Encyclopedia of Civil War Military Biography – Bab-Blu
BABBITT, Elihu Burr, soldier, born in Connecticut about 1802; died at Fort Monroe, 10 December 1881. He was appointed to West Point from Indiana, and was graduated in 1826. He became first lieutenant, 3d U.S. Infantry, 31 March, 1834, assistant quartermaster, 10 March, 1836, and captain, 3d U.S. Infantry, 1 July, 1839. He served in the Florida War of 1837-'8, and in the Mexican War during 1847-8. On 30 May, 1848, he was brevetted major " for meritorious conduct while serving in the enemy's country." He was made chief quartermaster of the Department of Oregon 14 November, 1860, and of the Department of the Pacific 13 September, 1861, serving there until 29 July, 1866, when he was retired from active service, being over sixty-two years old. He was brevetted brigadier-general for his services on 13 March, 1865. General Babbitt, notwithstanding his retirement, served as chief quartermaster of the Department of the Columbia from 1866 till 1867, and had charge of the clothing depot of the Division of the Pacific from 1867 till 1869. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 125.
BABCOCK, Charles A., naval officer, born in New York City, 12 June, 1833; died in New Orleans, 29 June, 1876. He was appointed from Michigan, as a midshipman, 8 April, 1850, became passed midshipman in 1856, lieutenant in 1859, lieutenant-commander in 1862, and commander in l869. From 1862 to 1864 he commanded the steamer " Morse," of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. While co-operating with the array on the James, York, and Pamunkey Rivers, he defeated the Confederates in several actions, and was highly commended by Rear-Admiral Lee, who in, when commanding the Mississippi Squadron, selected Babcock as his fleet-captain. In June, he superintended the erection of an ordnance depot at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. He was afterward attached to the Pensacola Navy-yard, and in 1868-'9 commanded the steamer " Nyack," of the South Pacific Squadron. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 125.
BABCOCK, Orville Elias, soldier, born in Franklin, Vermont, 25 December 1835 ; drowned in Mosquito Inlet, Florida, 2 June, 1884. He graduated at West Point, and entered the Engineer Corps as 2d lieutenant 6 May, 1861. Promoted, 17 November, 1861, to a first lieutenancy, he constructed, in February, 1862, a pontoon bridge at Harper's Ferry for Banks's movement to Winchester. He was made a captain in the Engineer Corps on 1 June, 1863, and was with the 9th Corps at the surrender of Vicksburg, and in the east Tennessee Campaign, taking part in the battle of Blue Lick Springs and subsequent actions, and at the siege of Knoxville. On 29 March, 1864, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel and appointed aide-de-camp to General Grant, in which capacity he served in the battles of the Wilderness and subsequent operations of the Army of the Potomac. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers. At the surrender of Lee at Appomattox he selected the place where the generals met. He was promoted a colonel in the regular army on 25 July, 1866, and served as aide-de-camp to the general-in-chief until General Grant was inaugurated president, when he was assigned to duty with the president and acted as his secretary. He was appointed superintending engineer of public buildings and grounds in 1871, and supervised the construction of Washington Aqueduct, the Chain Bridge across the Potomac, Anacostia Bridge, and the east wing of the department offices, and also the plans for the improvement of Washington and Georgetown Harbors, in January, 1876, he was indicted by the grand jury of St. Louis for complicity in revenue frauds. He demanded a court martial, but was brought to trial in the civil court in February and acquitted, with the aid of a deposition by President Grant. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 125-126.
BACHE, Alexander Dallas, son of Richard, scientist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19 July, 1806; died in Newport, Rhode Island, 17 February, 1867. He early showed an unusual aptitude for learning, and his first instruction was received at a classical school in Philadelphia. At the age of fourteen he was ap- pointed to the U. S. Military Academy, where, although the youngest member of his class, he was at Its head when graduated in 1825. His failure to receive a demerit during the four years is cited as one of the few instances of that character in the history of the academy, so noted for its rigid discipline. On his graduation he was appointed lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, but was retained at the academy as assistant professor of engineering during 1826, when, until 1829, he served as assistant engineer in the construction of Fort Adams, at Newport, Rhode Island, under Colonel J. G. Totten. Here he met Miss Nancy Clarke Fowler, who afterward became his wife and also his associate in the production of much of his published material. In 1828 he was called to the chair of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, which he occupied until 1841. His resignation from the army is dated 1 June, 1829. Soon after his arrival in Philadelphia he became a member of the Franklin Institute, and at once participated in work as its “Journal” between 1826 and 1836 abundantly testifies. His most important labor at this time was undoubtedly the investigations relating to the bursting of steam boilers. is valuable researches in various branches of physics and chemistry, published in the “Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,” of which he was a prominent member, belong to these years. and his first meteorological investigations date from this period. In 1836 he was intrusted with the organization of Girard College, Philadelphia, became its first president, and was sent to Europe to study the systems of education and methods of instruction and discipline adopted there. On his return in 1839 the results were embodied in a report made to the trustees, which did much to improve the theory and art of education in this country. Owing to the unfinished condition of the college, and in consequence of some delay in the adjustment of its funds, it was not deemed advisable to organize it at once for active operations: therefore Professor Bache offered his services to the municipal government. He became principal of the high school, and during 1841-2 was superintendent of the public schools. The system developed by him while in office has since been generally regarded as a model, and has been introduced in several cities of the union. While in Philadelphia he established, and for some years a magnetic and meteorological observatory, which was largely supported by the American Philosophical Society. In 1842, having satisfactorily completed his labors in the cause of public instruction, he returned to his chair at the university, where he remained until November, 1843, when he was appointed to succeed the late F. R. Hassler as superintendent of the Coast Survey, which place he held until his death. The survey was recommended to Congress by President Jefferson in 1807 was not definitely established until ten years later, when, by the appointment of Mr. Hassler as superintendent, its actual existence began. Under his direction it flourished at times, and the work, though limited in scope, continued until his death; but with the advent of Professor Bache the undertaking assumed larger proportions, and improved plans for extended operations were put into execution. During his able administration the practical value of the survey was thoroughly demonstrated. In the accomplishment of his designs he was not only aided by Congress, but his efforts were likewise greatly encouraged by the approval of scientific societies and their leaders. During the Civil War he greatly assisted the naval and military forces by placing the resources of the Coast Survey at their disposal, and from June to December, 1863, he was chief engineer for devising and constructing the defences of Philadelphia, when it was threatened by the invasion of Pennsylvania. In addition to his work on the Coast Survey, he was ex-officio superintendent of weights and measures, and served, until his death, on the Light-House Board. He was one of the incorporators of the Smithsonian Institute, 1846, and annually during his life was reëlected by Congress. He was active in its direction and in the shaping of its policy. During the Civil War he was elected a vice-president of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, and rendered efficient aid in its work. The University of New York in 1836, the University of Pennsylvania in 1837, and Harvard in 1851, conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.. He served as president of the American Philosophical Society, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was the first presiding officer of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as one of its incorporators and most active members. The Royal Society of London, the Institute of France, the Royal Academy of Turin, the Imperial Geographical Society of Vienna, and many similar organizations, included him among their honorary members. The excellence of his work on the Coast Survey was acknowledged by different foreign governments, and he was the recipient of several medals for his prominence in the field of science. His published papers include more than 150 titles and include various topics in physics, chemistry, and engineering. His most extensive work was the “Observations at the Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory at the Girard College” (3 vols., 1840-’7). His property, to the extent of $42,000, was left in trust to the National Academy of Sciences; the income is to be devoted to physical research. See the “Memoir of Alexander Dallas Bache,” by Joseph Henry, with a list of his papers published in Volume I of the “Biographical Memoirs” of the National Academy of Sciences. This memoir appears in the Smithsonian Report for 1870, and also as a special issue in the publications of the Smithsonian Institute. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 127.
BACH, Benjamin Franklin, great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin, surgeon, born in Monticello, Virginia, 7 February, 1801; died in New York City, 2 November, 1881. He was graduated at Princeton in 1819, and at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1823, entered the U. S. Navy as assistant surgeon in 1824, and became surgeon in 1828. From 1832 to 1836 he was stationed at Pensacola U. S. Navy-yard, and, while on leave from 1838 to 1841, he was professor of natural science and natural religion in Kenyon College, Ohio. He was fleet-surgeon of the Mediterranean Squadron in 1841–4, and of the Brazil Squadron in 1847–50. From 1850 to 1854 he was at the New York Naval Hospital, and then organized at New York the laboratory that furnishes all medical supplies to the navy. He was director of this from 1853 to 1871, and in 1861 did great service to the government by restocking the laboratory on his own responsibility. In 1863 he was placed on the retired list, but continued to act as superintendent of the laboratory until 1871, when he was appointed medical director, with the relative rank of commodore, and retired from active service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 128.
BACHE, Hartman, engineer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1797; died there, 8 October, 1872. He was graduated at West Point in 1818, and made brevet captain of staff, and assistant Topographical Engineer. For forty-seven years he was constantly employed on topographical surveys and works of hydrographic and civil engineering, under the direction of the War Department, till 7 March, 1867, when he was placed on the retired list. He became brevet major of engineers, 24 July, 1828; major, 7 July, 1838; lieutenant-colonel, 6 August, 1861; colonel, 3 March, 1863; and on 13 March, 1865, he received the brevet of brigadier-general, the highest grade in the Engineer Corps, for long, faithful, and meritorious services. Among his engineering works of conspicuous merit were the construction of the Delaware Breakwater and the successful application of iron-screw piles for the foundation of light-houses upon sandy shoals and coral-reefs. He was engineer of the 4th Light-House District from 1859, and a member of the Light-House Board from 1862 to 1870. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 128.
BACKUS, Electus, born in New York in 1804; died in Detroit, Michigan., 7 June, 1862 was graduated at West Point in 1824. He was aide to General Hugh Brady from 1828 to 1837, and became captain, October, 1837. In 1838-’40 he served in the Seminole War, and afterward in the Mexican War, being brevetted major on 23 September, 1846, “for gallant and meritorious conduct at Monterey.” In 1847 he was in command of the fortress of San Juan d ’Ulloa. He became major in the 3d Infantry on 10 June, 1850, served in the Navajo Expedition in 1858, was made lieutenant-colonel 19 January, 1859, and colonel 6th Infantry 20 February, 1862. Just before his death, in the early part of the Civil War, he was mustering and disbursing officer at Detroit. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 129.
BACON, Henry, artist, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1840. He volunteered in the 13th Massachusetts Infantry for the Civil War, and was wounded. In 1864 he went to Paris and entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts, studying also under Cabanel and Edward Frère. His best-known work is “Boston Boys and General Gage,” which was first exhibited in the Paris salon of 1875 and at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. His favorite subjects are figures so treated as to tell a story, historical or imaginative, in the most effective manner. His professional residence is for the most part in Paris, and he is a frequent exhibitor at the salon. The titles of some of his more important pictures are “Paying the Scot” (1870); “Franklin at Home” (1876); “Les Adieux” and “Land! Land!” (1878); “In Normandy” (Paris salon, 1878); “The Luck of Roaring Camp’ (1881); and “Lover's Quarrel” (1882); “Le Plainariste.” Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 131.
BACON, John Edmund, lawyer, born in Edgefield C. H., South Carolina, 3 March, 1832. He was a grandson of Edmund Bacon, was graduated at South Carolina College in 1851, and studied afterward at Leipsic, Germany. He read law at Litchfield, Connecticut, and soon won distinction at the bar. His aptitude for the languages, ancient and modern, led to his appointment as secretary of legation to St. Petersburg in 1858, and he acted as chargé d'affaires until the arrival of the Hon. F. W. Pickens as U. S. minister. In 1859 he married at St. Petersburg Rebecca Calhoun, youngest daughter of Governor Pickens. While on his wedding tour he heard of the election of Mr. Lincoln and sent his resignation to the Department of State. In 1861 he returned to South Carolina, entered the Confederate Army as a private and rose to the rank of major. In 1866 he was sent with Governor James L. Orr to arrange with President Johnson for the restoration of South Carolina to the union. In 1867 he was elected district judge, but was soon afterward deposed by the federal general then in command of that department. In 1872 he was a Democratic nominee for Congress, but was defeated by R. B. Elliott, the able Negro politician. Judge Bacon has travelled extensively in Russia, and has occupied his leisure time in the collection and preparation of materials for a future history of that country. In 1886 he was appointed chargé d'affaires for the United States in Uruguay and Paraguay. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 131.
BADEAU, Adam, author, born in New York City, 29 December 1831. His education was received through private instruction and at a boarding-school in Tarrytown, New York. He volunteered in the military service of the United States in 1862, and was appointed aide on the staff of Brigadier-General Thomas W. Sherman. In that capacity he served in Louisiana until 27 May, 1863, when he was severely wounded, almost at the same time with his commanding officer, in leading an assault on the Confederate works at Port Hudson. In March, 1864, he was appointed military secretary to General Grant, with the rank, first of lieutenant-colonel and afterward of colonel. On this duty he accompanied the general in the Wilderness and Appomattox Campaigns, and remained on his staff until March, 1869, when he was retired from the army with the full rank of captain and the brevet rank of Brigadier-General. He also received a similar brevet in the volunteer service. From May to December, 1869, he was secretary of legation at London. During 1870 he was sent to Madrid as a bearer of government despatches, and in May returned to London as consul-general, retaining that office until September, 1881. In 1877 and 1878 he was given leave of absence by the State Department to accompany General Grant on his tour round the world. He was consul-general at Havana from May, 1882, until April, 1884, and then resigned because he was not permitted by the State Department to substantiate charges of corruption of which he accused its administration. He had been appointed U. S. minister to Brussels in 1875, and to Copenhagen in 1881, but declined both appointments. He has published " The Vagabond,” a collection of essays (New York, 1859); "Military History of Ulysses S. Grant" (3 vols., 1867-81); “Conspiracy: a Cuban Romance " (1885); "Aristocracy in England" (1886); and "Grant in Peace" (1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 132.
BADGER, Oscar C., naval officer, born in Windham, Connecticut, 12 August, 1823; died in Concord, Massachusetts, 20 June, 1899. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, served on the steamer “Mississippi” on the eastern coast of Mexico during the war with that country, and participated in the attack on Alvarado in 1846. He was made passed midshipman 10 August, 1847, from that time until 1852 was on various ships of the Pacific Squadron, and in 1853-'4 at the Naval Observatory. On 15 September, 1855, he was made lieutenant, and, while attached to the sloop “John Adams” in 1855-'6, he commanded a party that attacked and destroyed the village of Vutia, Feejee Islands. In 1861-'2 he commanded the steamer “Anacostia,” of the Potomac Flotilla, and Lieutenant Wyman, the commander of the flotilla, often mentioned in his reports the precision of fire of Badger's vessel. He was made lieutenant-commander on 16 July, 1862, and commanded the iron-clads “Patapsco” and “Montauk” in the engagements with the forts and batteries in Charleston Harbor in 1863. In the night attack on Fort Sumter, 1 September, 1863, he was on the flag-ship “Weehawken,” as acting fleet captain, when he was severely wounded in the leg by a metallic splinter. After this he was on shore duty until 1866, and on 23 July of that year was made commander. From 1866 to 1867 he commanded the “Peoria,” of the North Atlantic Squadron, and received a vote of thanks from the legislatures of the islands of Antigua and St. Kitts for services rendered to the authorities. From 1868 to 1870 he was at the Portsmouth U.S. Navy-yard. In 1872 he was made captain, and on 15 November, 1881, commodore. In 1885 he was placed on the retired list. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 133.
BAILEY, Guilford Dudley, soldier, born in Martinsburg, New York, 4 June, 1834; killed in action, 31 May, 1862. He was graduated at West Point in 1856, and assigned to the 2d U.S. Artillery. He served on frontier and garrison duty. He was at Fort Leavenworth during the Kansas disturbances of 1857-'9, and at West Point as instructor for a short time in 1859. When the Civil War began he was stationed at Fort Brown, Texas, but, with his immediate superior, Captain Stoneman, refused to surrender when General Twiggs attempted to give up his entire command to the Confederates, and effected his escape into Mexico. Reporting for duty as soon as he could reach the north, he was sent with Hunt’s battery to the relief of Fort Pickens, Florida Returning on account of sickness, he organized and was appointed colonel of the 1st New York Light Artillery Volunteers (25 September, 1861), joined the Army of the Potomac. Bailey was detailed as chief of artillery in General Casey's division during the Peninsular Campaign, and was killed among his guns at the battle of Seven Pines. A monument has been raised to his memory in the cemetery at Poughkeepsie. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 136.
BAILEY, James E., senator, born in Montgomery County, Tennessee, 15 August, 1822. He was educated at Clarksville Academy and at the University of Nashville, was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of law at Clarksville in 1843. In 1853 he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives. He served in the Confederate Army, though not an original secessionist. He was a member of the court of arbitration in 1874, by appointment of the governor of Tennessee, and was elected U. S. Senator from Tennessee in place of Andrew Johnson, taking his seat 29 January, 1877. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 137.
BAILEY, James Montgomery, author, born in Albany, New York, 25 September, 1841. He received a common-school education and became a carpenter. In 1860 he moved to Danbury, Connecticut, where he worked at his trade for two years, occasionally contributing to the newspapers, and then enlisted in the 17th Connecticut Regiment, with which he served until the end of the war. After his return he purchased in 1865, the Danbury “Times,” which he afterward consolidated with the “Jeffersonian,” acquired in 1870, under the name of the Danbury “News.” For this paper he wrote short, humorous articles, generally descriptive of every-day mishaps, which were reprinted in other journals throughout the country. In 1873 a demand for his paper was found outside of Danbury, and its circulation rose to 30,000 copies. His first printed book was “Life in Danbury” (Boston, 1873), a collection of articles from his newspaper. The same year he published “The Danbury News Man's Almanac.” In 1874 he visited Europe for his health, and after his return delivered a lecture which was published in a volume in 1878, with the title “England from a Back Window.” He published in 1877 “They All do it,” in 1879 “Mr. Phillips's Goneness,” and in 1880 “The Danbury Boom.’ Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
BAILEY, Joseph, farmer, born in Salem, Ohio, 28 April, 1827; killed near Nevada, Newton County, Missouri, 21 March, 1867. He entered the military service of the United States 2 July, 1861, as captain in the 4th Wisconsin Infantry. The regiment was ordered to Maryland and assigned to the expedition under General Benjamin. F. Butler, which occupied New Orleans after its reduction by Farragut's fleet, in April, 1862. Bailey was appointed acting engineer of the defences of New Orleans in December, 1862, and while so detailed was promoted to be major (30 May, 1863). A month later (June 24) he became lieutenant-colonel. In August, 1863, the regiment was changed from infantry to cavalry, and Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey was sent home on recruiting service, returning to duty with his regiment in February, 1864, in time to accompany the army of General N. P. Banks in the Red River Campaign. Here occurred the opportunity that enabled Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey to achieve one of the most brilliant feats ever accomplished in military engineering. The Expedition had been carefully timed to coincide with the regular annual spring rise in Red River, in order that the U.S. Navy might coöperate and the river serve as a base of supplies. The army, under General Banks, advanced south of the river, accompanied and supported by a fleet of twelve gun-boats and thirty transports. The advance suffered a defeat at Sabine Cross Roads on 8 April, and retreated to Alexandria, where it was found that the water had fallen so much that it was impossible for the fleet to pass below the falls. Rear-Admiral Porter, commanding the squadron, was reluctantly making preparations to save what stores he could and to destroy his gunboats, preparatory to retreating with the army, as he was advised that the land position was not tenable, when Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey proposed to build a dam and deepen the water in mid-channel so that the gun-boats could pass. The regular engineers condemned the project as impracticable; but Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey persevered, and, in the face of discouraging opposition and indifference on the part of the navy, finally, on 30 April, procured the necessary authority from General Banks. When the work was actually begun, there was no lack of men or of zeal. General Jas. Grant Wilson, then a member of General Banks's staff, strongly advocated the scheme, and aided in the construction of the dam. Details of 3,000 soldiers were kept at work night and day, and several hundred lumbermen from Maine regiments did good, service in felling and moving trees. The fatigue parties relieved one another at regular intervals, all working with remarkable endurance, often up to their necks in water, and under a semi-tropical sun. The rapids to be deepened were about a mile long and from 700 to more than 1,000 feet wide, with a current of ten miles an hour. On the north bank a tree dam was built, while on the south side, there being no timber, a series of heavy cribs were constructed from material obtained by demolishing several old mills, while the brick, iron, and stone required to sink and hold them in place were procured by tearing down two sugar-houses and taking up a quantity of railroad iron buried in the vicinity. The dams, thus built on both sides of the river, left an opening of sixty-six feet. So energetically and systematically was the work pushed that on the morning of 12 May the whole fleet passed safely down the falls without loss. The Mississippi Squadron was saved through the native engineering skill of a Wisconsin farmer. His services received prompt recognition, and on 7 June he was brevetted brigadier-general, and on 30 June was promoted to the full grade of colonel, and subsequently received the formal thanks of Congress. The officers of the fleet presented him with a sword and a purse of $3,000. After this feat General Bailey's military record was highly creditable. In November, 1864, he was promoted brigadier- general of Volunteers, and hail command of the engineer brigade of the military Division of the West Mississippi and of different cavalry brigades until he resigned, 7 July, 1865. After leaving the army he settled as a farmer in Newton County, Missouri, and was elected sheriff, an office which he filled with his accustomed firmness and daring. He met his death at the hands of two desperadoes, whom he had personally served warrants, and whom, with characteristic fearlessness, he was escorting to the county-scat without assistance. It is interesting to know that the main portion of the dam, constructed under such haste, was in place twenty-two years afterward, and bade fair to last indefinitely. It is still known as " Bailey's Dam." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 137-138.
