the figures of the census-tables, and their startling revelations of growing illiteracy, especially in the late slaveholding States, where the large per cent of voters can neither read nor write the ballots they cast, are facts to excite the gravest apprehensions. The fact, too, that the South, though defeated, with "sullen intensity and relentless purpose" still bemoans and defends the "lost cause"; though accepting the destruction of slavery, still believes it to be the proper condition of an inferior race, and the corner-stone of the most desirable civilization; though accepting Negro enfranchisement because imposed by a superior force, still contends that this is a white man's government, in which the freedmen have no legitimate part, and from which they shall be excluded, even if violence and fraud be needful therefor, may well excite alarm in the most sanguine and hopeful. Conjoined with these is that alarming but correlated fact — the pregnant fault and the vulnerable heel of American politics — that good men can stand aloof from active participation in the work of the government, justify themselves in so doing, and lose little credit thereby. These facts and considerations invest with growing interest the subject, multiply questionings, and greatly deepen the solicitude of the thoughtful as they seek to forecast events, and, peering wistfully into the future, look with too little success for gleams of light or harbingers of better days.
Washington inculcated in his Farewell Address that intelligence and morality are "indispensable supports" of free institutions, and that all morality that is not the outgrowth of religious principle is of questionable worth. Nor is this the voice of the Father of his Country only. It is the generally accepted axiom of those who treat of republican institutions. And yet among the teachings of the census-tables are found such items as these. In the Southern States, of the white children alone sixty-one per cent are never seen at school; of the colored children "eighty-eight per cent are habitually absent." "Of every one hundred colored children in North Carolina ninety-one never enter a school. In Georgia ninety-five per cent receive no instruction. In Mississippi the per cent is ninety-six." "Ten years," says the United States Commissioner of Education, "without schools for children will insure an adult generation of ignorant citizens, who in losing the knowledge of will have lost the desire for letters." With truth he added: "Were an invading hostile army to threaten our frontiers the whole people would rise in arms to repel them; but these tables show the mustering of the hosts of a deadlier foe, a more relentless enemy, already within our borders and by our very firesides; a great army of ignorance growing ever stronger, denser, and more invincible."
The demon of slavery has indeed been exorcised and cast out of the body politic, but other evil spirits remain to torment, if not destroy. The same elements of character in the dominant race that not only rendered slavery endurable, but demanded it and made its protection, support, and conservation the condition precedent of all affiliation in church or state, still remain to be provided for, guarded against, or eliminated, in our efforts to maintain our free form of government. Perhaps, indeed, legislation has done its best or utmost, and all that now remains, or can be done, is to bring up the popular sentiment and character to its standard. Can it be done?
In January, 1871, the author appealed, through the pages of the "Atlantic Monthly," to the members of the Republican party to take a " new departure " and incorporate philanthropic and patriotic with political action; in other words, to engage individually and socially, and outside of party organization, in missionary work to prepare those made free to use intelligently and wisely the power their enfranchisement has given them. "The two great necessities," he said, "of the country at the present time are unification and education." In behalf of the former he said: "To make the people one in spirit and purpose, to remove everything calculated to engender and perpetuate strife or promote sectional animosities and interests, should be regarded, during the generation now entered upon, as the special work of the bravest philanthropy and of the purest and most enlarged statesmanship," To the latter, after urging the usual considerations in support of its essential necessity to the maintenance of free institutions, and considering some of the serious difficulties in the way of its effective pro motion, he invited the earnest and thoughtful attention of his countrymen. "I do not assume the office of instructor," he said, "nor do I propose to indicate what is to be done, or how this grave exigency is to be met. I only bespeak here a careful study of this great social and national problem, thus suddenly forced upon the Republic. Fully believing that the nation has never witnessed an hour, not even in the darkest night of the Rebellion, when there were presented more pressing claims for special effort, or when there were demanded of the patriotic, philanthropic, and pious men of thought, more time, effort, and personal sacrifice, I present the matter as second to no question now before the country."
But if there was in 1871 foundation for such solicitude and alarm, how much greater the occasion now. Then the governments in the reconstructed States were mainly, if not entirely, in the hands of men loyal not only to their country, but to the principles and policy of the Republican party. Not wholly without mistakes or unworthy members in their administrations, the tendency was upward, and the drift was in the right direction. The freedmen were cared for, a policy was inaugurated embracing, as already noted, with their active participation in the affairs of government, a preparation, aided largely by Northern philanthropy and Christian beneficence, educational and industrial, for their new and untried position. Inadequate, almost ludicrously so, to the great and manifold exigencies of the situation, except as the beginning and earnest of greater and more systematic efforts, they excited hopes and encouraged expectations for the new-formed commonwealths of the South. But all this is now changed. A reaction has taken place. The old regime is reinstated, and everything, save legal chattelhood, is to be restored. Race distinctions, class legislations, the dogmas that this is a white man's government, that the Negro belongs to an inferior race, that capital should control, if it does not own, labor, are now in the ascendant, and caste, if slavery may not be, is to be the "corner-stone" of Southern civilization. At least, this is the avowed purpose. "Labor," says, recently, a governor of one of these reconstructed States, "must be controlled by law. We may hold inviolate every law of the United States, and still so legislate upon our labor system as to retain our old plantation system, or, in lieu of that, a baronial system." Clothe these sentiments, uttered without rebuke or dissent from those he assumes to represent, with power, as they have been by restored Democratic ascendency in most of the Southern States, in several of the Northern, and in the popular branch of Congress, and the wonder ceases that education languishes, that the number of scholars diminishes, that school laws are repealed or rendered useless, and that Northern philanthropy is discouraged. But without some such agencies, whence can come the unification and education required?
The Christian, who traces God's hand in American history, recalls the many Divine interpositions therein recorded, gathers courage from the review, and, though the omens seem unpropitious, finds it hard to despair of the Republic. And yet even he whose trust is the strongest forgets not that God accomplishes his purposes by human instrumentalities, and that no faith, personal or national, is legitimate or of much avail that is not accompanied by corresponding works.
Source: Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 3. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1878, 725-740.
WILSON, James Grant, born in Edinburgh, 28 April. 1832. He was educated at College Hill, Poughkeepsie, continuing his studies in the languages, music, and drawing, under private teachers, joined his father in business, later becoming his partner. In 1855 he went abroad, and soon after his return established in Chicago the first literary paper published in the northwest, and became known as a public speaker. In 1862 he disposed of his journal and was commissioned major of the 15th Illinois Cavalry, becoming soon after acting colonel of the regiment, and taking part in many engagements, and in the Vicksburg Campaign. In August, 1863, he accompanied General Ulysses S. Grant to New Orleans, and there accepted, by his advice, the colonelcy of the 4th Regiment United States Colored Cavalry, and was assigned to duty as aide-de-camp to the commanding general of the Department of the Gulf, with whom he remained till April, 1865, taking part in the Teche, Texas, and Red River Campaigns, and in the latter aiding Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey in the construction of the Red River Dam. During the same period of nearly two years he acted as military agent in Louisiana for the state of New York. When General Banks was relieved, Colonel Wilson was brevetted brigadier-general and sent to Port Hudson, where for a time he was in command, and in July he resigned and returned to New York City, where he has since resided, pursuing a literary career, with the exception of several years spent with his family in Europe. Since 1874 he has been a delegate from St. James's church to the New York diocesan conventions, and he was a member of the General convention that met in Richmond, Virginia In 1879 he was appointed a member of the board of visitors to the U. S. Naval Academy, and the following year he was a visitor to the U. S. Military Academy, delivering the address to the cadets, and preparing the reports of both boards. General Wilson was appointed in 1882, by the governor, chairman of the committee to collect $40,000 as the state's contribution to the Garfield monument. (See vol. ii., p. 604.) Since 1885 he has been president of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, is a vice-president of the Association for the reform and codification of the law of nations, a member of the executive committee of the Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and an honorary member of many American and foreign historical and other societies. He was instrumental in erecting a monument over the grave of Fitz-Greene Halleck at Guilford, Connecticut, and a statue in Central park, New York, the first in honor of an American poet, and is active in the movement for the New York statue of Columbus. (See vol. 1., p. 698.) He has published numerous addresses, including those on Colonel John Bayard, Commodore Isaac Hull, Chief-Justice Kirkpatrick, and Bishop Samuel Provost, and contributed upward of a hundred articles to " Harper's " and other American and English magazines. Among the principal works that he has written or edited are " Biographical Sketches of Illinois Officers" (Chicago, 1862; 3d ed., 1863); "Love in Letters: Illustrated in the Correspondence of Eminent Persons" (New York, 1867); "Life of General U. S. Grant" (1868; 3d ed., enlarged, 1885); "Life and Letters of Fitz-Greene Halleck" (1869): "Sketches of Illustrious Soldiers" (1874): "Poets and Poetry of Scotland, from the Earliest to the Present Time" (2 vols., London and New York, 1876); "Centennial History of the Diocese of New York, 1785-1885" (New York, 1886); "Bryant and his Friends: Some Reminiscences of the Knickerbocker Writers" (12mo; illustrated ed.. 8vo, 1886): "Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography" (6 vols., 1886-'9): and "Commodore Isaac Hull and the Frigate “Constitution'" (1889). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 551-552.
WILSON, James Harrison, soldier, born near Shawneetown, Illinois, 2 September, 1837. His grandfather, Alexander, a Virginian by birth, was one of the founders of Illinois, and his father, Harrison, was an ensign in the war of 1812, and captain during the Black Hawk War. The son was educated at the common schools, at McKendree College, and at the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1860 and assigned to the corps of Topographical Engineers. He served at the headquarters of the Department of Oregon until June, 1861, when he became 2d lieutenant, and on 19 Sept,, 1861, he was made 1st lieutenant. He was on duty as chief topographical engineer of the Port Royal Expedition till March, 1862, then served in the Department of the South, including the bombardment of Fort Pulaski, and was an acting aide-de-camp to General George B. McClellan till October, 1862, being present at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of volunteers in November, 1862, and served as chief topographical engineer and inspector-general of the Army of the Tennessee till October, 1863, being active in the operations before and during the siege of Vicksburg. He became captain of engineers in May, 1863, and brigadier-general of volunteers, 31 October, 1863, and was engaged in the operations near Chattanooga, the battle of Missionary Ridge, and the relief of Knoxville, constructing bridges till December, 1863. General Wilson, after a short tour of duty at Washington in charge of the Cavalry Bureau, was placed in command of the 3d Division of the cavalry corps in the Army of the Potomac, and bore a conspicuous part in the operations under General Philip H. Sheridan from May till August, 1864, including the Richmond raid and combats near Petersburg. He also led his division during the Shenandoah Campaign, including the battle of the Opequan, till October, 1864, when he was assigned to the command of the cavalry corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi, organizing a body of 15,000 mounted men, and contributing largely to the success that attended the armies in the west under General George H. Thomas and General William T. Sherman, particularly by the assault and capture of Selma, Georgia, Montgomery, Alabama, and Columbus and Macon, Georgia, on 20 April, 1865, the date of his promotion as major-general of volunteers. In twenty-eight days he captured five fortified cities, twenty-three stand of colors, 288 guns, and 6,820 prisoners, among whom was Jefferson Davis. Having been mustered out of the volunteer service in January, 1866, General Wilson was for a short time engaged in the improvement of Mississippi River, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 35th U.S. Infantry, 28 July, 1866, and brevetted to the grade of major-general, U. S. Army, "for gallant and meritorious services" in the capture of Fort Pulaski, the battles of Chattanooga, the Wilderness, and Nashville, and capture of Selma, respectively. He was honorably discharged, at his own request, 31 December, 1870. He has been largely engaged in railroad and engineering operations since his retirement from the army. He is the author of "China: Travels and Investigations in the Middle Kingdom" and "Life of Andrew J. Alexander" (New York, 1887); also, in conjunction with Charles A. Dana, "Life of General U. S. Grant" (Springfield, Massachusetts, 1868).—His brother, Bluford, served during the Civil War as assistant adjutant-general of volunteers, and afterward was solicitor of the U. S. Treasury during the " whiskey-ring" prosecutions. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 552-553.
