Tabernacle Church, Virginia through Thibodeaux, Louisiana

TABERNACLE CHURCH, VIRGINIA, April 4, 1865. 1st Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac. The division, commanded by Brigadier-General Devin, in the morning crossed Deep creek between the 1st and 2nd corps, and turning to the right, marched to Drummond's mill on Beaver Pond creek. There the 1st Michigan cavalry was ordered to reconnoiter toward Bevill's bridge. The division then crossed the creek and immediately met the enemy's infantry (Pickett's and Johnson's divisions )in heavy force, covering the road to Amelia Court House. The 1st and part of the 2nd brigades were at once dismounted and the led horses were sent over the creek. Heavy skirmishing ensued and the position was held until 10 p. m. The Federal cavalry felt the Confederate line from right to left and the ene1ny skirmished all day, using artillery, and at night formed to protect his right flank. At 10 o'clock that night Devin's command marched to Jetersville. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 865.


TABERVILLE, MISSOURI, August 2, 1862. (See Clear Creek, same date.)


TABERVILLE, MISSOURI, August 11, 1862. 1st Missouri and 3d Wisconsin Cavalry. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 865.


TABOR, Horace Austin Warner, senator, born in Holland, Orleans County, Vermont, 30 November, 1830. He received a common-school education, and learned the trade of a stone-cutter in Massachusetts. but in 1855 he moved to Kansas and engaged in farming, and was an active member of the Free-Soil party. In 1856 he was a member of the Topeka legislature that was dispersed at the point of the bayonet by order of President Pierce. In 1859 he moved to Colorado, and the following spring he settled in California Gulch (now Leadville). There he worked in the mines until 1865, when he engaged in business, and combined both occupations I till May, 1878. During the latter month August Rische and George F. Hook, to whom he had advanced money, discovered what was afterward known as the "Little Pittsburg" mine. By the terms of his agreement. Mr. Tabor was entitled to a one-third interest, which he sold the following year for $ 1,000,000. This capital he invested in mines, banking stock, and other remunerative property, which greatly increased his wealth. In October, 1878, he was elected the first lieutenant-governor of Colorado, and he held the office until January, 1884. He was chosen U. S. Senator to fill the unexpired term of Henry M. Teller, resigned, and served from 2 February till 4 March. Besides the investments mentioned above, Senator Tabor has purchased 175,000 acres of copper lands in Texas, and 4,600,000 acres of grazing lands in southern Colorado, and is interested in irrigating canals and other enterprises that give employment to a large number of laborers. He has also obtained from the republic of Honduras a grant of every alternate section of land for 400 miles bordering on the Patook River. On this tract are immense groves of mahogany, ebony, and similar valuable woods, orchards of bananas and other tropical fruits, together with deposits of gold, silver, and coal. In addition to the section-grant, he has secured a mineral grant of 150 square miles in the interior. Altogether Mr. Tabor is probably one of the largest owners of land in the world. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 17


TACTICS as distinguished from strategy, is the art of handling troops. Sect. 7 Act May 8, 1792, prescribes the tactics established by Congress in 1779, as the rules for the exercise and training of the militia.

Act of March 3, 1813, requests the President to cause to be prepared and laid before Congress a military system of discipline for the infantry of the army and militia of the United States. Act of May 12, 1820, prescribes that the system of discipline and field-exercise, that is or may be ordered for the infantry, artillery, and riflemen of the regular army shall be the same for the respective corps of the militia.

Act of May 18, 1826, authorizes the Secretary of War to have prepared a complete system of cavalry tactics, and also a system of exercise and instruction of field-artillery, including manoeuvres for light or horse artillery, for the use of the militia of the United States, to be reported for consideration or adoption by Congress at its next session.

Act of March 2, 1829, provides for the distribution of 60,000 copies of the abstract of infantry and light infantry and rifle tactics, and also 5,000 copies of the system of instruction for field-artillery prepared pursuant to Act of 1826.


Tactics of Gustavus Adolphus and his contemporaries. Gustavus Adolphus, the greatest captain of his time, originated new principles in the art of war, which in their essence still subsist. His advent marks a fixed and certain epoch in the history of tactics. There are four ideas originated by him, which overthrew the tactics of his predecessors. 1. He gave in combats a greater, but not an absolute influence to the musket; and united in order of battle heavy and small arms. 2. He increased the mobility of his troops by breaking up heavy masses, and thus also diminished the destructive effects of an enemy's fire. 3. He ranged the different arms according to their intention, and thus established facility in manoeuvring as well as their mutual capacity to aid each other. 4. He restored individual activity, which had all but ceased to exist, particularly in cavalry, since the invention of powder.

Gustavus Adolphus conceived and executed all his projects himself. He was at the same time an infantry, cavalry, and artillery soldier. He was a lover of mathematics and natural philosophy, and did not disdain to hold a pencil and compass. The order of battle of the Swedes consisted, according to circumstances, in a formation of two or three lines ranged parallel to each other or in echelons upon the wings, the cavalry behind the infantry or upon its wings. The cavalry was proportionably very numerous. It fought in four ranks. The infantry was ranged in six ranks. The batteries of artillery were massed and masked. In assaulting Germany, Gustavus had two hundred pieces.

Tactics before and during the war of the Spanish Succession. At this epoch there were great men, but no one like Gustavus took a giant step in tactics. The art was at a stand during more than a hundred years notwithstanding the rapid succession of wars, and the reiterated occasions such wars offered to genius. In this world it is not events which produce changes, but superior minds which control events. Gradually, however, the musket became the only arm of infantry, and the pike was entirely discontinued. Thus the possibility of infantry, defending themselves against cavalry vanished, and in order to restore the equilibrium, the epicus or half-pike was introduced. Each infantry man carried one at the beginning of the 17th century. This order was general. It succeeded against the Turks, but cruelly impeded the mobility of infantry.


The bayonet appeared for the first time in the Netherlands in 1647, and essentially contributed to the discontinuance of the pike. At first this arm was very unhandy, as it was necessary to take it from the musket before firing. Under Charles XII., this was remedied, and in the Prussian army in 1732, the front rank was armed with a bayonet during the fire. In 1740 at the battle of Molwitz the three ranks were thus provided.

To appreciate the spirit of the tactics of this time, it is necessary to study the campaigns of Turenne and Luxembourg, and those of Prince Eugene and Marlborough. The principal characteristic of the tactics of this epoch consisted in the attack of the whole line at the same time, and consequently of the general opening of a battle upon all points at once. A part of a line was rarely maintained in position during the attack of other portions. The importance of echelons was not appreciated, or it was not known how to use them in the oblique order. Manoeuvres, however, improved, but very slowly. Hence open fields of battle were generally preferred. If accidents of ground were sought, it was for the purpose of establishing lines of defence. Marches were executed, ordinarily, by many columns, each consisting of a single arm. There was therefore little reciprocity of action, and even in camps the same marked separation was preserved.

Tactics of Frederick the Great and his contemporaries. Frederick found the art of war in a singular state. A great man a born captain was indispensable to raise this art from the dust under which it had been trampled and all but stifled by a miserable formalism. The active genius, the living courage, the free will which had signalized the combats of ancient times had disappeared; the musket had become a powerful arm, but pedantry had seized upon the order of battle; all merit consisted in forms, and cavalry rendered useless in action had become only the furniture of parades.

The great merit of Frederick consisted in recognizing the spirit of his age, and giving it a new bent. When Frederick appeared in camp, he found the musket in general use. He occupied himself in perfecting it. He fixed the depth of infantry at three ranks, and thus were seen deployed those long and thin lines which later took with the art of moving them the denomination of tactics of lines.

Frederick required of his cavalry but two things: 1, Promptitude in surprising an enemy; and 2, United and violent attacks to overthrow and annihilate him. For these reasons he exacted the exclusive use of the sabre in cavalry, which soon disdained the gun as useless and unworthy of a true cavalier. All movements were executed regularly but rapidly. Frederick also occupied himself with perfecting artillery. He diminished the weight of field-pieces, and drew a marked line of separation between field and siege pieces.

The American Revolutionary War fixed attention specially upon the manner of fighting in dispersed order. This order of battle, in consequence of the difficulties of a wooded country, played here the principal part, and it may be affirmed that skill as marksmen an important part of the true system of light infantry or rifle tactics dates from that period.

Tactics during the French Revolution, and its immediate effects. This epoch of tactics is distinguished by perfecting individual action, and renewing the force of infantry in the shock of battle, by dispensing with long thin lines which were in part replaced by the order in mass. From the French Revolution was born the principle that all citizens are equal, and all owe service to their country. As the first consequence of this principle arose the general and legal obligation of devoting one's self to the military service. This obligation put in movement an aggregate of moral forces which could not otherwise have been collected in armies. But in spite of the enthusiasm of the people, (at least at first,) the absence of military instruction and discipline was everywhere seen. It was necessary that generals should endeavor to create a new tactics. Tactics then, for the first time, adapted itself to the national character of the soldier, and bent its forms to that character. It was impossible to harmonize the heavy tactics of lines with republican ardor. Instead, therefore, of losing their time in making soldiers machines, the wise generals preferred the machines already made. It was indispensable to create a more easy mechanism of sub-divisions, and they naturally determined upon formations in small masses, whilst the order in lines was gradually abandoned. Each republican, feeling himself called to defend his country, considered national interests as his own proper interest. It was not sufficient for him to occupy simply a place in the ranks, he wished to fight individually and with his own proper hands. The stamp of the tirailleur was thus impressed on every Frenchman by that ardent will, which was carefully maintained in giving full liberty to the highly pitched energy and courage of the soldier. But where it was necessary to break strength by strength, all were reunited in masses, and disputed the honor of dying in the foremost rank for the republic. These two systems (although they later took the name of systems) brought about the simple mechanism of the new French tactics, the essence of which is concentrated in the system of skirmishers and the system of masses.

 A general tactics for all arms is a chimera. An army is composed of infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineer soldiers. The three first are separate arms. Each of these arms must have its particular tactics. But the tactics of those arms, when united, is simply the proper use of each arm by the general-in-chief according to ever-varying circumstances. Each arm ought to think itself invincible. This moral element, or, what is the same thing, a courage developed by discipline, is the most essential quality of a soldier. No one will deny that this moral element is increased in offensive movements. The more infantry attacks with the bayonet, the more cavalry is employed in the charge, the more artillery is brought within range of grape, the greater will be the valor of the soldiers of all arms. Infantry is the great body or nucleus of all armies. An army which possesses good infantry may repair all its losses in war. Light infantry requires a more developed instruction, more corporal dexterity, more circumspection and intelligence than infantry of the line. To march in masses is the duty of the latter. To act in isolated positions under all circumstances of personal danger, is required of the former. All good infantry, whether light or heavy, is at home in close or distant combats. The distinctive characteristic of infantry of the line is a regular, bold, and decided march upon an enemy, in closed ranks, en muraille, with a heavy fire when commanded, and sang-froid under all circumstances. The distinctive characteristic of light infantry should be skilfulness as marksmen, circumspection, capacity to act independently, indefatigability in occupying an enemy for hours, and even days, incommoding him at long distances, destroying him at short, shunning pressure and attacking anew when pressure ceases, knowing no difficulties of ground, advancing boldly, but when too adventurous uniting smartly for safety, again to resume the independent movements of skirmishers as soon as the danger has disappeared.

