Defaulters through Dixon’s Springs, Tennessee

DEFAULTERS. If any officer employed or who has heretofore been employed in the civil, military, or naval departments of the Government, to disburse the public money appropriated for the service of those departments respectively, shall fail to render his account or pay over, in the manner and in the times required by law, or the regulations of the department to which he is accountable, any sum of money remaining in the hands of such officer, the 1st or 2d comptroller of the treasury, as the case may be, shall cause to be stated and certify the account of such delinquent officer to the solicitor of the treasury, who shall immediately proceed to issue a warrant of distress against such delinquent officer and his sureties, directed to the marshal or marshals of the district or districts where they reside; and the marshal shall proceed to levy and collect the sum remaining due by distress and sale of goods and chattels of such delinquent officer; and, if the goods are not sufficient, the same may be levied upon the person of such officer, who may be committed to prison, there to remain until discharged by due course of law. But the solicitor of the treasury, with the approbation of the secretary of the treasury, may postpone for a reasonable time such proceedings where, in his opinion, the public interest will sustain no injury by such postponement. If any person shall consider himself aggrieved by any warrant issued as above, he may prefer a bill of complaint to any district judge of the United States, and thereupon the judge may, if in his opinion the case requires it, grant an injunction to stay proceedings. If any person shall consider himself aggrieved by the decision of such judge either in refusing to issue the injunction, or, if granted, on its dissolution, such person may lay a copy of the proceedings had before the district judge, before a judge of the supreme court, who may either grant the injunction, or permit an appeal, as the case may be, if, in his opinion, the equity of the case requires it; (Act May 15, 1820.) The judgment on a warrant of distress under this act, and the proceedings under the judgment, are a bar to any subsequent action for the same cause. U. S. v. Nourse, 9 Peters 8. (See DELINQUENT.) No money hereafter appropriated shall be paid to any person for his compensation, who is in arrears to the U. S., until such person shall have accounted for and paid into the treasury, all sums for which he may be liable; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend to balances arising solely from depreciation of treasury notes received by such person, to be expended in the public service; but in all cases where the pay or salary of any person is withheld, in pursuance of this act, it shall be the duty of the accounting officers, if demanded by the party, his agent or attorney, to report, forthwith, to the agent of the treasury department the balance due; and it shall be the duty of the said agent, within sixty days thereafter, to order suit to be commenced against such delinquent and his sureties; ( Act January 25, 1828.) (See REMEDY; STOPPAGE OF PAY.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 215-215).


DEFENCE (COAST). Possible causes and objects of attack may be  conquest or the destruction of commercial ports of more or less value; the possession of depots; the destruction of naval docks; or taking advantage of the weakness or absence of troops, to levy contributions. The parapets of all coast and harbor defences should be constructed of earth, where favorable sites can be found; but for low sites that can be approached within grape-shot range, such batteries must give place to masonry defences, and where masonry-casemated castles with three tiers of guns in casemates, and with guns and mortars on the roofs are resorted to, embrasures of wrought iron, like the model embrasures of Fort Richmond, New York harbor, will be found applicable. With such batteries well constructed, the direct fire of ships has little effect. Movable columns of troops in numbers, depending on the probable object of the enemy, must be held in some central position. If railroads are to convey the troops, a central point within a radius of sixty miles will be within good supporting distance. If railroads are not relied on, the distance should not be greater than fifteen miles. The columns should be at least seven-tenths infantry, one-tenth cavalry, and two-tenths field artillery. The latter being useful to oppose the debarcation of troops. The French charge both the fleet and the army with the movable defence of coasts. Steamers and flotillas, armed with howitzers, are particularly suited to that object. Corps of troops assembled at some central position are held ready to be thrown upon a threatened point. Batteries of howitzers give their aid to these corps. Concerted signals are arranged.

The ordinance of Jan. 8, 1843, directs that in military ports the naval forces shall be specially charged, under the orders of the commanding officer of the land forces, with the armament, service, and guard of the batteries looking directly upon the harbors, and upon interior roadsteads adjacent to these harbors, as well as upon the passes conducting to these interior roadsteads. Whenever the works to which those batteries belong do not form a principal part of the system of defence on the land side of the place and its dependencies, the personnel of the permanent batteries intrusted to the land forces is furnished from the artillery, by other troops, by the national guard, by revenue service men, or by ancient cannoneers taken from the coast population, at the rate of five men to a gun, one of whom must be an experienced gunner. The permanent works for defence are divided into three classes, according to their importance: 1st Class. Works for the defence of military harbors, large commercial harbors, and the principal points of islands. These fortifications are composed of exterior forts, capable of resisting regular attacks, obstructing bombardments   merits, &c. 2d Class. Works which protect anchorages and channels suited to ships of war. They consist of a system of forts or batteries tying them to the place. 3d Class. Works defending small commercial ports, anchorages suited to merchantmen, places of refuge for coasting vessels. These consist of batteries with redoubts.

This classification regulates the supply of the batteries, but does not determine absolutely their armament. This must be regulated by various circumstances, as must also the relative strength of the redoubts. The armament of batteries is regulated by the strength of the ships they may have to repel, and the latter depend upon the nature of the coast, and principally upon the depth of water. 32-pounder guns and 8-inch howitzers are employed against ships at a distance of 2,600 yards. Guns begin the fire with round shot; the fire is continued with hollow shot. 13-inch mortars, whose range extends to 4,300 yards, are reserved for the ships at anchor. Experience has proved that a battery of four pieces of heavy calibre has the advantage of a ship of 120 guns. Projectiles ricochet better upon the water than upon the land, and lose less of their force; they can, after having ricoched at 1,300 yards, pass through the sides of a three-decked ship. Hollow projectiles penetrate the sides underneath the water line, and open large water holes by their explosion.

The number of 24 and 32-pound shot that timber ships have received in their sides without being disabled, ought perhaps to have caused their relinquishment in the armament of coast batteries in Europe. With James' projectile (See RIFLED ORDNANCE) such guns, when rifled, will again play an important part in defence. In the United States, such guns have been replaced by larger guns. Even the 42-pounder, retained of late years only as a hot-shot gun, may soon give way to 8 and 10-inch columbiads capable of being used as shell or shot guns; adding also, when necessary, Rodman's 15-inch columbiad, which, with shells of from 305 to 41 lbs., might with a single missile disable, if not entirely destroy the vessel at which it was directed with 6 elevation, when 2,000 yards distant. In many trials at that distance the lateral deviations were only from 1 to 5 yards, and the time of flight 6 to 7 seconds. With 28 35 X elevation, and a charge of 40 lbs., the range of the shell is from 5,435 to 5,730 yards, and time of flight 27 seconds.

The height to be given the battery above the level of the sea is from 11 to 16 yards. To fire at point blank: if the aim is a little lower the ricochet brings it upon the ship. Red-hot shot may be fired from columbiads. If engaged with many ships, direct all the pieces of the battery upon that one most in range. Learn exactly the distances of all the most remarkable points, and post the information in the store-room and guard-room, in order that the distance of vessels may be easily determined. Observe the ricochets upon the water. Fire round shot upon disembarkations. Guard carefully against surprises. Observe every thing going on at sea and on land. Be attentive to all signals. Watch over the preservation of material with care; air the magazine in dry weather; move the gun carriages every day. It is important that a battery should have the elevation above given. With that elevation it will not be exposed to ricochet shot from ships, but the ricochets from the battery, losing but little of their force upon the water, will enable even 24-pounder shots, fired under four degrees, to pierce the side of a vessel, however strong it may be, at a distance of 640 yards and more. It is important to direct a heavy fire on ships before anchoring, especially upon the rigging, as the loss of a spar and a few ropes may oblige them to anchor where it is not intended, and thus derange the other ships. In the formation of batteries, regard should be had to the probable number of men that may be obtained to serve them. In the defence of coasts, booms are essential either to bar access to a harbor or river, or to cut off the retreat of the enemy if an entrance has been effected by surprise. Booms should be immediately under the fire of a battery, and are usually made of heavy chains floated by logs. It is unsafe to trust to a single line of booms in the main channel. Booms need not extend entirely across an entrance. Shallow or otherwise inaccessible parts may be omitted, and in order not to impede navigation unnecessarily, 100 yards of boom may be withdrawn from the channel, but always kept ready for replacing; (Aide Memoire a Usage d’ Artillerie, &c.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 216-219).


DEFENCE, BEFORE A COURT-MARTIAL. In point both of law and reason, a court-martial has as much power over the evidence introduced by the prisoner as over that of the prosecutor, and can reject the witnesses of the one as well as the other, or any part of such witnesses' testimony. Courts-martial are particularly guarded in adhering to the custom which obtains, of resisting every attempt on the part of counsel to address them; but cases have occurred, in which professional gentlemen in attendance have been permitted to read the defence prepared for the prisoner. A court will prevent a prisoner from adverting to parties not before the court, or only alluded to in evidence, further than may be actually necessary. All coarse and insulting language should be avoided, in any part of the defence; (HOUGH'S Law Authorities.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 219).


DEFENCE, (NATIONAL.) This subject is much associated, in the popular mind, with ships, forts, and the preparation and proper distribution of all munitions of war; but important as they are, it is not here proposed to discuss those questions. It is not necessary to combat an idea which all history controverts, that a large naval force will ever be able, by cruising in front of our extended coast, to prevent a hostile expedition from landing on our shores. The reluctant admission of, the historian Alison may be accepted, that in the face of greatly superior maritime forces, Ireland was, for sixteen days, in 1796, at the mercy of Hoche's expedition of 25,000 men, and neither the skill of English sailors, nor the valor of English armies, but the fury of the elements, saved them from the danger. “ While these considerations,” continues Alison, “ are fitted to abate confidence in invasion, they are, at the same time, calculated to weaken an overweening confidence in naval superiority, and to demonstrate that the only base on which certain reliance can be placed, even by an insular power, is a well-disciplined army and the patriotism of its own subjects.

Nor is it necessary to waste argument on the exploded idea that ships can contend with forts.* The results of such contests in our country, at Fort Moultrie, Mobile Point, Stonington, and Fort M'Henry, abundantly show that our sea-board defences, if completed under the supervision of our able engineers, and properly garrisoned, will resist, successfully, any merely naval aggressions, and it has been well said that in the British and French naval attack on Sebastopol, (Oct. 17, 1854,) the final experiment of wooden ships against granite and earthen walls was made, never we believe again to be repeated, until iron clad-ships range up in line of battle; (See IRON PLATES.) But the Crimean war did show with what facility large armies are transported by water, and it conclusively proves that the great maritime powers will look to their armies to accomplish in future wars what it would be idle to expect from a navy alone, and that by the organization of forces “ fitted to bring into action the physical strength of the country with a competent knowledge of their duty and just ideas of discipline and subordination, “J such armies must be met. The means here proposed to accomplish this great object will leave unchanged the present militia laws of the Union, but an effort will be made to show in what manner


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* For a sketch of the principal maritime expeditions, see Jomini's Art of War, translated by Major Winship and Lieut. McLain. See also the report of a board of officers submitted at the first session of the 26th Congress (Doc. 45), containing numerous illustrations from history, showing the impracticability of covering even a small extent of coast by cruising in front of it.

The subject is ably discussed in “Halleck's Military Art and Science,” under the head of “ Sea Coast Defences.”

Report of Gen. Cass, while Secretary of War, on National Defence.

existing institutions may be applied to the great purpose in view, by a simple enactment granting to the States, in the words of the Constitution, the consent of Congress “ to keep troops.”

Francis Lord Bacon has wisely said that “ the principal point of greatness in any state is to have a race of military men; “ and elsewhere, in his enumeration of the elements of true greatness in a state, he writes: “ that it consisteth also in the value and military disposition of the people it breedeth, and in this that they make profession of arms. And it consisteth also in the commandment of the sea.” But he writes: “ In the measuring or balancing of greatness, there is commonly too much ascribed to largeness of territory, to treasure or riches, to the fruitfulness of the soil or affluence of commodities, .and to the strength and fortification of towns and holds.” What was made evident to Bacon by the lore of ages is equally true now. If we, as a people, neglect our military resources, do not foster the military spirit of the people, but on the contrary disregard military merit, and even neglect to honor and reward great military services rendered to the state, we cannot breed a race of military men, and are in danger of verifying the assertion of de Tocqueville, in his Observations upon Democracy in America, that “ the military career was little honored and badly followed in time of peace.” * * * That “this public disfavor is a very heavy burden, which bows down all military spirit,” and that if such a people should undertake “ a war after a long peace, they would run a much greater risk than any other people of being beaten.”

The existing institutions which may be used as aids in organizing a system of National Defence are the Military Academy, the army of the United States, and the militia of the States. The Military Academy is already in successful operation. The first step, then, towards proper State organizations should be to give attention to the regular army to make it, in fact, an aid or staff for the perfect development of the physical strength of the country. To do this, a system of recruiting is needed in harmony with our institutions and the manner in which all militia force must be collected. It is the several States which furnish the militia force; let the regular army, therefore, be recruited by States. Let every regiment have its depot in a particular district of country, and, with the present rate of pay given to the non-commissioned officers and privates, with the reward of promotion from the ranks bestowed whenever merited, we should soon have an army, in the different parts of which the various sections of the country would take a lively interest. In an army thus collected, which offered a career worthy of being sought, an esprit-de-corps would soon be developed which we may in vain seek in our present establishment, and such an army, instead of being regarded by their countrymen as strangers in sympathy and pursuit, might be made the nucleus of science and strength, around which the mental and physical force of the country could be concentrated in war. To accomplish this great object, other changes are also necessary, but much lies within the discretion of the President, and upon his recommendation it is not doubted that Congress will legislate where legislation is required.

If the idea be just that the skeleton regular establishment is maintained in peace, as a nucleus to be expanded in war, to meet the wants of the country, the President should be careful not so to distribute that force as to make this great purpose unattainable or difficult when war may impend. If it be possible so to locate the troops as to give them all possible instruction, and, at the same time, not neglect our Indian frontiers, the latter object should not be suffered to override that other most paramount consideration.

Look at any map of the United States, and attempt for a moment to realize the vast extent of our possessions. Bring your mind back to the period when railroads did not afford those facilities which we now have, in a portion of our country, for quickly passing over hundreds of miles, and you may no longer consider that military posts in Texas, New Mexico, California, Oregon, &c., and on the routes to those distant States and Territories, have such means of communication as would enable us to bring together any respectable force in a short period. Bear in mind that the whole army of the United States consists of but one hundred and ninety-eight companies, and that these companies are scattered in posts which dot our immense territory. Realize this, and then answer, is it possible for the small number of troops thus stationed to prevent marauding parties of Indians from passing between these posts and committing depredations either in Mexico or upon our own people 1 No candid inquirer will assert the possibility! What, then, is remedy? Settlers upon our Indian frontiers must be provided with arms; and the United States Government, besides encouraging Indians to engage in agriculture and other arts of peace, must hold tribes responsible for the acts of individuals. Where predatory bands of Indians have been known to proceed against Mexico or our own people, the tribe must be made answerable, and no vain pursuit be made after the marauding party. We must severely chastise such tribes, and make them understand that the United States require head men to govern and control their young men. That, for the acts of any individuals of the tribe, we will not fail, in any instance, to punish the tribe for such predatory acts. An occasional campaign made against Indians to punish them for misdeeds, produces lasting effects, and will always prove far more efficacious in guarding the lives and property of our citizens, than the present system of small posts, which, by the impunity they afford, only encourages a spirit of adventure in Indian tribes. Another advantage in breaking up the present vicious system of small posts, would be the establishment of schools of instruction for cavalry, Artillery, engineers, and infantry. We now have a preparatory school for the cultivation of military science, at West Point; but, if officers of the army, after graduating there, are left without means or motives for improvement, and on remote stations suffer their minds to degenerate from want of exercise and competition, the Military Academy will have accomplished but very partially the great object of its institution. If the army is to be made the rallying point and instructor of our countrymen in war, it should keep pace with the improvements made in Europe, and this can only be done by assembling the engineers, and the three arms of the service, together, in schools of practice. Let those schools of practice be properly located: and, besides, the great results thus to be obtained by embodying the troops, detachments could at any time be sent to strike and punish tribes of Indians that failed to keep the peace. With one large detachment on the Atlantic coast; another at Jefferson barracks; a third in New Mexico, and a fourth on the Pacific, the army might be kept in a high state of discipline and efficiency, and soon made, by legislation, all that it should be. With an army so established, it would be apparent that all officers should be active, intelligent, and progressive. A retired list should provide for veterans, and proper legislation would enable commanding officers to appoint their own staff officers, in recognition of the established principle that such officers are the assistants of commanders of troops. Such a change would be necessary to insure the just responsibility of commanding officers, as well as proper instruction by alternation of duty in the line and staff; and by instituting a rigid system of inspection, which would inform the general-in-chief and Secretary of War of the legitimacy of the acts of all commanders, defects of organization, errors of administration, and pernicious customs of service would be made known and corrected by the Executive and Congress.

General Orders, No. 17, of 1854, contain very well-considered regulations for carrying into effect the 5th section of the Act of Congress of August 4, 1854, relative to the promotion of non-commissioned officers. Let us now abandon a system of recruiting, which burdens the army with the scum of cities, and promotion from the ranks would follow as regularly as from a lower to a higher grade of commissions. In a republican army caste should not exist, and it will help to break down that distinction now dividing officers and solders, leaving only the necessary difference in grades from private to general, if the army should be recruited by means of regimental recruiting depots so located, that different States shall consider different regiments as raised within their respective limits.

Our army organized and collected, as herein recommended, could easily, on the approach of war, by the addition to each regiment of two battalions, and by increasing the number of privates in a company, be made fifty thousand strong, and this federal force, organized, as it would be, in harmony with State troops, would constantly have kept pace with the advance of professional knowledge in Europe, and be capable of diffusing that knowledge throughout the country by means of the respective State organizations to be now considered.

If the first French revolution did not inaugurate the ideas of liberty and equality, it at least first inculcated by practice the correlative duty of every citizen to defend his country. Accustomed as Americans are to borrow ideas from the English press, it is not remarkable that the outcry made by that aristocratic community against French conscription should have been echoed in our own country. But in the language of General Knox, “It is the wisdom of political establishments to make the wealth of individuals subservient to the general good, and not to suffer it to corrupt or attain undue indulgence. Every State possesses not only the right of personal service from its members, but the right to regulate the service on principles of equality for the general defence. If people, solicitous to be exonerated from their proportion of public duty, exclaim against the only reliable means of defence, as an intolerable hardship, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon them, that while society has its charms, it also has its indispensable obligations. That to attempt such a degree of refinement as to exonerate the members of the community from all personal service, is to render them incapable of the exercise and unworthy of the characters of freemen.”

Let us, then, no longer permit the marvels of industry in which our countrymen have been eminently successful, so far to dazzle us. as to make us forget the lessons of past history. The Italian republics of the Middle Ages had made great strides in industry and the arts. The republic of the United Netherlands was enriched by commerce in the time of De Witt. But it has been well said, that in bending their whole energies to the attainment of riches, and neglecting their military resources, Italy became the prey of foreigners, and Holland only secured national independence by the sacrifice of political liberty.