WILSON, Oliver Morris, lawyer, born in Logansport, Indiana, 16 August, 1836. He was graduated at Hamilton College in 1858 and studied law. After serving in the Civil War as captain and major of Indiana volunteers, he was secretary of the Indiana Senate in 1865-'9, assistant U. S. Attorney for the state in 1869-'71, and member of the legislature in the latter year. He was adjutant-general of the Grand Army of the Republic for Indiana in 1866-8, and organized the first department in that order. Major Wilson has published " Digest of Parliamentary Law" (Philadelphia, 1869), and "Indiana Superior Court Reports" (1875). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 556.
WILSON, Theodore Delavan, naval constructor, born in Brooklyn, New York, 11 May, 1840. He served an apprenticeship as a shipwright at the Brooklyn Navy-yard, and at the beginning of the Civil War was a non-commissioned officer in the 13th New York Militia Regiment for three months. Upon his return he was appointed a carpenter in the U.S. Navy, 3 August, 1861. and he served in the steamer "Cambridge," of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in 1861-'4, and with Rear-Admiral Gregory as inspector of vessels in the private establishments near New York City. After passing the required examination he was commissioned as an assistant naval constructor, 17 May, 1866. He served at the Pensacola Navy-yard in 1866-'7, and at Philadelphia in 1867-'9, and was instructor in naval architecture and ship-building at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1869-'73. He was commissioned naval constructor, 1 July, 1873, and served at the Portsmouth Navy-yard in 1873-'82. He was elected a member of the Institute of Naval Architects of England, being the first American member of that scientific body. He was appointed chief of the bureau of construction and repair, 3 March, 1872, and reappointed for a second term of four years, 15 December, 1886. In 1870 he received a patent for " air-ports," which have been adopted in the naval service and merchant-ships, and in 1880 he patented a bolt-extractor, which is in general use. While chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair he has designed several of the modern ships that have been recently built and are now building. He designed the "Chicago," " Boston," and "Atlanta," to meet the requirements of the advisory board, and the cruisers "Newark," "San Francisco," "Concord," "Yorktown," "Bennington," "Petrol," and "Maine," the latter of which is shown in the illustration. He is the author of "Ship-Building, Theoretical and Practical," which is used as a text-book at the Naval Academy and by the profession generally (New York, 1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 556.
WILSON, William Lyne, congressman, born in Jefferson County, Virginia, 3 May, 1843. He was graduated at Columbian College in 1800, afterward studied in the University of Virginia, served in the Confederate Army, was professor of Latin in Columbian College from 1865 till 1871, studying law at the same time, and on being admitted to the bar in the latter year engaged in practice at Charlestown, West Virginia. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and a presidential elector in 1880. In 1882 he became president of West Virginia University, but he resigned in order to take his seat in Congress on 1 December, 1883. He was re-elected for the three following terms, and served on the ways and means committee that prepared the Mills tariff bill, taking an active part in the debates on that measure in 1888. He was a regent of the Smithsonian Institution in 1883-'7. and received the degree of LL. D., from Columbian University in 1883. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 558.
WINDER, John Henry, soldier, born in Maryland in 1800; died in Branchville, South Carolina, 9 February. 1865. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1820, and after various services became captain in the 1st U.S. Artillery on 7 October, 1842. He took part in the war with Mexico, and was at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, the storming of Chapultepec, and the capture of Mexico, gaining for his gallantry the brevets of major and lieutenant-colonel. On 22 November, 1860, he was promoted major, but he resigned on 27 April, 1861, and entered the Confederate service. He was made brigadier-general and given command of Richmond, where he had charge of Libby Prison and Belle Isle. Subsequently he was sent to command the prison-pen at Andersonville, Georgia, where his cruelties to the prisoners made his name a reproach. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 561-562.
WINES, Frederick Howard, clergyman, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 9 April, 1838, was graduated at Washington College, Pennsylvania, in 1857, served as tutor there, and afterward studied at Princeton theological seminary, but left because of weakness of the eyes. He was licensed by the presbytery of St. Louis in 1860, and in 1862 was commissioned hospital chaplain in the National Army, ne was on duty at Springfield, Missouri, till 1864, and participated in the battle of Springfield, 8 January, 1863, being mentioned by name in the official report for bravery on the field. He was graduated at Princeton seminary in 1865, and called to the 1st Presbyterian church of Springfield, Illinois, where he remained four years. In 1869 he became secretary of the newly created Board of State Commissioners of Public Charities for the state of Illinois, which post he still holds. Mr. Wines was active in effecting an organization of similar boards throughout the country, under the name of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, of which at Louisville, in 1883, he was the president. In 1879 he conducted the investigations as to the number and condition of the defective, dependent, and delinquent classes in the United States, and his report constitutes a separate volume of the " Tenth Census." In 1886 he established a monthly journal entitled "The International Record of Charities and Correction," which is published in New York and London. He represented Illinois in the International Penitentiary Congress at Stockholm, in 1878. The result of his observations there was embodied in a report to the legislature, and he recommended the construction of the new Hospital for the insane, at Kankakee, Illinois, on the "detached ward" or "village" system, an event which marks an era in the history of the care of the insane in this country. In 1887 Mr. Wines was elected secretary of the National Prison Association, and succeeded to the post that was formerly held by his father. His writings, apart from reports, have been chiefly pamphlets. Among them are "The County Jail System, an Argument for its Abolition," read at the New York Prison Congress (1878); "The Kankakee Hospital, (1882); "Provision for the Insane in the United States," an historical sketch (1885); "Conditional Liberation, or the Paroling of Prisoners," written for the Atlanta Prison Congress (1880); and " American Prisons in the Tenth Census" (1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 563.
WINGATE, George Wood, lawyer, born in New York City, 1 July, 1840. He was educated in New York, and at the age of thirteen entered a law office, where he continued until his admission to the bar in 1861. During the Civil War he served with the 22d New York National Guards, which he entered as a private, and was promoted until he became captain. His experience in the field impressed him with the necessity of greater training in marksmanship, and he specially instructed his company in that subject. After the war he wrote frequently on rifle-practice, and his efforts resulted in the formation of the National rifle association in 1871, of which he became secretary. In that capacity he drafted its regulations and aided largely in the establishment and management of the Creedmoor rifle-range. Subsequently he became president of the association, and held that office until 1888. In 1874 he was appointed general inspector of rifle-practice of New York state, with the rank of brigadier-general, but resigned in 1879. In this office he organized and carried into successful operation the system of instruction in rifle-practice that has since been followed by the National guard, as well as by the U. S. Army. He was the first president of the Amateur Rifle-Club in 1872, and captain of the first American rifle-team in 1874, and has been connected with all the International rifle-matches. From the part he took in these matters he has been frequently called "the father of rifle-practice in America." He was president of the National guard association of the United States since 1879, and has been active in his profession. General Wingate is the author of the "Last Campaign of the Twenty-second Regiment" (New York, 1864); a " Manual of Rifle-Practice," of which seven editions have been issued (1872); and "On Horseback through the Yellowstone" (1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 564.
WINSER, Henry Jacob, journalist, born in the island of Bermuda, 23 November, 1833. His father, Francis J. Winser, was an officer in the British Navy. He attended the Springfield Academy, Bermuda, came to New York in 1851, entered a printing-office as proof-reader, and later became a reporter on the " Times." At the opening of the Civil War he accompanied Colonel Ephraim E. Ellsworth as military secretary, and afterward was war-correspondent of the New York "Times." After the war he served for a period as city and night editor of the New York "Times," and then as day manager of the editorial department. In 1867 he attended the French Exposition at Paris as regular correspondent for the " Times," and made the trip to Cherbourg in the iron-clad "Dunderberg." In May, 1869. Mr. Winser was appointed U. S. consul at Sonneberg, Germany, and during his twelve years' service he made several valuable reports to the state department, including one on forest-culture. In 1882 he was made chief of the bureau of information of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, but on the retirement of Henry Villard he returned to journalism, first as assistant editor of the New York " Commercial Advertiser " and afterward as managing editor of the Newark "Advertiser," with which he is still associated. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 565-566.