In attack as in defence, infantry has three ways of fighting: 1, as skirmishers; 2, by the fire in masses; 3, by the bayonet. All three modes in their reciprocal action experience a great number of modifications, which must depend upon the skill of the tactician. He must thoroughly understand the advantages and disadvantages of the open and close order. He must be able to apply either the one or the other, according to circumstances, and always keep in view the practicability of passing from one to the other. Soldiers ranged in line elbow to elbow are, as it were, tied together, and the will of the whole is controlled by the commander. This is the order in line of battle. If the line be broken into companies or divisions, and ranged one behind the Page 606 other, we have the order in column, and this order is important in manoeuvring. (See MANOEUVRES IN COMBAT.)

The combat as skirmishers is in open or dispersed order. Almost all combats of infantry are begun by skirmishers. It is important, therefore, that infantry of the line as well as light infantry should be instructed as skirmishers. Nothing is so useful in concealing from an enemy our force and intentions than throwing forward skirmishers. If the skirmishers are skilful they may for a long time occupy an enemy, and meanwhile the great body of the army concealed behind the curtain thus formed may present themselves unexpectedly at a decisive point. (Consult prescribed Tactics for Manoeuvres of Infantry of the Line and Light Infantry; Cavalry Tactics; Artillery Tactics; and De la Tactique des Trois Armes, Infanterie, Cavalerie', Artillerie, par C. DECKER.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 601-606).


TAFT, Lorado, sculptor, born in Elmwood, Peoria County, Illinois, 2!) April. 1860. He was graduated at Illinois state university, Champaign, Illinois, in 1879, studied at the Ecole des beaux arts, Paris, during 1880-'3, and afterward with Marius Jean Antoine Mercie and others for two years. He has executed several busts and medallions, a statue of Schuyler Colfax, which was unveiled in Indianapolis in 1888, and reliefs for Michigan regimental monuments on the Gettysburg battle-field. He is engaged on a statue of General Grant for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Taft is instructor in sculpture at, the Chicago art institute. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 19.


TAHKAHOKUTY MOUNTAIN, DAKOTA TERRITORY, July 28, 1864. U. S. Troops under Brigadier-General Alfred Sully. As an incident of an expedition against the Sioux Indians in Dakota, the troops came upon the Indian camp on the side of Tahkahokuty mountain about 10 a. m. Sully's command consisted of portions of the 6th and 7th la., 2nd Minnesota, two companies of Dakota and a battalion of Minnesota cavalry, 8th Minnesota infantry and three sections of artillery. The ground being unfavorable for a charge, Sully dismounted and deployed his men advanced and drove the Indians until the plain between the hills and the mountains was reached. At that point the Indians attempted to flank the troops, but well-directed charges drove them off. About the same time another party of Indians attacked the rear, but were easily driven off by the artillery. Sully estimated the number of Indians killed and wounded at between 100 and 150, while the troops had 5 killed and 10 wounded. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 865.


TAHLEQUAH, INDIAN TERRITORY, March 30, 1863. 3d Kansas Indian Home Guards. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 865.


TAKE. In a military sense, to take is to make prisoner, or to capture. It has also a meaning in field movements, viz., to adopt any particular formation, as to “ take open order.”

To take ground to the right or left, is to extend a line, or to move troops in either of those directions.

To take down, is to commit to paper that which is spoken by another.

To take the field, is to encamp, to commence the operations of a campaign.

To take up the gauntlet, is to accept a challenge. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 606).


TALBOT'S FERRY, ARKANSAS, April 19, 1862. Detachment of 4th Iowa Cavalry. A portion of a cavalry expedition down the White river, under Colonel Lafayette McCrillis, was fired into from the log buildings on the opposite side of the stream. The howitzers were brought up and shelled the buildings, driving the enemy from them. One Union man was killed and 1 wounded.


TALIAFERRO, William Booth (tol-li ver), soldier, born in Belleville, Gloucester County, Virginia, 28 December, 1822. He was educated at Harvard and at William and Mary College, where he was graduated in 1841. He became captain in the 11th U. S. Infantry, 9 April, 1847, major of the 9th U.S. Infantry, 12 August, 1847, and was mustered out, 20 August, 1848. At the beginning of the Civil War he was made colonel in the provisional Army of Virginia, 1 May, 1861, and he rose to be brigadier-general in the Confederate service, 4 March. 1862. and major-general, 1 January. 1865. He commanded the Confederate troops in 1861 at Gloucester point, Virginia, took part in the engagements at Carrick's Ford, Virginia, 13 July, and in most of the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia to March. 1863, when he was placed in charge of the district of Savannah. Georgia. In July of the same year he commanded the troops and defences on Morris Island. South Carolina, and in August following the forces on James Island. In February, 1864, he led a division in Florida, consisting of four brigades. In May, 1864, he was put in command of the 7th Military District of South Carolina, and in December following he was assigned to the command of the district of South Carolina. In January,1865. He led a division composed of the brigades of Elliott, Rhett, and Anderson. General Taliaferro was a member of the general assembly of Virginia for ten years and Democratic presidential elector in 1856. He was grand-master of Masons in Virginia in 1876-'7, and member of the boards of visitors of Virginia military institute, of the Mechanical and agricultural college of the state, of William and Mary College, and of the State Normal School for the Education of Women. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.


TALLADEGA. ALABAMA, April 22, 1865. 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Military Division of the Mississippi. Brigadier-General John T. Croxton, in his report of the operations of his brigade in Wilson's raid, says: "April 22, by noon the command had crossed [Coosa river], and at sundown reached Talladega, driving out a force of about 70 rebels and encamping at that place." Tallahatchie, Florida, June 18, 1862. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 865.


TALLAHATCHIE BRIDGE, MISSISSIPPI, June 18, 1862. Cavalry, 5th Division, Army of the Tennessee. General William T. Sherman, in reporting an expedition to Holly Springs, said: "The cavalry was pushed on 20 miles to the south and dismounted, and attacked the guard at Tallahatchie bridge. We had 4 men wounded, 2 seriously, who were carried to the rear and put in a wagon and started for Holly Springs and not beard of since. They report 8 of the enemy killed or wounded; that a car loaded with troops arrived and fled back." The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, pp. 865-866.


TALLAHATCHIE RIVER, MISSISSIPPI, November 28, 1862. (See Coldwater River, same date.) Tallahatchie River, Mississippi, August 8-9, 1864. 1st Cavalry Division, Army of West Tennessee. At daylight on the 8th Brigadier-General Edward Hatch moved out from camp toward the Tallahatchie river, where the enemy was found in some force to dispute the passage. The 35th la. opened on the Confederate sharpshooters and Winslow's brigade was ordered to charge on the railroad bridge under cover of the fire of the 2 guns of the 10th Missouri. At the same time the 35th la. crossed the river, supported by a dismounted brigade of cavalry, the enemy was driven back and a bridge constructed by Mower's engineers. Next morning the enemy occupied the heights beyond the river, when Hatch advanced a regiment on each flank, opened with artillery and drove him from his position along the banks of the stream, a running fight continuing for 8 miles until the Confederates again made a stand on the farther side of Hurricane creek. Winslow's brigade charged this position and another running fight was made as far as Oxford, where the enemy got his artillery in position. Hatch sent two regiments to gain the rear, and after waiting a sufficient length of time for them to get to the position the 2nd brigade charged into the town. The Confederates broke and fled, pursued for some distance south of Oxford. The affairs were incidents of an expedition from La Grange, Tennessee, to Oxford, Mississippi. The casualties were not reported. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 866.


TALLMADGE, Grier, soldier, born in Dutchess County, New York, in 1826; died in Fort Monroe, Virginia, 11 October, 1862, was graduated at the U.S. Military Academy in 1848, assigned to the 1st U.S. Artillery, and served on garrison duty in the west. In 1861 he was made captain in the quartermaster's department at Fort Monroe, discharging also the duties of assistant adjutant-general. The "contraband" idea put into practice by General Benjamin F. Butler is said to have originated with him. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 25.


TALLMADGE, James, Jr., 1778-1853, New York, lawyer, soldier, opponent of slavery.  U.S. Congressman.  Lieutenant Governor of New York.  Introduced legislation in House of Representatives to prohibit slavery in new state of Missouri in 1819.  It was called the Tallmadge Amendment.  Challenged Illinois right to statehood with state constitution permitting existence of slavery in the new state.  The Tallmadge Amendment to the Congressional Bill for Missouri Statehood read: “And approved, that the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes…”  The House of Representatives adopted the amendment; the U.S. Senate did not.  Tallmadge declared: “The interest, honor, and faith of the nation required it scrupulously to guard against slavery’s passing into a territory where they [Congress] have power to prevent its entrance.” (16 Con., 1 Sess., 1819-1820, II, p. 1201) Tallmadge further said: “If the western country cannot be settled without slaves, gladly would I prevent its settlement till time shall be no more.”

(Basker, 2005, pp. 318-321, 327, 349; Dumond, 1961, pp. 101-103, 106; Hammond, 2011, pp. 138, 150-151, 272; Mason, 2006, pp. 155, 177, 181, 184, 185, 191, 209; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 35, 129, 386, 471-472; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 26; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 285; Tallmadge Amendment, pp. 177-212; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 281)

TALLMADGE, James, lawyer, born in Stanford, Dutchess County, New York, 28 January, 1778; died in New York City, 29 September, 1853. His father, Colonel James (1744 to 1821), led a company of volunteers at the capture of General John Burgoyne. After graduation at Brown in 1798 the son studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised several years in Poughkeepsie and New York, and also gave attention to agriculture, owning a farm in Dutchess County. For some time he was private secretary to Governor George Clinton, and during the war of 1812-'15 he commanded a company of home-guards in the defence of New York. He was elected a representative to Congress as a Democrat, and served from 1 December, 1817, till 3 March, 1819, but declined a re-election. In that body he defended General Andrew Jackson's course in the Seminole war, and introduced, as an amendment to the bill authorizing the people of Missouri to form a state organization, a proposition to exclude slavery from that state when admitted to the Union. In support of this amendment General Tallmadge delivered a powerful speech, 15 February, 1819, in opposition to the extension of slavery. This was widely circulated, and was translated into German. He was a delegate to the New York constitutional conventions of 1821 and 1846, a member of the state assembly in 1824, and delivered a speech on 5 August, 1824, on the bill to provide for the choice by the people of presidential electors. In 1825-'6 he was lieutenant-governor of New York, and while holding this office he delivered a speech at the reception of Lafayette in New York on 4 July, 1825. In 1836 he visited Russia, and aided in introducing into that country several American mechanical inventions, especially cotton-spinning machinery. From 1831 till 1850 he was president of the American institute, of which he was a founder. He also aided in establishing the University of the City of New York, which gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1838, and he was president of its council for many years. General Tallmadge was a leading exponent of the Whig doctrine of protection to American industry, and published numerous speeches and addresses which were directed to the encouragement of domestic production. He also delivered a eulogium at the memorial ceremonies of Lafayette by the corporation and citizens of New York, 26 June, 1834. General Tallmadge was an eloquent orator and vigorous writer. His only daughter was one of the most beautiful women in the country, and after her return from Russia, to which court she accompanied her father, married Philip S, Van Rensselaer, of Albany, third son of the patroon. Their only surviving son, James Tallmadge Van Rensselaer, is a well-known lawyer of New York City. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 26.