The history of modern tactics proves “that preparation in peace gives victory upon fields of battle.” The mobility of troops, as now organized, armed, and instructed; the quantity, and still more the kind of artillery used, render a passive resistance, such as that formerly made, impossible. The impossibility of resisting attacks by such means causes the defence to seize the moment in which the attacking party uncovers himself to resort to the offensive, and hence the issue is now more quickly decided, and conquest more rapid than it was a hundred years ago. The ease with which large bodies of men are now transported, the rapidity of all preparatory manoeuvres, as well as the greatly increased mobility in action of instructed troops, admits of the ready concentration of great numbers of such men, without the machine becoming too heavy or unmanageable, or its component parts losing the sentiment of order. It therefore follows that the loss of a battle, in consequence of the numbers engaged, is now much more important than it formerly was, and that such loss resulting from incapacity to manoeuvre, or want of discipline, may involve the most disastrous consequences. If the people of the United States suppose that the facilities which our railroads offer enable us to concentrate larger masses of men in a short period, the answer must be made that DISCIPLINE is the soul of an army, and that without the habit of obedience, an assemblage of men in battle can never be more than a panic-stricken mob. Instances in our own history are not rare to verify this truth. The fields of Princeton, Savannah River, Camden, Guilford Court-House, &c., during our Revolutionary War, not to speak of later disasters, amply sustain the declaration of Washington, that such undisciplined forces are nothing more than a “destructive, expensive, and disorderly 77206.” “When danger is a little removed from them, they will not turn out at all. When it comes home to them, the well-affected, instead of flying to arms to defend themselves, are busily employed in removing their families and effects; while the disaffected are concerting measures to make their submission, and spread terror and dismay all around, to induce others to follow their example. Daily experience and abundant proofs warrant this information. Short enlistments and a mistaken dependence upon our militia, have been the origin of all our misfortunes, and the great accumulation of our debt. The militia come in, you cannot tell how; go, you cannot tell when; and act, you cannot tell where; consume your provisions, exhaust your stores, and leave you at last at a critical moment.” Such facts, bringing fearfully homo to us the contrast between indiscipline and discipline, it is hoped, may yet cause our countrymen to heed the admonition of the Father of his country, that “In peace we must prepare for war.” Let us not deceive ourselves by supposing that, when danger becomes imminent, Congress will take the necessary measures to meet it. The steps which are necessary call for sacrifices from the people, and unless public opinion sanctions the means, Congress, in the day of trial, will always be found to represent misdirected popular opinions.

The veteran, Mr. Gales, in the National Intelligencer on the occasion of the death of Mrs. Madison, gave a picture of the inertness of the last session of the War Congress of 1814-15. His recollections of the past furnish instructive lessons of what we may expect in the future, if the attention of the people of the United States be not fixed on the necessary sacrifices which love of country demands. So believing, extracts from his historical sketch are here quoted in the firm persuasion that the measures, then recommended, arc essential to the safety of our cities and towns, if some organization by States, at least, as efficient as the militia scheme recommended by General Knox, with the sanction of General Washington, be not adopted in time of peace when a matured scheme may be well digested. Mr. Gales writes: “ Congress had assembled on the 19th of September preceding not, as might be supposed from the date, in consequence of the then recent capture of the city [of Washington] by the enemy, but in pursuance of a requisition by the President anterior to that event, calling Congress together (as the President informed the two Houses, in his message at the opening of that session) for the purpose of supplying the inadequacy of the finances to the existing wants of the Treasury, and of making further and more effectual provisions for prosecuting the war. During the recess of Congress, the honor of the arms of the United States had been gallantly sustained in every conflict by land and sea; politically considered, the capture of Washington itself, and the destruction of the Capitol and the other public buildings, so far from being a misfortune, was for the administration a fortunate event, by its effect in exciting indignant feelings throughout the country, uniting the people in support of the common cause, and preparing their minds for the additional burden of taxation which it had become obvious that they must be called upon to bear. All that was wanting to the vigorous prosecution of the war, was the provision of men and money for the purpose. The progress of recruiting for filling the ranks of the regular army had already proved entirely too slow, if not total failure, as had the resource of loans for the support of the Government, as well as for carrying on the war. The army, whose organization was, on paper, more than 62,000 men, comprised an actual force of only 32,000, exclusive of officers, of which force probably not more than one half could be relied on for effective service; and the credit of the Government had sunk so low that plummet could hardly sound the depth of its degradation.

“At the opening of the session, the President, in his communication to the two Houses of Congress, with eloquent persuasion, endeavored to impress upon them the necessity of making immediate provision for filling the ranks of the army, and replenishing the treasury. In this purpose he was earnestly seconded by Secretary Monroe, of the War Department, and the new Secretary (Mr. Dallas) of the Treasury Department.

“Towards the first of these objects, a bill was soon matured, and afterwards received the assent of Congress, extending the age at which recruits might be Unlisted to fifty years, doubling the bounty in land to each, and removing the interdiction upon recruiting minors and apprentices. This measure was a mere experiment, of no practical value, as the event showed. The plan for filling the ranks of the army upon which the Executive relied, and which was placed before the Senate in a bold and energetic report from the War Secretary, was to form into classes of 100 each, all the population of the United States fit for militia duty, out of every class of which four men for the war were to be furnished within thirty days after the classification, by choice or by draught, and delivered over to the recruiting officer of each district, to be marched to such places of general rendezvous as might be directed by the Secretary of War. This plan, which, as the reader will perceive, comprised all the essential features of the French conscription, though, perhaps, the only one which at the time promised effective results, found from the first no favor, especially in the House of Representatives; and became more and more obnoxious, the more the administration seemed to have it at heart. Hardly any one in Congress had the courage to allude to it. Mr. Troup did indeed prevail upon the Military Committee, of which he was chairman, to allow him to report a bill, conformable to the Executive recommendation, by the pregnant title of ' An Act making provision for filling the ranks of the regular army, by classing the free male population of the United States; ' and the bill was referred to a Committee of the whole House, and never after heard of. In the course of the session some acts had passed, looking to the employment of volunteers and detachments of militia, under the old plan, for short terms; and one of more importance, to authorize the President of the United States to accept the service of State troops and volunteers.' This last was not only the most effective measure which had passed towards the supply of men for carrying on the war, but it was the most so that was likely to pass.

“The truth to say, indeed, notwithstanding the nature of the emergency, a dogged inertness seemed to paralyze the action of Congress during the latter part of that session. The recommendation to recruit the army by drafts from the militia was not only unwelcome, as we have said, but revolting to the inclination of the popular branch of Congress; so much so, that a great proportion of the members of that body (and among them some of the leading and most conspicuous members of the republican party) shrunk from it as from the plague; and, as though the leprous influence of that proposition contaminated every other part of the plans of the administration, it was with almost equal reluctance that the House approached the consideration of adequate measures (such as Mr. Secretary Dallas frankly and fearlessly recommended) for the support of the public credit, and for strengthening the sinews of war.”

From the foregoing sketch of the past, it is evident that, unless the opinions and prejudices of the people of the United States be greatly changed, any attempt to raise large armies in the most critical emergencies, without the agency of States, must prove a failure. In order, therefore, to provide for the “common defence,” the aid of State organizations will be necessary, and several plans, more or less efficient, have consequently been proposed to better the organization of the militia. All such attempts have, however, met with no favor from the people; and, indeed, it is much to be doubted whether the constitutional reservation to the States “ of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress,” and governing them, except when called forth “ to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions,” will admit of any “ good, energetic, general, uniform, and national system of organization.” The division of authority made by the constitution between the United States and the several States, in regard to the militia, until called forth by the Federal Government, has left with Congress only the right to provide for “organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia; “but discipline, in that restricted sense, without power to regulate the appointment of officers.

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*In striking contrast with this inertness of Congress, the Legislature of New York assembled on the 26th of September, 1814, passed by the 24th of October a bill giving additional pay to the militia from the State treasury, an act to encourage privateering and an act to raise twelve thousand State troops by conscription or classification. See Hammond's Political History of New York, vol. 1. pp. 380-1.

or otherwise to govern, means little more than prescribing a system of tactics, and such discipline can never make soldiers.

There is, however, another suggestion in the Constitution of the United States, for providing for the common defence, which is obnoxious to none of the objections made against large standing armies, and which commends itself to favorable consideration, as being in harmony with the Federal Government, and capable of furnishing any number of disciplined soldiers which the exigency of our foreign relations may require, without outrage to the instincts of the people of the States. The tendency of the multiplication of States in our confederacy is to restrict the authority of the general Government over the internal affairs of the people of the States. This has been shown by breaking down the Bank of the United States, establishing the independent treasury, refusing appropriations for internal improvements, and, lastly, leaving to the people of Territories the regulation of their own institutions. The maxim “that the world is governed too much,” has been sturdily preached, and it may become necessary not to shrink from maintaining our doctrine in the face of foreign powers. To do this we must arm for defence, and the consistent mode of doing so, is for Congress to give its consent for the several States to “keep troops;” more particularly as the history of our country has shown that public opinion will not admit any other efficient military organization. States now have authority to keep troops in time of war, but for such troops to be useful in war, they must be prepared in peace; but as the Constitution of the United States forbids States “ to keep troops in time of peace without the consent of Congress,” that consent could be given with conditions attached, and those conditions, besides providing for the common defence in war, should require the organization and instruction of State troops to conform with that of the army of the United States, or rather with the cavalry, harnessed batteries of artillery, and infantry of the army.

To encourage States in such organizations, let Congress provide for the annual distribution --- of dollars among the several States and Territories in proportion to their enrolled militia force, upon satisfactory evidence being furnished to the Secretary of War, that such States have organized camps of instruction during two months in the year, containing a number of troops not less than one-twentieth of the enrolled militia force of the State. Direct the President to furnish to the several State governors, upon their requisition, such army officers as they may desire to aid the commanders of the camps of instruction, and the information collected and kept up in the army will thus be diffused throughout the country. The different States will take pride in their respective organizations, and would recruit their respective armies according to the genius of their people. Their military codes would react upon each other, and upon that of the United States. An interest in military affairs would take the place of present derision, and more than all, the United States might laugh to scorn the efforts of any invader.

The Prussian Landwehr of the first ban, to which the proposed organization is assimilated, is considered a reserved army, remaining by their firesides in times of peace, except during their annual seasons of manoeuvring, but ready tb appear in case of war upon the first call, organized, equipped, and armed to serve like the line of the army, either at home or abroad. The Prussian territory is divided into as many districts as there are battalions of the Landwehr of the first ban. Each district furnishes a battalion of infantry, a squadron of cavalry, a company of artillery, and some other detachments. The battalions and squadrons are named from the principal town of their district, and depots of arms, clothing, camp and garrison equipage, and cavalry and artillery equipments, are there located. The districts of the Landwehr are also the recruiting districts of the line of the army; and, as troops from the same district serve together, there naturally exist between those corps ties of consanguinity, which dispel all feelings of superiority, and cause them mutually to sustain each other in time of danger.

In each district of the Landwehr, the following small list of officers are permanently paid. For the infantry: one major commanding, one adjutant, who is also accountant, four first sergeants, and four second sergeants, (one per company,) eight corporals, (two per company,) and one armorer. For the cavalry: one captain, or first lieutenant, one quartermaster-sergeant, and three corporals. The paid commanders of battalions are charged with the assistance of their staff, with the personnel and materiel of the Landwehr, and are accountable for the ordnance and military stores in depot in their districts. The first sergeants keep the list of names belonging to their companies, and no man can absent himself without notifying them. If all the States of the Union did not deem it better under this system to keep up a small permanent force, it is supposed that they would all find it necessary to maintain a small skeleton organization of officers and non-commissioned officers, similar to that of the Prussian Landwehr of the first ban. And if such officers and non-commissioned officers were appointed by the States from officers and non-commissioned officers who have honorably retired from the army, a new link would be established between the army and State troops which would prove mutually beneficial.

To resume, then: the system of national defence or military organization herein suggested, as suitable for the United States is: 1. The promotion of the most thorough organization and instruction of the United States army, by concentrating troops at strategic points; changing the system of recruiting; creating a retired list for officers of the army, and providing for alternation of duty in the line and the staff, so that the whole army may be made really an aid or staff for the perfect development of the physical strength of the whole country. 2. An act of Congress authorizing the several States to keep troops in time of peace, provided their respective regimental organizations of cavalry and infantry shall conform to the regimental organization of those arms instituted by Congress. 3. An annual appropriation by Congress to be distributed among the several States in proportion to the enrolled militia force of the State, provided satisfactory evidence is brought before the Secretary of War that such State has had within its limits, during two months of the year, organized camps of instruction in which were assembled a number of troops not less than one-twentieth of the enrolled militia force of the State. 4. Requiring the President to furnish to State governors, upon their requisitions, such army officers as may be^ desired to aid commanders of State camps of instruction, so that the information collected in the federal army may be extended to all State organizations. 5. Giving authority to the President to muster into the service of the United States, State troops, in all cases in which he is now authorized by law to call forth the militia. (See CALLING FORTH.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 219-231).


DEFILADING consists in raising the parapets of a fortress or field-work, or in depressing the terre-pleins so much as to conceal the interior of the work from the view of an enemy on an elevated position. It also consists in directing the magistral lines of its parapets toward points, where local impediments, as rivers, marshes, lakes, &c., would prevent a besieger from constructing batteries. The former is defilading by relief, the latter is termed defilading by the trace or plan. When a field-work has been necessarily constructed in such a situation that it may be commanded by some height within range of artillery, the defilading is made by raising the parapet, or constructing traverses in the interior of the work. The necessary trace for a field-work to accomplish these objects is more expeditiously effected by the eye and a few poles and profiles, than by resorting to theoretical and scientific proceedings, which constitute a part of the art of the engineer, and which are indispensable considerations in permanent fortification. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 231).


DEFILE. Any narrow passage as a ford, a bridge, a road through a village, mountain passes, &c., are defiles. To pass a defile safely, it is necessary first to drive away, as far as possible, the enemy. Under cover of this engagement, other troops pass the defile as soon as they reach it. The aim should be to pass the defile as quickly as possible; whether advancing or retreating. The passage in double columns will facilitate the formation in order of battle on the right and on the left after having passed the defile, and this order has the advantage of occupying both sides of the road. But it cannot be too strongly urged that quickness in the passage is the great consideration, and theoretical movement must give way to this primary object If the defile is 'a ford or bridge, and the passage in retreat, formations on the bank of the river, after the passage, ought not to take place. Combats separated by a river end in nothing, and the worst possible way of defending 'a bridge or ford is taking positions too near it. The enemy would certainly unite his artillery upon the opposite bank, and not attempt the passage until he had greatly worsted the defenders of the ford or bridge by his projectiles. The defenders would lose many men, and would probably have been demoralized before coming to close quarters. It is necessary then to wait until a portion of the enemy passes the bridge or ford. If the enemy be then vigorously attacked the defenders will, by a hand-to-hand conflict, render nugatory his artillery on the opposite bank, as well as all of his troops that have not yet crossed. To accomplish this intended purpose, it will only be necessary to place troops at some point, at full cannon range from the bridge, or if the accidents of ground admit of cover, nearer still to the bridge. If a bridge is passed in advancing, the troops which pass first are pushed forward to gain as much ground as possible, and thus favor the passage of other troops, by relieving them of the dangers of the combat. In this case the simplest and most rapid method of crossing is the best. (Consult Aperqus sur quelqbes Details de la Guerre, par MARSHAL BUGEAUD.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 232).


DE FOREST, John William, author and soldier, born in Humphreysville (now Seymour), Connecticut, 31 March, 1826. He attended no college, but pursued independent studies, mainly abroad, was a student in Latin, and became a fluent speaker of French, Italian, and Spanish. While yet a youth, he passed four years travelling in Europe, and two years in the Levant, residing chiefly in Syria. Again, in 1850, he visited Europe, making extensive tours through Great Britain. France, Italy, Germany, Greece, and Asia Minor. From that time until the Civil War began he wrote short stories for periodicals, having already become an author of several books. In 1861, as captain, he recruited a company for the 12th Connecticut Volunteers, and served constantly in the field till January, 1865, taking an active part under Generals Weitzel and Banks in the southwestern states, and under General Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and leaving the army with the brevet of major. Graphic descriptions of battle-scenes in Louisiana, and of Sheridan's battles in the valley of the Shenandoah, were published in "Harper's Monthly" during the war by Major De Forest, who was present on all the occasions thus mentioned, and was fortunate enough, while experiencing forty-six days under fire, to receive but one trifling wound. He was one of only two or three American literary men that laid down the pen for the sword. From 1865 till 1868 he remained in the army as adjutant-general of the Veteran Reserve Corps, and afterward as chief of a district under the Freedman's Bureau. Since then he has resided in New Haven, except when travelling in Europe. The honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Amherst College in 1859. Besides essays, a few poems, and about fifty short stories, numerous military sketches, and book-reviews, most of which were anonymous, he, in 1873, contributed to the "Atlantic Monthly" a short serial story, entitled "The Lauson Tragedy." He has published " The History of the Indians of Connecticut, from the… Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 123-124.


DEFREES, John D., politician, born in Sparta, Tennessee, 8 November, 1811; died in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, 19 October, 1882. In 1818 he was apprenticed by his father to a printer in Ohio, and at the same time began to study law. He was admitted to the Bar of Indiana in 1836, having moved to that state a few years before to establish a newspaper in conjunction with his brother. He was soon elected to the legislature, and was several times reelected. In 1844 he resigned his seat in the state senate, and bought the " Indiana State Journal," a weekly paper published at Indianapolis. He moved there and made that paper a daily, which he edited for several years. After the Whig Party was dissolved he united with the Republican, and in 1856 became the first chairman of the Republican state committee, which place he occupied until 1860. Mr. Defrees was a friend of many leading politicians, among whom were Clay, Crittenden, Webster, and Corwin, who regarded him as an adroit politician. President Lincoln appointed him to the office of government printer, which he filled for many years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 124.


DE GROOT, Albert, captain, born on Staten Island about 1810. He was taken into service by Cornelius Vanderbilt, and soon rose to the rank of captain, commanding some of the principal boats on the Hudson. He erected the Prescott House, on Broadway, in 1857, and constructed the steamer "Jenny Indiana" During the war he built the steamers "Resolute" and " Reliance," which were purchased for the U.S. Navy. He was active in promoting the erection of the Vanderbilt Bronzes, and presented to the printers of New York the statue of Benjamin Franklin, which stands in front of the "Times " and " Tribune" buildings. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 124.


DEITZLER, George Washington, 1826-1884, abolitionist. (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 201)

DEITZLER, George Washington, soldier, born in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 30 November, 1826; died near Tucson, Arizona, 11 April, 1884. He received a common-school education, moved to Kansas, and "grew up with the state." He was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives in 1857-'8. and again in 1859-'60, and during the former period was elected speaker. He was subsequently mayor of Lawrence, and treasurer of the University of Kansas. At the beginning of the war he was made colonel of the 1st Regiment of Kansas Volunteers. He was promoted to be brigadier-general, 29 November, 1862, but resigned in August of the year following. In 1864 he was commissioned major-general of Kansas militia. He was killed by being thrown from a carriage. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 125.