WINSLOW, Edward Francis, soldier, born in Augusta, Maine, 28 September, 1837. He was educated at the Augusta high-school, moved in 1858 to Mount Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa, and soon afterward became interested in the construction of railways. He was a captain in the 4th Iowa Cavalry in 1861, and was promoted major, 3 January, 1863, and colonel on the day that Vicksburg fell. He then took part in the campaign against General Joseph E. Johnston, and soon afterward was appointed by General Sherman chief of cavalry, and placed in command of the cavalry forces of the 15th Corps, which posts he held till March. 1864. In February, 1864, he commanded the cavalry of General Sherman's army in the campaign against General Leonidas Polk, and successfully attacked the Confederate cavalry near Jackson. He was in command of a brigade of cavalry in the engagement at Guntown, Mississippi, in 1864, and after the defeat of the National forces covered the retreat. In October, 1864, Colonel Winslow's brigade formed part of General Alfred Pleasonton's force in pursuit of General Sterling Price. He was severely wounded at Big Blue River on 22 October, and was unable to resume his command till November. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 12 December, 1864, with his brigade participated in the Expedition against Selma, Montgomery, Columbus, and Macon in the spring of 1865, and on 10 April took Columbus. Georgia, by assault. Soon after retiring to civil life he engaged in the construction of railways. On 1 November, 1879, as vice-president and general manager of the Manhattan Elevated Railway in New York City, he took charge of that property and unified the system of control and management of its lines; but, having been elected president of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway Company and vice-president of the Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company, he severed his connection with the Manhattan Company, 31 March, 1880. He was also for several years president of the New York, Ontario, and Western Railway Company, and formed an association for the purpose of building the West Shore Railway, which he completed in about three years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
WINSLOW, John Ancrum, naval officer, born in Wilmington, North Carolina, 19 November, 1811; died in Boston, Massachusetts, 29 September, 1873. He was descended from a brother of Governor Edward Winslow, of Plymouth colony. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 February, 1827, became a passed midshipman. 10 June, 1833, and was commissioned a lieutenant, 9 February, 1839. During the Mexican War he took part in the expeditions against Tabasco, Tampico, and Tuspan, and was present at the fall of Vera Cruz. For his gallantry in action he was allowed to have command of the schooner " Union," which had been captured at Tampico, and was taken into service and named the " Morris "; but she was poorly equipped, and was lost on a reef off Vera Cruz, 10 December, 1846. He was executive of the sloop "Saratoga" in the Gulf of Mexico in 1848-'9, at the Boston Navy-yard in 1849-'50, and in the frigate " St. Lawrence," of the Pacific Station, in 1851-'5. He was promoted to commander, 14 September, 1855, and joined the Mississippi River Flotilla in 1861, but was not able to remain on duty because of a serious accident which disabled him. He was commissioned captain, 10 July, 1802, and commanded the steamer "Kearsarge" on special service in 1863-'4 in pursuit of the "Alabama." Captain Winslow arrived off Cherbourg, 14 June, 1864, where he found the " Alabama" and blockaded her in the harbor. The "Alabama" made preparations for fight, and Captain Raphael Semmes caused Winslow to he informed of this intention, through the U. S. consul. On Sunday, 19 June, 1864, he was lying three miles off the eastern entrance of the harbor when the "Alabama" came out, escorted by a French iron-clad and the English yacht "Deerhound." Winslow steamed off seven miles from the shore so as to be beyond the neutral ground, and then steamed toward the "Alabama." The armament of the "Kearsarge" was seven guns, and that of the " Alabama" eight guns, including a 100-pound Blakely rifle. The " Kearsarge " was slightly faster, and had 103 men, while the " Alabama" had 149. When Winslow turned to approach, the "Alabama" opened fire from a raking position at a distance of one mile at 10:57 A. M. He kept on at full speed, receiving a second broadside and part of a third, when he sheered off and returned the fire from his starboard battery. Both vessels circled around a common centre, and neared each other to within 000 yards. The sides of the " Alabama " were torn out by the shells, and at noon, after the action had continued for one hour, she headed for the shore to get into neutral waters, then five miles distant. This exposed her port side, and she could only bring two guns to bear. The ship was filling, and Winslow approached so rapidly that Semmes hauled down his flag. Winslow stopped the ship, but continued to fire, uncertain whether the " Alabama" had surrendered or the flag had been shot away. A white flag was then shown, and Winslow ceased firing. The " Alabama " again renewed her firing, and Winslow also opened and fired three or four times, though the white flag was still flying. A boat from the " Alabama" then came alongside to announce the surrender, and was allowed to go back to bring off the "Alabama's" officers and crew, but she did not return. The yacht "Deerhound " then came up, and Winslow asked her to assist in rescuing the officers and crew of the "Alabama." which was then sinking fast. The " Deerhound " picked up thirty-nine persons, including Semmes and fourteen of his officers, after which she went off and sailed to Southampton. Winslow's officers begged him to throw a shell at, the "Deerhound," but he refused. The engagement lasted an hour and twenty minutes. After the last shot was fired the "Alabama" sank out of sight. She had about forty killed, and seventy were made prisoners, so that thirty-nine escaped. Only three men were wounded in the "Kearsarge," one of whom died. Only twenty-eight projectiles struck the " Kearsarge " out of the 370 that were fired by the "Alabama," and none of these did any material damage. One 100-pound shell exploded in the smoke-stack, and one lodged in the stern-post of the "Kearsarge," but did not explode. The "Kearsarge " fired 173 projectiles, and few failed to do some injury. This was the only important sea-fight of the war between two ships. Honors were showered upon Winslow throughout the country for his victory, he received a vote of thanks from Congress, and was promoted to commodore with his commission dated 19 June, 1864. the date of the victory. He commanded the Gulf Squadron in 1860-'7, was a member of the board of examiners in 1868-'9, and commander-in-chief of the Pacific Squadron in 1870-'2. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 2 March. 1870, and after his return from the cruise in the Pacific resided temporarily at San Francisco, after which he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he resided until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 569.
WINSLOW, Gordon, clergyman, born in Williston, Vermont, 12 September, 1803; died in Potomac River, 7 June, 1864. He entered the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church, and was settled successively at Troy and Elmira, New York, Annapolis, Maryland, and Staten Island. He enlisted as chaplain of the 5th New York Regiment, of which his son Cleveland afterward became colonel, and was instrumental with Dr. Henry W. Bellows and others in establishing the Sanitary Commission, holding the post of its inspector for the Army of the Potomac. He was a member of scientific bodies and contributor to their published proceedings, and active in philanthropic work. New York University gave him in 1863 the honorary degree of M. D., both because of his distinguished service in the sanitary commission and his capabilities in caring for the sick and wounded. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 570.
WINSLOW, Cleveland, soldier, born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1836; died in Alexandria, Virginia, 7 July, 1864, was an officer in the 71st New York Regiment when the Civil War opened. He raised a company, and was with the 5th New York in all its engagements, beginning with Big Bethel, till he received his mortal wound, which terminated his life before his nomination as brigadier-general for gallant conduct and efficient service could be acted upon. He died from a wound that he received at Mechanicsville, while leading his regiment, as its colonel, into battle. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 570-571.
WINSLOW, Gordon, born in 1839, a captain in the 71st New York Regiment, is now a captain in the regular army. [Brother of Cleveland Winslow above]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
WINSTON, John Anthony, governor of Alabama, born in Madison County, Alabama, 4 September, 1812; died in Mobile, Alabama. 21 December 1871. He was educated at La Grange College, Alabama, and Nashville University, Tennessee. and became a cotton-planter and commission-merchant. In 1840 and 1842 he was chosen to the lower branch of the legislature, and in 1845 he was elected to the state senate, of which he was president for several years. In 1846 he raised two companies of troops for the Mexican War, and was elected colonel of the first Alabama Volunteers: but on account of some technicality the regiment was not accepted. In 1853 he was chosen governor of Alabama, and. by opposing state aid to railroads and the reissue of state bank-notes as a loan to railroad companies, gained the name of the "veto governor." Bills for both purposes were passed over his vetoes: but the attorney-general gave an opinion that they were unconstitutional, and the governor ordered the state treasurer to pay out no money for such purposes. He was re-elected in 1855. and the legislature of that year approved his course. In 1860 Governor Winston was a candidate for presidential elector on the Douglas ticket. Though he had opposed secession, he entered the Confederate Army in 1861 as colonel of the 8th Alabama Regiment, and commanded a brigade in the Peninsular Campaign. Soon afterward he resigned his commission on account of physical disability, and devoted himself to aiding the poor and destitute. He was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention of 1866, and was afterward chosen to the U. S. Senate, but was refused a seat. After this he repeatedly declined to be a candidate for governor, and lived in retirement. Governor Winston was tall and thin, and in early years erect and active, but his later life was a long struggle with disease. He had few equals as a debater, being gifted with great powers of satire and possessing much readiness and boldness in controversy, in his power over his friends and his hostility to his enemies he has been compared to Andrew Jackson. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 571-572.
WINTHROP, Theodore, author, born in New Haven, Connecticut, 22 September, 1828; died near Great Bethel, Virginia, 10 June, 1861, was the son of Francis Bayard Winthrop. His mother was Elizabeth Woolsey, a niece of President Timothy Dwight, and sister of President Theodore Woolsey, for whom Theodore was named. He was graduated at Yale in 1848, with the Clark scholarship, on which he continued there a year, studying mental science, languages, and history. In 1849, he went to recruit his health in Europe, where he remained until January, 1851. There he became acquainted with William H. Aspinwall, whose children he taught for some time, and through him Winthrop entered the employ of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, to whose offices in Panama he was transferred in 1852. In the following year he visited California and Oregon, and thence he returned overland to New York. In December, 1853, he joined, as a volunteer, the expedition under Lieutenant Isaac G. Strain to survey a canal-route across the Isthmus of Panama, and soon after his return in March. 1854, he began to study law with Charles Tracy. He was admitted to the bar in 1855, and in the following year, during a vacation-trip in Maine, made political speeches there in advocacy of John C. Fremont. After this he spent most of his time in literary pursuits, for which he had always had a fondness. The first of his writings that appeared in print was a description of his friend Frederic E. Church's painting, " The Heart of the Andes." whose progress he had watched at the easel. For several years Winthrop worked carefully on his novels, recasting them after each rejection by a publisher. One, "Cecil Dreeme" was finally accepted, but the opening of the Civil War delayed its appearance. Another, "John Brent," was also accepted on condition that the author should omit the episode of the death of the horse Don Fulano, which he refused to do. At the opening of the Civil War Winthrop enlisted in the 7th New York Regiment, which he accompanied to Washington. Soon afterward he went with General Benjamin F. Butler to Fort Monroe as military secretary, with the rank of major, and with his commanding officer he planned the attack on Little and Great Bethel, in which he took part. During the action at the latter place he sprang upon a log to rally his men, and received a bullet in his heart. Shortly before his departure for the seat of war his tale "Love and Skates" had been accepted for the " Atlantic Monthly" by its editor, James Russell Lowell, who then asked the author to furnish an account of his march to Washington for the magazine. This he did in two articles, which attracted much attention, and made Winthrop so well known that the sudden end of his career soon afterward occasioned wide-spread sorrow. Immediately after his death his novels appeared in quick succession, and were very favorably received. They have held their place in American literature, and it is probable that had Winthrop lived he would have taken high rank as a writer. Professor John Nichol, of Glasgow, says of "Cecil Dreeme ": "With all its defects of irregular construction, this novel is marked by a more distinct vein of original genius than any American work of fiction known to us that has appeared since the author's death." His books include the three novels "Cecil Dreeme" (Boston, October, 1861), "John Brent" (January, 1862), and "Edwin Brothertoft" (July, 1862); and the collections of sketches " The Canoe and the Saddle " (November, 1862), and "Life in the Open Air, and other Papers " (May, 1863). These have passed through many editions, and were reprinted in the " Leisure Hour Series," with the addition of his " Life and Poems," edited by his sister, Laura Winthrop Johnson (New York, 1884). See also a memoir by George William Curtis, prefixed to the earlier editions of "Cecil Dreeme." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 577.
WINTHROP, William Woolsey, soldier, born in New Haven, Connecticut, 3 August, 1831, was graduated at Yale in 1851, and at the law-school in 1853, and afterward continued his legal studies at Harvard. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1854, and practised until April, 1861, when he entered the 7th New York Regiment as a private. He was commissioned 1st lieutenant of sharp-shooters, 1 October, 1861, became captain, 22 September, 1862, was made major and judge-advocate, 19 September, 1864, and at the close of the war brevetted colonel for meritorious service. On 25 February, 1867, he was commissioned major in the regular army, and on 5 July, 1884, he became lieutenant-colonel and deputy judge-advocate-general. He is now professor of law in the U. S. Military Academy. Colonel Winthrop is the author of "Digest of Opinions of the Judge-Advocates-General of the Army" (Washington, 1865; enlarged eds., 1866 and 1868; greatly enlarged and annotated, 1880); and "Treatise on Military Law" (2 vols., 1886: condensed into one volume for the use of the cadets at the military academy as "Abridgment of Military Law," 1887). He has also translated the " Military Penal Code of the German Empire " (1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 577.
