/'/ '/ / J, ■ 'f ■ / / / / J o exists anir ffljirtDrs: NOTABLE MEN OF TUB TIME. BTOGEAPIIICAL SKETCHES ilitari aiiii llalial Icrues, ^falfsmcii an^ Orators, DISTINfiUISIIED IN' THE AMERICAN CRISIS OF 18G1-G2. EDITED BY FRANK MOORE. Wixt\ f artraits crn ^Utl, from ODriginiil Swurtfs. : — 1 870 ■-Cf'/^.S>^-' NEW YORK: O. P. PTTTISTAM, 532 BROAD^VAY. C. T. EVANS, GENERAL APrENT. ^ ^^ r/ Entered acconVmg to Act of Congress, in the yenr ISOl, By a. P. PUTNAM, In the Clerk's Olflee of the Iiislrict Court of the United States, for Iho Soutliern District of New York. C A. AI.VORD. ELECTROn-pKR ANP PRTNTER. CONTENTS. LlEUTENiNT-GENERAL "WINFIELD SCOTT, U. S. A. . Major-General JOHN ELLIS WOOL, U. S. A. . "WILLIAM HENRY SEWAED, Secretary op State Brigadier-General NATHANIEL LYON Lieutenant WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM . Brigadier-General MICHAEL CORCORAN President ABRAHAM LINCOLN .... Brigadier-General LOUIS BLENKEB M.1J0R-GENERAL FRANZ SIGEL .... Rev. henry W. BELLOWS, D. P. . LiEUTEifANT JOHN TROUT GREBLE .... Major-General NATHANIEL PRENTISS BANKS MAJOR-GENTiRAL GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN, U. S. A. Governor WILLIAM SPRAGUE .... Lieutenant HENRY B. HIDDEN ■ . Major-General JOHN CHARLES FREMONT,^ U. S. A. ALFRED ELY, M. C Brigadier-General ABRAM DURYEA . Brig.idiee-Generai, JOSEPH K. P. MANSFIELD, U. S. A. Majoe-Gen-er.'^l JOHN ADAMS DIX Brigadler-General AMBROSE EVERETT BURNSIDE Adjutant FRAZAR AUGUSTUS STEARNS- Colonel EPHRAIM ELMER ELLSWORTH . GIDEON WELLES, Secretary of Navy . M.UOR THEODORE WINTHROP .... Brigadier-General FREDERICK W. LANDER . Brigadier-General WILLIAM STARKE ROSECRANS Major-General BENJAMIN F. BUTLER CHARLES SUMNER. U. S. Senator .... , Frontispiece. • • . 15 21 . 27 37 . 49 55 • . 63 69 . . 79 . 83 . 93 99 ■ ; . 107 115 . 119 127 • . 131 135 • . 139 143 . . 153 161 . . 167 169 . 175 179 . 183 187 iv. C U N T E N r S . llAjOE-GEXEaAL HENRY AVAGER HALLECK, U. S. A. . . . 195 JOSEPH HOLT 203 Brigadier-Gexeral GEORGE ARCHIBALD McCALL . . . . . .205 Governor JOHN ALBION ANDREW . ...... 209 Brigadier-General ROBERT ANDERSON . . . , . . .215 Reae-Admiral SAMUEL FRANCIS DU" PONT ...... 221 Colonel EDWARD D. BAKER ......... 225 Rear-Admiral CHARLES WILKES . . . . . . . .221 Major-General JOHN POPE ......... 235 RE.iE-ADMiRAL SILAS HORTON STRINGHAM 241 Rear-Admiral ANDREW HULL FOOTE ........ 247 'i NOTABLE MEN. WINFIELD SCOTT. WIXFIELD SCOTT was born near Petersburgh, Virginia, June 13th, 1786 ; was the youngest son of William Scott, Esq., and was left an orphan at an early age. He was educated at the higli-sehool at Eichmond, whence he went to "William and Mary College, and attended law lectures. He was admitted to the bar of Vir- ginia in 1806. The next year he went to South Carolina with the intention to take up his residence there ; but before he had acquired the right to practise in that state, Congress, in view of imminent hostilities with England, passed a bill to enlarge the army, and young Scott obtained a commission as captain of light artillery. General Wilkinson was then stationed in Louisiana, and Captain Scott was or- dered to join the army at that point in 1809. In the next year Wilkinson was superseded, and the young captain then expressed what was a very general opinion: namely, that his late commander was implicated in Burr's con.spiracy. For this he was tried by court-martial, and sentenced to one year's suspension from rank and pay. Probably this suspension was a fortunate event; for the whole of that year was employed in the diligent study of works on military art. War was declared against Great Britain June 18th, 1812 ; and in July of the same year Captain Scott was made a lieutenant-colonel in the second artillery, and was stationed at Black Rock with two companies of his regiment. With this force he covered Van Rensselaer's passage of the Niagara River on the expedition against Queenstown, October 13th. Later in the day, when Van Rensselaer was disabled, the command fell upon Scott, who, after a gallant figlit, deserted by the New York militia, and outnumbered very greatly by British reinforcements, surrendered his whole command, two hundred and ninety-three in all, prisoners of war. While a prisoner, he saw the British officers select from the American soldiers taken with him such as appeared to be Irishmen ; and these men, they declared, were to be sent to England as British subjects, there to be punished for treason. Scott then, in the presence of the British officers, assured the soldiers that the United States government would not quietly see them suffer, and would certainly retaliate upon British prisoners the treatment they should receive. Exchanged in January, •4 NOTABLE MEN. 1813, ho immediately made a report of tliis matter to the secretary of war. Laid before Congress, this report originated the act by which the President of the United States was invested with "the power of retaliation;" and from prisoners subsequently taken by himself, Scott chose a number equal to the number sent to England to abide their fate. For this purpose he was careful to choose only Englishmen. Immediately after the capture of York, Upper Canada, Scott rejoined the army on the frontier as adjutant to General Dearborn, with the rank of colonel. He took part in the expedition against Fort George ; landed his men in good order, and scaled a steep height in the presence of the enemy, who was linally driven from liis position at the point of the bayonet. Fort George was then no longer tenable, and the British abandoned it, having placed slow matches to all the magazines. Only one of them exploded, and from a piece of timber thrown by it. Colonel Scott re- ceived a severe wound in the left shoulder. Disaster and disgrace marked the close of this cam|jaign and for another it was necessary to form a new army. In March, ISli, Colonel S(rott was made a brigadier-general, and immediately thereafter established a camp of instruction at Bufl'alo, where his own and Eipley's brigades, with a battalion of artillery, and some regiments of volunteers, were drilled into thorough and accurate discipline. Brigadier-General Scott crossed the Niagara River with his brigade July 3d, 181-1; on the fourth skirmished for sixteen miles with a detachment under the Mar- quis of Tweedale; and that night encamped upon Street's Creek, two miles from the British camp at Chippewa. Between the two camps lay the plain upon which the battle was fought next day. East of this plain was the Niagara River, west was a heavy wood ; and on the northern side from the wood to the Niagara ran the Chippewa River, while Street's Creek ran in a similar direction on the southern side. Behind the Chippewa was the British army under General Riall, well pro- vided with artillery. About noon of the fifth, a bright, hot summer's day, there occurred a skirmish of light troops in the wood. Some Indians and Britisli militia •were there engaged l)y General Porter, with volunteers, militia, and friendly Indians, and driven back until they came upon t'le main body of the British army, which was seen to be in motion when Porter's irregulars broke and fled. Major-General Brown, in the wood with Porter, thus iirst learned of the British advance ; and Brigadier-General Scott, also ignorant of it, was leading his brigade into the plain to drill. This was at four P. M. Brown hurried to the rear to bring ttp Eipley's brigade, and Scott's force passed the bridge over Street's Creek in perfect order under the British fire. The action soon became general. Major Jessup, with a battalion in the wood, for some time checked the cncmv's right wing, whereupon the enemy left one battalion with him, finned a new I'iglit, and (■(intinucd to advance. The ])ritisli line was now drawn nearly S(iuare across the jilain. (>|i|i()sed was a battalion umlc]- McNeill, which faced WINFIELD SCOTT. las right obliquely, and another under Leavenworth, which opposed his left iu the same manner. Scott's line, thus formed, and supported by Towson's artillery on the right, continued to advance, fire, and halt, until it was within eighty paces of the .enemy, when McNeill's and Leavenworth's battalions, almost simult'aneously, charged with the bayonet. This shock was decisive; the British army broke and fled, pur- sued nearly to its intrcnchments, in complete rout. The American loss was three hundred and twenty-seven, the enemy's five hundred and three ; while the Americans engaged numbered only one thousand nine hundred, and the British two thousand one hundred. Three of the enemy's regiments, the Eoyal Scots, the Queen's Own, and the Hundredth regiment, were esteemed the best troops in the British anny. Much gloom was cleared from the public mind by this battle; it atoned for many disasters, and the country was taught, when it needed most to know it, that American soldiers, in projicr hands, were equal to those whose skill and discipline had been acquired in the hard-fought fields of the Peninsular war. "Brigadier General Scott,' said General Brown in his oflicial report, "is entitled to the highest praise our country can bestow." With Scott's brigade still in the van, the American army passed over the Cliip pewa two days after the battle, and the British army retreated before it. But to mask a movement against Burlington Heights, a feigned retreat was almost imme diately made. Should this fail to draw the enemy out, it was intended to use the 2oth of July as a day of j-est, and force an action on the 26th ; but on the 25th word came that a portion of the enemy's force had crossed the Niagara, and Scott was sent forward to attack the remainder thus weakened. His force consisted of four small battalions of infantry, Towson's battery, and a detachment of cavalry, one thousand three hundred men in all. Al^out two miles from camp he came upon the enemy drawn up in line of battle on Lundy's Lane. No British troops had crossed the Niagara, and Scott was now in front of the same army he had beaten on the 5t]i. swelled with a heavy reinforcement which had come up unknown to him only the night before. Eetreat must have a bad efi-ect on the force behind him : to stand fast was impossible, as he was already under fire; he therefore advanced, determined to hold the enemy in check, if possible, till the whole American army should come up. The battle began a little before sunset, and continued into the night. Major-Gencral Brown arrived upon the field, and assumed command at nine p. m. Then the enemy's riglit, in an attempted flank movement, had been driven back with lieavy loss; his left was cut off" and many prisoners taken: his centre alone remained firm covered by a battery on a hill, which was finally carried by the bayonet. Scott received a severe wound in the side early in the night," and at eleven o'clock was disabled by a musket-ball in the left shoulder, and borne from the field. For his gallant c.ndu.'t in these twc battles. Scott was breveted major-general, b NOTABLE MEN. received a gold medal from Congress, and was tendered a juisitidu in the cabinet as secretary' of war, whieli lie declined in favor of his senior. While yet feeble from his wounds, he went to Europe by order of the government, for the restoration of his health and for professional improvement. He returned home in 1816, and in March of the following j'car was married to Miss Maria Mayo, daughter of John Mayo, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia. Ordered to the command of the forces intended to act against the savages in the Black Hawk war, in May, 1832, General Scott reached Prairie du Chien the day after the battle of Bail Axe, which ended the war, and in time only to assist ]n the preparation of the treaties thereupon ninde witli the various tribes. From the western frontier, he arri^■ed in New York in October, 1832, and was at once ordered to Charleston, S. C. Nullification had there agitated the community since the passage of the revenue act of 1828, and in 1832 a state eonventi(.)n provided for resistance to the objectionable law. President Jackson pronounced the resist- ance thus proposed incompatible with the existence of the Union ; and the governor of the state called out twelve thousand volunteei's. General Scott's duty at Charles- ton was to examine the forts in the harbor, and strengthen and reinforce them if he deemed it necessary; and he was ordered to act subordinately to the United States civil authorities in all that he did, but to prepare for any danger. Every ]iart of this duty was discharged with an admirable forbearance and delicacy, which tended greatly to soothe, and did much to allay the angry excitement; and South Cai'olina, thus firmly met, rescinded her nullification ordinance. In January, 1836, Scott was ordered to Florida, and opened a campaign against the Indians there, which, from the nature of the country, the climate, inadequate stores, and the insufficiency of his force, proved entirely fruitless. Greater success crowned his cftbrts against the Creek Indians in the same year, and all went on well until, in July, he was recalled, that inquiry might be made into his first failure. U[)on full deliberation, the court of iiKpury pronounced his Seminole cam- paign '"well devised, and prosecuted with energy, steadiness, and ability." Yet he took no further part in the Florida war, though it employed the government for six years longer. Canada became, in 1837, the scene of great |)olitical excitement, and all along the northern frontier the American people sympathized with the patriot party over the line, and their sympathy became active. Navy Island, in the Niagara River and within the British line, was occupied by some hundreds of Americans, who kept up com- munication with the American side liy the small steamer Caroline ; and this steamer, while at tlic wharf on the American side, was cut loose at night by a British force, fired, and sent over the Falls. Great excitement spread through the whole country with the news. General Scott was ordered to the point January 4th, 1838. Through the H'liiaindi'r <>l' the wintrr he v/as occupied in the organization of a regular and WINFIE LI) SCOTT. 7 volunteer force ; but at the same time he exercised everywhere a gi'eat influence for peace, and mainly through his noble exertions in this direction the war-cloud passed by. Again he was ordered to the Canada line in the next year. Hostile move- meats were then on foot in the Maine boundary dispute. Congress had appropriated ten millions of dollars, and authorized the president to call and accept volunteers. British troops were in motion toward the disputed territory ; the Maine militia was ready to move, and correspondence between the two governments had come to an end. Yet Scott, from his first appearance, became a mediator. He was met in a similar spirit on the other side by Sir John Harvey, of the British army, with whom he had had not dissimilar relations in the campaign of 1814; and the corre- spondence begun between the two veterans brought about a peaceful solution of the whole difficulty. In June, 1841, upon the death of Major-General Macomb, General Scott be- came commander-in-chief of the entire army of the United States. War with Mexico having resulted upon the annexation of Texas, General Scott was ordered to that country in November, 1846, and reached the Rio Grande in January, 1847. The battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, had then been fought, and the town of Monterey taken. General Santa Anna was at San Luis Potosi, witli twenty thousand men. Tay- lor was at Monterey with eighteen thousand, and Scott had with him only a small portion of the force with which it had been arranged that he should act against Vera Cruz. Government, busied only with the attempt to supersede him by the appointment of a civilian to the post of lieutenant-general, virtually abandoned Scott to his fate. Santa Anna knew that Vera Cruz was to be attempted, and how he would act was doubtful. Scott, in this juncture, drew from Taylor's force enough regular infantry to swell his own force to twelve thousand. With this number he moved forward and invested Vera Cruz March 12th; on the 22d the bombardment was begun. Arrangements w^ere made to carry the city by storm on the 26th, but on that day overtures of surrender were made by the governor, and were completed on the 27th. Ten days later the army, eight thousand strong, took the road to the city of Mexico, defeated the Mexican army, fifteen thousand strong, under Gen- eral Santa Anna, at Cerro Gordo, April 18th, entered Jalapa the day after, occu- pied the strong castle and town of La Perote, April 22d, and the city of Puebla May 15th. Only thirty-four days had elapsed from the investment of Vera Cruz, and there were already taken ten thousand prisoners of war, ten thousand stand of of arms, seven hundred cannon, and thirty thousand shells and shot. When he reached Puebla, Scott had left capable of the march on the city of Mexico but four thousand five hundred men ; but at Puebla he was detained by negotiations for peace, which proved futile. Meantime reinforcements arrived, and 8 NOTABLE MEN. the army, increased Ly these to the number of ten thousand, again moved forward AuEfust 7th. Every practicable road to the city of Mexico, within the valley in which that city lay, was now held by parts of the Mexican army, and fortified with great skill. Contreras, San Antonio, and Churubusco, with ten batteries in all, must of neces- sity be carried, as they could not be turned, nor with safety left behind. General Valencia held Contreras with seven thousand troops, and twenty-two pieces of artil- lery, and Santa Anna had twelve thousand men in the woods behind it. After an indecisive action of three hours, August 19th, the United States troops stood to their arms all night in roads flooded by heavy rain that fell incessantly, and at day- light on the 20th carried the place by storm. So rapidly was the latter attack made, that the division ordered to mask it by a diversion had not time to arrive; and the actual fight lasted only seventeen minutes. By the capture of Contreras, Churubusco was taken in flank, and San Antonio in the rear. The troops were immediately moved forward to attack the latter place, when the enemy evacuated it. Churubusco only iTmaincd ; its defences were a tete-de-pont on the main causeway, and a convent strongly fortified. After a fierce struggle, both these defences were taken, the tete-de-pont at the point of the bayonet. Upon this day the Mexican loss alone exceeded, by three thousand, the whole American army. To the military possession of the city of Mexico, it was yet necessary that the castle of Chapultepcc should fall. Molino del Key and Casa de Mata, dependencies of Chapultepcc, were carried by assault September 8th ; heavy siege-guns were placed in battery September 12th, and by the 13th had made a practical)le breach in the walls of the military college, which was stoi-med the same day. From Chapultepec, Mexico city is within range, yet it still resisted, and two divisions of the anny skirmished all day at the city gates ; but the same night Santa Anna marched out with the small remnant of his amiy, and the city of Mexico lay at the mercy of Major-Gcneral Winfield Scott. About daylight of the 14th, the city council waited upon the General to de- mand terms of capitulation for the church, the citizens, and the municipal author- ities; to this the general replied, that the city was already in his possession, and that the army should be subject to no terms not self-imposed, or such as were not demanded by its f)wn honor, and the dignity of the United States. "Winfield Scott, with his small and heroic army, had accomplished the object of the war ; peace was concluded February 2d, 1848, and very shortly after he re- ceived from Washington the order, dated previously to the conclusion of peace, by which he was suspended from command, and a court of inquiry was ordered upon charges preferred against him by brevet Major-General Worth. This court con- sisted of brevet Brigadier-General N. Towson, paymaster-general, Brigadier-General WINFIELD SCOTT Caleb Cusliing, and Colonel E. G. W. Butler; thus a i.aymaster-general, a brigadier of volunteers, and a colonel of dragoons, were ordered to examine the conduct of the veteran commander upon the charge of a subordinate. General Worth's charges were, that Scott " had refused to say whether he was the person referred to in a certain arrnj order, and refused to forward c^harges against him to the war department." Secretary Marcy virtually admitted that the conduct of the government needed defence in this matter, by making an argument in Its support. But the whole country was astonished, and the people did not sympathize with the cold indifference of formality. Scott relinquished the com- mand, and appeared before the court, which sat, first in Mexico, and subsequently in Washington; but meantime the war temiinated, the transactions of the court were allowed to fall out of view, no decision was ever given, and General Winfield Scott resumed his position at Washington as commander-in-chief of the army. In June, 1852, Winfield Scott was nominated a candidate for the oflice of president of the United States, by the Whig National Convention, at Baltimore. By a great portion of the people, this nomination was received with sincere joy , but it was reserved for the hero to receive his first great defeat at the hands of his countrymen. Government, in 1859, with the desire to confer some additional mark of honor, bestowed upon the gallant veteran the brevet rank of lieutenant-general; and to make it the more clearly a personal distinction, and not a mere addition to army grades, the brevet was purposely so framed that it should not survive him. When the Southern rebellion began in 1860, General Scott adhered earnestly and uncompromisingly to the constitution and government of the United States,' with whose history his life was identified, and for whose honor he had ever so consist- ently labored. With what pain he saw those dear to him for many years foil away from their allegiance, may be conceived ; but he, a son too of that Vii-ginia that has given so many soldiers to the country, felt that he was not so much a'^southenier as a citizen of the United States. From the commencement he saw that the true course was to meet the trouble firmly, and his suggestions, made while James Buchanan was still president, were such as, if followed, would have crushed rebellion in its very birth. But they were all unheeded. Twenty-eight years before, and in the same city of Charleston, Winfield Scott had been present at the rehearsal of this drama of secession— yet all the experience then gained, was not only not permitted to be of service to the country, but the old soldier was even compelled to abandon to its fate, a brave garrison in an insufiiciently provided fort. Despite, howevei-, the in- activity forced upon him by weakness, or crime, General Scott secured to the gov- ernment the possession of Washington city, which it was openly asserted could not be saved, and also secured the safe inauguration of President Lincoln. General Scott's experience, and great knowledge of the American people, were 10 NOTABLE MEN. of infinite value in tlio organization of the army destined to act against the rebels. To an early movement of that army he gave a reluctant consent, and disaster fol- lowed the departure from his advice. Many differed with him, honestly no doubt, as to the method most likely to crush rebellion ; yet every American must bit- terly regret that neither his honorable and great services, nor his age, could, upon that point, preserve the veteran from the gross vituperation of an intemperate and ribald press. Finally, feeling himself no longer equal to the proper discharge of the import- ant duties of his position ; and that the best service he could render his country would lie to make room for a younger man, Lieutenant-General Scott retired from the army, November 1st, 1861. No act of history is marked by more of simple dignity and truth, than this withdrawal of tlic man who felt that in the decay of age his faculties were no longer equal to the requirements of his country. Ui3on his conclusion to retire. General Scott wrote thus to the secretary of war: " Headquarters of titb Army, Wasuinoton, October .31«f, 18C1. " To THE Hon. Simon Cameron, Sec. of "War : "Sir: — For more than three 3'ears I have been unable from a hurt to mount a horse, or to walk more than a few paces at a time, and that with much pain. Other and new infirmities, dropsy and vertigo, admonish me that repose of mind and body, with the appliances of sui'gery and medicine, are necessary to add a little more to a life already protracted mucli beyond the usual span of man. It is under such circumstances, made doubly painful by the unnatural and unjust rebellion now raging in the southern states, of our so lately j^rosjjerous and happy Union, that I am compelled to request that my name shall be placed on the list of army officers retired from active service. As this request is founded on an ab- solute rigiit, granted by a recent act of Congress, I am entirely at liberty to say it is with deep regret that I withdraw myself in these momentous times, from the orders of a president who has treated me with much distinguished kindness and courtesy, whom I know, upon much personal intercourse, to be patriotic without sectional partialities or prejudices; to be highly conscientious in the performance of every duty, and of unrivalled activity and perseverance ; and to you, Mr. Secre- tary, whom I now officially address for the last time, I beg to acknowledge my many obligations for the tiniform high consideration I have received at your hands, and have the honor to remain, sir, with high respect, '■ Your obedient servant, "Westfield Scott." In response the Secretary of War wrote as follows : WINFIELD SCOTT. 11 " Wak De1'A1!TMENT, Wasuington, Novemher \»t. " Ge^'eral : — It was my duty to lay before the President your letter of yester- day, asking to be relieved, under the recent act of Congress. In separating from you, I cannot refrain from expressing my deep regret that your health, shattered by long service and repeate!ons sur- rciuU'rina- under this demand shall be hunianclv and kindlv trcatcil. Believing NATHANIEL LYUN. 29 myself prepared lo culbrec tliis denuuid, one li:dl-huur'.s time, hclbre doing so, will be allowed for your compliance therew^ith. " Very respectfully your obedient servant, " N. Lyon, Capt. 2d Infantry, commanding troops." General Frost, upon consultation with his subordinate officers, found his command unable to resist the force of General Lyon, and he accordingly sur- rendered his whole command prisoners of war. This (puck and severe blow at rebellion in Missi.iui'i awakened great joy in the hearts of all the Union men in that state, and when, four days later. General Harney arrived at St. Louis and assumed the command there, Cai)tain Lyon was elected to the command of the first brigade of Missouri volunteers. On May loth, he effected the occujiation of Potosi, wliencc a body of rebels was driven, and also caused in rapid succession several important seizures of war material in various parts of the state. No other United States officer exhibited equal activity in the discharge of his duty. By agreement with General Price of Missouri, General Ilarney committed himself to a course of inaction, and was removed, and General Lyon was thus left in command of the department. May 31st. But Harney's agreement with General Price had contemplated the disbandmcnt of the state troops in arms upon the governor's requisition; they refused to disband, and the governor declai'cd that the interests and sympathies of Missouri were identical with those of the slaveholding states, and that they necessarily united her destiny with theirs, and the legislature jDassed a military bill, which General Lyon pronounced "so offensive to all peaceable inhabitants, and so palpably un- constitutional, that it could be accepted by those only who were to conform to its extraordinary provisions for the purpose of cffi2cting their cherished ob- ject—the disruption of the Federal government." Lyon therefore announced to the })eople, by proclamation, that his duty required him to act against the so-called state forces, and he accordingly moved from St. Louis, June 17th, toward Jefferson City, with a force of the Missouri Home Guard Volunteers, and some United States troops. Governor Jackson, upon Lyon's approach, endeavored to impede his march by the destruction of Moreau bridge, abandoned Jefferson City, burning the bridges behind him, and retreated to Booneville. Lyon pur- sued in boats up the Missouri river, and on the same day landed four miles be- low Booneville, found the rebels posted in the road near that place, immediately opened fire upon them, and drove them from their position. Tlu-y fell back and formed again in the woods, whence they kept up a sharp fire iipon the national forces. General Lyon then ordered a feigned retreat, and when the rebels were well drawn from their cover in |iursnit, he opened upon theni a severe fire of ar- tillery and musketry, and they wore dispersed in complete nmt. Lyon's tbrce 30 NOTABLE MEN. was about two thousand, and bis loss was very small. The rebel force was about four thousand, and their loss in killed and wounded was nearly one hundred. A great many of their men were made prisoners. General Lyon tlien issued a procla- mation from Boonevillc, in which, after a statement of the facts in relation to the battle, he said : " I hereby give notice to the people of this state, that I shall scrupulously avoid all interference with the business, right, and property of every description recognized by the laws of the state, and belonging to law-abiding citizens. But it is equally my duty to maintain the paramount authority of the United States with such force as I have at my command, which will be retained only so long as opposition makes it necessary, and that it is my wish, and shall be my purpose, to visit any unavoidable rigor arising in this issue upon those only who provoke it.'' General McCulloch, with a large force, was at this time in the south- western part of the state, and was soon joined by General Price with some por- tion of the Missouri rebels, and subsecpiently by Parsons and General Eains. Lvon left Booneville to march against them July 8d. His small force swelled as he advanced, and when he reached Springfield, July 20th, he had under his command ten thousand men ; but this force had again decreased to six thousand by August 1st. On that day at five P. M., General Lyon marched to look for the rebels, who were said to be