DE KAY, Joseph Rodman Drake, soldier, born 21 October, 1836; died in New York City, 9 June, 1886, served with credit during the Civil War on the staffs of Generals Mansfield, Pope, and Hooker, and won the brevet of lieutenant-colonel for gallantry in several battles.—Another son of George Coleman, George Coleman, soldier, born 34 August, 1842; died in New Orleans, 27 June, 1862, left his studies in Dresden, Saxony, in 1861, returned to the United States, and entered the National service as lieutenant of artillery, and afterward was on the staff of General Thomas Williams till he received a mortal wound in a fight with bushwhackers at Grand Gulf. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 126.


DE KAY, Sidney, soldier, born 7 March, 1845, ran away from school in the second year of the Civil War and joined the 71st New York Volunteers. He was afterward made lieutenant in the 8th Connecticut Regiment, served on the staffs of Generals B. P. Butler, Devens, and Terry, and received the brevet of major. After the war he went to Crete to assist the Greeks against the Turks. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 126.


DE KRAFFT, James Charles Philip, naval officer, born in the District of Columbia, 12 January, 1826; died there, 29 October, 1885. He was appointed midshipman from Illinois in 1841, and attached to the frigate "Congress," in the Mediterranean Squadron. During the Mexican War he took part in the first attack on Alvarado in 1846. He was commissioned lieutenant, 15 September, 1855, and detailed to the command of the frigate "Niagara" in 1860, in which vessel he was present at the assault on Fort McCrean, one of the defences of Pensacola, the following year. In 1862-'3 he was on duty in the U.S. Navy-yard at Washington, and commanded the steamer "Conemaugh, Western Gulf-Blockading Squadron, in 1864-'6, during which period he assisted in the operations against Fort Powell, Mobile Bay. Commissioned as commander in 1866, and as captain in 1872, he served subsequently as captain of the "Hartford," as chief of staff of the Asiatic Station, and had charge of the Washington and Philadelphia Navy-yards. He was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral in June, 1885. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 126.


DELAFIELD, Richard, military engineer, son of John, senior; born in New York City, 1 September, 1798; died in Washington, 5 November, 1873. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1818 at the head of his class, and was immediately promoted to be 2d lieutenant of engineers, being assigned to duty with the American Boundary commission under the treaty of Ghent. In 1820 he received his Commission as 1st lieutenant, and in 1828 was made captain. From 1819 till 1838 he was employed in the construction of the defences of Hampton Roads, as superintending engineer on the fortifications in the vicinity of the Mississippi, and those on or near Delaware River and Bay. Promoted to the rank of major in 1838, he was appointed superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, where he remained for seven years, and subsequently held the office from 1856 till March, 1861, when he was relieved, at his own request. From 1846 till 1855 he superintended the defences of New York Harbor and the Hudson River improvements, with the exception of ten months, when he acted as chief engineer of the Department of Texas. During the Crimean war (1855-'6) he was ordered to Europe in company with Captain (afterward Major General) McClellan and Major Mordecai to report on any changes that had been made in modern warfare. His elaborate report was printed by Congress in 1860. He was made lieutenant-colonel in 1861, colonel in 1863, brigadier-general and chief of engineers in 1864, and received the brevet rank of major-general, 13 May, 1865, " for faithful, meritorious, and distinguished services in the engineer department during the rebellion." He was retired 8 August, 1866, his name having been borne on the army register for over forty-five years. He rendered valuable service to the government during the Civil War, on the staff of Governor Morgan, of New York (1861-'3), in the reorganization and equipment of the state forces. From 1864 till 1870 he was on duty at Washington as commander of the Engineer Corps, and in charge of the Bureau of Engineers of the War Department, and served as inspector of the Military Academy, as member of the Light-house Board, and of the commission for the improvement of Boston Harbor. He was also one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 128.


DELANO, Columbus, Congressman, born in Shoreham, Vermont, 5 June, 1809. He moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, in 1817, was educated at the common schools, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1831. He practised at Mount Vernon, and became eminent as an advocate and criminal lawyer. He was a delegate in 1860 to the National Republican Convention at Chicago which nominated Lincoln and Hamlin. He served as state commissary-general of Ohio in 1861, and was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives in 1863, and was elected a member of Congress from that state in 1844, 1864, and 1866. He was a delegate in 1864 to the National Republican Convention at Baltimore, which nominated Lincoln and Johnson. On 5 March, 1869, he was appointed by President Grant Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and while he held office reorganized the bureau, thereby increasing the receipts over 100 per cent in eight months. He succeeded Jacob D. Cox as Secretary of the Interior in October, 1870, a portfolio that he retained till 1875. Mr. Delano has for many years  been one of the trustees of Kenyon College, Ohio, which conferred on him the degree of LL. D., and in connection with which he has endowed a grammar school called Delano Hall. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 133-134.


DELANY, Martin Robinson, 1812-1885, free African American, publisher, editor, journalist, writer, physician, soldier. Publisher of abolitionist newspaper, North Star in Rochester, New York, with Fredrick Douglass. Published The Condition, Elevation, Emigration and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, 1852. Published The Ram’s Horn in New York.  Supported colonization of African Americans in 1854. Led National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1854.  Recruited thousands of African Americans for service in the Civil War.  First African American major in the U.S. Army.  (Mabee, 1970, pp. 133, 145, 400n18; Pease, 1965, pp. 319-330; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 32, 50, 55, 164, 192, 251-252, 264, 275, 704-705; Sernett, 2002, pp. 151, 240, 314n61; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 219; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 382)


DELAPLAINE, Isaac Clason, lawyer, born in New York City, 27 October, 1817; died there, 17 July, 1866. He was graduated at Columbia in 1834, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was elected to Congress from New York as a fusionist, and served from 4 July, 1861, till 3 March, 1863. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 134.


DELAVAN, Edward Cornelius, 1793-1871, Ballston Center, New York, reformer, temperance activist, abolitionist.  Life member of the American Colonization Society (ACS).  Sought to defend the ACS against attacks by William Lloyd Garrison.  American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-39. (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 134; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, p. 201)

DELAVAN, Edward Cornelius, reformer, born in Schenectady county, New York, in 1793; died in Schenectady, 15 Jan., 1871. He was a wine-merchant, and acquired a fortune. At one time he owned much real estate in Albany, including the Delavan house, which he erected. In 1828, in company with Dr. Eliphalet Nott, he formed the State temperance Society in Schenectady, and entered with zeal into the cause of temperance reform, devoting .his ample means to its promotion, speaking, lecturing, and writing on the subject, and employing others in all these ways to further the cause. He met with great opposition in this work. In 1835 he wrote to the Albany “Evening Journal,” charging an Albany brewer with using filthy and stagnant water for malting. The brewer prosecuted him for libel, and the trial, which took place in 1840 and attracted wide attention, occupied six days, and resulted in a verdict for Delavan. After this, several similar suits that had been begun against him for damages aggregating $300,000, were abandoned. Mr. Delavan had the proceedings of this trial printed in pamphlet-form for distribution as a tract. He procured, about 1840, several drawings of the human stomach when diseased by the use of alcoholic drinks, from postmortem examinations made by Professor Sewall, of Washington, D. C. These he bad engraved and printed in colors, and made very effective use of them. He also published for years, at his own expense, a periodical advocating, often with illustrations, the temperance cause; this was subsequently merged in the “Journal of the American Temperance Union,” to whose funds he was a most liberal contributor. He had trained himself to public speaking, and became an efficient advocate of the cause he had so much at heart. Mr. Delavan presented to Union College a collection of shells and minerals valued at $30,000. He lost a large portion of his property a few years before his death. He published numerous articles and tracts, and “Temperance in Wine Countries” (1860). Appletons’ Cylcopædia of American Biography, 1888. Vol. II, p. 134.


DE LEON, David Camden, surgeon, born in South Carolina in 1822; died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 3 September, 1872. He was educated in his native state, and graduated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1836. He entered the U. S. Army as assistant surgeon on 21 August, 1838, served in the Seminole War, and was then stationed for several years on the western frontier. At the beginning of the Mexican War he went with General Taylor to the Rio Grande, was present at most of the battles in the campaign toward Mexico, and entered that city when it surrendered. For these services, as well as for gallantry in action, where he several times took the place of commanding officers who had been killed or wounded, Dr. De Leon twice received the thanks of Congress, but was again assigned to frontier duty in Mexico, on the ground of his great energy and hardihood. He was promoted to surgeon, with the rank of major, on 29 August, 1856, and on, 19 February, 1861, resigned his commission and was placed at the head of the medical department of the Confederate Army. At the close of the war he went to Mexico, but after a year's residence in that country he returned to New Mexico, where he had been stationed for many years, and owned property, continuing in practice until his death. He was a man of fine literary culture, and a vigorous writer.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 135.


DELINQUENT, (DISBURSING OFFICERS.) Such officers may be dismissed by the President of the United States on failure to render their accounts of disbursements quarterly in the United States, and every six months if resident in a foreign country; (Act January 31, 1823.) (See DEFAULTER.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 232).


DELOACH'S BLUFF, LOUISIANA, April 26, 1864. Ironclads Eastport, Cricket, Hindman and Juliet. The Eastport had been sunk in the Red river by a torpedo on the 15th and the other vessels had raised her and were bringing her to Alexandria when she grounded at Deloach's bluff. A portion of Liddell's Confederate force opened fire upon her and it became necessary to fire her in order to prevent the enemy's taking possession. Ten miles below the other gunboats were obliged to run a battery, during which the Cricket had 25 killed and 13 wounded of her crew of 50; 15 were killed and wounded in the Juliet and 2 were killed in the Hindman. Confederate reports state their loss at 2 killed and 4 wounded. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 356.


DELTA, U. S. STEAMER, January 6, 1864. (See Gaines' Landing.) Denkins' Mill, South Carolina, April 19, 1865. U. S. Forces under Brigadier-General E. E. Potter. As an incident of an expedition to destroy the rollingstock on the railroad between Sumterville and Camden, South Carolina, the provisional division under General Potter encountered the enemy's skirmishers and drove them back on their main line, strongly intrenched at Denkins' mill. Here the 1st brigade halted and kept up a skirmish fire, while the 2nd brigade executed a flank movement and dislodged the Confederates from their position. The losses were not reported. Denmark, Tennessee, July 29, 1862. (See Hatchie Bottom.) Denmark, Tennessee, September 1, 1862. (See Britton's Lane.) Denmark, Tennessee, August 3, 1863. Detachment of 6th Division, 16th Army Corps. Five companies of cavalry and three companies of mounted infantry scouting from Fort Pillow encountered a Confederate force near Denmark and dispersed it, killing 2 and capturing 6. The Federal loss was 1 man slightly wounded and 2 missing.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 357.


DEMILUNE is a work constructed to cover the curtain and shoulders of the bastion. It is composed of two faces forming a salient angle towards the country, has two demi-gorges formed by the counter-scarp, and is surrounded by a ditch. The demilune is sometimes termed a ravelin. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 232).


DEMING, Henry Champion, 1815-1872, lawyer, soldier.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut, 1863, 1865.  Colonel, commanding 12th Connecticut Regiment.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 138-139; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 230; Congressional Globe)

DEMING, Henry Champion, lawyer, born in Middle Haddam, Connecticut, in 1815; died in Hartford, 9 October, 1872. He was graduated at Yale in 1836, and at Harvard law-school in 1839. He then opened a law office in New York City, but devoted himself chiefly to literature, being engaged with Park Benjamin in editing the "New World," a literary monthly. He moved to Hartford in 1847, served in the lower house of the legislature in 1849-50 and 1859- 61, and in 1851 was a member of the state senate. He was mayor of Hartford in 1854-'8 and in 1860-2, having been elected as a Democrat. Early in the war he opposed coercion, even after the fall of Sumter, and when asked to preside at a war-meeting on 19 April, 1861, declined in a letter in which he said that he would support the Federal government, but would not sustain it in a war of aggression or invasion of the seceded states." When Washington was threatened, however, he favored the prosecution of the war, and on 9 October, 1861, was elected by acclamation speaker pro tempore of the state house of representatives, the Republican majority thus testifying their approval of his course. In September, 1861, he accepted a commission as colonel of the "charter oak regiment (the 12th Connecticut), reassigned especially for General Butler's New Orleans Expedition. After the passage of the forts his regiment was the first to reach New Orleans, and was assigned by General Butler the post of honor at the custom-house. Colonel Deming was on detached duty, acting as mayor of the city from October, 1862, till February, 1863. He then resigned, returned home, and in April, 1863, was elected to Congress as a Republican, and served two terms, being a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, and chairman of that on expenditures in the War Department. In 1866 he was a delegate to the Loyalists' Convention in Philadelphia, and from 1869 till his death was U. S. collector of internal revenue for his district. Mr. Deming was one of the most eloquent public speakers in New England, a gentleman of fine culture and of refined literary taste. He published translations of Eugene Sue's "Mysteries of Paris " and " Wandering Jew " (1840), a eulogy of Abraham Lincoln, delivered by invitation of the Connecticut legislature in 1865, "Life of Ulysses S. Grant" (Hartford, 1868), and various addresses. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 138-139.


DENISON, Andrew Woods, soldier, born in Baltimore, Maryland, 15 December, 1831; died there. 24 February 1877. In 1862 he raised the 8th Maryland Regiment for the National Army, and in August of that year became its colonel, serving till the close of the war. He commanded the Maryland Brigade of Robinson's Division  at Laurel Hill, where he lost an arm, and was again wounded at White Oak  Ridge, near Petersburg, he was brevetted brigadier-general for gallantry in the first-named battle on 9 August, 1864, and major-general for the second, 31 March, 1865. General Denison was appointed postmaster of Baltimore, 19 April, 1869, and held the office till his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 140.


DENISON, Charles Wheeler, 1809-1881, New York City, abolitionist leader, author, clergyman, newspaper editor.  Editor of The Emancipator, the first anti-slavery newspaper in New York.  Co-founder and organizer of the Baptist Anti-Slavery Society in 1840 and the American Baptist Free Mission Society in 1843.  Manager, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  Lecturing Agent for the AASS in Connecticut and Eastern New York.  Co-founder of the Delaware State Anti-Slavery Society. (Dumond, 1961, p. 182; Sorin, 1971; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 140)

DENISON, Charles Wheeler, author, born in New London, Connecticut, 11 November, 1809; died 14 November, 1881. Before he was of age he edited a newspaper in his native town. He afterward became a clergyman, edited the "Emancipator," the first anti- slavery journal published in New York, and took part in other similar publications. In 1853 he was U. S. consul in British Guiana. He spent some time among the operatives of Lancashire, speaking in behalf of the National cause during the American Civil War, and in 1867 edited an American paper in London, being at the same time pastor of Grove Road Chapel, Victoria park. During the last two years of the war he served as post chaplain in Winchester, Virginia, and as hospital chaplain in Washington. He published "The American Village and other Poems" (Boston, 1845); "Paul St. Clair," a temperance story; "Out at Sea," poems (London, 1867); "Antonio, the Italian Boy" (Boston, 1873); "The Child Hunters," relating to the abuses of the padrone system (Philadelphia, 1877); and a series of biographies published during the war, including " The Tanner Boy" (Grant); "The Bobbin Boy" (Banks); and "Winfield; the Lawyer's Son" (Hancock).—His wife, Mary Andrews, author, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 26 May, 1826, became connected, on her marriage with Mr. Denison, with the "Olive Branch," of which he was assistant editor. She continued to contribute to magazines, and, when living in British Guiana, wrote tropical sketches for American periodicals. She also contributed to English magazines while in London. Her books are mostly tales of home-life, and include "Home Pictures," a collection of sketches written for periodicals (New York, 1853); "Gracie Amber" (1857); "Old Hepsey, a Tale of the South" (1858); "Opposite the Jail" (1858); "The Lovers' Trials" (Philadelphia, 1865); "Annie and Teely" (1869); "That Husband of Mine," an anonymous book, which reached a sale of over 200,000 copies in a few weeks (Boston, 1874); "That Wife of Mine"(1877): "Rothmell" (1878); "Mr. Peter Crewett" (1878); "His Triumph" (1883); "What One Boy can Do "(1885); and numerous Sunday-school books. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 140


DENISON, Frederic, clergyman, born in Stonington, Connecticut, 28 September, 1819. He was graduated at Brown in 1847. Besides having been pastor of several Baptist Churches. Mr. Denison served during three years of the late war as chaplain of the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry  and the 3d Rhode Island Heavy Artillery. He has written a great number of poems and articles for periodicals, and is author of the following works: "The Supper Institution," The Sabbath Institution," "The Evangelist, or Life and Labors of Reverend Jabez S. Swan" (New Haven, 1878); "History of the First Rhode Island Cavalry  "; "Westerly and its Witnesses for Two Hundred and Fifty Years"; "Picturesque Narragansett, Sea and Shore "; "Illustrated New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket"; "History of the Third Rhode Island Heavy  Artillery Regiment ": and " Picturesque Rhode Island."—His brother, John Ledyard, educator, born in Stonington, Connecticut, 19 September, 1826. His education was received at the Connecticut literary institution and at Worcester Academy, and he established the Mystic River Academy. Settling in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1855, he became subsequently secretary and treasurer of the Henry Bill Publishing Company, and president of the Connecticut Baptist Education Society. He received the degree of A. M. from Brown in 1855. He is the author of a " Pictorial History of the Wars of the United States," and has edited an "Illustrated History of the New World," in English and in German. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 140-141.


DENNIS, George R., senator, born in White Haven, Somerset County, Maryland, 8 April. 1822. He was graduated at the Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York, and entered the University of Virginia. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was graduated there in 1842, and, after practising for several years, he retired and has since devoted his attention to agriculture. He was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated Fillmore in 1856, and to the Democratic National Convention in 1868, serving as one of the vice-presidents. He was elected to the Maryland State Senate in 1854, to the house of delegates in 1867, and to the Senate again in 1871. While filling this office he was elected U. S. Senator from Maryland as a Democrat, serving until 1873. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 142.