WINTHROP, Frederick, soldier, born in New York City, 3 August, 1839; died near Five Forks, Virginia, 1 April, 1865, was the son of Thomas C. Winthrop. He was commissioned a captain in the 12th U. S. Infantry, 26 October, 1861, and received the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers on 1 August, 1864. He was killed at the battle of Five Forks, where he commanded a brigade in the 5th Corps. In 1867 the brevet of major-general of volunteers was conferred on him, among the few brevets that were given after death. It was dated back to 1 April, 1865, the day of the battle in which he fell. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 578.
WISE, Henry Alexander, governor of Virginia, born in Drummondtown, Accomack County, Virginia, 3 December, 1806; died in Richmond, Virginia, 12 September, 1876. He was graduated at Washington College, Pennsylvania, in 1825, studied law, was admitted to the bar in Winchester, Virginia, in 1828. Wise settled in that year in Nashville, Tennessee, but in 1830 returned to Accomack. In 1833 he was elected to Congress by the Jackson Party, and after the election fought a duel with his competitor for the office. He was twice re-elected. In Congress he went over to the opposition on the development of Jackson's bank policy, and took strong ground in favor of slavery. In 1837 he was second to William J. Graves, of Kentucky, in his duel with Jonathan Cilley, of Maine, in which the latter was killed. He was a man of undoubted ability, and had great influence in John Tyler's administration, and, says John W. Forney, "Standing between the two great parties in the house, he delighted in his isolation and rioted in the eccentricities of his genius." In 1842 the Senate rejected the nomination of Mr. Wise as minister to France, but he was subsequently appointed minister to Brazil, and resided at Rio Janeiro from May, 1844, till October, 1847. In 1848 and 1852 he supported the Democratic candidates for president. He was elected governor of Virginia in 1855, after a very vigorous canvass, directed especially against the "Know-Nothings," whose progress he did much to check by his vigorous oratory. His success, which overturned the calculations of many political prophets, was due in part to his accusation that the "Know-Nothings" were Abolitionists in disguise. Toward the close of his term occurred the seizure of Harper's Ferry by John Brown, whose execution on 2 December 1859, was one of the last acts of his administration. (See Brown, John.) In February, 1861, he was a member of the state convention, in which, from the committee on Federal relations, he made a report that aimed at compromise and a peaceable adjustment with the seceded states. After the secession of Virginia, he was appointed brigadier-general in the Confederate Army. His force was driven out of Kanawha valley by the National troops under General Jacob D. Cox, and at Gauley Bridge lost a large quantity of arms and stores. Subsequently he commanded at Roanoke Island, North Carolina, where his forces were defeated by General Ambrose E. Burnside's expedition, his son, Obadiah J. Wise, being among the killed. After the war, he resumed the practice of his profession. He published "Seven Decades of the Union: Memoir of John Tyler" (Philadelphia, 1872). —Henry Alexander's son, John Sergeant, politician, born in Rio Janeiro, Brazil, 25 December, 1840, was educated at Virginia Military Institute, and, while a cadet there, took part in the battle of Newmarket, Virginia, where he was wounded, afterward serving on staff duty till the end of the war. He studied law at the University of Virginia, was admitted to the bar in 1867, and has engaged in practice in Richmond. From 1882 till 1883 he was U. S. District Attorney. He was chosen to Congress in 1882 as a Readjuster, served one term, and in 1885 was the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, but was defeated by Fitzhugh Lee.— Henry Alexander's nephew, George Douglas, congressman, born in Accomack County, Virginia, 4 June, 1831, was educated at Indiana University, studied law at William and Mary, and practised at Richmond. He served in the Confederate Army as a captain, was commonwealth's attorney of Richmond in 1870-'80, and in the latter year was chosen as a Democrat to Congress, where he has since served. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 579-580.
WISE, Henry Augustus, naval officer, born in Brooklyn, New York, 12 May, 1819; died in Naples, Italy, 2 April, 1809, was a son of George Stuart Wise, of the U. S. Navy. He entered the U.S. Navy, 8 February, 1834, attended the naval school at Philadelphia in 1839-'40, and became a passed midshipman, 10 July, 1840. He served in the depot of charts, and on special duty in 1840-'3, and cruised in the "Plymouth," of the Mediterranean Station, in 1844-'5. He was promoted to master, 31 October, 1840, and lieutenant, 25 February, 1847. During the Mexican War he was attached to the razee "Independence," on the Pacific Station, and participated in the operations in the Gulf of California, at Mazatlan, and La Paz. In 1850-'2 he served in the coast survey, and then he cruised in the frigate "Cumberland," of the Mediterranean Station, in 1852-'4. He was on ordnance duty at Boston and Washington during the following years until 1860. When the Civil War began he was attached to the steam frigate " Niagara" in the first Blockading Squadron off Charleston, S. C., in 1861. He was promoted to commander, 10 July, 1862, and appointed assistant chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, where he served throughout the remainder of the war and until January, 1869, and rendered valuable services. He was promoted to captain, 29 December, 1866, and was abroad on leave when he died. He married a daughter of Edward Everett in 1848. Captain Wise was the author of "Los Gringos, or an Interior View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia" (New York, 1849): "Tales for the Marines" (Boston, 1855); "Scampavias; from Gibel Tarak to Stamboul, by Harry Gringo" (New York, 1857); "The Story of the Gray African Parrot," for children (1859); and "Captain Brand of the 'Centipede' " (London, 1800; New York, 1864). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 580.
WISNER, Moses, lawyer, born in Aurelius, New York, in 1818: died in Lexington, Kentucky, 5 January, 1863. He was carefully educated, moved to Michigan in 1839, studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Pontine in 1842. He became prosecuting attorney for Lapeer County in 1843, and was governor of Michigan in 1849-61. In 1862 he entered the National Army as colonel of the 22d Michigan Regiment, but died on his way to the seat of war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 582.
WISTAR, Isaac Jones, soldier, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 14 November, 1827, was educated at Haverford College, Pennsylvania, adopted the profession of law, and practised in Philadelphia. He entered the National Army in 1861, as a captain in a regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers, and served in Maryland and Virginia, his commission as brigadier-general of volunteers, dated 29 November, 1862, being granted for services at Antietam. After the war he resumed practice, and is now president of a canal company and several coal companies in Pennsylvania. [Son of Richard Wistar, merchant 1756-1821]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 583.
WITHERS, Jones Mitchell, soldier, born in Madison County. Wisconsin, 12 January, 1814. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1835, and resigned in the same year, but during the Creek disturbances in 1836 commanded the Alabama volunteers. He subsequently studied law in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, became private secretary to Governor Clement C. Clay, and was admitted to the bar in 1838. He settled in Mobile as a lawyer and commission merchant in 1841. He was in the legislature in 1855, mayor of Mobile in 1856-'61. At the beginning of the Civil War entered the Confederate Army as colonel of the 3d Alabama Infantry. He became brigadier-general in July, 1861, commanding the defences of Mobile, major-general early in 1862, commanded a division at Shiloh and participated in the battle of Stone River, 31 December, 1862. He was subsequently in charge of a department, with headquarters at Montgomery, Alabama. After the war he returned to Mobile, and edited the "Tribune" in that city. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 584.
WITHERS, Robert Enoch, senator, born in Campbell County, Virginia, 18 September, 1821. He was graduated at the medical department of the University of Virginia in 1840, and practised his profession in his native county for fifteen years, afterward moving to Danville, Virginia. Early in 1861 he became colonel of the 18th Virginia Regiment, and with that command he participated in all the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia from Bull Run to Gaines's Mills, where he was severely wounded. Being incapacitated for further field duty, he was then assigned to the charge of the prisons and hospitals in Danville, Virginia, which post he held till the close of the Civil War. He edited the "Lynchburg News" in 1860-'8, and subsequently the" Richmond Enquirer," and was nominated for governor by the Democratic Party in 1868, but withdrew in favor of Gilbert C. Walker, Conservative. He was a presidential elector in 1873, became lieutenant-governor, 1 January, 1874, and on the 13th of the same month was chosen U. S. Senator as a Democrat, succeeding John F. Lewis, Republican, and serving one term. Since 1885 he has been U. S. consul at Hong Kong, China. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 584.
WOOD, Thomas John, soldier, born in Munfordville. Kentucky, 25 September, 1823. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1845, assigned to the Topographical Engineers, and then transferred, at his own request, to the 2d U.S. Dragoons, becoming a 2d lieutenant there on 2 December, 1846. He took part in the war with Mexico, being present at the battles of Palo Alto, Monterey, and Buena Vista, served subsequently in Louisiana and Texas, as aide-de-camp to General William S. Harney in 1848-9, and as adjutant of the 2d U.S. Dragoons till 1854. He was promoted in succession to 1st lieutenant in 1851, and to captain in the 1st U.S. Cavalry in 1855, serving in Kansas during the border troubles and on the Utah Expedition under Albert Sidney Johnston till 1859. He became major, 16 March, and lieutenant-colonel, 9 May, 1861. In October of the same year was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers and placed in command of a division in the Tennessee and Mississippi Campaigns, taking part in the battle of Shiloh and the siege of Corinth. During the remainder of the year he was engaged in guarding railroads in Alabama and Tennessee, in General Don Carlos Buell's operations in Kentucky, the pursuit of General Braxton Bragg's forces, and in the battle of Stone River, 31 December, 1862, where he was wounded. He commanded a division in the 21st Corps, Army of the Cumberland, during the operations in Tennessee, being present at the. battles of Chickamauga and Mission Ridge, till November, 1863, and was engaged in operations for the relief of Knoxville and the invasion of Georgia, including the principal battles, to the action of Lovejoy's Station in September, 1864, where he was severely wounded, General Wood took an active part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, where he commanded the 4th Corps, and in the pursuit of the enemy to Tennessee River in December, 1864. He was promoted major-general of volunteers in January, 1865, and commanded various districts and departments in Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi until he was mustered out of the volunteer service, 1 September, 1866. General Wood received the brevet of 1st lieutenant, U. S. Army, for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Buena Vista, that of brigadier-general for Chickamauga, and major-general for Nashville. He was promoted colonel of the 2d U.S. Cavalry, 12 November, 1861, and retired from service, with the rank of major-general, 9 June, 1868, and that of brigadier-general, 3 March, 1871. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.