in motion toward Springfield, and not finding them, bivouacked ten miles south of the town. Early the next day the march was resumed, and about noon, at a place called Dug Spring, the rebels were reported in sight. A halt was ordered, and while a reconnoissance was made, two companies of regular infantry were thrown forward as skirmishers, supported by a company of cavalry. This force encountered a body of about five hundred rebels, and a warm fire was exchanged. The national infantry was hard pressed, when this advanced body of the rebels was entirely scattered by a brilliant charge of the cavalry. The rebels rallied, however, engaged theinfantiy again, and liaving received support fonned a line to advance, but at this juncture Captain Totten's artillery was brought to bear, and after a few discharges scattered them for the day. Next morning, August 3d, the march was continued six miles further, but the enemy made no stand, and, unable to bring on a general action, and being out of provisions, and with many of his men ill, Lyon marched his force back to Springfield, which he reached August 5th. Generals McCulloch, Price, Rains, and Colonel Parsons, were then known to be in motion toward Spring- field with a combined force variously reported at eight, twenty, and twenty-four thousand men, well-armed and effective. They reached Wilsoivs Creek, ten miles south-west of Sjiringfickl, August 6th, and encamped there. General Lyon, thus vastly ontnumbenMl. and left without reinforcements, saw 1 mt little hope for success, and a council of his ofiicers advised the aliandonmcnt of Springfield and a fur- NATHANIEL LYON. 31 ther retreat: he determined, however, to attack the rebels in tlieir camp, and for that i)iirpose marched from Springfield on the 9th, at sunset, with but little over five thousand men. His force was disposed in two columns. The right or main column comprised four regiments and a battalion of volunteers, five companies of regular infantry, one company of artillery recruits, and two batteries of artil- l(>ry, and was commanded by General Lyon in person. The left column was com- manded by Colonel Siegel, and was made up of two battalions of volunteers and six field-pieces. The rebel camp stretched along Wilson's Creek for three miles, and it was intended that the two columns should attack it at nearly opposite ex- tremities. Lyon's column encountered the rebel pickets near the northern end of their camp at five p. M., and one of his volunteer regiments was soon warmly engaged with the rebel infiiutry, whom they drove from an eminence, on which the national artillery was immediately posted and opened fire. Eepeated attempts of the rebels to carry this position were repulsed, and the battle merged into this endeavor on the part of the rebels, until Siegel made his attack in the rear and fired their baggage train, when they desisted from their attempt against the bat- teries and the battle was virtually relinquished. From the first attack General Lyon had actively assisted and encouraged his men where the fight was thickest, and was thrice wounded. Near nine A. M., when the enemy was about to make one of his several attempts against Tottcn's battery, the first Iowa regiment was brought up to relieve, in its support, the Kansas first and second. This regiment had lost its colonel, and when Lyon ordered it to prepare to repel the enemy with the bayonet, the men called upon him to lead them. He had been standing by his horse, but now mounted to lead the charge, and gave the word. The rebels did not stand, but delivered their fire and broke. General Lyon was struck by a rifle-ball in the breast. He fell into the arms of his body-servant and expired almost immediately. His fall was not generally observed, and the battle continued for several hours after it. Four months after General Lyon's death, on the 20th December, 1861, the following resolution was introduced into the United States Senate from the House of Eepresentatives, and unanimously concurred in : " Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress deems it just and proper to enter upon its records a recognition of the eminent and patriotic services of the late Brigadier-General Nathaniel Lyon. The country to whose service he devoted his life will guard and presei-ve his fame as a part of its own gloiy. Second, That the thanks of Congress are hereby given to the brave officers and soldiers who, under the command of the late General Lyon, sustained the honor of the flag, and achieved victory against overwhelming numbers at the battle of Spring- 32 NOTABLE MEN. field, in Missouri ; and that, in order to commemorate an event so honorable to the country and to themselves, it is ordered that each regiment engaged shall be authorized to bear upon its colors the word ' Springfield,' embroidered in letters of gold. And the President of the United States is hereVjy requested to cause these resolutions to be read at the head of every regiment in the army of the! United States." Previous to its adoption, however, Senator Poraeroy, of Kansas, delivered an eloquent tribute to the general's memory as follows : " Mr. President : The resolutions which have just been read to the Senate were introduced to the House of Eepresentatives by the distinguished member from St. Louis, and passed the House very unanimously. I trust they will in like manner pass the Senate. But to me there is one reason why they should re- ceive at least a passing notice. The state of Kansas was largely interested in that battle at Wilson's Creek, near Springfield, and the country and mankind have a large interest in the fame of the immortal Lyon, who fell in that battle. Such a man and such a general is not often found, and very rarely combined in one person. Perhaps I may be pardoned here for saying that I had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with General Lyon for years ; and it was an acquaint- ance formed and matured under the most impressive circumstances. The early struggles for the freedom of our own state were not unlike in their nature the present struggles of the nation. The same questions, to a great extent, entered into the one that now convulse the other. The same interests, passions, and barbarity, so disgraceful to our age and humanity, entered as largely into that struggle as in the present. " General Lyon, whose deeds and fame now belong to the whole country, was then Captain Lyon, of the regular army, stationed at Fort Riley, in Kansas. He had for ten years served the country in that capacity, and without promo- tion. He was as true a soldier as ever stood in the line of battle ; a sagacious officer, strict in habit and discipline, and an honest man. " His attention to me, on an occasion of great personal fatigue and exposure — taking me to his quai-ters, welcoming me to all his comforts, and then loaning me his own horse, fresh and strong, and taking in charge mine exhausted and worn, were acts of generosity and kindness that I shall never forget. The ele- ments of a firiend.ship cemented by unity of sentiment and principle, in an hour of great extremity, are the most enduring attachments of this life. " As Captain Lyon, he sympathized with the free state men of Kanisas, espoused their cause, and vindicated their rights in the presence of supci'ior army officers and government appointees, who were, even there, as false to their country, to freedom, and to God, as secession itself He was then, as always, an earnest man, true among the false, faithful among the faithless, devotedlv' X A Til AN IK L LYOK. 33 attached to the rnion that he loved, the eoustitutioii tljat lie vindicated, and the flag of his country for which he died. " Comparisons are odious, and I hesitate to draw them. Still, amidst the general inactivity so prevalent on the Potomac, and so discouraging to hve men, it is refreshing to notice that when the order was for Captain Lyon to take and capture General Frost's command at Camp Jackson, the ink was scarcely dry on the order before that work was accomplished. " The 10th day of May will be forever memorable in St. Louis as a day when one^ decisive blow, struck by one decided officer, forever freed that city from subjection to the rebellion. And there she remains to-day a proud monument, her editices standing in towering magnificence, vindicating that policy, and safe amidst surrounding desolation. "One Friday morning in June kst, Claib. Jackson, the so-called governor of Missouri, issued his proclamation, declaring war against the United States forces in Missouri. That very afternoon, before the sun went down. General Lyon commenced moving his little army of two thousand seven liundred men upon steamboats, at St. Louis, and was soon under way for Jefferson City, the capital. On the following Sabbath evening, he took possession quietly of that capital. The rebels, governor, and offtcers, and soldiers, had fled, burning bridges, and spreading destruction in their train. Before Monday morning, he commenced moving a portion of that little invincible army to Booneville, fifty miles farther up, where he engaged the enemy and dispersed them, taking the city. Thus, I say, it is refreshing to see that there was one general who could move his army three hundred miles in three successive days, and have a battle and a \dctory ! General Lyon moved south from Booneville toward Springfield, in the wake of the fleeing rebels, who were retreating into Arkansas. After several successful skirmishes about Springfield, restoring order and quiet, he halted there for reinforcements. On his way there, he was joined by one regiment from Iowa and two from Kansas. " And now may I be allowed to pause in my argument a moment to say that these two regiments were only the first generous offerings of our young state to the cause of the country? But the flower and pride of our young state were in them. These were of the kind of men who spring siiontaneously to their arms in an hour of danger. They mustered in as infantry in the month of June, and were ordered immediately into Missouri. Thank God there were no wretched traitors in Kansas left unhung to rise up against their country, and to seek the overthrow of the government. So our troops were ordered into Missouri— many of them without one day's notice. Tlie first day's march of one regiment was forty-five miles in twenty-two succes- sive hours, without baggage-wagons or ambulances. And before they could 34 X () T A I! I, E ME N . !je providetl with clotliing ov shoes, they were fullered iniward and still onward into Missouri ; ;iiid wlien they had joined (rcneral Lyon at Springfield, they had marched over throe hundred iiiiles; and one of the regiments had only seven l)aggage- wagons ! A pai't of the Kansas and Iowa regiments, under an order from General Sweeney, were marched in two days from Springfield to Forsyth, sixty miles, and had a battle ; and after disj^ersing the reliels, returned to Spring- field in two and a half days : and during this unparalleled marching, over two hundred of these bravo men were entirely ch'stitute of shoes. "But tlie memorable day about which cluster all the interests of that south- western campaign was the 10th day of August, 1861. Upon the evening of the 9th, as darkness quietly settled down into the valleys, and light lingered blush- ingly upon the hill tojis, this little army of five and a half thousand men set out to meet twenty-five thousand and engage them in conflict. They marched by two difterent routes all night, and at daylireak came upon the enemy encamped upon Wilson's Creek. Imni idiately, without waiting on points of etiquette, Greneral Lyon formed the line of battle. And here began, at five o'clock in the morning, the conflict of arms — more terrible and destructive, according to num- bers, than ever engaged men on this continent before. From the beginning to the close, for six and a half hours, the firing was incessant and terrific. At half- past ten o'clock the man of all men there — the general of all generals in this war — fell at the head of one of our regiments, leading them gloriously onward to victory. He placeii himself there in a moment, in response to the call of these men as unconquerable as himself. General Lyon had before, tliat day, been twice woianded, and liad one horse shot under him. He resisted all entreaties for refreshments, willing to hazard every thing himself, anxious oidy for his men and their cause. He neither faltered nor complained, until the fatal shaft entered the life fountain, and the ' golden bowl was liroken.' He thus sunk quietly to rest, amidst the din of battle and the smoke of the contest — the Warren of this war. The Imttle went on, though its leader had fallen. Few of either officers or men knew what had occurred. The enemy being repulsed, returned with fresh regiments, again and again, but i-eturned only to rc-treat in confusion, leaving their trail strewn with the fallen. Our troops advanced and took posses- sion of the field. The rebels, in fear, now burned their own baa'sase-wagons. Voliimcs of smoke rolled up from every side of the battle-field, and concentrat- ing above them, hung the heavens in a drapery of mourning. The rebels were receding, and the firing ceased altogether. * * * * * '' Thus ended the 10th day of August, 1861 ; evening shadows, cooling the heat of both sun and fir(>; our troops marched regularly to camp. And I now say, in contradiction to much that has been written and .said, that that battle was a trimiiph. It was a costly one : nevertheless a victory. What other NATHANIEL LYON. 35 battle-field was ever won more triumphantly? I do not allow the fact that there were not reinforcements on liand soffieient to hold that whole country, to detract from the Ijrilliant triumph of our arms that day. It was a battle of five thousand five hundred men against twenty-five thousand ; and a victory of the few over the many; showing again that •• ' Thrieo armed is lie wlio hath his quarrel just.' "The hero of that battle sleeps beside other graves, in his dear native valley. He has been literally 'gathered to his fathers.' There need be no monument of marble or granite f,>r him. All the way from St. Louis to Connec- ticut liis remains were honored by tributes of respect from a grateful people. I had the melancholy pleasure of seeing the almost spontaneous gathering of his okl friends at Hartford. They honored suitably the noble dead. In that they lionored themselves. From Hartford to Eastford, where he now sleeps, the way was all marked by tokens that were becoming to a returning conqueror. Tlie dear old people at home have garnered up his memory ; it shall be to them as endearing as liberty and life." I Licui , LfnVTLL PT^TKAM zXWyn^ WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM was bora in Boston, Massachusetts, on tljc 9th day of July, 1840. He fell, mortally wounded, at the battle of Ball's Bluff, on the 21st of October, 1861, and died the following day. Seven years of his short life were passed in Europe. We can in no other way give, in a small compass, so just an impression of what he was, and what were his leading tastes and pursuits during the period of his absence from his own country, as by extracting the following pages from the memoir recently published in France by Dr. Guepin, of Nantes: " Lowell Putnam was brought at eleven years old to Europe for his educa- tion. Two years in a school at Paris, journeys in France and in other countries, prolonged residence in Paris and in some of the principal cities of Germany and Italy — these were the means employed to give him a knowledge of languages, and to enable him, at the same time, to acquaint himself with the history and works of art of the ancients and moderns. " Lowell Putnam was thirteen years old when we saw him for the first time. He was then charming in person, full of life and movement, and of so remark- able a loyalty that he did not think falsehood possible. The vivacity of his first emotions, the expression of his joys, had something very original. But ho be- came calm, he was all eye and ear, when he found himself in the presence of serious men, and especially of eminent writers. " Michelet was then at Nantes, studying on the spot the civil wars of which Brittany and La Vendee were the theatre in 1790-1795. William was strongly moved by the conversation of this great painter, who has thrown such vivid lights on the most important pages of our history. He found his own vocation revealed to him. " We made a tour through Brittany with William and his parents. During the whole excursion, he inspired us with the liveliest interest. The picturesque and the reason of things interested him in turn. One asked one's self, which would, at last, take the ascendency in him, love of art or the spirit of investiga- tion, imagination or philosophy. This child was so interesting, his young intel- lect was so eager, that we could not resist the desire of planting in it some germs for his future of serious study. We became his cicerone. We did not let any 38 XGT ABLE MEN. thing pass, whether of Druidisni, of the events of the Reformation, of the more recent events of the Revolution, without telling him what we knew about it. We also showed him whatever there was to interest him in the department of art. " A \uixr later, Ltiwell Putnam passed some montlis at Nantes, already giv- ing promise of future eminence by his brilliant intellect and firm will. On this second visit he asked us for more detailed explanations of all that his journey of the preceding year had left in his memory. " Lowell Putnam left France for Germany ^-ery well 2:)repared — already knowing several languages, and acquainted with the origin of the European peoples and their migrations. His studies in Germany were serious, as also in Italy. Tlie letters which he wrote to us from this latter countiy, upon the Etruscans, upon Rome and the Campagna, upon Naples and the devotion paid to Saint Januarius, were very much beyond his years. He could not live in Italy, which was then groaning under the yoke, without being continually struck by the ignorance, the misery, and tlic superstitious prejudices, engendered by despotism ; and as often his mind necessarily reverted to the little republic of Massachusetts. " lie returned to us in October, 1857, a young poet, a serious thinker, under the form of a tall, liandsome youth, as modest and reserved in society, as firm and courageous in the practice of his duties. His dream for the future had not changed : it was still that of serving the interests of his country and of humanity as historian. That nothing might interfere with the fulfilment of his desires, he determined, in the first place, to fortify his constitution. He drank only water, took every day a very long walk, went to bed betimes, and rose very early. The cold was rude in the winter of that year, but he never allowed a fire to be made in his room; if he suffered too much from the temperature, he went out to skate. He was fully aware that a necessity for comforts takes from our physical and moral liberty ; that the factitious wants of a too refined civilization are the evil of our age. And besides, as he had studied the Etruscans in Etruria, so he desired to study Egypt and India in their own monuments. For this, long voyages and journeys were necessary, requiring great physical strength, and the habit of living on little. '•physiology and jurisprudence were the necessary comjilement of his stud- ies. Postponing to a later period the study of American and of comparative legislation, he profited by his residence in France to initiate himself into the science of life. Never, in our twenty years of professorship in the School of Medicine at Nantes, have we met with a more perceptive or a more sagacious intellect ■' Very exact in following the courses of our Superior School of Science and WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. 39 Letters, he licanl with especial interest the leetun-s on history and literature, although they did not always fully correspond to his desires "While in the west of France, Lowell Putnam visited the principal 1. attic fields of the wars of La Vendee. He talked with some of the old witnesses of the events of that time, and was ardent in searching out the truth. " Before returning to Paris and thence to America, he niaf LOWELL PUTNAM. -43 possessed the faculty of easily mastering languages, and where he faithfully studied classic and Christian antiquity and art. Under the most lovinsr guidance he read with joy the vivid descriptions of Virgil, while looking down from the hill of Posilippo, on the headland vf Misenum and the ruins of Cumte. He studied with diligence the remains of Etruscan art, of which, perhaps, no Ameri- can scholar, though he was so young, knew more. " Thus accomplished, he returned to his native land ; but, modest and earn- est, he made no display of his acquisitions, and veiy few knew that he had acquired any thing. When the war broke out, his conscience and heart urged him to go to the service of his country. His strong sense of duty overcame the reluctance of his parents, and they consented. A presentiment that he should not return alive was very strong in his mind and theirs. But he gave himself cheerfully, and said, in enrtire strength of purpose, tliat to die would he easy in such a cause. And, in the full conviction of immortality, he added : ' What is death, mother? It is nothing but a step in our life.' His fidelity to every duty gained him the respect of his superior officers; and his generous, constant inter- est in his companions and soldiers brought to him an unexanq)led affection. He realized fully that this war must enlarge the area of freedom, if it was to attain its true end ; and, in one of his last letters, he expressed the earnest prayer that it might not cease till it opened the way for universal liberty. " These earnest ojjinions were connected with a feeling of the wrong done to the African race, and an interest in its improvement. He took with him to the war, as a body-servant, a colored lad named George Brown, who repaid the kindness of Lieutenant Putnam by gratitude and faithful service. George Brown followed his master across the Potomac, into the battle, nursed him in his tent, and attended his remains back to Boston. "In the fatal battle a week ago, Putnam fell, as is reported, while endeav- oring to save a wounded companion — fell, soiled with no ignoljle dust — '7ion indecore pulvere sordidum.' Brought to the hospital-tent, he said to the surgeon wiio came to dress his wound, 'Go to some one else, to whom you can do more good; you cannot save me' — like Philip Sidney, giving the water to the soldiers who needed it more than himself. " Brave and beautiful child ! was it for this that you had inherited the best results of past culture, and had been so wisely educated and carefully trained ? Was it for this, to be struck-down by a ruffian's bullet, in a hopeless struggle against overwhelming numbers? How hard to consent to let these precious lives be thus wasted, apparently for naught, through the ignorance or the care- lessness of those whose duty it was to make due preparation before sending them to the field ! How can we bear it ? " Wc could not b?ar it, unless we believed in God. But bclievino- in God 44 NOT A I? I, E M I-: X . and Christ, we can licar even tins. It is not any blind ebance. nor yet any liu- man follv. wliieh controls these events. All is as God wills, who knows what the world needs, and what we need, better than we can know it He uses the folly and sin of man for great ends ; and he does not allow any good and noble effort to 1)0 lost ''Farewell, then, dear child, brave heart, soul of sweetness and fire! We shall see no more that fair, candid brow, with its sunny hair ; those sincere eyes ; that cheek flushed with tlie commingling roses of modesty and courage. Go, and join the noble group of devoted souls, our heroes and saints. Go with Ells- worth, protomartyr of this great cause of freedom ; go with Winthrop, poet and soldier, our Korner with sword and lyre; go with the chivalric Lyon, bravest of the brave, leader of men ; go with Baker, to whose utterance the united murmurs of Atlantic and Pacific Ocean gave eloquent rhythm, and whose words flowered so easily into heroic action. Go with our noble Massachusetts boys, in whose veins runs the best blood of the age. Go gladly, and sleep in peace. Those who love thee as much as parents ever loved child, give thee joyfully in this great hour of their country's need. " On the Sunday after the funeral. Dr. Bartol preached fi-om the text — " The beauty of Israel is slain on thy high places.'^ His sermon, afterward published under the title, "Our Sacrifices," contained a tribute to Lowell Putnam, with which we complete this memoir: " Familiar events prove that to property and happiness we must personally- like the Jews in old Canaan, for ourselves or those dearest to us, add the sacri- fice of life. To one, among many such noble and widely-commemorated sacri- fices, I wish, in closing, to refer, not to gratify myself or any others peculiarly concerned, but, through the public attention, already- fixed on it by circumstances of thrilling interest, for the benefit, as great as can be derived from any sermon, of delineating what I must consider a model of human worth. ''William Lowell Putnam, born July 9th, 1840, lieutenant in a Massa- chusetts company, fell bravely fighting for his country, in the act probably of at once leading on his men and making a step to the relief of a wounded ofiicer, in the battle of Balfs Bluff, October 21st, 1861, and he died, at the age of twenty- one, the next day. The state that gave him birth, and to which he gave back honor, joined with his kindred and friends in celebrating his obsequies in this cliurch, last Monday, October the '28th. The coflfin lay on the same spot occu- ])ied nine months ago, by that of Dr. Charles Lowell, his maternal grandfather. The corse of the soldier and hero, surmounted with the sword unwieldod and motionless in its scabbard, was not unworthy to succeed here that of the preacher and saint; for spiritual weapons were no cleaner in the hands of the first than carnal ones in those of the last. Striking was the contrast made bv the vouth's WILLIAM L O W E L L P U T X A M . 45 silken locks and smooth, fair cheeks, cold in death, with the white hair on the furrowed brow that had also reposed at the shrino so long vocal with well- remembered tones of an eloquent and holy mouth. But there was more union than sepai-ation. The benignant resolution of the elder "s expression was repeated in the sweet firmness of the young man's lips. They seemed as near together in spirit as circumstantially wide apart. The two venerable names of Lowell and of Putnam — the eminent jurist, as beloved as he was distinguished* — were well united in that of the youth ; for he justiiied every supposablc law of hereditary descent by continuing in his temper and very look, with the minister's loving earnestness, the singular cordiality, the wondrous and spotless loving-kindness, which in his paternal grandfather's manner was ever like a warm beam of the sun A worthy grandchild William was. He bore out in action, in danger and death, every rising signal and promise of his brief but Ijcautiful life. In the conflict, he cared more for others' peril than for his own. He sank, from all his forward motion, under one mortal wound. But, while he suffered, he smiled. He deprecated any assistance to himself as vain ; he urged all to the work before them, and even forbade his soldiers to succor him. 'Do not move me,' he said to his friend ; ' it is your duty to leave me ; help others ; I am going to die, and would rather die on the field." With noble yet well-deserved support, however, he was borne nearly a mile to the boat at the fatal river's brink by Henry How- ard Sturgis, of Boston, who left him only to return to fight in his own place, and afterward watched h-ini like a mother in the hospital, hoping for his resto- ration. As he lay prostrate, knowing he could not recover, he beckoned to his friend to come to him, that he might praise the courage of his men in the en- counter, rather than to say any thing of himself With such patient composure he endured his anguish and weakness, probably no mortal but himself could sus- pect how far he was gone. He sent home the simple message of love. Brightly, concealing his pangs, he wore away the weary hours. Cheerfully, on the Tuesdav morning, which was his last on earth, he spoke to his faithful servant, George. He closed his eyes at length, and did not open them again — presenting, and perhaps knowing, no distinction between sleep and death. He ' is not dead, but sleepeth,' might it not have been said again? But, like the child raised by our Lord, he slept but a little. The greatness of his waking, who shall tell? " I looked often and earnestly on tliat young man's face, in the house and bv * Samuel rutnnm was born ITGS, nnd died 185.1. At tho bar he was particularly distinguished for liis knowledge of commercial law, a chivalric sense of honor and duty, and uniform amenity of manners. (Ju the bench of tlie Supreme Co\irt, where he served for twenty-eight years, tlie exhibition of these powers of mind and elements of character g.ained for him tmiversal afTection and respect; and his opin- ions in that branch of the law arc esteemed among the most valuable contributions to jurisprudence to ho found in tlie Reports of the State of Massachusetts. 