BAILEY, Theodorus, senator, born in Dutchess County, New York, 12 October, 1758; died in New York City, 6 September, 1828. He was a representative in Congress from New York from 1793 to 1797. and from 1799 to 1803. In 1803 he was chosen a senator from New York, but resigned in the following year and accepted the postmastership of New York City, which office he held until his death.—His nephew, Theodorus, naval officer (born in Chateaugay, New York, 12 April, 1805; died in Washington, D. C, 10 February, 1877), was appointed a midshipman from New York. 1 January, 1818. and received his commission as lieutenant 3 March, 1827. His first cruise was on board the "Cyane," Captain Trenchard, which captured several slavers on the coast of Africa m 1820-'l. He then made a three years' cruise in the Pacific on the "Franklin." In 1833-36, he sailed on a cruise round the world on board the "Vincennes." After serving on the frigate "Constellation," in which he again sailed round the world, he was placed in command of the store ship " Lexington " in 1840, in which, on the breaking out of the Mexican War, he conveyed to California, by way of Cape Horn, an artillery company and several officers who afterward became famous, including Henry W. Hallock, William T. Sherman, and E. O. C. Ord. Lieutenant Bailey rendered efficient aid to the Pacific Squadron by fitting out and leading numerous expeditions. He made use of his vessel, an old razee, as an armed cruiser, and, after landing the troops at Monterey, blockaded and captured San Blas, and was actively employed with the land forces in the conquest of California. He was commissioned as commander 6 March, 1849, and as captain 15 December, 1855. On 6 September, 1853, he was assigned to the command of St. Mary's,” of the Pacific Squadron, and cruised for three years. Arriving opportunely at Panama during the riots, he took steps to suppress them that were successful and satisfactory alike to the citizens and the government. On the same cruise he was instrumental in restoring friendly relations with the inhabitants of the Fiji Islands. At the beginning of the Civil War he was placed in command of the frigate “Colorado,” of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron, and on 2 May, 1861, coöperated with General Harvey Brown in the operations before Pensacola. He reconnoitered the position of the “Judah,” going up to her side in his gig on the night of 13 September, 1861, and matured the plan by which Lieutenant Russell cut out and burned that Confederate privateer a few hours later. Joining Farragut's squadron at New Orleans, as second in command, he led the attack in April, 1862, commanding the right column of the fleet in the passage of the forts St. Philip and Jackson, and leading the fleet in the capture of the Chalmette batteries and of the city. He led the attack in the gunboat “Cayuga,” passing up, ahead of the fleet, through the fire of five of the forts, sustaining unaided the attack of the Confederate vessels, rams, and fire, and passed through them to the city. Admiral Farragut sent Bailey to demand the surrender of New Orleans. Accompanied by Lieutenant George H. Perkins, he passed through the streets in the midst of a hooting mob, who threatened the officers with drawn pistols and other weapons. In his official report of the victory, dated 24 April, 1862, Captain Bailey used the famous phrase: “It was a contest of iron hearts in wooden ships against iron-clads with iron beaks —and the iron hearts won.” The important part actually taken by Bailey was not adequately recognized in the first official account, though Admiral Farragut commended his gallantry and ability in the official report, and sent him to Washington with the despatches announcing the victory. The mistake was afterward rectified by Admiral Farragut, and the correction appended to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for 1869. He was promoted commodore after the capture of New Orleans, receiving his commission 16 July, 1862, and was assigned to the command of the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron. Although his health was impaired, he displayed energy and perseverance in breaking up blockade-running on the Florida Coast, and runners were captured through his vigilance. After the war he was commandant of the Portsmouth Navy-yard from 1865 to 1867. On 25 July, 1866, he was commissioned as rear-admiral, and on 10 October, 1866, he was placed on the retired list. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 138-139.
BAIRD, Absalom, 1824-1905, abolitionist leader, Washington Society (Basker, 2005, p. 225; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 1, p. 504)
BAIRD, Absalom, soldier, born in Washington, Pennsylvania, 20 August, 1824. He was graduated at Washington College in 1841 and studied law. In 1845 he entered the West Point Academy, was graduated in 1849, and served as second lieutenant in the Florida hostilities from 1850 to 1853. He was promoted first lieutenant 24 December, 1853, and from 1853 to 1859 was stationed at West Point as assistant professor of mathematics. In March, 1861, he took command of the light battery for the defence of Washington, and on 11 May was brevetted captain and appointed assistant in the adjutant-general's department. In July, 1861, he served as adjutant-general of Tyler's division in the defence of Washington and in the Manassas Campaign, being present at Blackburn's Ford and at Bull Run. He was promoted captain 3 August, 1861, served as assistant adjutant-general and was promoted major 12 November, 1861, and served as assistant inspector-general and chief of staff of the Fourth Army Corps in the Peninsular Campaign, where he was engaged in the siege of Yorktown and the battle of Williamsburg. He commanded a brigade of the Army of the Ohio from May to September, 1862, and was engaged in the capture of Cumberland Gap. From October, 1862, to June, 1863, he commanded the 3d Division of the Army of Kentucky about Lexington and Danville and in the operations of General Rosecrans in Tennessee, he engaged at Tullahoma, the capture of Shelbyville, Dutch Gap, Pigeon Mountain, and Chickamauga. For gallant and meritorious services in the last action he received the brevet of lieutenant-colonel. In operations about Chattanooga he commanded a division of the 14th Army Corps and gained the brevet rank of colonel. He was engaged in the battle of Missionary Ridge, was in numerous skirmishes in pursuit of the enemy in the invasion of Georgia, and was present at the surrender of Atlanta. He was brevetted major-general of Volunteers for services in the capture of Atlanta, in the pursuit of Hood's Army and the march to the sea, and the capture of Savannah. He participated in the march through the Carolinas, was engaged at Bentonville and Raleigh, and was present at the surrender of Johnston's Army at Durham Station. For his services in the Atlanta Campaign he received the brevet rank of brigadier-general in the regular army on 13 March, 1865, with that of major-general for services during the rebellion. He served as inspector-general of the Department of the Lakes from 1866 to 1868, of the Department of Dakota till 1870, of the Division of the South till 1872, and subsequently as assistant inspector-general of the Division of the Missouri. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 142.
BAKER, Edward Dickenson, soldier, born in London, England, 24 February, 1811; killed at the battle of Ball's Bluff, 21 October, 1861. He came to the United States at the age of five with his father, who died in Philadelphia while Edward was yet a youth. The boy supported himself and his younger brother by working as a weaver, and occupied his leisure hours in study. Impelled to seek his fortune in the far west, he moved with his brother to Springfield, Illinois, where he studied and soon began the practice of law. His genius for oratory rapidly gained him distinction and popularity, and, entering the political field as a Whig. He was elected a member of the legislature in 1837, of the state senate in 1840, and representative in Congress in 1844. When the Mexican War began he raised a regiment in Illinois and marched to the Rio Grande. Taking a furlough to speak and vote in favor of the war in the U.S. House of Representatives, he returned and overtook his regiment on the march from Vera Cruz. He fought with distinction in every action on the route to Mexico, and after the wounding of General Shields at Cerro Gordo commanded the brigade and led it during the rest of the war. On his return to Galena, Illinois, he was again elected to Congress; but, becoming interested in the Panama Railroad, he declined a renomination in 1850. In 1851 he settled in San Francisco, where he took rank as the leader of the California Bar and the most eloquent orator in the state. The death of Senator Broderick, who fell in a duel in 1859, was the occasion of a fiery oration in the public square of San Francisco. He received a Republican nomination to Congress, but failed of election. Moving to Oregon, he was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1860 by a coalition of Republicans and Douglas Democrats. The firing upon Fort Sumter prompted him to deliver a passionate address in Union Square, New York, in which he pledged his life and his declining strength to the service of the union. He raised the California regiment in New York and Philadelphia, but declined a commission as general of brigade. In the disastrous assault at Ball's Bluff he commanded a brigade, and, exposing himself to the hottest fire, fell mortally wounded while leading a charge. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 144.
BAKER, Henry Brooks, surgeon, born in Brattleborough, Vermont, 29 December, 1837. He received a common-school education, and studied medicine at the University of Michigan in 1861–2. He served through the Civil War with the 20th Michigan Infantry, and from July, 1864, was its assistant surgeon. He was graduated at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1866, and then began to practise in Lansing, Michigan, where he has since performed important operations. In 1870 he took charge of the vital statistics of Michigan, and in 1873 he became secretary of the State Board of Health. In his official capacity he has edited and published “Statistics of Michigan” (Lansing, 1870), “Vital Statistics of Michigan,” registration reports (1870–’6), and the “Reports of the State Board of Health” (1872–85). His own papers, which are quite numerous, principally on sanitary subjects, have appeared in various medical journals, chiefly those of Detroit. Dr. Baker has devoted much time to studies relative to the causation of typhoid fever, cholera, and pneumonia. The results thus far obtained have appeared in the “Transactions of the American Public Health Association” and “Transactions of the American Climatological Association,” 1886. He is a member of the American Climatological Association, the Royal Meteorological Society of England, and the French Society of Hygiene. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 145.
BAKER, James H., soldier, born in Monroe, Butler County, Ohio, 6 May, 1829. He was educated at Wesleyan University in Ohio. Subsequently he became a teacher, and took charge of a female seminary at Richmond, Indiana In 1853 he purchased the “Scioto Gazette”, and became its editor. He was elected Secretary of State for Ohio in 1855, and afterward Secretary of State for Minnesota. He served as a colonel in the army in 1862-'3, was appointed a provost-marshal for the Department of Missouri, and served in this capacity until the close of the war, receiving the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers. After the war he was appointed register of public lands at Booneville, Missouri, and retained the office two years, after which he retired to his farm in Minnesota. From 1871 to 1875 he was commissioner of pensions. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 145.
BAKER, Lafayette C. chief of the U.S. Secret Service, born in Stafford, Genesee County, New York, 13 October, 1826; died in Philadelphia, 2 July, 1868. His grandfather, Remember Baker, was one of Ethan Allen's captains. Baker's father inherited the curious baptismal name of the Green Mountain Boy, as well as his adventurous spirit, and in 1839 moved to Michigan and settled where Lansing, the capital, now stands. Young Baker took part in the work of making a home in the wilderness, but in 1848 went to New York and Philadelphia, and in 1853 to San Francisco, in each of these cities working as a mechanic. When the lawless element became dominant in San Francisco in 1856, Mr. Baker joined the vigilance Committee and took an active part in the summary proceedings that restored order in the city. He went to New York on business in 1861, expecting to return at once, but the Civil War intervened, and he went to Washington and offered his services. At the suggestion of General Hiram Walbridge, of New York, he was introduced to General Scott, and, as a result of the interview, he started on foot for Richmond, where, in spite of arrest, imprisonment, and several interviews with Jefferson Davis, while under suspension as a spy, he succeeded in collecting much information and returning to Washington after an absence of three weeks. This was but the first of a series of adventures involving high executive ability and a wonderful talent for tracing conspiracy and frustrating the designs of Confederate spies and agents. As soon as his abilities were demonstrated to the satisfaction of the government, he was placed at the head of the Bureau of Secret Service, with almost unlimited resources at his command, and in February, 1862, the bureau was transferred to the War Department. Mr. Baker was commissioned colonel, and subsequently brigadier-general. His duties naturally made him enemies in influential quarters, and charges of a serious nature were several times preferred against him, but were never substantiated. When President Lincoln was assassinated, Colonel Baker organized the pursuit of the murderer, and was at his capture and death. His agents effected the capture of the other participants in the plot. General Baker published a “History of the United States Secret Service ’’ (Philadelphia, 1868), which is necessarily semi-biographical, and touches authoritatively many disputed passages in the secret history of the Civil War. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 145.
BAKER, Nathaniel Bradley, governor of New Hampshire, born in Hillsborough (now Henniker), New Hampshire, 29 September, 1818; died in Des Moines, Iowa, 11 September, 1876. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College, being graduated in 1839, studied law in the office of Franklin Pierce, and admitted to the bar in 1842. For three years he was joint proprietor and editor of the “New Hampshire Patriot." In 1845 he was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas, and in 1846 clerk of the superior court of judicature for Merrimac County. He was elected to the legislature in 1851, was chosen speaker of the house, and served two terms. He was a presidential elector in 1852, and in 1854 was elected governor of the state on the Democratic ticket. His term expired in 1855, and in 1856 he moved to Clinton, Iowa, and engaged in the practice of law. He was elected to the legislature in 1850, and acted with the Republicans in the session of 1860 and the extra session of 1861. In July, 1861, he was appointed adjutant-general of Iowa, which office he held until the time of his death. In this capacity he was noted for his efficiency during the war, and was very popular with the soldiers, to whose comfort and welfare he greatly contributed. When grasshoppers devastated large portion of the northwest, and many families were threatened with starvation, General Baker's measure for their relief were energetic and effective. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 145-146.
BALCH, George B., naval officer, born in Tennessee, 3 January, 1821. He became a midshipman, by appointment from Alabama, 30 December, 1837, and was assigned to the sloop “Cyane,” of the Pacific Squadron. He was promoted to passed midshipman, 29 June, 1843, and remained on special duty until the war with Mexico, when he was assigned to active duty, and engaged in the first attack on Alvarado by Commodore Connor, 1 November, 1846. Throughout this war he was with the naval squadron, serving at the successful attack upon Vera Cruz and in the “mosquito fleet” under Commodore Tatnall. In 1849–50 he was at the Naval Observatory, Washington, and was promoted lieutenant, 16 August, 1850. While with the sloop “Plymouth,” in the Pacific Squadron, he was wounded during a fight between Chinese imperialists and rebels, and from this date until the outbreak of the Civil War he was on duty with the various home and foreign squadrons. In 1860, while in command of the frigate “Sabine,” he fell in with the U.S. transport “Governor” in a sinking condition, and rescued nearly 400 marines under Lieutenant-Colonel Reynolds, the transport sinking just after the transfer was made. In 1861–’2 he was in command of the “Pocahontas,” in the south Atlantic Squadron, and volunteered to command boats taking possession of Tybee Island. Commissioned as commander, 16 July, 1862, he was actively engaged along the South Atlantic Coast, and effectively coöperated with the land forces on various occasions, especially on 16 July, 1862, when, in command of the “Pawnee,” he repelled an attack by two batteries of artillery. In this affair the “Pawnee” was struck forty-six times. While in command of this vessel, Commander Balch captured two Confederate guns, and was engaged in the combined operations of the U.S. Navy under Rear Admiral Dahlgren and the army under General Foster in Stone River, and on 9 February, 1865, with two other vessels ascended Togoda Creek, South Carolina, and silenced three batteries. On 25 July, 1866, he was promoted captain. He was with the North Atlantic Squadron in 1868–'9, and on shore duty at Washington until 1872. He became commodore 13 August, 1872, rear admiral 5 June, 1878, and was superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy until 1880, when he went on his last cruise, terminating in January, 1883, and was placed on the retired list, having attained the limit of age for active service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 147.
BALDWIN, Charles H., naval officer, born in New York City, 3 September, 1822. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman 24 April, 1839, and became passed midshipman 2 July, 1845. In the war with Mexico he served on the frigate "Congress," and was in two shore engagements near Mazatlan while that place was occupied by the U. S. forces. In November, 1853, he was made lieutenant, and on 28 February, 1854, he resigned. He reentered the service in 1861, and commanded the steamer "Clifton," of the mortar flotilla, at the passage of forts Jackson and St. Philip, 24 April, 1862, and at the first attack on Vicksburg, 28 June, 1862. On 18 November, 1862, he became commander, and in 1868 and 1869 was fleet-captain of the North Pacific Squadron. He was made captain in 1869, and in 1869 and 1871 was ordnance inspector at Mare Island, California on 8 August, 1870, he was made commodore, and from 1876 to 1879 was a member of the board of examiners. On 31 January, 1883, he was raised to the rank of rear admiral, and assigned to the command of the Mediterranean Squadron. He attended officially the coronation of the Emperor of Russia, and in 1884 was placed on the retired list Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 148.
BANKHEAD, John Pine, naval officer, born in South Carolina, 3 August, 1821; died near Aden, Arabia, 27 April, 1867. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman 6 August, 1838, and became lieutenant in 1852. During the Civil War he was on duty on the “Susquehanna,” and at the capture of Port Royal, 7 November, 1861. He commanded the “Pembina,” and also the “Florida” at the capture of Fernandina, 3 May, 1862. In the same year was made commander, and commanded the famous “Monitor” when she foundered off Cape Hatteras on the morning of 31 December, 1862, on which occasion he displayed much courage. The vessel was filling rapidly, and Bankhead ordered the crew to leave on the “Rhode Island's" boat, which was approaching. While the sea was breaking over the “Monitor's" deck, already partially submerged. Bankhead held the painter until the boat was full of men, and did not leave the vessel so long as he could do anything for the safety of the crew. He was made captain in 1866, and after the war commanded the “Wyoming,” of the East India Squadron. In March, 1867, ill-health compelled him to resign, and he died on board the steamer that was bringing him home. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 158.