DENNISON, William, 1815-1882, Civil War governor of Ohio, lawyer, founding member of Republican Party, State Senator, opposed admission of Texas and the extension of slavery into the new territories.  Anti-slavery man, supporter of Abraham Lincoln. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 142; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 241; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 446)

DENNISON, William, war governor of Ohio, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, 23 November, 1815; died in Columbus, 15 June, 1882. His father was a prosperous business man, and had him prepared for college in the best schools of Cincinnati. He was graduated at Miami in 1835, studied law in Cincinnati, under the direction of Nathaniel Pendleton and Stephen Fales, and practised in Columbus until 1848, in which year he was chosen to the state legislature. About this period Mr. Dennison became interested in banking and in railroad affairs, and was president of the Exchange bank and president of the Columbus and Xenia Railroad Company. In 1856 he was a delegate to the first National Convention of the Republican Party. He was chosen governor of Ohio in 1860 by the Republicans, and delivered his first message to the general assembly in 1861. At his suggestion the legislature voted $3,000,000 to protect the state from invasion and insurrection, and conferred power upon the executive to raise troops. Governor Dennison was an anti-slavery man and an ardent admirer of President Lincoln. In response to his call for 11,000 troops, he offered 30,000, sending agents to Washington to urge their acceptance. He took possession of the telegraph lines and railroads in the name of the state, and seized money in transit from Washington to Ohio, which he gave to the quartermaster-general to clothe and equip soldiers. Governor Dennison was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1864, and was elected chairman. He was appointed by President Lincoln Postmaster-General in 1864, and continued in that office, under President Johnson, until his resignation in 1866. Governor Dennison was a member of the National Republican Convention at Chicago in 1880, and was leader of the friends of Senator John Sherman during the struggle for the nomination. He was also a candidate for senator in that year. He contributed largely to Dennison College, Granville, Ohio. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 142


DENT, Frederick F., lawyer, born in Cumberland, Maryland, in 1786; died in Washington, D. C, 15 December 1873. He was trained in commercial pursuits, and became a merchant in Pittsburg and subsequently in St. Louis, accumulated wealth, and had a wide reputation for hospitality. He was the father of Mrs. U. S. Grant. In politics Mr. Dent was a rigid and aggressive Democrat, his views coinciding with the Benton-Jackson school, and he held these opinions tenaciously to the last of his life. John W. Forney, in his "Anecdotes of Public Men," refers to him as a very interesting old gentleman, kind, humorous, and genteel, indicating an independent spirit in his views, and exhibiting a wonderfully retentive memory for by-gone days. Mr. Dent was a member of his son-in-law's household after General Grant became commander of the National armies, and his farm, "White Haven," near St. Louis, became the General's property.— His son, Frederick Tracy, soldier, born in White Haven, St Louis County, Missouri, 17 December, 1820. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1843, made brevet 2d lieutenant, and served on frontier duty and in garrison prior to the Mexican War, which he entered in 1847. He was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, the capture of San Antonio, and the battles of Churubusco, where he was severely wounded, and Molino del Rey, receiving for gallant and meritorious conduct the brevets of 1st lieutenant and captain. He served thereafter on the Pacific Railroad survey, on frontier duty in Idaho, in removing the Seminole Indians, and at various points in Texas, Virginia, and Washington territory, until he joined the Yakima Expedition in 1856. He participated in the Spokane Expedition in Washington territory, being engaged in the combat of "Four Lakes" in 1858, in that of Spokane Plain in the same year, and in the skirmish on that river. After frontier duty at Fort Walla Walla he became a member of the Snake River, Oregon, Expedition, to rescue the survivors of the massacre of Salmon Fall (I860), at which time, 1863, he was promoted to the rank of major, and was in command of a regiment in the Army of the Potomac in 1863, in New York City called to suppress anticipated riots, from September, 1863, till January, 1864, serving as a member of the military commission for the trial of state prisoners from January till March, 1864, becoming then a staff officer with Lieutenant-General Grant, having the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Aide-de-camp during Grant’s whole time as lieutenant-general, he was present in the battles and military operations of the Richmond Campaign, and as military commander of the city of Richmond, and of the garrison of Washington, D. C, in 1865, and on the staff of the general-in-chief at Washington after 1866, as colonel, aide-de-camp, and secretary to President Grant daring his first term. For his gallant and meritorious services in the field during the Civil War he was brevetted brigadier-general U. S. A. and brigadier-general of volunteers. He was transferred to the 14th U.S. Infantry in 1866, was made lieutenant-colonel of the 32d U.S. Infantry in 1867, colonel of the 1st U.S. Artillery  in 1881. At his own request, after forty years of service, was retired in December, 1883.— His brother. Louis, lawyer, born in St. Louis in 1822; died in Washington, D. C., 22 March, 1874, received a literal education in his native city, and studied law. About 1850 he went to California, where he engaged in business, afterward holding the office of judge. In 1862 he returned to St. Ignatius, and from 1863 till 1867 was engaged in cotton-planting in Mississippi and Louisiana. He afterward practised law in Washington. During the reconstruction period he drifted into southern politics, having moved to Mississippi, and in 1869 was nominated for governor of that state by the National Union Republicans, a new party, organized on the basis of equal rights, general amnesty, and reconciliation; but, contrary to his own expectation and to those of his friends, he did not receive the support of the administration in the canvass. Prior to his nomination, President Grant wrote to him: "I would regret to see you run for an office and be defeated by my act; but, as matters now look, I must throw the weight of my influence in favor of the party opposed to you." Judge Dent replied, defending the claims of his party. Although the Democrats made no nomination, but gave their votes to Mr. Dent, he received only half as many as his opponent. Governor Alcorn, the regular Republican nominee. After this he settled in Washington. In December, 1873, he became a Roman Catholic. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 143.


DENVER, James W., politician, born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1818. He received a public-school education, emigrated in childhood with his parents to Ohio, moved to Missouri in 1841, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was appointed captain of the 12th Infantry in March, 1847, and served in the war with Mexico till its close in July, 1848. Moving to California in 1850, he was appointed a member of a relief committee to protect emigrants, and was chosen a state senator in 1852. While a member of this body in 1852, he had a controversy with Edward Gilbert, ex-member of Congress, in regard to some legislation, which resulted in a challenge from Gilbert, that was accepted by Denver. Rifles were the weapons, and Gilbert was killed by the second shot. In 1853 Mr. Denver was appointed secretary of state of California, and from 1855 till 1857 served in Congress. He was appointed by President Buchanan Commissioner of Indian Affairs, but resigned, and was made governor of Kansas. Resigning this post in 1858, he was reappointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which office he held till March, 1859. In 1861 he entered the National service, was made brigadier-general, served in the western states, and resigned in March, 1863. Afterward he settled in Washington, D. C, to practice his profession as an attorney. John W. Forney, in his "Anecdotes of Public Men," says: "General Denver, while in Congress, as chairman of the Committee on the Pacific Railroad, in 1854-'5, presented in a conclusive manner the facts demonstrating the practicability of that great enterprise, and the advantages to be derived from it." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 144.


DEPARTMENT. Any general officer commanding an army, or colonel commanding a separate department, may appoint general court-martial, whenever necessary; (ART. 65.) Besides the territorial divisions, called Departments, in the Rules and Articles of War, the term is also applied to the following branches of the service: Adjutant-general's, Inspector-general's, Medical, Pay, Ordnance, Quartermaster's, and Subsistence Departments. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 233).


DEPARTMENT OF WAR. There shall be an Executive Department, to be denominated the Department of War; and there shall be a principal officer therein, to be called the Secretary for the Department of War (Act Aug. 7, 1789.) “Hq. is to perform and execute such duties as shall, from time to time, be enjoined on, or intrusted to him, by the President of the United States, agreeably to the constitution, relative to military commissions, or to the land forces or warlike stores of the United States, or such other matters respecting military affairs, as the President of the United States shall assign to said department. And furthermore, that the said principal officer shall conduct the business of the said department in such manner as the President of the United States shall, from time to time, order or instruct. That there shall be in said department an inferior officer, to be appointed by the said principal officer, to be employed therein as he shall deem proper, and to be called the chief clerk in the Department of War, and who, whenever the said principal officer shall be removed from office by the President of the United States, or in any other case of vacancy, shall, during such vacancy, have the charge and custody of all records, books, and papers, appertaining to said Department. The said principal officer, and every other person to be appointed or employed in said Department, shall, before he enters on the execution of his office or employment, take an oath or affirmation, well and faithfully to execute the trust committed to him; “ (Act Aug. 7, 1789.) It seems impossible to read this act of Congress, and contend that officers of the army are a portion of the War Department. And the statute book wall be searched in vain to find authority given to the Secretary over any officers other than officers of Staff Departments, or over subjects disconnected with the custody of public records, the support and supply of troops, the manufacture and care of warlike stores, the keeping of exact and regular returns of all the forces of the United States, or other kindred administrative matters; such as receiving the proceedings of courts-martial, and laying them before the President of the United States for his approval or disapproval, and orders in the case. There is no act of Congress which authorizes the Secretary of War to command the troops, and he being no part of the army, the President, of course, cannot authorize him to do so. But “ the Secretary of War is (Peters' Digest of Decisions of Federal Courts, vol. 1, p. 179) the regular constitutional organ of the President for the administration of the military establishment of the nation; and rules and orders publicly promulgated through him, must be received as the acts of the Executive, and as such are binding upon all within the sphere of his legal and constitutional authority.”

By an act of Congress, approved March 3, 1813, it is provided: “ That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, and he is hereby authorized, to prepare general regulations, better defining and prescribing the respective duties and powers of the several officers in the adjutant-general, inspector-general, quartermaster-general, and commissary of ordnance departments, of the topographical engineers, of the aids of generals, and generally of the general and regimental staff; which regulation, when approved by the President of the United States, shall be respected and obeyed, until altered or revoked by the same authority.” Here was a partial delegation of legislative power; and under this power of legislation so confined to the several staff departments, the Secretary of War, with the approval of the President, established bureaus of the War Department, making the head of each staff department' chief of a bureau, in all fiscal and administrative matters connected with his particular department under the general direction of the Secretary of War. The War Department thus centralized all army administration, and efforts have since been made to centralize in the same way the command and government and regulation of the army. But as the 62d article of war declares that when different corps come together, the officer highest in rank shall command the whole, and give orders for what is needful to the service, unless otherwise specially directed by the President of the United States, according to the nature of the case,” while the 61st article gives the command to the senior regimental officer within his regiment, when other troops are not present, such centralization, if not a violation of law, would be a violation of all military principles, destructive alike to discipline and military spirit. For (says Odier): “Commands given immediately by the highest authority cause agitation rather than action. The superior authority becomes weakened in proportion as the eye becomes accustomed to it. Fear of it ceases, and when the highest authority habituates itself to doing every thing, as soon as it ceases to be sufficient to do all, there is nothing done. All degrees of rank and command have their degree of importance. Authority must regularly ascend and descend. Every inferior grade is the lieutenant of its superior grade, even to the oldest soldier, who replaces the corporal. Obedience is reciprocal to authority.” Rules established by Congress, defining the rights, powers, and duties of all officers and soldiers, are much needed. (See SECRETARY OF WAR.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 233-235).


DEPEW, Chauncey Mitchell, lawyer, born in Peekskill, New York, 23 April, 1834. He is of French Huguenot descent, and was born in the old homestead that has been in the possession of his family for over 200 years. He was graduated at Yale in 1856, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began his active work at an exciting period in our political life. He served in the New York Assembly in 1861-'2, and during the second session was chairman of the ways and means committee, and also acted as speaker of the assembly during a portion of the time. He canvassed the state for Mr. Lincoln in 1860, and has taken part in almost every subsequent political contest. In 1863 he was elected Secretary of State, but declined a re-election in 1865. He has held various other offices, including those of tax commissioner of New York City and minister to Japan, which he resigned very soon, to devote himself to his profession. In 1866 he was appointed attorney for the New York and Harlem Railroad Company, and when the Hudson River Road was consolidated with the New York Central, in 1869, Mr. Depew was again made the general counsel of the consolidated company. He was candidate for lieutenant-governor of the state on the Liberal Republican ticket in 1872, but was defeated. In 1874 he was the choice of the legislature for regent of the State University, and was also one of the commissioners to build the capitol at Albany. During the memorable contest in the assembly, after the resignation of Senators Conkling and Piatt from the U. S. Senate, and in the election of the successor to Mr. Piatt, Mr. Depew was a candidate for eighty-two days, receiving over two thirds of the Republican vote, but retired from the contest, that the election of Warner Miller might be assured. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 144-145.


DE PEYSTER, John Watte, Jr., soldier, son of the preceding, born in New York, 2 December, 1841; died there 12 April, 1873. In March, 1862, he left the law school of Columbia College and joined the staff of General Philip Kearny as volunteer aide, participating in the battle of "Williamsburg. He for a time commanded a company of New York cavalry, was afterward major of the 1st New York Artillery, and still later served on the staff of General Peck. He was then prostrated by fever, and, after a severe illness of several months, returned to the field in the winter of 1863. For his zeal, capacity, and energy, displayed in the Chancellorsville Campaign and in the battle of Fredericksburg, he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel and colonel. He remained with the army until midsummer of the same year, when his increasing weakness compelled him to resign. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 146.


DEPLOYMENT. All tactical manoeuvres intended to pass from close column to the order of battle are deployments. Deployments, however convenient or brilliant, which cause the soldier to turn his back to the enemy, are not suited to war. (Consult Infantry and Light Infantry and Rifle tactics for the prescribed deployments.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 235).


DEPOSITION OF WITNESSES when not of the line or staff of the army, may be taken in cases not capital, provided the prosecutor and accused are present at the taking of the same, or duly notified; (ART. 74. See WITNESS.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 235).


DEPOT. The colonel of ordnance, under the direction of the Secretary of War, is authorized to establish depots of arms, ammunition, and ordnance stores, in such parts of the United States, and in such numbers, as may be deemed necessary; (Act Feb. 8, 1815.)

Three recruiting depots have also been established under the direction of the Secretary of War, but a system of regimental depots is much needed. In England and in France, regimental depots have been found indispensable. In France, upon taking the field, a regiment leaves in depot the quartermaster and the accounting officer of the corps, the clothing officer, workmen, and stores; infirm men, those too old for war, and uninstructed recruits; these make the depot; the wounded and sick are sent there to be re-established; new levies are received there, and detachments of able-bodied and instructed men are successfully directed from the depot towards the army. The depot, like the stomach, receives, elaborates, and gives life to its members. It is at the depot that the clothing, and shoes, and all the wants of the regiment are provided; it is there that the accountability is centralized, that the papers are kept; it is at the depot that all regimental administration goes on; and for that purpose the major of the regiment remains there, and likewise commands. In England, the depot company is one left at home by regiments embarking for India, for the purpose of recruiting. There are four reserve companies for all foreign stations except India, which remain at home under the command of the senior major. A roster is regularly kept of the officers at the depot; and to insure that each individual embarks in his proper turn to join the service companies, a figure marking his place on the roster, is annexed to every officer's name in the monthly Returns transmitted to the adjutant-general. Regimental records, with the attestations and service records of the men doing duty with the regiment abroad, are left at the depot, and filled up at stated periods. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 235-236).


DE PUY, Henry Walter, lawyer, born in Pompey Hill, Onondaga County, New York, in 1820; died 2 February, 1876. He studied law, and was admitted to the Bar of New York. He was private secretary to Governor Horatio Seymour during his term of 1853-4, and subsequently served as U. S. consul at Carlsruthe, and as secretary of legation at Berlin in 1854, which place he resigned to take part in the political struggle of 1860. From President Lincoln he received the appointment of Secretary of the State of Nebraska, organized that territory, and served as the first speaker of its legislature. He was also Indian agent to the Pawnees, under President Lincoln, and devoted much time and energy to reform the Indian service of the government. For several years he edited and published a newspaper in Indianapolis, Indiana, in support of the liberal party, being a warm friend of Governor Chase. He was a constant contributor of political articles to the press, the author of several popular poems, and of the following works: "Kossuth and his Generals," with a brief history of Hungary (New York, 1851); "Louis Napoleon and his Times," with a memoir of the Bonaparte family (1853); "Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Heroes of '76," with the early history of Vermont (1853); and "Threescore Years and Beyond " (1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p 146.


DERBY, James Cephas, publisher, born in Little Falls, New York, 20 July, 1818. He was educated at the grammar-school in Herkimer, New York He was apprenticed to the book-selling business in Auburn, New York, in 1833. and afterward was in business on his own account, both there and in New York City. Among the American authors whose works he published were the Cary sisters, B. P. Shillaber, S. G. Goodrich, Henry Wikoff, Henry Ward Beecher, Augusta J. Evans, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and Marion Harland. He retained for years the friendship of such men as William H. Seward, Alexander H. Stephens, and Horace Greeley. He is himself the author of "Fifty Years among Authors, Books, and Publishers" (New York, 1884). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 146.


DE ROSSET, Moses John, physician, born in Pittsboro, North Carolina, 4 July, 1838; died in Wilmington, 1 May, 1881, in youth showed remarkable aptitude for languages and mathematics. He passed three years in Geneva at the famous school of Diedrich, and spent six months in Cologne to perfect himself in German. He was graduated at the medical department of the University of New York in 1859, was appointed resident physician at Bellevue Hospital, New York, and entered upon the duties in 1859. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as assistant surgeon, and, after serving through Stonewall Jackson's valley Campaign, was promoted to full surgeon, and assigned to duty in Richmond. Subsequently he was detached as inspector of hospitals of the Department of Henrico. At the close of the war he moved to Baltimore, where he was appointed adjunct professor of chemistry in the medical department of the University of Maryland. He was also professor of chemistry in the dental college in that city. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 148-149.


DERRICK consists of a spar which is always kept in an oblique position; one end of it on the deck of a ship, the other supported by guys, and generally used to hoist heavy weights. (See GIN.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 236).


DE RUSSY, Louis G., soldier, born in New York in 1796; died  in Grand Ecore, Louisiana, 17 December, 1864. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1814, and made 3d lieutenant in the 1st Artillery He served in the war of 1812-'5, with Great Britain, as acting assistant engineer in erecting temporary defences for New York City and its environs, and was in garrison in New York Harbor in 1815-'6, when he was made battalion adjutant of artillery. In 1819 he became topographer of a commission to establish the northern boundary of the United States under the treaty of Ghent. He became captain of the 3d Artillery in 1825, and in the following year was made paymaster and major. In 1842 he was dropped from the army, and became a planter at Natchitoches, Louisiana In 1846 he served in the Mexican War at Tampico, and became colonel of the 1st Louisiana Volunteers. He completed the defences of the place, opened a new channel to Tamessie River, held various civil offices, and was engaged in the fight at Callabosa River and in the skirmish of Tantayuka. He was a civil engineer from 1848 till 1861, employed in making improvements in navigation, and from 1851 till 1853 was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and from 1853 till 1855 of the Senate. He was major-general of Louisiana militia from 1848 till 1861, when he entered the Confederate Army. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 149.


DE RUSSY, Rene Edward, soldier, born in New York City in 1791; died  in Sun Francisco. 26 November, 1865. He was a son of Thomas De Russy, of St. Malo, France, who came to New York in 1791, and moved to Old Point Comfort, Virginia, where he resided many years. The son was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1812, and made 2d lieutenant of engineers. He served in the war of 1812-'5, with Great Britain, as assistant engineer in constructing defences at New York and at Sackett's Harbor, New York, and participated in the campaigns on the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain. In 1814 he was brevetted captain for gallant conduct at the battle of Plattsburg. He was chief engineer of General Macomb's army in 1814, and captain of the Corps of Engineers in 1815. He was assistant engineer in the construction of the fort at Rouse's Point, New York, in 1816, superintending engineer of the repairs and construction of fortifications in New York Harbor in 1818, and of defensive works on the Gulf of Mexico in 1821. In 1824 he was brevetted major. He was superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy from 1833 till 1838, and lieutenant-colonel of engineers from 1838 till 1863. At the beginning of the Civil War he was ordered to the defence of the Pacific Coast, and constructed the fortifications of San Francisco Harbor. He was also president of the board of engineers for devising projects and alterations in the land defences of San Francisco. In 1865 he was brevetted major-general in the U. S. Army for long and faithful service.—his son, Gustavus Adolphus, soldier, born in Brooklyn, New York, 3 November, 1818, having been three years at West Point, was appointed from Virginia, 2d lieutenant in the 4th U. S. Artillery , 8 March, 1847. He  served in the Mexican War, having been brevetted 1st lieutenant "for gallant and meritorious conduct" at Contreras and Churubusco, and captain, 13 September, 1847, for gallantry at Chapultepec. He was regimental quartermaster from 1847 till 1857, and stationed at Fort Monroe in 1848. He was made 1st lieutenant, 16 May, 1849; captain, 17 August, 1857; brevet major, 25 June, 1862, for bravery displayed in the action near Fair Oaks, Virginia; brevet lieutenant-colonel, for the same cause in the battle of Malvern Hill, and brevet colonel, 17 March, 1863. He was promoted to be brigadier-general of volunteers, 23 May, 1863; brevet colonel, 13 March, 1865 (for services in the war of the rebellion); and brevet brigadier general, for the same cause, on the same day. He was mustered out of the volunteer service, 13 January, 1866; promoted to be major in the regular army, 26 July, 1866; lieutenant-colonel, 25 August, 1876; colonel 30 June, 1882; and was retired by operation of law, 3 November, 1882. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 149.