46 -NOTABLEMEN. the wayside; and now that I can see it in the flesh no longer, it still hangs and shines conspieuons in the gallery of chosen portraits in my mind. I would fain put into some photograph of words what it expressed, and what the likeness fortunately taken of him largely preserves, respecting others' testimony, while I render my tribute, and Llending their views with my own; for I find in all esti- mates of him a notable uniformity. The first impression which any one behold- ing him would have received, was of a certain magnanimity. The countenance was open, and, as from an ample doorway, the generous dh'position to meet you came out. There was a remarkable mixture of sweetness and independence in all his aspect and bearing. From his very gait and salutation you would per- ceive that his mind was made up, and he meant something by his glance or utterance ; as one who knew him said, there was character in whatever he did. I am not sure a discerner of spirits might not have gathered, before he elected his part, from his eflective carriage and fine physical develojiment, signs of a military taste. Yet, if the martial inclination were in him, it was combined with a strong aversion to take life or inflict distress. He proved once more, as it has l)een proved ten thoxisand times, that the brave is also the tender heart. But above all mortal considerations of pleasure or pain was his regard for justice and truth He had a rare native rectitude. lie never deviated from sincerity. If any thing could grieve him', or, even in his childhood, move him for a moment from the admirable felicity of his temper, it would be any calling in question of his word. Bat the sensibility in him that felt all forgave all too.; and without the sensi- bility that measures our forgiveness, our forgiveness is nothing worth. Beyond any passion, he evinced the reason in which his passion was held. Coolness in him covered enthusiasm ; the gravity of deep though early experience reiDressed the sparkles of natural humor; a heart wistful of aflection attended self-reliance i the modest and almost diffident was the courageous soul ; by ready concession to another's correctness in any debate, he curbed a mounting will ; and he suited the most explicit clearness of opinion to the perfect gentleman's ways. With his seriousness went along a keen sense of the ludicrous, by which almost every highly moral nature is quick to observe what is outwardly awry, as well as what is intrinsically wrong; but he was more apt, when he laughed, to laugh at him- self than at other folks. He could contend also, but never from love of conten- tion. Ho would fight only for a great object ; he went to the war in his countij's emergency, at the outset proposing to go as a private; and he intended to return to the study and practice of the law if he survived. If T'c survived: but no san- guine thought of surviving did he entertain. He had no reserves ; he was a devotee in arms. He ofl'ered himself as though less to slay than be slain were his end. No more of hero than martyr was in his mood, as in his doom. He throw his life in without scruple, with the ancient judging it sweet and decorous WILLIAM LOWELL PUTNAM. 47 to die for one's country ; and the parental presentiment, that die lie would, was matched in the entire readiness for such an event with which the always fearless son, under no shadow of his own apprehension, marched on to the fatal fray. In every extremity he was self-possessed. If by one word I must mark the quality most prominent in his deportment, I should call it balance. Did this unquali- fied courage, in one extraordinarily conscious of existence, and with constitu- tional tenacity rooted in the present life, spring from the faith he so vividly had in immortality ? and did that faith in turn spring from a profoundly religious trust in God? I believe it ! I believe even the exuberant, vivacious, frolicsome boy had in him the germ, afterward to open, of all this faith and trust. Impul- sive, he did not act from impulse, but from that contemplation on the truth of the universe which told him on what impulse to proceed, and marked his way over the earth into the heavens. "Precious intellectual gifts, mostly philosophic, though with no want of imagination, were in our brother, so that his friend abroad, Gucpin, expected in him great scientific attainments; while he spoke French, German, and Italian, in the style of the common people, whom he loved, as well as the dialect of the refined circles. He was fond of reading, but only of the best works in composi- tion of any kind ; and he left an exciting romance half finished, at the hint of something not wholesome or altogether lofty in the author's tone. His mind and heart were in unison ; and on his young companions, as well as elders, he made the same stamp of a superiority permitting only one idea of him. It were hard to tell whether the i-eflective or executive faculties prevailed, so exact in his very nature was their poise. But the moral in him ever presided over the intel- lectual. Not for distinction, but duty, he lived, as he died. I know how the dead are eulogized, and what a eulogy I give; but out of the sincere thoughts of my heart I give it — that those who knew him best, while they admired his talents, were never able to discover his faults. " Such is one of our sacrifices of life. A dawn predicting individual excel- lence through a long career, as plainly as the yet beardless Raphael's picture of the holy marriage was said to be prophetic of all his subsequent fame, has sud- denly withdrawn its lustre from the earth. Is the sacrifice too great ? I ask his kindred, is it too great? "Would you have your boy back? Under the old dis- pensation, when a sacrifice God would surely accept was to be made, a firstling of the flock, a lamb without spot or blemish, was singled out for the altar. A firstling of the flock, a lamb without spot or Ijlemish, has been selected now. God himself, for this very purpose, as I think, of a measureless blessing to en- liven the common heart, has chosen a victim from our beloved fold. No, we would not have him back. We would have him where he is ! In the victim may we see the victory too. In the follower, as in the master, may the twofold 48 NOTABLE MEN. lesson of triumph with sacritice be seen. May the Divine wisdom, that loses life more certainly to save it, and gives up to gain all, shown so well in a new ex- ample, have imitation everywhere and continuance without end. Be humbly proud, be sacredly envious of the dead in the pattern disjjlayed ; for imitation and continuance it has ! The enlistment, at the public need, of educated young men is not damped, but inspirited, from a companion's or kinsman's expiring breath. That breath passeth far through the whole air, into their nostrils ! ' I must go,' said one of them to his father; 'I feel like a poltroon here at home.' — ' Go with my blessing,' was the father's reply. As the father himself told me this yesterday, he could talk no farther, for tears, but turned away. May the spectacle, so frequent among us — the most beautiful spectacle now beneath the sun — of boyhood tearing itself from mothers' embraces and fathers' arms, and happy homes, and loving dissuasives, to consecrate itself to country's good, pre- figure another spectacle, of a country purged of its errors and renewing its youth. May Heaven bless to our redemption every vicarious sacrifice — of the wounded and still exposed, as well as the dead ; and so may all loss and self-surrender be sanctified in a perpetual resurrection, from the Most High, on earth and in heaven, of 'the beauty of Israel,' slain uponowr high places, till the blood of the martyrs, which is the seed of the Church, shall be also the life of the State. Standing, for us and ours, 'as on life's utmost verge,' at the edge of whatever may come to mortals, so to the Eternal we pray ; — and may the Eternal to what even on earth is immortal in us too, answer our prayer! Then we shall not have sacrificed on his altar in vain. All our sacrifices will redound alike to his glory, our country's welfare, and our own final gladness and peace. It is no sacrifice of truth, justice, freedom, or any human right, that we make. Only lower and cheaper things we sacrifice to these principles which are the attributes of God. Fixed be our fiiith that something, not of the dust and not laid low on the field, something which the funeral procession cannot marshal, nor the mighty state precede, nor the whole earth, whose mouth opens for the dead, swallow up, has escaped alive above the bonds we yet wear, into the region where is liberty, unity, peace, and light, with no need of the sun, for the Lord God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof" (•„! JvlK 'J i.VF.L C OllCf Jl i.\X . MICHAEL OOECORAK IN conformity with a custom, to wliicli the wisest and best men have given tlieir sanction, it wll not be deemed inappropriate, in giving a biographical memoir of the heroic colonel of the famous sixty -ninth regiment of the New York state militia, to preface it with a glance at his genealogy. While it affords solid gratification to the friends of Colonel Corcoran to know that ho is the founder of his own good name, it certainly detracts nothing from his record to learn that, according to testimony still 'preserved in his family, he is, on the female side, de- scended from a celebrated Irish hero, who, like the subject of the present notice, nobly fought to uphold the flag of his adoption when exiled from his native land. Wiiile presenting a flag to the Irish brigade, and alluding to that previously pre- sented to the old sixty-ninth, the Honorable Judge Daly touchingly and signifi- cantly called up the relationship between those gallant exiles, and the faith of an Irish soldier, as illustrated by both. " At the head of it" (the sixty-ninth), said Judge Dal)', " was the noble-minded, high-spirited, and gallant (.ifficcr to whom so much of its after-character was due. A descendant b}" the female line of that illustrious Irish soldier, Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan, whose name is identified with the siege of Limerick, and who fell fighting at the head of his brigade upon the Tiloody field of Landen, Colonel Corcoran, in the spirit of his noble ancestor, received that flag with a soldier's promise, and kept that jsromise with a soldier's faith. It was not brought back from the field of Manassas, on that day of disas- trous rout and panic, but he at least, and the little band who stood around him in its defence, went with it into cajativity. I need say no more when presenting this splendid gift with which these ladies have honored your regiment, than to point to this Irish example of the faith and fidelity that is due by a soldier to his flag. Colonel Corcoran is now within the walls of a rebel prison, one of the selected victims for revengeful Southern retaliation ; but he has the satisfaction of feeling that he owes his sad though proud pre-eminence to having acted as became a descendant of Sai'sfield." At the same fight — the siege of Limerick — wliich made Sarsfield immortal, the O'Corcorans of Sligo were not without a represent- ative who has inspired the miise of Carolan. In the second volume of the Jrixh OO NOTABLE MEN. Minstrehy (Hardiman) will be fecund a hearty song, translated from the Ii-isli c'oiiinieneing — •■(1 ("orcoraii. thy fame be it mine to proclaim" — ill honor of one of the heroes of that memorable struggle. Thomas Coreoran, one officer in the British service, returned from the West Indies, and, having retired on half-pa}', was married to Miss Mary M'Donogh, in the year 1824. From this union Colonel Michael Corcorax sprang. lie was born on the 21st Septem- ber, 1827, at Carrowkeel, the seat of the M'Donoghs, in the county Sligo. After receiving a plain English education, he spent some three years in the Irish con- stabulary establishment, resigned his place in August, 1849, and emigrated to America. Gifted with a keen, clear intellect, and having nothing to relv on but his own exertions, he woidd not allow himself to be long idle. lie was almost immediately employed. He exhibited directness of purpose, unimpeachability of action, and strong natural talents. The former made him friends, and the latter kept awake an honest ambition, which ultimately found a noble outlet in the ])atriotic support of the Union. Besides being engaged in business in New York, he was apjwinted to an official situation in the post-office, and was clerk in the register's office just previous to his departure for the seat of war. The military career of Colonel Corcoran in America may be dated from his entrance into the sixty-ninth, as a private in Company I (which has since been changed to Company A). Here the passion which has been so strongly devel- oped was not dormant. He soon was elected orderly sergeant, and rose by the voice of his comrades to be successively first-lieutenant and captain, receiving from the company, during his upward progress, several substantial testimonials to his fitness and ability in cxcyv position. Captain Corcoran was a iiiithful servant of the state in what is known as the "Quarantine War," being then senior captain of the sixty-ninth; and the in- spector-generars return pays a distinguished tribute to his military character. In this official recognition of true and modest merit, the inspector said : " What I might say of Captain Corcoran, commanding Company A, as to his military knowledge, would not add to his already well-known reputation as among tlie best, if not the very best officer, of his rank in the fii-st division." This was high piraise, and occurrences since and recently show that it reflects not less credit on the officer who conferred than on him who received it. Captain Corcoran was elected colonel of the sixty-ninth, August 25th, 1859, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Colonel Ryan. Since that time, his name and that of the regiment have been synonymous. He was especially brought before the public on the occasion of the visit of the Prince of Wales. Colonel Corcoran deeply sympathizes with the cause of Irish nationality, is a personal friend of several gentlemen who were prominent in the Irish movement MICHAEL CORCORAN. 51 of '48, and a leading member of one of the most extensive Irish societies in America. He declined to parade the Irish-born citizen, in his command, to do honor to the son — however harmless — of the sovereigTi under whose rule those whom he believed to be the best men raised in Ireland for half a century were banished. He was consistent with the history of those heroes of Limerick with whom tradition associates his blood, not less than with the feelings of the coi-ps he commanded, and his own theories and principles. His court-martial and de- fence — ably delivered by Mr. Eichard O'Gorman — are now matters of pride, not only among hundreds of thousands of his adopted fellow-citizens, but those who deem the subsequent conduct of England any thing but a fair or grateful requital for the hospitality extended to her heir-apparent. Colonel Corcoran's action at the breaking out of the rebellion was quite characteristic of his patriotic character. Great hopes were built upon the Irish Democrats by sympathizers with the leading traitor. This was enhanced by the treatment Corcoran and the sixty-ninth received in the conduct of the court- martial. It is not too much to say that Coi-coran's upright and unselfish course at this juncture was one of the most severe and deadly blows the sympathizers with secession in the North could have received. Many of the officers of the sixty-ninth were doubtful of the propriety of " turning out'' while their colonel was undergoing a court-martial for an act which they completely justified. Im- mediately Colonel Corcoran, in a public letter, implored them not to take him into any account, but to stand by the flag of the Union and the sacred princijjles involved in its sustainment. The result is known. The court-martial was quashed ; the Union sentiment of the Irish rushed like a torrent into the ranks of the army ; and the sixty-ninth left for the seat of war, attended by one of the most enthusiastic multitudes ever chronicled in our city history. In the progress of the arduous labors which were assigned to his command. Colonel Corcoran won the esteem of the heads of the war department, and the enthusiastic applause of the United States officers with whom he served or co- operated. As the bulwark and avant garde of the brigade having in special charge the defence of the principal avenues from Virginia into the capital, the sixty-ninth won enduring honors. Fort Corcoran — a name conferred by the war department — will remain a lasting monument of its zeal and energy. All through its service — at Annapolis ; along the railroad to the junction ; at Georgetown ; during the building of Fort Corcoran, along Arlington Heights ; at the relief of the Ohio troops at the railroad near Vienna ; the various midnight alarms and preparations in and out of camp ; and the subsequent movements at Centreville, ending iu the battle at Bull Run — the indomitable colonel gave his regiment un- ceasing examples of courage and patriotism. He greatly distinguished himself at Bull Run, and we believe is the only one officially chronicled (see General 52 NOTABLE MEN. Sherman's report) as having brought his regiment off the field in a hollow square. A soldier's letter, which found its way into the papers at the time, gi\es a graphic glimpse of the fact. " Sherman," says the writer, " told the bravest of colonels (Corcoran) to fomi square. The gallant colonel said, ' I have not as many as I like to do .so, but we'll do tlie best we can.' The brave and determined cdloncl formed us into square, and so we retreated, receiving a fresh flanking fire fi'om our adversaries as we went along." It was in this fire Colonel Corcoran was wounded, which led to his capture. For some time he was held prisoner in Richmond; subsequently sent to Castle Pinckne}-, Charleston harbor; and in an- ticipation of an assault on the city of Charleston by the Port Royal expedition, was removed to Columbia, in the interior of the state of South Carolina. Soon after his capture, he was offered his liberation if he woidd not again take up arms against the traitors. He indignantly repelled the overture, avowed his enthusiastic faith in and devotion to the cause of the Union, and declared his intention to take up arms for it as soon as circumstances would permit. Upon Colonel Corcoran probably more than on anj' other of the Union pris- oners has public attention been fixed and public sentiment aroused. His con- duct as a prisoner has reflected credit upon the Union soldiery, and the treatment he has received from the traitors has appealed deeply to the hearts of the whole community. The announcement that he was chosen as one of the hostages for the safety of the privateers condemned to death as pirates, sent a thrill of indig- nant pity and shame throughout the North, and fixed more intently and impa- tiently the minds of thinking men on the subject of a general exchange of prisoners. Tlie matter was ardently and in the main privately agitated ; and a commission, composed of Hiram Barney, Esq., collector of New York, Judge Daly, and Messrs. Richard O'Gornian and John Savage, Esqs., was induced to proceed to Washington to confer with the cabinet and Congress on the imme- diate and humane necessity of such a proceeding. For several days the commit- tee were actively engaged canvassing the leading minds at the seat of government, and on the 10th December they were invited hj the President to attend a full cabinet council. Their efforts were satisfactory in an eminent degree. The mil- itary committees of both houses of Congress, as well as General M'Clellan, met their proposals with eager and humane statemanship, and they were encouraged by many eminent men. In a recent letter, Colonel Corcoran thus warmly alludes to these efforts in his case : " Be pleased to present the expression of my warmest thanks to Judge Daly, Hiram Barney, Richard O'Gorman, and John Savage, Esqs., and the other friends who have so kindly devoted so much time, labor, and expense, in their endeavors to obtain my release, and assure them I feel just pride in the knowledge of having such friends; and if a shade of gloom shall at any time darken the hours of my captivity, a recollection of their services shall MICHAEL CORCORAN. 53 be sufficient to dispel it." The great popularity of Colonel Corcoran in the North renders him an object of particular attention on the part of the rebels ; and the influence of Lis name with the Irish population is doubtless the chief reason why he has been in more than one instance selected as the subject of Southern retaliation. The "government" of the "Confederate States" seem to bitterly appreciate and acquiesce in the force of the remark made by Mr. John O'Mahony — the Gaelic scholar and a leading Irish exile of '48 — at a public meeting in Philadelphia, when he said: " May they everywhere prove, as Cor- coran has done, that the Irishman who is most faithful and devoted to his own land, is also the best and loyalest citizen of America — tliat the best Irishman makes the best American. I have no hesitation in saying that so far as he has gone up to this, Colonel Corcoran has done more to assert the dignity and im- portance of the Irish citizens of the Union, and to elevate their position in this country, than any Irishman who has yet \Tsited the American shores." fel vM3^, 'im" A BT; AH AM 1 .1 N C OI ,1^ 'l^ytC€'Tny<^. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PRESIDENTS must first be candidates, and candidates are public property, for all the great purposes of defamation and personal abuse ; when one is named for the Presidency, a large section of the press, and a great portion of the people, find a direct interest in the propagation of whatever may tend to render contemptible the person named, and to make him appear unfit for any position of dignity or trust. Hence the present President is known over a great part of the country as " the baboon," and respectable writers in Europe have lamented the result of universal suifrage in his election ; though perliaps no man ever occupied the same position who in himself and in his personal history was more truly representative of all that is best in the American people. Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin county, Kentucky (at a place now included in La Rue county), February 12th, 1809. • His ancestors were Quakers, and migrated from Berks county, Pennsylvania, to Rockingham county, Virginia, whence his grandfather Abraham removed with his family to Kentucky, about 1782, and was killed by the Lidians in 178-1. Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham, was born in Virginia, and the President's mother, Nancy Hanks, was also a native of that state. Thomas Lincoln removed with his fomily in 1816 to a district now included in Spencer county, Indiana, where Abraham, then large for his age, assisted with an axe to clear away the forest. For the next ten years he was mostly occupied in this and other equally hard work on his fiither's farm, and in this period he went to school a little at intervals ; but the whole time of his attendance at school amounted in the aggregate to not more than a year. He never went to school subsequently. His first experience of the world beyond home was acquired on a flat-boat, upon which he made the trip to New Orleans as a hired hand, when nineteen years of age. The advantages of travel under these circumstances are not great. Flat-boats it is true have been made the centre of a certain kind of free, western romance, and to float down the Ohio and the Mississippi in happy companionship with the "jolly flat-boat man," looks very pretty in a picture ; especially if the picture be well painted, like Mount's. But unfortunately all flat-boat men were not jolly, and flat-boats didn't always float, flat-boat men were not the chosen of the human race, except peiliaps for rough- ness, and flat-boats had very often to be poled along ; there was much of coarse 56 NOTABLE MEN. association ff)r n boy to struggle against, and a dual of Lard work to be done. On the other hand such travel is not delusive, it does not permit life to look the least like a holiday affair, nor unfit the wanderer for a sober return to the quiet- ness of home. Young Lincoln at the least travelled in a practical American man- ner, saw something of the world, and got paid for it. Settlers are a most unsettled generation, and in March, 1830, Thomas Lincoln migrated again ; this time to Macon county, Illinois. Abraham accom- l^anied his father to the new home, and there helped to build a log-cabin for the famil}', and to split enough rails to fence ten acres of land. From this he has been called the Eail-splitter. Now, to split rails has been a necessary piece oi labor since the days of Milo of Crotona, who was a rail-splitter in his time ; and while that occupation may not qualify a man for statesmanship, the name of Eail-splitter is a better one than Hair-splitter; moreover, while a man's career and the words he has spoken show his brain to be a good one, it is no harm to him before the people to be able to show a good muscular record. Young Lincoln's flat-boat trip soon proved to be an advantage, and in 1831 he was engaged, at twelve dollars a month, to assist in the construction of a flat-boat, and subsequently in its navigation down the river to New Orleans. He acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his employer, who upon his return piut him in charge of a store and mill at New Salem, then in Sangamon, now in Menard county, Illinois. But these peaceful successes were soon lost sight of in the excitement of the Black Hawk war, which broke out in 1833. Lincoln joined a company of volunteers, and was elected their captain, an event which gave him a great deal of pleasure. He served through a camjjaign of three months, and on his return home was nominated by the Whigs of his district as a candidate for the state legislature ; but the county was Democratic and he was defeated, though in his own immediate neighborhood he received two hundred and seventy- seven votes, while only seven were cast against him. These indications of personal popularity flattered and stimulated to future effort, and were thus not without their efiect upon a young man looking for a career. His next venture was the establishment of a country store, which did not prove prosperous, and which he relinquished to become postmaster of New Salem. While in this position he began to study law, and borrowed for that purpose the books of a neighboring practitioner ; the books were taken at night, and returned in the morning before tliey could be needed in the lawyer's office. Upon the offer of the surveyor of San- gamon county, to depute to him a portion of the work of the count}- surveyor's office, Mr. Lincoln procured a compass and chain and a treatise on surveying, and did the work. In 1834 he was again nominated as a candidate for the legislature, and was elected by the largest vote cast for any candidate in the state. He was re-elected in 1836, and in the same year was licensed to ]iractise. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 57 law. From New Salem lie removed in AjDril, 1837, to Springfield, and there opened a law office in partnership with Major John F. Stuart. Mr. Lincoln was re-elected to the state legislature in the years 1836 and 1840, and meanwhile rose rapidly to distinction in his profession, becoming especially eminent as an advocate in jury trials. He was also several times a candidate for presidential elector, and as such canvassed all of Illinois and part of Indiana for Henry Clay, in 1844, and made speeches before large audiences almost every day. Mr. Lincoln was elected a representative in Congress from the central district of Illinois in 1846, and took his scat on the first Monday in December, 1847. His congressional career was consistently that of one who believed in freedom and respected the laws. He voted forty-two times in favor of the Wilmot proviso. He voted for the reception of anti-slavery memorials and petitions ; for an inquiry into the constitutionality of slavery in the district of Columbia, and the expediency of abolishing the slave-trade in the district ; and on January 16th, 1849, he offered to the House a scheme for the abolition of slavery in the district, and for the compensation of slave-owners from the United States treasury, provided a majority of the citizens of the district should vote for the acceptance of the act. He opposed the annexation of Texas, but voted for the loan bill to enal)le the government to carry on the Mexican war, and for various resolutions to prohibit slavery in the territory to be acquired from Mexico. He voted also in favor of a protective tariff, and of selling the public lands at the lowest cost price. In 1849 he was a candidate for the United States Senate, but was defeated. Upon the expiration of his congressional term Mr. Lincoln ajijplied himself to his profession ; but the repeal of the Missouri compromise called him again into the political arena, and he entered energetically the canvass which was to decide the choice of a Senator to succeed General Shields. The Republican triuiniih, and the consequent election of Judge Trumlnill to the Senate, were attributed mainly to his eftbrts. Mr. Lincoln was ineffectually urged as a candidate for the vice- presidency in the national convention which nominated Colonel Fremont in 1856. He was unanimously nominated candidate for United States Senator in opposi- tion to Mr. Douglas by the Republican state convention at Springfield, June 2(1, 1858, and canvassed the state with liis opponent, speaking on the same day at the same place. In the course of this canvass, and in reply to certain questions or statements of Mr. Douglas, Mr. Lincoln made the following declarations : " I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the fugitive slave law. I do not now, nor ever did, stand pledged against the admission of any more slave states into the Union. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new state into the Union with such a constitution as the people of that state may see fit to make. ... I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States territories." 