WOOD, William Maxwell, surgeon, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 27 May, 1809; died in Owing's Mills, Baltimore County, Maryland, 1 March, 1880. He entered the U.S. Navy as an assistant surgeon, 10 May, 1829, became a passed assistant surgeon, 1 January, 1835, and was commissioned surgeon, 20 February, 1838. He served on the steamer "Poinsett " on the coast of Florida during the Seminole War in 1838-'41, was appointed fleet-surgeon of the Pacific Squadron in 1843, and brought the first intelligence of the opening of the Mexican War from Guadalajara to Mazatlan to Commodore Sloat. This information induced the commodore to go immediately to California, when he captured Monterey and began the operations which resulted in the conquest of the state. He was fleet-surgeon of the East India Squadron in 1856-'8 and present at the capture of the Barrier Forts in Canton River, China. He was fleet-surgeon of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in the flag-ship" Minnesota" in 1861 -'4, and was present at the capture of the forts at Hatteras inlet, 28 August, 1861, in the engagements with the "Merrimac," 8-9 March, 1862, at the capture of Sewall's Point and Norfolk in May, 1862, in the sounds of North Carolina in 1863, and on blockade and other operations on the coast in 1863-'5. On 1 July, 1869, he was appointed surgeon-general of the navy and chief of the bureau of medicine and surgery, in which he served until 24 October, 1871, though he was retired by operation of law on 27 May, 1871. He was commissioned a medical director, 3 March, 1871, and resided at Owing's Mills, Baltimore County, Maryland, until his death. Dr. Wood was the author of " Wandering Sketches of People and Things in South America, Polynesia California, and Other Places visited during a Cruise in the U. S. ships 'Levant,' 'Portsmouth,' and 'Savannah'" (Philadelphia. 1849); "A Shoulder to the Wheel of Progress" (New York, 1849); "Hints to the People on the Profession of Medicine " (Buffalo, 1852); and " Fankwei, or the ' San Jacinto' in the Seas of India, China, and Japan" (New York. 1859). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 598.
WOOD, William Willis Wiley, naval engineer, born in Wake County, North Carolina, 30 May, 1818; died near Jutland. St. Mary's County, Maryland, 31 August, 1882. He acquired a knowledge of engineering at the West Point Foundry, New York, entered the U.S. Navy as a chief engineer, 15 March, 1845, and superintended the construction of the boilers and engines of the steam frigate "Merrimac" in 1854-'7 at Cold Spring, New York. During the Civil War he rendered valuable services on special duty connected with the steam-engineering service at the U.S. Navy-yards in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. He was head of the department of steam engineering at the naval academy in 1866-'7, chief engineer of the New York Navy-yard in 1868-'9, inspector of machinery afloat in 1870-2, chief of the bureau of steam engineering from 1872 till 3 March, 1877, and on special duty at Washington until 30 May, 1880, when he was placed on the retired list, he was one of the pioneers in the U. S. steam navy, and held the relative rank of commodore when he was retired as he had served as engineer-in-chief. He was drowned in a boat capsized by a squall. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 598-599.
WOODBURY, Daniel Phineas, soldier, born in New London, New Hampshire, 16 December, 1812; died in Key West, Florida, 10 August, 1864. He was educated at private schools and at the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1836 and promoted to be 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Artillery. In November of the same year he was transferred to the engineers, but the order was inoperative until July, 1837, when he was made brevet 2d lieutenant of engineers, to date from 1 July, 1836. He was engaged in the construction of the Cumberland Road in Ohio till 1840, being promoted 1st lieutenant, 7 July, 1838, and was then on duty till 1847, repairing fortifications at points on the Atlantic Coast, and as an assistant to the chief of engineers at Washington. Lieutenant Woodbury was superintending engineer in the construction of Fort Kearny and Fort Laramie for the protection of the Oregon route till 1850, and on fortification duty on the North Carolina coast until 1856, becoming captain of engineers, 3 March, 1853. Thereafter, until the Civil War, he was constantly engaged in the duties of his corps on the southern coast, and as an assistant to the chief of engineers. He was promoted major of engineers, 6 August, 1861, assisted in the construction of the defences of Washington, and was with General David Hunter's column at Bull Run. He was made lieutenant-colonel and additional aide-decamp in September, 1861, and brigadier-general of volunteers, 19 March, 1862, and was assigned to command the engineer brigade in the Army of the Potomac, where he rendered great service in the siege of Yorktown and the construction of roads, bridges, and causeways for the advance upon Richmond and the subsequent change of base to James River. In the Rappahannock Campaign of 1862-'3 General Woodbury distinguished himself at Fredericksburg in laying down pontoons under the enemy's lire, and in their prompt removal after the troops had recrossed the river. In March, 1863, he was placed in command of the District of Key West, where he died of yellow fever. He was brevetted to the grade of major-general in the United States Army "for gallant and meritorious services during the rebellion," especially on the peninsula in 1862 and at the battle of Fredericksburg. General Woodbury was the author of works on "Sustaining Walls" (Washington. 1845). and the "Theory of the Arch" (New York, 1858). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 601.
WOODFORD, Stewart Lyndon, lawyer, born in New York City, 3 September, 1835. He studied at Yale and at Columbia, where he was graduated in 1854, and in 1857 began the practice of law in his native city. In I860 he was chosen messenger of the electoral college of his state to convey to Washington its vote in favor of the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. In 1861 he was appointed U. S. assistant district attorney for the Southern District of New York, holding this office about eighteen months. In 1862 he entered the National Army as a volunteer, serving until 1865. during which time he became in succession chief-of-staff to General Quincy A. Gillmore in the Department of the South, and military commandant of Charleston and Savannah, and attained by brevet the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers. From 1866 till 1868 he was lieutenant-governor of New York, having been chosen as a Republican, but he was defeated as candidate for the governorship in 1870. In 1872 he was elected to Congress, and was also chosen as a presidential elector. From 1877 until 1883 he filled the office of U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Since that time he has been engaged in the practice of law. He is the author of numerous public addresses, including a eulogy on General George H. Thomas. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 601-602.
WOODHULL, Maxwell, naval officer, born in New York city, 2 April, 1813; died in Baltimore, Maryland, 19 February, 1863. He was the only son of Richard Miller Woodhull, the founder of Williamsburg (now the eastern district of Brooklyn, New York.). Maxwell Woodhull entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 4 June, 1832, and served in the Mediterranean, on the coast of Africa, on the Brazil Station, and in the Gulf of Mexico. During the Paraguay Expedition he was executive officer of the flag-ship " Sabine," and he afterward commanded the brig "Bainbridge." Being attached to the coast survey, he surveyed New York harbor and the obstructions of Hell Gate, reported plans for their removal, and received the thanks of the Chamber of commerce of New York. He was also engaged on surveys on the New England Coast. At the opening of the Civil War he was assigned to special duty under the U.S. Navy department, and promoted to the rank of commander, 1 July, 1861. He organized the supply service for the blockading fleet, commanded the "Connecticut," was afterward transferred to the gun-boat "Cimerone," and led a division of the James River Flotilla during General George B. McClellan's Peninsular Campaign. Later he was attached to Admiral Charles Wilkes's flying squadron, and ordered with the 'Cimerone' to Florida waters to open St. John's and St. Mary's Rivers, which was accomplished, the squadron several times engaging the batteries of the enemy. Early in 1863 he was ordered to the north with his vessel for repairs. He was killed accidentally by the discharge of a gun from which a salute was being fired.—His son, Maxwell Van Zandt, entered the volunteer army in 1862 with the rank of captain, and was promoted to major and subsequently to lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant-general of the 15th Army Corps. He was brevetted colonel on the recommendation of General John A. Logan, and brigadier-general of volunteers on that of General Oliver O. Howard. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 602.
WOODRUFF, William S., was killed in battle before Petersburg, 25 June, 1864.
WOODRUFF, George Augustus, soldier, born in Marshall, Michigan, 27 May, 1840; died in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 4 July, 1863, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1857, and became 1st lieutenant of artillery in June. 1861. He served in the Virginia Peninsular Campaign from March till July, 1862, participating in the siege of Yorktown and the battles of Fair Oaks, Glendale, and Malvern Hill, commanded a battery at Antietam in the Maryland Campaign, was engaged at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. and during the Pennsylvania Campaign commanded a battery, and was mortally wounded at Gettysburg. In this battle, he was stationed on the right of General Winfield S. Hancock's line. Of his death General Hancock wrote: “Among all the brave men who fell at Gettysburg there are none whoso loss I regret more than his." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 603.
WOODRUFF, Israel Carle, soldier, born in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1815: died in Tompkinsville, New York, 10 December, 1878. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1886, became 1st lieutenant of Topographical Engineers in 1842. and was superintending topographical engineer of the survey of the Creek boundary in 1850-'l. He then engaged in reconnaissance of military roads to the South Pass of the Rocky mountains and to New Mexico, was subsequently engineer and inspector of light-houses on the great lakes, and in 1853 became captain of Topographical Engineers for fourteen years' continuous service. He was assistant to the chief topographical engineer at Washington, D. C, in 1857-63, became major in that branch of the service in August, 1861, and from 1863 until his death was assistant to the chief engineer at Washington. In that capacity, he was engaged in the defence of Washington against the advance of General Jubal A. Early in July, 1864. He became lieutenant-colonel of engineers in August of the same year, and was a member of the board of examination of engineer officers in 1864-'5. On 13 March. 1865, he was brevetted colonel, U. S. Army, "for faithful and meritorious services in the Corps of Engineers," and brigadier-general in the same" for meritorious services during the Civil War." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 604.
WOODS, William Burnham, soldier, born in Newark, Licking County. Ohio, 3 August, 1824; died in Washington. D. C, 14 May, 1887. His father, Ezekiel S. Woods, was a native of Kentucky, of Scotch-Irish parentage. The son was educated at Western Reserve College and at Yale, where he was graduated in 1845. He afterward studied law in his native place, and practised there, was elected mayor of Newark in 1856 and 1857, and in the latter year was chosen to the Ohio legislature. He was elected Speaker of the House in 1858, and reelected to the legislature in 1859. Soon after the opening of the Civil War he entered the National Army as lieutenant-colonel of the 76th Ohio Volunteers, and from November, 1861, till the close of the war he was continuously at the front, except for a period of three months. He participated in the battles of Shiloh, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post (where he was slightly wounded), Resaca, Dallas, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station, and Bentonville. He was also present at the sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson, and commanded a division in General William T. Sherman's march to the sea. He was appointed brevet brigadier-general of volunteers, 12 January, 1865; brevet major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865; full brigadier-general, 31 May. 1865; and on 1 February, 1866, was mustered out of the service. Upon leaving, Woods engaged in cotton-planting in Alabama, resuming at the same time the practice of law, and taking an active part in the reconstruction of the state, of which he became chancellor in 1868. In 1869 he was appointed U. S. judge for the 5th circuit, and on 15 December, 1880, was nominated by President Hayes an associate justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, being confirmed on 22 December. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 605-606.