DE SAUSSURE, Wilmot Gibbes, lawyer, born in Charleston, South Carolina, 23 July, 1822; died  1 February, 1880, was graduated at South Carolina College in 1840, and admitted to the bar in 1843. He was a member of the legislature for ten years, was in command of the state troops that took possession of Fort Moultrie when Major Anderson evacuated it in December, 1860, as lieutenant-colonel was in command of the artillery on Morris Island during the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April, 1861, and was treasurer, and subsequently adjutant and inspector-general, of South Carolina. He was president of the state Society of the Cincinnati, the St. Andrews Society, the Charleston Library Society, the St. Cecilia Society, and the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. His published addresses include "The Stamp-Act of Great Britain, and the Resistance of the Colonies," showing that South Carolina, on 20 March, 1770. adopted a constitution by which the royal government ceased to exist there; "The Causes which led to the Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown "; " The Centennial Celebration of the Organization of the Cincinnati "; "Memoir of General William Moultrie "; and "Muster-roll of the South Carolina Soldiers of the Continental Line and Militia who served during the Revolution." He also prepared an address on the celebration by the Huguenot Society of America of the bicentennial anniversary of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (New York, 1885). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 150.


DES ALLEMANDS, LOUISIANA, September 29, 1862. 21st Indiana and 4th Wisconsin Infantry. Des Allemands, Louisiana, July 18, 1863.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 357.


DES ARC, ARKANSAS, January 17, 1863. (See White River, Gorman's Expedition.)


DES ARC, ARKANSAS, July 26, 1864. 11th Missouri Cavalry.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 357.


DESERTER. Punishable by stripes, by sentence of general court-martial. Not punishable by death in time of peace. May be tried and punished, although the term of enlistment may have elapsed previous to apprehension. (ART. 20, and Acts March 16, 1802, May 29, 1830, May 16, 1812, and March 2, 1833.)

Of a deserter from the enemy, we demand his name, his country j the motive of his desertion; the number of his regiment; the name of his colonel; his immediate general; that of the commander-in-chief; the strength of his particular corps; that of the whole army; whether distributions are regular; how many cartridges each man has; how many guns there are; whether there are many sick or wounded in the camp of the enemy; whether the soldiers have confidence in their chief, and whether he is well treated by them. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 236).


DESERTED HOUSE, VIRGINIA, January 30, 1863. Special Expedition under Brigadier-General Corcoran. On the 29th Major-General John J. Peck, commanding the Union forces at Suffolk, received information that Brigadier-General Roger A. Pryor, with some 3,000 men, was in the vicinity of Holland's corners, and sent Captain Ward with a small detachment of the 11th Pennsylvania cavalry, to learn the truth of the report. Ward reported that Pryor had gone in the direction of the Deserted house, or Kelly's store, and a special force, consisting of the 6th Massachusetts, 13th Indiana, 69th, 130th, 155th, 164th New York, 165th and 167th Pennsylvania infantry, 11 Pennsylvania cavalry, 2 mountain howitzers, Battery D (Folletr's), 4th U. S. artillery and the 7th (Davis') Massachusetts battery, about 4,800 men in all, was organized to capture or destroy Pryor's command. This force, under command of Brigadier-General Michael Corcoran, left Suffolk at 1 a. m. on the 30th and about two hours later the cavalry encountered the enemy's pickets and drove them back on the main body, which was encamped near the Deserted house. The intention had been to surprise the enemy's camp, but the skirmish with the pickets rendered that impossible and Corcoran immediately disposed his men for an engagement. Follett's battery, supported by the 13th Indiana, and Davis' battery, supported by the 130th New York, were pushed forward and opened fire on the Confederate camp, the gunners taking aim by the light of the camp fires. The enemy replied with 12 pieces of artillery and the duel continued until 5:30 a. m., when Corcoran placed his cannon on the road and ordered the whole line to advance. In a short time the enemy began to falter and finally fell back some 2 miles to a thick wood and marsh, where he took up a strong position. Corcoran now halted his men for breakfast, while the cavalry was sent forward to reconnoiter. About this time Colonel R S. Foster joined Corcoran with the 112th New York infantry and a part of the 2nd Wisconsin battery, and the Union troops immediately assumed the offensive. Pryor hurriedly evacuated his position and was pursued on the road to Carrsville. At Pecosin creek the 13th Indiana had a sharp skirmish with the rear-guard, but the main body could not be brought to a stand. At this point the infantry and artillery were halted, but Colonel Spear, with the cavalry, pursued the enemy 2 miles beyond Carrsville. The Union loss was 23 killed, 108 wounded and 12 missing. Pryor reported a loss of 8 killed and 31 wounded, and 13 were captured. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 357.


DESERTED STATION, LOUISIANA, December 10, 1862.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 358.


DETACHED BASTION is one which is separated from the enceinte by a ditch.  (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 236).


DETACHED WORKS are those which are constructed beyond the range of the musketry of the main works; and as a constant and steady communication with them cannot be kept up during a siege, they are frequently left to their own resources; nevertheless, they ought to exercise a general influence on the defence of the place. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 236).


DETACHMENT. (French Origin.) BARDIN, Dictionnaire de Armee de Terre thus defines it: A word which has the same origin as attach. It implies any fraction of a body, or an entire corps charged particularly with functions which are dependent for their duration upon circumstances in war or actual service. The Romans expressed by the word Globus nearly the meaning of detachment. The movable columns of the French army were detachments formed sometimes of whole corps, sometimes of fractions of corps. We call also detachments, the escorts of convoys of prisoners, those for evacuations certain extra duties, some maritime expeditions, a patrol, &c. Agreeably to the definition given in the instructions of the year six, the separation of many men from a single or from different corps, and the subsequent reunion of those men under a military chief, constitutes a detachment, and it is so considered, whether upon a voyage, or stationed in a depot of a corps

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* A troop; a squadron, or party of soldiers; a knot of men who jointly carry on any design. Ainsworth’s Latin Dictionary.

or in garrison; whether in cantonment, or whether in reference to the means of transportation that may be necessary for it. In some cases, picket and small detachments have the same signification. The following illustrations of the meaning of detachment are drawn from various sources:

Rules and Articles of War passed Sept. 20, 1776.

ART. XII. Every officer commanding in any of the forts, barracks, or elsewhere, where the corps under his command consists of detachments from different regiments, or of independent companies, may assemble courts-martial, &c.; [such courts were called detachment courts-martial.]

ART. II. SEC. 17. For the future, all general officers and colonels, serving by commission from the authority of any particular State, shall, on all detachments, courts-martial, or other duty, wherein they may be employed in conjunction with the regular forces of the United States, take rank, &c. When regiments or detachments are united, either in camp, garrison, or quarters, the eldest officer, whether by brevet or otherwise, is to command the whole; (Regulations British Army.) The detachments which are, from time to time, sent from the depots at home to regiments abroad, &c. The periods of the year at which detachments are required to embark for foreign stations, &c.; (Regulations British Army.) Whenever recruits are to be sent from a depot or rendezvous to a regiment or post, a separate muster and description roll, and a separate account of clothing of each detachment, will be placed in the hands of the officer assigned to the command of such detachment; (U. S. Army Regulations.) Any detachment so far separated from the main body to which it belongs as to render it impracticable for the commander of the latter to make muster and inspection enjoined by the general regulations, is considered as a separate command within the meaning and for the purpose of this regulation. Where a field-officer is serving with detached companies of his regiment, the captains thereof will make their company monthly returns through him, which returns he will transmit with his own personal report to regimental head-quarters; (Regulations of the War Department, dated Feb. 10, 1855.)

SEC. * * and the said corps may be formed into as many companies or detachments as the President of the United States may direct. (Act of Congress.)

“Corps, formed by detachments, are the usual method in which brevet officers are employed, as they cannot be introduced into regiments without displacing other officers, or violating the right of succession, both of which are justly deemed injurious in every service. But the reasoning is new by which the employing such officers in detached corps is made an infringement of the rights of regimental officers; (Letter of General Washington, dated August 11, 1780.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 236-238).


DETAIL FOR DUTY is a roster, or table, for the regular performance of duty either in camp or garrison. The general detail is regulated by the adjt.-general, according to the strength of the several corps. The adjutant of each regiment superintends the detail of the officers and non-commissioned officers for duty, and orderly sergeants detail the privates. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 238).


DETMOLD, William Ludwig, surgeon, born in Hanover, Germany, 27 December, 1808. His lather was court physician to the king of Hanover. William received his medical degree from the University of Gottingen in 1830, and enlisted as surgeon in the royal Hanoverian grenadier-guard. He came to the United States on leave of absence in 1837, and sent his resignation from New York. He became professor of military surgery and hygiene at Columbia in 1862, and was made professor emeritus in 1866. Dr. Detmold introduced orthopedic surgery into the United States, and during the Civil War acted as volunteer surgeon in Virginia. He introduced a knife and fork for one-handed men, which was put by Surgeon-General Barnes on the supply list, under the name of "Detmold's knife." Among his numerous contributions to medical literature is ''Opening an Abscess in the Brain." in the "Journal of the Medical Sciences” for February, 1850.— His brother, Christian Edward, engineer, born in Hanover. 2 February. 1810, was educated at the Military Academy in his native city, and came to New York in 1826, with the intention of embarking for Brazil, and entering the military service of Dom Pedro I. But unfavorable accounts of the condition of that country induced him to remain here, and he became well known as an engineer. In 1827 he made many surveys in Charleston, South Carolina, and vicinity, and in 1828 made the drawings for the first locomotive built by the Messrs. Kemble in New York. In 1833-'4 he was in the employ of the U. S. War Department, and superintended the laying of the foundations of Fort Sumter during the illness of the engineer in charge of the work. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 154-155.


DE TROBRIAND, Philippe Regis, soldier, h. in the Chateau des Rochettes, near Tours, France, 4 June, 1816. His full name and title were Philippe Regis Denis de Keredern, Baron de Trobriand; But, on becoming an American citizen, he modified the name and dropped the title. His early education was for a military career. He studied at the College Saint Louis in Paris, the College of Rouen, where his father was in command, and the College of Tours; but the revolution of 1830 changed his prospects, and he was graduated at the University of Orleans as bachelier-es-lettres in 1834, and at Poitiers as licencie-en-droit in 1838. He came to the United States in 1841, edited and published the "Revue de nouveau monde" in New York in 1849-1850, and was joint editor of the " Courrier des Etats-Unis" in 1854-'61. On 28 August of the last named year he entered the National Army as colonel of the 55th New York Regiment. He was engaged at Yorktown and Williamsburg, commanded a brigade of the 3d Army Corps in 1862-'3, and was at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers in January, 1864, and commanded the defences of New York City from May till June of that year. As commander of a brigade in the 2d Army Corps he was at Deep Bottom, Petersburg, Hatcher's Run, and Five Forks, and was at the head of a division in the operations that ended in Lee's surrender. For his services in this campaign he was brevet ted major-general of volunteers on 6 April, 1865. He entered the regular army as colonel of the 31st U.S. Infantry on 28 July, 1866, was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, 2 March, 1867, and commanded the District of Dakota in August of that year. He was transferred to the 13th U.S. Infantry on 15 March, 1869, and commanded the District of Montana, and afterward that of Green River. He was retired at his own request, on account of age, on 20 March, 1879, and is now (1887) a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana He has published " Les gentilshommes de l'ouest," a novel (Paris, 1841), and "Quatre ans de campagnes a l'armee du Potomac" (2 vols., Paris et Bruxelles, 1867). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 155.


DEVALL'S BLUFF, ARKANSAS, July 6, 1862. 24th Indiana Infantry. In an expedition up White river, Colonel G. N. Fitch. with 2,000 men, made a reconnaissance on this date toward Devall's Bluff. About 9 a. m. his advance, the 24th Indiana, came up with and routed some 400 Confederate cavalry. In the action the enemy lost 84 in killed and wounded. A flag of truce was sent to Fitch, asking permission to bury the dead, but the request was refused. Thirty minutes were given them, however, to remove the dead and wounded from the field, at the end of which time Fitch moved on in pursuit of those who had fled, taking 6 prisoners, 1 of whom was a lieutenant. The Union loss was 1 killed and 21 wounded.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 358.


DEVALL'S BLUFF, ARKANSAS, January 17, 1863. (See White River, Gorman's Expedition.)


DEVALL'S BLUFF, ARKANSAS, December 1, 1863. U. S. Troops from post at Devall's Bluff. Major William J. Teed and Captain L. J. Matthews of the 8th Missouri cavalry while hunting for some lost article on the parade grounds, a mile from Devall's Bluff, were attacked by 9 guerrillas in Federal uniforms. The officers refused to surrender, and although wounded, made their escape. A party was at once sent out from the post and killed 3 and wounded 3 of the guerrillas. A Union corporal was wounded in the leg.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 358.


DEVALL'S BLUFF, ARKANSAS, December 12, 1863. 8th Missouri Cavalry.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 358.


DEVALL'S BLUFF, ARKANSAS, May 22, 1864. Lieutenant-Colonel Ezra M. Beardsley, of the 126th Illinois infantry, in a despatch to General E. A. Carr, says: "About 20 rebels surprised and captured 3 men and between 100 and 200 horses and mules on the prairie, foraging, belonging to the Remount Camp. I have sent 75 cavalry from the Ninth Iowa in pursuit. They went toward Des Arc." Devall's Bluff, Arkansas, August 24, 1864. Detachments of 8th and 11th Missouri and gth Iowa Cavalry. Colonel W. F. Geiger, commanding a brigade of cavalry, moved out from Devall's Bluff to assist a force at Ashley's hay station which was being attacked by a large Confederate force. When near Jones' hay station the enemy's cavalry, 2,000 strong, was encountered. The 11th Missouri moved on the Confederate left flank while the 8th Missouri attacked in front, the 9th Louisiana, being kept in reserve. The fighting continued for about 2 hours, during which time the Union line steadily advanced and the enemy as steadily retired, though in good order. Several times the Confederates charged, attempting to turn the Federal left, but were each time repulsed. Night coming on, Geiger withdrew his forces to Devall's Bluff, fearing that the enemy might get between him and that place before morning. The Federals lost 9 killed, 43 wounded and 1 missing. The Confederate casualties, although not reported, were undoubtedly much heavier. The garrisons at Ashley's and Jones' stations surrendered to the enemy.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 358.


DEVALL'S BLUFF, ARKANSAS, November 2, 1864. (See Hazen's Farm, same date.)


DEVALL'S BLUFF, ARKANSAS, December 13, 1864. Independent Picket of 2nd Division, 7th Army Corps. Brigadier-General C. C. Andrews in a despatch from Devall's Bluff under date of December 14, says: "An independent picket, which I had placed 3 miles east of here, captured 2 enlisted men of Dobbin's command last evening."  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 358.


DEVALL'S BLUFF, ARKANSAS, February 9-19, 1865. 13th Illinois Cavalry. During the return of a scouting party to Pine Bluff from Devall's Bluff guerrilla bands were encountered several times. The skirmishes resulted in the killing of 3 of the enemy, and the wounding of several more.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 358.


DEVEAUX NECK, SOUTH CAROLINA, December 6-9, 1864. Unofficial accounts mention engagements on these dates at Deveaux's neck, on the Tillafinney river, at Mason's bridge and Gregory's farm, in which the 26th. 33d, 34th and 102nd U. S. colored troops; 54th and 55th Massachusetts colored infantry; the 56th and 155th New York and 25th and 107th Ohio infantry; the 3d R. I. artillery, and a naval brigade were engaged. The official reports of the war contain no information regarding the affair.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, pp. 358-359.


DEVENS, Charles, jurist, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 4 April, 1820. He was graduated at Harvard in 1838, studied in the law-school at Cambridge, and practised from 1841 till 1849 in Franklin County, Massachusetts. He was a member of the state senate from that county in 1848 and 1849. From 1849 till 1853 he held the office of U. S. marshal for the District of Massachusetts. During this period Thomas Sims was remanded as a fugitive slave, and Mr. Devens, in obedience to what he considered the exigencies of his office, caused the process to be executed. After the rendition he endeavored, through the Reverend L. A. Grimes, in 1855, to obtain the freedom of Sims, offering to pay whatever sum was necessary for the purpose, but the effort was fruitless. At a later period, hearing that Mrs. Lydia Maria Child was making applications for money to purchase the freedom of Sims, Mr. Devens addressed her letter requesting the return of the sums she had collected for this purpose, and that she allow him the privilege of paying the whole sum. To this Mrs. Child assented; but, before the affair could be arranged, the war rendered negotiation impossible. Sims was eventually liberated by the progress of the National armies, was pecuniarily aided by Mr. Devens in establishing himself in civil life, and at a later period appointed by him. while attorney-general of the United States, to an appropriate place in the department of justice. In 1854 Mr. Devens resumed the practice of law in Worcester. On 19 April, 1861, he accepted the office of major, commanding an independent battalion of rifles, with which he served three months, and in July was appointed colonel of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteers. With this regiment he  served until April, 1862. and was wounded in the battle of Ball's Bluff. He was made brigadier-general in 1862, commanded a brigade during the Peninsular Campaign, was disabled by a wound at Fair Oaks, and was in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. In 1863 he commanded a division in the 11th Corps at the battle of Chancellorsville, where he was severely wounded. Returning to the field in the spring of 1864, he was appointed to the command of a division in the 18th Army Corps, reorganized as the 3d Division  of the 24th Corps, and his troops were the first to occupy Richmond when it was evacuated by the Confederates. General Devens was brevetted major-general for gallantry and good conduct at the capture of Richmond, and remained in the service for a year after the termination of hostilities, his principal duty being as commander of the District of Charleston, which comprised the eastern portion of South Carolina. In June, 1866, at his own request, he was mustered out of service, and immediately resumed the practice of his profession in Worcester. In April, 1867, he was appointed one of the justices of the superior court of Massachusetts, and in 1873 was made one of the justices of the supreme court of the state. In 1877 he became attorney-general in the cabinet of President Hayes. On his return to Massachusetts in 1881 he was reappointed one of the justices of the supreme court of the state, which office he now holds (1887). His only publications are his legal opinions and addresses on public occasions. Of his addresses the most important are those at the centennial celebration of the battle of Bunker Hill, at the dedication of the soldiers' monuments in Boston and Worcester, on the deaths of General Meade and General Grant, and as presiding officer at the 250th anniversary of Harvard. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 155-156.