58 NOTABLE MEN. la explanatioa he said, " la regard to the fugitive slave law, I have never hesitat- ed to say, and I do not now hesitate to say, that I think, under the constitution of the United States, the people of the Southern states arc entitled to a congressional fuo-itive slave law. .... In regard to the question of whether I am pledged to the admission of anj- more slave states into the Union, I state to you very frankly that I would be exceedingly sorry ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon that question. I should be exceedingly glad to know that there would never be another slave state admitted into the Union ; but I must add that, if slavery shall be kept out of the territories, during the territorial existence of any one given territory, and then the people shall, having a fair chance and a clear field, when they come to adopt their constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as adopt a slave constitution uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution among them, I see no alternative, if we own the country, but to admit them into the Union." Assertions like this should be a sufficient answer to those who pro- nounce Mr. Lincoln an abolitionist. The Eepublican candidates pledged to the election of Mr. Lincoln received one hundred and twenty-five thousand two hun- dred and seventv-five votes ; the Douglas candidates received one hundred and twenty-one thousand one hundred and ninety votes ; and the Lecompton candi- dates five thousand and seventy-one. Mr. Lincoln had thus, on the popular vote, a clear majority over Mr. Douglas of four thousand and eighty-five ; but Mr. Douglas was elected Senator by the legislature, in which his supporters had a majority of eight on joint ballot. Mr. Lincoln acquired a national reputation mainly through liis contest with Senator Douglas, and it consequently excited much surprise when, in the Ee- publican national convention assembled at Chicago, his name was put forward in connection with the Presidency. Many prominent Eepublicans did not hesitate to declare their further support of the party conditional upon the nomination of Mr. Seward ; but the availability of Mr. Lincoln was persistently urged by those who considered his most prominent opponent too conspicuously committed to the unpopular opposition to slavery interests. The whole number of votes in the convention was four hundred and sixty -five, and two hundred and thirty- three were necessary to a choice. Mr. Seward led on the first two ballots ; and on the third, Mr. Lincoln received three hundred and fifty -four votes, and his nomination was declared unanimous. His opponents for the Presidency in other parties were brought forward in such a manner, that the country was geographi- cally divided, and the contest was made almost exclusively sectional. By the extreme course of the Southern press, the sectional feature of the contest was more clearly brought out, and it was forced upon the ISTorth that Mr. Lincoln was exclusively its own candidate; and the disruption of the country was openly threatened in the event of his election. From this it resulted that Mr. Lincoln ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 received at the North a support that he could never have received on his party account, and with three other candidates in the field his popular vote was one million eight hundred and fiftj'-seven thousand six hundred and ten. His vote in the electoral college was one hundred and eighty, against one hundred and forty -three for all others ; and the gentleman who had received the largest oppo- sing vote, John C. Brcckenridge, declared from his place as president of the Senate, February 13th, 1861, that "Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, having re- ceived a majority of the whole number of electoral votes, was duly elected Presi- dent of the United States for the four years commencing on the ith of March, 186L" Mr. Lincoln arrived in Philadelphia, on his way to the capital, February 21st; and he there received full and accurate information, through the detective jiolice, of the particulars of a plan for his assassination in the streets of Baltimore when he should reach that city. On the next day he visited Ilarrisburg, spoke before the legislature of Pennsylvania, and that night returned privately, but not disguised, to Philadelphia, whence he took the regular night train for Wash- ington, and, without change of cars, arrived in the capital shortly after six, A. M., of February 23d. He was duly inaugurated on the 4:th of March, and upon that occasion he said : " Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the South- ern states that, by the accession of a Republican administration, their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evi- dence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspec- tion. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that ' I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists.' I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so I consider that, in view of the constitvition, the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall be faithfully executed in all the states." For some time previous to the election, resistance to the laws had been de- termined upon in the event of Mr. Lincoln's success ; and on December 20th a convention assembled in South Carolina had declared that state out of the Union. During the months of January and February, 1861, the states of Mississippi, Ala- bama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, had been also declared out of the Union in a similar manner ; and a congress of representatives from those states had convened at Montgomery, in Alabama, February 6th, had chosen a Presi- dent, and proceeded othei-wise to organize a new government. Such was the position of affairs at the time of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration. Only a day after it. 60 NOTABLE MEN. Peter G. T. Beauregard, an officer of tlie United States army, but involved in the rebellion, was ordered by tlie rebel President to the command of the forces assembled for the investment of Fort Sumter, and on March 9th, the so-called Confederate Congress passed an act for the establishment and organization of an array. Yet Mr. Lincoln did not entirely despair of a settlement of the trouble without war, and the policy chosen by him, to use his own words, " looked to the exhaustion of all peaceful measures before a resort to any stronger ones." He therefore " sought only to hold the public places and property not already wrested from the government, and to collect the revenue, relying for the rest on time, discussion and the ballot-box. He promised a continuance of the mails, at government expense, to the very people who were resisting the government, and gave repeated pledges against any disturbances to any of the people, or to any of their rights. Of all that which a President might constitutionally and justifi- ably do in such a case, every thing was forborne, without which it was believed possilile to keep the government on foot." But this was of no avail, and in a little more than a month after Mr. Lincoln's accession to office, Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was attacked, and " bombarded to its fall." The bombardment and surrender were concluded on the thirteenth of April, and on the fifteenth the President issued his first proclamation — by which he called out " the militia of the several states of the Union to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in order to suppress rebellious combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed;" and con- vened both houses of Congress in extra session. By subsequent proclamations he declared the complete blockade of all the ports of the United States south of the Chesapeake ; increased the regular army by twenty -two thousand, and the navy by eighteen thousand men, and called for volunteers to serve during three years, to the number of five hundred thousand. " These measures, whether strictly legal or not, were ventured upon under what appeared to be a popular demand and a public necessity ; trusting that Congress would readily ratify them." Congress readily did so. Further reference to these affairs was made by the President in his first message to Congress in these noble words : " It was with the deepest regret that the executive found the duty of employing the war power in defence of the government forced upon him. He could but perform this duty, or surrender the existence of the government. No compromise by public, servants could, in this case, be a cure — not that compromises are not often proper ; but that no popular government can long survive a mai'ked precedent that those who carry an election can only save the government from immediate destruction, by giving up the mam pomt upon which the j^eople gave the elec- tion. The people themselves, and not their sei-vants, can safely reverse their own ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 61 deliberate decision. As a private citizen, the executive could not have con- sented that those institutions should perish, much less could he m betrayal of so vast and so sacred a trust as these free people had confided to him. He felt that he had no moral right to shrink, nor even to count the chances of his own life in ■what might follow. In full view of his gi-eat responsibility he has so far done what he has deemed his duty. You mil now, according to your own judgment per- form yours. He sincerely hopes that yonv views and your action may so accord with his, as to assure all fiiithful citizens who have been disturbed in their rights of a certain and speedy restoration to them under the constitution and the laws, and ha\-ing thus chosen our cause without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts." No truer estimate of the President's career, and no higher panegyric of it has ever been uttered, than the assertion of Mr. Wendell Phillips, that " Lincoln is led astray by his idolatry of the constitution." These words, uttered in dero- gation of the President's course, are his best praise with every lover of his country. liHTO, CVF.N. HIJ'VN' KK.U USA LOUIS BLEJSTKER. HISTORY does not give its unqualified admiration to the soldier of for- tune ; but the soldier of fortune, luckily, can do without it. Satisfied to " di-ink delight of battle with his peers"— to fight and win, whether in one land or another — he comes and goes ; and while the world may perhaps be something the worse for him, it is doubtless very often the better. And we certainly should find but little fault with a disposition in men that so often gives our country's battles the benefit of experience gained in other lands and in other causes ; and far from the manifestation of an orthodox and pious horror at the mention of his name, we ought rather to consider " soldier of fortune" an honorable title. Louis Blenker was born in the city of Woi-ms, in the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, in the year 1812. His father was a jeweller in respectable business there, and had no more ambitious views for his son than to see him in the future a worthy jeweller also, earning an honest livelihood in his native city. Louis was accordingly instructed in the manipulation of fine gold, and in the general art and mystery of his fiither's craft , duly " served his time," and sud- denly found himself arrived at the age of manhood, a journeyman jeweller, with the world before him. Disposed to "look about" rather than to settle immedi- ately into the inevitable routine of a workman's life, the juncture was a fovor- able one. Just then a large share of the attention of Europe was turned toward Greece. That country was in a state of indescribable anarchy. Every individ- ual, apparently, who had assisted in the war of independence, then recently con- cluded, desired to govern the country on his own account; and the various mountain-chiefs, with bands of wild, brave fellows at their heels, who in the war had stood fire like salamanders, fought one another, massacred the people, pillaged the cities, and in every way kept up a tumult. One congress and government assembled at Napoli di Eomania, when another, in opposition, was immediately convened at Megara, overran the country with its forces, and drove out the first. No sooner did this revolutionary body become thus the established government, than all the elements of disorder arrayed themselves against it, and it was in a fair way to be driven out in turn, when a change for the better took place through the decision of the three great European powers. They agreed in May, 1832, upon the election of Prince Frederick Otho, of Bavaria, as king of Greece, 64 NOTABLE MEN. and Greece acquiesced in tlie choice. But a crown prince was not all that Ba- varia was called upon to furnish, for with the Prince was to go a Bavarian legion of three thousand five hundred men ; and immediately the drvim went round for recruits, and all along the Ehine stout fellows desirous to see the world, and tempt the Lady Fortune in their favor, were in brisk demand. Louis Blenker was just then free from an apprenticeship served in a dull German city, and an adventurous life must necessarily have seemed to him pos- sessed of every charm that fancy could give it ; so he became one of the thirty- live hundred, and entered the Bavarian legion in the capacity of a private sol- dier. Otho, accompanied by the legion, embarked at Brindisi, in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, January 24th, 1833. And there is our soldier fairly started in life. What destiny could offer higher promise of the romantic than this? And how it must have winged the young German's aspiration to be thus a sol- dier, afloat on that blue sea, in the train of one on his way to receive a throne, and with his face turned toward Greece, that parent-land of heroism and poesy — that " Clime of the miforgotten brave. Whose land from plain to mountain-c.nve Was freedom's home or glory's grave !' Otho and his train arrived in Greece without mishap, and the legion was debarked at Napoli, February 6th, 1883. There seemed a magic in the touch of German feet upon the classic soil. Tumult and schism were universally stilled, and there was a happy calm. It lasted, however, only till midsummer, when Colocotroni, a mountain chief and a universal agitator, began again to make trouble, and fonnidable combinations against the government appeared among the Mainotes and Roumeliotes. Against these the Bavarian legion was employed in various directions, and in its ranks young Blenker saw four years of peculiarly hard and almost incessant service. From a private he became sergeant, and upon the disbandment of the corps in 1837 he received with his conge the honorary rank of lieutenant. Lieutenancies, it should be remembered, are not thrown around in European countries as we have recently seen them in America. They arc the rewards (when bestowed upon men who are in the ranks) only of valuable and efficient service, and they consequently carry with them a legitimate distinction. Thus honored, and, in European eyes, elevated in the social scale, Blenker returned to Worms in 1887. Of course, it was no longer possible to settle in life as a jeweller, and from Worms he went to Munich, where he attended medical lectures with the view to the adoption of that profession — either to kill or cure he evidently thought liis destiny. But his intention toward a profession was )-elinquished very soon in favor of commerce, and he returned again to Worms, was married, and became established in the wine trade ; such was his position LOUIS BLEXKER. 65 Avhen the troubles in 1848 began. His business, hitherto prosperous, then declined, and he was eventually declared bankrupt ; but this was not in any sense a com- mercial flxilure, and was the inevitable consequence of the stormy times. From its commencement, he was conspicuous in the popular movement. He became commander of the national guard in Worms, and also burgomaster of that city, and upon the actual outbreak of the revolution, he took an energetic part in it' and was of great assistance in the organization of the revolutionary forces.' When the revolutionary army was threatened by the imperial army and the Prussians under their Prince, he joined it at the head of a considerable body of men, and shared its subsequent fortunes throughout 1848. Several skir- mishes which he had in the next year, with the royalist forces, approach very near the proportions of battles. On May 10th he defeated a corps of the Baden army and made prisoners a number of officers, while many of the royal soldiers joined his own force. Seven days after he occupied Worms, which he aban- doned for a useless movement against Landau. Master of Worms for a second time, he left in it three hundred men, and marched into the I'alatinate. His three hundred men were driven out the next day by the government troops- while he himself, near to Boblenheim, encountered and defeated, after a hard fight, an equal force of Prussians. He then re-entered Baden, and took the com- mand of that portion of the revolutionary forces destined to cover Carlsruhe, and to sustain Mieroslawski, whose forces occupied the line of the Neckar.' After the combat of Durlach, he occupied the posts of Muhlbourg and Knie- Imgen. Driven from these posts, though not without a severe struggle, ho lost h,s last opportunity in tlic revolution through his failure to seize Baden-Baden, by the posssesion of which, it was thought he could have covered the disastrous retreat of the revolutionists. Upon the departure of Mieroslawski, he joined the forces of Sigel, Mieroslawski's successor. But the popular movement was ef- fectually crushed, and he retired into Switzerland. Throughout his irregular struggle the forces under Blenker's command had Ijehaved remarkably well— and that more was not done with them, was perhaps the fault of their leader, who, m the opportunity afforded, exhibited no conspicuous quality of soldiership^ if we except the one (that he unquestionably possessed) of cool and resolute courage. Blenker was ordered to leave the territory of the Helvetic confederation in September, 1849. He was permitted to travel through France, and emliarked at Havre for the United States, where he landed near the end of the year. Ar- rived here, he purchased a small farm in Rockland county. New York, and began life as a farmer. But his farming did not prove prosperous, and he abandoned it for more active business in New York city, in which he continued until the war began. Then he immediately took the proper steps for the organization of a 64 NOTABLE MEN. and Greece acquiesced in the choice. But a crown prince was not all that Ba- varia was called ujion to furnish, for with the Prince was to go a Bavarian legion of three thousand five hundred men ; and immediately the drum went round for recruits, and all along the Eliine stout fellows desirous to see the world, and tempt the Lady Fortune in their favor, were in brisk demand. Louis Blenker was just then free from an apprenticeship served in a dull German city, and an adventurous life must necessarily have seemed to him pos- sessed of every cliarm that fancy could give it; so he became one of the thirty- five hundred, and entered the Bavarian legion in the capacity of a jirivate sol- dier. Otho, accompanied by the legion, embarked at Brindisi, in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, January 24th, 1833. And there is our soldier fairly started in life. What destiny could offer higher promise of the romantic than this? And how it must have winged the young German's aspiration to be thus a sol- dier, afloat on that blue sea, in the train of one on his way to receive a throne, and with his face turned toward Greece, that parent-land of heroism and poesy — that " Clime of the unforgotten brave, Whose land from plain to moimtain-cave Was freedom's home or glory's grave !" Otho and his train arrived in Greece without mishap, and the legion was debarked at Napoli, February 6th, 1833. There seemed a magic in the touch of German feet upon the classic soil. Tumult and schism were universally stilled, and there was a happy calm. It lasted, however, only till midsummer, when Colocotroni, a mountain chief and a universal agitator, began again to make trouble, and formidable combinations against the government appeared among the Mainotes and Roumeliotes. Against these the Bavarian legion was employed in various directions, and in its ranks young Blenker saw four years of jjeculiarly hard and almost incessant seiwice. From a private he became sergeant, and upon the disbandment of the corps in 1837 he received with his conge the honorary rank of lieutenant. Lieutenancies, it should be remembered, are not thrown around in European countries as we have recently seen them in America. They are the rewards (when bestowed upon men who are in the ranks) only of valuable and efiicicnt service, and they consequently carry with them a legitimate distinction. Thus honored, and, in European eyes, elevated in the social scale, Blenker returned to Worms in 1837. Of course, it was no longer possible to settle in life as a jeweller, and from Worms he went to Munich, where he attended medical lectures with the view to the adoption of that profession — either to kill or cure he evidently thought his destiny. But his intention toward a profession was relinquished very soon in favor of commerce, and he returned again to Worms, was married, and became established in the wine trade ; such was his position LOUIS BLE NX ER. 65 when the troubles in 1848 began, llis business, hitherto prosperous, then declined, and ho was eventually declared bankrupt ; but this was not in any sense a com- mercial failure, and was the inevitable consequence of the stormy times. From its commencement, he was conspicuous in the popular movement. He became commander of the national guard in "Worms, and also burgomaster of that city, and upon the actual outbreak of the revolution, he took an energetic part in it, and was of great assistance in the organization of the revolutionary forces. When the revolutionary army was threatened by the imperial army and the Prussians under their Prince, he joined it at the head of a considerable body of men, and shared its subsequent fortunes throughout 1848. Several skir- mishes which he had in the next year, with the royalist forces, approach very near the proportions of battles. On May 10th he defeated a corps of the Baden army and made prisoners a number of officers, while many of the royal soldiers joined his o^\'n force. Seven days after ho occupied Worms, which he aban- doned for a useless movement against Landau. Master of Worms for a second time, he left in it three hundred men, and marched into the I'alatinate. His three hundred men were driven out the next day by the government troops — while he himself, near to Boblenheim, encountered and defeated, after a hard fight, an equal force of Prussians. Ho then re-entered Baden, and took the com- mand of that portion of the revolutionary forces destined to cover Carlsruhe, and to sustain Mieroslawski, whose forces occupied the line of the Neckar. After the combat of Durlach, he occupied the posts of Muhlbourg and Knie- lingen. Driven from these posts, though not witliout a severe struggle, ho lost his last opportunity in the revolution through his fliilure to seize Baden-Baden, by the posssesion of which, it was thought he could have covered the disastrous retreat of the revolutionists. Upon the departure of Mieroslawski, he joined the forces of Sigel, Mieroslawski's successor. But the popular movement was ef- fectually crushed, and he retired into Switzerland. Throughout his irregular struggle the forces under Blenker's command had l>ehaved remarkably well — and that more was not done with them, was perhaps the fault of their leader, who, in the opportunity afforded, exhibited no conspicuous quality of soldiership, if we except the one (that he unquestionably possessed) of cool and resolute courage. Blenker was ordered to leave the territory of the Helvetic confederation in September, 1849. He was permitted to travel through France, and embarked at Havre for the United States, where he landed near the end of the year. Ar- rived here, he purchased a small farm in Rockland county. New York, and began life as a fanner. But his farming did not prove prosperous, and he abandoned it for more active business in New York city, in which he continued until the war began. Then he immediately took the proper steps for the organization of a 66 NOTABLE MEN. regiment of liis countrymen in New York city, in which he was completely suc- cessful, and the regiment received the designation of the eighth regiment of New York volunteers, or first German rifles. Both this regiment and the German regiment of Colonel Max Weber were originally, by some confusion, designated the twentieth regiment. Colonel Blenker's regiment was among those most promptly organized for the war, and left New York city May 27th, 1861, only twenty -five days after the promulgation of President Lincoln's call for men to serve for three years. It had then already attained a fair degi-ee of discipline and con- siderable proficiency in drill. From New York the regiment proceeded to Wash- ington, where it arrived May 28th, and was quartered m various parts of the city until June 9th, when it went into camp on Meridian Hill, about two miles from the capital. During all the period from the first enrolment of his men. Colonel Blenker labored earnestly to make them perfect in eveiy detail of soldiership ; and when they went into camp, this endeavor was pursued by him even more rigorously still. Shortly before the advance to Centreville, Colonel Blenker's regiment was ordered into Virginia, where, with the twenty-ninth New York, the Garibaldi Guard, and the twenty-seventh Pennsjdvania regiment, it formed the first bri- gade of the fifth division, and Colonel Blenker was placed in command. Upon the day when the battle of Bull Eun was fought, the fifth division was in re- serve, and Blenker's command was formed upon the heights east of Centreville. Here it continued, necessarily inactive, until the retreat of the United States forces began, when, at about four, r. M., it was ordei'cd to advance upon the road from Centreville to Warrenton — an order executed with great difficulty, as the road was blocked up by baggage-wagons and the whole confusion of the retreat. Nevertheless, owing to the coolness of the officers and the discijiline of the men, the passage through the village was successfully executed, and the further ad- vance made with admirable precision, and Colonel Blenker took a position which would have enabled him to prevent the advance of the rebels, and protect the retreat of the Union forces, had the rebels made any pursuit. Blenker s own regiment, the eighth, was posted one mile and a half soutli of Centreville, on both sides of the road to Bull Run; the twenty-ninth regiment was half a mile behind the eighth ; and the Garibaldi Guard was in reserve in line, behind the twenty-ninth regiment. While in this position, the regular lines of the bri- gade were a pleasant sight to the distressed fugitives from the lost field. " The suffering of a hundred deaths," says a mtness of the scene, " would have been as nothing compared with tlie torture under which the few brave soldiers writhed, who were swept along by tlie maniac hurricane of terror. But suddenly their spirits were revived by a sight which, so long as God lets them live, they will never cease to remember with pride and joy. Stretching far across the road. LOUIS BLENKER. 67 long before the hoped-for refuge of Centreville was reached, was a firm, un- swerving line of men, to whom the sight of the thousands who dashed by them was only a wonder or a scorn. This was the German rifle-regiment ; and to see the manly bearing of their general, and feel the inspiration which his presence gave at the moment, was like relief to those who j^erish in a desert. At least, then, all was not lost ; and we knew that, let our destiny turn that night as it should, there was one man who would hold and keep the fame of the nation un- sullied to the end."' And in this position Blenker held his men throughout the evening, and spread a sure protection over the multitude who fled disordered through his columns. Toward eleven o'clock, several squadrons of the enemy's cavalry advanced along the i-oad, and appeared before the outposts of the eighth regiment, but were driven back without difiiculty. At midnight the order to re- treat was received, and the brigade moved on to Washington, which it reached in safety nineteen hours after. For these services. Colonel Blenker was com- missioned a brigadier-general of volunteers, August 9th, 1861. In the various re-arrangements of corps that were made some time after the accession of General M'Glellan to the post of commander-in-chief, Blenker's command swelled to the proportions of a division ; and, on the grand review of November 20th, it mustered eleven regiments of infantry, two batteries of artil- lery, and a regiment of mounted riflemen. Although his command was thus as large as the other divisions of the army on the Potomac, various regiments of his countrymen, on their arrival at Washington, desired to be attached to Blen- ker's division. He also desired that all his countrymen should be made subject to a single command, and addressed General M'Clellan upon the subject. General M'Clcllan replied that the division was already sufficiently large. To this. Gen- eral Blenker responded in a letter which was probably written in some heat, and the tone of which was not what the etiquette of the service requires. General Marcy, as chief of General M'Clellan's staff, wrote to General Blenker in reproof of his note ; and General Blenker immediately penned a resignation of his posi- tion, and, it is said, sent it in, but subsequently withdrew it. General Blenker is now, therefore, in command of the fifth division of the army of the Potomac. His command extends geographically from the Potomac to the most westerly limit of the national lines in Virginia ; and is divided from General M'Dowell's division on the north by a line drawn a little to the south of Fort Eunyon and Munson's Hill ; and from General Franklin's division on the south by a line drawn a short distance to the north of Alexandria. 2!§.'V-*-SK'"*''' 'H M-AJrOEN. FRANZ SIGEL. FEANZ SIGEL. NEVER engaged in any battle where the side upon wliich he fought could fairly claim an unqualified victory ; and never engaged in a separate com- mand where he was not compelled to retreat, Franz Sigel yet keeps a sure hold upon public confidence, and a perusal of his career compels the acknowledgment of his thorough soldiership, and his ability as a general. This can only be the result of some real power in the man, for the world — -and especially our world • — is too fond of success to overlook disaster ; and unless fully impressed with the conviction that a better chance than he has hitherto had would show a better result, it would not hesitate to cry down the soldier whose only fault has been an utter want of luck, that great constituent of military fame. Franz Sigel was born at Zinsheim, in the grand duchy of Baden, Novem- ber 18th, 1824. His father held the important position of Kreisumtman — the highest magistrate in the county of Bruchsal. Fi-anz received a liberal edu- cation, and was graduated from the military school at Carlsruhe, whence he entered the regular army of Baden. Rapid advance is not common in that service, yet the young lieutenant had reached the post of chief-adjutant in the year 1847, and in this perhaps, we may see the benefit of his father's position. But when the revolution broke out in Southern Germany, young Siegel openly sympathized with it and was even said to have been compromised in Struve's premature attempt to revolutionize his native state ; through these difficulties he lost his commission in the Badisli army. All Germany was at that period divided upon the great question of a central government — with a liberal con- stitution, and the cashiered lieutenant at once cast his fortunes with the liberal party. He entered the contest with the natural ardor of a young soldier already martyred in what he believed to be the cause of his country and of freedom. Various journals agitated the cause on the part of the liberals, and for these Sigel wrote earnestly against the government, and in favor of a new one. He thus acquired a considerable influence with the people, and became prom- inent among the leaders of the movement. In March, 1849, a preliminary parliament was held at Frankfort, which issued a call for a National Assembly to meet in May, and to submit a plan of government. Disturbances in Rhenish Bavaria anticipated the action of the assembly thus called, and were denounced by the opponents of the liberal movement, as only the trickery of the agitators. 