TALLULAH, LOUISIANA, August 19, 1862. Detachment of Bowen's Battalion, Missouri Cavalry. This affair was an incident of an expedition from Helena, Arkansas, down the Mississippi and up the Yazoo rivers. Colonel W. D. Bowen, with 80 men of his command and 2 mountain howitzers, was detached and sent to Tallulah to destroy some stores there. On nearing the town it was twice necessary to bring the howitzers into action to disperse the Confederates opposing the advance. The casualties were not reported. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 866.


TALMAGE, Thomas We Witt, clergyman, born in Bound Brook, New Jersey, 7 January, 1832, was educated at the University of the City of New York in the class of 1853, but was not graduated. After graduation at New Brunswick theological seminary in 1856,hewas ordained pastor of the Reformed Dutch church in Belleville, New Jersey He had charge of the church in Syracuse, New York, from 1856 till 1862. and of one in Philadelphia in 1862-'9. During the Civil War he was chaplain of a Pennsylvania regiment, and he is now chaplain of the 13th New York Regiment. […] Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 27.


TAMBOUR is a stockade or timber wall, loopholed, made with two faces, forming a salient angle at the gorge of a work, to serve as a retrenchment or to cover the staircase, with a ditch in front, and sometimes with a half roof sloping to the rear, to protect the defenders from hand-grenades and splinters of shells. (See BUILDINGS, Defence of.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 606).


TAMP. To pack the excavation of a mine, after the charge has been deposited. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 606).


TAMPA BAY, FLORIDA, October 17, 1863. Union gunboats Tahonia and Adele. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 866.


TAMPION OR TOMPION. Plug, stopper iron and copper; lead plate for covering shot holes; muzzle cover of a mortar; small circular bit of hard wood, sheet iron, or stiff paper for covering the claying of a rocket; (BURNS.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 606).


TANEY, Roger Brooke (taw'-ny), jurist, born in Calvert County, Maryland, 17 March, 1777; died in Washington, D. C, 12 October, 1804. He was the son of a Roman Catholic planter, of a family that came to Maryland in the early emigration from England, who had been educated in St. Omer, France, and Bruges, United Netherlands, in the Jesuit College, and was frequently elected to the house of delegates. The son was graduated at Dickinson College in 1795. He read law in Annapolis with Jeremiah Chase, then a judge of the general court, and was admitted to the bar in 1799. His father, who was ambitious of political honors for his son, persuaded him to begin practice in his native county, where, in the autumn of the same year, he was elected to the house of delegates. He was the youngest member in that body, yet was distinguished for the maturity of his opinions and his dialectic powers. He was defeated at the next election by a Republican, and in March, 1801, moved to Frederick. Although he was unknown I in that part of the state, his acuteness, thoroughness, and eloquence brought him a lucrative practice, and before many years passed he was retained  in important and intricate cases, and confronted the leaders of the Maryland bar. He was a candidate for the house of delegates on the Federalist ticket in 1803, but was defeated. On 7 January, 1806, he married Anne Phebe Charlton Key, sister of Francis Scott Key, who had been his fellow law student. In 1811 he defended General James Wilkinson on his trial before a court-martial, thereby sharing the odium that then attached to that officer, yet refusing to take a fee for his services. During the war with Great Britain he led the wing of the Federal party that upheld the policy of the government, and was a candidate for congress, failing of election by a few votes. He was sent to the state senate in 1816, and drew up many of the bills that were passed during his term of service. He endured the disapprobation of his neighbors by courageously appearing in 1819 in defence of Jacob Gruber, a Methodist minister from Pennsylvania, who in a camp-meeting had condemned slavery in bitter language, and who was indicted as an inciter of insurrection among the Negroes. In his opening argument Taney declared of slavery that "while it continues, it is a blot on our national character." In 1821 he was counsel in the important case of Brown vs. Kennedy, which involved the question of the original proprietary title to lands that had been reclaimed from the navigable waters of Maryland, and in the following year in one connected with the law of charitable trusts. He moved in 1823 to Baltimore, where the death of William Pinkney, the retirement of Luther Martin, and the decease of other eminent lawyers left him at the head of the bar until William Wirt came in 1829 to divide with him that distinction. With many other Federals of the south, Taney passed over into the Democratic party, and supported the candidacy of Andrew Jackson for the presidency in 1824. In 1826 he argued the case of Ringgold vs. Ringgold, in which the doctrine of trusts was discussed, and, with Wirt, represented the state of Maryland in the Lord Baltimore case before the U. S. Supreme Court. In 1827 he was appointed attorney-general of Maryland, and on 27 December, 1831, he succeeded John M. Berrien as attorney-general of the United States. He became President Jackson's most trusted counsellor, and encouraged and sustained him in his determination to remove the government deposits from the United States Bank. There were only two members of the cabinet that approved this action, and when William J. Duane hesitated to carry out the president's decree he was removed and Taney was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. He entered upon the duties of the office on 24 September, 1833 and two days afterward issued the order for the removal of the deposits on 1 October The bank therefore called in its loans and refused accommodation, locking up a large part of the currency, and producing a financial stringency that affected all classes, for which the president was held responsible by the opposition. Sec. Taney was a special object of vituperation and scorn, because he was supposed to have been the "pliant instrument" of the president in his arbitrary purpose from motives of selfish ambition. His nomination to the office was sent to the Senate for confirmation on 23 June, 1834, having been withheld till near the close of the session, which, owing to the subject most prominently brought up in debate, has been known as the "panic session." On 24 June the hostile majority rejected the appointment, it being the first time that a president's selection of a cabinet officer had not been confirmed. On the following day Mr. Taney sent in his resignation, which was accepted by President Jackson in a letter expressing gratitude for his patriotic and disinterested aid during the crisis. In January, 1835, on the retirement of Gabriel Duval, associate justice of the U. S. supreme court, President Jackson named Mr. Taney for the vacant judgeship; but the Senate refused to ratify the nomination. During the ensuing year the political complexion of the Senate was changed, and when, after the death of John Marshall, the president, on 26 December, 1835, nominated Mr. Taney to be chief justice of the United States, he was confirmed on 15 March, 1836, by 29 votes against 15, notwithstanding the denunciations of Henry Clay and other political opponents. He took his seat on the bench as circuit judge at Baltimore in April, beginning his functions by abolishing the custom of giving preliminary instructions to the grand jury. In January, 1837. he presided over the full bench. His first decisions showed divergence between his view of the constitution and that of his predecessor, who had been more and more drawn to allow a wide scope to the powers of Congress and to limit the sphere of state sovereignty. In the case of the City of New York vs. Miln, Chief-Justice Taney and the majority of the court decided that an act of the legislature of New York requiring masters of vessels to make reports of passengers on arriving was a police regulation that did not interfere with t tie power of Congress to regulate foreign commerce. In the case of Briscoe vs. the Bank of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the court reversed the decision of Marshall, who held that the act establishing the bank was a violation of the provision of the constitution that restrains states from emitting bills of credit. In the Charles-River-bridge suit he delivered a judgment under which state legislatures were free to authorize bridges, railroads, and similar improvements without regard to implied contracts in former grants and monopolies. These decisions almost impelled Justice Joseph Story to resign, and caused Chancellor James Kent to say that he had lost confidence in the constitutional guardianship of the supreme court. In the case of disputed boundaries between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the chief justice, dissenting from the judgment of the court, held that the Federal tribunal had no power to decide questions of political jurisdiction between sovereign states. In 1839 he delivered the opinion in the case of the Bank of Augusta vs. Eurle, in which he laid down the principle that corporations chartered in one state may make contracts in others by the comity of nations. The claim of the proprietors of East Jersey to the oyster-fisheries in Raritan River was disallowed on the ground that fishery rights had passed with the powers of government into the hands of the state. In the case of Prigg vs. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the chief justice for the first time pronounced a state law unconstitutional. Prigg, as agent for a Maryland slave-holder, had seized and carried back to her master an escaped female slave, for which he was indicted under a state law, which made it a penal act, to carry a Negro or mulatto by force out of the state. Justice Story delivered the opinion, which declared the law unconstitutional because the remedy for fugitives from labor is vested exclusively in Congress. Chief Justice Taney held, however, that stales could pass laws for the rendition of escaped servants, but not to impair the right of the master to seize his fugitive slave, which he declared to be the law of each state, he concurred with Justice Story and Justice John McLean, and protected the rights of the Federal government in the Holmes habeas corpus case, in which he denied the authority of the governor of Vermont to extradite a fugitive from justice, because all foreign intercourse belongs to the Federal government. In 1847 the court decided, in the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire license cases, that a state can regulate or prohibit the retail sale of wines or spirits that Congress has authorized to be imported. In the Massachusetts and Now York passenger cases the chief justice delivered an opinion that the state authorities could impose a head-tax on immigrants, on the grounds that the power of Congress to regulate commerce is not exclusive, and that persons are not subjects of commerce. In 1849 he declined to pronounce judgment as to which of the contending governments of Rhode Island was the legitimate one, as it belonged to the political and not to the judicial department of the government to determine that question. In 1845 he upheld the constitutionality of the law of Congress that extended admiralty jurisdiction over the lakes and connecting navigable waters, although English precedents limited it to tide-water. In the midst of the excitement that attended the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill (30 May, 1854), and the strife of Free-Soilers and slave-holders, the Dred Scott case, to which President Buchanan alluded in his inaugural message, came before the Supreme Court for decision. It involved the question whether Congress had the power to exclude slavery from the territories. The case was presented in 1854, and, after being twice argued, was finally decided in 1857. The opinion of the court was written by Chief-Justice Taney, who entered into an elaborate historical exposition of the status of the Negro, the other five judges who concurred in the decision delivering separate opinions. He held that the plaintiff in error, Dred Scott, was debarred from seeking a remedy in the U. S. circuit court for Missouri, on the ground that he was not a citizen of that state, and enunciated the general principle that Negroes could not become citizens by the act of any state or of the United States, since, before the adoption of the constitution, the colonies had special laws for colored people, whet her slave or free, and Congress had not authorized their naturalization or enrolled them in the militia. "They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.'' He held, further, that the Missouri compromise and other laws of Congress inhibiting slavery in the territories of the United States were unconstitutional, and that whatever measure of freedom Dred Scott may have acquired by his residence, in Illinois, he lost by being subsequently moved into the territory of Wisconsin, and by his return thence to Missouri. This deliverance, made two days after the inauguration of President Buchanan, produced intense excitement throughout the country and a strong reaction in favor of the anti-slavery party. The chief justice replied to the strictures that it provoked, and especially to a direct attack on the Supreme Court made by William H. Seward in the Senate, in a supplementary opinion explaining and justifying his legal deductions. In the following year a case that arose under the Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850 came before Chief-Justice Taney. Sherman M. Booth, who had been sentenced by the U. S. district court for aiding in the escape of a Negro from slavery, was released on habeas corpus proceedings by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, which refused to take cognizance of the subsequent mandates of the Supreme Court of the United States in the matter. In reviewing the case Chief-Justice Taney affirmed the constitutionality of the Fugitive-Slave Law, and declared that "so long as this constitution shall endure, this tribunal must exist with it. deciding in the peaceful forms of judicial procedure the angry and irritating controversies between sovereignties which in other countries have been decided by the arbitrament of force." The reversal of the judgment of the state court called forth a declaration of the legislature of Wisconsin that the government of the United States was not the final judge of the extent of its powers, but that the states, as parties to the compact, have an equal right to determine infractions of their rights and the mode of their redress, and that the judgment of the Federal court was " void and of no force." The chief question at issue in the presidential election of 1860 was whether the Dred Scott decision, throwing all the territories of the United States open to slavery and denying to colored persons any standing in courts of law, should be maintained as the true construction of the constitution. On 13 March. 1861, Chief-Justice Taney delivered the opinion of the court in mandamus proceedings brought by the state of Kentucky against the governor of Ohio to compel him to cause the arrest and delivery of Willis Lago, a free man of color who, while under indictment for assisting a slave to escape, had fled from Kentucky. He affirmed the right of Kentucky to demand the person of the fugitive, and the obligation of Ohio to render him up, yet denied the jurisdiction of the U. S. court in the case. When, after the secession of the southern states, martial law was proclaimed in Maryland, Chief Justice Taney, on application of John Merryman, arrested by order of General George Cadwalader, ordered the release of the prisoner, issued an attachment against the officer, and filed an opinion, to be laid before President Lincoln, in which he denied the right of the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, affirming that such power is vested in Congress alone. When Congress passed an act to withhold three per cent, of the salaries of government officers, Chief-Justice Taney, on 16 February, 1863, sent a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, pointing out the unconstitutionality of this law so far as it affected the judges of the U. S. courts. In the matter of a seizure of contraband goods, he delivered on 3 June, 1863, an opinion at nisi prius, in which he censured the duplicity of the government detectives, ordered the price of the goods to be restored to the smugglers, and mulcted the provost-marshal and his assistants in damages and costs. Chief-Justice Taney died on the same day on which the state of Maryland abolished slavery. His judicial opinions and decisions are contained in the "Supreme Court Reports" of Benjamin R. Curtis. Benjamin C. Howard, and Jeremiah S. Black. His opinions as a circuit judge from 1836 till 1801 were reported by his son-in-law, James Mason Campbell. He wrote Andrew Jackson's farewell address on retiring from the presidency. At the age of seventy-seven he began an autobiography, which he brought down to 1801, and which forms the introduction to a " Memoir " by Samuel Tyler (Baltimore, 1872). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 28-31.