DEVEREUX, John Henry, railroad manager, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 5 April, 1832; died  in Cleveland, Ohio, 17 March, 1886. He was educated in the Portsmouth. New Hampshire, Academy, and in 1848 went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he served as construction engineer on several railroads. He moved to Tennessee in 1852, and became prominent in railroad affairs there. At the beginning of the Civil War he offered his services to the government, and aided the Union cause as superintendent of military railroads in Virginia. He resigned in 1864, and returned to Cleveland, where he became one of the foremost railroad men in the west. He was chosen president of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Railroad in June, 1873, of the Atlantic and Great Western in 1874, and of the Indianapolis and St. Louis in 1880, being receiver of the last-named road from May till September, 1882. In 1877 General Devereux, by his personal courage, prevented 800 of his men from joining in the railroad riots. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 156.


DEVIATION OF FIRING. (See FIRING.)


DEVIL'S BACKBONE, ARKANSAS, September 1, 1863. Cloud's Brigade, Army of the Frontier. On his return from the pursuit of Cooper and Steele, Major-General Blunt learned that Cabell with a Confederate force of 2,500 was strongly posted on the bank of the Poteau river, 12 miles from its mouth. Colonel William F. Cloud, with the 2nd Kas., the 6th Missouri cavalry and two sections of the 2nd Indiana artillery, was immediately sent in pursuit, the enemy having fallen back toward Fort Smith. At Backbone mountain Cloud's advance guard, consisting of Captain Lines' company of the 2nd Kas., fell into an ambuscade of the Confederate rear-guard. The whole brigade was then dismounted and formed in line of battle with the artillery in the center. The enemy was steadily driven up the mountain side, finally making a stand upon the summit of the peak. For 3 hours an engagement was raged around this point. During a lull in the firing the Confederates suddenly withdrew, leaving between 15 and 20 killed and wounded on the field. The Federal casualties were 14 killed and wounded.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 359.


DEVIL'S GAP, TENNESSEE, December 25, 1864. (See King's Hill, same date.)  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 359.


DE VILLIERS, Charles A., soldier, born in 1826. He had been an officer in the French Army, and afterward became colonel of the 11th Ohio Volunteers. At the beginning of the Civil War in the United States he was taken prisoner, 17 July, 1861, and sent to Richmond. About the middle of September following he eluded the guards and escaped. Under the guise of a mendicant Frenchman, aged, infirm, and nearly blind, he succeeded in obtaining the commandant's permission to go to Fort Monroe, under a flag of truce, that he might embark "for his dear old home in France." After two weeks' delay the supposed Frenchman was assisted on board a "transport at Norfolk and taken to the Union boat. When safely under his own flag, he cast off his pack, green goggles, and rags, thanked the officers for their politeness, shouted a loud huzza for the stars and stripes, and gave them the pleasing information that they had just parted with Colonel De Villiers, of the 11th Ohio. He arrived safely in Washington, rejoined his regiment, and was made brigadier-general, 10 October, 1861. He had been the military instructor of Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth. He received his discharge from the army on 23 April, 1862, and returned to France. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 156.


DEVIN, Thomas C, born in New York City in 1822; died  there, 4 April, 1878. He received a common-school education, followed the trade of a painter, and became lieutenant-colonel of the 1st New York Militia Regiment. Just after the battle of Bull Run, Mr. Devin accosted Thurlow Weed, at that time a stranger to him, and said that he  wished authority to raise a cavalry company for immediate service. Mr. Weed telegraphed to Governor Morgan for a captain's commission for Mr. Devin, obtained it, and in two days the company had been recruited and was on its way to Washington. At the end of the three months for which he had enlisted he entered the service again as colonel of the 6th New York Cavalry . His command was attached to the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, and participated in all the battles fought by that corps from Antietam to Lee's surrender. At Five Forks he commanded his brigade, and carried the Confederate earthworks. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 15 August, 1864, for bravery at Front Royal, where his command captured two stands of colors, and where he was wounded; and major-general, 13 March, 1865, for his services during the war. He entered the regular army as lieutenant-colonel of the 8th U.S. Cavalry , 28 July, 1866, commanding the District of Montana. On 2 March, 1867, he was brevetted colonel, U. S. Army, for gallantry at Fisher's Hill, and brigadier-general for services at Sailor's Creek. He then commanded the District of Arizona, and on  25 June, 1877, became colonel of the 3d Cavalry. General Grant, in a conversation with Thurlow Weed, called General Devin, next to General Sheridan, the best cavalry officer in the National Army. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 156-157.


DIAMOND GROVE, MISSOURI, April 14, 1862. 6th Kansas Cavalry. Diamond Grove, Missouri, August 21, 1864.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 359.


DIAMOND GROVE PRAIRIE, MISSOURI, August 1, 1864. Detachment of 8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry. The only mention of this affair in the official records is in the itinerary of the District of Southwest Missouri, which states that Captain Ruark, 8th Missouri state militia cavalry, killed Lieutenant Goode of the Confederate army in the vicinity of Diamond Grove prairie, near Carthage.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 359.


DIAMOND HILL, VIRGINIA, June 17, 1864. Averell's Cavalry and Crook's Infantry, Army of West Virginia. During the advance on Lynchburg Averell's command moved by the old road toward the city. The enemy resisted every foot but showed no determination to stand until within 4 miles of Lynchburg, where he was strongly intrenched on Diamond hill. The Federals were deployed and advanced with little skirmishing, but as the attack approached the crest of the hill the Confederate infantry and artillery both opened a galling fire upon the advancing column. Schoonmaker's and Oley's brigades dismounted and charged to the front; the artillery hastened up and opened fire, and after a short but sharp contest the Confederates were driven a mile toward Lynchburg, where they received reinforcements, turned and charged. The Union cavalry had a hard time holding the line until two brigades of infantry arrived, but the combined force easily drove the Confederates back. The casualties were not reported.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 359.


DIANA, U. S. GUNBOAT, March 28, 1863. (See Pattersonville, Louisiana)


DIASCUND BRIDGE, VIRGINIA, June 11-20, 1863.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 359.


DIBRELL, George Gibbs, soldier, born in White County, Tennessee, 12 April, 1822. His common-school education was supplemented by one term at East Tennessee University. He was a farmer and merchant, was elected a member of the state constitutional convention of Tennessee, on the union ticket, in February, 1861, and to the legislature of Tennessee in August. Entering the Confederate Army as a private, he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and was promoted colonel and brigadier-general of cavalry in 1864. He was detailed to escort the executive officers and treasure of the Confederate government after the evacuation of Richmond, and took charge of the archives at Greensboro, North Carolina, after the surrender of Lee's army. He was a member of the constitutional convention of Tennessee in 1870, and was twice elected a representative from that state in Congress, serving from 5 March, 1875, till 5 March, 1879. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 169.


DICKEY, Theophilus Lyle, jurist, born near Paris, Kentucky, 12 November, 1812; died  in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 22 July, 1885. He read law in his native state, moved to Ohio, liberated the slaves that he had inherited, and afterward established himself in practice in Illinois. During the Mexican War he served as a captain in Colonel Hardin's regiment, and in the Civil War he was colonel of the 11th Illinois Cavalry, and served for two years under General Grant, on whose staff he served for some months as chief of cavalry. From 30 July, 1868, till the close of President Johnson's Administration he was assistant was judge of the Illinois Supreme Court. See General Jas. Grant Wilson's "Sketches of Illinois Officers" (Chicago, 1803). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 171.


DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, 1842-1932, anti-slavery activist, African American rights activist, women’s rights activist, orator, lecturer, educator, Quaker (American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 235-237; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 557; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 171-172; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Supp. 1, p. 244)

DICKINSON, Anna Elizabeth, orator, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 October, 1842. Her father died when she was two years old, leaving her in poverty, and she was educated in the free schools of the Society of Friends, of which her parents were members. Her early days were a continuous struggle against adverse circumstances, but she read eagerly, devoting all her earnings to the purchase of books. She wrote an article on slavery for the " Liberator" when only fourteen years old, and made her first appearance as a public speaker in 1857, at meetings for discussion held by a body calling themselves "Progressive Friends," chiefly interested in the anti-slavery movement. A sneering and insolent tirade against women, by a person prominent at these meetings, called from the spirited girl a withering reply, her maiden speech. From this time she spoke frequently, chiefly on temperance and slavery. She  taught school in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1859-'60, and was employed in the U. S. Mint in Philadelphia from April to December, 1861, but was dismissed for saving, in a speech in West Chester, that the battle of Ball's Bluff "was lost, not through ignorance and incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general" (McClellan). She then made lecturing her profession, speaking chiefly on political subjects. William Lloyd Garrison heard one of her anti-slavery speeches in an annual meeting of the Progressive Friends, held at Kennett, Chester County, Pennsylvania, with great delight, and on his return to Boston spoke of the "girl orator" in such terms that she was invited to speak in the fraternity course at Music Hall, Boston, in 1862, and chose for her subject the "National Crisis." Prom Boston she went to New Hampshire, at the request of the Republican state committee, to speak in the gubernatorial canvass, and thence was called to Connecticut. On election night a reception was tendered her at Hartford, and immediately thereafter she was invited to speak in Cooper Institute by the Union League of New York, and shortly afterward in the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, by the Union League of that city. Prom this time to the end of the Civil War she spoke on war issues. In the autumn of 1863 she was asked by the Republican state committee of Pennsylvania to speak throughout the coal regions in the canvass to re-elect Curtin, the male orators at the committee's command being afraid to trust themselves in a district that had recently been the scene of draft riots. Ohio offered her a large sum for her services, but she decided in favor of Pennsylvania. On 16 January, 1864, at the request of prominent senators and representatives, she spoke in the capitol at Washington, giving the proceeds, over $1,000, to the Freedmen's Relief Society. She also spoke in camps and hospitals, and did much in aid of the national cause. After this her addresses were made chiefly from the lyceum platform. On the termination of the war she spoke on " Reconstruct ion " and on "Woman's Work and Wages." In 1869-70, after a visit to Utah, she lectured on " Whited Sepulchers." Later lectures, delivered in the northern and western states, were "Demagogues and Workingmen," "Joan of Arc," and 'Between us be Truth." the last-named being delivered in 1873 in Pennsylvania and Missouri, where obnoxious bills on the social evil were before the legislatures. In 1876 Miss Dickinson, contrary to the advice of many of her friends, left the lecture platform for the stage, making her first appearance in a play of her own, entitled " A Crown of Thorns." It was not favorably received by the critics, and Miss Dickinson afterward acted in Shakespeare's tragedies, still meeting with little success. "Aurelian " was written in 1878 for John McCullough, but was withdrawn by the author when the failing powers of the great tragedian made it apparent that he would be unable to appear in it. It has never been put upon the stage, but Miss Dickinson has given readings from it. She lectured on "Platform and Stage" in 1879, and in 1880 wrote "An American Girl" for Fanny Davenport, which was successful. Miss Dickinson's published works are "What Answer I" a novel (Boston, 1808); "A Paying Investment" (1876); and "A Ragged Register of People, Places, and Opinions" (New York, 1879). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 171-172.


DICKINSON, Daniel Stevens, statesman, born in Goshen, Connecticut, 11 September, 1800; died  in New York City, 12 April, 1866. In early life he was taken by his father to Guilford, Chenango County, New York, where he obtained a public-school education. In addition to this, with but slight assistance, he acquired the Latin language and made himself acquainted with the higher mathematics and other sciences while apprenticed to a clothier. When he became his own master he occupied himself for a time in teaching and surveying, then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1828, beginning practice in Guilford. In 1831 he moved to Binghamton, which thenceforth became his home. In 1836 he was chosen state senator, and his great ability as a debater soon made him the leader of his party. Among the questions that came up for discussion were several measures, such as the small-bill law and the general banking law that arose out of the recent overthrow of the U. S. Bank, the construction of the Erie Railway, and the enlargement of the Erie Canal. His strongest oratorical effort at this time was his speech in opposition to the repeal of the usury laws, 10 February, 1837. In 1840 he was nominated for the office of lieutenant-governor by the Democrats, and, although defeated that year, he was elected in 1842. He thus became ex-officio president of the Senate, of the court of errors, and of the canal board. At the expiration of his term of office in 1844, Governor Bouck appointed him to fill a vacancy in the U. S. Senate, and on the meeting of the legislature the appointment was ratified and he was elected for a full term. Mr. Dickinson held for several years the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Finance. In discussing the exciting issues of the day he took strong conservative ground, and from that standpoint spoke frequently on the annexation of Texas, the joint occupation of Oregon, the Mexican War, the Wilmot Proviso, and the compromise measures of 1850. In December, 1847, he introduced two resolutions regarding the government of the territories, which virtually embodied the doctrine afterward known as " popular sovereignty." (See Butts, Isaac.) Among the measures that have since been adopted, Mr. Dickinson earnestly advocated the free passage of weekly newspapers through the mails in the County where published. Mr. Dickinson’s conservative course in the Senate not only secured him the vote of Virginia for the presidential nomination in the Democratic Convention of 1852, but a strongly commendatory letter from Daniel Webster, 27 September, 1850, in which the writer asserted that Mr. Dickinson's "noble, able, manly, and patriotic conduct in support of the great measures" of that session had "entirely won his heart" and received his "highest regard.” In 1852 President Pierce nominated Mr. Dickinson for collector of the port of New York, and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate; but the office was declined. At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, Mr. Dickinson threw all his influence on the side of the government regardless of party considerations, and for the first three years devoted himself to addressing public assemblages in New York, Pennsylvania, and the New England states. In 1861 he was nominated for attorney general of his state, and was elected by 100,000 majority. He was nominated by President Lincoln to settle the northwestern boundary question, but declined, as he also did a nomination by Governor Fenton to fill a vacancy in the court of appeals of the state of New York. He subsequently accepted the office of district-attorney for the southern District of New York, and performed its duties almost till the day of his death. In the Republican National Convention of 1864, when President Lincoln was renominated, Mr. Dickinson received 150 votes for the Vice-presidential nomination. As a debater he was clear, profound, and logical, and not, infrequently overwhelmed his opponents with scathing satire. His speeches were ornamented with classical allusions and delivered without apparent effort. Among his happiest efforts are said to have been his speech in the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore in 1852, in which, having received the vote of Virginia, he declined in favor of General Cass, and his eulogy of General Jackson in 1845. Mr. Dickinson's brother has published his "Life and Works " (2 vols., New York, 1867). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 172-173.


DICKSON, Reverend Moses, 1824-1901, free African American, anti-slavery leader, clergyman, activist, underground abolitionist.  Minister, African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.  Founded Knights of Liberty in St. Louis, Missouri, 1846. (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 50; Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 2)


DICK'S FORD, KENTUCKY, October 12. 1862.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 359.


DICKSON STATION, ALABAMA, April 19 and 23, 1863. (See Courtland, Expedition to.)


DICKSON STATION, ALABAMA, October 20, 1863. (See Barton's and Dickson's Stations.)


DILLINGHAM, Richard, 1823-1850, Society of Friends (Quaker), abolitionist.  Arrested, tried and convicted for aiding three fugitive slaves in Tennessee in December 1848.  Imprisoned in Tennessee State Penitentiary.  Died of cholera while there in June 1850.  (Coffin, 2001)


DILLINGHAM'S CROSS-ROADS, SOUTH CAROLINA, February 3, 1865. (See Duck Creek.)


DIMICK, Justin, soldier, born in Hartford County, Connecticut, 5 August. 1800; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 13 October, 1871. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1819, and assigned to the light artillery. After serving at various posts, and as assistant instructor of infantry tactics at West Point for a few months in 1822, he was promoted to 1st lieutenant in the 1st Artillery , 1 May, 1824, and brevetted captain, 1 May, 1834, for ten years' faithful service in one grade. He was given his full commission in 1835, and brevetted major, 8 May, 1836, for gallant conduct in the Florida War, having on that date killed two Seminole Indians 1 in personal encounter while skirmishing near Hernandez plantation. He was engaged in suppressing the Canada-border disturbances at Rouse's Point, New York, in 1838-'9, and in the performance of his duty seized a vessel laden with ammunition for the Canadian insurgents. For this act he was called upon in 1851-'3 to defend a civil suit in the Vermont courts. He served as lieutenant-colonel of an artillery battalion of the army of occupation in Texas in 1845-'6, and during the Mexican War received two brevets, that of lieutenant-colonel, 20 August, 1847, for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, and that of colonel on 13 September, for his services at the storming of Chapultepec, where he was wounded. Besides these battles, he was at Resaca de la Palma, La Hoya, and the capture of the city of Mexico. He served again against Florida Indians in 1849-'50 and 1856-'7, was made major in the 1st Artillery , 1 April, 1850, lieutenant-colonel, 5 October, 1857, and commanded the Fort Monroe artillery school in 1859-'61. He was promoted to colonel on 26 October, 1861, and commanded the depot of prisoners of war at Fort Warren, Massachusetts, until 1 January, 1864. He was retired from active service on 1 August 1863, and in 1864-'8 was governor of the soldier's home near Washington, D. C. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, "for long, gallant, and faithful services to his country." —His son, Justin E, died near Chancellorsville, Virginia, 5 May, 1863, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1861, served as 1st lieutenant of the 1st Artillery , and received mortal wounds in the battle of Chancellorsville. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 179


DIMINISHED ANGLE is that formed by the exterior side and the line of defence in fortification. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 238).


DIMITRY, Alexander, educator, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, 7 February, 1805; died there, 30 January, 1883. His father, Andrea Demetrius, a native of the Island of Hydra, on the coast of Greece, went to New Orleans in 1794, and was for many years a merchant there. Alexander was graduated at Georgetown College, D. C, and soon afterward became editor of the New Orleans " Bee." He was a fine pistol shot and an accomplished fencer, and in his early manhood took part in several duels, either as principal or second. He was subsequently a professor in Baton Rouge College, and in 1834 was employed in the general post-office department. On his return to Louisiana in 1842 he  created and organized the free-school system there, and was state superintendent of schools in 1848-'51. In 1856 he became translator to the State Department in Washington. He was appointed U. S. minister to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in 1858, and served till 1861, when he became chief of a bureau in the Confederate Post-office Department.    His son John Bull Smith, born in Washington, D. C, 27 December, 1835, was educated at College Hill, near Raymond, Mississippi, and accompanied his father to Central America as secretary of legation in 1859. He served in the Confederate Army of Tennessee in 1861-'4, and was dangerously wounded at Shiloh. In 1864-'5 he was chief clerk in the Confederate Post-office Department. Another son, Charles Patton, journalist, born in Washington, D. C, 31 July, 1837, was educated at Georgetown College, D. C, and, although not graduated, received from it the degree of M. A. in 1867. He served in the Confederate Army as a private in the Louisiana guard.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 179-180.


DIMMOCK, Charles, soldier, born in Massachusetts in 1800; died in Richmond, Virginia, 27 October, 1863. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1821, assigned to the 1st Artillery , and served as assistant professor of engineering at West Point in 1821-2. He was attached to the artillery school at Fort Monroe in 1825-6 and 1828-'9, being adjutant of the school in the last-named year. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant in 1828, was assistant quartermaster in 1831-'6, and superintended operations at Delaware breakwater in 1831-'3. He was made captain on 6 August, 1836, but resigned on 30 September, and became a civil engineer in the south, being employed on many important railroads, and in 1837-'8 in the location of a U. S. military road to Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1843-'7 he was director of the James River and Kanawha Canal. He was captain of Virginia militia in 1839-'40, lieutenant colonel in 1841-'2, and superintendent of the state armory in 1843-'61. He was a member of the Richmond City Council in 1850,1854, and 1858, and at the beginning of the Civil War entered the Confederate service, became brigadier-general, and was chief of the ordnance department of Virginia. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 180.