70 NOTABLE MEN. intended to make changes in the government appear more necessary, and to com- mit the people in ad\'ance to whatever revolutionary measures might be brought forward at Frankfort. Prussian soldiers were immediately marched into Rhenish Bavaria. Scarcely had the Prussians moved than the liberalists in the grand duchy of Baden made comraou cause with those in Rhenish Bavaria, and about twenty thousand persons publicly assembled at Offenburg in Baden, passed a series of resolutions, to the effect that the movement in Rhenish Bavaria should be supported, that the constitution voted by the National Assembly should be acknowledged, and that officers in the army should be chosen by the private soldiers. Many soldiers were in attendance, and one of the resolutions that re- ferred to them secured their adherance. On the same day the fortress of Rastadt was seized liy the soldiers of the garrison, and disturbances broke out at Carlsruhe. By ten o'clock that night, the grand duke and his ministers were in full flight, and the state was in the hands of the liberal party A " National Committee" assumed the powers of government. Lieutenant Eichfield was made minister of war, and Lieutenant Sigel became prominent among the 3"0ung officers whose fortunes were in the movement, and who were ready to organize and lead a popular army. With the state itself there had fallen into the hands of the liberals, seven millions florins in coin, two and a half in paper, and seventy thousand muskets, besides those in the hands of the army. The army numbered seventeen thousand men. Some energetic measures were taken by the new government ; but, in accordance with the revolutionary idea, the army was ordered to choose its officers anew. Doubtless, this was the death-blow of the revolutionary cause, for it virtually deprived the state of its army. Discipline was destroyed, and all organization entirely lost. " Soldiers appeared on parade," says an eye-witness, "in what they had indiscriminately jDlundered from the stores at Carlsruhe. Shakos, helmets, caps, great-coats, frocks, full-dress and un- dress uniforms, all figured in the same ranks Officers and privates, arm-in- arm, and excessively drunk, reeled through the streets." Raw recruits rose to the rank of major in a day, and a similar disproportion between service and posi- tion jircvailed throughout. Head-quarters were established at Heidelberg, and there Lieutenant Sigel arrived May 19th. Fi\-e days later, a meeting of liberals near the frontier, in Hesse-Darmstadt, was dispersed by the Hessian soldiery, and Lieutenant Sigel was ordered to lead the revolutionary army of Baden across the frontier. Four battalions of the line, with about six thousand volunteers, were reviewed at Heidelberg previous to the march ; and Sigel, as commander of the troops, issued a manifesto, in which was set forth the reasons why he prepared to enter the territory of Hesse-Darmstadt. But Mieroslawski, a Pole, who had been called to the chief command, arrived before the troops moved, and Sigel lost this early chance of distinction. FRANZ SIGEL. 71 The revolutionary force, between ten and twelve thousand strong, marclied May 28th. On the 1st of June, the " National Committee" was superseded by a " Provisional Government" — formed of the same men as the committee had been • — and Sigel was made minister of war. From that period he necessarily exer- cised a controlling influence upon the struggle ; but, though no serious blow had yet been struck, the strength of the cause was gone. Bad counsel had prevailed ; the army was already ruined; the volunteers who came forward to fight fell into the radical German error, confounded personal with political freedom, and were consequently impossible to control ; and the confidence of the people was lost. Moreover, the leaders themselves appeared to have lost faith in the move- ment. Yet, under the administration of the young minister, a far from con- temptible resistance was made to the united imperial and Prussian armies. Active operations against the revolutionary forces began about the first of June ; and an imperial army, under Peucker, advanced from Furth in two col- umns, and came up with the army under Microslawski, near Weinheim, on the 14th. Mieroslawski attacked Peuckcr's front and right flank, posted in the vil- lage of Grossacken, at six, A. M., on the 15th, and obtained some advantage, but was repulsed, though the battle continued till night. Peucker renewed the battle on the 16th, and suffered severely from Mieroslawski's artillery, but drove the latter from his position. Both sides claimed the victory, and Mieroslawski re- gretted his inability to pursue, through want of cavalry ; but each fell back to the position occupied previous to the fight on the loth. Peucker was superseded in command of the imperial army by the Prince of Prussia, who proclaimed the grand-duchy of Baden in a state of war, and that all offenders against military law should be tried by court-martial, and, if deemed necessary, punished with death. Mieroslawski withdrew his forces from his posi- tion near Weinheim to Waghausel on the Ehine, whither he was followed by the Prince of Prussia, whom he attacked, June 22d. He was again beaten, however, and retreated to the upper Neckar and the region of the Black Forest. Sigel, though minister, was present, and took an active part in these battles. After their victory at Waghausel, the Prussians crossed the Neckar, came up with the revolutionary forces at Ettlingen, beat them again, and drove them across the Murg. Mieroslawski now abandoned the cause and fled, and Sigel assumed the chief command. With his broken and demoralized forces he made a splendid retreat, and reached the fortress of Rastadt without loss of a gun. Here the most considerable portion of the revolutionary army was now left, while Sigel endeavored to rally further resistance in other quarters, and concentrated a force at Salem, in the Badish lake district. But the members of the provisional gov- ernment were already fugitives, and Rastadt was invested ; and, though some further resistance was offered, it was at best but a guerilla warfare, and was soon 7-2 NUTAULE MEN. abandoned by Sigel, who entered Switzerland, July 11th. Driven from the Swiss territoiy, in common with all other fugitives from Baden, by the decree of the government of the Helvetic confederation, he was compelled to seek a fur- ther refuge, and reached the United States in 1850. He took up his residence in New York city, became associated in the conduct of an academy in Market street, and married the daughter of the principal of that academy. Dr. Dulou. He also took an active interest in the volunteer militia organization, and even held the position for some months, under Colonel Schwarzwaelder, of major in the fifth regiment. In Sei^tember, 1858, Sigel removed from New York to St. Louis, where he was employed as a teacher in the German- American Academy, when the present war became imminent. Peace had perhaps become ennuyante after ten years, and Sigel immediately determined, in the event of war, to take an active part. Known as a soldier of experience, he obtained a colonel's commission, and, upon the first call of the President ujion the people, he organized a regiment of his countrymen, which, under the designation of the third Missouri, was incorpo- rated. May 15th, in General Lyon's first Missouri brigade. This regiment was one of those enlisted for three months. Under Sigel's command, it participated in the seizure of Camp Jackson, where, posted with Blair's regiment, and four pieces of artillery, on the ridge to the north of the rebel position, it guarded the main approach to it, and ijrevented the possibility of assistance being received by the rebels from St. Louis. This movement was effected with a celerity and precision that spoke highly for the degree of discipline to which the regiment had already attained. After the capture of this rebel force. Governor Jackson was known to be very active in the organization of another at Jefiferson City, and General Lyon apprehended that the intention was to make a sudden movement upon St. Louis. He therefore posted the several regiments under his command at the various avenues of aj^proach to the city, to guard against this movement, and also to intercept supplies and munitions of war which it was endeavored to send from St. Louis to the rebel governor at the state capital. In discharge of this duty. Colonel Sigel with his regiment was posted to the west of the city, in Liudall's Grove, and performed efiicient service there. Just previous to the battle at Booneville, Mo., rebel military organizations be- came very active toward the Arkansas border, and Ben M'Culloch was known to be in motion with forces for the assistance of Jackson and Price, then at Jeffer- son City. Eather to watch, perhaps, than to fight these forces, Colonel Sigel was ordered for active service in the extreme south-western part of Missouri, and left St. Louis with six companies of his regiment on the night of June 11th, followed on the next day by the other four companies. Colonel Salomon's regiment, the fifth, was subsequently added to his command, which also included the various FRANZ SIGEL. 73 home-guard organizations of the district. Squads of men were detached all along the Pacific railroad, to guard the bridges, and keej^ open communication ; and from RoUa, the tenninus of the road, Colonel Sigel marched his force to Spring- field, and thence extended his line of operations westward to Sarcoxie. After the battle of Booneville, and when the forces of Jackson and Price were in full retreat toward tlic Arkansas border, all eyes were turned toward Colonel Sigel, then the only man in a position to intercept them, and news from his command was breathlessly expected from day to day. Throughout the state more was likely to be expected from him then than a calm review of his force would just- ify ; for his whole command numbered less than three thousand men, and his line of operations was nearly three hundred miles in extent. Yet the bulk of his force was gathered to the west of Springfield, for there was evidently the critical point, and toward that point Major Sturgis pressed hurriedly forward with his Kansas men ; and with his face turned that way, the earnest Lyon hurried the preparations for his march from Booneville. From Booneville, Jackson had re- treated to Lexington, and every day contradictory rejDorts of his movements reached Sigel. Now he had formed a junction with Price, with Eains, with Parsons, or with M'Culloch, and his force was reported at every number from six hundred to ten thousand. Moreover, this united force was represented at various times to be upon every road by which it could possibly reach the Arkan- sas line. Sigel's duty to watch or intercept this body with such a part of his own command as he could have at any one place, was thus no light one ; and still Lj'on did not move, and Sturgis was heard from very far away. Sigel, with only his own regiment, arrived in Sarcoxie on Fridaj^, June 28th, at five p. M., and there learned certainly that Price, with between eight and nine hundred men, was encamped to the south of Neosho, twenty-two miles west of Sarcoxie; and that Jackson's troops, under command of Parsons, and another body, under General Eains, were to the north, near Lamar. He determined to march against Price, near Neosho, and to attack subsequently those to the north. He accordingly marched from Sarcoxie on the morning of the 29th ; but, on the same morning, the reljel camp at Neosho was broken up, and the troops there stationed fled. Sigel then ordered the battalion of the fifth regiment, at Mount Vemon, under Colonel Salomons, to join him at Neosho; and as soon as they had arrived, he moved forward, leaving one company in Neosho, and on the evening of the 4th of July encamped on Spring River, one mile to the south-east of Carthage, the county scat of Jasper county. The troops had marched twenty miles that day. Colonel Sigel ascertained that Jackson, with four thousand men, was only nine miles distant, encamped on the prairie. His own force consisted of nine companies of the third regiment, seven companies of the fifth regiment — in all nine hundred and fifty men — with two batteries of artillery, of four field- 13 74 NOTABLE MEN. pieces each. With this force he moved, on the morning of July 5th, to attacic the rebels. Diy Fork Creek was passed six miles north of Carthage, and after a further march of three miles, Jackson's force was found drawn up in order of battle, on an eminence which rises gradually from the creek, and is about a mile distant. Jackson's front presented three regiments, one regiment of cavalry being on each wing, and the centre being formed of infantry, cavalry, and two field- pieces ; other field-pieces were posted on the wings. The force in this line was computed at two thousand five hundred men. Behind it was a large force in reserve. Colonel Sigel detached one cannon, and an infantry company, to pro- tect his baggage, three miles in the rear, and at about nine, A. M., opened fire with his artillery. The fire was promptly answered, and the rebel cavalry moved for- ward on his flanks, and threatened to turn them. Notwithstanding this move- ment, Colonel Sigel continued his fire until that of the cnemj- was sensibly weak- ened, when he ordered the guns to be advanced. Captain Wilkins, commander of one of the batteries, at this moment announced that his annnunition was exhausted. Both wings were also engaged with the rebel cavalry, and the loss of the entire baggage became imminent. A retreat toward Dry Fork Creek was accordingly ordered ; and at that point, after a junction with the baggage-train, a stand was made for upwards of two hours, and a heavy loss inflicted upon the enemy. Meanwhile, the rebel cavalry had completely surrounded Colonel Sigel's command, and formed a line in his rear, on Buck Branch, a little creek which it was necessary that he should pass. At this point a feint was made toward either flank of the enemy's line, which drew his whole force into the road, and exposed it to the fire of the national artillery. One round was fired, and the infimtry charged at double quick, and completely routed these two regiments. From this point the march was undisputed, until SigePs command reached a ridge to the north of Carthage, on the Springfield road, where the enemy again took position. Here a severe fight occurred, the hardest of the day. The enemy was driven from his position, and the Union force obtained cover in a wood, which rendered the enemy's cavalry for the time useless. After the men were somewhat rested in the wood, the march was continued to Sarcoxie, which they reached at two, A. M., on the 6th. Eeliable accounts represented the rebel loss on this day at three hundred and fifty men, while the whole loss in Sigel's command was but thirteen killed and thirty-one wounded. Soon after the liattle near Carthage, the whole Union force in Missouri sub- ject to the command of General Lyon was concentrated at Springfield. While they remained there, the three months for which Colonel Sigel's regiment was enlisted expired, and lie began to reorganize it for the war. Inspired by their whole association, and especially by the recent fight, with high admiration of and entire confidence in their colonel, six hundred of his men re-enlisted, and the FRANZ SIGEL. 75 regiment was soon filled up by recruits from the neighborhood of Springfield and from St. Louis. When, in the beginning of August, General Lyon left Spring- field upon his first march in search of the rebel army, Colonel Sigel accompanied him with a battalion of the third regiment, was present at the Dug Spring skir- mish, and returned to Springfield with the general. Lyon determined, on the 9th of August, to attack the rebels in their camp on Wilson's creek, and with this purpose divided his force into two columns : the right he commanded in person, and the command of the left was intrusted to Colonel Sigcl. Sigcl's division consisted of a battalion of the third regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Albert; a battalion of the fifth, under Colonel Salomon — only nine hundred men in the two battalions ; six pieces of artillery, and two companies of cavalry of the United States army. It should be remembered that the men of the fifth regiment were on this occasion volunteers in a double sense, as the term of their enlistment had expired eight days before ; and that the third regiment was composed in a great degree of recruits who were imperfectly drilled, and had never been under fire. Moreover, the field-pieces were not served by practiced artillerymen, but by men taken from the infantry regiments. Sigel's command left Camp Fremont, south of Springfield, at sunset on the 9th, and at daybreak on the 10th was within a mile of the south-eastern extremity of the enemy's camp. Here the advance was very slowly and carefully made, and a large number of prisoners was taken before the rebels had discovered the prox imity of the Union forces. Four pieces of artillery were planted on a hill in sight of the rebel camp, a line formed to support them, and when the firing an- nounced that Lyon's attack had begun, the four jjieces opened a very destructive fire. Under cover of this, the infantry advanced, drove out the enemy, and formed nearly in the centre of his camp ; whereupon the artillery was also moved forward, and, after some minutes, the enemy was driven into the woods in confu- sion. In order to render all possible assistance to Lyon's attack. Colonel Sigel now advanced still more to the north-west — further, it is said, than had been con- templated in the plan of attack — and even received a very destructive fire from Totten's battery. Taking a position near a farmhouse, he formed his men across a road that he supposed the enemy would follow in retreat ; and meanwhile the firing in Lyon's direction almost entirely ceased, and it was supposed that the attack had been successful. This was the state of afiairs at half-past eight o'clock, when it was reported to Colonel Sigel by his skiniiishers that " Lyon's men were coming up," along the very road which he had supposed the rebels would take, and the infantry and artillery were notified not to fire on men com- ing in that direction. Lyon's men were thus momentarily expected, when a strong column of infantry appeared ; two batteries simultaneously opened fire on Sigel's men, and the infantiy also. Great confusion spread in the national 76 NOTABLE MEN. ranks, and the cry was raised that Lyoa's men were firing on them. Order could not be restored in time to avail, and the rebel infantry advanced to within ten paces of Sigel's guns, and killed the horses. Salomon's regiment broke, and could not be rallied ; Sigel's also broke, but was partially rallied, and brought away one gun. Thus repulsed, Sigel could only make the best of his way to Springfield, which he did, and there foiTned a junction with the other' column, learned of Lyon's death, and assumed the command as next in rank. Prepara- tions were made the same night for a further retreat, and at daybreak on the 11th the whole command moved toward the Gasconade River, which, contrary to ex- pectation, was reached without a fight. But before that river was passed, some question as to his actual rank was raised ; and, though it was known that Sigel had then been confirmed a brigadier-general, the fiict that he had not received his commission was insisted upon, and the command was assumed by Major Sturgis, of the United States army, who conducted the retreat to Rolla. Franz Sigel received his commission as a brigadier-general of volunteers, August 17th. On the 19th he arrived in St. Louis, where he was enthusiasti- cally received by his German fellow-citizens, upon whom his recent achievements had made a great impression. He remained in St. Louis several weeks, confer- ring with the commander of the department upon the various measures necessary for the march southward of a large force, and left that city to take command of the advance — the largest division of Fremont's army — then posted at Georgetown and Sedalia. He arrived in Sedalia September 28th, and on October 13th marched from that place for Warsaw, " with suflicient force to open the way ;" passed the Osage at Warsaw on the 16th, and reached Springfield, to the great joy of its inhabitants, October 27th. Sigel's command was at this time in sjilen- did condition. To all the wants and grievances of his men he gave personal attention, mingled with them on the march and in camp, and cheered them through every difficulty. He was conseriuently a great favorite, and they were enthusiastically eager to follow him in the actual strife. But while the advance still remained at Springfield, General Fremont was removed from the command, his plan of campaign was abandoned, and Sigel with his brigade retraced his steps to Rolla. New measures were now inaugurated. General Hunter assumed the command, and we hear of activity in every part of the state, upon both sides ; and the rebels are roughly handled in several places ; Price again advances to the Osage, and again retires ; but in all these movements we hear but little of Sigel. And thus it continued for the remainder of October, for November and December; and while all was movement, life, and triumph around him, he fret- ted in compulsory inactivity, till it seemed that he was forgotten, or that there was an intention to ignore his past services. From this state of aflPairs a rumor easily spread that it was his intention to resign his commission, and general \ FRANZ SIGEL. 77 credence was given to it. "For a long time," said one of liis friends, " things have looked as though the intention were to trifle with him. "Where he sowed, where he was first in the field and was the fii'st to strike, and while his name rang, like that of Mars, from every German lip throughout the Union, and helped to fill the camps, others are now to reap the harvest."' General Sigel did indeed feel that injustice had been done to him, and that he had been improperly interfered with in his command. Finally, it appeared to him impossible to retain his position under the circumstances and with a proper regard to his self-respect ; and on the 31st of December, therefore, he tendered his resignation. General Halleck, to whom the resignation was sent, at St. Louis, did not, it is said, immediately forward it to Washington. General Sigel, when informed of this, reiterated the tender, January 14th, and demanded the imme- diate dispatch of his letter to head -quarters. He was, however, compelled on January 27th to tender his resignation for a third time, which was not accepted. /^ ^/x^^ C^T'C^—^ REV. HENRY W BELLOWS, D. D. HEITRT W. BELLOWS, D. D. DR. BELLOWS has for many years been quite prominent as a writer and preacher, but of late he has risen to a new and national position as head of the Sanitary Commission, and of course as chief adviser in that great work of saving the health and life of our troops, which is quite as important as leading them to victory. He is still a young man, for one who has accomplished so much. He was born in Boston, June 11th, 1814, thus being under forty-eight years of age. He received his cariy education there, and completed his prepara- tion for college at the famous Round Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts, while it was under the charge of George Bancroft and Dr. Cogswell. He entered Harvard College in 1828, and graduated in 1832. Spending the two subsequent years in teaching, part of the time in Louisiana, he returned to Cambridge to study theology at the Divinity School there, and completed his course in 1837. A few months afterward (January 2d, 1838), he was ordained pastor of the First Congregational Church in New York city, where he still continues to labor. His church stood first in Chambers street, where he remained until a new edifice was built for him in Broadway, where Dr. Chapin now preaches ; and in a few years, on account of the rapid change in the centre of residences, the present All Souls' Church was erected for him, at the corner of Fourth avenue and Twentieth street. Dr. Bellows has made his mark upon the age, not only by the boldness of his positions and the fervor of his eloquence, but by prominent acts of executive force. He was the principal originator of the "Christian Inquirer," the Unita- rian newspaper of New York, in 184:6, and for several years he was chief editor. He was the moving power in the rescue of Antioch College, Ohio, from extinc- tion, and in putting it upon a footing of usefulness and hope. He has been known to the country at large, however, by the original and eloquent sermons^ orations, and addresses, that have been put forth from time to time upon topics of popular interest. A volume of twenty or thirty of these productions will make an important chapter of our literary and social history, as well as an ex- cellent illustration of the many-sidedness of the man. The most conspicuous of these were his discourse at Cambridge on the suspense of faith, 1859, and his noted defence of the drama in 1857. This latter was really an act of great 80 NOTABLE MEN. bravery ; and while his perfonnance was a profound and brilliant one, its heroism was even more memorable. Probably the most careful studies that he has given to the public are his lectures before the Lowell Institute, Boston, on the "Treatment of Social Dis- eases," in 1857. These lectures were very patient, practical, and sagacious, and undoubtedly prepared the author for his j^resent task as President of the Sani- tary Commission. The organization of this commission was in great part his work ; and they who were with him throughout the first struggle of its friends to secure to it a firm foundation, testify to the boundless courage, versatile talent and practical sagacity, with which he carried his point, and won over to his cause the heads of the nation, and discomfited the red-tape procrastinators who arc such masters of the art " How not to do it." His labors for nearly a year in this commission have been very great. He has conducted a large con-espondence, given many addresses, had personal interviews with important persons, travelled east, west, and south, to inspect the camps and hospitals in person, and actually rendered the service of a major-general in the coi-ps of militant benevolence. Meanwhile, he has kept his ministerial charge, and maintained the high intel- lectual and devotional character of his pulpit labors. Dr. Bellows is a versatile man, and, by a necessity of his nature, as well as from the opportunities of his position, he has taken a warm interest in subjects of the most diverse kind. Thus, shortly after astounding the old priesthoods by his defence of the drama before an association of actors, he came out with his famous discourse at Cambridge on the suspense of faith, and alarmed his old friends in freedom and progress with fears lest he were taking the back track, and would be soon at the Vatican, kneeling for the pope's blessing on his peni- tent head. But they who look to the springs of liis convictions discover the interior unity of the man, and can see that he may be a warm champion of a new and purer Church Universal, and be all the more ready to give the beautiful arts, the drama among them, a place within its benediction. We should, perhaps, be sorry to be obliged to reconcile all Dr. 