TANGENT in trigonometry, is the straight line which touches a circular arc at one of its extremities, and is terminated by the production of the radius passing through the other extremity. The arc and its tangent have always a certain relation to each other, and when one is given in parts of the radius the other can always be computed by means of an infinite series. Let < denote an arc, and tan. < the tangent of the are <; we have the following series: […] For the manner of using sines, cosines, and tangents, see LOGARITHMS; SURVEYING; TABLE; TRIGONOMETRY. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 606-607).


TANG. The tang of the breech of a musket is the projecting part by which the barrel is secured to the stock. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 607).


TANGENT-SCALE (sheet brass,) flanch 0.5 inch wide, cut to fit the base-ring of the piece; upper edge cut into notches for each J degree of elevation. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 607).


TANNER, Benjamin Tucker, A. M. E. bishop, born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 25 December, 1835. He is of African descent. After studying at Avery institute j and Western theological seminary, Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, he officiated at the 15th street Presbyterian church in Washington, D. C, also organizing the first school for freedmen in the U. S. Navy-yard, by permission of Admiral Dahlgren. At the end of eighteen months he returned to his own church, the African Methodist Episcopal, entering the Baltimore conference in April, 1862. He labored as a missionary in Alexandria, where he organized the first society of his church on Virginia soil. He was stationed in 1863 in Georgetown, D. C, in 1864 in Frederick, Maryland, and in 1866 in Baltimore, but resigned to organize a proposed conference school in Frederick, Maryland, as well as to take charge of the schools of the Freedmen's bureau in Frederick County. He was elected secretary of the general conference of 1868, and by this body was chosen editor of the "Christian Recorder," being continued in this post by three subsequent general conferences of 1872, 1876, and 1880. In 1884, he was elected managing editor of a new church publication, the "A. M. E. Church Review." He received the degree of A. M. from Avery College in 1870, and that of D. D, from Wilberforce University in 1878, and on 19 May, 1888, was elected a bishop. Dr. Tanner has written prose and poetry for periodicals, and is the author of " Paul versus Pius Ninth" (Baltimore, 1865); "Apology for African Methodism" (1807): "The Negro's Origin, and Is the Negro Cursed " (Philadelphia, 1869); and "Outline of the History and Government of the A. M. E. Church " (1883). He has ready for publication "The Negro, African and American." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 31.


TANNER'S BRIDGE, GEORGIA, May 15, 1864. 2nd Cavalry Division, Army of the Cumberland. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 866.


TAP'S GAP, ALABAMA, September 1, 1863. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 866.


TAPPAN, Arthur, 1786-1865, New York City, philanthropist, merchant, newspaper publisher, educator, radical abolitionist leader.  Arthur Tappan and his brother, Lewis, were among the most important supporters of the abolitionist cause in America.  Arthur was one of the founders of Oberlin College, in Ohio, and he endowed Lane Seminary, in Cincinnati.  In 1828, the brothers established the anti-slavery newspaper, The Emancipator.  Arthur endowed the newspaper and paid the salary of the editor and the cost of publication.  Arthur was one of the founders and president of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), December 1833.  He was also a Manager, 1833-1837, and Member of the Executive Committee, 1833-1840 of the AASS.  Arthur contributed $1,000 a month for several years for the maintenance of the Society.  He was also President of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1855, Member of the Executive Committee, 1840-1855.  The Tappan brothers also were active in aiding fugitive slaves.  This incurred the wrath of Southern slaveholders. 

(Blue, 2005; Burin, 2005, pp. 84, 89; Dumond, 1961, p. 286; Filler, 1960, pp. 26, 40, 55, 58, 60-61, 63-64, 68, 84, 132, 262; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 8, 9, 14-18, 21, 38-41, 44, 48, 51, 55, 71, 107, 129, 134, 151, 152, 153, 200, 234, 235, 242, 285, 293, 340; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 106, 161, 162, 163, 166, 320, 362; Sorin, 1971, pp. 73, 75, 102, 114; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 33; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 209; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 311; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, pp. 320-321; Tappan, Lewis. Life of Arthur Tappan. New York, Hurd and Houghton: 1870; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 671-673; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 128, 131, 161, 163-165, 189-190)

TAPPAN, Arthur, born in Northampton, Massachusetts, 22 May, 1786; died in New Haven, Connecticut, 23 July, 1865, was locked up while an infant in a folding bedstead. When he was discovered life was almost extinct, and headaches, to which he was subject daily through life, were ascribed to this accident. He received a common-school education, and served a seven years' apprenticeship in the hardware business in Boston, after which he established himself in Portland, Maine, and subsequently in Montreal, Canada, where he remained until the beginning of the war of 1812. In 1814 he engaged with his brother Lewis in importing British dry-goods into New York City, and after the partnership was dissolved he successfully continued the business alone. Mr. Tappan was known for his public spirit and philanthropy. He was a founder of the American tract society, the largest donor for the erection of its first building, and was identified with many charitable and religious bodies. He was a founder of Oberlin College, also erecting Tappan hall there, and endowed Lane seminary in Cincinnati, and a professorship at Auburn theological seminary. With his brother Lewis he founded the New York “Journal of Commerce” in 1828, and established “The Emancipator” in 1833, paying the salary of the editor and all the expenses of its publication. He was an ardent Abolitionist, and as the interest in the anti-slavery cause deepened he formed, at his own rooms, the nucleus of the New York City anti-slavery society, which was publicly organized under his presidency at Clinton hall on 2 October, 1833. Mr. Tappan was also president of the American anti-slavery society, to which he contributed $1,000 a month for several years, but he withdrew in 1840 on account of the aggressive spirit that many members manifested toward the churches and the Union. During the crisis of 1837 he was forced to suspend payments, and he became bankrupt in 1842. During his late years he was connected with the mercantile agency that his brother Lewis established. He incurred the hatred of the southern slave-holders by his frequent aid to fugitives, and by his rescuing William Lloyd Garrison from imprisonment at Baltimore. See his “Life,” by Lewis Tappan (New York, 1871). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33.


TAPPAN, Charles, Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1839-.  Supported the American Colonization Society.  (Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 131, 195-196)


TAPPAN, John, Boston, Massachusetts, member of the American Colonization Society Committee in Boston.  (Campbell, 1971, p. 94; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 86, 130)


TAPPAN, Juliana, abolitionist (Yellin, 1994, pp. 26-27, 40n, 41-43)


TAPPAN, Lewis Northey, 1788-1873, New York, NY, merchant, radical abolitionist leader.  Lewis Tappan and his brother, Arthur, were among the most important activists in the cause of abolition in America.  With his brother, Arthur, in 1828, Lewis began publishing anti-slavery newspaper, The Emancipator, paying for the editor and expenses for printing.  Lewis Tappan’s house was destroyed by a pro-slavery mob in July 1834.  He was a member of the Free-Soil Party from its beginning.  Co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833.  Member of the Executive Committee of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1840-1855, Treasurer, 1840-1842, Secretary, 1842-1844, Corresponding Secretary, 1845-1846, 1848-1855.  Leader of the Philadelphia Free Produce Association.  Wrote Life.  Both Lewis and Arthur Tappan were despised by slaveholders in the South.