BANKS, Nathanial Prentiss, 1816-1894, Waltham, Massachusetts, statesman, anti-slavery political leader. Republican U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the House of Representatives. Union General. Governor of Massachusetts. Member of the Free Soil and, later, Republican parties. He was opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854. He was also opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, as this repeal favored the slave power. Banks was called, “the very bone and sinew of Free-soilism” (Scribner’s, 1930, p. 578) (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. 1, pp. 158-159; Scribner’s, 1930, pp. 577-580; Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 348)
BANKS, Nathaniel Prentice, statesman, born in Waltham, Massachusetts, 30 January, 1816; died there, 1 September, 1894. He was early employed in a cotton factory, of which his father was superintendent, and learned the trade of a machinist. He was ambitious to fit himself for a wider field of work, and studied diligently during his leisure hours, securing engagements to lecture before meetings and assemblies at an early age. He became editor of the local paper at Waltham, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and in 1849 was selected to represent his native town in the legislature of Massachusetts. At this time the ancient power of the Whig Party was waning in New England, and the Free-Soil Party was making its influence felt. Mr. Banks advocated a coalition between the Democrats and the new party, and was elected speaker of the state assembly in 1851 and re-elected in 1852. In 1853 he was a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, and was selected to be its chairman. On the tide of success that attended this political combination, he was in 1853 elected to Congress as a Coalition-Democrat. During this term of service he withdrew from the Democratic Party and identified himself with the American or “Know Nothing” Party, and by an overwhelming vote, as against the Whig and Democratic candidates in his district, he was re-elected to Congress. In the preceding Congress he had demonstrated his ability, and he was now nominated for speaker of the House of Representatives. A contest lasting more than two months followed, and he was elected by a small majority on the 133d ballot, when the dead-lock had been broken by the adoption of the plurality rule. The American Party went out of existence, and Mr. Banks was elected to the 35th Congress as a Republican by a larger majority than before, and served until 4 December, 1857, when, having been elected governor of Massachusetts, he resigned his seat in Congress. He was re-elected governor in 1858 and 1859. In 1860 he accepted the presidency of the Illinois Central Railroad, succeeding General (then Captain) George B. McClellan in that capacity, but gave up the office when the Civil War began in the following year, and was commissioned a major-general of volunteers and assigned to the command of the 5th Corps in the Army of the Potomac. For this duty he was in a degree qualified by experience in the state militia. His first active service was on the upper Potomac and in the Shenandoah valley, where a part of his corps acquitted itself well at the battle of Winchester, 23 March, 1862. He was left in April and May to guard the Shenandoah with two divisions. The exigencies of the service caused the withdrawal of one of these (Shields's), and General Banks was left with about 8,000 men. Upon this force “Stonewall” Jackson made one of his sudden onslaughts with his whole corps, and the command only escaped capture by rapid and well-ordered marching and stubborn fighting. Through good generalship the bulk of the army crossed the Potomac at Front Royal on 26 May, and the Confederate leader failed to realize his apparently reasonable expectation of capturing the entire force. General Pope was placed in command of the Army of Virginia, 27 June, 1862, and concentrated his forces in the neighborhood of Culpepper Court-House early in August. General Banks's corps was ordered to the front on 9 August, and late in the afternoon of that day a severe fight took place, known as the battle of Cedar Mountain, which lasted well into the night. Banks's corps held the position against a largely superior force, was strengthened during the night, and before the morning of August 11th the Confederates retreated to the Rapidan. After participating in General Sigel's campaigns in September, General Banks was placed in command of the defences of Washington while preparations were secretly made to despatch a strong expedition by sea to New Orleans. He was assigned to the command of this expedition, which sailed from New York in November and December, and on reaching New Orleans he succeeded General Benjamin F. Butler in command of the department. Baton Rouge was occupied with a strong force, and during the winter rcconnoissances were made toward Port Hudson and other points in the vicinity. Early in April of 1863 he led the army up the Têche country, encountering no very formidable opposition, as far as the Red River. Thence he crossed the Mississippi and invested Port Hudson in connection with the fleet under Farragut. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to storm the works, involving heavy losses to the assaulting columns. In July the news of the surrender of Vicksburg was received, and on the 9th of that month the garrison of Port Hudson, 6,000 strong, capitulated, and the Mississippi River was once more open to the sea. No military movements of great importance were undertaken in the department until the succeeding spring, when General Banks's army, supported by a powerful fleet, was sent up the Red River with the intention of regaining control of western Louisiana. At the same time General A. J. Smith with 10,000 men descended the Mississippi, reaching the rendezvous first, and was joined by General Banks, who assumed command of the whole force at Alexandria. The army advanced along the south bank of Red River as far as Sabine Cross-Roads, when it suffered a defeat by the Confederates under General Richard Taylor, and was obliged to fall back to Pleasant Hill, having sustained heavy losses in men and material. Here on the following day the Confederates renewed the attack, but were repelled with great loss, and the national army retreated without further serious molestation to Alexandria, where a new complication arose in consequence of the subsidence of the Red River after the spring freshets. The gun-boats were unable to descend the river owing to shoal water, and were only saved by the engineering skill of Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Bailey (q. v.). The whole force then retreated to the Mississippi. General Banks has been censured for the failure of this expedition, but it was undertaken contrary to his advice and in spite of his protest. During his command of the Department of the Gulf he endeavored to reorganize the civil government of Louisiana, but did not accomplish it in a manner satisfactory to the inhabitants. He was relieved of his command in May, 1864, resigned his commission, and, returning to Massachusetts, was elected to Congress from his old district. He was reëlected to the successive Congresses until 1877, failing only in 1872, when he was active in behalf of Horace Greeley, the liberal-Democratic candidate for president. He served for a long time as chairman of the committee on foreign relations. He was again elected to Congress in 1888, and in 1891 he received a pension.—His daughter, Maud, after a course of study and training at the New York school of acting, went upon the stage in 1886, making her first appearance at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in the character of Parthenia in “Ingomar.”—His brother, Gardner, soldier, born in Waltham, Massachusetts; died there, 9 July, 1871. At the beginning of the Civil War he raised a company for the 16th Massachusetts Regiment, in which he rose to the rank of colonel in 1862. He was with his regiment at Fair Oaks, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Kettle Run, Chantilly, and Fredericksburg. Lieutenant Hiram H Banks, his brother, was killed by his side in the second Bull Run battle. General Hooker said, in a letter to Governor Andrew: “There is no doubt but at Glendale the 16th Massachusetts saved the army.” From constant exposure Colonel Banks contracted an inflammatory rheumatism, which completely disabled him for active service. The battle of Fredericksburg was the last he shared with his comrades of the 16th. In 1864, after an illness of several months at Waltham, he went as a planter to Louisiana, where he remained until his return home four days before his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 158-159.
BARKSDALE, William, soldier, born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, 21 August, 1821; died at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 2 July, 1863. He was educated at Nashville University, studied law in Columbus, Mississippi, and was admitted to the bar before he was of age. He soon became a successful practitioner, and was prominent as an advocate of state rights. He became editor of the Columbus "Democrat," and ably set forth his political views in its columns. His first military experience was as a member of the non-commissioned staff of the 2d Mississippi Volunteers in the Mexican War. In 1851 he served as a member of the state convention held to consider the compromise measures then before the country. Two years afterward he was elected to Congress, and at once became prominent among the pro-slavery Democrats. When Preston S. Brooks made his assault upon Charles Sumner in the Senate Chamber, Mr. Barksdale was present, and prevented the interference of bystanders. When his state seceded he left his seat in Congress and accepted the command of the 13th Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers, participated in the Campaigns of Virginia, and rose to the rank of brigadier in the Confederate service. He commanded the 3d Brigade of Early's division, during the second day's fight at Gettysburg, and fell while leading his men in the assault on the national left. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 165.
BARLOW, Francis Manning, soldier, born in Brooklyn, New York, 19 October, 1834. He was graduated at the head of his class at Harvard in 1855, studied law in the office of William Curtis Noyes, New York, and began practice in that city. For a time he was on the editorial staff of the "Tribune." In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the 12th Regiment New York State National Guard, and went to the front on the first call for troops to defend the capital. At the end of the three months' term of service he had been promoted lieutenant. He at once reentered the service as lieutenant-colonel of the 61st New York Volunteers, was promoted colonel during the siege of Yorktown, and distinguished himself at the battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines (31 May and 1 June, 1862), for which he was afterward (19 September) promoted brigadier-general. He brought his regiment in good form through the trying "change of base" from the Chickahominy to the James River. At Antietam (17 September) his command captured two sets of Confederate colors and 300 prisoners, but he was severely wounded, and carried apparently dead from the field. At Chancellorsville (2 May, 1863) he commanded a brigade in the 11th Corps, but was not involved in the discreditable surprise of its commanding officer, having been detached early in the day to harass "Stonewall" Jackson in his flank movement on the national right. At the battle of Gettysburg (1 July, 1863) he was severely wounded and taken prisoner during the first day's fight; but he was exchanged, and recovered in time to take the field again the following spring. At Spottsylvania Court-House, 12 May, 1864, the 2d Corps (General Hancock's) was ordered to storm the Confederate works at dawn. General Barlow commanded the 1st Division, which, with the 3d, formed the advance line. The works were carried with a rush, and 3,000 prisoners captured, comprising almost an entire division, with two general officers, D. M. Johnson and G. H, Stewart. This opened one of the most sanguinary and stubbornly contested engagements of the Civil War, and was the first substantial success won during the campaign. General Barlow participated in the final campaigns of the Potomac Army under General Grant, was present at the assault on Petersburg, and at the surrender of the Confederate forces in April, 1865, and was mustered out of the military service on the conclusion of peace. He was elected secretary of the state of New York in 1865, and served until 1868, when president Grant appointed him U. S. Marshal of the Southern District of the state. He resigned in October, 1869. In November, 1871, he was elected attorney-general of the state, serving through 1872-3. Since that date he has practised law in New York City. General Barlow married Miss Arabella Griffith, who, while her husband was in the field, was highly efficient in the hospitals as a member of the U. S. Sanitary Commission. She died 27 July, 1864, of fever contracted in the hospitals of the Army of the Potomac His second wife is a daughter of Francis G. Shaw. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 166.
BARNARD, John Gross, soldier, born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, 19 May, 1815; died in Detroit, Michigan, 14 May, 1882. He was graduated at West Point in 1833, standing second in a class of forty-three members, was ordered to duty at Newport, Rhode Island, as brevet second-lieutenant of the Corps of Engineers, and was soon sent to the Gulf Coast, where, as assistant and principal engineer, he was engaged on the fortifications of Pensacola and New Orleans. He was also employed on various harbor improvements, and had reached the grade of captain of engineers when the war with Mexico called him to active service. He superintended the construction of the defences of Tampico, and surveyed the battle-fields about the city of Mexico. For these services he was brevetted major 30 May, 1848. Two years afterward he was appointed by the president chief of a scientific commission to survey the isthmus of Tehuantepec, with a view to the construction of a railroad from ocean to ocean. His report of this commission, edited by J. T. Williams, was the first full topographical account of the isthmus. In 1852 he was engaged in surveying the mouths of the Mississippi River with a view to their permanent improvement. He was superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy from 1855 to 1856, and was then placed in charge of the fortifications of New York Harbor. He was promoted major of engineers 13 December, 1858. The foregoing list of his services before the Civil War includes only the more prominent; he was constantly detailed on minor works of importance—too many for enumeration here. At the outbreak of the war General Barnard served as chief engineer of the Department of Washington from April to July, 1861, and then as chief engineer to General McDowell in the first Bull Run Campaign. Next, with the rank of brigadier- general, he acted as chief engineer to the Army of the Potomac in the Virginia Peninsular Campaign of 1862. When the Confederate Army advanced into eastern Virginia, he was appointed chief engineer of the defences of Washington, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel of engineers 31 March, 1863. In January, 1864, he was appointed chief engineer, and was on the staff of General Grant in the Richmond Campaign. At the end of the war he was made brevet major-general, U.S. Army, “for gallant and meritorious services in the field,” and was promoted colonel of the Corps of Engineers 28 December, 1865. The president nominated him, on the death of General Totten, to succeed the latter as brigadier-general and chief of engineers in April, 1864; but, at General Barnard's request, the nomination was withdrawn before it came up for confirmation by the Senate. He was made a member of the joint board of army and navy officers on harbor defences, torpedoes, etc., and served as senior member of the Board of Engineers for Permanent Fortifications, as a member of the U. S. Lighthouse Board, and on other important duties connected with the engineering branch of the service, until shortly before his death. General Barnard was not only a brave soldier, but, like his brother, the president of Columbia College, an accomplished mathematician and author. The University of Alabama conferred the degree of A. M. in 1838, and in 1864 he received that of LL.D. from Yale. He was one of the original corporators of the National Academy of Sciences appointed by Act of Congress, 3 March, 1863. His works include “Survey of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.” (1852); “Phenomena of the Gyroscope” (1858); “Dangers and Defences of New York” (1859); “Notes on Sea-Coast Defence” : “The Confederate States of America and the Battle of Bull Run” (1862); “Reports of the Engineer and Artillery Operations of the Army of the Potomac" (1863); ' on General Totten” (1866); and many scientific and military memoirs and reports. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 169.
BARNES, James, soldier, born about 1809; A m Springfield, Massachusetts, 12 February, 1869. He was graduated at West Point in 1829, standing fifth in his class. Among his classmates were Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston, O. McKnight Mitchell, Thomas Swords, and a dozen others distinguished in afterlife. He remained in the army seven years, advancing to the rank of first lieutenant of the 4th U.S. Artillery, when he resigned and became a railroad engineer and superintendent on the Western Railroad of Massachusetts from 1836 to 184S, and chief engineer of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad from 1848 to 1852. He also constructed, either wholly or in part, the Rome and Watertown, the Sackett's Harbor and Ellisburg, the Buffalo, Coming, and New York, the Terre Haute, Alton, and St. Louis, and the Potsdam and Watertown Railroads, between 1848 and 1857. During the Civil War he was colonel of the 18th Massachusetts Volunteers from 26 July, 1861, to 29 November, 1862, participating in most of the battles of the Army of the Potomac during that period. He was promoted to be brigadier-general of volunteers 29 November, 1862, and was at Chancellorsville, the skirmishes of Aldie and Upperville, and the battle of Gettysburg, where he commanded a division and was severely wounded. Subsequently he was on court-martial duty or in command of posts until the close of the war, and was brevetted major-general of volunteers 13 March, 1865. He was mustered out of the service 15 January, 1866. His health was permanently impaired by wounds and exposure, and, though he interested himself somewhat in railroad affairs, he was never able to engage regularly in any business. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 170-171.
BARNES, Joseph K., surgeon-general U.S.A., born in Philadelphia, 21 July, 1817; died in Washington, D.C., 5 April, 1883. After preliminary schooling at Dr. Cogswell's “Round Hill” school at Northampton, he entered the academic department at Harvard, but was obliged, on account of his health, to leave college. He began his medical studies under Surgeon-General Harris, U.S.N., and was graduated in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1838, practicing for two years in his native city. In 1840 he was appointed an assistant surgeon in the army, and assigned to duty at West Point. At the close of the year he was transferred to Florida, where for two years he was with General Harney's expedition against the Seminoles. Thence, in 1842, he went to Fort Jessup, Louisiana, where he served four ears. When the Mexican War began, Surgeon Barnes was appointed chief medical officer of the cavalry brigade, and he was in active service throughout the war. He was assigned to duty again at West Point in 1854, and remained there for several years. At the beginning of the Civil War he was in Oregon, and was among the first summoned to Washington. In 1861 he was assigned to duty in the office of the surgeon-general, where his experience in field and hospital service was of great value. Two years later he was appointed to a medical inspectorship, with the rank of colonel, and in September, 1863, he was promoted at the request of the Secretary of War to fill a vacancy in the surgeon-general's department, with the rank of brigadier-general. In 1865 he was brevetted major-general. For the position of chief medical officer of the army he had been fitted by twenty years of experience under all the conditions afforded by our military service. Under his care the medical department, then organized on a gigantic scale, attained an admirable degree of efficiency and discipline. It was at his suggestion and through his influence that the army medical museum and the library of the surgeon-general's office were established, and the “Medical and Surgical History of the War” was compiled. He was present at the death-bed of Lincoln, attended Secretary Seward when he was wounded by the knife of a Confederate assassin, and attended Mr. Garfield through his long confinement. He was a trustee of Peabody educational fund, a commissioner for the Soldiers' Home, and the custodian of other important public trusts. The royal medical societies of London and Paris and Moscow made him an honorary member, as did also many of the other important European schools. He was buried at Oak-Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, D.C., with the military honors befitting his rank. He was placed on the retired list the year before his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 171.
BARNUM, Henry A., soldier, born in Jamesville, Onondaga County, New York, 24 September, 1833. He was educated in Syracuse, and in 1856 became a tutor in the Syracuse Institute. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar. He enlisted as a private in the 12th New York Volunteers in April, 1861, was elected captain of Company I, and went to the front with his regiment, which was the first under fire at Blackburn's Ford in the fighting preliminary to the battle of Bull Run. He was promoted to major in October, 1861, and, after being for a short time on General Wadsworth's staff, rejoined his regiment and served through the Peninsular Campaign. When on General Butterfield's staff at Malvern Hill, he received a wound from which he has never fully recovered, and was left for dead on the field. A body, supposed to be his was buried, and a funeral oration was delivered at his home. He was taken to Libby Prison, where he remained till 18 July, 1862. He was on leave till the following December, when he was commissioned colonel, and led his regiment at Gettysburg and at Lookout Mountain, where he was wounded again, and where his regiment captured eleven battle-flags. He was again wounded in the Atlanta Campaign, commanded a brigade on Sherman's march to the sea, and was the first officer to enter Savannah. He was brevetted major-general on 13 March, 1865. On 9 January, 1866, he resigned, having declined a colonelcy in the regular army, and became inspector of prisons in New York. He was deputy tax commissioner from 1869 till 1872, and was for five years harbor-master of New York. In 1885 he was elected as a Republican to the state assembly. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 172.
BARRETT, Edward, naval officer, born in Louisiana in 1828; died in March, 1880. When thirteen years old he joined the sloop “Preble” as a mid-shipman, and served on foreign stations until February, 1846, when he was ordered to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis (established in 1845), and was graduated in August of the same year, in time to participate in the war with Mexico as a passed midshipman. He was present at the operations about Vera Cruz, took part in the expedition to Laguna, and was sent as master with a valuable prize to New Orleans. In 1848 he was placed in command of the sloop “Jamestown” and sent to the African Coast. In 1854 he acted as flag lieutenant to Commodore Breeze, was promoted lieutenant 14 September, 1855, and after further service on the African Coast and in the East Indies was appointed instructor of gunnery. In 1862 he was tried by court-martial for disloyalty, but was fully exonerated alike by the court and the reviewing authority. In July, 1862, he was promoted lieutenant-commander, and in 1863-'4 commanded the gun-boat “Massasoit.” In 1864–’5 he commanded the monitor “Catskill,” and captured the “Deer,” the only blockade-runner captured by a monitor. He was in the first expedition that ascended the Yang-Tse-Kiang River as far as Hangkow, and took the first man-of-war through the Eads jetties at the mouth of the Mississippi. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 175.
BARRIGER, John Walker, soldier, born in Shelby County, Kentucky, 9 July, 1832. he was graduated at West Point in 1856, and was commissioned second lieutenant of artillery. He participated in the Manassas Campaign in 1861, receiving the brevet of captain for gallantry at Bull Run, and subsequently served as chief of commissariat for Indiana and for West Virginia, and from 17 November, 1863, to 15 August, 1865, as chief commissary of the Army of the Ohio, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the staff of the volunteer army. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general for faithful and meritorious services. From 1867 to 1873 he served as chief of commissariat in the Department of the Platte, and subsequently as assistant commissary-general in Washington, with the rank of major. He is the author of "Legislative History of the Subsistence Department of the United States Army from June 16, 1875, to August 15, 1876." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 176
BARRON, Samuel, naval officer, born in Virginia about 1802. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman in 1812. attained the rank of lieutenant 3 March, 1827, of commander 15 July, 1847, and of captain in 1855. He was appointed chief of the bureau of detail in the Navy Department when the southern fates seceded, but had already accepted a commission as commodore in the Confederate Navy. He superintended the defences of North Carolina and Virginia. Being present at the attack upon Forts Clark and Hatteras, 28 August, 1861, he assumed direction of the defence by request of the officers of the forts, and, after the surrender, was a prisoner of war in New York until exchanged in 1862. He then went to England, where he engaged in fitting out blockade-runners and privateers. After the war he became a farmer in Virginia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 179.