'Bellows' utterances through a term of years with each other, for he writes and speaks from the spur of the moment, pushing his fiery steed on at full gallop, apparently vrithout looking behind him. Yet it is very remarkable how well his various positions illustrate and complete each other ; and even when he runs counter to himself in appearance, as in his attitude at one time as a teacher of transcendentalism, and again as a champion of an authoritative Church, it will be found, as in his recent volume of sennons of various dates, that his course is cumulative, and that he is travelling over dif- ferent parts of the same great domain, and now ranging in the open pasture and now resting in the safe fold. If, however, he had the same power in setting forth and urging a complete system of truth or practice that he has shown in dealing HENRY W. BELLOWS, D.D. .81 with specific ideas and measures, he woiihl take a place among the great con- structive minds of tlie age. As yet he has not brought his convictions and powers to bear organically upon his work, and his brilliant thoughts sometimes flash more in lines of impulsive force, like the lightning, than shine together like the constellations. Yet it is not difficult to conceive of him as combining his views, experiences and plans into one method, and bringing his electric power to bear upon some great and permanent work of social or religious construction. He has some great gifts as a religious teacher and organizer; and if he lives twenty years, he ought to do something to meet the great want of our time, which he has so alily set forth, the want of a broad and effective and truly cath- olic church sj'stem, that shall be at once generous and strong. As it is, how- ever, he has done little in this direction ; and with gifts that in some respects rival "Wesley's or even Loyola's, he has been apparently little ambitious of church influence, and depends mainly uj^on his rare personal power as preacher for the success of his ministry, without an}- help from the methods of edification and administration which he so powerfully discusses and advocates as needed to unite and strengthen the generous minds of our day. As yet, he talks catholi- city, and practises extreme individualism. Dr. Bellows is an acute and original thinker, a shrewd observer of men, a lover of the best books, especially of the day, a ready and brilliant writer and eloquent speaker, a cordial friend, a humane and devout Christian. His main gift that marks him above most other men is a certain force of character that gives him direct influence over others. He has contemporaries more learned, more philosophical, more constructive than he, and quite as brilliant in style and eloquent in sjDcech. But no man can carry a given point where enthusiasm and moral power are needed so well as he; and he has a certain princely quality in his temper and jJi'csence that gives him remarkable sway. Were he not emi- nently public-spirited, and full generally of humane purposes, his tone might often seem presuming; but in leading movements he rides his hobby or his knightly steed not for himself, but for the good cause of patriotism, or humanity, or faith ; and while the superannuated dignitaries of the faculty, or the staff, or the pulpit, whom he starts from their sleep, may curse him for his insolence, the patriots and philanthropists of the land will honor him as a brave and sagacious reformer, and wish him God-speed in his campaign of mercy and heroism. These stirring times have evidently had a decided effect on Dr. Bellows' ways of thinking. He has long been a leader in the liberal school of thought, and has given a large part of his life to vindicating the rights of the human soul against ancient prescriptions and pi'iesthoods, dogmas and dignities. In this he has followed in the track of Channing, and sometimes he has approached the extreme individualism of Emerson, and tended to slight the power of positive 14 . r 8'2 NOTABLE MEN. institutions and constitutional laws. Of late years he has been more conserva- tive, and since his public position has connected him more closely with national atfairs, and shown him the difficulty of carrying out abstract ideas, and the im- portance of uniting men as far as possible upon some standard of authority, he has taken a bold stand with the constitTitional party. He is now, as ever, an emancipationist, but he trusts mainly in the power of social and moral causes to free the slave ; and, while favoring the rigid enforcement of law against rebe slaveholders, he is for leaving to all loyal states and men their full rights of local jurisdiction under the constitution. In person. Dr. Bellows carries dignity and suavit}', and has an air of experi- .ence and age beyond his actual years. At heart, however, he is very young, and can be as merry and amusing as any of the solid old fathers of the Church, like Luther and his compeers, who thought an honest laugh sometimes no unseemly preparation for a sincere prayer. Pei-ha{iP the doctor's prayers are the best thing that he does; and the fair inference -is, that if so much unction drops so readily from his lips, there must be a deep fountain within. It is well that he is thus a devout man, and earnest to subdue his will to the Supreme will ; for his temper- ament is of the impulsive, commanding kind, such as tends, not from calculation but from instinct, to take the lead, and to submit with great difficulty to any other position. If the army has thus lost a brave and somewhat exacting gen- eral, or the Senate a brilliant and imperious leader, the Church has gained a commanding preacher, and humanity a fearless and faithful friend. I.IKKT lOHS T^GHEBLh L t-A. JOHIT TROUT GREBLE. AMONG the events ■which give a peculiar sadness to the early history of the war, was the ill-advised attempt to drive the enemy from Great Bethel, on the 10th of June, 1861, and especially the fall of the gallant young artillery offi- cer, the sacrifice of whose own life on that occasion saved the main body of the attacking force from entire destruction. The memory of this brave soldier is now a part of his country^s inheritance. His name will hereafter find an honorable mention in every history of the great North American republic. The following brief sketch of his life will show that the deeds which made his end illustrious, even amid defeat, were not the result of chance, but the legitimate fruits of right principles and of long and patient culture. JoHX Trout Greble, the oldest son of Edwin and Susan Virginia Greble, was bom in Philadelphia, January 19th, 183-4. The traditions of the family were all patriotic. His great-grandfather on the paternal side, Andrew Greble, a native of Saxe Gotha, who came to this country in 1742, and settled permanently in Philadelphia, enlisted warmly in the cause of the War of Independence. He, with his four sons, joined the American army, and fought at the battles of Princeton and Monmouth. The ancestors of Lieutenant Greble on the mother's side were fi'om Wales. They settled in Philadelphia in 1689. Though belong- ing to the Society of Friends, and professing the principles of non-resistance, they also espoused actively the cause of independence ; and two of them, Isaac Jones and William Major, great-grandfathers of Lieutenant Greble, were in the conti- nental army. The earliest aspirations of young Greble, so far as they are known, were all in keeping with these early traditions of the family. Though living in a home where all the avocations and interests were peaceful — though delicate in physical constitution, and possessed of a singular gentleness of disposition and manners, which followed him through life — he yet among his earliest dreams fondly con- templated the career of a soldier ; and when the time for decision came, he made a soldier's life his deliberate choice. In tracing the history of one who has given to the world proofs of good- ness, wisdom, and valor, it is instructive and interesting to know the influences which contributed to the formation of his character. No formative influences 84 NOTABLE MEN. compare with tlioso which cluster around one's home. A man's father, mother, lirothers and sisters, beyond all other human agencies, help to make him what he is. No one could have had even a passing acquaintance with young Greble, without feeling an assured conviction that the home which had nurtured him was the abode of the gentler virtues. Next to home, in its influence upon the character, is the school. In early childhood, Greble attended for a short time a private school kept liy a ladv, where he learned the tirst rudiments of knowledge. With this exception, all his education, outside of his home, was received in pub- lic schools; first in those of his native city, and afterward in that of the general go^•ernment at West Point. He entered the Einggold Grammar School of Phila- delphia at the age of eight, and remained there four years. At the age of twelve having passed a successful examination, he was admitted to the Central Higli School. There he remained another four years. Having completed the course in that institution, he graduated with distinction in June, 1850, receiving the degree of bachelor of arts at the early age of sixteen. Up to this point, his education had been conducted without reference to a military career. It had been his father's expectation, in due time, to receive him as a partner in his own business; but when the time for selecting a profession drew near, he was so clear and decided in his pi-eferences, that his parents wisely determined not to thwart him. The decision, when made known, created some surprise in the mind of the principal of the High School, between whom and himself relations of more than usual kindness had grown up. There was noth- ing in the ajipcarance or manners of the youth to point him out to the mind of an instructor as one likely to choose the life of a soldier; there was nothing in his disposition in any way combative or belligerent. He was never known to have a quarrel with a schoolmate. He was gentle almost to softness; pacific even to the yielding of his own will and })lcasure, in almost every thing that did not imply a yielding of principle. His military taste seemed to be the result of some peciiliar inclination of his genius, leading him, as if by instinct, to his true vocation. The Honorable L. C. Levin, at that time representative in Congress from Mr. Greble's district, having heard of the young man's desire for a military life, and knowing him to be a youth of fine promise, generously and without solicita- tion, tendered him a cadet'^hip at West Point. Having received the appoint- ment, he entered the academy in June, 1850, the very day but one after his graduation at the High School. The letter of recommendation which he bore with him to the professors of the academy is thought worthy of record here, be- cause it shows the impression he had made on the minds of his earlier instructors, and because he himself always set a peculiar value upon it as coming from one whom he had learned to love almost as a father : JOHN TROUT GREBLE. 85 "Central High School, Philajdelpuia, June llth, 1850. '' To the Professors of the Military Academy at West Point. " Gentlemen : Mr. John T. Greble having been appointed a cadet in your institution, I beg leave to commend him to your kind consideration. As ho has been for four years under my care. I may claim to know him well ; and I recom- mend him as a young man of good abilities and amiable disposition ; punctual in the discharge of duty, and seldom off his post. In these whole four years he has lost, I believe, but two days — one from sickness, and one to attend the fu- neral of a classmate. He leaves the High School with the unqualified confidence and respect of every professor in it. " Your obedient servant, John S. Hart, Princifxd.'" The career of the J'oung cadet was not marked by any thing worthy of espe- cial record. At West Point, as at the High School, his habits were studious, while his amial)le manners and soldierly conduct won for him the friendship of his fellow-cadets and of his professors. After graduating with credit in June, 1854, he at once entered the army, and was attached to the second regiment of artillery as brevet second-lieutenant. He was ordered first to Newport barracks, and shortly afterward to Tampa, Florida, where part of his regiment was sta- tioned, to keep the Seminoles in order. While there, he made the acquaintance of the celebrated chief Billy Bowlegs. Tlie latter took a great fancy to the young lieutenant, and, in testimony of his admiration, promised him that, in case of war between the Seminoles and the whites, the lieutenant should not be slain by any of his young warriors, but should have the honor of being killed by the chief, Billy Bowlegs himself ! The arduous duties detailed to Lieutenant Greble, in scouring the everglades and swamps in search of the Indians, brought on a violent fever. The disease not yielding to medical skill, he was ordered home, with the hope that a change of climate might eflFect a cure. From the effects of this illness he never entirely recovered. Having remained with his parents for a short time, and before his health was really sufficiently established to justify a return to active duty, he again took charge of a detachment of recruits, and proceeded with them to Fort Myers, in Florida, in March, 1856. He remained in Florida until December of that year, engaged in the same uninviting duties which had already iin|.ierillcd his health — searching swamps and everglades for stealthy and vindictive foes, who were always near, yet never to be seen by a superior force ; hiding them- selves in the water, with a leaf to cover the head, or wrapped up in the dark moss of a cypress or live-oak, ready to shoot any unwary white man who might be so unfortunate as to cross theii' hiding-place. The young lieutenant escaped at length the perils of this inglorious warfare^ and was transferred to a field of duty less dangerous and of much more imijortance. 15 86 NOTABLE MEN lu December, 1856, at the request of the professors of West Point, the secre- tary of war ordered Lieutenant Greble to report himself at the post for academic duty. He was made assistant to the Eevcrend Jolm W. French, I). D., chaplain of the post, and prol'essor of ethics. It became the dnty of the assistant professor to instruct the cadets in international and constitutional lau\ and in the constitu- tion of the United States. He ajiplied himself at once to the task with his char- acteristic constancy and zeal. Finding tliat the confinement and sedentary life inci- dent to his new duties were impairing his health, he twice inade application to be placed again in active service ; but the recpiest was not granted, and he remained in that position until the end of the term for which he had been ajipointed, a j^eriod of four years. The comparatively tame and inactive life at the academy was not without its compensations to the ardent yoixng soldier. In the refined and cultivated domestic circle which gi'aced the home of Professor French, the assistant found congenial society. On the 4th of August, 1858, he was married to Sarah B., eldest daughter of Professor French. Two of tlie happiest years of his life fol- lowed this union. In October of 1860, Lieutenant Greljle was relieved from duty at West Point, and ordered to join his company at Fortress Monroe. His wife and children joined him in November. In anticipation of their coming, he had fitted x\\> the homely apartments appropriated to their use, in the casemates of the fortress, with that exquisite delicacy of taste which was one of his jjrominent characteristics, so that the grim old walls looked c^uite gay and picturesque when the youthful family were assembled beneath their shadow. About this time a circumstance occurred, of no great magnitude, perhaps, but worthy of record as showing Lieutenant Greblc's generosity of disposition, as well as his sincere, unostentatious loyalty to the government. An officer, who had been his friend and classmate, had resigned his commission, with the view of joining the ranks of the rebel army. The lieutenant, hearing of this circum- stance, sought his friend, and remonstrated with him with such force and ur- gency as to induce a reconsideration. But a difficulty existed. It would be necessary for his friend to go immediatel}' to Washington, and perhaps remain for some time attending to this business, and he had not the means necessary for the journey. Lieutenant Greble had himself barely enough for his family ex- penses. Nevertheless he determined that want of funds should not ruin his friend, and occasion the loss of a skilled officer to the government. He was fond of books, of which he had a fine collection ; and he was about to add to their number a handsome copy of the "Encyclopaedia Britanuica," having already ordered the work. But he now countermanded the order, and, putting the sum which the work would cost into the hands of his friend, saw him oft" with joy on his repentant errand. JOHN TKOUT GREBLE. 87 The domestic happiness of Lieutenant Greble was soon to be interrupted, never to be renewed. In April, 1861, the whole nation, at the call of their patri- otic President, sprang suddenly to arms. Large numbers of troops were expected at Fortress Monroe, and of course all the quarters would be needed for tiicir ac- commodation. Orders were given, therefore, for the women and children to be removed. On the 19th of April, Mrs. Greble, with her two little ones and nurse, left the fortress for Philadelphia. They arrived at Baltimore in the midst of that fearful riot in which the soldiers of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were fired upon by the mob. All means of conveyance northward being cut off, the unpro- tected family made their way westward through Maryland and Virginia to Ohio, and thence, by way of Pittsburg, finally reached Philadelphia in safety. On the 26th of May, Lieutenant Greble was detailed with twenty -two regu- lars to proceed to Newport News as master of ordnance, and to instruct the vol- unteers, who numbered about three thousand, in artillery practice. An ofiicer on General Butler's stafl" in a letter written after Lieutenant Grcble's death, gives the following account of his conduct at Newport News : " I found him with his tent pitched nearest the enemy, in the most exposed position, one of his own selecting, living and sleeping by his gun — the gun which he used so fiiithfully a few hours later. His pleasant, open face, and kind, gentle manner, won me from the first. We exchanged many little courtesies, and I was his guest and the object of his thoughtful and kind attentions. I never met with a more high-minded, honorable gentleman. If, in this rebellion, we met with no other loss, one such man is enough to render it an execration throughout all time. He was intent on robbing war of half its horrors, and was deeply inter- ested in and co-operated with me manfully in plans for checking the depredations about the camp at Newport News. In this he displayed a firmness and moral courage that satisfied one of his manly character, and made a strong impression on the general. He spoke of the possibility, even probability, of his speedy fall, with perfect coolness, and seemed entirely prepared to meet all the dangers of sustaining the flag. I need not say to you how proud I should have been to have stood by his side on that fatal day ; to have seconded his efforts ; to have aided his friends in bringing ofl" his body, as I am sure he would have brought mine." The following extract from a letter to his wife, written from Newport News, Sunday, June 9th, the very day before his death, shows how calm and serene was his mind in the midst of the fearful excitement around him : '• It is a delightful Sunday morning. It has a Sabbath feeling about it. If you had lost the run of the week, such a day as to-day would tell you it was the Sabbath. The camp is unusually quiet ; and its stillness is broken by little ex- cept the oi-gan-tones of some of the Massachusetts men, who are on the beach, 88 NOTABLE MEN. singing devotional airs. Last Sabbath tlie men were in the ti'enohes. To-day is their first day of rest. A great deal of work has been done during the past week, under unfixvorable circumstances — rainy days. With very little additional labor, our whole line of intrenchments will be finished. There is a little trim- ming oft' to be done, and a magazine to be liuilt ; a little earth to be thrown up in front of some heavy columbiads that have been mounted, and some store- houses to be built. But enough has been done to allow the rest to be completed by general details, and to give a chance for drilling. Colonel Phelps has ap- jioiutcd me ordnance officer of the post. We do not fear an attack ; the position is too strong. I hear that Davis has given the federal troops ten days to leave the soil of Virginia. The time is nearly up, but we are not quite ready to move away I hope that I may be given courage and good judgment enough to do well my duty under any circumstances in which I may be placed. As far as I can see, there is not much danger to be incurred in this camjiaign at present. Both sides seem to be better inclined to talking than fighting. If talking could settle it by giving the supremacy forever to the general government, I think it woidd be better tlian civil war. But that talking can settle it, I do not believe." Little did Lieutenant Greble suppose, while writing this letter, that an expe- dition was then planning, to move in a few hours, and that he would be sent with it. As ordnance officer of the post, and the only regular aitillery oflicer there, he did not expect to be ordered on an expedition, leaving the armament in charge of those not qualified to use it if attacked by the enemy. But such was the case. An expedition against Great Bethel had been determined on ; and, although well c^ualified to take command of it, he was not even made aware of it until a few hours before the order was given to march. When infonncd of the plan of attack, he said to a brother-oflicer : "This is an ill-advised and badly- arranged movement. I am afraid that no good will come of it. As for myself, I do not think I shall come off the field alive." Unwell and at midnight, and with these gloomj- forebodings on his mind, he did not hesitate, but with the promptitude of a soldier made preparations to obey the orders of his superior. The only available guns at Newport News were two small six-pounders, and for these he had no means of transportation. He suc- ceeded, however, in borrowing two miiles to draw one of the pieces, and he de- tailed one hundred volunteers to draw the other. With eleven regular artilleiy- men to serve the guns, he started oft' with the rest of the forces on the expedition at night, to attack an enemy of whom no reconnoissance had been made, either in regard to their force or position. The particulars of this ill-staiTed expedition are but too well known, and need not be repeat(-d here. Lieutenant Greble, being considerably in advance of the main bodv, with one of his guns, heard firing in the rear from the other JOHN TROUT GREBLE. ^9 gun, which was in charge of his sergeant. Knowing that there could be no ene- my there, he galloped back, and found, as he had suspected, our own forces by a fatal mistake firing on each other. He immediately ordered the firing to cease, and when he saw the dead and wounded around him, exclaimed that he would rather have been shot himself than that such a disaster and disgrace should have befallen our arms. The result of this fatal error it was easy to conjecture. The enemy were notified of tiie approach of the federal troops, and, hastily retiring from Little Bethel, which it was intended to surprise, prepared for a vigorous defence of their works at Great Bethel. Order being restored, the attacking party again began to move forward. Lieutenant Greble returned to his gun, which was in the advance with Duryea's Zouaves. As they approached Great Bethel, a concealed battery opened fire upon them. Lieutenant Greble immediately unlimbercd his guns, and took position in the open road, about one hundred and fifty yards from the enemy, firing his guns alternately, and moving them forward at each discharge, until he was within one hundred yards of their battery. In this firing, be sighted the pieces each time himself, remaining as cool as if on parade. So accurate and effective was his firing, that he succeeded in silencing all of their guns but one, a rifled cannon. The Zouaves, and Bendix's regiment, by whom he was supported, were lying close to the ground in the woods, waiting the order to storm the ene- my's work ; but no general was to be found, to give the order. In the other part of the field our troops had been r(>pulscd, and were in full retreat. It was a critical and awful moment. There, in full view of the enemy, and within a hun- dred yards of their intrenehments, stood this young artillerist with liis two guns aad but eleven men, keeping the entire hostile force at bay, and by his cool intre- pidity and skill preventing a general rush upon the retreating ranks. For two whole hours he kept up his fire, and whenever the enemy attempted a sortie, drove them back with a shower of grape. One of his giins, having expended all its ammunition but a single discharge of grape, was ordered into the rear ; and the volunteers, who were to have been his support, were scattered by the enemy's grape and shell, so that he was left with but one gun and five men. Still the brave artillerist held his ground. Seeing the battle virtually lost, an officer went to him and begged him to retreat, or at least to dodge as the others did. His reply was characteristic: "I never dodge! When I hear the hugle sound a re- treat, I will leave, and not before." Not many minutes after these noble words were spoken, as he was standing by his gun, a ball from the rifled cannon before mentioned struck him on the right side of the head, when he fell, exclaiming, " O my God !" and immediately expired. Thus ended the earthly career of one of the most promising officers in our national service. His death, just at the time when courage, patriotism, and mili- 16 90 NOTABLE MEN. tary skill were most needed, was a public calamity, and was mourned as such. During the whole of the engagement, his conduct was the admiration of all who saw him. An of&cer, who was in a position to observe him, remarked : " lie kept up during the entire action a galling and successful fire upon the enemy's battery ; and, although grape, shell, and solid shot rained all around him, he was as quiet and gentle in manner and spirit as if in a lady's drawing-room." He iiever, imder any circumstances, ivas otherwise. Upon the foil of Lieutenant Greble, the guns were abandoned, and the whole remaining force retreated. But Lieutenant-Colonel Warren and Captain Wilson, rallying a few men, placed the body of the brave young officer on the gun which he had served so well, and Ijrought them safely of!" to Newport News. On reach- ing Foi-tress Monroe, the body was placed in a metallic coffin, which had been procured for the purpose by the officers at the fortress, and was thence sent by boat to his friends at Philadelphia. The narrative of this fixtal battle leaves no doul;>t that Lieutenant Greble deliberately sacrificed his own life to save the lives of a large number of his coun- trymen. His practised eye saw at a glance the position of afi:airs ; he saw our forces defeated and in full retreat, and an exultant foe eager to pui'sue and cut them to pieces. Once, indeed, they made the attempt. As soon as he saw them outside of their intrenchments, he quickly remarked to an officer of the Zouaves, '' Now I have something to fire at ; see how they will scamper !" Deliberately aiming his gun at them, loaded with grape, he discharged it full among them. So precise was the shot, that they instantly disappeared behind their intrench- ments, and were not seen a second time. Had Lieutenant Greble retreated, or " dodged," as he was requested to do, the effect would have been to intimidate the few troops that remained with liim, and to allow the enemy to cut ofl" the retreat. Lieutenant-Colonel Warren, who was with him in this action, bears the fol- lowing testimony to Lieutenant Greble's conduct : " I was near him during much of the engagement between the two forces, and can testify to his undaunted bravery in the action, and to the skill and success with which his guns were served. His efficiency alone prevented our loss from being thrice what it was, by preventing the opposing batteries from sweeping the road along which we marched ; and the impression which he made on the enemy deterred them from pursuing our retreating forces, hours after he had ceased to live." In his pocket was found a paper, written apparently after he had started on this ill-foted expedition. It was scrawled hastily in pencil, and intended for his young wife. It was in these words : " May God bless you, my darling, and grant you a happy and peaceful life. May the good Father protect you and me, and grant that we may live happily together long lives. God give JOHN TROrT GREBLE. 91 mo strongtli, wis.loni, and courage. If I die, let me die as a brave and honor- able man ; let no stain of dishonor hang over me or jou. Devotedly and with my whole heart, your hushand. What a prieeless heirdoom must that scrawled paper be to the widowed mother and her babes ! A letter, also found in his pos- session, ran thus : " It is needless, my son, for me to say to you, be true to the stars and stripes. The blood of Eevolutionary patriots runs in your veins, and it must all be drawn out before you cease to fight for your country and its laws." So wrote a loyal father to a loyal son, not many days before that bloody 10th of June. Well might the native city of such a sire and such a son ask as a privi- lege that the body of the young hero be laid in state in the Hall of Independence 1 Lieutenant Greble was buried in the beautiful Woodland cemeterv, to which place his remains were escorted by the city authorities, the faculty and students of the High School, a large body of military and naval officers, and an immense concourse of citizens. The character of this young man stands out so clearly in his life, that it needs no separate delineation. It was thus beautifully summed up on the occasion of his funeral, by his pastor, the Eev. Dr. Brainerd : " Few have passed to the grave whose whole life could better bear inspec- tion, or who presented fewer defects over which we have need to throw a mantle of charity. In his family circle, in the Sunday-school, in the High School where he graduated, as a cadet at West Point, and as an officer in the service of his country, up to the very hour when he bravely fell, he has exhibited a life marked by the purest principles and the most guarded and exemplary deportment. In his nature he was modest, retiring, gentle, of almost feminine delicacy, careful to avoid wounding the feelings of any, and considerate of every obligation to all around him. Indeed, such was his amiability, modesty, and delicacy of tem- perament, that we might almost have questioned the existence in him of the sterner virtues, had not his true and unshrinking courage in the horn- of danger stamped him with an heroic manliness. In tliis view of qualities seemingly anti- thetical, we discover that beautiful symmetry in his character which marks him as a model man of his class." Among the many official testimonials to the services and the worth of Lieu- tenant Grelile, none would seem to form a more fitting conclusion to this brief memoir than the following : " At a meeting of the officers of the army at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, on the 11th of June, the following resolutions were adopted relative to the lamented death of John T. Greble, late a first-lieutenant of the second regiment United States artillery, who was killed in battle at County Creek, near this post, on the 10th instant: ^'■Resolved, That the heroic death of this gallant officer fills us all with admi- ration and regret. Standing at his piece, in the open road, in front of the ene- 92 NOT A ISLE iMEN. mj's battery, till shot down, he served it with the greatest coolness and most undaunted courage. ^^ Resolved, That, while deploring liis untimely end, and feeling that his loss to his country is great, and to his famil}' and friends irreparahle, still a death so glorious can but tend to lighten the burden of grief to all. " Resolved, That, as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, the officers of the army stationed at this post wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty da3'S. "■Resolved, That a cojiy of the foregoing resolutions be furiii.shcd to his famil}^ "J. DuiiCK, Colonel U. S. J." MA.J. GEN.NATir.