(Blue, 2005; Burin, 2005, p. 89; Dumond, 1961, pp. 159, 218, 287; Filler, 1960, pp. 26, 31, 50, 55, 61, 63, 68, 72, 94, 102, 130, 136, 138, 144, 150, 152, 158, 164, 165, 168, 174, 177, 189, 194, 210, 247, 262; Harrold, 1995; Mabee, 1970, pp. 8, 9, 13-19, 21, 24, 26, 38, 42-49, 51, 55, 58, 91, 93, 104, 105, 130, 190, 151-156, 190, 202, 219-221, 226-229, 233, 234, 251-253, 257, 334, 340, 341, 343, 344, 345; Mitchell, 2007; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 42, 106, 161, 162, 163, 166, 174, 290, 362; Sorin, 1971, pp. 70, 93, 96, 102, 113, 114, 131; Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 32-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 203; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 311; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II. New York: James T. White, 1892, p. 321; Tappan, Lewis. Life of Arthur Tappan. New York, Hurd and Houghton: 1870; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 673-675; Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery, 1969; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 76, 128-129, 219, 228, 230; Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)

TAPPAN, Lewis, merchant, born in Northampton, Massachusetts, 23 May, 1788; died in Brooklyn, New York, 21 June, 1873, received a good education, and at the age of sixteen became clerk in a dry-goods house in Boston. His employers subsequently aided him in establishing himself in business, and he became interested m calico-print works and in the manufacture of cotton. In 1827 he moved to New York and became a member of the firm of Arthur Tappan and County, and his subsequent career was closely identified with that of his brother Arthur. With the latter he established in 1828 the “Journal of Commerce,” of which he became sole owner in 1829. In 1833 he entered with vigor into the anti-slavery movement, in consequence of which his house was sacked and his furniture was destroyed by a mob in July, 1834, and at other times he and his brother suffered personal violence. He was also involved in the crisis of 1837, and afterward withdrew from the firm and established the first mercantile agency in the country, which he conducted with success. He was chief founder of the American missionary association, of which he was treasurer and afterward president, and was an early member of Plymouth church, Brooklyn. He published the life of his brother mentioned above, but afterward joined in the Free-Soil movement at its inception. He was widely known for his drollery and wit and for his anti-slavery sentiments. Judge Tappan published “Cases decided in the Court of Common Pleas,” with an appendix (Steubenville, 1831). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 32-34.


TAPPAN, Mason Weare, 1817-1886, lawyer, soldier.  U.S. Congressman, Free Soil Party, 1855-1861.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33-34)

TAPPAN, Mason Weare, lawyer, born in Newport, New Hampshire, 20 October, 1817; died in Bradford, New Hampshire, 24 October, 1886. His father, a well-known lawyer, settled in Bradford in 1818, and was a pioneer in the anti-slavery movement. The son was educated at Kimball Union Academy, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1841, and acquired a large practice. He was early identified with the Whig party, and afterward was a Free-Soiler and served in the legislature in 1853-'5. He was elected to Congress as a Free-Soiler, by a combination of the Whigs, Free-Soilers, Independent Democrats, and Americans, at the time of the breaking up of the two great parties, Whigs and Democrats. He served from 3 December, 1855, till 3 March, 1861, and was a member of the special committee of thirty-three on the rebellious states. On 5 February, 1861, when a report was submitted recommending that the provisions of the constitution should be obeyed rather than amended, he made a patriotic speech in support of the government. Mr. Tappan was one of the earliest to enlist in the volunteer army, and was colonel of the 1st New Hampshire Regiment from May till August, 1861. Afterward he resumed the practice of law, and held the office of attorney-general of the state for ten years preceding his death. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia Loyalists' convention of 1866, and presided over the New Hampshire Republican convention on 14 September, 1886. In the presidential election of 1872 he supported his life-long friend, Horace Greeley. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 33-34.


TAPPAN, Samuel Foster, 1831-1913, Manchester, Massachusetts, journalist, Union Army officer, abolitionist, Native American rights activist.  Co-founded Lawrence, Kansas, as part of the New England Emigrant Aid Company.  Active in the Free-Soil movement to keep slavery out of the territory of Kansas.  Served as a correspondent for the New York Tribune, reporting on the anti-slavery activities there.  Related to the abolitionist Tappan family.


TAPPING, Lewis, Iowa Territory, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1839-40


TAR, &c. Charcoal is made in the simplest way by digging a hole in the earth, or choosing some old well or gigantic burrow, and filling it with piles of wood, arranging them so as to leave a kind of chimney down the centre. The top of the well is now covered over, excepting the chimney, down which a brand is dropped to set fire to the wood. The burning should proceed very gradually, and be governed by opening or shutting the chimney-top with a flat stone; for the wood should smoulder, and never attain to a bright red: it will take from two days to a week to make charcoal. The tarry products of the wood drain to the bottom of the well.

Tar is made by burning larch, fir, or pine, as though charcoal had to be made; dead or withered trees, and especially their roots, yield tar most copiously. A vast deal is easily obtained. It collects at the bottom of the pit, and a hole should be cleanly dug there into which it may drain. Pitch is tar boiled down. Turpentine is the juice that the living pine, fir, or larch tree secretes, in blisters under the bark; they are tapped to obtain it. Resin is turpentine boiled down. Tar is absolutely essential in a hot country to mix with the grease that is used for the wagon-wheels. Grease, alone, melts and runs away like water  the office of the tar is to give consistence. A very small proportion of tar suffices, but, without any at all, a wagon is soon brought to a standstill. It is, therefore, most essential to explorers to have a sufficient quantity in reserve. Tar is also of very great use in hot dry countries for daubing over the wheels, and the woodwork generally, of wagons. During the extreme heat, when the wood is ready to crack, all the paint should be scraped off it, and the tar applied plentifully. It will soak in deeply, and preserve the wood in excellent condition, both during the drought and the ensuing wet season. It is not necessary to take the wheels off, in order to grease the axles. It is sufficient to bore an auger-hole right through the substance of the nave, between the feet of two of the spokes, and to keep a plug in the hole. Then, in order to tar a wheel, turn it till the hole is uppermost; take the plug out, and pour the tar in; (GALTON'S Art of Travel.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 607-608).


TARBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, July 20, 1863. (See Rocky Mount, Potter's Expedition.)


TARGET. Practice at target-firing is essential to make a soldier. To obtain from the new small-arms the great results which they promise it is necessary: 1. That the soldier should know the different parts of the arm, or its nomenclature, how to take it apart and put it together, and the best method of keeping it in good order. This instruction should be given by sergeants and corporals under direction of the officers of the company; (see ARMS.) 2. The soldier must be taught the prescribed method of loading his arm. 3. The rules for firing must be known to him, that is to say, he must be taught the use of the hausse, or to regulate his arm according to the distance of the enemy; (see HAUSSE.) 4. lie must be taught to estimate distances in order to apply the rules for firing; (see the method practised at Vincennes given p. 609.) 5. lie must know how to aim. 6. He must hold the musket in the position his instructor prescribes, and aim with ease; preserve the body steady, but not constrained; resist the recoil; and not incline the rear sight to the right or to the left. If the rear sight, when raised and held upright, give the proper elevation for say 900 yards, and it then be inclined to the right although the aim is in such position taken with the 900 yards' sight, yet the elevation is actually lowered, and the bullet would, therefore, not only fly to the right of the object, but fall short from want of sufficient elevation. The more the sight is inclined, the greater will be the loss of elevation. Another cause of inaccuracy in aiming arises from aiming with a coarse front sight. Such an aim causes the line of sight to pass to the right or left of the front sight, and the ball consequently to go to the opposite side of the object from the side of the coarse sight by which we aimed. The elevations for different ranges being marked for a fine sight, therefore when it is necessary to use the coarse sight for a greater distance than the elevation used, the proper allowance must be made in aiming. 7. In pulling the trigger, in no manner to derange the musket. The soldier must acquire the habit of pulling the trigger when, in raising the piece, the sights cover the bull's-eye. Most of these details, it is obvious, will be better taught without wasting cartridges. When the soldier has been, however, sufficiently instructed in the simulated fire, to accustom him to the noise of the actual fire, it is necessary to begin with the explosion of caps, observing that he preserves his arm immovable as previously taught. To accustom him to the effect of the recoil, it is necessary to fire some blank cartridges.

Such are the gradual steps to be followed in practical firing, and by taking them better marksmen will be made than by passing men without previous preparation from the school of the soldier to target practice. After the soldier has been practised at firing at the target within the efficacious range of his arm, and has acquired the habit of estimating distances, without great errors; when he has been taught to fire at a mark changed at every fire, the distance of which he must estimate, he may be sent as a skirmisher against an enemy. He will know the range and use of his arm. He will appreciate its great power. The instruction of the soldier would not, however, be complete if he had been exercised only in firing singly. He must be accustomed to the gene that he experiences in the ranks, to movements of his comrades, to the smoke which covers the front of the troops, to obeying the commands of the officer who directs the fire. The execution of the fire by platoon, by rank and by two ranks, upon squares, which indicate the effect of the fire, is a necessary instruction above all to officers, who learn in these exercises to direct and command firing, to estimate the relative value of different fires, and to judge of the importance of a simultaneous fire at proper moments. The whole instruction in firing may be given to the sergeants, corporals, and soldiers of a battalion without injury to other necessary instruction, and without hindrance of any duties in the course of a year.

The means of instruction adopted at Vincennes claim attention, in consequence of the manifest advantages of practising at ranges judged by the soldier himself. After attaining some proficiency as a marksman at specified distances, the soldier is taught to estimate distances as if before an enemy. From a squad of 16 men under a non-commissioned officer, four out of the 16 men are taken and posted at distances of 50, 100, 150, and 200 metres, facing the remainder of the men, who observe such details of each man's dress as can be distinguished at the several distances respectively. Having carefully noticed the differences which exist, the instructor practises the men at distances that are unknown to them, in order that they may apply the knowledge that they have gained by observation of dress at known distances. After the soldiers have been sufficiently practised in this way, their correctness in judging distances is subjected to another test. A man runs forward, and places a target at some distance unknown to the men; each man is then called upon in turn to name the distance, and the answers are recorded in a book. This kind of practice takes place at all distances, particularly between 500 and 1,000 paces, and is continued till all are moderately skilful. Firing, then begins at distances unknown to the men, and those who are most successful are rewarded with promotion, and become the instructors of others. In order that the knowledge imparted at Vincennes may. be extended to the whole army, at least one sous-officier is brought there from each regiment.

The new rifle musket and new rifle have an equal range, and greater precision than field-artillery, and a company of marksmen can produce an equal effect in the field at less cost than a battery of artillery. At 650 yards, for instance, almost every shot will take effect on horses and men attached to a battery. It will follow that the artillery must be more carefully covered in battle. (Consult Instruction provisoire sur le tir a V usage des bataillons de Chasseurs a pied. See ARMS; FIRING; HAUSSE; STADIA.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 608-610).