DINGLE'S MILL, SOUTH CAROLINA, April 9, 1865. U. S. Forces under Brigadier-General E. E. Potter. As an incident of an expedition to destroy all the rolling stock between Sumterville and Camden, General Potter's command reached the pond of Dingle's mill on the afternoon of the 9th, where the Confederates immediately opened with artillery. Learning that the swamp could be crossed on the enemy's right. Colonel J. C. Marmichael, with the 157th and a detachment of the 156th New York, took the road through the swamp, attacked the enemy's rear and completely routed him. The 2nd brigade, meantime, had met a body of Confederate cavalry and dispersed it. The Federal casualties in this engagement were 3 killed and 15 wounded. The Confederate losses were not reported. Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia, March 31, 1865. The action at Dinwiddie Court House on this date was a part of the movement against Lee's right that culminated in the battle of Five Forks and caused the Confederate army to evacuate Richmond and Petersburg. A detailed account of the battle at the Court House will be found under the head of Five Forks.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, pp. 359-360.


DINWIDDIE ROAD, VIRGINIA, August 23, 1864. 2nd Cavalry Division. Upon being informed that Kautz's cavalry had been engaged with the enemy, Major-General David McGregg, commanding the 2nd division, left Reams' station to ascertain the Confederate strength. When a mile and a half out on the Dinwiddie road a dismounted cavalry division was discovered deploying to the right and left of the road and advancing. At 5 p. m. the action was well under way. The Confederates concentrated their force at different points and vainly tried to break the Federal line. At 8:30 the enemy withdrew. The Federal loss in this engagement was about 40 killed and wounded; the Confederate casualties were not reported. The affair was an incident of the Petersburg and Richmond campaign.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 360.


DIRT TOWN, GEORGIA, September 12, 1863.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 360.


DISBURSING OFFICERS. Exclusively of the paymasters of the army, and other officers already authorized by law, no other permanent agents shall be appointed, either for the purpose of making contracts, or for the purchase of supplies, or for the disbursement in any other manner of moneys for the use of the military establishment, but such as shall be appointed by the President of the United States, with the advice and consent of the Senate. But the President may appoint such necessary agents in the recess of the Senate to be submitted for their advice and consent at their next session, provided that the compensation allowed to either shall not exceed one per centum per annum, nor be more than $2,000 per annum; (Act March 3, 1809.) All purchases and contracts are made under the direction of the Secretary of War; (Act March 3, 1809.) Shall give bonds to be regulated by the President, and may be dismissed by the President on failure to render their account. (See DEFAULTER; DELINQUENT.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 238).


DISCHARGE. After a non-commissioned officer or soldier shall have been duly enlisted and sworn, he shall not be dismissed the service without a discharge in writing; and no discharge granted to him shall be sufficient, which is not signed by a field-officer of the regiment to which he belongs, or commanding officer, where no field-officer of the regiment is present; and no discharge shall be given to a non-commissioned officer or soldier, before his term of service has expired, but by order of the President, the Secretary of War, the commanding officer of a department, or the sentence of a general court-martial; nor shall a commissioned officer be discharged the service but by order of the -President of the United States, or by sentence of a court-martial; (ART. 11.) Under this article it has been contended that the President may arbitrarily discharge any commissioned officer from the service; but as the Rules and Articles of War provide for the punishment of all military crimes, disorders, or neglects, by courts-martial, all arbitrary and capricious action over such matters is thereby necessarily excluded. Besides, dismission and discharge are essentially different. The latter, in its primitive sense, means relieved of a burden or obligation. Thus, as every individual who enters the army by enlistment or commission must remain in it until regularly discharged, under penalty of being considered a deserter, the article declares that no discharge of a commissioned officer is regular but by the order of the President of the United States, or the sentence of a court-martial. Voluntary separations from the service, therefore, or resignations, are only legal when accepted by the President of the United States. No other military authority is competent to release an officer from the obligations he assumes on entering the army, even on his own application. Hence the use of the word discharge in the article, so as to embrace voluntary separations authorized by the President, and involuntary separations by sentence of court-martial. But the article gives no power to the President to dismiss summarily. Had such been the intention, the authority would have been clearly given, as it has been by the act of Jan. 31, 1823, in the case of delinquent disbursing officers a power not needed, if it before existed under Article 11. This rule of making the acceptance of an officer's resignation dependent upon the President or highest military authority, is necessary; because an officer who was amenable to punishment for infractions of military law, might otherwise, by the resignation of his commission, escape punishment. The Court of King's Bench in England have decided, therefore, that an officer of the East India Company's service has not the right to resign his commission under any circumstances, and whenever he pleased; (case of Capt. Parker; Prendergast, p. 248.) In the case of Capt. Vertue, however, (Prendergast, p. 250,) while the court held that Capt. Vertue's resignation was invalid, as having been made in pursuance of an improper combination of a large number of officers, yet Mr. Justice Yates intimated that there may be a state of circumstances, under which an officer may have a legal right to resign, and so to obtain a release of exemption from military law.

Such would undoubtedly be the decision of a civil court in the United States. The power given to the President of accepting or withholding his acceptance of a resignation was intended for the maintenance of justice, and not the oppression of individuals; and if that power should be perverted, a court of justice might, and no doubt would, interpose its writ of habeas corpus. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 238-239).


DISCIPLINE. It ought to result from a perfect uniformity of rules; for stability, method, exactness, and even routine, are necessary to insure its maintenance; under a perfect discipline, troops in peace and in war, in garrison or in campaign, would be fitted for all the duties of war. To attain this perfection, it is necessary that discipline should rest entirely upon law; it ought to have its roots in patriotism; to be adapted to the character of the people; to the spirit of the age, and the nature of the government. It is essential to make rights and duties inseparable. This absolute necessity, and the importance of regularity of pay, are truths dwelt upon by French writers. Discipline may be distinguished as active and passive. The first derives its power from a military hierarchy or range of subordination, skilfully established and regulated; it is secured by calmness, impartiality, promptness, firmness, and the prestige of character in officers. These qualities are manifested by preventing wrongs rather than by punishing faults, and by abstaining from arbitrary corrections when obliged to chastise. Discipline, intrusted to such authorities enlightened by military experience, will partake of the character of paternal government, and will not be enforced with an unsparing harshness suited only to governments essentially despotic.

The dogma, that military discipline can only be sustained by the aid of severe and unpitying punishment, is far removed from the idea here suggested. That unpitying military discipline seems to have prompted Peter the Great, when he sacrificed a young officer, who triumphantly fought the Swedes without orders. Thus also thought Frederic the Great, when he executed the unfortunate Zietten, who violated an order by keeping a light a little too long in his tent. But such harsh principles are no longer inculcated in the best governed armies of Europe. Passive discipline is the fusion of individual interest in national interest. The first military virtue is esprit de corps, with fidelity to the oath taken upon assuming the military character. These duties exact obedience to the laws, and to the lawful orders of the President of the United States, and officers set over us according to law. These laws should command obedience from all inferiors, and distinctly define the extent of all authority. They ought to bind the President or commander-in-chief as well as the simple soldier. RIGHTS and DUTIES must be reciprocal, and be alike established by law, which should, to maintain discipline, “precisely determine the functions, duties, and rights of all military men soldiers, officers, chiefs of corps, generals.” Discipline that has attained this perfection supplies the deficiency of numbers, and gives new solidity to valor since, although surrounded by dangers, the brave man feels that his leaders and comrades are not less devoted, less vigorous, or less experienced than himself.

Discipline is sometimes used as meaning “system of instruction,” but its signification is much broader. Its technical military sense includes not only the means provided for exercise and instruction, but subjection to all laws framed for the government and regulation of the army. The good or bad discipline of an army depends primarily upon the laws established for its creation, as well as its government and regulation. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 239-241).


DISEASE. (See SANITARY PRECAUTIONS.)


DISEMBARKATION. In disembarkations, the first essential matter is to determine by reconnaissance the proper point for landing how near the landing can be approached with vessels of light draught, to scour the beach and thus cover the operation; and secondly, the manner in which the men, horses, and some field-artillery are to be disembarked. The landing of heavy ordnance and all supplies is a subsequent matter. Having chosen the point of debarkation, the troops are put into flat-bottomed boats, previously provided, as expeditiously as possible, but without hurry or disorder they are to sit down in the boats, and positively ordered not to load until formed on the beach. Each man should' carry three days' provisions cooked in his haversack, at least forty rounds of ammunition, and his canteen filled with water. The men should also carry their intrenching tools. The covering vessels must be liberal with round shot, grape, and canister; and under cover of their fire, theirs line of boats should pull boldly in, recollecting that the men are to be landed, and that the sooner it is done the better. When a boat grounds, the officer jumps out over the bow, and the men follow also over the bow. If the boat is large, or there are rocks, so as to render it unsafe for an accoutered man to jump, the gang-boards must be used. The men follow the officer to the sheltered spot selected by him for their formation. Without waiting for other boats, the officer will consider his men part of a line of skirmishers, the supports of which are behind. As soon as each boat is clear, she must shove off, and pull to the shipping for a fresh load.

The second division of boats will land as the first, but these will not commence firing until the whole of each company has joined, when they will act as supports, under the command of their proper officers. As soon as a sufficient number of well-united companies are on shore, the irregularly formed skirmishers first landed will be relieved, formed by companies, and sent to their respective battalions. Boats employed landing troops should have neither guns, masts, nor sails; their equipments should be gang-boards, oars, grapnels and painters, boat hooks, bailers, hammers and nails, sheet lead, grease, and canvas; the latter articles to enable them to stop a small shot hole, in case of accident.

The launches of men-of-war are used for disembarking field-artillery, when opposed by the enemy. Two planks are laid from the bow to the stern of the launch, parallel to each other, at the distance of the space of the wheels; a bead is nailed to the inside edge, to prevent the wheels from slipping off. Two gang-boards, which can be laid out or taken on board, are fitted to the bow ends of the planks, so as to reach from them to the shore, as a ramp. These launches are towed by smaller boats. It is very desirable that this portion of artillery, with their officers and men, should be on board men-of-war. Each two-decker can take a couple; the guns are stowed away on the upper deck, the carriages and wheels in the chains, so that the guns can be mounted and ready to be lowered into the boats in a very few minutes. The muzzle of the gun must point forward in the launch, and as soon as the boat touches ground, the gang-boards are put out and the guns run ashore. The artillery should endeavor to gain the shore and land with the troops. It is dragged by the sailors or troops. A sufficient supply of ammunition must be at hand in a boat or two, close to the shore. In an emergency the harness may be at once sent ashore, and if the vessels are near, horses may be made to leap out and swim ashore. Under other circumstances, boats of proper capacity must be provided for the disembarkation of horses, heavy ordnance, &c.; or it may be necessary to establish temporary wharves on trestles, or by means of boats, and to erect shears, cranes, or derricks.

On a smooth, sandy beach, heavy pieces may be landed by rolling them overboard as soon as the boats ground, and hauling them up with sling carts. (See EMBARKATION. Consult Aide Memoire of the Military Sciences; SCOTT'S Orders and Correspondences during the Campaign in Mexico.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 241-242).


DISINFECTANTS. (See SANITARY PRECAUTIONS.)


DISMISSION. No sentence of a court-martial in time of peace dismissing a commissioned officer, or which, in war or peace, affects a general officer, shall be carried into execution without the approval of the President of the United States; (ART. 65.) Disbursing officers may be dismissed by the President alone, without the intervention of a court-martial, on failure to account properly for moneys placed in their hands; (Act. January, 1823.) A general court-martial in time of peace may dismiss, with the approval of the President, in all cases in which they are authorized to sentence to “death or such other punishment as may be inflicted by a general court-martial.” (See DEATH.) Such court may also sentence a commissioned officer to be cashiered or dismissed the service in the following cases:

1. Drunkenness on duty; (ART. 45.) 2. Breach of arrest; (ART. 77.) 3. Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman; (ART. 83.) 4. Using contemptuous or disrespectful words against the President of the United States, against the Vice-president thereof, against the Congress of the United States, or against the chief magistrate or legislature of any of the United States in which he may be quartered; (ART. 5.) 5. Signing a false certificate relating to the absence of either officer or soldier, or relative to his or their pay; (ART. 14.) 6. Making a false muster of man or horse; (ART. 15.) 7. Taking money or other thing by way of gratification, on mustering any regiment, troop, or company, or on signing muster rolls. 8. Making a false return to the Department of War, or to any of his superior officers authorized to call for such returns of the state of the regiment, troop, or company, or garrison under his command; or of the army ammunition, clothing, or other stores thereunto ' belonging; (ART. 18.) 8. Sending and accepting a challenge to another officer or soldier to fight a duel; (ART. 25.) 9. An officer who commands a guard, knowingly and wilfully suffering any person to go forth to fight a duel, and all seconds, promoters, and carriers of challenges shall be punished as challengers; (ART. 26.) 10. Selling, embezzling, misapplying, or wilfully, or through neglect, suffering provisions, arms, &c., to be spoiled or damaged; (ART. 36.) 11. Any commanding officer who exacts exorbitant prices for houses let out to sutlers, or connives at like exactions from others, or who by his own authority and for his private advantage lays any duty or imposition upon, or is interested in, the sale of any victuals, liquors, or other necessaries of life brought for the use of the soldiers, maybe discharged the service; (ART. 31.) 12. Failure, by a commanding officer, to see justice done to offenders, and reparation made to the party injured, by officers or soldiers ill-treating any person, or disturbing fairs or markets, or committing any kinds of riots to the disquieting of citizens of the United States; (ART. 32.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 241-243).


DISMOUNT. To dismount the cavalry, is to use them as infantry. Guards, when relieved, are said to dismount. They are to be marched with the utmost regularity to the parade-ground where they were formed, and from thence to their regimental parades, previously to being dismissed to their quarters. To dismount a piece of ordnance, is to take it from the carriage. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 243).


DISOBEDIENCE OF ORDERS punishable by a court-martial with death or otherwise, according to the nature of the offence; (ART. 9.) DISORDERS. (See ABUSES; CRIMES.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 243).


DISPART is the difference of the semi-diameter of the base-ring and the swell of the muzzle, or the muzzle-band of a piece of ordnance. (See ORDNANCE.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 243-244).


DISPUTANTA STATION, VIRGINIA, January 9, 1865. 16th Pennsylvania Cavalry. While foraging half a mile south of Disputanta Station the regiment was fired into by guerrillas, and 2 men were killed and 3 wounded. The affair was an incident of the Richmond campaign.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 360.


DISRESPECT TO A COMMANDING OFFICER punished by court-martial. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 244).


DISRESPECTFUL WORDS used by any officer or soldier against the President, Vice-president, the Congress or the governor of any State where he may be quartered, punishable with cashiering or otherwise, as a court-martial may direct; (ART. 5.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 244).


DISTANCES. Pacing Distances. “ If you count the strokes of either of your horse's fore-feet, either walking or trotting, you will find them to be upon an average about 950 to a mile. In a field-book, as you note each change of bearing, you have only to note down also the number of paces (which soon becomes a habit); and to keep count of these, it is only necessary to carry about thirty-five or forty small pieces of wood, like dice (beans or peas will do), in one waistcoat-pocket, and at the end of every 100 paces, remove one to the empty pocket on the opposite side. At each change of bearing you count these, adding the odd numbers to the number of hundreds, ascertained by the dice, to be counted and returned at each change of bearing to the other pocket. You should have a higher pocket for your watch, and keep the two lower waistcoat-pockets for this purpose. Now, to plot such a survey, you have only to take the half-inch scale of equal parts, (on the six-inch scale, in every case of instruments,) and allowing ten for a hundred, the half-inch will represent a thousand paces. You may thus lay down any broken number of paces to a true scale, and so obtain a tolerably accurate map of each day's journey. The latitude will, after all, determine finally the scale of paces; and you can at leisure adjust each day's journey by its general bearing between different latitudes, and subsequently introduce the details.” (Sir THOMAS.MITCHELL.)

A traveller, when the last of his watches breaks down, has no need to be disheartened from going on with his longitude observations, especially if he observes occupations and eclipses. The object of a watch is to tell the number of seconds that elapse between the instant of occultation, eclipse, &c., and that, a minute or two later, when the sextant observation for time is made; and all that it actually does, is to beat seconds, and to record the number of beats. Now, a string and stone swung as a pendulum will beat time; and a native who is taught to throw a pebble into a bag at each beat will record it; and, for operations that are not tedious, he will be as good as a watch. The rate of the pendulum is, of course, determined by taking two sets of observations, with three or four minutes' interval between them; and, if the distance from the point of suspension to the centre of the stone be thirty-nine inches, and if the string be thin, and the stone very heavy, it will beat seconds very nearly indeed. The observations upon which the longitude of the East African lakes now depends (1859) are lunars timed with a string and a stone, in default of a watch.

Units of length. A man should ascertain his height; height of his eye above ground; ditto, when kneeling; his fathom; his cubit; the span, from ball of thumb to tip of one of his fingers; the length of the foot, and the width of two, three, or four fingers. In all probability, some one of these is an even and a useful number of feet or inches, which he will always be able to recollect, and refer to as a unit of measurement. A stone's throw is a good standard of reference for greater distances. Cricketers estimate by the length between wickets. Pacing should be practised. It is well to dot a scale of inches on a pocket-knife.

Angles to measure. A capital substitute for a very rude sextant is afforded by the outstretched hand and arm. The span between the middle finger and the thumb subtends an angle of 15, and that between the forefinger and the thumb an angle of 11, or one point of the compass. Just as a person may learn to walk yards accurately, so may he learn to span out these angular distances accurately; and the horizon, however broken it may be, is always before his eyes to check him. Thus, if he begins from a tree, or even from a book on his shelves, and spans all round until he comes to the tree or book again, he should make twenty-four of the larger spans and thirty-two of the lesser ones. These two angles of 15 and 11 are particularly important. The sun travels through 15 in each hour; and therefore, by “spanning” along its course, as imagined, from the place where it would stand at noon, (aided in this by the compass,) the hour before or after noon, and, similarly, after sunrise, or before sunset, can be instantly reckoned. Again, the angles 30, 45, 60, and 90, all of them simple multiples of 15, are by far the most useful ones in taking rough measurements of heights and distances, because of the simple relations between the sides of right-angled triangles, whose other angles are 30, 45, &c. As regards 11, or one point of the compass, it is perfectly out of the question to trust to bearings taken by the unaided eye, or to steer a steady course by simply watching a star or landmark, when this happens to be much to the right or the left of it. Now, nothing is easier than to span out the bearing from time to time.

Squaring. As a triangle whose sides are as 3, 4, and 5, must be a right-angled one (since 5 2 =3 a -f-4 2 ), we can always find a right angle  very simply by means of a measuring tape. We take a length of twelve feet, yards, fathoms, or whatever it may be, and peg the two ends of it, close together, to the ground. Next a peg is driven in at the third division, and then the third peg is held at the seventh division of the cord, which is stretched out till it becomes taut, and the peg is driven in. These three pegs will form the corners of a right-angled triangle.

Measurements, &c. The breadth of a river may be measured without instruments and without crossing it, by means of the following useful problem from the French “ Manuel du Genie,” which requires pacing only:

To measure A B (Fig. 106), produce it any distance to D; from D, in any direction, take any equal distances, D C, C d, and produce B C to 5, making C b = C B; join d b and produce it to a, where A C produced intersects it; then a b is equal to A B. In practice, the points D C, &c., are marked by bushes planted in the ground, or by men standing.