- PBAKKS. IIOK'YCHX. GF.PU'l'NAM I^ATHAN"IEL PREI^TISS BAITKS. AS bobbin-boy, muchiiiist, editor, lawyer, and representative, studious, ener- getic, and aspiring; as Congressman, and governor of his native state statesmanlike and comprehensive ; as major-general, clear, earnest, and practical — the life of N. P. Banks exhibits a career peculiarly American in every feature, and is well worthy of study by the American people themselves as a " repre- sentative life," and also by all who have any desire to understand that riddle of all foreign writers, "the American character." Nathaniel Pkentiss Banks was born in "Waltham, Massachusetts, Janu- ary 30th, 1816. "Waltham was even then a busj' place, and the roar of engines and the whirr of looms and spindles wei'e the familiar circumstances of daily life to its people. Nathaniel was tlie son of an overseer in a cotton factor}' ; and when he had years enough — a very few suffice — he became himself a " bobbin- boy" under his father's direction. Some few months' early attendance at a common school had instilled into him, however, a thirst for knowledge; and all his hours " not occupied in the factory were devoted to the grave and important studies of history, political economy, and the science of government." From the factory he went to the forge, and learned the machinist's trade. Literary aspirations came upon him in connection with the representations of a dramatic company formed among his associates, with whom he played the principal parts with great success ; he lectured before lyceums, temperance societies, and political assem- blages ; became editor of the village paper of his native place, and subsequently of a paper at Lowell, in which he advocated the principles of the Democratic party. Through this means he entered somewhat advantageously upon the field of politics, and received an office, under the Polk administration, in the Boston custom-house. For six years he was a candidate for a seat in the Massachusetts legislature, and was defeated every successive year ; but in the seventh year, 1848, he was elected representative for Waltham. His first speech, delivered February 23d, 1849, was on the presentation of certain resolutions on the slavery question ; and its purport was, that the Democratic party, in the extension of ter- ritory, was not influenced by any desire for the extension of slavery. A wide publicity was given to this speech, and the Democrats of Massachusetts were so impressed by it, that Mr. Banks was recognized as a leader in that party. Honors 94 NOTABLE MEN. followed fast. In 1850, he was simultaneously elected to the state senate by the Democracy of Middlesex county, and to the house by his constituents of Wal- tham. He decided to remain in the house, and was chosen speaker by a large majority i_in the first Ijallot. He held this position for two successive sessions. Upon the rolls of the house, for his first year in it, Mr. Banks is entei'ed as a machinist, but in the next year as a lawyer. In 1852, Mr. Banks was elected to Congress, by an affiliation of the Demo- crats of his district with the American party, or "Know-Nothings." Upon this canvass the American party was very largely in the majority, and Mr. Banks "avowed his sentiments freely and fully." In the summer of 1853, he was chosen president of the convention called to revise the constitution of Massachu- setts. Apparently lie had been mistaken in the Democratic party, for he soon transferred his allegia'nce to the new Republican organization. He was twice re-elected to the national House of Representatives, and served in the thirty- tliird, the thirtj'-fourtli, and part of the first session of the thirty-fifth Congress. He very strongly opposed the Nebraska-Kansas bill, and argued against it that wherever the government obtained the right to acquire territory, there they got the right to control it. Mr. Banks also came somewhat conspicuously before the country by the part he took in the debate brought on by a resolution in refer- ence to the society of " Know-Nothings," as to whether or no the pope claimed a temporal power over the members of the Roman Catholic Church. Upon the meeting of the thirty -fourth Congress, parties were pretty well broken up and complicated, and a great difficulty was found in the choice of a Speaker. For nine weeks the organization of the House was delayed by the obstinacy of party men. Finally, it was determined that the recipient of a plu- rality of votes should be declared Speaker; and, in accordance with this rule Mr. Banks was chosen to the position. Mr. Banks presided over the delibera- tions of the House with marked ability and fairness ; or, in the words of a Southern member, he "stood so straight, that he almost leaned over to the other side." On the adjournment of Congress, a vote of thanks was passed, upon the acceptable manner in which he had discharged the difficult duties of his jTOsition. In 1856, Mr. Banks was elected governor of his native state, and resigned his seat in the House on the 24:th of December. To his new position he did such honor, that he was re-elected in 1857, and again in 1858. During three terms he administered the government of the state of Massachusetts with eminent wisdom, and finally retired from that position crowned with the high respect of his fellow- citizens of all jiarties throughout the state ; a more striking example than any other chapter of our American history furnishes, of the dignity and honor to which native energy and genius may attain. NATHANIEL I'KENTISS BANKS. 95 Soon after the expiration of his third gubernatorial term, Mr. Banks deter- mined to abandon the field of politics, and with that view removed from his native state to that of Illinois, where he became associated in the conduct of a railroad. In that sphere he continued until the war actually broke out, when he again became "a public man." He was appointed a major-general in the United States army. May 30th, 1861, and his appointment was confirmed by the Senate on the 3d of Au- gust. Major-Generals M'Clellan and Fremont were confirmed on the same day. Previous to his confirmation (June 10th), General Banks was ordered to the command of the department of Annapolis, with his head-quarters at Baltimore. In this command he superseded General Cadwallader, who was appointed to a division destined to co-operate with General Patterson toward Harper's Ferry. Upon General Banks's accession to the command at Baltimore, the treasonable element of the population there, while believed to be very active in the further- ance of schemes for revolt, was certainly very quiet. Butler had fairly scotched the serpent of secession in that city ; but under the lax rule of Cadwallader, it had revived. Yet the leaders were prudent, and the transference of the command to a new officer was a sufficient indication that the government was dissatisfied with the easy manner in which they had been dealt by, and they became cau- tious. Bat on June 27th they were surprised, and the whole people of the loyal states gratified, by an energetic act of the new commander. At three, A. M., on that day, George P. Kane, marshal of police of Baltimore, was an-ested at his house, and imprisoned in Fort M'Henry. In explanation of this act. General Banks issued on the same day a proclamation, superseding Marshal Kane and the board of police, in which he said : '• I desire to support the public authorities in all appropriate duties and in every municipal regulation and public stat- ute consistent with the constitution and laws of the United States and of Mary- land. But unlawful combinations of men, organized for resistance to such laws, that provide hidden deposits of arms and ammunition, encourage contraband traffic with men at war with the government, and, while enjoying its protection and privileges, stealthily await opportunity to combine their means and forces with those in rebellion against its authority, are not among the recognized or legal rights of any class of men, and cannot be pennitted under any form of gov- ernment whatever. Such combinations are well known to exist in this depart- ment The chief of police is not only believed to be cognizant of these facts, but in contravention of his duty, and in violation of law, he is, by direction or indirection, both witness and protector to the transactions and the parties engaged therein. Under such circumstances, the government cannot regard him other- wise than as the head of an armed force hostile to its authority, and acting in concert with its avowed enemies." For these reasons. Marshal Kane was super- 96 NOTABLE MEN. sedecl and liekl a prisoner ; and Colonel Kenly, of the first Maryland regiment, was appointed provost-marshal of the city of Baltimore, ''to superintend and cause to be executed the police laws." Against this action of General Banks the lioard of police protested, and pronounced it ''an arl)itrary exercise of military power, not warranted by any provision of the constitution or laws of the United States." They declared also that there was a suspension of the police law, and that the men of the police force were off duty, and thus in retaliation virtually invited a reign of lawlessness. General Banks, in response to this protest, pub- lished a letter of instruction to Marshal Kenly, by which he required him " to take especial notice that no opinion, resolution, or other act of the late board of commissioners, can operate to limit the effective force of the police law, or to discharge any officer engaged in its execution." Yet the police board, though thus superseded and dissolved by the military commandant, ''continued their sessions daily, refused to recognize the officers and men selected by the provost- marshal for the protection of the city, and held subject to their orders the old police force, a large body of armed men, for some iiurpose not known to the gov- ernment, and inconsistent with its peace and security." For the preserva^tion of the public peace, therefore, General Banks caiiscd the arrest, on July 1st, 1861, of all the members of the police board, whose head-rpiai-ters were found upon examination to resemble "in some respects a concealed arsenal ;" and to antici- pate any action of their adherents, he at the same time moved a portion of the force under his command, hitherto encamped beyond the city limits, into the city. On the 10th of July, General Banks appointed a permanent police marshal in the place of Colonel Kenly, and, trouble being no longer feared from the seees. sion plotters, ordered the military occupation to cease, and the regiments to occupy their former positions in the suburbs. Complete tranquillity was thus once again established in Baltimore. Major-General Patterson, of the Pennsylvania volunteers, in command in the Valley of Virginia, was honorably discharged Ijy general order, his term of ser- vice being expired, on July 19th. On the same day, General John A. Dix, of the United States armv, was ordered to relieve General Banks in the command at Baltimore, and General Banks was ordered to assume command of the army under Patterson. His department was designated the department of the Shenan- doah, with its head-quarters in the field. General Banks reached Harper's Ferry and assumed the command of his department, July 25th. Tliis army, when the battle of Bull Run was fought, had numbered fourteen thousand effective men. But it was composed, in the greater part, of the Pennsylvania volimteers, enlisted for three months, whose terms expired about the period that General Banks was placed in command. He was thus left with only the skeleton of an army, to cover the approach to Washington most favorable for the rebels, and to hold in NATIIAXIEL PRENTISS BANKS. 97 check all that jjortion of the rebel force which had not accompanied General Johnson to Manassas previous to the battle at Bull Run. Immediately on his assumption of the command, General Banks withdrew his trooj)s from Harper's Ferry to the Maryland side of the Potomac, and formed his camp in a strong joosition under the Maryland Heights, and near to Sandy Hook. There his force was rapidly organized, and increased by the addition of well-disciplined regiments, until it amounted in all to about twenty-five thousand men ; and in this position he continued, still occupied with the organization and discipline of his force, up to the movement into Virginia, March, 1862. Early in May, 1861, when the President had just called out seventy-five thousand men for three months, and long before the countiy at large realized the magnitude of the rebellion, Mr. Banks, then a simple citizen of Chicago, expressed a very strong opinion of the inadequacy of the measures taken by the government to put down the revolt. His words then spoken, and subsequently published by the "Chicago Tribune,''' are as follows: " This rebellion cannot be jout down by the force which the government has now called out. Seventy-five thousand militia will prove wholly inadequate to restore peace to the country. The government, and, he feared, the people of the loyal states, immensely underrated the strength and means which the rebel chiefs can command. This is a rebellion of the slave-power against a republican foma of government. That political element which has been strong enough to rule this nation for fifty years, cannot be reduced to subjection to the constitution by a few regiments of militia. Before this gigantic slaveholders' conspiracy can be crushed, it will tax to the utmost the power and endurance of the nation. The people will have to put forth an effort which has no parallel in modern times. He regarded this as the most formidable as well as atrocious rebellion which has occurred since the middle ages. The Sepoy insurrection was no circumstance to it, either in strength or wickedness. The Sepoys did not revolt for the pui-pose of strangling free government and setting up a slave despotism, as the authors of the secession rebellion have done. " The Sepoys were reduced to obedience in a few months by less than eighty thousand British troops. Four times that many will not suffice to crush out the slaveholders' revolt against the Union. If he was at the head of puldic afliiirs, he would call out five hundred thousand men for the war. He would charter every merchant steamer and ship fit for naval service. As soon as the army was equipped, and prepared to march, he would start one column of one hundred and fifty thousand men from "Washington to Eichmond. Simultaneously, he would move another column of one hundred thousand Western men down the Missis- sippi, to reach Memphis l)y the time the Eastern army got to Richmond. He would send a division of fifty thousand men from Louisville to Nashville, to 17 98 NOTABLE MEN. support and protect the Union men of central and eastern Tennessee, and tLe mountain country of Georgia. Alabama, and North Carolina. Before these col- iimns moved, he would fit out an expedition by sea, and place fifty thousand soldiers aboard the fleet, to hover along the Southern coast from Charleston to Galveston. This would keep the rebels at home in the coast states, as they would be in constant dread of a visit to every port, not knowing where the fleet might land the army. This force on shipboard, Mr. Banks thought, would com- pel to remain in tlieir own states four times the men in the expedition. It would be a movable column, which, by the aid of wind and steam, might be off Charles- ton to-day, and land at Savannah to-morrow. Hence its power and efficiency. "The remaining one hundred and fifty thousand troops he would distribute in divisions at Washington, New York, St. Louis, Baltimore, and other points, to act as reserves and supports wherever the exigencies of the campaign might most need them. He would keep recruiting offices open wherever a regiment had been raised, to fill up the vacancies in the ranks caused by battle or sickness. He would call upon the people to organize a national home guard of half a mill- ion men, to take care of traitors in their midst, and to put their shoulders to the wheel for a final effort, if it were found that the first half-million were not able to crush out the foul rebellion. "He calculated that Richmond, Nashville, and Memphis, could be occupied before the frosts of autumn, and that during the winter campaign the two main armies would move southward — one along the Atlantic slope, and the other down the Mississippi. By next spring, he thought, the stars and stripes might be waving over the Crescent city, and even Montgomerj^, the then capital of the rebels. "When asked how he would procure the money necessary to equip and support so vast an army, he promptly replied : ' Open a national loan, as the Emperor Napoleon did, and appeal to the jiatriotism of the whole people ; take all sums offered, from the widow's mite up to Astor's millions. The treasury would be abundantly supjilied by the subscriptions of tlie masses. Only let the people see that the government is in real earnest in its jiuqiose to put down the rebellion, and it will not call on Hercules for helj) in vain.' " Such is a brief outline of the plan suggested by Major-Gcneral N. P. Banks, for the suppression of the slaveholders' rebellion. N-1A.I. GKT\' C.l-'.o B M' ri.Kl.lAX. IT. S.A^ GEORGE BRINTOis^ McCLELLA]^. GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN was born in the city of Pliiladclpbia, December 3d, 1826. He was tbe son of a physician, and was descended from Colonel McClellau of tbe Revolutionary army. At tbe age of sixteen be entered tbe United States Military Academy at "West Point. In all tbe studies he maintained the second rank from the outset, and was graduated with tbe second rank in general merit in 1846. He was commissioned a second-lieutenant of engineers, July 1st, 1846. Congress, in the previous May, had autliorized tbe organization of a company of sappers, miners, and pontonicrs, and the recruits for this company were assembled at "West Point. Lieutenant McClellau was attached to it, and assisted very actively in its drill and practical instruction for duty. Captain Swift and Lieutenant Gustavus W. Smith were bis superior ofii- cers in the company, which sailed from West Point, September 24th. Ordered at first to report to General Taylor, the company went to Camargo, but was thence ordered to countermarch to Matamoras, and move with the column of General Patterson. Captain Swift was left in the bosjntal at Matamoras, and tbe only commissioned officers in the company were Lieutenants Smith and McClel- lan ; and great praise was bestowed upon them by the engineer officer for the amount and excellence of their work done in this part of tbe Mexican war. From Tampico tbe sappers and miners went to Vera Cruz, where, until the surrender of tbe castle. Lieutenant McClellau was engaged in tbe most severe duties, in opening paths and roads to facilitate the investment, in covering recon- noissances, and in tbe unceasing toil and hardship of the trenches ; and his work was always done "with unsurpassed intelligence and zeal." Trilnitc is rendered in all the official reports to the services of this company and tbe efficiency of its two lieutenants on the march to Cerro Gordo, at Jalapa, and San Antonio. Be- fore the battle of Contreras, Lieutenant McClellau had a horse shot under him by the Mexican pickets, and in that battle he served with Magruder's battery. General Twiggs, in bis official report, says: "Lieutenant George B. McClellau, after Lieutenant Calendar was wounded, took charge of and managed tbe howit- zer battery, with judgment and success, until it became so disabled as to requii-e shelter. For Lieutenant McClellan's efficiency and gallantry in this affair, I pre- sent bis name for tbe favorable consideration of the general-in-cbief " General K"> XOTABLE MEN. Persifer F. Smith, in liis report of all the actions at Churubusco and Contreras, says: "Lieutenant G. W. Smith, in command of the engineer company, and Lieu- tenant McClellan, his subaltern, distinguished themselves throughout tlie whole of the three actions. Nothing seemed to them too bold to be undertaken, or too difficult to be executed, and their services as engineers were as valuable as those they rendered in battle at the head of their gallant men." For "gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco," McClellan was breveted first-lieutenant ; and for " gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Molino del Rey,'" captain; but the latter brevet, through some delicacy toward others, he declined to accept. In the battle of Cliepultepec he was one of " five lieutenants of engineers" who, in the words of Lieutenant-Gencral Scott, " won the admiration of all about them ;" and for his services on that day he was bre- veted captain. He was thus "on duty with the engineer company from its organization at West Point, in the siege of Vera Cniz, and in all the battles of General Scott's march to the city of Mexico." Captain McClellan returned with his company, which reached "West Point in June, 1847. In the next year he became its commander, and remained with it until 185L During this time he translated from the French the manual of bayo- net exercise, which has since become the text-book of the service. He superin- tended the construction of Fort Delaware in the fall of 1851, and in the spring of 1852 was assigned to duty in the expedition that explored Red River, and also served as an engineer upon some explorations in Texas. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, in 1853, committed to Captain McClellan an important and difficult sur\-ey of the Cascade range of mountains on the Pa- cific, with, a view to the construction of the Pacific railroad. In his report the secretary says : " The examination of the approaches and passes, made b}' Cap- tain McClellan of the corps of engineers, presents a reconnoissanee of great value, and, though pcrfijrmed under adverse circumstances, exhibits all the information necessary to determine the practicability of this portion of the route, and reflects the highest credit on the capacity and resource of that officer." Besides the reports descriptive of the region surveyed, Captain McClellan also furnished a valuable collection of " Memoranda on Railways," the result of examinations made into the working of various railroads, to assist in determining the practica- bility of roads over the various routes. In 1855, McClellan received a caj^taincy in the first L'^nited States cavalry, and in the same year was chosen as one of three ofiBcers to be sent en a military commission to Europe. He sailed, in company with ILajors Delafield and IVfor- decai, in April, 1855, and proceeded to the Crimea and to northern Russia, to observe the war then in progress between Russia, England, and France ; and sub- sequently visited every military establishment of interest on the continent and in GEORGE HRINTON McCLELLAN. 101 England. Aftei" an absence of two 3-ears, the commission returned, nnd tlie re- sults of Captain McClellan's observations were embodied in a report to the secre- tary of war, published in 1857, " On the Organization of European Armies, and the Operations of the War" — a work which established the reputation of the young officer as a scientific soldier. Upon receiving the offer of an important civil employment, that of vice- president and director of the Illinois Central Railroad, Captain McClellan resigned his position in the army, Januaiy 16th, 1857. His position on the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad he hclil for three years, when he was offered and accepted the presidency of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. This position he held when the war broke out. When the state of Ohio began to marshal its forces in response to the Presi- dent's call, McClellan was immediately chosen as the citizen of that state most fit to organize the volunteer regiments into an army. That patriotic state has therefore the honor of having brought to the front the man of the time ; though Pennsylvania, through her governor, had also called upon the j'oung captain, but vainly, to head her stout thousands as they were mustered for the war. Ohio's vohinteers, thanks to the efficiency of the man chosen to lead them, be- came at once an army, and were ready to win battles, while those of some not less patriotic states were still raw recruits. On the 14th of May, General McClel- lan was appointed by the Pi-esident a major-general in the United States army, and assigned to the command of the then newly created department of the Ohio, formed of the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with his head-quarters at Cin- cinnati. Here he was still busy in the organization and equipment of the forces mustered in the various parts of his district, when the rebel forces from Eastern Virginia began offensive movements against the Western Virginians, who were faithful to the Union. Confederate troops occujjied Philippi and Grafton, and began to burn bridges ; and on May 25th, General McClellan ordered an advance against them of the first Virginia regiment, stationed at Wheeling, and of the fourteenth and sixteenth Ohio regiments, wdiicli crossed the Ohio respectively at Marietta and Bellaire. On the 26th, at night, the rebels fled precipitately from Grafton, and it was occupied by Colonel Kelly of the first Virginia, with his own regiment and the sixteenth Ohio, May 30th. Colonel Steedman, of the four- teenth Ohio, occupied Parkersburgh. Simultaneously with his entrance into Virginia, General McClellan, in a proclamation to the people of Western Virginia, said : "The general government has long endured the machinations of a few factious rebels in your midst. Armed traitors have in vain endeavored to deter you from expressing your loyalty at the polls ; having failed in this infamous attempt to deprive j'ou of the exercise of your dearest rights, thev now seek to inaugurate a reign of terror, and thus force 102 NOTABLE MEN. yoii to yield to their schemes, and submit to the yoke of their traitorous con- s})iracy Government has heretofore carefully abstained from sending troops across the Ohio, or even from posting them along its banks, although frequently urged by many of your prominent citizens to do so. It determined to await the result of the late election, desirous that no one might be able to say that the slightest eftbrt had been made from this side to influence the free expression of your o;.)iuion I have ordered troops to cro.ss the river. They come as your friends and your brothers — as enemies only to the armed rebels who are preying upon you All your rights shall be religiously respected." To his soldiers he said : " I place under the safeguard of your honor the persons and property of the Virginians. I know that you will respect their feelings and all their rights. Preserve the strictest discipline : remember that each one of you holds in his keeping the honor of Ohio and of the Union.'' On June 2d, the Union troops at Grafton went forward to Philippi, on the Monongahela, twenty miles south of Grafton, which they reached at daylight on the next day, and attacked and drove out a body of rebels under Colonel Porter- field. Here they were joined, June 20th, by General McClellan, who on that day assumed command in jierson of the national forces in Western Virginia, and began more extensive operations against the enemy. Meantime the rebels made active preparations to resist. Henry A. Wise, formerly governor of Virginia, but appointed a general in the rebel aimy, took the field in the Kanawha region of Western Virginia, and, with the usual affectation of patriotism, called upon the people to " come to the defence of the conmionwealth invaded and insulted by a ruthless and unnatural enemy ;" while General Garnett, formerly of the United States army, occupied Laurel Hill and Eich Mountain, spurs of the Alleghany range, with ten thousand men. General Cox was sent against Wise, and General McClellan advanced in person against Garnett. Beverly, in Randolph county, Virginia, is approached on the north by a road from Philippi, and on tlie west by a road from Buck- hannon. Laurel Hill is upon the former road, and Rich Mountain upon the latter; and both roads, at the pi)int where they cross the hills, were obstructed by Garnett's intrenchnients. Garnett himself, with six thousand men, was at Laurel Hill, supjDOsing doubtless that, as that point was nearest to Philippi, the attack would be made there. But General McClellan marched from Clarksburg, on the North-western Virginia Railroad, advanced directly toward Beverly by the Buck- hannon road, and thus came upon the position at Rich Mountain. Colonel Pe- gram, Garnett's subordinate, held that place with four thousand men. At the foot of the hill, on the western slope, was a very strong woik built of trees felled from the hill-side, filled in with earth, and furnished with artillery. Dense woods encircled it for a mile in every direction, and it could not have been GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN. 103 carried from the front without great loss. On tlie top of the mountain was a smaHer work, with two six-pounders. A sharp skirmish took place in front of the lower fort, July 10th ; and on the 11th, at daylight, General Rosecrans, with four regiments, was sent around the southern slope of the mountain, to carry the small work above, and take the larger one in the rear. After an arduous march of eight miles, he reached the summit and carried the work, with but small loss. Meanwhile, General McClellan below had cut a road through the wood which surrounded the rebel battery, and had arranged a position for twelve guns, with which to participate in the attack to be made from above ; but as soon as the rebels in the lower fort learned that the fort on the hill-top was taken, they aban- doned their work, and fled in every direction. By this action the rebels lost six brass cannon, two hundred tents, sixty wagons, one hundred and fifty men in killed and wounded, and one hundred prisoners. Only six hundred men of the enemy retained any organization, and with these Colonel Pegrara i-etrcated toward Laurel Ilill. G^eneral McClellan, by a rapid march, occupied Beverly. Garnett, as soon as he learned of Pegram's rout at Rich Movmtain, aban- doned his intrenchments at Laurel Hill, and retreated toward Beverly; but the rapid occupation of that place by General McClellan cut off" his retreat in that direction, and in great confusion he turned back and retreated toward St. George, in Tucker county, to the north-east of Laurel Hill. Thus ten thousand rebel troops from Eastern Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, were driven out of their intrenchments, with a loss to the Union forces of only eleven men killed and thirty-five wounded. On the 13th, Colonel Pegram surrendered what was left of his command (six hundred officers and men) prisoners, ixncondi- tionally. Immediately upon the retreat of Garnett toward St. George, General Morris was ordered to follow him, and General Hill was ordered forward from Rawles- Inirg to intercept his retreat. General Garnett, finding himself jDi-essed very closely by the brigade of General Morris, made a stand in an advantageous posi- tion at Carrick's Ford, on the Cheat River, eight miles south of St. George. There he was handsomely beaten by the seventh and ninth Indiana and the fourteenth Ohio regiments. General Garnett was killed, his army disorganized, and its whole baggage taken. Thus, by a series of brilliant movements, and in only twenty-four days after General McClellan had assumed the command, this portion of Western Vii-ginia was freed, and the army that lately held it became a demoralized band of fugitives. In recognition of this first considerable success of the war, both houses of Congress, on June 16th, passed a joint resolution of thanks to General McClellan and the officers and soldiers under his command. In an address to the "Soldiers of tl>e Army of the West," dated subse- quently to these' battles. General McClellan said : " You have annihilated two lUi XUTABLE MEN. amiies, commanded by. educated and experienced soldiers, intrenched in moun- tain fastnesses, and fortified at their leisure. You have taken five guns, twelve colors, fifteen hundred stand of arms, ami one thousand prisoners, including more than forty officers. One of the second commanders of the rebels is a prisoner, the other lost his life on the field of battle. You have killed more than two hundred and fifty of the enemy, who has lost all his baggage and camp-equipage. All this has been accomplished with the loss of twenty brave men killed and sixty wounded on your part. You have proved that Union men, fighting for the preservation of our government, are more than a match for our misguided brothers. Soldiers ! I have confidence in you, and I trust that you have learned to confide in me. Eemember that discipline and subordination are qualities of equal value with courage.'" Three days after the above order was issued, the national army that had been organized near Washington, under the- eye of the A'eteran commander-in- chief, was defeated in the disastrous battle at Bull Eun, and returned to the bank of the Potomac in a wild, disordered rout. Startled by this IjIow, the govern- ment first awoke to the great labor to be accomplished in putting down the rebellion. Eegiments before refused, and all now offered, were immediately accepted, and it was determined to add at least one hundred thousand men to the Potomac army. General McClellan was ordered to Washington, to take command of this new force, and of the departments of Washington and North- eastern Virginia. He left Beverly June 23d, and arrived at the capital July 25th. His first order to the army was dated July 30th. In that he described the first practice he had observed "eminently prejudicial to good order and mili- tary discipline," and plainly declared that ''it must be discontinued." Officers and soldiers were therefore strictly forbidden to leave their camps and quarters, except on important public business, and then not without written pel-mission from the con:mander of the brigade to which they belonged. Washington was thus cleared of an army of loungers ; and officers and soldiers, confined to their camps, found time to learn their respective duties. On August 3d, General McClellan's appointment as a major-general in the United States army was confirmed h\ the Senate ; and on August 20th, by gen- eral ordei-, he assumed command of the army of the Potomac, and announced the officers of his stafl:'. Lieutenant-General Scott was retired from active service November 1st, 1861, and on the same day General McClellan was appointed to succeed him as commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States. Both before and after this accession of authority, he labored without intermission, and with noble earnestness and simple purpose, to prepare for a proper discharge of its duties to the great army called out by the government. His many judicious orders in regulation of the actions of officers and soldiers, and the system of GEORGE BRINTON MoOLELLAN. 