BARRY, Henry W., soldier, born in New York City; died in Washington, D.C., 7 June, 1875. He was self-educated in the city of his birth, and so improved his opportunities that in early manhood he became principal of the Locust Grove Academy, Kentucky. He then studied law and was graduated at the Columbian Law College, Washington, D. C. He entered the Union Army as a private early in the Civil War, and organized the first regiment of colored troops raised in Kentucky. He commanded a brigade, and for a time a division, and was brevetted major-general of volunteers. As a member of the state constitutional convention of Mississippi in 1867, he was active during the reconstruction period and was chosen state senator in 1868, and elected to Congress the same year. Reelected for successive terms by the votes of the colored Republicans of Mississippi, he retained his seat in Congress until his death. During his last term he was chairman of the Committee on Postal Expenditures. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 180
BARRY, William Farquhar, soldier, born in New York : 3 August, 1818; died in Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Maryland, 18 July, 1879. He was graduated at West Point in 1838, and in that year assisted Major Ringgold to organize the first battery of light artillery formed in the U.S. Army. After doing garrison duty at different stations, he went with the army to Mexico, remaining there from 1846 to 1848. He was in the battle of Tampico, and served in General Patterson's division, and also as aide-decamp to General Worth. From 1849 to 1851 he was stationed at Fort McHenry, and was made a captain in the 2d U.S. Artillery on 1 July, 1852. He served in the war against the Seminoles in Florida in 1852–’3, and during the Kansas disturbances of 1857–’8 was stationed at Fort Leavenworth. During 1858 he was a member of the board to revise the system of light artillery practice, and the revision was adopted on 6 March, 1860. On the breaking out of the Civil War, he went into active service, assisting in the defence of Fort Pickens, Florida, as major of the 5th U.S. Artillery. He was chief of artillery in the Army of the Potomac from 27 July, 1861, to 27 August, 1862, and organized its artillery. On 20 August, 1861, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, took a '' part in the Virginia Peninsular Campaign until August, 1862, being in the siege of Yorktown, at the battle of Gaines's Mill, the skirmish of Mechanicsville, the battle of Charles City Cross-Roads, the Malvern Hill contest, and at Harrison's Landing. From the end of that campaign until 1864 he was chief of artillery of the defences of Washington, D.C., having been appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 1st U.S. Artillery on 1 August, 1863. He was assigned to the command at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling, West Virginia, against a threatened cavalry raid in May 1863, and was next appointed chief of artillery on General Sherman's staff, commanding the Military Division of the Mississippi from March, 1864, to June, 1866. From May to September, 1864, he was with the Army in Georgia, and took part in the siege of Atlanta, and also in the northern Georgia, Alabama, and Carolina Campaigns. On 1 September, 1864, he was made brevet major-general of volunteers, and colonel by brevet for gallant conduct at Rocky-Faced Ridge. On 13 March 1865, he was made brevet brigadier-general, U. S. Army, for his services in the campaign ending with the surrender of the army under General Joseph E. Johnston, and on the same day was made brevet major-general for gallant conduct in the field. On 11 December, 1865, he was appointed colonel in the 2d U.S. Artillery, and was in command of the northern frontier pending the Fenian raids of 1866. On 15 January of that year he was mustered out of the volunteer service. He served on the northern frontier to September, 1867, and then commanded the artillery school of practice at Fortress Monroe to 5 March, 1877, when he was appointed to the command at Fort McHenry. During the labor riots of 1877 he rendered valuable service at Camden Station. He was the author, in conjunction with General Barnard, of “Reports of the Engineer and Artillery Operations of the Army of the Potomac from its Organization to the Close of the Peninsular Campaign" (New York, 1863). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 181.
BARRY, William Taylor Sullivan, lawyer, born in Columbus, Mississippi, 10 December, 1821; died there, 29 January, 1868. He was graduated at Yale in 1841, then studied law, and practised in Columbus for a few years. From 1849 to 1851 he was a member of the legislature. He owned plantations in Oktibbeha and Sunflower Counties, and in 1853 moved to the latter place. He was elected to Congress as a Democrat, serving from 5 December, 1853, to March, 1855. On 18 December, 1854, he made an effective speech against the “Know-Nothing” Party. After the expiration of his term he devoted himself to his law practice in Columbus, and was again sent to the legislature, being speaker of the house in 1855. He was a member of the Charleston Democratic National Convention in April, 1860, and was one of those that withdrew because the convention did not expressly deny in its platform the power of the federal government to legislate against slavery. In 1861 he presided over the Mississippi Secession Convention, and was a member of the Provisional Confederate Congress until 1862, when he resigned to enter the army. In the spring of that year he raised the 35th Mississippi Regiment which he led until captured at Mobile, 9 April, 1865. Colonel Barry's regiment took an active part in the defence of Vicksburg, where it was surrendered, and afterward in the Georgia Campaign. After the war he practised law in Columbus until his death. See Lynch’s “Bench and Bar of Mississippi.” (New York, 1881). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 182.
BARSTOW, William A., governor of Wisconsin, born in 1811; died in Leavenworth, Kansas, 14 December, 1865. He was governor of Wisconsin from January, 1854, to January, 1856. When the Civil War began he called upon General Frémont, then commander of the Western Department, and offered to raise a cavalry regiment in Wisconsin. After raising it he was made colonel, and the regiment served with credit in the southwest; but, owing to the failing health of Colonel Barstow, during most of his military term he was sitting on courts-martial at St. Louis, where he rendered valuable service. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 182.
BARSTOW, Wilson, soldier, born in 1830; died in New York City, 16 March, 1869. During the early part of the Civil War he was successively on the staffs of Generals Dix and Hooker, and subsequently chief commissary of musters of the Department of the East. He served from the first year of the war until its close with zeal and ability, entering the service as a lieutenant, and, passing through the successive grades, attained the brevet rank of brigadier-general on 13 March, 1865. When mustered out he was appointed assistant appraiser of the port of New York under Mr. McElrath. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 182.
BARTHOLOW, Roberts, physician, born in Howard County, Maryland, 18 November, 1831. He Was graduated at Calvert College in 1850, and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1852. Shortly after graduation he entered the regular army, where he remained until 1864. He served at the different army stations in the west, and during the Civil War was in charge of general hospitals in Baltimore, Washington, and elsewhere. After his resignation he settled in Cincinnati, where he practised, and also filled various chairs in the Medical College of Ohio from 1864 to 1878. In 1878 he became professor of materia medica and therapeutics in Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He is a member of various medical societies, among which are the American Medical Association, the Ohio State Medical Society, and the Cincinnati Academy of medicine. Dr. Bartholow's Medical works include the following: “Materia Medica and Therapeutics” (New York, 1874); “Practice of Medicine” : “Hermatic Medication” (1882); “Medical Electricity” (1881); and “Antagonism between Medicines and between Remedies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 183.
BARTLETT, John, editor, born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, 14 June, 1820. He was educated in his native town, and began business life as a publisher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1836, succeeding to the management of the business there in 1849, and conducting it for ten years. He was appointed volunteer paymaster in the U. S. Navy in November, 1862, and served until July, 1863. A business connection was formed with the Boston publishing to the latter (1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 183-184.
BARTLET, John Russell, born 26 September, 1843, was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy from Rhode Island in 1859, and in 1861 was attached to the steam sloop " Mississippi," in which he served at the passage of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the capture of New Orleans, and the attack on Vicksburg in June, 1862. He became ensign 8 September, 1863, and lieutenant 22 February, 1864. While attached to the steam sloop "Susquehanna" he took part in both attacks on Fort Fisher, was one of the assaulting party of 15 January, 1865, and was specially mentioned in the reports of Commodore Godon and Lieutenant Commander Blake, he was commissioned as lieut.-commander 25 July, 1866, and spent two more years at the U.S. Naval Academy, from 1867 to 1869. He became commander on 25 April, 1877, and was afterward attached as hydrographer to the Bureau of Navigation in Washington, D. C. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 184.
BARTLETT, Joseph J., soldier, born about 1820. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers 4 October, 1, was brevetted major-general 1 August, 1864, and was mustered out 15 January, 1866. From 1867 till 1869 he was U. S. minister to Sweden and Norway. He is now employed in the pension-office at Washington, D.C. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 185.
BARTLETT, William Francis, soldier, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, 6 January, 1840; died in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 17 December, 1876. Mr. Bartlett was a student at Harvard when the first call of the president came for troops in 1861. He at once left college, enlisted in the 4th Battalion of Massachusetts Volunteers, and learned his manual of arms and company drill in Fort Independence, Boston Harbor. Turning to college for a brief period, he was offered a captaincy in the 20th Massachusetts Volunteers. In September the regiment was in camp in front of Washington, and on 21 October the young captain was for the first time under fire at Ball's Bluff. His aptitude for military service was so evident that he was soon an acting field officer. In the spring of 1862 he was severely wounded at Yorktown, and suffered amputation of his leg. He recovered sufficiently to be present with his class when it graduated, and received a degree. In September, 1862, he accepted the duty of organizing the 49th Massachusetts Volunteers recruiting at Pittsfield, and was soon made its colonel in spite of his disability. The regiment was ordered to Louisiana with General Banks's expedition. Colonel Bartlett was obliged, owing to the loss of his leg, to remain mounted whenever his regiment needed his presence, and exposed himself on all occasions with the most reckless daring. It is even said that the Confederate officers, in admiration of his bravery, endeavored to prevent their men from aiming at him. He was, nevertheless, twice wounded in the assault on Port Hudson, 27 May. Returning to the north, he organized the 57th Massachusetts Volunteers in time to lead it in the Wilderness Campaign, where he was again wounded. He was promoted brigadier-general, and was in the field again as soon as he could sit his horse, but, exposing himself with his usual recklessness, was taken prisoner after the explosion of the mine before Petersburg, 30 July, 1864. After several weeks of suffering in Libby Prison and elsewhere, he was exchanged in September, placed in command of the 1st Division of the 9th Corps, and in 1865 was brevetted major-general. His military career is among the most brilliant on record. His frequent wounds testified to his bravery, and the success with which he managed his men so long as he remained unhurt marked him as a born leader. After the war he engaged for a time in business with the Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond, Virginia, but eventually returned to the north, and married a lady whose acquaintance he had formed while recruiting his regiment at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In that city he engaged in business, and made his residence. In 1875 he won a sudden and deserved reputation as an orator by an address delivered at the battle-field of Lexington, on the centennial anniversary of the fight. See “Memoir of William Francis Bartlett,” by F.W. Palfrey (Boston, 1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 185
BARTON, Clara, philanthropist, born in Oxford, Massachusetts, about 1830. She is the daughter of Captain Stephen Barton, and was educated in Clinton, New York Early in life she became a teacher, and founded a free school in Bordentown, New Jersey. When this was opened it was attended by only six pupils; but when Miss Barton left it the attendance numbered more than 600. She entered the patent office as a clerk in 1854, and remained there until the war began, when she determined to devote herself to the care of wounded soldiers on the battlefield. In 1864 she was appointed by General Butler “lady in charge” of the hospitals at the front of the Army of the James. In 1865 she went to Andersonville, Georgia, to identify and mark the graves of the union prisoners buried there, and in the same year was placed by President Lincoln in charge of the search for the missing men of the union armies. She lectured during the years 1866 and 1867 on her war experiences, and afterward went to Switzerland for her health. At the beginning of the Franco-German War, in 1870, she assisted the grand duchess of Baden in the preparation of military hospitals, and gave the Red Cross Society much aid during the war. At the joint request of the German authorities and the Strasburg “Comité de Secours,” she superintended the supplying of work to the poor of that city in 1871, after the siege, and in 1872 had charge of the public distribution of supplies to the destitute people of Paris. At the close of the war she was decorated with the golden cross of Baden and the iron cross of Germany. In 1881, on the organization of the American Red Cross Society, she became its president. The treaty granting protection to red cross agents was signed 16 March, 1882. The American Society is modelled after its European namesake, and its object is stated by the constitution to be “to organize a system of national relief, and apply the same in mitigating suffering caused by war, pestilence, famine, and other calamities.” In 1884, as official head of the society, Miss Barton had charge of the expedition for the relief of the sufferers from the flood in the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and in the same year she was the representative of the government at the Red Cross Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1883 Governor Butler appointed her superintendent, treasurer, and steward of the Reformatory Prison for Women at Sherborn, Massachusetts. Miss Barton was also delegate to the International Peace Convention at Geneva in 1884, and was special commissioner for foreign exhibits at the New Orleans Exhibition. In 1883, by request of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, she prepared a “History of the Red Cross,” which was published at the government printing-office, Washington. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 187-188.
BATES, Joshua H., soldier, born in Massachusetts about 1817. He was graduated at West Point in 1837 and served as a lieutenant of artillery in the Florida War, in removing the Cherokees to the west in 1838, and at Cleveland, Ohio, during the Canada border disturbances of 1839–41. He resigned his commission, 20 July, 1842, and became a lawyer in Cincinnati. In the beginning of the Civil War he was commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers, on 27 April, 1861, and organized the Ohio volunteers in Camps Harrison and Dennison, until mustered out of the service on 27 August, 1861. He was a member of the Sanitary Commission, and when Cincinnati was threatened by the Confederates in 1863, he commanded a division. After his discharge from the army he practised law in Cincinnati, and in 1864 was elected a member of the Ohio State Senate. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 194.
BAXTER, Elisha, governor of Arkansas, born in Rutherford County., N. C., 1 September, 1827. He was educated in the common schools of his native county, and moved to Arkansas, where he was mayor of Batesville in 1853. He was a member of the legislature in 1854 and 1858, and in 1863 served as colonel of the 4th Arkansas Mounted Infantry in the national army. He was elected U. S. Senator in 1864, but not allowed to take his seat, on the ground that the state had not been legally reconstructed. From 1868 till 18?2 he was judge of the Third Judicial District Court of Arkansas. In the spring of 1872 Mr. Baxter was nominated for governor by the wing of the Republican that approved President Grant's administration, the liberal, or Greeley wing, nominating Joseph Brooks. The Democrats made no nomination, but favored Brooks. On 6 January, 1873, the vote was canvassed by the general assembly, and Baxter was declared elected. Meanwhile Brooks had alleged fraud at the polls, and after unsuccessfully applying to the U. S. Circuit Court, the legislature, and the state supreme court, brought suit against Baxter in a state circuit court, and on 15 April, 1874, Baxter's counsel being absent, obtained judgment in his favor, and proceeded at once forcibly to eject Baxter from office. It was claimed by Baxter that the taking up of the case in the absence of his counsel was in violation of an express agreement. Both Brooks and Baxter now issued proclamations and each had armed adherents. There was some bloodshed, and more was prevented only by the presence of federal troops. Both parties appealed the president, but he refused to interfere until 15 May, when, acting on an elaborate opinion of Attorney-General Williams, he recognized Baxter as governor, and Brooks immediately disbanded his forces. In a message to Congress on 8 February, 1875, however, President Grant expressed the opinion that Brooks had been legally elected. Baxter continued to hold the governorship until the adoption of a new state constitution in the autumn of 1874. By this the term of office was reduced from four to two years, and the re- publicans condemned Baxter" for giving up his office before the expiration of the term for which he had been elected— His brother, John, judge of the U. S. Circuit Court for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, died in Hot Springs. Arkansas, 2 March, 1866. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 196.
BAXTER, Henry, soldier, born in Sidney Plains, Delaware County, New York, 8 September, 1821; died in Jonesville, Hillsdale County, Michigan, 30 Dec, 1873. He received an academic education, and in 1849 went to California with a company of thirty men, with ox-teams, and was chosen as their captain. He volunteered as a private early in 1861, and was active in raising a company, of which he was elected captain, and which was mustered into the 7th Michigan Infantry in August. He was made lieutenant-colonel 22 May, 1862, and while in command of his regiment, at Fredericksburg, volunteered to cross the river and dislodge a company of Confederate sharp-shooters. Colonel Baxter was shot through the lung in the attempt to cross, but the movement was successful, and he was promoted to brigadier-general on 12 March. 1863. He participated in most of the battles of the Army of the Potomac, and was wounded at Antietam, and again in the Wilderness, where two horses were killed under him. For gallantry at the Wilderness, Dabney's Mills, and Five Forks, he was brevetted major-general 1 April, 1865. From 1868 till 1869 General Baxter was U. S. minister to Honduras. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 196.
BAYARD, George Dashiell, soldier, born in Seneca Falls, New York, 18 December, 1835; died 14 December, 1862. His parents moved to Iowa in his early youth, and he attended a military school kept by Major Dorn. He learned fencing from Colonel Korponay, an exiled Hungarian soldier, and from him acquired the military spirit that led him to seek an appointment as a cadet. After graduation at the U. S. Military Academy in 1856 he was assigned to the 1st U.S. Cavalry. Four years were passed in frontier and garrison duty. He was severely wounded in a fight with the Kiowa Indians. In 1861 he was cavalry instructor at West Point, and on 10 March of that year was promoted to first lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Cavalry; captain 4th U.S. Cavalry, 20 August, and was granted leave of absence, to become colonel of the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry Volunteers. 14 September, 1861. He became brigadier-general of volunteers 28 April, 1862, and served in the arduous campaigns of the Shenandoah, northern Virginia, and on the Rappahannock, distinguishing himself by the dash and bravery of his reconnaissance. He was mortally wounded at Fredericksburg, 13 December, 1862, and died the following day. He was buried with military honors at Princeton, New Jersey. A memorial volume by his father, Samuel J. Bayard, was published in New York in 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 196.
BAYLES, James C., journalist, born in New York city, 3 July, 1845. He pursued a course of technical studies until 1862, when, shortly after the beginning of the Civil War, he entered the U. S. service as a lieutenant of artillery. His health having been impaired by exposure and injuries, he resigned in 1864 and turned his attention to journalism. He was editor of the New York "Citizen" in 1865-7, of the New York "Commercial Bulletin" in 1868-'9. In 1870 he became editor of "The Iron Age," and in 1874 established "The Metal Worker," of which he also became editor. Mr. Bayles has devoted much time and careful study to the special topics of which his journals treat, and has made numerous varied and successful experiments in electro-metallurgy, and also in the microscopic analysis of metals, the results of which have appeared in different technical journals, notably in a paper on " Microscopic Analysis," which was published in the "Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers." He was among the first to examine health problems from an American standpoint, and his study of sanitary conditions in New Jersey, where he resides, made him prominent as an authority on such subjects. He has delivered lectures on sanitary topics in New York, and in all of the prominent first efforts was to cities of the union, and is the author of the first South Orange, in 1856. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 199-200.
BEADLE, William Henry Harrison, educator, born in Liberty, Indiana, 1 January, 1838. He was graduated at the University of Michigan in 1861, entered the army as first lieutenant in the 31st Indiana Infantry, served continuously during the Civil War, and in 1864 was brevetted brigadier general. He was graduated at the law department of the University of Michigan in 1867, practised for two years in Wisconsin, and in 1869 was appointed surveyor-general of Dakota. Since then he has devoted his attention to the development of the resources of that territory. From 1879 to 1885 he was superintendent of public instruction of Dakota, and under his direction the entire school system was organized. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 203.
BEAL, George Lafayette, soldier, born in Norway, Maine, 21 May, 1825. He left Portland, on 6 October, 1861, as colonel of the 10th Maine Regiment. He was appointed by the president brigadier-general of volunteers, 30 November, 1864, and was mustered out of the service on 15 January, 1866. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 203.
BEALE, Edward Fitzgerald, soldier, born in Washington, D. C., 4 February, 1822. His father and grandfather were officers in the U. S. Navy, and both of them received Medals of Honor from Congress. His education was begun in Georgetown College, where he remained until he was appointed a cadet at the U. S. Naval Academy, and was graduated in 1842. During the war with Mexico he distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry, and was presented with a sword by his brother officers, in recognition of his services as a bearer of despatches through the enemy's lines. For the same act he was officially complimented by Commodore Stockton. At the conclusion of the war with Mexico he resigned his commission and was appointed Superintendent of Indian affairs for California and New Mexico. At the request of Major General Wool, he was commissioned brigadier-general and deputed to terminate an Indian war in California. During the decade preceding the Civil War he conducted many important explorations in the far west, and in 1861 was appointed surveyor-general of California by President Lincoln, but offered his services in a military capacity as soon as the war of secession began. In 1876 he was appointed U. S. minister to Austria by President Grant. In 1877 he resigned, and he has since then personally superintended his large sheep and cattle ranch in Southern California. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 204.
BEALE, Richard L. T., soldier, born in Hickory Hill, Westmoreland County, Virginia, 22 May, 1810. He was educated at Northumberland Academy and Dickinson College, was graduated at the law school of the University of Virginia, and admitted to the bar in 1839. He served in Congress as a Democrat from 6 December, 1847, till March. 1849, but declined a re-election. He was a delegate to the state reform convention of 1850, and in 1857 a member of the state senate. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army, and in 1863 was colonel of the 9th Virginia Cavalry. In February, 1865 he commanded a brigade in Lee's cavalry division. Army of Northern Virginia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 204
BEALL, Benjamin Lloyd, soldier, born in the District of Columbia, about 1800; died in Baltimore. Maryland 16 August, 1863. He was a son of Major Beall of Maryland, and appointed a cadet at West Point in 1814, but did not graduate. He was made captain of the Washington City Volunteers in June, 1836, in a regiment raised for the Florida Indian War; captain of 2d U.S. Dragoons 8 June, 1836; brevetted major 15 March, 1837, for gallantry in the Florida Campaign; and appointed major 1st U.S. Dragoons 16 February, 1847. He took part in the Mexican War, and on 16 March, 1848, was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for bravery at the battle of Santa Cruz de Royales. He became lieutenant-colonel of the 1st U.S. Dragoons 3 March, 1855, and served for several years on the western frontier. He was in command as general in California after its annexation to the United States, and while so serving built all the forts from the western frontier of Texas to the Pacific, He also served for two years at Vancouver's Island. When the Civil War began he was ordered to Baltimore as a mustering officer, was commissioned colonel 1st U.S. Dragoons in May, 1861, and was placed on the retired list 15 February, 1862, because of his long and arduous service. He had two sons in the National Army and one in the Confederate. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 204.