TARRANT, Carter, Virginia, Baptist clergyman, co-leader of the Emancipating Baptists, anti-slavery activist, Woodford County, Kentucky.  Chaplain, U.S. Army, founded anti-slavery church in Kentucky.  (Brown, 1889, p. 226; Dumond, 1961, p. 91; Locke, 1901, pp. 44, 90)


TATTNALL, Josiah, naval officer, born in Bonaventure, near Savannah, Georgia, 9 November, 1795; died in Savannah, Georgia, 14 June, 1871, was educated in England under the supervision of his grandfather in 1805'11. He returned to the United States in 1811 and entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 January, 1812. He served in the war of 1812 in the seamen's battery on Craney Island, and with a force of navy yard workmen in the Bladensburg.' During the Algerine war he participated in the engagements of Decatur's squadron. He returned to the United States in September, 1817, was promoted to lieutenant, 1 April, 1818, and served in the frigate "Macedonian," on the Pacific station, in 1818—'21. In 1833-'4 he served in the schooner "Jackal." one of Porter's " Mosquito fleet," in the suppression of piracy in the West Indies. In October, 1828, he was appointed 1st lieutenant of the sloop " Erie," in the West Indies, where he cut out the Spanish cruiser " Federal," which had confiscated American property at sea during the wars of the Spanish-American republics for independence. In August, 1829, he took charge of the surveys of the Tortugas Reefs off the coast of Florida, which surveys proved to be of great value for the location of fortifications at Dry Tortugas. In March, 1831, he took command of the schooner "Grampus" in the West Indies, and in August, 1832, he captured the Mexican war-schooner "Montezuma" for illegal acts against an American vessel. His services with the "Grampus" in protecting American commerce elicited letters of thanks from the merchants and insurance companies at Vera Cruz and New Orleans, from whom he also received a service of silver. In December, 1832, he was relieved of his command at his own request, and he subsequently served on duty in making experiments in ordnance and in the conduct of the coast tidal survey. In November, 1835, in command of the bark "Pioneer," he took General Santa-Anna to Mexico after he had been captured in a battle with the Texans and surrendered to the United States. Upon their arrival at Vera Cruz, Tattnall personally prevented an attack on Santa-Anna by an excited mob of his opponents. He was promoted to commander, 25 February, 1838, and placed in charge of the Boston Navy-yard. While on his way to the African station in the " Saratoga" in 1843 he encountered a hurricane off Cape Ann, Massachusetts, and won a brilliant professional reputation by the skill he displayed in cutting away the masts and anchoring when almost on the rocks off the cape. When war was declared with Mexico he was assigned to command the steamer " Spitfire," joined the squadron at Vera Cruz, and was given command of the Mosquito division. With this he covered the landing of General Winfield Scott's army, and assisted in the bombardment of the city. After the fall of Vera Cruz he led in the attack on the forts at Tuspan and was severely wounded in the arm by grape-shot. The legislature of Georgia gave him a vote of thanks and a sword. He was promoted to captain. 5 February, 1850, and in command of the steamer "Saranac" contributed much to preserve peace between the United States and Spain during the Cuban insurrection. On 15 October, 1857, he was appointed flag-officer of the Asiatic station. He found China at war with the allied English and French fleets, and went to the scene of operations at Pei-ho. Shortly before an engagement his flagship grounded and was towed off by the English lxiats. This service was taken as an excuse for subsequent active participation in the attack on the Chinese. In explanation of his violation of neutrality, Tattnall exclaimed that "blood was thicker than water." He was sustained in his course by public opinion at the time and also by the government, On 20 February, 1861, he resigned his commission as captain in the U.S. Navy, and offered his services to the governor of Georgia. He was commissioned senior flag-officer of the Georgia navy, 28 February. 1861, and in March, 1861, he became a captain in the Confederate Navy, and was ordered to command the naval defences of Georgia and South Carolina. On 7 November, 1861, he led an improvised naval force against the attack on Port Royal. He conducted attacks on the blockading fleet at the mouth of the Savannah, constructed batteries for the defence of that river, and materially delayed the operations of the National forces. In March, 1862, he was ordered to relieve Franklin Buchanan, who was wounded in the engagement with the ' Monitor," and took command of the " Merrimac" and the naval defences of the waters of Virginia. He set out for Hampton Roads on 11 April, 1862, accompanied by the gun-boats, which cut out three merchant vessels, but the "Merrimac" did not venture to lose communication with Norfolk. When the Confederates were forced to abandon the peninsula, Norfolk and the Navy-yard were also surrendered, and on 11 May, 1862, Tattnall destroyed the " Merrimac " off Craney Island in order to prevent her capture. He was then ordered to resume command of the naval defences of Georgia. At his request a court of inquiry was ordered to investigate the destruction of the "Merrimac," and he was censured for destroying the vessel without attacking the enemy's fleet, and for not taking her to Hog Island to defend the James River. He then demanded a regular court-martial, which met at Richmond, 5 July, 1862, and. after a thorough investigation, honorably acquitted him. He was indefatigable in his efforts to defend Savannah River, but in January, 1865, he was obliged to destroy all the vessels he had collected. He then went to Augusta, where he was included in the parole of the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston's army. He remained there until 12 June. 1806, when he took his family to Nova Scotia, after first obtaining permission from the war department to leave the country. He resided near Halifax, but his pecuniary resources became nearly exhausted, and in 1870 he returned to his home in quest of employment. On 5 January, 1870, the mayor and city council appointed him inspector of the port of Savannah. He held this office, which had been created for him, for seventeen months, when it was abolished by his death. See "'The Life of Commodore Tattnall," by Charles C. Jones, assisted by J. R. F. Tattnall, the commodore's son (Savannah, 1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 38-39.


TATTOO OR TAPTOO. Drum-beat and roll-call at night. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 610).


TAYLOR, Alfred, naval officer, born in Fairfax County, Virginia, 23 May, 1810. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 November, 1826, became a passed midshipman, 4 June. 1831, and was commissioned a lieutenant, 9 February, 1837. During the Mexican war he was attached to the frigate "Cumberland" in the blockade of Vera Cruz and in some of the operations on the coast. He served at the Washington Navy-yard in 1848-'51, and in the steamer "Mississippi'' with Perry's Expedition to Japan in 1853-'5, was commissioned commander, 14 September, 1855, and commanded the sloop " Saratoga " on the coast of Africa when the Civil War opened in 1861. He was commissioned captain, 10 July, 1862, and was attached to the U.S. Navy-yard at Boston in 1862-'5. He commanded the flag-ship "Susquehanna" on the Brazil station in 1866, and was promoted to commodore, 27 September, I860. He was then on waiting orders until February, 1869, when he was appointed light-house inspector. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 29 January, 1872, and was retired by operation of law, 23 May. 1872. He has been a resident of New York City since his retirement.  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 39.


TAYLOR. Bushrod Bust, naval officer, born in Madison, Indiana, 31 March, 1832; died in Washington, D. C, 22 April, 1883. He entered the U.S. Navy as an acting midshipman, 3 April, 1849, and was graduated at the Naval Academy. 12 June, 1855. He was promoted to master on 10.September, lieutenant, 31 July, 1850, and served in the Paraguay Expedition of 1859. He went to the Naval Academy as an instructor in October, 1860, and assisted in the removal of the academy from Annapolis to Newport. From May to August, 1861, he served in the flagship "Colorado," in the Gulf Squadron, on the blockade. He was in the supply and despatch steamer " Connecticut " in 1861-"2, and was executive of the steamer" Cimmeron" in James River and the South Atlantic blockade in 1862-'3. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, served in the steamer " Ticonderoga," flag-ship of the West India Squadron, in 1863, and commanded the steamer " Kanawha," in the Western Gulf Squadron, until 28 September, 1865. He next served at the Philadelphia Navy-yard in 1865-'6. and at the Naval Academy as an instructor in 1866-'9. He was commissioned commander. 14 March, 1868, and had the steamer" Idaho," of the Asiatic Squadron, in 1869. In this vessel he encountered the centre of a terrible typhoon, in which she was completely dismantled and became almost a total wreck. This was one of the worst storms, that was ever survived by any ship. He next commanded the "Ashuelot " on the same station, until January. 1872, served at the Philadelphia Navy-yard in 1872, and in the bureau of yards and docks at Washington in 1872-'4. He commanded the steamer " Wachusett " during the threatened war with Spain in 1874, was a member of the board of inspection in 1876, and at the Boston Navy-yard in 1876-9. He was commissioned captain, 27 October, 1869, and had special duty at Washington in 1880. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 42.


TAYLOR, George William, soldier,  in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 22 November, 1808; died in Alexandria, Virginia, 1 September, 1862. He was graduated at the military academy of Alden Partridge, Middletown, Connecticut, and received a midshipman's warrant in the U.S. Navy in 1827, but resigned at the end of four years and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In the beginning of the Mexican war he assisted in raising a company in New Jersey, being commissioned as lieutenant on 8 March, 1847, and as captain in the following September, and served through General Zachary Taylor's campaigns. After the war he went to California, remaining there three years. Returning then to New Jersey, he occupied himself in mining and iron-manufacturing. When the Civil War began he was made colonel of the, 3d New Jersey Infantry, which left for the field on 28 June. 1861,"assisted in guarding Long Bridge, formed part of the reserve division at Bull Run, and participated in the occupation of Manassas in March. 1862, being the first to perceive the enemy retreating. When General Philip Kearny was promoted. Colonel Taylor succeeded to the command of the brigade, which he led in the advance on Richmond and the seven days' battles, receiving his commission as brigadier-general of volunteers on 11 May, 1862. At Gaines's Mills his command was subjected to the hottest fire. At the second battle of Bull Run he fought with distinguished courage, and received wounds from which he soon after died. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 44.


TAYLOR, James Barnett, clergyman, born in Barton-on-Humber. England, 19 March, 1819; died in Richmond, Virginia, 22 Dee., 1871. He was brought in his infancy to the United States, and received his early education in New York City, whence his parents moved about 1818 to Mecklenburg County, Virginia After passing through an academical course, he became a Baptist home missionary, and in 1826 was chosen pastor of a church in Richmond, Virginia. where he soon acquired a high reputation as a preacher. In 1839-40 he officiated as chaplain of the University of Virginia. Returning to Richmond, he served as a pastor there for five years longer. He labored also as a missionary, and in 1845, soon after the organization of the Southern Baptist convention, became its corresponding secretary. This office he filled till within a few weeks of his death, travelling constantly, preaching throughout the south, and editing the "Religious Herald" for a short time, and subsequently the "Southern Baptist Missionary Journal" and the " Home and Foreign Journal," both of which he founded, hand the "Foreign Mission Journal.' He was pastor also of the Baptist church at Taylorsville, Hanover County, Virginia, till the Civil War began. During the war he labored as a colporteur in camps and hospitals, and for three years as Confederate post-chaplain. After its close he exerted himself to revive the missions of the Southern Baptist convention, and took much interest in the education of the freedmen, preaching often to colored congregations, and conferring with the secretary of the Freedmen's bureau with regard to the best plans for assisting the emancipated slaves. He was one of the originators of the Virginia Baptist education society, and a founder of Richmond College. His chief published works were " Life of Lot Cary" (Baltimore. 1H37): "Lives of Virginia Baptist Ministers " (Richmond. 1837); and 'Memoir of Luther Rice, one of the First Missionaries in the East" (1841). He had nearly completed before his death a " History of Virginia Baptists." See "Life and Times of James B. Taylor,' by his son, George B. Taylor (Philadelphia. 1872). His wife was a daughter of Elisha Scott Williams.—Their son, George Boardnian, clergyman, born in Richmond, Virginia, 27 December, 1832, was graduated at Richmond College, taught for a short time, and then studied three years at the University of Virginia, at the same time serving as pastor of two Baptist churches in the vicinity. He was graduated in most of the schools in the university, was pastor for two years in Baltimore, Maryland, then for twelve years at Staunton, Virginia, leaving his church during the campaign of 1862 to act as chaplain to Stonewall Jackson's corps. Subsequently, till the close of hostilities, he officiated as post-chaplain in conjunction with his pastorate. In 1809 he was chosen chaplain of the University of Virginia for the usual period of two years, after which he returned to his former church at Staunton, of which he again took leave in 187:3, on being appointed by the mission board of the Southern Baptist convention missionary to Rome, Italy. He was co-editor of the " Christian Review " for two years, and since 1876 he has been one of the editors of " 11 Seminatore," a monthly Baptist magazine published in Rome. The degree of D. D. was given him by Richmond College and the University of Chicago in 1872. His publications include "Oakland Stories" (4 vols., New York, 1859-'65); "Costar Grew" (Philadelphia, 1869): ' Roger Bernard, the Pastor's Son " (1870); and ' Walter Ennis," a tale of the early Virginia Baptists (1870). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 44.