105 frequent reviews that he introduced, rendered it necessary that all shoiild woi'k to keep up with him, and gave some unity to the army. After the retirement of the lieutenant-general, the whole military operations of the country came under the control of General McClellan ; and, though it is not now possible to say how great a share we owe to him of the successes that crowned our arms in the beginning of the spring of 1862, yet by the admissions of the general officers most conspicuous in those actions it appears that they are all parts of one extensive plan of his arrangement. On March 11th, General McClellan took the field for active operations at the head of the army of the Potomac, and by the special order of the President was relieved from the com- mand of the other departments. IS I 5 ^-■t ^ t CUV U'll.l.l.WI SPK.VUK Of \l I WILLIAM SPRAGUE. WILLIAM SPRAGUE was born in Cranston, Rhode Island, on the 11th of September, 1830, and is therefore now thirty-one years of age. His father was Amasa Sprague. His grandfather, William Sprague, early engaged in cotton manufactures, and particularly in the business of calico-printing. He was among the first in the United States to attempt the latter. His works were erected in Cranston, about three miles from Providence, where he commenced with the most simple style of prints known as " indigo blues." "William Sprague was associated in business with his sons Amasa and William, both of whom, being brought up in the mills and print-works, obtained a thorough knowledge of the business in all its details. Their cotton-mills were in Cranston, Johnston, and in the village of Natiek ; but the goods manufactured there were quite inad- equate to famish the supply for their calico-works, which were enlarged as their efforts were successful, and the demand for their goods increased. William Sprague, the elder, died in 1836, when the entire business fell into the hands of his sons before mentioned, who then formed a new firm, under the name of A. and W. Sprague. The death of the fixther proved no check to the business ; on the contrary, the new house continued to enlarge their works, and to erect new mills. Several, of large capacity, were erected at Natiek ; and soon after, the firm purchased two other mills, belonging to C. and W. Rhodes, which gave them the entire water-power of that place. But the Messrs. Sprague did not stop here, for they subsequently erected additional mills in the villages of Arctic and Quidneck ; all were substantial structures of Ijrick or stone, of four and five stories, with the usual dwelling-houses for the operatives, thereby form- ing populous villages. Amasa died in the year 1843, leaving two sons, Amasa and William. The firm continued without change. The surviving partner, William, like most men of fortune and influence, was induced to enter political life. He first became a member of the general assembly of Rhode Island, and soon after was sent a Rep- resentative to Congress. Next, he was elected governor, and subsequently a Senator in Congress. The death of his brother Amasa, and his greatly increas- ino- business, obliged him to relinquish the latter office. He now continued to devote his whole time to business, enlarging and extending his works, until the 108 NOTABLE MEN. year 1856, -wlien, after a very brief illness, his career was closed liy dcatli, at, the age of fifty-six years, leaving one son, Byron. At the time of the death of the first Governor Sprague, it was believed that, owing to tlie youth of his nephews Amasa and William, and of his son Byron, the great scheme he had laid out for erecting another cotton-mill, which should surpass any that the firm then owned, or any in the state, would be abandoned. Indeed, the business-friends of the young men strongly urged this step, under tlio impression that their eight large cotton-mills and extensive print-works would be as much as they could manage profitably. Most men, thus deprived of their long-experienced guide, and with a business so vast upon their hands, would gladly have reduced their responsibilities and curtailed their business; but our young men thought differently, even though (owing to the commercial crisis wiiich followed soon after, in 1857) the prospects were any thing but favorable. The firm was continued as before. William, the subject of this sketch, then but twenty -six years of age, determined to carry out all the plans of his uncle, in which determination his brother and cousin joined. The great cotton- mill at Baltic was erected and filled with machinery, large dams were con- structed, and one hundred dwelling-houses were built, involving an expenditure of five hundred thousand dollars. This mill is built of stone, is one thousand feet in length, five stories high, and contains eighty tliousand spindles. Having thus given a brief sketch of the history of the firm of A. and W. Sprague during the three generations they have carried on the manufacturing and printing business, we shall now speak more particularly of the subject of this sketch, the present William Sprague, governor of the state of Ehode Island. It has been stated that he was born in 1830. His education was confined to what could be obtained at the common school which he attended in his native village of Cranston, and in those of East Greenwich and Scituate, until he was thirteen years of age, when he was sent to the Irving Institute, at Tarrytown, in the state of New York, where he remained two years. Eeturning then, he was by his uncle placed in wliat is usually called the " factory store ;" that is, the shop attached to the calico-works, in Cranston, where goods of all kinds are furnished to the operatives. Here William remained one year, when he was transferred to the counting-room of A. and W. Sprague, in Providence, where he did the work usually performed by the youngest boys, although this labor is now performed in most counting-houses by laboring men. Here our lad opened the office, made the fires, cleaned the lamps, swept out the ofiace, and did such other drudgery as appertained to the station ; all of which he performed in so satisfactory a manner, that after three years so employed he was promoted to the WILLIAM SPRAGUE. 109 place of book-keeper. No young man ever felt tlie importance of liis position more than William did, when, at the age of nineteen, he found himself book- keeper iu the great establishment of his father and uncle. But a few years ear- lier he was dealing out tapes and buttons, pins and needles, molasses, oil, and tobacco, to the crowds of men, women, and children who, during the recess of their labors, came to make their purchases. Now, he was occupied in keeping accounts which amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The sales of the house were wholly of packages of goods, and their purchases of hundreds of bales of cotton, or of large invoices of dye-stuffs. William continued to fill the place of book-keeper, to the entire satisfaction of his uncle, for three years, during which time, by his constant attention, he made himself familiar with all the ramifications of their extensive business ; so that, when he attained the age of twenty-two years, he relinquished his position at the books, and assumed that of an active participant in the concern. Here his active mind was constantly exercised ; there was no portion of the business that did not come under his eye, and with which, from actual experience, he was not acquainted. Four years after (1856), his uncle died, when he was compelled to assume the whole weight of the business; and not content with this, as before stated, he finished the various projects which were commenced by his uncle. These were, the erection of their great Baltic cotton-mill, and the completion of the Providence, Hartford, and Fishkill Railroad, in which the firm were largely interested. It is now (1862) less than six years since the elder Governor Sprague died ; and, large as the business then was, the concern has, chiefly under the direc- tion of William, doubled its business, until it may now be said to be the largest calico establishment in the woi-ld. The firm now own and have in operation nine cotton-mills, the full capacity of which together is eight hundred thousand yards a week; while their printing establishment, when in full operation, is capable of turning out twenty-five thousand pieces, or about one million yards of prints, in the same time. It should be remarked that the fimi sell their goods through their own houses, in the great markets of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, in addition to their sales in Providence. Such is, in brief, a history of the business concerns of Messrs. A. and W. Sprague. We leave this, and shall now speak of the political and military career of the subject of our memoir. Quite early in life, William manifested a strong passion for the military. When twelve years of age, he formed a company of forty boys, most of whom were older than himself; yet such was his influence among them, that he was chosen their captain. This was in 1842, a year memorable in the annals of Rhode Island as that of the insurrection, or, what is more generally known in the state, as the " Dorr War." A military spirit then prevailed throughout the state. Companies were everywhere organized, and constant drilling was kept up. This 19 IIU NOTABLE MEiN. was deemed necessary, not alone to sujipress the insurrection, but for protection from attacks from -witliout, which were threatened, particularly from New York. Our young soldier, not content with commanding his forty boys, resigned his place, compelled his youthful adherents to elect him governor, and then assumed to himself the appointment of his own officers. At this time the insurrectionists, under the command of Mr. Dorr, had assembled at Acote's Hill, in Chepachet, whither the state forces were advancing. Young Sprague, determined not to be outdone, also marched his band of young patriots toward Acote's Hill, which he might have reached in advance of the state troops, had not the reguhirly constituted authorities overtaken them when about half-way there, and turned them back. In 1848, Mr. Sprague, then eighteen years of age, joined the Marine Artil- lery Company, in Providence, as a private. This company derives its name from having been originally formed by seafaring men; and, although its organi- zation had long been ke})t up, the members scarcely drilled, or performed any duty beyond that of uniforming themselves and parading on public occasions. Mr. Sprague took a deep interest in this company, the members of which now determined to make it more efficient. He was soon promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and then to captain. In this position a wider iii'ld was opened to him, and, mainly through his exertions, the company increased in nundjers and efficiencv. In a few years he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and finally colonel, of the company. He had now reached the height of his ambition, the full com- mand of a militarv company, and determined to make it as efficient as possible. Neither his time nor his money were spared; and, as he indulged in no sort of dissipation, amusement, or extravagance, his sole thoughts, when not in his counting-room, were devoted to his company, which he succeeded in making a full battery of liglit artilleiy. In 1859, the cares of business had so much impaired the health of Mr. Sprague, that he felt himself compelled to visit Europe, for its recovery. But the earnest desire to witness the great events then transpiring in Italy, no doubt, had as much influence with him as the recoveiy of his health ; but in the desii-e to witness some great battle he was disappointed, as the war was over before he reached Italy. Nevertheless, he visited all the recent battle-fields, as well as those made memorable in the wars of the first Napoleon. While in Italy, Mr. Sprague became acciuainted with Garibaldi, and contriliuted liberally toward the fund then being i-aised for that distinguished patriot. After an absence of seven months in Europe, Mr. Sprague retunicd, with his health restored, and received a wai-m welcome from his numerous friends. He arrived early in 1860, at a time when the state of Rhode Island was much agitated by the contending political parties, the Eepubliean and the Democratic. WILLIAM SPRAGUE. HI The former, in uominatiug its candidate for governor, tad selected a gentleman whose political antecedents had been exceedingly ultra, being considered a strong abolitionist. This selection gave offence to a large majority of the Re- publican party, who thought that, in the then agitated state of the country upon the sla\'ery question, a more conservative candidate should have been selected, and determined not to support his nomination. A convention was accordingly called of the conservative portion of the Republicans, which nominated Mr. Sprague, who, though a Republican, and opposed to the administration of Presi- dent Buchanan, was very conservative. The Democratic party, anxious to defeat the gentleman nominated by the Republicans, readily came forward, nominated Mr. S^Drague, and the whole conservative ticket, except that for attorney-general. The election took jilace. It was the most warmly contested of any that ever was held in the state, and resulted in the choice of Mr. Sprague. The following year (1861), Governor Sprague was re-elected, with little opposition. The result was a most happy one for the state, for there was no man more competent than its governor to carry it so successfully through the trying scenes connected with the rebellion. Few men in civil life had had a better military experience than the governor, who had been connected with one of the most active companies in the state for eleven years. His experience as a business man, and his command of a moneyed capital, were equally important in raising, equipping, and subsisting the large military foi'ce called out for the defence of the country and its con- stitution. In February, 1861, while the Southern states, one after another, were passing ordinances of secession, and a determination was manifested to break up and de- stroy the Union, Governor Sprague visited Washington. He saw that a crisis was rapidly approaching in our aflFairs ; that the states then in rebellion might attempt to take the capital ; and that a large military force would be required there, at a very short notice, in order to thwart their plans. Knowing the patri- otism of Rhode Island, and of the desire of the people to furnish every aid in their power in the emergency, Governor Sprague called upon Lieutenant-General Scott, made known to him the excellent organization and discipline of the mili- tary of his state, and tendered to him a full regiment of infantry and a battery of light ari-illery, in case they should be wanted. In conversation with President Lincoln, he made a similar offer. General Scott expressed his fears that the insurrectionary spirit shown by the South might culminate in something very serious ; and further remarked that, shiiuld a war break out, and it should be- come necessary to put down the rebellion with arms, an army of at least three hundred thousand men would be required before a movement could be made against them with any prospect of success. On his return to Providence, finding matters growing worse. Governor Sprague sent Major Goddard, then a com- 11"2 KOTABLE MEX. missioned officer in the cavalry, to Washington, in order to lay before General Scott a fuller statement of the military resources of the state. On the 11th of April, Governor Sprague addressed a letter to President Lincoln, of which the following is a copy: " State of Rhode Island, Executive Department, Providence, April 11th, 1S61. "Sir: At the time of the anticipated attack on Washington, previous to your inauguration, I had a messenger in constant communication with General Scott, giving him a minute detail of our military organization, and requesting him to make such demands for troops as the exigencies of the case should de- maud. " I should not now be correctly representing the puljlic sentiment of the people of this state, did I not assure you of their loyalty to the government of the Union, and of their anxiety to do their utmost to maintain it. " I have just returned from New York, where I had an interview with Gov- ernor C(jrwin ; and now take pleasure in saying that we have a battery of light artillery, six pieces, with horses and men complete, and a force of one thousand infantry, completely disciplined and equipped — unequalled, or at any rate not surpassed, by a similar number in any country — who would respond at short notice to the call of the government for the defence of the capital. The artillery especially, I imagine, would be very serviceable to take the place of a similar number rec^uired elsewhere. I am ready to accompany them. "That God will grant his protecting care and guidance to you, sir, in your trying and difficult position, and a safe deliverance from our unhappy difficulties, is the constant pi-ayer of your most obedient servant, " William Sprague. '■To tho President, Wasliiugton, D. C." The attack of the seven thousand rebels, under General Beauregard, upon the seventy famished men, under Major Anderson, in Fort Sumter, took place on the 11th of April ; and, as the news of this dastardly assault and beginning of the war of the rebellion was conveyed by telegraph to all parts of the Union, the people, with one accord, rose to arms. President Lincoln's proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand men for the defence of Washington, reached Providence on the 15th, and was immediately promulgated. Governor Sprague, on his return from Washington, anticipating a call, had requested the officers of all the active military companies in the state to keep up their drills, and be ready at a moment's notice ; so that, when the alarm was sounded through the Presi- dent's proclamation, Rhode Island was ready to obey the call. On the 18th of Apri],_ three daj^s after the proclamation was published, the first battery of light WILLIAM SPR AGUE. 113 artillery, of six guns and one hundred and fifty men, under Colonel Tompkins, newly clothed, completely equipped and officered, took their departure for the capital Two days later (the 20th), the first battalion of the first rep-iment of infantry, seven hundred strong, under Colonel A. E. Burnsidc, with provisions for thirty days, followed. Governor Sprague accompanied the regiment in per- son. The following week, the second battalion, under Colonel Joseph S. Pitman, took its departure. The entire force of this regiment and battery numbered nearly fourteen hundred men. The first battalion, taking a steamer at New York, reached Annapolis in time to aid in saving the Constitution frigate from falling into the hands of the secessionists, wlio had already arranged their ] lans for taking her. From Annapolis they took up their line of march for "Washington, and encamped in a beautiful grove near the city, which was occupied by the Rhode Island troops until the army of the Potomac advanced in March, 1862. It still bears the name of " Camp Sprague." After remaining a few weeks with the regiment, during which time he was assiduously occupied in making arrangements for providing for the wants of offi- cers and men, the governor returned to Rhode Island. During his absence new military companies were formed. Governor Sprague now took hold with vigor, and determined to form a second regiment. With this view, he appointed Major John S. Slocurn, of the first regiment, colonel, and selected the most competent men for the other regimental and the company officers. He visited their armo- ries every night, and by his presence, encouragement, and ardent zeal in the cause in which he had embarked, induced hundreds to come forward and join the ranks. The regimeut was soon filled up, and, after remaining in camp a few weeks to perfect themselves in drill and marching, embarked foi' Washington, accompanied by Governor Sprague. The governor remained with the Rhode Island troops most of the time, and accompanied them on their march with the army to Centreville on the 16th day of July, 1861. The battle of Bull R\m took jDlace on the 21st; and, as it is a matter of history, we shall enter into no details here. The two Rhode Island regiments, with the second battery of artillery, were among the foremost in tins memorable fight, and, as is well known, suffered severely. No one was more prominent in the action than Governor Sprague. ■ He was everywhere in the thickest of the fight ; and when his horse was shot from under him by a cannon- ball, the governor seized a rifle from the grasp of a dead soldier, and, rushing forward, took his place among the soldiers, encouraging them by his presence and braveiy. The two bullet-holes found in his clothes, after the battle, show that he did not shun danger. On his return to Rhode Island, Governor Sprague did not relax in the least in his efforts to rouse the people to action. The President called for five hundred 20 11-4 NOTABLE MEN. thousand troops, and he was determined that his state should famish her full quota. Enlistments for the new regiments of infantry and additional batteries of light artillery were pressed with vigor. The latter arm of the service having proved so effective in the battle of Bull Run, the governor now dctennined to raise a full regiment of ten batteries of. six rifled guns, of one hundred and fifty men each, which have all gone forward. It is unnecessary to enter into details of these proceedings ; we simply record the result. A third regiment of infantry, under Colonel N. W. Brown, went forward, and is now at Port Royal. A fourth, commanded by Colonel I. P. Rodman, and the first battalion of the fifth, ac- companied General Burnside's expedition, and were engaged in the Vjattles of Roanoke Island and Newbern. Besides these, there has been raised a regiment of cavalry, of which Colonel R. B. Lawton is in command. Other batteries of artillery are yet to be formed. The quota of five hundred thousand troops which Rhode Island is required to furnish is four thousand and fifty-seven. She has now (January, 1862) in the field about five thousand five hundred men, and is still sending on more to the seat of war. She has also furnished to the United States navy five hundred and eighty and to the regular army four hundred and twenty-five men. It may be added that Rhode Island also has a well-drilled home guard, four thousand strong. Space does not admit of enlarging upon the family of Governor Sprague. His ancestor, Jonathan Sprague, is first noticed in Rhode Island history in 1681. He was for many years a member of the general assembly, and in 1703 was chosen speaker. By intermarriage the family is connected with Roger Williams, the founder of the state. The Rev. Dr. William B. Sprague, of Albany, and Charles Sprague, the well-known poet of Boston, are descendants of the Spragues of Rhode Island. As an evidence that those who have most to do generally find time to do more, it is proper to state that Governor Sprague has other weighty cares and responsibilities besides those named, all of which he promptly attends to. As president of the Globe Bank, in Pro^^ deuce, where his firm are large stockhold- ere, he is always at the board meetings, and scrutinizes every piece of paper pre- sented for discount ; and is as fiimiliar with the standing of the business commu- nity as any of the directors. He is president of a Savings Bank, and a director in three of the Insurance Companies in Providence. Besides these, the governor is one of the board of visitors to the " Butler Hospital for the Insane," where he performs the regular round of duties required of every visitor, with as much care as he attends to the business of his counting-room. HEKRY B. HIDDE]^. THERE are poets who have produced but a single poem, orators of a single speech, and generals of a solitary battle ; yet they are memorable. The conspicuous bravery which shone out with such lustre in the gallant charge of Lieutenant Hidden at Sangster's Station, was the single act in the brief career of this son of New York, but it was one which a grateful country will not let die. We need not apologize that he did not do more. The glorious privilege of dying for one's countiy is accorded to but few of only twenty -three years, and the legacy of such a death will be the inspiration of bards, illustration for orators, a theme for artists, and an example for heroes. Henry B. Hidden was born in the city of New Yoi-k. He was the young- est son of Enoch and Louisa Hidden. His father was of New-England birth ; his mother was born in New York, and a descendant from one of its oldest fami- lies — her great-grandfather, Thomas Ivers, being one of the "Tea-Party" in New York, and one of the committee of one hundred appointed by the people, May 1st, 1775. It was truly said by Rev. Dr. Asa D. Smitli, in his touching eulogy of the deceased, that "he was always a peculiar boy." In fact, he never passed through that phase of life so apt to be one of trial and uneasiness to parents, so disagree- able to acquaintances, so dangerous yet all-important to the individual himself- — the interval between childhood and manhood, which may be called boyhood. Harry seemed to have overleaped this period, and assumed at otice the character- istics of maturer life. And yet there was no assumption ; he but eschewed the vices and aimed for the noble attributes of a man. Those who were familiar with him were not astonished at his death, for he seemed to be always emulous of commendable distinction ; and they knew that he was anxious to find an opportunity to tread the path of honor, beset as it might be with dangers. The most marked personal characteristic of young Hidden was his influence over all around him. When a boy at school, his teachers used to say to him : " It is all-important that you should be good, for all the boys will do as you say." This animal magnetism was conspicuous throughout his life. It was seen in his regiment, where the men loved him devotedly, would follow him to the death, and mourned his loss with the Intter tears wrung so hardly from the 116 XOTABLE MEN. eyes of stern manhood. This species of magnetic attraction, which has charac- terized many distinguished men, would doubtless have been signally manifested in the after-life of young Hidden, had not his career been so speedily closed. This ascendency over schoolmates, associates, an