BEALL, John Young, guerilla, born in Virginia, 1 January, 1835; died on Governor's Island, New York Harbor, 24 February, 1865. He was of good family and received a classical education. Joining the navy of the Confederate States, he was appointed acting master, 3 March, 1863. On 16 December, 1864, he was arrested in the railroad station at Suspension Bridge, New York. Charges and specifications were drawn up, reciting in substance that he was acting in the twofold capacity of a spy and guerilla, carrying on irregular warfare against the United States. A military commission, with Brigadier-General Fitz Henry Warren as president and Major John A. Bolles as judge-advocate, was convened at Fort Lafayette for his trial. James T. Brady acted as counsel for the accused. It appeared from the testimony that Beall, in company with other men in the dress of civilians, boarded the Lake Erie steamer " Philo Parsons" on 19 September, 1864, in the character of passengers; that at a signal they produced arms, and, acting under the orders of the accused and others, they seized the boat, driving all hands below as prisoners. They then captured and subsequently sank another boat, the "Island Queen." It also" appeared that Beall was engaged with others in an attempt to wreck a railway train near Buffalo on the night of his arrest The defence was based on the declaration of the accused that he was engaged in legitimate warfare under specific instructions from the Confederate under specific instructions government, and he was permitted to correspond with the authorities at Richmond to procure evidence to this effect, A proclamation was issued by Jefferson Davis under date of 24 December, 1864, certifying that the Confederate government assumed "the responsibility of answering for the acts and conduct of any of its officers engaged in said expedition," namely, that in which Beall was concerned. It was proved that he had perpetrated acts of war within the jurisdiction of the United States, wearing at the time no visible badge of military service. Among civilized nations the penalty for such acts is death, and Beall was hanged in accordance with the finding of the court. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 204
BEALL, Samuel Wootton, lawyer, born in Montgomery, Maryland, 26, September, 1807; died in Helena, Montana, 26 September, 1868. He was graduated at Union in 1827, and studied law at Litchfield. During the same year he married Miss Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper, and, through the Influence of Chief-Justice Taney, a personal friend of the family, was appointed, in" 1827, receiver for the sale of public lands in the northwest, having his office in Green Bay, Wis. He returned to Cooperstown in 1884, and lived for some years in a beautiful residence called " Woodside," gathering around him a brilliant circle of cultured and refined society, prominent among whom were J. Fennimore Cooper, Washington Irving, James Watson Webb, and the English ballad-singer Henry Russell. Later he returned to Wisconsin, and was engaged in agriculture, being the first to introduce blooded cattle into the northwest. About this time his mother died in Maryland, leaving him over thirty slaves and some slight property. Southerner though he was, and straitened in circumstances in comparison with his earlier life, the spirit of the free west led him to liberate his slaves. He further devoted the entire proceeds obtained from the sale of the property to the support of these slaves as long as the means lasted, or until they were able to earn a living for themselves. In 1848 he was elected to the constitutional convention from the county of Marquette, and was prominent in the organization of the state government. Again, in 1847-'8, he served similarly in the convention then assembled, and in 1850 became lieutenant-governor of the state, serving for two years. He then became Indian agent, and was among the first to take chiefs of tribes under his care to Washington. Among these were the Sachems of Munsees and Stockbridge tribes. One chief of the latter tribe, John Quincey, created much interest and wonder by the delivery of an eloquent speech, now recorded in history as a sample of remarkable power and pathos. This speech was written by Mr. Beall, and taught word by word to the chief, even to the questions, who proved an apt scholar to so able a teacher. The original manuscript is still carefully preserved among the family possessions. In 1859 he led a party to Pike's Peak, and while on this expedition with others located the city of Denver. This place immediately started into rapid growth, and during the following winter Mr. Beall was sent to Washington to obtain a charter for the city. He resides in Denver until 1861, when he returned to Wisconsin. At the beginning of the Civil War he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 18th Wisconsin Regiment, and he was in the various engagements from Shiloh, to Vicksburg. Having been severely wounded, he was then transferred to the Invalid Corps. Shortly after the war he settled at Helena, where he was shot during an altercation. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 204-205.
BEARD, George Miller, physician, born at Montville, Connecticut, 8 May, 1830; died in New York. 28 January, 1883. His father was a clergyman. The son studied at Phillips Andover Academy, and was graduated at Yale in 1862. He studied a year in the medical department of Yale, and in 1866 obtained his medical degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. For eighteen months, in 1863-'4, he was assistant surgeon on the gun-boat "New London," in the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. In 1865 he settled in New York and made diseases of the nervous system his specialty. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 206-206.
Beard, Harry, the second son of artist William Beard , entered the national army as a boy in 1861, and was a captain in the 30th Missouri Volunteers at twenty-one years of age. He paints genre subjects in oils and water-colors, and makes the designs for many of Prang's Publications. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 206.
BEARDSLEY, Samuel Raymond, lawyer, eldest son of Levi, born in Cherry Valley, Otsego County, New York, 31 December, 1814; died in Stevensburg, Virginia, 28 December, 1863. He was graduated at Union in 1836, studied law, and practised in Albany and in Oswego, New York. He afterward engaged in milling, owning the Premium Mills in Oswego. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 48th New York Militia in 1851, and colonel in 1854. He was elected mayor of Oswego in 1852; appointed postmaster in 1853, and was defeated as a candidate for the assembly in 1858. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 24th New York Volunteers in 1861, was wounded at Chancellorsville, and was promoted to the colonelcy in 1863. When the regiment was mustered out in 1863, he was appointed adjutant-general on General Meade's staff. He died of disease contracted in the service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 207.
BEATTY, John, soldier, born near Sandusky, Ohio, 16 September, 1828. He received a common-school education and entered on a business career in a banking-house at an early age. He took an active banking-house at an early age. He took an active part in public affairs, and was identified with Free-Soil Party until it was merged in the Republican. In 1860 he was a Republican presidential elector. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the 3rd Ohio Infantry, and was appointed successively captain and Lieutenant-Colonel. He took part in the early western Virginia Campaigns, became a colonel in 1862, and commanded a brigade in the fight at Stone River, 31 December 1862, to 2 January, 1863. In 1863 he was commissioned a brigadier general and served through the Tennessee and Chattanooga Campaigns. He was elected to the Fortieth Congress and was twice re-elected. In 1884 he was Republican presidential elector at large. In 1886 he was a member of the board of state charities. He has written "The Citizen Soldier" (Cincinnati. 1876) and "The Belle o' Becket's Une" (Philadelphia. 1882). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 208-209.
BEATTY, Samuel, soldier, born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, 16 December 1820; died in Jackson, Stark County, Ohio, 26 March, 1885. He moved with his father, a native of Ireland to Jackson, Ohio, in 1827, received a limited education in the common schools, and became a farmer. He served nearly two years in the Mexican War as 1st lieutenant in the 3d Ohio Volunteers, was elected sheriff of his county in 1857, reelected in 1859. On 16 November, 1861, he became colonel of the 19th Ohio Volunteers. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers on 29 November, 1862, commanded a division in the battle of Stone River, and was brevetted major-general on 13 March, 1865. In 1866 he returned to his farm in Jackson, where he spent the rest of his life. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 209.
BEAUMONT, John G., naval officer, born in Pennsylvania, 27 August, 1821; died 2 August, 1882. He entered the U.S. Navy as midshipman, 1 March, 1838, and obtained promotion as master, 30 August, 1851; lieutenant, 29 August, 1855; commander, July, 1862; captain, 1872. He participated as commander of the steamer “Aroostook,” of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in the severe engagement with the Confederate batteries at Fort Darling, was attached to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in 1862-3, was engaged as commander of a monitor in attacks on the fortifications in Charleston Harbor, and took a prominent part in the capture of Fort Wagner. He commanded the steamer “Mackinaw,” of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, in the two attacks on Fort Fisher, when his vessel was badly injured by the shot and shell from the enemy's batteries. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 210.
BEAUREGARD, Pierre Gustave Toutant, soldier, born near New Orleans, Louisiana, 28 May, 1818. He was graduated second in class rank at West Point in 1838. Among his classmates were the future Confederate generals Hardee and Sibley and the federal generals Barry, Nichols, Granger, and McDowell. He was assigned first to the artillery and then to the engineers, and in 1838-’9 was assistant in the construction of Fort Adams, Newport. He was on engineering duty at Barataria Bay, Louisiana, in 1840-1, at the passes of the Mississippi in 1841–4, and at Fort McHenry, Maryland, in 1844–5. At the beginning of the war with Mexico, he was engaged in the construction of defences at Tampico (1846-'7) siege operations at Vera Cruz (9 to 29 March, 1847), Cerro Gordo (April 17, 18), Contreras (August 19,20), Chapultepec (September 13), and city of Mexico (September 13, 14), where he was twice wounded. Shortly afterward he was brevetted major. He attained the full rank of captain of engineers, 3 March, 1853, for fourteen years of continuous service as lieutenant. Returning to the United States, he was assigned to duty in the vicinity of New Orleans, superintending the construction and repair of fortifications in Mobile Harbor and on the Mississippi River, also of harbor construction in Lake Pontchartrain, and as constructing engineer of the custom-house in New Orleans. His supervisory duties extended over the Gulf Coast from Florida to the Rio Grande. On 23 January, 1861, he was detailed as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, but held the place only a few days, resigning his commission 20 February, 1861. This ends his record as a military officer of the United States. He at once offered his services to the southern confederacy, then organizing to resist the authority of the federal government, and was placed in command of the defences of Charleston, South Carolina On the refusal of Major Robert Anderson to evacuate Fort Sumter, he opened fire soon after daylight on the morning of 12 April, 1861. After a cannonade of several hours, during which, according to the official reports, not a single life was lost on either side, Fort Sumter, with ammunition and provisions nearly exhausted, capitulated to General Beauregard, and the garrison marched out, with the honors of war. Beauregard was almost immediately ordered to Virginia, where he was practically in command at the battle of Bull Run (July 21), though superseded at the last moment by General Joseph E. Johnston. Here he was again victorious. In the spring of 1862 he was ordered to Tennessee, as second in command to General Albert S. Johnston, and when that officer was killed at the battle of Shiloh, April 6, Beauregard took command and nearly succeeded in routing the northern army. The next day, however, the federals having been re-enforced, he was compelled to retreat by General Grant, falling back in good order to Corinth, Mississippi, where he made a successful defence until 29 May, when he evacuated the place, destroying all his stores, and retreating southward along the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. General Beauregard's health failed after this campaign, and he was on leave of absence until August, when, with the full rank of general, he was again placed in command at Charleston, which for a year and a half (September, 1862, till April, 1864) he defended against the formidable siege operations under General Gillmore and Admirals ' and Dahlgren. In May, 1864, when General Grant was closing in upon the approaches to Richmond, Beauregard re-enforced Lee, defeated Butler at Drury's Bluff, and held Petersburg against the federal advance. In October he was commander of the Military Division of the west, and sent to Georgia to resist the march of the federals under Sherman. The attempt proved futile, and, joining forces with General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina, he surrendered with that officer to General Sherman in April, 1865. After the war he became president of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Mississippi Railroad, adjutant-general of the state, and manager of the Louisiana State Lottery. See “Military Operations of General Beauregard in the War between the States, 1861–’5,” by Colonel Alfred Roman (New York, 1884). General Beauregard is the author of “Principles and Maxims of the Art of War” (Charleston, 1863), and “of the Defence of Charleston” (Richmond, 1864). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 210-211.
BEAVER, James Addams, soldier, born in Millerstown, Perry County, Pennsylvania, 21 October, 1837. The founders of the family came from Alsace in 1740–Huguenots seeking religious liberty in America. They settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and became leaders in the affairs of the infant commonwealth. They have furnished soldiers for every American war since the middle of the last century, and in times of peace have been among the most highly respected and influential families of the state. James was educated by his mother (his father having died in 1840) until 1846, when the family moved to Belleville, Mifflin County, and he was sent to school. In 1852 he entered Pine Grove Academy, and in 1854 joined the junior class in Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania After graduation in 1856 he read law in the office of H. N. McAllister, at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and was taken into partnership by him almost as soon as he was of age. During this period of his life he joined a local military company—the “Bellefonte Fencibles,” under Captain Andrew G. Curtin, afterward war governor of Pennsylvania. He made a thorough study of tactics, and, when the president called for volunteers to suppress the rebellion in 1861, he was second lieutenant of the company, which promptly marched for the defence of the national capital. On the organization of the 45th Pennsylvania Volunteers, he became its lieutenant-colonel, and first saw active service in the neighborhood of Hilton Head and Port Royal, South Carolina A new call for volunteers was issued in 1862, and Lieutenant-Colonel Beaver was commissioned colonel of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers, recruited in the vicinity of his home. He had by this time developed his qualities as a disciplinarian, and his men made it their boast that they were often mistaken for regulars. The regiment joined the Army of the Potomac just after the battle of Fredericksburg, was assigned to Hancock's Corps, and first met the enemy at the battle of Chancellorsville (2 and 3 May, 1863), where it held an advanced position, and lost very heavily, Colonel Beaver being among the wounded. He had not recovered when the third call for troops was issued; but, at his own request, he was placed on recruiting service, in command of Camp Curtin. He was able to rejoin his regiment just before the battle of Gettysburg, but, still weak from his wound, was not permitted to take command during the fight. He led his regiment throughout the Wilderness Campaign in May, 1864, and took part in the successful assault upon the Confederate works at Spotsylvania Court-House, his regiment being among the first to scale the earthworks. At the battle of Cold Harbor (3 June, 1864) he was left in command of the brigade, General Brooke being wounded, and later he was himself slightly wounded, but not disabled, and remained at his post during the rest of the day, holding an advanced position close to the enemy's works, and constantly under fire. On 16 June, 1864, he was again wounded while leading his brigade in the first assault upon the works at Petersburg. Returning to duty before his wound was fairly healed, he rode to the battle-field of Ream's Station in an ambulance, and had scarcely reached the front and assumed command at the advanced line when his right leg was shattered by a rifle-ball. Amputation followed, and, although his life was saved, he was no longer capable of active military service. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 10 November, 1864, and mustered out of service at his own request on 22 December of that year, refusing to remain in the army on light duty as he was urged to do. He repeatedly declined promotion that would have taken him away from his own regiment, feeling bound to remain with the men whom he had enlisted. In civil life General Beaver has attended closely to his practice at the bar. He was elected a member of the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania State University, in 1873, and was been very influential in increasing its usefulness and prosperity. He has taken active part as a speaker in the campaigns of the Democratic Party, and at the state convention of June, 1882, was nominated as its candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, and again nominated for the same office in 1886. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic. See "Life of James A. Beaver," by Frank A. Burr (Philadelphia, 1882). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 212-213.
BECKWITH, Amos, soldier, born in Vermont about 1830. He was graduated at West Point in 1850, and served in the Seminole War. During the Civil War he was chief depot-commissary in Washington, chief of commissariat of the Military Division of the Mississippi, on the staff of General Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign, and, after the war, chief commissary of the Department of the Gulf. He was brevetted brigadier-general in the U. S. Army on 13 March, 1865, and promoted lieutenant colonel on the general staff, 23 June, 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 214.
BECKWITH, Edward Griffin, soldier, born in Cazenovia, New York, 25 June, 1818; died in Clifton, New York, 22 June, 1881. He was graduated at West Point in 1842, served in the war with Mexico at Tampico and Vera Cruz, and was employed in Pacific Railroad reconnaissance in 1853- 4, the records of which survey were published by Congress. In the Civil War he served as chief of commissariat of the 5th Army Corps, and of the Army of Virginia, and in fitting out General Banks's Louisiana Expedition. He was provost-marshal-general of the Department of the Gulf in 1863, in command of the defences of New Orleans from 25 August, 1863, till 12 January, 1864, also for a time chief commissary of the department, was made major on 8 February, 1864, and received the brevet rank of brigadier-general, U. S. Army, on 13 March, 1865, for faithful and meritorious services during the war. After the war he was employed in the subsistence department. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 214.
BEDEL, John, soldier, born in the Indian Stream territory, northern New Hampshire, 8 July, 1822; died in Bath, New Hampshire, 26 February, 1875. His father was General Moody Bedel. The son enlisted as a private in the Mexican War in 1847, and became captain in 1849. He was admitted to the bar in 1850, and practised in Bath until 1853, when he entered the treasury department at Washington, and remained there until the beginning of the Civil War. He was then appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 3d New Hampshire Volunteers, 27 June, 1862, was wounded, 10 July, 1863, and captured at Fort Wagner, 18 July, 1863. He was promoted colonel of that regiment, while a prisoner of war, 6 April, 1864, and paroled on 9 December He was made brigadier-general of U. S. volunteers, by brevet, dating from 13 March, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services, and was mustered out of service 20 July, 1865. He represented the town of Bath in the legislature, and was several times the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 214.
BEE, Bernard E., soldier, born in Charleston, South Carolina, about 1823; killed in the battle of Bull Run, 21 July, 1861. He was graduated at West Point in 1845, and served as a lieutenant in the military occupation of Texas and in the war with Mexico, being wounded at Cerro Gordo, and receiving the brevet of captain for gallantry at Chapultepec. He served as captain on frontier duty in Minnesota, on the Utah Expedition, and in Dakota until 3 March, 1861, when he resigned and entered the Confederate service. He held the rank of brigadier general, and commanded a brigade of South Carolina troops at Bull Run. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 216.
BEECHER, James Chaplin, clergyman, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 8 January, 1828; died in Elmira, New York, 25 August, 1886, was graduated at Dartmouth in 1848, studied theology at Andover, and on 10 May, 1856, was ordained a Congregational clergyman. Until 1861 he was chaplain of the Seamen's Bethel in Canton and Hong Kong, China. During the Civil War he was chaplain of the 1st New York Infantry (1861-'2); lieutenant-colonel of the 141st (1862-'3); colonel of the 35th U. S. colored troops (1863-'6), and was mustered out of service in 1866 as brevet brigadier-general. Later, he held pastorates in Owego, New York. (1867-'70); Poughkeepsie (1871-'3); and Brooklyn (1881-'2). After three years of acute suffering because of incurable hallucinations, the shadows of which had been hovering about him since 1864, he died by his own hand at the Water Cure in Elmira. [son of Henry Ward Beecher; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 221.
BEECHER, Frederick Henry, soldier, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, 22 June, 1841; died on the upper Republican River, Kansas, 17 September, 1868. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1862, immediately entered the military service, and became successively sergeant, second and first lieutenant. He was in the battles of the Army of the Potomac from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg; was twice severely wounded, but could not be persuaded to remain away from his command. The severe nature of his wounds necessitated his transfer to the 2d Battalion Veteran Reserve Corps, where he served as lieutenant and acted as adjutant-general under General E. Whittlesey of the Freedmen's Bureau, until commissioned in the regular army in 1864. He was transferred to the 3d U.S. Infantry in November, 1864, and made first lieutenant in July, 1866. He served with distinction on the western borders, and was killed by the Indians while on a scouting party some distance from Fort Wallace. [son of Charles Beecher;] Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 221.
BELKNAP, George Eugene, naval officer, born in Newport, New Hampshire, 22 January, 1832. He was appointed midshipman from New Hampshire, 7 October, 1847; became passed midshipman, 10 June, 1853, master in 1855; was commissioned lieutenant, 16 September, 1855; lieutenant-commander, 15 July, 1862; and commander, 25 July, 1866. As lieutenant he commanded a launch at the capture of the Barrier forts at the mouth of the Canton River, China, in November, 1856, and assisted in undermining and blowing up the four forts. He commanded the boats of the “St. Louis” at the reënforcement of Fort Pickens in April, 1861, and was commanding officer of the iron-clad “New Ironsides” in her various engagements with the fortifications in Charleston Harbor from 1862 till 1864. He was highly praised by Admirals Dupont and Dahlgren for '' in making the attacks and managing his vessel under fire. In 1864 he commanded the gun-boat “Seneca.” of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and afterward the iron-clad “Canonicus” in the two actions with Howlett House battery in December, 1864, and in the attacks on Fort Fisher in that and the following month. After the capture of the fort he went to Charleston, and was present at the evacuation. He commanded the same vessel in Admiral Godon's expedition to Havana in search of the Confederate iron- clad “Stonewall.” His name was associated with those of Commanders Parrott and Calhoun and Lieutenant Weaver in a commendatory letter of Admiral Porter declaring that these officers had given a world-wide reputation to the monitors b their efficient handling of the new type of vessel. In 1867-'8 Commander Belknap commanded the flag-ship “Hartford” of the Asiatic Squadron; in 1869 he was on navigation duty at the Boston Navy-yard; in 1874 he was engaged in command of the steamer “Tuscarora" in taking deep-sea soundings in the North Pacific Ocean. with the object of finding a route for a submarine cable between the United States and Japan. He was made commodore, 2 March, 1885, and appointed superintendent of the naval observatory. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 224.