WOODS, Charles Robert, soldier, born in Newark, Ohio, 19 February, 1827; died there, 20 February, 1885, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1852, appointed brevet 2d lieutenant of infantry, and served on garrison and frontier duty till 1861. In the attempt to relieve Fort Sumter in April of that year, he commanded the troops on the steamer "Star of the West," He was appointed colonel of the 76th Ohio Volunteers, 18 October, 1861. Woods was at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and commanded a brigade during the siege of Corinth, and a regiment in the Vicksburg Campaign. He was recommended for promotion for bravery at Arkansas Post, and became a brigadier-general of volunteers, 4 August, 1863, leading a brigade in the 15th Corps at Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge. In the campaign in Georgia and the Carolinas he commanded a division in the same corps. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 4 August, 1863, brevetted major-general, 2 November, 1864, made brevet brigadier and major-general in the U. S. Army, 13 March, 1865, and mustered out of the volunteer service, 1 September, 1866. He was transferred to the 27th U.S. Infantry, 27 September, 1866, and during the latter part of the same year was on the plains fighting Indians and guarding railways. Woods became colonel of the 2d U.S. Infantry, 23 March, 1874, and was retired on 15 December of the same year. He was familiarly known in the army as “Susan Wood," a name that had been applied to him when he was a cadet at the military academy. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 606.
WOODWARD, Ashbel, physician, born in Wellington, Connecticut, 20 June, 1804; died in Franklin, Connecticut, 20 November, 1885. He was graduated at the medical department of Bowdoin in 1829, settled in Franklin, Connecticut, and resided there until his death, engaging in the practice of his profession and in genealogical and historical researches. At the beginning of the Civil War he volunteered as surgeon in the 26th Army Corps, sharing in the siege and capture of Port Hudson. Yale gave him the honorary degree of M. D. in 1854. Dr. Woodward was president of the Connecticut Medical society for many years, and a member of the New England historic-genealogical society, to which he contributed about fifty papers. His publications include " Vindication of General Israel Putnam " (Norwich. Connecticut, 1841); " Historical Account of the Connecticut Medical Society" (Hartford, 1859); "Biographical Sketches of the Early Physicians of Norwich" (Norwich, 1859); "Medical Ethics" (Hartford, 1860); "Life," an address (1861): " Memoir of Colonel Thomas Knowlton " (Boston, 1801); "Life of General Nathaniel Lyon " (Hartford, 1862); "Vindication of Army Surgeons" (New Haven. 1863); "Specialism in Medicine" (1866); and "The Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Settlement of Franklin," an address delivered in April, 1868 (1870). See a memoir of him by his son, Henry H. Woodward (Boston, 1880). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 606.
WOODWARD, Calvin Milton, educator, born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 25 August, 1837. He was graduated at Harvard in 1860. and became principal of Brown high-school in Newburyport. Massachusetts During the Civil War he was captain in the 48th Massachusetts Volunteers, taking part in the siege and capture of Port Hudson under General Nathaniel P. Banks. In 1865 he was chosen vice-principal of the Smith Academy of Washington University, St. Louis, and in 1868 he was appointed assistant professor of mathematics in that university, where since 1870 he has held the chair of mathematics and applied mechanics, also since 1870 he has been dean of its polytechnic school. […]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 606-607.
WOODWARD, Joseph Janvier, surgeon, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 October, 1833; died near that city, 17 August, 1884. He was graduated at the Philadelphia central high-school in 1850, and at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1853. He practised his profession in Philadelphia, and also gave private instruction in the use of the microscope and in pathological histology, and with Dr. Charles Bishop he conducted a " quiz" class in connection with the course of instruction in the University of Pennsylvania. Subsequently he became demonstrator in operative surgery in that place and clinical surgical assistant, and then took charge of the surgical clinic of the university. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the U. S. Army as assistant surgeon, serving with the 2d U. S. Artillery in the Army of the Potomac, and then became chief medical officer of the 5th Division in the Department of Northeast Virginia, being present at the first battle of Bull Run. Later he became medical officer of three light batteries in General Philip Kearny's division in the Army of the Potomac. In May, 1862, he was assigned to duty in the Surgeon-General's office in Washington, and charged with the duty of collecting materials for a medical and surgical history of the war and for a military medical museum. At the close of the war he received the brevets of captain, major, and lieutenant-colonel, and on 28 July, 1866, he was commissioned captain and assistant surgeon. Soon after his assignment to Washington, his attention was directed to experiments in photo-micrography, and he improved the old methods and devised new ones for this class of work. His publications in this direction gave a powerful stimulus to the construction of microscopic objectives, and the great improvements that nave been made in these instruments of research are due chiefly to his labors. He was made surgeon with the rank of major on 26 June. 1876. Dr. Woodward was associated in the management of President Garfield's case after he was shot, and the confinement, anxiety, and labor to which he was subjected during the president's long illness proved too great for him and hastened the sickness that terminated his life. In addition to his connection with scientific societies, including his election in 1873 to the National Academy of Sciences, he was president of the American Medical Association and of the Philosophical Society of Washington. He published about 100 single papers, and in book-form "Outlines of the Chief Camp Diseases of the U. S. Armies" (Philadelphia, 1863) and "The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion " (2 vols., Washington, 1870-'9). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 607.
WOODWORTH, John Maynard, physician, born in Big Plats, Chemung County, New York, 15 August, 1837: died in Washington, D. C., 14 March, 1879. He was educated at the University of Chicago, became curator of the museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences in 1858, and established the Museum of Natural History in the University of Chicago in 1859. He was graduated at the Medical College of Chicago in 1862, entered the National Army as post surgeon of volunteers, and served under General William T. Sherman till 1865, becoming full surgeon in 1863, and subsequently medical inspector of the Army of the Tennessee. In March, 1865, he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel of volunteers for his services during the Civil War. He became professor of anatomy in Chicago Medical College in 1866, surgeon of the Union Soldiers' Home, and sanitary inspector of the city board of health in 1868. In 1871-'9 he was supervising surgeon-general of the Marine Hospital, Washington. D. C. In that service he introduced systematic methods of conducting its affairs, required candidates for medical offices to pass examinations, and substituted inexpensive pavilions for costly insanitary hospitals of iron and stone. He was president of the Alumni association of Chicago Medical College in 1870, one of the twelve organizers of the American Public Health Association in 1872, a member of many state and National professional bodies, and a vice-president of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. In 1876 he read before the International Medical Congress a paper entitled ' Quarantine with Reference to Cholera and Yellow Fever," and submitted six propositions to that body on the subject, which were adopted. He wrote numerous essays and papers that were published in the "Transactions of the American Medical Association," and is the author of "Primary Surgery of General Sherman's Campaigns " (Chicago, 1806); 'The Mystery of Life," an address (1871); "Regulations of the United States Marine Hospital Service" (Washington. D.C. 1873); "Hospitals and Hospital Construction " (1873); "The Immigration Service of the United States " (1873); "Nomenclature of Diseases" (1874); and "Cholera Epidemic in the United States in 1873" (1875). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 608.
WOODWORTH, Selim E., naval officer, born in New York City, 27 November, 1815: died in San Francisco, California, 29 January, 1871, when twelve years old set out with a rifle to cross the continent to the Pacific, but was met by friends and sent home after walking 300 miles. In 1834 he sailed as captain's clerk in the ship " Margaret Oakley," in which he was shipwrecked off Madagascar. He lived on the island with the natives, but eventually reached Mauritius, whence he returned home after an absence of four years. He was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy, 16 June. 1838, became a passed midshipman, 20 May, 1844, and, obtaining special leave of absence in 1840, made the journey to the Pacific overland, travelling from St. Louis to Columbia River in sixty days. He then went down the coast to the site of San Francisco, where he reported for duty as a master on board the sloop " Warren." and subsequently served in command of the transport "Anita" until the close of the Mexican War. He resigned from the navy, 11 February, 1850. Woodworth was elected to the first state senate of California. He engaged in mercantile pursuits, but at the opening of the Civil War he volunteered and was commissioned acting lieutenant, 10 September, 1861. He served under Farragut at New Orleans and in Mississippi River, and was promoted two grades to commander, 16 July, 1862, for gallant conduct. He commanded the steamer " Narragansett," which he took out to the Pacific Coast in 1865-'6. and upon his return resigned from the navy, 31 May, 1866. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 608-609.
WOOL, John Ellis, soldier, born in Newburg, New York, 20 February, 1784; died in Troy, New York, 10 November, 1869. His father was a soldier of the Revolution. The son was educated at the common schools of his native town, and, after a short experience in mercantile life in Troy, began the study of the law, at which he was engaged when war with England was declared. He entered the military service as an officer of volunteers, raised a company in Troy, was commissioned captain in the 13th U. S. Infantry, 14 April, 1812, and greatly distinguished himself at Queenstown Heights, 13 October, 1812, where he was severely wounded. He was promoted major of the 29th U.S. Infantry, 13 April, 1813, and at Plattsburg on 11 September, 1814, he received the brevet of lieutenant colonel for gallantry. Major Wool was transferred to the 6th U.S. Infantry, 17 May, 1815, and in the subsequent reorganization was made inspector-general of the army, with rank of colonel, 29 April, 1816. The routine of his duty was varied in 1832 by a professional tour abroad, comprising an inspection of the military establishments of Europe for the benefit of the U. S. service. In 1836 he effected the transfer of the Cherokee Indians to the country west of the Mississippi, and on 25 June, 1841, he was appointed brigadier-general in the U. S. Army. He was active at the beginning of the Mexican War in preparing volunteer forces for the field, and in less than six weeks despatched to the seat of war 12,000 men, fully armed and equipped. He was General Zachary Taylor's second in command at Buena Vista, selecting the ground for the action, making the preliminary dispositions, and commanding on the field till the arrival of his superior. For gallant and meritorious conduct in that battle he was brevetted major-general, 23 February, 1847. For his services during the war with Mexico Congress awarded him a vote of thanks and a sword of honor, and a sword was also presented to General Wool by the state of New York. He commanded the Eastern Military Division in 1848-'53, and the Department of the Pacific in 1854-'7, putting an end to Indian disturbances in Washington and Oregon territories in 1856 by a three-months' campaign. He had charge of the Department of the East in 1860, and at the opening of the Civil War saved Fortress Monroe by timely re-enforcements, afterward commanding there at the head of the Department of Virginia. He was promoted major-general, U. S. Army, 16 May, 1862, and had charge successively of the Middle Military Department and the Department of the East till July, 1863. He was retired from active service, 1 August, 1863. General Wool was a rigid disciplinarian, and had no superior in the U. S. service as an organizer of troops. The monument shown in the illustration was raised to his memory in Troy. It is 75 feet high, and bears the following inscription from the pen of William Cullen Bryant: "This stone is erected to Major-General John Ellis Wool, the gallant soldier, the able commander, and the patriotic citizen, distinguished in many battles; and to Sarah Moulton, his excellent and worthy consort." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 609.
WOOLSEY, Melanchton Brooks, naval officer, born in New York, 11 August, 1817: died in Pensacola, Florida, 2 October, 1874. Woolsey entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 24 September, 1832, attended the naval school at Philadelphia, and became a passed midshipman, 10 July, 1840. He was promoted to master, 22 March, 1847, and to lieutenant, 10 July, 1847, and by action of the retiring board he was placed on the reserved list, 13 September, 1855. In 1861 he was assigned to active duty and attached to the receiving-ship at New York. He commanded the steamer "Ellen," on the South Atlantic Blockade, in 1861-'2, in which he engaged Fort Pemberton at Wapper Creek, South Carolina, in May, 1862, repelled Confederate cavalry at Secessionville, 1 June, 1862, and participated in the attack on James Island, 3 June, 1862. He was commissioned a commander, 10 July, 1862, on the reserved list, and commanded the sloop "Vandalia" in 1862-3, and the steamer "Princess Royal," in the West Gulf Squadron, in 1863-'5. He participated in the engagement and repulse of the Confederates at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, on 28 June, 1863, and was highly commended for this victory. He continued to serve on the blockade until the close of the war, and was placed on the active list and promoted to captain, 25 July, 1866, and to commodore, 20 May, 1871. On 6 March, 1873, he was appointed commandant of the Pensacola Navy-yard. In 1874 Woolsey had orders to go to the north on duty, but he declined to leave his post when a yellow-fever epidemic appeared, and he died there. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 610.