TAYLOR, John W., 1784-1854, abolitionist.  Nine term Democratic U.S. Congressman from New York, 1813-1833.  Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Proposed legislation in 1819 to prohibit slavery in Arkansas Territory.  Later organized the Whig and National Republican Parties.  Taylor said during a debate on slavery: “Our votes this day will determine whether the high destinies of this region, of these generations, shall be fulfilled, or whether we shall defeat them by permitting slavery, with all its baleful consequences, to inherit the wind.” (15 Cong., 2 Sess., 1818-1819, p. 1170)

(Basker, 2005, pp. 318, 319, 321, 324, 327, 349; Dumond, 1961, p. 104; Mabee, 1970, pp. 86, 191, 193, 199, 202, 204; Mason, 2006, pp. 146, 148, 181, 186; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 35, 36, 298; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 46; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 235)

TAYLOR, John W., speaker of the House of Representatives, born in Charlton, Saratoga County, New York, 20 March; 1784; died in Cleveland, Ohio, 8 September, 1854. He was graduated at Union in 1803, organized the Ballston Centre Academy in that year, studied law in Albany, was admitted to the bar in 1807, and practised in Ballston, becoming a justice of the peace in 1808, then state commissioner of loans, and in 1811-'12 a member of the legislature. He was elected to Congress as a Democrat and a supporter of the war with Great Britain, and was re-elected nine times in succession, serving altogether from 24 May, 1813, till 2 March, 1833. On 20 November, 1820; owing to the absence of Henry Clay, Taylor was chosen in his place as speaker, and served till the end of the second session, during which the Missouri compromise was passed. On the question of the admission of Missouri to the Union he delivered the first speech in Congress that plainly opposed the extension of slavery. He was again elected speaker on the organization of the 19th Congress, serving from 5 December, 1825, till 3 March, 1827. He was one of the organizers of the National Republican, and afterward of the Whig Party. After retiring from Congress he practised law at Ballston, and was a member of the state senate in 1840-'1 , but resigned in consequence of a paralytic stroke, and from 1843 till his death lived with a daughter in Cleveland. He was the orator of the Phi Beta Kappa society at Harvard in 1827, and frequently spoke in public on literary as well as on national topics. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 46.


TAYLOR, Moses, merchant, born in New York City, 11 January, 1806. He received a common-school education, became a merchant's clerk at the age of fifteen, and when ten years older embarked in business on his own account. He acquired a large trade with Cuba, and was an extensive ship-owner. In 1855 he became president of the City bank. During the Civil War he was one of the original members of the Union defence committee, and, as chairman of the loan committee of the associated banks, he was instrumental in obtaining subscribers for more than $200,000,000 of government securities. He was one of the originators of submarine telegraphy, and has been an active promoter of important railway lines. Among his charitable gifts was one of $250,000 in 1882 for a hospital for employes of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and coal and iron companies at Scranton, Pennsylvania Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 47.


TAYLOR, Nelson, soldier, born in South Norwalk, Connecticut, 8 June, 1821. He received a common-school education. At the beginning of the war with Mexico he joined the army as captain of the 1st New York Volunteers on 1 August, 1846, served through the war, and at its close settled in Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, where he was elected a state senator in 1846 and sheriff in 1855. He was also president of the board of trustees of the state insane asylum from 1850 till 1856. Returning to New York City, he studied law, taking his degree at the Harvard law-school in 1860. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the volunteer service as colonel of the 72d New York Infantry. He commanded this regiment, which formed a part of General Daniel E. Sickles's brigade, during the Chickahominy Campaign. He had command of the brigade at Williamsburg and in General John Pope's Virginia Campaign, and was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, in recognition of his services, on 7 September, 1862. He resigned on 19 January, 1863, resumed practice in New York City, and was elected as a Democrat to Congress, serving from 4 December, 1865, till 3 March, 1867. He was a member of the select committees on freedmen and invalid pensions. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 48.


TAYLOR, Walter Herron, soldier, born in Norfolk, Virginia, 18 June, 1838. He was educated at the Virginia military institute, and became a merchant and banker. He joined the Confederate Army on the secession of Virginia, and was on the staff of General Robert E. Lee during the entire period of the Civil War, and from the time that General Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, served as adjutant-general of that army, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. After the war he resumed the banking business at Norfolk, Virginia, where he has held municipal offices, and was elected to the state senate, of which he was a member from 1869 till 1873. He is the author of " Four Years with General Lee " (New York, 1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 50.


TAYLOR, William Vigneron, naval officer, born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1781; died there, 11 February, 1858. He went to sea before the mast, became a captain in the merchant marine, and entered the U.S. Navy as a sailing-master, 28 April, 1813. He was attached to Commodore Oliver H. Perry's flag-ship, the "Lawrence," in the battle of Lake Erie, where he was severely wounded, afterward receiving a vote of thanks and a sword for his services. He was commissioned a lieutenant, 9 December, 1814, cruised in the "Java" on the Mediterranean station in 1815-'16, and was on leave at Newport on account of his wound in 1816-'23, after which he served in the ship " Ontario," of the Mediterranean Squadron, in 1824-"6, at the Boston Navy-yard in 1827-'8, and in the frigate "Hudson," on the Brazil station, in 1829-'30. He was promoted to master-commandant, 3 March, 1831, was in charge of the receiving ship at Boston in 1833-"4, and the sloop "Warren" in 1835. In 1839-'41 he had the store-ship " Erie." ne was promoted to captain, 8 September, 1841, and commanded the Pacific Squadron in the " Ohio" in 1847-'8. After this he was on leave at Newport until his death.—His son, William Rogers, naval officer, born in Newport, Rhode Island, 7 November, 1811, entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 1 April, 1828, became a passed midshipman, 14 June, 1834, and cruised in the "Peacock" in the East Indies in 1835-'6. When the " Peacock" was stranded on the Island of Massera in 1836. he was sent to take the U. S. diplomatic agent, Edmund Roberts, to Muscat to arrange treaties. This voyage lasted five days in an open boat, and upon arrival at Muscat the sultan offered him the sloop "Sultane " to go to the relief of the "Peacock "; but the latter had got off, and he rejoined her at sea. He served as acting lieutenant on the same station and in the Pacific in the schooner "Enterprise" and ship "North Carolina" in 1836-'8. He was commissioned a lieutenant, 10 February, 1840, and was engaged in the survey of Tampa bay. Florida, in 1842-3, during which he at times had command of the steamer "Poinsett" and the brig  Oregon." He served on the Brazil station in the brig " Perry " and the ship  “Columbus" in 1843-'4. During the Mexican war he was on the sloop " St. Mary's" in the engagement with batteries at Tampico. where he commanded the launch in the expedition that captured that port and five Mexican schooners, 14 November, 1846. During the siege and bombardment of Vera Cruz he commanded the eight-inch gun in the naval battery on shore for thirty-six hours. He was promoted to commander, 14 September, 1855, and was on ordnance duty at Washington in 1857-'9. In 1861 he was ordered to command the steamer "Housatonic," and he was promoted to captain, 16 July, 1862. While senior officer in the blockade off Charleston he engaged the Confederate rams "Chocura" and " Palmetto " in the " Housatonic" when they attacked the squadron in January. 1863. When Dahlgren took command he was appointed fleet-captain, and participated in the actions against Morris Island in July, 1863. On 16 July he was in the battle on board the monitor " Catskill." and on 18 July in the monitor " Montauk." He commanded the steamer "Juniata" in both attacks on Fort Fisher. He was president of the board to revise the U.S. Navy regulations, was in charge of the ordnance-yard at Washington in 1866-'7, and was promoted to commodore, 25 July, 1866. He was a member of the examining board in 1868, commanded the northern Squadron of the Pacific fleet in 1869-'71, was promoted to rear-admiral, 19 January, 1871. and was president of the examining board in 1871—'2, and commanded the South Atlantic Squadron from 22 May, 1872, till 7 November, 1873, when he was retired. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 51.