BELKNAP, William Goldsmith, soldier, born in Newburg, New York, 24 September, 1794; died at Fort Washita, Texas, 10 November, 1851. He was a lieutenant in the war of 1812; was wounded in the sortie from Fort Erie on 17 September, 1814; became captain, 1 February, 1822; brevet major, 1 February, 1832; major, 31 January, 1842; and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 15 March, 1842, for his services in the Florida War. In 1828 Captain Belknap established Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. For gallantry in General Taylor's Rio Grande Campaign he received the brevet of colonel. He acted as inspector-general at the capture of Monterey, became lieutenant-colonel 26 September, 1847, and was brevetted brigadier- general for services at Buena Vista, 23 February, 1847. He was commandant at Fort Gibson from December, 1848, till May, 1851. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 224.
BELKNAP, William Worth, soldier, was born in Newburg, if. Y., 22 Sept, 1828. he studied law in Georgetown, D. C, and practised at Keokuk, Iowa, where he settled in 1851, and where he was elected to the legislature as a Democrat in 1857. At the beginning of the Civil War he joined the volunteer army as major of an Iowa regiment. He was engaged at Shiloh and Vicksburg, but first became prominent in Sherman's march to the sea, receiving promotion as brigadier-general on 80 July, 1804 and as major general on 18 March, 1865. After the War he was collector of internal revenue in Iowa from 1865 till 13 October 1869, when he was appointed Secretary of War. This office he retained during General Grant's second administration until 7 March, 1876, when, in consequence of charges of official corruption, he resigned. He was impeached and tried before the Senate for receiving bribes for the appointment of post-traders, and was acquitted on the technical ground of want of jurisdiction. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 225.
BELL, Charles H., naval officer, born in New York, 15 August, 1798; died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 19 February, 1875. He entered the U. S. Navy as mid- shipman, 12 June, 1812, and served with Commodore Decatur in 1813 and in Commodore Chauncey's squadron on Lake Erie in 1814. In the war with Algiers he was again with Decatur on board the "Macedonian." He became a lieutenant in 1820, and in 1824 commanded the schooner "Ferret" which capsized at sea. After remaining twenty-one hours on the wreck, he was saved, with other survivors, by Commodore McKeever. He was attached to the "Erie," in the West Indies, in 1829, and commanded one of the boats that cut out the piratical schooner "Federal" from under the guns of the forts at Guadeloupe. In 1839 he commanded the brig " Dolphin," which ascended an African river and compelled a chief to pay for goods taken from an American vessel. He was promoted commander on 20 September, 1840, and in 1844-'6 commanded the sloop "Yorktown," on the coast of Africa, and captured three slavers, one of them with 903 slaves on board. He was commissioned captain in 1854. He commanded at Norfolk Navy yard in 1859, in 1800 was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron, and was ordered home at the beginning of the Civil War. After the capture of the British mail-steamer "Trent," in November, 1861, he was sent to Panama to take command of the Pacific Squadron, in anticipation of difficulties with England, and there he remained for nearly three years. The rank of commodore was given him 16 July, 1862. He returned shortly before the close of the war, and was assigned to special duty on the James River. He took command of the Brooklyn Navy-yard in May, 1865, and held it three years. He was commissioned rear-admiral, 25 July, 1866, and placed on the retired list after sixty-two years and eight months' service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 225.
BELL, George, soldier, born in Maryland, about 1832. He was graduated at West Point in 1853. During the Civil War he served as assistant in the organization of the subsistence department for the Manassas Campaign, as principal assistant commissary to the Army of the Potomac, and in charge of subsistence depots, and as chief of commissariat of the Departments of Washington and the Potomac. On 9 April, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general for services during the war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 226.
BELL, Henry Hayworth, naval officer, born in North Carolina, about 1808; drowned at the mouth of Osaka River, Japan, 11 January, 1868. He was appointed a midshipman from North Carolina in August, 1823, and during more than forty-five years of service saw much severe fighting. He was on board of the “Grampus” when she was engaged in clearing the coast of Cuba of pirates. He was connected with the East India Squadron for many years, and commanded one of the vessels of the squadron which, in November, 1856, captured and destroyed the four barrier forts near Canton, China. Early in the Civil War he was assigned to the command of one of the first-rates forming the Western Gulf Squadron, took an active part in the capture of New Orleans, and the siege of Vicksburg, and in the blockade rendered essential service. For a time, in 1863, he was in command of the Western Gulf Squadron, and when Rear-Admiral Thatcher was ordered to other duty the command of it again devolved on him. In July, 1865, he was ordered to the command of the East India Squadron, his rank being then that of commodore. In July, 1866, he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and in 1867 he was retired; but Rear-Admiral S. C. Rowan, who was to have relieved him, had not arrived when he was drowned in attempting to enter the Osaka River in a boat from the “Hartford,” his flagship. His widow died in 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 226.
BELL, Hiram Parks, lawyer, born in Jackson County, Georgia, 27 January, 1827. He received an academic education, taught school for two years, read law, was admitted to the bar in 1849, and has since practised at Cumming, Georgia He was a candidate for presidential elector on the Bell ticket in 1860, and opened the secession ordinance in the convention of 1861. He was a member of the state senate in 1861, and resigned to enter the Confederate Army, being commissioned captain in March, 1862. He became colonel of the 43d Georgia Regiment, was dangerously wounded at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, 29 December, 1862, and resigned soon afterward. He was a member of the Confederate Congress in 1864 and 1865, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1873 till 1875, and again from 1877 till 1879. He was a delegate to the St. Louis Convention of 1876, which nominated Mr. Tilden for the presidency. In Congress Mr. Bell favored using the proceeds of the sale of public lands for educational purposes. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 226.
BELL, Luther Vose was born in Chester, New Hampshire, 20 December, 1806; died in camp near Budd's Ferry, Maryland, 11 February, 1862. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1823, and, after studying medicine with his elder brother John in New York City, received his diploma from Dartmouth in 1826. He began to practice in New York, but returned to New Hampshire after his brother's death in 1830. He became noted as a practitioner and writer, taking two Cambridge Boylston prizes by his essays before he was thirty years of age. One of his earlier operations, the amputation of the femur, was successfully performed, in default of any other accessible instruments, with the patient's razor, a tenon-saw, and a darning-needle for a tenaculum. Dr. Bell early became interested in the establishment of hospitals for the insane, and was elected twice to the legislature for the defence of his favorite plan. Although he was not successful, he brought himself into public notice, and in 1837 was chosen superintendent of the McLean Insane Asylum at Charlestown, Massachusetts In 1845, at the request of the trustees of the Butler hospital for the insane, at Providence, Rhode Island, he visited Europe for the purpose of recent improvements in lunatic asylums, and, after three months' absence, completed the plan of their present building. While at Charlestown, he brought to notice a form of disease peculiar to the insane, which is now known as “Bell's disease,” and was also called upon frequently to testify in the courts as an expert. In 1850 he was a member of the state council, and in 1853 of the convention for revising the state constitution. In 1852 he was nominated by the Whigs for Congress, and in 1856 for governor of the state, but was defeated both times. In 1856 he resigned his place in Charlestown, and when the Civil War began he entered the army as surgeon of the 11th Massachusetts Volunteers. At the time of his death he was medical director of Hooker's division. Dr. Bell published “An Attempt to investigate some Obscure Doctrines in Relation to Small-Pox” (1830), and “External Exploration of Diseases” (1836), and also described is investigations of alleged spiritual manifestations. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 228.
BELL, Louis, soldier, was born in Chester, New Hampshire, in 1836; died near Fort Fisher, North Carolina, 16 January, 1865. He was graduated at Brown in 1853, and began the practice of law at Farmington, New Hampshire. In 1860 he was appointed solicitor for Strafford County In April, 1861, he was offered the captaincy of a company of the 1st New Hampshire Regiment of three months men, and served his term of enlistment. Returning home, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 4th New Hampshire Volunteers, and became colonel in March, 1862. Colonel Bell was for some time a member of General Thomas W. Sherman's staff, and was inspector-general of the Department of the South from November, 1861, till March, 1862. Prior to the Wilmington Expedition he had been several times temporarily a brigade commander, and had participated in the engagements at Pocotaligo (21 October, 1862) and Fort Wagner (July, 1863). In the attack on Fort Fisher (15 January, 1865), he commanded a brigade of General Ames's division, and was mortally wounded while leading his men in an assault upon one of the traverses of that work. He died on the day following the engagement. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 228.
BENDIX, John E., soldier, born 28 August, 1818; died in New York City, 8 October, 1877. The birthplace of General Bendix lies between the United States and Canada, as he was born on board the “Sarah,” one of the first steamers that navigated St. Lawrence River. He learned the trade of a machinist in New York, joined the 9th Regiment New York state militia in 1847, and when the Civil War began, in 1861, he organized the 7th Regiment of New York Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the battles of Antietam (16–17 September, 1862), Fredericksburg (13 December, 1862), and the Wilderness (5–6 May, 1864), besides the engagements of the intervening campaigns. He was promoted brigadier-general in 1865. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 232.
BENEDICT, Abner R., soldier, born about 1830; died 15 May, 1867. At the beginning of the Civil War he volunteered as a private in the 12th Regiment, New York state militia, which was one of the three that first started from New York for the seat of war. In August, 1861, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the 4th regular Infantry. In March, 1862, he embarked for the Peninsula, and through the battles of the Potomac Army was conspicuous for gallantry. At Fredericksburg he commanded forty men of the strong picket line that, during the night of 13 December, 1862, was pushed up to the enemy's position, while the defeated federals were retreating across the river. The orders were to hold the position until relieved, and the intention was to withdraw the picket-line before daylight should reveal it to the enemy. By some mistake the line was not withdrawn as directed, and at daylight the enemy opened fire at short range. While encouraging his men by voice and example, Major Benedict fell, shot through the lungs, but was carried off the field b his soldiers. The wound was considered mortal but, before the scar was fairly healed, in three months, he reported for duty at Washington. He joined his regiment at Chancellorsville while the battle was in progress. At Gettysburg his superiors were all killed or wounded, leaving him in command, and he handled the regiment during that battle with great credit to himself. Shortly after Gettysburg his health began to fail, as a result of his wound; but in spite of this he refused to give up active service, and for some time commanded the 4th U.S. Infantry, as General Grant's headquarters guard during the Petersburg Campaign. After the war he remained on the active list in spite of his disability from his wound, and in the depth of winter, shortly before his death, was on duty at Plattsburg, New York, one of the coldest of the eastern army posts. He secured a change of station in the hope of benefit from a warmer climate, but died from the effects of the wound received five years before. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 232-234.
BENEDICT, George Grenville, soldier, born in Burlington, Vermont, 10 December, 1826. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1847, and in 1853 became editor of the Burlington “Free Press,” for many years the leading Republican journal of the state. He was postmaster at Burlington in 1860, but enlisted in the 12th Vermont Regiment at the beginning of the Civil War, and was commissioned lieutenant. In 1863 he was appointed aide on a brigade staff in the 1st Corps. On the third day of the battle of Gettysburg he participated in the repulse of the desperate charge delivered by the Confederates under Longstreet. General Hancock was severely wounded in the moment of victory, and Lieutenant Benedict, with another officer, caught him as he fell from his horse. After the Civil War he served on the governor's staff, was in the state senate from 1869 till 1871, postmaster of Burlington from 1871 till 1874, secretary of the state university from 1865, and president of the Vermont press association in 1886, being senior editor of the state at that time. He has published “Vermont at Gettysburg.” (Albany, 1866; new ed., 1870); and “Vermont in the Civil War” (Albany, 1866; 2d vol. forthcoming). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 233.
BENEDICT, Lewis, soldier, born in Albany, New York, 2 September, 1817; died at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, 9 April, 1864. After graduation at Williams, in 1837, he studied law in Albany and was admitted to the bar in 1841. In 1845–’6 he was city attorney at Albany; in 1847 judge advocate; from 1848 until 1852 surrogate of Albany. In 1860 he was elected a member of the state assembly, but entered the military service for the Civil War in June, 1861, as lieutenant-colonel of the 73d New York Volunteers. He served in the Peninsular Campaign, and was taken prisoner at Williamsburg, Virginia After several months' confinement in Libby and Salisbury prisons, he was exchanged, and, as colonel of the 162d New York Volunteers, accompanied Banks's expedition to Louisiana in September, 1862. He was brevetted brigadier-general for gallantry in the assault on Port Hudson, 14 June, 1883." In the Red River Campaign of 1864 he participated in the various engagements, and was mortally wounded while in command of a brigade at the battle of Pleasant Hill. His death was made the subject of a poem by Alfred BORN Street. See “ Memorial of Brevet Brigadier-General Lewis Benedict, Colonel of the 162d New York. V. I." (Albany, 1864, printed privately). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 233-234.
BENET, Stephen Vincent, soldier, born in St. Augustine, Florida, 22 January, 1827. He studied at Hallowell's school in Alexandria, Virginia, then at the University of Georgia, and at the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1849, standing third in his class. He was appointed to the Ordnance Corps, and served at the Watervliet Arsenal, at Washington, at Frankford Arsenal, again at Washington, and then at the St. Louis Arsenal. In 1859 he became assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics at West Point, and from 1861 till 1864 was instructor of ordnance and the science of gunnery, after which, until 1869, he was in command of Frankford Arsenal. In 1869 he was made assistant to the chief of ordnance, and in 1874, on the death of the chief of the department, he succeeded to the place, with the rank of brigadier-general. He translated Jomini's "Political and Military History of the Campaign of Waterloo " (New York, 1853), and he is the author of a treatise on "Military Law and the Practice of Courts-Martial" (1862), and "Electro-Ballistic Machines and the Sehultze Chronoscope" (1866). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 234.
BENHAM. Henry W., soldier, born in Connecticut in 1817; died in New York, 1 June, 1884. He was graduated at West Point, at the head of his class, in 1837, assigned to the Corps of Engineers, and for a year assistant in charge of improvements in Savannah River. In July, 1838, he was promoted first lieutenant, and from 1839 till 1844 was superintending engineer of the repairs of , Fort Marion and of the sea-wall at St. Augustine, retired Florida During the three years succeeding he was engaged upon government works in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and elsewhere. He was with the army in' Mexico in 1847-8, and brevetted captain for gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Buena Vista, 23 February, 1847. After the Mexican War he was engaged for a time on engineering duty in New York Harbor, and promoted to the rank of captain in May, 1848. He was also in charge of several other works of importance at Boston, Washington, and Buffalo, from 1848 to 1853. In the latter year he was assistant in charge of the Coast Survey office at Washington, and sent to Europe on duty connected therewith. During the following seven years he was occupied in professional work for the government at Boston, Newport, and Sandy Hook, and on the Potomac aqueduct. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Captain Benham entered upon active service; was on General Morris's staff as engineer of the Department of the Ohio; was brevetted colonel for gallantry at the battle of Carrick's Ford, Virginia, 18 July, 1861; in August was made brigadier-general of volunteers, and was engaged in the Virginia Campaigns, including the actions at New Creek (16 August) and Carnifex Ferry (10 September). In 1802 he was present at the capture of Fort Pulaski (10-11 April) and James Island (16 June). Later in the year he superintended fortifications in Boston and Portsmouth Harbors, and was in command of the Northern District of the Department of the South. He proved very efficient in throwing pontoon-bridges across the Rappahannock, the Potomac, and the James Rivers, and was in command of the pontoon department at Washington in 1864. In the meantime he had, through the regular stages of promotion, attained the full rank of lieutenant-colonel of engineers, and in March. 1865, was brevetted brigadier-general and major general U. S. Army, and major-general U. S. volunteers, for gallant services during the rebellion and in the campaign that terminated with the surrender of Lee's army. In 1868 (7 March) he was promoted colonel of engineers, and during that year was engaged in government works on the coast of New England, and from October, 1869, till July. 1877, was similarly occupied in the works on Long Island Head. Subsequent to this he was in charge of the defences of New York. He was placed on the retired list, 30 June, 1882. He invented the picket-shovel used by troops in the field, and was an expert in pontoon-bridges, in the management of which he devised important improvements. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 234.
BENJAMIN, John Forbes., soldier, born in Cicero, Onondaga County, N. Y., 28 January, 1817; died in Washington, D. C., 8 March, 1877. He received a common school education, and, after three years spent in Texas, went to Missouri, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Shelbyville in 1848. He was a member of the legislature in 1850 and 1852, and presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1856. He entered the National Army as a private in the Missouri cavalry in 1861, was made captain in January, 1862, major in May, and lieutenant-colonel in September. He resigned to become provost-marshal of the 8th District of Missouri in 1863. In 1864 he was elected to Congress, where he served three successive terms, from 4 December, 1865, till 3 March, 1871. After this he practised law and prosecuted claims in Washington until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 235.
BENJAMIN, Samuel Nicoll, soldier, born in New York City, 13 January, 1839; died on Governor's Island, New York Harbor, 15 May, 1886. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1861, and became a 2d lieutenant in the 2d U.S. Artillery. He served continuously throughout the Civil War, was at Bull Run, Malvern Hill, and Fredericksburg, in command of a battery at Covington, in command of the reserve artillery of the 9th Army Corps 14 August till 24 October, 1863, and was chief of artillery, 9th Army Corps, in the East Tennessee and Richmond Campaigns; was at the battle of the Wilderness and also at Spottsylvania, where he was severely wounded. He was brevetted lieutenant colonel 13 May, 1865, and major 3 March, 1875. On recovery from his wounds he became assistant professor of mathematics at the U. S. Military Academy, and from 1869 till 1875 he was at the artillery school for practice, Fort Monroe, Virginia Then, having been transferred to the staff, he was made assistant adjutant-general, and was on duty first at Washington, and later became adjutant- general of the Department of Arizona. In June, 1885, he was made assistant adjutant-general of the Division of the Atlantic, and assigned to army headquarters on Governor's Island. Colonel Benjamin was one of the very few officers that held the Congressional Medal for conspicuous bravery in the field. He married a daughter of Hamilton. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 236.
BENNETT, Thomas W., soldier, born in Union County, Indiana, 16 February, 1831. He was graduated at the law school of Indiana Asbury University in 1854, and n practice. He was elected to the state senate in 1858, and resigned in 1861 to enter the national service. He was captain in the 15th Indiana Volunteers in April, 1861, major of the 36th Regiment in September, colonel of the 69th in August, 1862, and commissioned brigadier-general on 5 March, 1865. He was again chosen to the state senate in October, 1864, and served till March, 1867. He was mayor of Richmond, Indiana, from May, 1869, till 1871, and in September of the latter year appointed governor of Idaho territory. He resigned this office 4 December, 1875, supposing that he had been elected delegate to Congress as a Republican; but the house gave the seat to his Democratic opponent. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 239.
BENTON, Jacob, Congressman, born in Waterford, Vermont, 14 August, 1819. He received an academic education, and, after teaching for several years, studied law with Chief-Justice Bellows, and was He began practice at Lancaster, NEW HAMPSHIRE, made a high reputation as a successful advocate, and early became an earnest member of the Whig Party, and was elected to the legislature in 1854, 1855, and 1856. He was a delegate to the Chicago Convention of 1860, and afterward commanded the state volunteers as brigadier-general. He was elected to Congress from New Hampshire, serving two terms, from 4 March, 1867, till 8 March, 1871. While in Congress, Mr. Benton favored all efforts to reduce the expenses of the government and to equalize taxation. Although a clear and convincing public speaker, Mr. Benton rarely addressed the house. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 239-240.