WOOSTER, David, physician, born in Jasper, Steuben County, New York, 10 June, 1825, served as acting assistant surgeon in the U. S. Army during the Mexican War, being stationed in La Puebla. He was graduated at the Cleveland Medical College in 1849, and in that year began the practice of his profession in Adrian, Michigan. In 1850 he crossed the plains to California, practised medicine, and was a miner on Yuba River until 1856, when he moved to San Francisco. In 1861-'3 he served as surgeon in the California Volunteers in Arizona and New Mexico. From 1867 till 1871 he was U. S. special examiner of drugs in San Francisco, and in 1871—'2 he was surgeon in the U. S. Marine Hospital of that city, where he still practices his profession. In 1858 he founded "The Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal" in San Francisco, which he edited four years. Besides numerous contributions to this journal and to other medical periodicals, he has published a brochure on "Diphtheria," the first publication in the United States on this disease (1859); "Diseases of the Heart" (18(17); a pamphlet on " Hip-Joint Disease" (1876); and a "Genealogy of the Woosters in America " (San Francisco, 1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 612.
WORDEN, John Lorimer, naval officer, born in Westchester County, New York, 12 March, 1818. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 12 January, 1835, attended the naval school at Philadelphia in 1840, and became a passed midshipman on 16 July of that year. He was promoted to lieutenant, 30 November, 1840. and served on various vessels and at the Naval Observatory till the Civil War. In April, 1861, he delivered the orders from the Secretary of the Navy by which Fort Pickens was saved for the Union, and upon his attempt to return to the north overland he was arrested and confined as a prisoner of war for seven months. When he was exchanged, he was ordered to superintend the completion of John Ericsson's “Monitor”, and was pointed to take command. He left New York hastily in this vessel, and after experiencing great danger arrived at Hampton Roads. On 8 March, 1862, the iron-clad ram "Merrimac" had come down from Norfolk and had sunk the "Congress" and the "Cumberland." Worden anchored alongside of the "Minnesota," then aground on the shoal, and prepared to defend the fleet when the "Merrimac" reappeared. Early the next morning, 6 March, the ram prepared to attack the "Minnesota," but when she was within a mile of the ship the " Monitor" steamed out. The "Merrimac” fired broadsides upon the " Monitor," but all the shots that struck her turret, glanced off; the "Monitor" fired deliberately about every seven minutes, every shot taking effect. Worden endeavored to get as close as possible, while the "Merrimac " fired as rapidly as the guns could be served. The duel continued for more than two hours, when the " Merrimac" attempted to ram the "Monitor," but Worden avoided the blow by manoeuvring, so that the ram glanced off. Worden had orders not to use heavy charges, as the eleven-inch guns were considered too weak for more than fifteen-pound charges, with which he could not penetrate the "Merrimac's" heavy armor. At 11:80 a. m. a shell exploded on the pilot-house of the " Monitor" while Worden was looking through the slit, and the powder and flame was driven into his eyes, rendering him blind and helpless. (See Greene, Samuel Dana.) Lieutenant Greene, the second in command, continued the action; but the "Merrimac" soon withdrew to Norfolk. It was a drawn battle, but the "Merrimac" was prevented from accomplishing her purpose of destroying the National fleet and eventually securing the independence of the Confederates by capturing Washington, New York, and other cities, as had been expected. Honors were showered upon Worden for this service. Congress gave him a vote of thanks, 11 July, 1862, and again on 3 February, 1863, and recommended him to be advanced one grade for his conduct in this conflict. He was commissioned a commander, 12 July. 1862. In accordance with the second vote of thanks, was promoted to captain, 3 February, 1863. He recovered from the injuries to his eyes, and commanded the monitor "Montauk," in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, from January till June, 1863. In order to test the ability of the monitors to withstand heavy gun-fire from forts, Worden was sent to engage Fort McAllister, at Genesee Point, on Ogeechee River, and reported that he was convinced they could do so. In this expedition he destroyed the Confederate privateer "Nashville." which had taken shelter under the guns of Fort McAllister. He participated in the blockade of Charleston, and in the attack on the forts of Charleston by Admiral Dupont's squadron on 7 April. 1863. After receiving his promotion to captain, he was on duty at New York connected with the iron-clads in 1863-'6. He commanded the "Pensacola," in the Pacific Squadron, in 1866-'7, and was on special duty in 1868. He was promoted to commodore, 27 May, 1868, and was superintendent of the Naval Academy in 1870-'4. He was commissioned a rear-admiral, 20 November, 1872, was commander-in-chief of the European Squadron from 3 February, 1875. till 23 December, 1877, and then served as member of the examining board and president of the retiring board until 23 December, 1886. As he had received two votes of thanks from Congress, he was retained by operation of law on the active list until he should have had fifty-five years of service, but he was retired with the highest sea-pay of his grade, at his own request, by special act of Congress, 23 December, 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 614.
WORMELEY, Katharine Prescott, author, born in Suffolk, England. 14 July, 1832, took an active interest in the relief of the National soldiers during the Civil War, and published "The U. S. Sanitary Commission" (Boston, 1863). A volume of her letters from the headquarters of the U. S. Sanitary Commission with the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsular Campaign in 1862 has been published by the Massachusetts Commandery of the Loyal Legion under the title of " The Other Side of War" (1888). She is best known as the American translator of Honoris de Balzac's novels, of which thirteen volumes have been issued (Boston, 1888-'9). among which the “Magic Skin," " Louis Lambert," and "Seraphita." have introductions by George Frederic Parsons. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 615.
WRIGHT, Ambrose Ransom, soldier, born in Louisville, Jefferson County, Georgia, 26 April, 1826; died 21 December, 1872. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and entered politics as a Democrat, but subsequently joined the Know-Nothing Party. He supported the Bell and Everett ticket in 1860, and after its defeat espoused the cause of secession. He was sent by the convention of Georgia as commissioner to Maryland to induce that state to join the movement. He enlisted as a private soldier in the Confederate Army early in 1861, became colonel of the 3d Georgia Regiment of Infantry, 8 May, 1861, colonel of the 38th Georgia Infantry, 15 October, 1861, brigadier-general, 3 June, 1862, and major-general, 26 November, 1864. After the close of the war he was editor of the "Chronicle and Sentinel" newspaper. He was elected in 1872 a representative in Congress as a Democrat, but died before taking his seat. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 619.
WRIGHT, John Vines, lawyer, born in Purdy, McNairy County, Tennessee, 28 June, 1828. Wright received a classical education, studied law, practised in his native town, and was elected to Congress as a Democrat, serving in 1855-'61. He was then chosen colonel of the 13th Tennessee Infantry in the Confederate Army, and participated in the battle of Belmont. Colonel Wright was elected to the first Confederate Congress, and re-elected. He has been judge of the circuit court, special chancellor and judge of the state supreme court, and in 1880, was the nominee of the Democratic Party for governor of Tennessee, advocating the payment of the state debt, but was defeated on account of disaffected Democrats who were opposed to the payment. He was in 1887 chairman of the Northwestern Indian Commission, which concluded treaties with 13 tribes, and he is now (1889) a member of the Sioux Commission. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 620.
WRIGHT, Marcus Joseph, soldier, born in Purdy, McNairy County, Tennessee, 5 June. 1831. Wright received a classical education, in 1857 was appointed assistant purser of the U.S. Navy-yard at Memphis, afterward studied law, and practised in that city. He entered the Confederate Army as lieutenant-colonel of the 154th Tennessee Militia Regiment, 4 April, 1861, and, with four companies of his regiment and a battery of artillery, occupied and fortified Randolph, Tipton County, on Mississippi River. He was military governor of Columbus, Kentucky, from February till March, 1862, and lieutenant-colonel and assistant adjutant-general on General Benjamin F. Cheatham's staff during the Kentucky Campaign from June till September. 1862. He was appointed brigadier-general, 13 December, 1862, and in 1863-'4 was in charge of the district of Atlanta, Georgia, until its evacuation. He subsequently commanded the districts of Macon, Northern Mississippi, and Western Tennessee. He led his regiment in the battles of Belmont and Shiloh. and as brigadier-general he was at Chickamauga. In 1867 he was elected sheriff of Shelby County, Tennessee, and on 1 July, 1878. He was appointed agent of the War Department to collect Confederate records for publication in the "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," which place he now holds. He has published "Reminiscences of the Early Settlement and Early Settlers of McNairy County, Tennessee" (Washington, 1882), and a "Life of Governor William Blount " (1884). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 620.
WRIGHT, George, soldier, born in Vermont in 1803: died at sea, 30 July, 1865. He was educated at common schools and at the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated and promoted 2d lieutenant in the 3d U. S. Infantry, 1 July, 1822. He served at Fort Howard, Wisconsin, and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, until 1828, was promoted 1st lieutenant, 23 September, 1827, and remained in garrison at Fort Leavenworth till 1831, when he became adjutant of his regiment. On 30 October, 1836, he was promoted captain, and in 1838 he was transferred to the 8th U.S. Infantry upon the organization of that regiment, serving during the Canada border troubles and at Sackett's Harbor. N. Y., till 1840. He took part in the Florida War against the Seminoles, remaining in that country with the 8th U.S. Infantry until 1844, and receiving the brevet of major " for meritorious conduct in zeal, energy, and perseverance." Major Wright took an active part in the war with Mexico, in the principal engagements from Vera Cruz to Molino del Rey, where he commanded the storming party and was wounded. For his services in Mexico he was brevetted to the grade of colonel. In 1848 he became major, in 1855 lieutenant-colonel of the 4th U.S. Infantry, and on 3 March, 1855, colonel of the 9th U.S. Infantry, having served during that period in California and Washington Territory. He was in command of the northern district of the Department of the Pacific till 1857. During this time conducted operations against the Indians, especially at the Cascades in 1856 and in Oregon. In 1858 he commanded an expedition against the Spokanes, with whom he had several combats. At the opening of the Civil War he commanded the Department of Oregon, from which he was transferred to command the Department of the Pacific with the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, 28 September, 1861. He served there until 1864, and was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, 19 December, 1864, "for long, faithful, and meritorious services." General Wright was drowned, 30 July, 1865, on the wreck of the "Brother Jonathan " while on his way to assume command of the Department of the Columbia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 622-623.