Colonel Everest, the late surveyor-general of India, has pointed out the following simple way of measuring an angle, and therefore a triangle: A B is the base, R R the river, C an object on the other side; (Fig. 107.) He paces any length A a 1; and an equal length A a"; also a 1 a", which is the chord of a' A a". In other words FIG. 106. A a a sin. _ =: 2 2 A a' in the same way B is found. A B being known, FIG. 107. the triangle A B C is known, and the breadth of the river can be found. The problem can be worked out, either by calculation or by protraction. (GALTON'S Art of Travel. See STADIA; SURVEYS; TARGET; VELOCITIES.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 244-246).


DISTRIBUTION means, generally, any division or allotment made for the purposes of war, and minor arrangements made for the supply of corps. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 247).


DISTRICT. One of those portions into which a country is divided, for the convenience of command, and to insure a co-operation between distant bodies of troops. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 247).


DITCH sometimes called the Fosse is the excavation made round the works, from which the earth required for the construction of the rampart, parapet, and banquette is obtained. Iii besieging a fortification, when the ditch is dry, and a descending gallery has been constructed, the passage of the ditch consists of an ordinary sap pushed from the opening in the counterscarp wall to the slope of the breach, and, when -necessary, it is carried on to crown the summit of the breach. If the ditch be full of water, and the locality favors its being drained, every means must be used to break the batardeaux, to cause the water to flow away entirely or in part. If none of the batteries can see the batardeaux, the sluices must be sought and destroyed by shells, or by mining. Should the assailants be unable to breach the batardeaux or to destroy the sluices, a bridge or causeway must be thrown across. This is one of the most difficult operations in a siege. The bridge or causeway, with its epaulement, is constructed with pontoons or casks, or, if without them, with fascines, hurdles, gabions, and sand-bags, openings being loft in the causeway to allow the free flowing of the water, if it be a running stream, or can be made so by the defenders. A wet ditch may sometimes be crossed by a raft of sufficient length, which should be constructed along the counterscarp, and attached by one end to the bottom of the descent. The raft is then allowed to swing round with the current, if there be one, or is rowed or pulled round, if there is not one, so as to form a connection across the ditch with the breach.

The following experiment for crossing a wet ditch was successfully tried at Chatham by Sir Charles Pasley: Two hundred large casks were prepared, with their heads taken out; they were lashed by fours, end to end, so as to form hollow piers, about 18 feet in length, of unequal diameters, in consequence of the unequal size of the casks. Each pier was launched in succession from a great gallery, representing that of the counterscarp in a regular siege. These piers had guys at each end, by which they were hauled round into their intended position, and there sunk by means of sand-bags. After this, the intervals between the upper tiers of casks were filled in with long fascines; and others were laid over these at right angles, till a general level was obtained, when strong skids were laid over all, and a 24-pounder, on a travelling carriage, was dragged through the gallery, and passed along these skids to the other side. In this manner, a piece of water, representing a wet ditch, was bridged over with ease and comparative expedition. This experiment was afterwards tried with full success in the Mast Pond of Chatham Dockyard, where a very strong current was produced, much stronger than could occur in the ditches of any fortified place. It is stated, that there was no perceptible depression in the bridge as the 24-pounder passed over. The same experiment was tried with common gabions, lashed together, end to end, in like manner, forming hollow piers or cylinders, which were similarly sunk one over another until the upper layer rose above the water, and were covered with fascines and skids. These, also, bore a 24-pounder, which caused a depression of more than 6 inches in the part over which it was passing. The gabions were very weak and old. The piers of casks were fastened as follows: on being placed end to end, staples were driven into each cask, about 10 inches from their ends, in three equi-distant parts of their circumference; strong spun-yarn, connecting the staples, lashed the four casks together. Six or eight bushel sand-bags were necessary to sink each pier with ease, yet without making it sink too rapidly. To get them into the water, they were launched on ways made of planks. In making the gabion bridge, each pier consisted of four gabions lashed end to end like the casks, by spun-yarn, at three equi-distant points of the circumference. These were not loaded to make them sink. It was found, from the irregularity of their surface, that the second pier merely forced the first out from the bank to make room for itself; the third the second, and so on, until the tier of gabions connected the two scarps. On rolling other piers on the top of them, the lower ones sunk to the bottom, and brushwood and fascines were laid in the intervals of the gabions to form a level surface; (HYDE'S Fortifications.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 247-248).


DITCH BAYOU, ARKANSAS, June 6, 1864. (See Old River Lake, same date.)


DIVISION. In the ordinary arrangement of the army, two regiments of infantry or cavalry shall constitute a brigade, and shall be commanded by a brigadier-general; two brigades, a division, and shall be commanded by a major-general. Provided always that it shall be in the discretion of the commanding general to vary this disposition whenever he shall judge proper; (Act March 3, 1799; Sec. 8.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 248).


DIX, Dorothea Lynde, philanthropist, born in Worcester, Massachusetts, about 1794; died in Trenton, New Jersey, 19 July, 1887. After the death, in 1821, of her father, a merchant in Boston, she established a school for girls in that city. Hearing of the neglected condition of the convicts in the state prison, she visited them, and became interested in the welfare of the unfortunate classes, for whose elevation she labored until 1834, when, her health becoming impaired, she gave up her school and visited Europe, having inherited from a relative sufficient property to render her independent. She returned to Boston in 1837 and devoted herself to investigating the condition of paupers, lunatics, and prisoners, encouraged by her friend and pastor, Reverend Dr. Channing, of whose children she had been governess. In this work she has visited every state of the Union east of the Rocky mountains, endeavoring to persuade legislatures to take measures for the relief of the poor and wretched. She was especially influential in procuring legislative action for the establishment of state lunatic asylums in New York, Pennsylvania. North Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, and other states. In April, 1854, in consequence of her unwearied exertions and petitions that she presented to Congress in 1848 and 1850, a bill passed both houses appropriating 10,000,000 acres to the several states for the relief of the indigent insane; but the bill was vetoed by President Pierce, on the ground that the general government had no constitutional power to make such appropriations. During the Civil War she was superintendent of hospital nurses, having the entire control of their appointment and assignment to duty. After its close she resumed her labors for the insane. Miss Dix published anonymously “The Garland of Flora” (Boston, 1829), and “Conversations about Common Things,” “Alice and Ruth,” “Evening Hours,” and other books for children; also, “Prisons and Prison Discipline” (Boston, 1845); and a variety of tracts for prisoners. She is also the author of many memorials to legislative bodies on the subject of lunatic asylums and reports on philanthropic subjects. Appleton’s 1900, p. 183.


DIX, John Adams, born in Boscawen. New Hampshire, 24 July, 1798; died in New York City, 21 April. 1879. His early education was received at Salisbury, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the College of Montreal. In December, 1812, he was appointed cadet, and going to Baltimore aided his father, Major Timothy Dix of the 14th U. S. Infantry, and also studied at St. Mary's College. He was made ensign in 1813, and accompanied his regiment, taking part in the operations on the Canadian frontier. Subsequently he served in the 21st U.S. Infantry at Fort Constitution, New Hampshire, where he became 2d lieutenant in March, 1814, was adjutant to Colonel John De B. Walback, and in August was transferred to the 3d Artillery. In 1819 he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Jacob Brown, then in command of the Northern military department, and stationed at Brownsville, where he studied law, and later, under the guidance of William West, was admitted to the bar in Washington. He was in 1820 sent as special messenger to the court of Denmark. On his return he was stationed at Fort Monroe, but continued ill-health led him to resign his commission in the army, 29 July, 1828, after having attained the rank of captain. He then settled in Cooperstown, New York, and began the practice of law. In 1830 he moved to Albany, having been appointed adjutant-general of the state by Governor Enos B. Throop. In 1833  Dix was appointed secretary of state and superintendent of common schools, publishing during this period numerous reports concerning the schools, and also a very important report in relation to a geological survey of the state (1836). He was a prominent member of the "Albany Regency," who practically ruled the Democratic Party of that day. Going out of office in 1840, on the defeat of the Democratic candidates and the election of General Harrison to the presidency, He turned to literary Pursuits, and was editor-in-chief of "The Northern light," a journal of a high literary and scientific character, which was published from 1841 till 1843. In 1841 he was elected a member of the assembly. In the following year he went abroad, and spent nearly two years in Madeira, Spain, and Italy. From 1845 till 1849 he was a U. S. Senator, being elected as a Democrat, when he became involved in the Free-Soil movement, against his judgment and will, but under the pressure of influences that it was impossible for him to resist. He always regarded the Free-Soil movement as a great political blunder, and labored to heal the consequent breach in the Democratic Party, as a strenuous supporter of the successive Democratic administrations up to the beginning of the Civil War. In 1848 he was nominated by the Free-Soil Democratic Party as governor, but was overwhelmingly defeated by Hamilton Fish. President Pierce appointed him assistant treasurer of New York, and obtained his consent to be minister to France, but the nomination was never made. In the canvass of 1856 he supported Buchanan and Breckenridge, and in 1860 earnestly opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln, voting for Breckenridge and Lane. In May, 1861, he was appointed postmaster of New York, after the defalcations in that office. On 10 January, 1861, at the urgent request of the leading bankers and financiers of New York, he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Buchanan, and he held that office until the close of the administration. His appointment immediately relieved the government from a financial deadlock, gave it the funds that it needed but had failed to obtain, and produced a general confidence in its stability. When he took the office there were two revenue cutters at New Orleans, and he ordered them to New York. The captain of one of them, after consulting with the collector at New Orleans, refused to obey. Secretary Dix thereupon telegraphed: " Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the order I gave through you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell. Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him as a mutineer, and treat him accordingly. If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." At the beginning of the Civil War he took an active part in the formation of  the Union Defence Committee, and was its first president; he also presided at the great meeting in Union square, 24 April, 1861. On the president's first call for troops, he organized and sent to the field seventeen regiments, and was appointed one of the four major-generals to command the New York state forces. In June following he was commissioned major-general of volunteers, and ordered to Washington by General Scott to take command of the Arlington and Alexandria Department. By a successful political intrigue, this disposition was changed, and he was sent in July to Baltimore to take command of the Department of Maryland, which was considered a post of small comparative importance; but, on the defeat of the Federal forces at Bull Run, things changed; Maryland became for the time the centre and key of the national position, and it was through General Dix's energetic and judicious measures that the state and the city were prevented from going over to the Confederate cause. In May, 1862, General Dix was sent from Baltimore to Fort Monroe, and in the summer of 1863, after the trouble connected with the draft riots, he was transferred to New York, as commander of the Department of the East, which place he held until the close of the war. In 1866 he was appointed naval officer of the port of New York, the prelude to another appointment during the same year, that of minister to France. In 1872 he was elected governor of the state of New York as a Republican by a majority of 53,000, and, while holding that office, rendered the County great service in thwarting the proceedings of the inflationists in Congress, and, with the aid of the legislature, strengthening the national administration in its attitude of opposition to them. On a renomination, in 1874, he was defeated, in consequence partly of the reaction against the president under the "third-term" panic, and partly of the studious apathy of prominent Republican politicians who desired his defeat. During his lifetime General Dix held other places of importance, being elected a vestryman of Trinity Church (1849), and in 1872 comptroller of that corporation, delegate to the convention of the diocese of New York, and deputy to the general convention of the Episcopal Church. In 1853 he became president of the Mississippi and Missouri Railway Company, and in 1863 became the first president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, an office which he held until 1868, also filling a similar place for a few months in 1872 to the Erie Railway Company. He married Catharine Morgan, adopted daughter of John J. Morgan, of New York, formerly member of Congress, and had by her seven children, of whom three survived him. He was a man of very large reading and thorough culture, spoke several languages with fluency, and was distinguished for proficiency in classical studies, and for ability and elegance as an orator. Among his published works are "Sketch of the Resources of the City of New York " (New York, 1827); " Decisions of the Superintendents of Common Schools" (Albany, 1837); "A Winter in Madeira, and a Summer in Spain and Florence" (New York, 1850; 5th ed.. 1833): "Speeches and Occasional Addressee" (2 vols., 1864); "Dies Irae," translation (printed privately, 1863; also revised ed., 1875); and "Stabat Mater," translation (printed privately, 1868).   Son, Charles DIX, Temple, artist, born in Albany, 25 February, 1838; died in Rome, Italy, 11 March, 1873, studied at Union, and early turned his attention to art. He had made good progress in his studies when, at the beginning of the Civil War, he was chosen aide-de-camp on the staff of his father, and won credit from his faithful performance of duty. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 183-184.


DIXON, Archibald, senator, born in Caswell County, North Carolina, 2 April, 1802; died in Henderson, Kentucky, 23 April, 1870. His grandfather. Colonel Henry, received a wound at the battle of Eutaw which caused his death; and Wynn, his father, served gallantly through the Revolutionary war. In 1805 he moved with his father to Henderson County, Kentucky, where he received a common-school education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1824, and attained high rank as a criminal lawyer. He was a member of the legislature in 1830 and 1841, of the state senate in 1830, and lieutenant-governor in 1843-'7. In 1848 he was the choice of a majority of the Kentucky Whigs for governor; but on the nomination of John J. Crittenden by a section of them he withdrew from the candidacy, in order to heal dissensions in the party. When a candidate for governor he defended the American protective policy, and made that the principal subject of his discussions. In 1849, when the proposition for gradual emancipation of the slaves was before the people, he vehemently opposed the scheme, and, being chosen a member of the Constitutional Convention, proposed a resolution, which was substantially incorporated in the new constitution, declaring that whereas the right of the citizen to be secure in his person and property lies at the bottom of all governments, and slaves, and children hereafter born of slave mothers, are property, therefore the convention has not the power nor the right to deprive the citizen of his property except for the public good, and only then by making to him a just compensation. He was the Whig candidate for governor in 1851, but the Whigs who were emancipationists withdrew their support on account of his views on the slavery question, and put in nomination Cassius M. Clay, which resulted in the election of a Democrat. He had endeavored to unite the party by declining the nomination; but his friends in the convention insisted upon his taking it. His canvass was contemporaneous with the agitation for the dissolution of the Union, and he eloquently seconded before the people the appeals for its preservation uttered in Washington by Clay and Webster. He and Mr. Crittenden were rival candidates before the legislature for the next seat that fell vacant in the U. S. Senate: but both withdrew for the sake of harmony. When Henry Clay died, shortly afterward, Mr. Dixon's friends elected him for the unexpired term, retook his seat on 20 December, 1852, and served till 3 March, 1855. During the Civil War he was an advocate of peace, and in 1863 was a delegate to the peace Convention held at Frankfort, Kentucky Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, pp. 185-186.


DIXON, James, 1814-1873, lawyer.  Republican U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator representing Connecticut.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 186; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 3, Pt. 1, p. 328; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 6, p. 646; Congressional Globe)

DIXON, James, senator, born in Enfield, Connecticut, 5 August, 1814; died in Hartford, 27 March, 1873. He was graduated at Williams with distinction in 1834, studied law in his father's office, and began practice in Enfield, but soon rose to such eminence at the bar that he moved to Hartford, and there formed a partnership with Judge William W. Ellsworth. Early combining with his legal practice an active interest in public affairs, he was elected to the popular branch of the Connecticut legislature in 1837 and 1838, and again by in 1844. In 1840 he married Elizabeth L., daughter of the Reverend Dr. Jonathan Cogswell, professor in the Connecticut theological Institute. Mr. Dixon at an early date had become the recognized leader of the Whig Party in the Hartford Congressional District, and was chosen in 1845 a member of the U. S. House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 1847, and was distinguished in that difficult arena alike for his power as a debater and for an amenity of bearing that extorted the respect of political opponents even in the turbulent times following the Mexican War, and the exasperations of the sectional debate precipitated by the "Wilmot Proviso." Retiring from Congress in 1849, he was in that year elected from Hartford to a seat in the Connecticut Senate, and. having been re-elected in 1854, was chosen president of that body, but declined the honor, because the floor seemed to offer a better field for usefulness. During the same year he was made president of the Whig state Convention, and, having now reached a position of commanding influence, he was in 1857 elected U. S. Senator, and participated in all the parliamentary debates of the epoch that preceded the Civil War. He was remarkable among his colleagues in the Senate for the tenacity with which he adhered to his political principles, and for the clear presage with which he grasped the drift of events. Six years afterward, in the midst of the Civil War, he was re-elected senator with a unanimity that had had no precedent in the annals of Connecticut. During his service in the Senate he was an active member of the Committee on Manufactures, and during his last term was at one time appointed chairman of three important committees. While making his residence in Washington the seat of an elegant hospitality, he was remarkable for the assiduity with which he followed the public business of the Senate, and for the eloquence that he brought to the discussion of grave public questions as they successively arose before, during, and after the Civil War. Among his more notable speeches was one delivered 25 June, 1862, on the constitutional status created by the so-called acts of secession—a speech that is known to have commanded the express admiration of President Lincoln, as embodying what he held to be the true theory of the war in the light of the constitution and of public law. To the principles expounded in that speech Mr. Dixon steadfastly adhered during the administration alike of President Lincoln and of his successor. In the impeachment trial of President Johnson he was numbered among the Republican senators who voted against the sufficiency of the articles, and from that date he participated no longer in the councils of the Republican Party. Withdrawing from public life in 1869, he was urged by the president of the United States and by his colleagues in the Senate to accept the mission to Russia, but refused the honor.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 186.


DIXON, Nathan Fellows, born 1833, lawyer.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.  Member of 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Congress.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. II, p. 187; Congressional Globe)

DIXON, Nathan Fellows, lawyer, born in Westerly, R, I., 1 May, 1812; died there, 11 April, 1861, was graduated at Brown in 1833, attended the law-schools at New Haven and Cambridge, and practised his profession in Connecticut and Rhode Island from 1840 till 1849. He was elected to Congress from Rhode Island in 1849, and was one of the governor's council appointed by the general assembly during the Dorr troubles of 1842. In 1844 he was a presidential elector, and in 1851 was elected as a Whig to the general assembly of his state, where, with the exception of two years, he held office until 1859. In 1863 he went to Congress as a Republican, and served as a member of the Committee on Commerce. He was a member of the 39th, 40th, and 41st Congresses, and declined re-election in 1870. He, however, resumed his service in the general assembly, being elected successively from 1872 till 1877. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. II, p. 187.


DIXON'S AND JAMES ISLANDS, SOUTH CAROLINA, May 25, 1862. (See Naval Volume.)


DIXON'S ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, June 21, 1863. Twelve Federal pickets landed on Dixon's island at 6 p. m. and Were fired into by the Confederate cavalry pickets. The Union men retired without replying. The only mention of the affair is a Confederate report, so there is no way of ascertaining who the Federal participants were.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 360.


DIXON'S SPRINGS, TENNESSEE, June 20, 1863. Dobbins' Ferry, Tennessee, December 9, 1862. U. S. Forces under Colonel Stanley Matthews. While out on a reconnaissance in the vicinity of LaVergne Matthews' command was attacked at Dobbins' ferry by six regiments of cavalry under General Wheeler. The losses on both sides were rather heavy, but the reports of the affair are very meager and give no definite information as to the engagement. The wagon train sent out with Matthews returned safely.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 5, p. 360.