BENTON, James Gilchrist, soldier, born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, 15 September, 1820; died in Springfield, Massachusetts, 23 August, 1881. His father, Calvin Benton, was a wool-merchant and introduced merino sheep into New England. The son was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1842, brevetted 2d lieutenant of ordnance, served at Watervliet, New York, Arsenal until 1848, was promoted to the full rank of second lieutenant, 8 March, 1847, and transferred to the Ordnance Bureau in Washington, where he assisted in preparing the " System of Artillery for the Land Service and the "Ordnance Manual." He was made first lieutenant, 25 March, 1848, served at Harper's Ferry armory in 1849, and in the San Antonio Ordnance Depot, Texas, from 1849 till 1852, was assistant inspector of arsenals and armories, and commanded the Charleston, South Carolina, Arsenal in 1853. From this time until 1857 he was on special duty in Washington, engaged principally in making experiments that led to the adoption of the Springfield rifled musket in place of the old smooth-bore. He was also a member of the ordnance boards of 1854 and 1856, then promoted to a captaincy after fourteen years' continuous service, and appointed instructor of ordnance and gunnery at West Point, where he remained until the beginning of the Civil War. He also designed the first wrought-iron sea-coast gun-carriage made in this country, which was adopted by the government, and has been in use ever since. In April, 1861, Captain Benton went to Washington as principal assistant to General James W. Ripley, chief of ordnance, was promoted major of ordnance in 1863, and in the same year became a member of the ordnance board, when he was put in command of Washington Arsenal, where he remained until 1866. Soon after he assumed command, when an explosion took place in the old penitentiary, which had been transformed into a storehouse for ammunition, he entered the building, and, with the assistance of a single man, succeeded, with his feet and hands, in putting out the fire in the loose tow and rope-handles of the boxes before the arrival of the fire department. In July, 1864, he performed another act of valor on the occasion of a similar explosion, when he entered a magazine, stripped off his coat, threw it over an open barrel of powder that was in dangerous proximity to the flames, and carried the whole in his arms to a place of safety. For these services he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel and colonel, 13 March, 1865. Among the improvements made by Colonel Benton in the arsenal grounds was cleaning the canal, an important sanitary measure; but the stirring of the muddy deposits engendered malaria, from the effects of which he never recovered. In June, 1866, he was ordered to the command of the national armory at Springfield, Massachusetts, where he remained until His death. The various models of the Springfield rifle, known as the models of 1866, 1868, 1873, and 1879, were made under his direction. In 1873, with Cols. Laidley and Crispin, he went under orders from the U. S. government to Europe to collect information in regard to the construction of heavy cannon and other ordnance manufactures. His report on this matter, as well as his report on "Experiments made at the National Armory for the purpose of revising and improving the System of Small Arms." was published by the government M for use in the Army and distribution to the militia." He never took out a patent for his inventions, holding that, as he had been educated by the government, it was entitled to benefit in every way by his time and talents. Among his inventions was the application of electricity to determine velocity. Discovering, after a series of carefully conducted experiments, that the Navy electro-ballistic pendulum was too delicate and complicated for general purposes, he devised an apparatus with two pendulums of simple construction, known as the Benton electro- ballistic pendulum. This was adopted by the government, and came largely into use in private factories for testing powder. Among his other inventions were an improvement in calipers for inspecting shells; a cap-filling machine; the thread veiocimeter for determining the velocity of projectiles; a system for loading and manoeuvring barbette guns under cover from the enemy's fire, by depressing the muzzle of the piece and using a jointed ramrod; re-enforcing-cup for cartridge case; and spring-dynamometer. He published "A Course of Instruction in Ordnance and Gunnery" (New York, 1861; 3d ed., 1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 240.
BENTON William Plummer, Soldier, born near ….. in His father died father died Private in a regiment of Mounted Rifles ….
President's was mustered into service, being the first offered by Indiana. He was soon promoted colonel of the 8th Indiana Volunteers, and commanded at Rich Mountain, where he distinguished himself by personal braver)'. After three months he was authorized to re-enlist and reorganize the regiment, and did so, reporting to General Fremont, 14 September, 1861. The regiment was placed in the vanguard of Fremont's Army, and served in the Campaign in Missouri and Arkansas. He commanded a brigade at Pea Ridge, and was promoted to brigadier-general for gallantry. He was in the battles of Port Gibson, Jackson, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, the siege of Vicksburg, and Mobile. At Jackson, Mississippi, he was wounded. At the close of the war General Benton resigned his commission and returned to Richmond, Indiana, to resume the practice of law. In 1866 he went to New Orleans under government appointment, where he died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 243.
BERRIEN, John M., naval officer, born in Georgia in 1802; died in Philadelphia, 20 November, 1883. On receiving his appointment as mid-shipman he joined the frigate “Constellation,” of the West India Squadron, in 1827, was subsequently transferred to the frigate “Guerriere,” of the Pacific Squadron, and then to the sloop “Vincennes.” He was promoted to passed midshipman in 1831; and joined the West India Squadron, commissioned lieutenant in 1837, and served on various vessels in the Pacific and Brazil stations. In September, 1844, he was ordered to the frigate “Potomac," and in 1847 commanded the schooner “Bonito" at the capture of the city of Tobasco, Mexico. Lieutenant Barrien received his commission as commander, 13 March, 1856, and during 1858–9 was attached to the U.S. Navy-yard at Portsmouth, New Hampshire In February, 1860, he was ordered to Hong-Kong, China, where he took command of the sloop of war “John Adams,” was commissioned captain in 1862, and sent to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, as assistant inspector of ordnance at the Fort Pitt Works. He commanded at Norfolk, Virginia, in 1865, and was lighthouse inspector in 1866-‘9. He was commissioned commodore, 20 September, 1866, and in December was placed on the retired list. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 249.
BERRY, Abraham J…. his profession. At the time of the desolation of New York by Asiatic cholera in 1832, he was among the few that remained at the post of duty. He labored night and day, and his courage and zeal resulted in many expressions of respect and admiration from all classes, as well as a public acknowledgment by the city authorities. For more than a century a considerable part of Williamsburg had belonged to his family. He identified himself with the interests of the place when it was made a city, and became its first mayor. He also assisted very materially in the establishment of the important ferries connecting with New York. In 1861 Dr. Berry, although over sixty years of age, went out as surgeon of the 38th New York Infantry. When General McClellan retreated to Harrison's Landing in July, 1862, Dr. Berry had more than 300 patients in his care near White House; but in the confusion incident to the moving of the Army he and they were forgotten. When he found that the Army had departed, he performed the herculean task of carrying the sick and convalescent safely through to the James River, and when he reached it the additions of sick and wounded had swelled his train to more than 800. His death was the result of fever contracted at that period. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 249-250.
BERRY, Hiram George, soldier, born in Thomaston (now Rockland), Maine, 27 August, 1824; died at Chancellorsville, Virginia, 2 May, 1863. He learned the carpenter's trade, and afterward engaged in navigation. He represented his native town in the state legislature several times, and was mayor of the City of Rockland. He originated and commanded for several years the Rockland guard, a volunteer company, which attained a high reputation for drill and discipline. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the service as colonel of the 4th Maine Infantry. He took part in the battle of Bull Run and the siege of Yorktown, was made a brigadier-general 4 April, 1862, his commission dating from 17 March, 1862, and was given command of the 3d Brigade of the 3d Division of Heintzelman's 3d Army Corps. He was present at the battles of Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, bore a major part in the seven days' fight, and was in the second Bull Run Campaign and Chantilly. In January, 1863, he was nominated by the president as major-general of volunteers, with rank dating from 29 November, 1862, confirmed by the Senate on 9 March, 1863, and placed in command of the 2d Division of the 3d Army Corps, succeeding General Sickles. At a critical juncture in the battle of Chancellorsville General Berry received an order from General Hooker to charge upon the advancing foe. It read: “Go in, general; throw your men into the breach; don't fire a shot—they can’t see you—but charge home with the bayonet.” They did charge home, and for three hours General Berry's division, almost alone, withstood the attack of the enemy flushed with previous victory, drove them back, and regained a portion of their lost ground. The battle was renewed the next morning, and again Berry and his division were in the front, and receiving the first assault. Intent upon driving them back, he headed one of his brigades in several successful bayonet charges, and in one of them was killed by a shot from the enemy. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 250.
BEVERIDGE, John L., soldier, born in Washington County, New York, in 1824. In 1842 he moved westward, first to Illinois, and then to Tennessee, where he became a lawyer. In 1855 he returned to Illinois, settling in Chicago, and he gained prominence in his profession. At the beginning of the Civil War he volunteered in the service of the United States, and attained the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He was elected lieutenant Governor of Illinois in 1872, and in 1873 succeeded Governor Oglesby as chief executive of the state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 254.
BIDWELL, Daniel D., soldier, born in Buffalo, New York, about 1816; died near Cedar Creek, Virginia, 19 October, 1864. He resided in Buffalo, and for twenty years prior to the Civil War was identified with the military organizations of the state and city... When the war began he resigned his office of police justice, enlisted as a private in the 65th New York Infantry, and was soon promoted to captain. Withdrawing his company from the regiment, he made it the nucleus of the 74th Regiment, New York Infantry. He was commissioned colonel of the 49th Regiment in September, 1861, served with it through the Peninsular Campaign, and during the “Seven Days' Battles” was in command of a brigade, continuing in charge from Harrison's Landing to Washington, and up to the time of the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, when he resumed command of his regiment. Colonel Bidwell took a prominent part in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, commanded a brigade at Gettysburg, and, when General Grant took command of the armies in Virginia, was again placed in charge of a brigade, participating in the Overland Campaign He was commissioned brigadier-general in July, 1864, and served with honor in the Shenandoah Campaigns, during the summer preceding the action at Cedar Creek, where he lost his life. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 258.
BIDWELL, John, politician, born in Chautauqua County, New York, 5 August, 1819. In 1829 he settled with his parents in Erie, Pennsylvania, and in 1831 moved to Ashtabula County, where he was educated in Kingsville Academy. During the winter of 1838-’9 he taught school in Darke County, and subsequently for two years in Missouri. In 1841 he emigrated to California, being one of the first to make the journey overland, which occupied at that time six months. On the Pacific Coast he had charge of Bodega and Fort Ross, and also of General Sutter's Feather River possessions. He served in the war with Mexico until its close, rising from second lieutenant to major, and was among the first to find gold in 1848 on Feather River. In 1849 he was a member of the state constitutional convention, and during the same year became a member of the Senate of the new state. He was one of the committee appointed to convey a block of gold bearing quartz to Washington in 1850, and was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention held in Charleston in 1860. Since then he has been a brigadier-general of the militia, and in 1864 he was elected a representative from California to Congress, serving from 4 December, 1865, to 3 March, 1867. He was a delegate to the Convention in 1866, and in 1875 he was candidate for governor of California, but was defeated. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 258.
BILLINGS, John Shaw, surgeon, born in Switzerland County, Indiana, 12 April, 1838. He was graduated at Miami University in 1857, and at the Ohio Medical College in 1860. At first he settled in Cincinnati, but in November, 1861, he was appointed acting assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army. Until March, 1863, he was assistant surgeon, having charge of hospitals in Washington, D. C., and West Philadelphia. He then served with the Army of the Potomac, being with the 5th Corps at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. From October, 1863, till February, 1864, he served on Hospital duty at David's and Bedlow's Islands in the vicinity of New York City, also acting as a member of the board of enrollment, after which he became medical inspector to the Army of the Potomac, and from December, 1864, was connected with the surgeon-general's office in Washington. In December, 1876, he was appointed surgeon, with the rank of major, in the regular army. He is also medical adviser of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and lecturer on municipal hygiene at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Billings is a member of numerous scientific societies, including the American Medical Association and the National Academy of Sciences (1883), and he is also an honorary member of the Statistical Society of London. During 1879-'80 he was vice-president of the National Board of Health, and in 1884 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh. During August, 1886, he was present at the meeting of the British Medical Association, and delivered an important address' on “medicine in the United States.” His contributions to the periodical literature of medicine are numerous, and he has also published reports on “Barracks and Hospitals” (War Department, Washington, 1870); “The Hygiene of the U.S. Army.” (1875); and “Mortality and Vital Statistics of the United States” (Census Reports, 1880). His great work, however, has been the “Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office,” U. S. Army (Washington, 1880 et seq.), in large quarto volumes, which contain the biography of every medical subject as far as it is to be found in the library at present under Dr. Billings's care. It is expected that the work will consist of ten volumes, of which six have been issued up to 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 262.
BINGHAM, John Armor, born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, in 1815. Republican Congressman, judge, advocate, U.S. Army. Bingham was one of the writers and sponsors of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. One of three military judges presiding in the Lincoln assassination trial. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. p. 263; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 277)
BINGHAM, John A., lawyer, born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, in 1815. He passed two years in a printing-office, and then entered Franklin College, Ohio, but left, on account of his health, before graduation. He was admitted to the bar in 1840, was district attorney for Tuscarawas County, Ohio, from 1846 till 1849, was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1854, and re-elected three times, sitting from 1855 till 1863. He prepared in the 34th Congress the report on the contested Illinois elections, and in 1862 was chairman of the managers of the house in the impeachment of Judge Humphreys for high treason. He failed of re-election in 1864, and was appointed by President Lincoln judge-advocate in the army, and later the same year solicitor of the court of claims. He was special judge-advocate in the trial of the assassins of President Lincoln. In 1865 he returned to Congress, and sat until 1873, serving on the committees on military affairs, freedmen, and reconstruction, and in the 40th Congress as chairman of the committees on Claims and Judiciary, and as one of the managers in the impeachment trial of President Johnson. On 3 May, 1873, he received the appointment of minister to Japan, which post he held until 1885, when he was recalled by President Cleveland. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, p. 263.
BINGHAM, Judson David, soldier, born at Massena Springs, St. Lawrence County, New York, 16 May, 1831. He was appointed to West Point from Indiana, and in 1854. He took part in the suppression of John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859, and during the Civil War served in charge of trains and supplies of General Banks's command in Maryland in 1861, of the quartermaster's depot at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1862-’3, and as chief quartermaster of the Army of the Tennessee. He took part in the siege of Vicksburg and in the invasion of Georgia. On 9 April, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general for faithful and meritorious services during the rebellion. After the war he was successively chief quartermaster of the Department of the lakes, assistant quartermaster-general at Washington, being in charge of the bureau a part of the time, as commissioner to audit the Kansas war accounts, and as chief quartermaster with the rank of lieutenant-colonel at the headquarters of the Division of the Pacific and the Department of the Missouri, and from 4 June, 1886, at ' Illinois, as chief quartermaster of the Division of the Missouri. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 263-264.
BINTLIFF, James, 1824-1901, abolitionist, newspaper editor, publisher, proprietor, businessman, Union Army colonel, helped found Republican Party. (Hunt, Roger, Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue. Gaithersburg, MD, 1990)
BIRGE, Henry Warner, soldier, born in Hartford, Connecticut, about 1830. When the Civil War began he was a resident of Norwich, Connecticut, and an aide on the staff of Governor W. A. Buckingham. On the day of the president's first call for troops (15 April, 1861) he began organizing the first regiments of Connecticut's quota. On 23 May he was '' major of the 4th Connecticut Volunteers, which was the first “three-years' regiment” of state troops mustered into the service of the United States. He served in Maryland and Virginia until November, 1861, when he was appointed colonel of the 13th Connecticut Infantry; joined General Butler's army in New Orleans in March, 1862, and was laced in command of the defences of the city. In September he commanded his regiment in a movement in the La Fourche District, and in December, when General Butler was succeeded by General. Banks, he was assigned to a brigade, which he commanded through the first Red River Campaign and the siege of Port Hudson (April to July, 1863). Before the surrender of this stronghold General Birge volunteered to organize and lead a volunteer battalion to carry the Confederate works by assault. Such was his reputation among the rank and file that his own regiment, the 13th Connecticut, volunteered almost in a body, and the full complement of 1,000 men was ready within two days. The assault was planned for the night of 10 July, but the news of the fall of Vicksburg was received, and Port Hudson surrendered 8 July, 1863. He was promoted brigadier-general 9 September, 1863. In 1864 he accompanied the second Red River Expedition, and after the engagements at Sabine Cross-Roads, Pleasant Hill, and Cane River, returned to Alexandria and was sent to take command at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which post was threatened by the Confederates. In July, 1864, he was ordered north with the 2d Division of the 19th Corps, joining General. Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley in August, and being present in all the battles of the ensuing campaign. In February and March, 1865, he was in command of the defences of Savannah, Georgia, where he remained until November, when he resigned his commission. His services were recognized the brevet of major-general of volunteers, and £ a vote of thanks from the legislature of his native state. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 266.
BIRNEY, William, lawyer, born near Huntsville, Alabama, 28 May, 1819. While pursuing his studies in Paris, in February, 1848, he took an active part in the revolution, and he was appointed on public competition professor of English literature in the College at Bourges. He entered the U. S. national service as captain in April, 1861, and rose through all the grades to the rank of brevet major-general of volunteers, commanding a division for the last two years of the Civil War. He participated in the principal battles in Virginia, and, being sent for a short time to Florida after the battle of Olustee, regained possession of the principal parts of the state and of several of the Confederate strongholds. ln 1863-'4, having been detailed by the war Department as one of three superintendents of the organization of U. S. colored troops, he enlisted, mustered in, armed, equipped, drilled, and sent to the field seven regiments of those troops. In this work he opened all the slave-prisons in Baltimore, and freed their inmates, including many slaves belonging to men in the Confederate armies. The result of his operations was to hasten the abolition of slavery in Maryland. He passed four years in Florida after the war, and in 1874 moved to Washington, D. C., where he practised his profession and became attorney for the District of Columbia.
BIRNEY, Dion, physician, entered the army as lieutenant at the beginning of the Civil War, rose to the rank of captain, and died in 1864 of disease contracted in the service.
BIRNEY, David Bell, born in Huntsville, Alabama, 29 May, 1825; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 18 October, 1864, studied law in Cincinnati, and, after engaging in business in Michigan, began the practice of law in Philadelphia in 1848. He entered the army as lieutenant-colonel at the beginning of the Civil War, and was made colonel of the 23d Pennsylvania Volunteers, which regiment he raised, principally at his own expense, in the summer of 1861. He was promoted successively to brigadier and major-general of volunteers, and distinguished himself in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, the second battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. After the death of General Berry he commanded the division, receiving his commission as major-general, 23 May, 1863. He commanded the 3d Corps at Gettysburg, after General Sickles was wounded, and on 23 July, 1864, was given the command of the 10th Corps. He died of disease contracted in the service.
BIRNEY, Fitzhugh, died, in 1864, of wounds and disease, in the service with the rank of colonel.
BIRNEY, James Gillespie, was lieutenant and captain of cavalry, served as staff officer under Custer and Sheridan, was appointed lieutenant in the regular army at the close of the war; and died soon afterward of disease contracted in the service. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp. 267-269.
BIRNEY, William, 1819-1907, lawyer, Union soldier, abolitionist leader, strong opponent of slavery, commander of U.S. Colored Troops (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, p. 269; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936 Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 294; Who’s Who in America, 1899-1907; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 2, p. 819)
BISSELL, Josiah Wolcott, engineer, born in Rochester, New York, 12 May, 1818. He was the son of Josiah Bissell, an early settler of Rochester, N. Y., who employed his wealth, derived from land speculations, for benevolent objects, and who established a line of stage-coaches that did not run on Sundays. He was engaged before the Civil War in banking, and in architectural and engineering work. During the war he was colonel of an engineer regiment attached to General Pope's army, and superintended the construction of the canal that enabled the national gun-boats to approach the Confederate works on Island No. 10 in Mississippi River. After his return to civil life he took a prominent part in the enterprise of collecting and indexing records of real estate titles, so as to simplify searches, and was engaged in that work in Cincinnati, and afterward in Boston. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 271.
BISSELL, Simon B., naval officer, born in Vermont, 28 October. 1808; died in Paris, Prance. 18 February, 1883. He became a midshipman in the U. S. Navy 6 November, 1824, and was promoted to be a lieutenant 8 December 1837; commander, 14 September, 1855; captain, 16 July, 1862: commodore, 10 October, 1866. He was attached to the sloop "Albany" during the war with Mexico, and was present at the siege of Vera Cruz. He commanded the sloop "Cyane," Pacific squadron, in 1861-2; was on duty the in the Navy-yard at Mare Island, California, in 1863- 4; commanded the sloop-of-war "Monongahela" in 1866-7; was on special service in 1869; and was placed on the retired list on 1 March, 1870. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 271.