WRIGHT, Horatio Governeur, soldier, born in Clinton, Connecticut, 6 March, 1820. He was graduated second in his class at the U. S. Military Academy in 1841, served in the Engineer Corps, and in 1842-'4 as assistant professor, first of French and then of engineering, at West Point, and was promoted 1st lieutenant in 1848. After superintending the building of forts and improvements in Florida he became captain in 1855, and till the Civil War was assistant to the chief engineer at Washington, also serving on several special ordnance boards. He declined a major's commission in the 13th U.S. Infantry on 14 May, 1861, but, after constructing several of the defences of Washington, taking part in the battle of Bull Run as chief engineer of Heintzelman's division, and organizing the Port Royal Expedition in the same capacity, he accepted that rank in the Engineer Corps in August, and on 14 September became brigadier-general of volunteers. He took part in the capture of Hilton Head, South Carolina, in November. Wright led the land forces in the Florida Expedition, February-June, 1862. On 18 July, 1862, became major-general of volunteers. He commanded the Department of the Ohio till 26 March, 1863, the District of Louisville, Kentucky, till April, and then led a division of the Army of the Potomac in the Pennsylvania and Rapidan Campaigns, receiving the brevet of lieutenant-colonel for the capture of Rappahannock Station, where he temporarily commanded the 6th Corps. After the death of General John Sedgwick, 9 May, 1864, he succeeded to the command of that corps, and on 12 May was brevetted colonel for gallantry at Spottsylvania. While at Petersburg he was ordered to the defence of Washington during General Jubal A. Early's invasion of Maryland, in the midsummer of 1864. Great anxiety was felt lest succor from the troops in front of Petersburg should not arrive in time to save the capital, but as Early's advance arrived in the suburbs of Washington on the north, Wright's troops were landing at the wharves on the south. With some regiments of the 10th Corps just arrived from the Gulf and a few other hastily gathered troops, General Wright was ready to meet any assault. Early was soon forced to withdraw in the face of a strong reconnaissance which General Wright pushed out. "I have sent from here," wrote General Grant to President Lincoln from the Petersburg lines, "a whole corps, commanded by an excellent officer.” And to a prominent official of the war department he said: "Boldness is all that is needed to drive the enemy out of Maryland, and Wright is the man to assume that." General Wright rallied the troops under his command, re-formed the line, and did much to retrieve the fortunes of the early surprise at Cedar Creek, 19 October, 1864. His 6th Corps first broke the strong lines at Petersburg on Sunday morning, 2 April, 1865. In his official report of that battle General Grant said: "General Wright penetrated the line with his whole corps, sweeping everything before him, and to his left toward Hatcher's Run, capturing many guns and several thousand prisoners." He was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, 13 March, 1865, for gallantry in the battle of Cold Harbor, and major-general for the capture of Petersburg, Virginia. On 14 June, 1865 he received the thanks of the Connecticut Legislature. He was made lieutenant-colonel, 23 November, 1865, and then served on various engineering boards, becoming colonel, 4 March, 1879, and chief-of-engineers with the rank of brigadier-general, 30 June, 1879. On 22 March, 1884, he was retired from active service. General Wright is coauthor of a “ Report on the Fabrication of Iron for Defences" (Washington, 1871). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 623-624.
WRIGHT, Crafts James, soldier, born in Troy, New York, 13 July, 1808; died in Chicago, Illinois, 23 July, 1883. Wright was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1828, but resigned on 8 November, 1828, studied law, was admitted to the bar of Ohio, and practised with his father. In 1840 he became assistant editor of the Cincinnati "Gazette," and from 1847 till 1854 he was president of the " Gazette " company, after which he again practised law. He aided in organizing the first telegraph company in the west and became one of its directors. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the National Army as colonel of the 8th Missouri Infantry, but afterward he raised and disciplined the 13th Missouri. He served in the Tennessee Campaign of 1862, and for his services received the thanks of the governor of Missouri. In March, 1862, he was in command of Clarksville. He was afterward ordered to Pittsburg Landing, where he was senior colonel, and given command of a brigade. He was also engaged in the Mississippi Campaign and in the siege of Corinth, where he remained ill for many weeks until he resigned his commission on 16 September, 1862. For his services at Shiloh, President Lincoln nominated him for the post of brigadier-general, but he resigned before he could be confirmed by the Senate. Subsequently he engaged in farming in Glendale, Ohio. Afterward he lived in Chicago, where in 1876 he was made steward of the marine hospital.—His wife, Margaret, was active during the war in visiting hospitals and battlefields, and was identified with many benevolent works. She was at one time the only woman on the boat that carried disabled soldiers to the north, and acted as nurse to them under the direction of the senior surgeon. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 625.
WRIGHT, Joseph Jefferson Burr, soldier, born in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, 27 April, 1800; died in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 14 May, 1878. He was educated at Washington College, Pennsylvania, and received his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in 1836. He entered the U. S. Army as a volunteer, became assistant surgeon on 25 October, 1833, and major and surgeon on 26 March, 1844. and served in the war with Mexico, participating in the principal battles, and being in charge of the general hospitals at Matamoras and Vera Cruz. At the close of the war he transferred the sick and wounded to New Orleans, and, after being at the U. S. Military Academy, served in Texas and on the frontier until 1861. He was then intrusted with organizing general hospitals in the west and arranging medical affairs on an efficient basis for field service. As medical director on the staff of General George B. McClellan he was present at Rich Mountain and Carrick's Ford, West Virginia, and on the transfer of that officer to the east he declined the post of medical director of the Army of the Potomac, and was appointed medical director of the Department of the Missouri on the staff of General Henry W. Halleck. with headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. Owing to his advancing years, he did not participate actively in the war after 1862. He was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, on 13 March, 1865, and retired from service on 31 December, 1876. Dr. Wright was among the first to use and recommend the sulphate of quinine, administered in large doses during the remission in the treatment of malarial remittent fevers. This method of treatment is now admitted to be of great value. He contributed to medical literature, and published articles in the " Southern Medical Reports." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 625-626.
WRIGHT, Rebecca McPherson, spy, born near Winchester, Virginia, 81 January, 1888. She was a Quaker, and her father, Amos Wright, died in a Confederate prison early in the Civil War. Her family was one of the few of Union sentiment that remained in Winchester, Virginia, during that period. On 10 September, 1864, she received a note from General Philip H. Sheridan, which was conveyed to her wrapped in a small wad of tin-foil, and carried in the mouth of a Negro messenger. It read thus: "Can you inform me of the position of Early's forces, the number of divisions in his army, and the strength of all or any of them, and his probable or reported intentions? Have any more troops arrived from Richmond, or are any more coming, or reported to be coining?" Having been told of the position of the Confederate Army by a wounded Confederate officer, who visited her two evenings previously, she sent a reply to General Sheridan, describing the number of troops and their situation, and upon her information he directed the attack on Winchester. After the battle she was thanked in person by General Sheridan, who always spoke of her as his "little Quaker girl," and in 1867 sent her a gold watch as a memento. In 1871 she married William C. Bonsal, and she has held a clerkship in the United States Treasury Department at Washington since 1868. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 626.
WRIGHT, William Bull, poet, born in Orange County, New York, 21, September, 1840: died in Atlanta, Georgia, 29 March, 1880. After graduation at Princeton in 1859 he taught in Buffalo until 1862, when he entered the 5th New York Artillery as a private. While his regiment was stationed at Fort McHenry, Maryland, he was prostrated by typhoid fever, but after his recovery he rejoined his regiment, and participated in Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah valley. He served until the end of the war, part of the time as judge-advocate, and was mustered out as lieutenant with the brevet of major. He was graduated at the New York College of physicians and surgeons, practised medicine in Orange County until 1871, and was professor of ancient languages in the normal school at Buffalo, New York, from that year until 1878, when he resigned, owing to impaired health. He was the author of " Highland Rambles, a Poem" (Boston, 1868), and "The Brook, and other Poems" (New York, 1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 628.
WYETH, John Allan, surgeon, born in Missionary Station, Marshall County, Alabama, 20 May, 1845. He was educated at Lagrange Military Academy, Alabama. Wyeth served as a private in the 4th Alabama Cavalry during the Civil War. After his graduation at the medical department of the University of Louisville in 1869 he settled in Guntersville, Alabama, but in 1872 he moved to New York City, and was graduated at Bellevue hospital Medical College in 1873. Dr. Wyeth practised us a physician and surgeon until 1882, and since that time has devoted himself to surgery […]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 630.
WYMAN, Robert Harris, naval officer, born in Portsmouth, N. II., 12 July, 1822; died in Washington, D. C., 2 December, 1882. Wyman entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 11 March, 1837, attended the naval school at Philadelphia in 1842-'3. and became a passed midshipman, 29 June, 1843. He was acting master in the frigate "Brandy wine" in 1843-'6. During the Mexican War served in the Gulf Squadron, with which he participated in the siege and capture of Vera Cruz, and the expeditions that captured Tuspan and Tampico, with many prizes, in 1847. He served at the Naval Observatory at Washington in 1848-'50, was promoted to lieutenant, 16 July, 1850, and was again attached to the observatory in 1853-'4. When the Civil War began he commanded the steamer "Yankee" from July till October, 1861, the steamer "Pawnee" in the South Atlantic Squadron at the capture of Port Royal in 1861. He then commanded the Potomac Flotilla, by which he kept the river open and silenced the Confederate batteries on the banks. He was promoted to commander, 16 July, 1862, had the steamer "Wachusett'" on the Potomac in 1862-'3, and the " Santiago de Cuba " on the blockade in 1863-'4. He was commissioned captain, 25 July, 1866, and in October, 1869, appointed Chief Hydrographer of the U.S. Navy at Washington, where he remained eight years and acquired an enviable reputation for the excellence of his hydrographic work. He was promoted to commodore, 19 July, 1872. and to rear-admiral, 26 April, 1878, was commander-in-chief of the North Atlantic Fleet in 1879-'82. In May, 1882, he was appointed a member of the light-house board, of which he became chairman, 5 June, 1882. He was stricken with apoplexy at his desk in the treasury department, and died the same night. [Son of Thomas White Wyman, U.S, Navy officer]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 633.
WYTHE, Joseph Henry, physician, born in Manchester, England, 19 March, 1822. He moved to this country in 1835, was licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal church in 1842, but decided to study medicine. He was graduated at the Pennsylvania Medical College in 1853. He began to practice in Port Carbon, Pennsylvania, where he was for three years surgeon to the Beaver Meadow Collieries. In 1862-'3 he served as surgeon of U. S. volunteers, organizing Camp Parole Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia. After the war he moved to the west, and in 1865-9, was president of Willamette University, Oregon, organizing the medical department of that institution, and, having again united with the conference, preached in the Methodist Episcopal church. He subsequently settled in San Francisco, California, and became professor of microscopy and histology in the Medical College of the Pacific. He has published many professional papers, and is the author of "The Microscopist" (Philadelphia, 1850); "Curiosities of the Microscope" (1852); “Physician's Pocket Dose-and Prescription-Book" (1852); "Agreement of Science and Revelation" (1883); " Easy Lessons in Vegetable Biology " (New York, 1883);"and "The Science of Life" (1884). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 634.