BLACKBURN, Joseph Clay Styles, senator, born in Woodford County, Kentucky, 1 October, 1838. He was graduated at Center College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1857. studied law with George B. Kincaid in Lexington, Kentucky, was admitted to the bar in 1858, and practised in Chicago till 1860, when he returned to his native county. He entered the Confederate Army in 1861, and served through the war. In 1865 he resumed the practice of law, in 1871 was elected to the Kentucky legislature, and was re-elected in 1873. In 1875 he entered Congress as a Democrat. He was re-elected in 1876, 1878, 1880, and 1882. He was elected senator from Kentucky on 4 February, 1884, and took his seat on 4 March, 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 272.
BLACKMAN, George Curtis, surgeon, born in Newtown, Connecticut, 20 April, 1819; died in Avondale, Ohio, 19 July, 1871. He was graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, in 1840, and in 1854 became professor of surgery in the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati. During the Civil War he served as an army surgeon. He was a bold and skilful operator, and an able writer and lecturer. He translated and edited Vidal's “Treatise on Venereal Disease” (New York, 1854), edited a new edition of Mott's translation of Velpeau's “Surgery,” with notes and additions of his own, and was a frequent contributor to medical journals. He was a member of the Society of Physicians and Surgeons in London. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 274
BLACKWELL, Elizabeth, 1821-1910, Bristol, England, abolitionist, physician. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I. pp.274-275; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. 230)
BLACKWELL, Elizabeth, physician, born in Bristol, England, in 1821. Her father emigrated with his family in 1832, and settled in New York, but moved in 1838 to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he died a few months afterward, leaving a widow and nine children almost destitute. Elizabeth, then seventeen years old, opened a school in connection with two elder sisters, and conducted it successfully for several years. A friend now suggested that she should study medicine, and she resolved to become a physician. At first she pursued her studies in private, with some help from Dr. John Dixon, of Asheville, North Carolina, in whose family she was governess for a year. She then continued her studies in Charleston, South Carolina, supporting herself by teaching music, and after that in Philadelphia, under Dr. Allen and Dr. Warrington. She now made formal application to the medical schools of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston for admission as a student, but in each instance the request was denied, although several professors avowed interest in her undertaking. Rejecting advice to adopt an assumed name and male attire, she persevered in her attempt, and after several more refusals was finally admitted to the medical school at Geneva, New York, where she took her degree of M. D. in regular course in January, 1849. During her connection with the college, when not in attendance there upon lectures, she pursued a course of clinical study in Blockley Hospital, Philadelphia. After graduation she went to Paris, and remained there six months, devoting herself to the study and practice of midwifery. The next autumn she was admitted as a physician to walk the hospital of St. Bartholomew in London, and after nearly a year spent there she returned to New York, and began practice in 1851. In 1854, with her sister, Dr. Emily Blackwell, she organized the New York Infirmary For women and Children. In 1859 she revisited England, and delivered in London and other cities a course of lectures on the necessity of medical education for women. In 1861, having returned to New York, she held, with Dr. Emily Blackwell, a meeting in the parlors of the infirmary, at which the first steps were taken toward organizing the Women's Central Relief Association for sending nurses and medical supplies for the wounded soldiers during the Civil War. In 1867 the two sisters organized the women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, in which Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell held the chair of hygiene and Dr. Emily Blackwell the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women. In 1869, leaving Dr. Emily in. charge of their joint work, Dr. Elizabeth returned to London and practised there for several years, taking an active part in organizing the women's Medical College, in which she was elected professor of the diseases of women. She also took part in forming in England the National Health Society, and the Society for Repealing the Contagious-Diseases acts. Besides several health tracts, she has published “Laws of Life, or the Physical Education of Girls” (Philadelphia, 1852), and “Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children” (1879), which has been translated into French. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, pp. 274-275.
BLAIR, Francis Preston, soldier, born in Lexington, Kentucky, 19 February, 1821; died in St. Louis, Missouri, 8 July, 1875, was son of Francis P. Blair noticed above. After graduation at Princeton, in 1841, he studied law in Washington and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1843, and began to practice in St. Louis. In 1845 he went for his health to the Rocky Mountains with a company of trappers, and when the war with Mexico began he enlisted in the army as a private. After the War he returned to the practice of his profession in St. Louis. In 1848 he joined the Free-Soil branch of the Democratic Party, was for a time editor of the “Missouri Democrat,” and from 1852 till 1856 was a member of the Missouri legislature. In 1856 he joined the newly organized Republican, Party, and was elected to Congress, where, in 1857, he spoke in favor of colonizing the Negroes of the United States in Central America. In 1858 the Democratic candidate for Congress was returned. Mr. Blair successfully contested the seat, but immediately resigned, and was defeated in the election that followed. He was, however, elected again in 1860 and in 1862. Soon after the South Carolina secession Convention was called, in November, 1861, Mr. Blair, at a meeting of the Republican leaders in St. Louis, showed the necessity of immediate effort to prevent the seizure by the state authorities of the St. Louis Arsenal, containing 65,000 stand of arms belonging to the government. He became the head of the military organization then formed, which guarded the arsenal from that time; and it was at his suggestion that the state troops under General Frost were captured on 10 May, 1861, without orders from Washington. It is claimed that he thus saved Missouri and Kentucky to the union. Entering the army as a colonel of volunteers, he was made brigadier-general 7 August, 1861, and major-general 29 November, 1862, resigning his seat in Congress in 1863. He commanded a division in the Vicksburg Campaign, led his men in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and was at the head of the 17th Corps during Sherman's Campaigns in 1864–5, including the march to the sea. In 1866 he was nominated by President Johnson as collector of internal revenue at St. Louis, and afterward as minister to Austria; but in each case, his opposition to the reconstruction measures led to his rejection by the Senate. He was afterward commissioner of the Pacific Railroad. His dissatisfaction with the Party of the Republicans led him to return to the Democratic Party, and in 1868 he was its candidate for the vice-presidency. In January, 1871, General Blair again entered the legislature of Missouri, and in the same month he was elected to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate, where he remained until 1873, when he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated. At the time of his death he was state superintendent of insurance. He published “The Life and Public Services of General William O. Butler” (1848). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 281.
BLAIR, Henry William, senator, born in Campton, New Hampshire, 6 December, 1834. His parents died before he had completed his thirteenth year, and his boyhood was spent in the family of Richard Bartlett, of Campton, where he worked on the farm, and attended school at intervals until he was seventeen, when he began to teach, hoping to earn enough money to take him through college. Com £ ill health to give up this plan, he read law with William Leverett, of Plymouth, New Hampshire, was admitted to the bar in 1859, and in 1860 was elected prosecuting attorney for Grafton County When the Civil War and he enlisted in the 15th New Hampshire Volunteers, was chosen captain of his company, soon became major, and finally lieutenant-colonel. He was twice wounded severely at the siege of Port Hudson, and was prevented by his wounds, and disease contracted in service, from taking any active part in the remainder of the war. He was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1866, and in 1867 and 1868 to the state senate. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1875 till 1879, and, declining a renomination, was elected to the U.S. Senate in the latter year, and reëlected in 1885. Senator Blair has given much attention to social '' and is an ardent temperance reformer. He is the author of the “Blair Common School Bill,” which was introduced by him in the 47th Congress. As passed by the Senate in April, 1884, the bill appropriates $77,000,000 to be distributed among the states in proportion to their illiteracy. In the original bill the amount was $105,000,000. In the 49th Congress the Senate again passed the bill, making the appropriation $79,000,000. Senator Blair has also introduced prohibitory temperance and woman suffrage amendments to the national constitution, is the author of the Blair scientific temperance education bill and the Blair pension bill, and has made important speeches on financial subjects. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 281.
BLAKE, George A. H., soldier, born in Pennsylvania in September, 1812; died in Washington, D.C., 27 October, 1884. He became lieutenant in the 2d U.S. Dragoons 11 June, 1836, was made captain in December, 1839, and was in the actions with the Seminoles at Fort Miller and Jupiter inlet, in 1841. During the Mexican War, in 1846–’7, he was in the battles at Cerro Gordo, Puebla, Contreras, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and the City of Mexico, and was brevetted major for gallant conduct at St. Augustine, Mexico. In July, 1850, he became major of the 1st U.S. Dragoons, and served against the Apache and Navajo Indians. In May, 1861, he was made lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Cavalry, and colonel on 15 February, 1862. He took part in the battle of Gaines's Mill, 27 June, 1862, where he was slightly wounded, and was also in the actions at Aldie, Middletown, Upperville, and at Gettysburg, where he distinguished himself. He was afterward chief commissary of musters for the Department of Virginia, and in the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general U. S. A. for his services at Gettysburg. From February, 1865, till March, 1866, he was member of a military commission at Washington, and afterward commander at Fort Vancouver, Washington territory. On 15 December, 1870, he was retired. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 283.
BLAKE, George Smith, naval officer, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1808; died in Longwood, Massachusetts, 24 June, 1871. His father, Francis Blake, was a prominent lawyer in Worcester. On 1 January, 1818, he was appointed to the U.S. Navy as midshipman. On 5 November, 1821, the schooner "Alligator, on which he was serving, was attacked near the Cape Verde Islands by a Portuguese ship, which was captured and sent to the United States, with Blake as her executive officer. Commissioned lieutenant, 81 March, 1827, he cruised in the "Grampus," on the West India station, for the suppression of piracy. He was employed on a Survey of Narragansett bay in 1832, was attached to the U.S. Navy-yard at Philadelphia in 1833, and from 1837 till 1848 was connected with the coast survey. The secretary of the treasury, in a letter to the Navy Department, speaks highly of Lieutenant Blake's zeal and fidelity in this service. In 1846, while commanding the brig "Perry" in the Gulf of Mexico, he was wrecked on the Florida Coast in the great hurricane, but succeeded in getting his vessel on", and brought her to Philadelphia under jury-masts. The secretary of the Navy, in a letter to Lieutenant Blake, commended his conduct on this occasion. He was made commander 27 February, 1847, and attached to the bureau of construction. From 1849 till 1852 he was fleet captain in the Mediterranean. On 14 September, 1855, he was made captain, and assigned to special duty at Hoboken, New Jersey, in connection with the building of the Stevens battery there. In 1858 he became superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. At the beginning of the war his prompt measures saved the government property at the academy from capture, and he superintended the removal of the school to Newport, Rhode Island. He was commissioned commodore on 16 July, 1862, left the Naval Academy in 1865, and from I860 till 1869 he was light-house inspector of the Second District, residing at Boston. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 284.
BLAKE, Homer Crane, naval officer, born in Cleveland, Ohio, 1 February, 1822; died 21 January, 1880. He was appointed to the U.S. Navy from Ohio as a midshipman, 2 March, 1840, and served on the frigate "Constellation," of the East India Squadron, 1841-3; the sloop "Preble," 1843-'5; at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1846, when he was made passed midshipman; and again on the " Preble " until 1848. Until 1856 he served on receiving-ships at New York and Boston, with the exception of two years in the Pacific, and in 1855 was commissioned lieutenant. From 1857 till 1859 he served on the "St. Lawrence," of the Brazil Squadron, and from 1861 till 1862 on the "Sabine," of the home squadron. He was then made lieutenant-commander and given the command of the " Uatteras," of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron, formerly a merchant steamer. On 11 July, 1863, the " Hatteras," while at anchor off Galveston, Texas, was ordered to chase a suspicious vessel, which proved to be the Confederate cruiser " Alabama," and after a short action Commander Blake was obliged to surrender, as the "Hatteras," no match for her adversary. was disabled and sinking. The crew was taken off, and the " Hatteras " went down in ten minutes. Blake was carried to Jamaica, where he was paroled, returned to the United States, and was soon exchanged. From 1863 till 1865 he commanded the steamer "Utah," of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, where he did good service, shelling three divisions of the Confederate Army on the James in 1864, and assisting to repel an attack on the Army of the James on 23 January, 1865. He was made commander, 8 March, 1866, commanded the "Swatara" and the " Alaska," and became captain, 25 May, 1871. From 1873 till 1878 he was in command of the naval rendezvous at New York, and in 1880 was promoted to commodore. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 284.
BLANCHARD, Albert G., soldier, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1810. He was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1829, and served on frontier duty and recruiting service until 1 October, 1840, when he resigned, with the rank of first lieutenant. From 1840 till 1846 he was a merchant at New Orleans, Louisiana, and was director of public schools there from 1843 till 1845. During the Mexican War he served as captain of Louisiana volunteers, being at the battle of Monterey and the siege of Vera Cruz, and he re-entered the regular army on 27 May, 1847, as major of the 12th U.S. Infantry, serving till 25 July, 1848. After teaching in the New Orleans public schools he became a surveyor, and was afterward connected with several railroad companies. At the beginning of the Civil War, in 1861, he was made a brigadier-general in the Confederate Army, and on 29 February, 1862, issued from Norfolk, Virginia, an order that became quite celebrated, urging the inhabitants to fire at the National Army from behind trees, and obstruct its passage in every possible way. Since the war, General Blanchard has been a civil engineer and surveyor in New Orleans. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 287.
BLANCHARD, Justus Wardwell, soldier, born in Milford, New Hampshire, in 1811; died in Syracuse, New York, 14 September, 1877. Before the Civil War he was captain of the Burgess Corps of Albany, New York. He entered the national service as captain in the 3d New York Volunteers in 1861, became lieutenant-colonel in 1863, and brevet brigadier-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865. He was at Big Bethel in 1861, took part in Banks's Red River Expedition, volunteered on a forlorn hope at Port Hudson, and was with Sheridan in his Shenandoah Campaign in 1864. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 288.
BLEDSOE, Albert Taylor, educator, born in Frankfort, Kentucky, 9 November, 1809; died in Alexandria, Virginia, 8 December, 1877. He was appointed from Kentucky to the U. S. Military Academy, and was graduated in 1830, after which he served in the army at Fort Gibson, Indian territory, until 31 August, 1832, when he resigned. From 1833 till 1834 he was adjunct professor of mathematics and teacher of the French language at Kenyon, and in 1835–6 professor of mathematics at Miami. After studying theology he was ordained a clergyman in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1835, and was connected with various churches in Ohio until 1838. Having previously studied law, he began its practice in Springfield, Ohio in 1838, and continued it there and in Washington, D.C., till 1848. During the years 1848–54 he was professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Mississippi, and from 1854 till 1861 professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia. In 1861 he entered the Confederate service as colonel, but was soon made chief of the War Bureau and acting assistant Secretary of War. In 1863 he went to England to collect material for his work on the constitution, which he published on his return in 1866. He then settled in Baltimore and began the publication of the “Southern Review,” hitherto mainly of a political character, which under his editorship assumed a theological tone and became the recognized organ of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In 1868 he became principal of the Louisa school, Baltimore, and in 1871 was ordained a minister in the Methodist Church. In addition to numerous contributions to periodicals he published “An Examination of wards on the Will” (Philadelphia, 1845); “A Theodicy or Vindication of the Divine Glory” (New York, 1853); “Liberty and Slavery” (Philadelphia, 1857); “Is Davis a Traitor? or was Secession a Constitutional Right previous to the War of 1861?” (Baltimore, 1866); and “Philosophy of Mathematics” (Philadelphia, 1866). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 291.
BLENKER, Louis, soldier, born in Worms, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, 31 Julv,1812; died in Rockland County, New York, 31 October, 1803. In his youth he was apprenticed to a jeweler, but on becoming of age he enlisted in the Bavarian legion that was raised to accompany Prince Otho, then recently elected king, to Greece. When the legion was disbanded in 1837, he received the rank of lieutenant. He then returned home and began the study of medicine in the University of Munich, but soon gave this up to engage in the wine business in Worms. In 1849 he was a leading member of the revolutionary government in that city, and also burgomaster and commander of the national guard. He fought in several successful engagements with the Prussians; but the revolutionists being soon completely crushed, he retired into Switzerland. In September, 1849, having been ordered to leave that country, he came to the United States and settled in Rockland County, New York where he undertook to cultivate a farm. Later he engaged in business in New York, and so continued until the beginning of the Civil War, when he organized the 8th Regiment of New York Volunteers, of which he was commissioned colonel, 31 May, 1861. After some time spent in Washington his regiment was incorporated with others into a brigade attached to Colonel Miles's 8th Division in General McDowell's Army. During the first battle of Bull Run this division acted as a reserve, and covered the retreat with grout steadiness. For his services at that time he was commissioned brigadier-general of the volunteers 9 August, 1861. He remained with the Army of the Potomac, commanding a division, until the beginning of the Peninsular Campaign, when he was ordered to western Virginia, he took an active part in the battle of Cedar Keys, 8 June, 1862: but after the arrival of General Fremont he was succeeded by General Sigel. General Blenker was then ordered to Washington, and on 31 March, 1863, was mustered out of service. He returned to his farm in Rockland County, where he remained until his death, which resulted from internal injuries received from a fall of his horse in entering the town of Warrenton, Virginia. while with his command. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 292.
BLODGETT, Foster, politician, born in Augusta, Georgia, 15 January, 1826; died in Atlanta, 12 November, 1877. He became mayor of Augusta in 1859, and was reelected in 1860, but was defeated in 1861. During the Civil War he was captain of the Blodgett Artillery, from Augusta. After the war he joined the Republican Party and was appointed postmaster of Augusta in 1865, but was removed from that office in 1868, and reinstated in 1869. In 1867 he was made president of the Union Republican Club of Augusta, and during the same year he was again chosen mayor. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1867, and in 1870 claimed to have been chosen U. S. Senator from Georgia, but failed to secure his seat, as the Senate decided in favor of the claims of Thomas M. Norwood. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 295
BLOODGOOD, Delavan, surgeon, born in Springville, Erie County, New York, 20 August 1831. He was graduated at Madison University, Hamilton, New York, in 1852, studied medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, Michigan University, and Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where he received his degree of M. D., and entered the U. S. Navy as assistant surgeon 13 March, 1857. In his first cruise, in the steam frigate “Merrimac,” of the Pacific Squadron, he volunteered his services when a supposed epidemic broke out among the '' of the Pacific steam navigation company at Tobago. At the beginning of the Civil War he was on duty in the Gulf of Mexico, and afterward in Hampton Roads, receiving promotion as surgeon, 24 January, 1862. He was subsequently attached to the West India Flying Squadron when yellow fever broke out on board, and to the Carolina Blockading Squadron when a severe epidemic of small-pox occurred. He was ordered to the “Jamestown” at Panama in February, 1867, and was one of the few survivors of the virulent epidemic of yellow fever that raged among the men. He was promoted, 22 August, 1884, to medical director, and assigned to the Naval Laboratory in Brooklyn, New York. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1887, Vol. I, p. 296.
BLUNT, James G., soldier, born in Hancock County, Maine, in 1826; died in Washington, D. C., in 1881. From his fifteenth to his twentieth year he was a (1817), and a sailor. He was graduated at the Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 1849, and practised medicine in Darke County until 1856, when he settled in Anderson County, Kansas. He took a prominent part in the contest over the introduction of slavery into Kansas, and was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of the state. In July, 1861, he entered the army as lieutenant-colonel of the 3d Kansas Volunteers. He commanded the cavalry in General James Lane's brigade, and on 8 April, 1862, was promoted brigadier-general and assigned to the command of the military Department of Kansas. On 22 October, 1862, in the battle of Old Fort Wayne, his Kansas and Cherokee troops routed the Confederate force concentrated at Maysville, on the western border of Arkansas. On 28 November. he attacked and defeated Marmaduke's forces at Cane Hill, Arkansas On 7 December, 1862, he encountered and defeated, with the aid of General Herron, the Confederates under Hindman at Prairie Grove, and thereby checked the advance of the southern troops into Missouri. On 28 December. he captured Fort Van Buren on Arkansas River. He was promoted to be major-general, 29 November, 1862. In June, 1863, being relieved of the command of the Department of Kansas, he took the field with the army of the frontier. On 16 July, 1863, he defeated General Cooper at Honey Springs; and on 28 October, 1864, at Newtonia, Missouri, with the assistance of General Sanborn's cavalry, his troops gave the final blow to Price's invasion of Missouri. During the latter part of the war he was military commandant of the District of south Kansas. After he was mustered out he settled in Leavenworth, Kansas. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. I, pp. 297-298.