TAYLOR, Zachary, twelfth president of the United States, born in Orange County, Virginia, 24 September, 1784; died in the executive mansion, Washington, D. C, 9 July. 1850. His father. Colonel Richard Taylor, an officer in the war of the Revolution, was conspicuous for zeal and daring among men in whom personal gallantry was the rule. After the war he retired to private life, and in 1785 moved to Kentucky, then a sparsely occupied county of Virginia, and made his home near the present city of Louisville, where he died. Zachary was the third son. Brought up on a farm in a new settlement, he had few scholastic opportunities; but in the thrift, industry, self-denial, and forethought required by the circumstances, he learned such lessons as were well adapted to form the character illustrated by his eventful career. Yet he had also another form of education. The liberal grants of land that Virginia made to her soldiers caused many of them, after the peace of 1783, to remove to the west; thus Colonel Taylor's neighbors included many who had been his fellow-soldiers, and these often met around his wide hearth. Their conversation would naturally be reminiscences of their military life, and all the sons of Colonel Taylor, save one. Hancock, entered the U. S. army. The rapid extension of settlements on the border was productive of frequent collision with the Indians, and required the protection of a military force. In 1808, on the recommendation of President Jefferson, Congress authorized the raising of five regiments of infantry, one of riflemen, one of light artillery, and one of light dragoons. From the terms of the act it was understood that this was not to be a permanent increase of the U. S. army, and many of the officers of the "old army " declined to seek promotion in the new regiments. At this period questions had arisen between the United States and Great Britain which caused serious anticipations of a war with that power, and led many to regard the additional force authorized as a preliminary step in preparation for such a war. Zachary Taylor, then in his twenty-fourth year, applied for a commission and was appointed a 1st lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Infantry, one of the new regiments, and in 1810 was promoted to the grade of captain in the same regiment, according to the regulations of the service. He was happily married in 1810 to Miss Margaret Smith, of Calvert County, Maryland, who shared with him the privations and dangers of his many years of frontier service, and survived him but a short time. The troubles on the frontier continued to increase until 1811, when General William H. Harrison, afterward president of the United States, marched against the stronghold of the Shawnees and fought the battle of Tippecanoe. In . June, 1812, war was declared against England, and this increased the widespread and not unfounded fears of Indian invasion in the valley of the Wabash. To protect Vincennes from sudden assault, Captain Taylor was ordered to Fort Harrison, a stockade on the river above Vincennes, and with his company of infantry, about fifty strong, made preparations to defend the place. He had not long to wait. A large body of Indians, knowing the smallness of the garrison, came, confidently counting on its capture; but as it is a rule in their warfare to seek by stratagem to avoid equal risk and probable loss, they tried various expedients, which were foiled by the judgment, vigilance, and courage of the commander, and when the final attack was made, the brave little garrison repelled it with such loss to the assailants that when, in the following October, General Hopkins came to support Fort Harrison, no Indians were to be found thereabout. For the defence of Fort Harrison, Captain Taylor received the brevet of major, an honor that had seldom, if ever before, been conferred for service in Indian war. In the following November, Major Taylor, with a battalion of regulars, formed a part of the command of General Hopkins in the expedition against the hostile Indians at the head-waters of the Wabash. In 1814, with his separate command, he being then a major by commission, he made a campaign against the hostile Indians and their British allies on Rock River, which was so successful as to give subsequent security to that immediate frontier. In such service, not the less hazardous or indicative of merit because on a small scale, he passed the period of his employment on that frontier until the treaty of peace with Great Britain disposed the Indians to be quiet. After the war, 3 March, 1815, a law was enacted to fix the military peace establishment of the United States. By this act the whole force was to be reduced to 10,000 men, with such proportions of artillery, infantry, and riflemen as the president should judge proper. The president was to cause the officers and men of the existing army to be arranged, by unrestricted transfers, so as to form the corps authorized by the recent act, and the supernumeraries were to be discharged. Maj. Taylor had borne the responsibilities and performed the duties of a battalion commander so long and successfully that when the arranging board reduced him to the rank of captain in the new organization he felt the injustice, but resigned j from the army without complaint, returned home, and proceeded, as he said in after-years, "to make I a crop of corn." Influences that were certainly not employed by him, and are unknown to the writer of this sketch, caused his restoration to the grade of major, and he resumed his place in the army, there to continue until the voice of the people called him to the highest office within their gift. Under the rules that governed promotion in the army, Maj. Taylor became lieutenant colonel of the 1st U.S. Infantry, and commanded at Fort Snelling, then the advanced post in the northwest. In 1832 he became colonel of the 1st U.S. Infantry, with headquarters at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien. The barracks were unfinished, and his practical mind and conscientious attention to every duty were manifest in the progress and completion of the work. The second Black Hawk Campaign occurred this year, and Colonel Taylor, with the greater part of his regiment, joined the army commanded by General Henry Atkinson, and with it moved from Rock Island up the valley of Rock River, following Black Hawk, who had gone to make a junction with the Pottawattamie band of the Prophet, a nephew of Black Hawk. This was in violation of the treaty he had made with General Edmund P. Gaines in 1831, by which he was required to remove to the west of the Mississippi, relinquishing all claim to the Rock River villages. It was assumed that his purpose in returning to the east side of the river was hostile, and, from the defenceless condition of the settlers and the horror of savage atrocity, great excitement was created, due rather to his fame as a warrior than to the number of his followers. If, as he subsequently declared, his design was to go and live peaceably with his nephew, the Prophet, rather than with the Foxes, of whom Keokuk was the chief, that design may have been frustrated by the lamentable mistake of some mounted volunteers in hastening forward in pursuit of Black Hawk, who, with his band—men, women, and children— was going up on the south side of the Rock River. The pursuers fell into an ambuscade, and were routed with some loss and in great confusion. The event will be remembered by the men of that day as " Stillman's run." The vanity of the young Indians was inflated by their success, as was shown by some exultant messages: and the sagacious old chief, whatever he may have previously calculated upon, now saw that war was inevitable and immediate. With his band recruited by warriors from the Prophet's band, he crossed to the north side of Rock River, and, passing through the swamp Koshkenong, fled over the prairies west of the Four Lakes, toward Wisconsin River. General Henry Dodge, with a battalion of mounted miners, overtook the Indians while they were crossing the Wisconsin and attacked their rear-guard, which, when the main body had crossed, swam the river and joined the retreat over the Kickapoo hills toward the Mississippi. General Atkinson, with his whole army, continued the pursuit, and, after a toilsome march, overtook the I Indians north of Prairie du Chien, on the bank of the Mississippi, to the west side of which they were preparing to cross in bark canoes made on the spot. That purpose was foiled by the accidental arrival of a steamboat with a small gun on board. The Indians took cover in a willow marsh, and there was fought the battle of the Bad Axe. The Indians were defeated, and dispersed, and the campaign ended. In the meantime, General Winfield Scott, with troops from the east, took chief command and established his headquarters at Rock Island, and thither General Atkinson went with the regular troops, except that part of the 1st U.S. Infantry which constituted the garrison of Port Crawford. With these Colonel Taylor returned to Prairie du Chien. When it was reported that the Indians were on an island above the prairie, he sent a lieutenant with an appropriate command to explore the island, where unmistakable evidence was found of the recent presence of the Indians and of their departure. Immediately thereafter a group of Indians appeared on the east bank of the river under a white flag, who proved to be Black Hawk, with a remnant of his band and a few friendly Winnebagoes. The lieutenant went with them to the fort, where Colonel Taylor received them, except the Winnebagoes, as prisoners. A lieutenant and a guard were sent with them, sixty in number—men, women, and children—by steamboat, to Rock Island, there to report to General Scott for orders in regard to the prisoners. Colonel Taylor actively participated in the campaign up to its close, and to him was surrendered the chief who had most illustrated the warlike instincts of the Indian race, to whom history must fairly accord the credit of having done much under the most disadvantageous circumstances. In 1836 Colonel Taylor was ordered to Florida for service in the Seminole war, and the next year he defeated the Indians in the decisive battle of Okechobee, for which he received the brevet of brigadier-general, and in 1838 was appointed to the chief command in Florida. In 1840 he was assigned to command the southern division of the western department of the army. Though General Taylor had for many years been a cotton-planter, his family had lived with him at his military station, but, when ordered for an indefinite time on field service, he made his family home at Baton Rouge, Louisiana Texas having been annexed to the United States in 1845, Mexico threatened to invade Texas with the avowed purpose to recover the territory, and General Taylor was ordered to defend it as a part of the United States. He proceeded with all his available force, about 1.500 men, to Corpus Christi, where he was joined by re-enforcements of regulars and volunteers. Discussion had arisen as to whether the Nueces or the Rio Grande was the proper boundary of Texas. His political opinions, whatever they might be, were subordinate to the duty of a soldier to execute the orders of his government, and, without uttering it, he acted on the apophthegm of Decatur: "My country, right or wrong, my country." Texas claimed protection for her frontier, the president recognized the fact that Texas had been admitted to the Union with the Rio Grande as her boundary, and General Taylor was instructed to advance to" that river. His force had been increased to about 4,000, when, on 8 March, 1846, he marched from Corpus Christi. He was of course conscious of the inadequacy of his division to resist such an army us Mexico might send against it, but when ordered by superior authority it was not his to remonstrate. General Gaines, commanding the western department, had made requisitions for a sufficient number of volunteers to join Taylor, but the Secretary of War countermanded them, except as to such as had already joined. General Taylor, with a main depot at Point Isabel, advanced to the bank of the Rio Grande, opposite to Matamoras, and there made provision for defence of the place called Fort Brown. Soon after his arrival, Aiupudia, the Mexican general at Matamoras, made a threatening demand that General Taylor should withdraw his troops beyond the Nueces, to which he replied that his position had been taken by order of his government, and would be maintained. Having completed the intrenchment, and being short of supplies, he left a garrison to hold it, and marched with an aggregate force of 2,288 men to obtain additional supplies from Point Isabel, about thirty miles distant. General Arista, the new Mexican commander, availing himself of the opportunity to interpose, crossed the river below Fort Brown with a force estimated at 6,000 regular troops, 10 pieces of artillery, and a considerable amount of auxiliaries. In the afternoon of the second day's march from Point Isabel these were reported by General Taylor's cavalry to be in his front, and he halted to allow the command to rest and for the needful dispositions for battle. In the evening a request was made that a council of war should be held, to which General Taylor assented. The prevalent opinion was in favor of falling back to Point Isabel, there to intrench and wait for re-enforcements. After listening to a full expression of views, the general announced: "I shall go to Fort Brown or stay in my shoes," a western expression equivalent to "or die in the attempt." He then notified the officers to prepare to attack the enemy at dawn of day. In the morning of 8 May the advance was made by columns until the enemy's batteries opened, when line of battle was formed and Taylor's artillery, inferior in number but otherwise superior, was brought fully into action and soon dispersed the mass of the enemy's cavalry. The chaparral, dense copses of thorn-bushes, served both to conceal the position of the enemy and to impede the movements of the attacking force. The action closed at night, when the enemy retired, and General Taylor bivouacked on the field. Early in the morning of 9 May he resumed his march, and in the afternoon encountered General Arista in a strong position with artillery advantageously posted. Taylor's infantry pushed through the chaparral lining both sides of the road, and drove the enemy's infantry before them; but the batteries held their position, and were so fatally used that it was an absolute necessity to capture them. For this purpose the general ordered a squadron of dragoons to charge them. The enemy's gunners were cut down at their pieces, the commanding officer was captured, and the infantry soon made the victory complete. The Mexican loss in the two battles was estimated at a thousand; the American, killed, forty-nine. The enemy precipitately recrossed the Rio Grande, leaving the usual evidence of a routed army. General Taylor then proceeded to Fort Brown. During his absence it had been heavily bombarded, and the commander, Maj. Brown, had been killed. The Mexicans evacuated Matamoras, and General Taylor took peaceable possession, 18 May. The Rio Grande, except at time of flood, offered little obstacle to predatory incursions, and it was obviously sound policy to press the enemy back from the border. General Taylor, therefore, moved forward to Oamargo, on the San Juan, a tributary of the Rio Grande. This last-named river rose so as to enable steamboats to transport troops and supplies, and by September a sufficiently large force of volunteers had reported at General Taylor's headquarters to justify a further march into the interior, but the move must be by land, and for that there was far from adequate transportation. Hiring Mexican packers to supplement the little transportation on hand, he was able to add one division of volunteers to the regulars of his command, and with a force of 6,625 men of all arms he inarched against Monterey, a fortified town of great natural strength, garrisoned by 10,000 men under Gen. Ampudia. On 19 September he encamped before the town, and on the 21st began the attack. On the third day General Ampudia proposed to surrender, commissioners were appointed, and terms of capitulation agreed upon, by which the enemy were to retire beyond a specified line, and the United States forces were not to advance beyond that line during the next eight weeks or until the pleasure of the respective governments should be known. By some strange misconception, the U. S. government disapproved the arrangement, and ordered that the armistice should bo terminated, by which we lost whatever had been gained in the interests of peace by the generous terms of the capitulation, and got nothing, for, during the short time that remained unexpired, no provision had been or could be made to enable General Taylor to advance into the heart of Mexico. Presuming that such must be the purpose of the government, he assiduously strove to collect the means for that object. When his preparations were well-nigh perfected, General Scott was sent to Mexico with orders that enabled him at discretion to strip General Taylor of both troops and material of war, to be used on another line of operations. The projected campaign against the capital of Mexico was to be from Vera Cruz, up the steppes, and against the fortifications that had been built to resist any probable invasion, instead of from Saltillo, across the plains to the comparatively undefended capital. The difficulty on this route was the waterless space to be crossed, and against that General Taylor had ingeniously provided. According to instructions, he went to Victoria, Mexico, turned over his troops, except a proper escort to return through a country of hostiles to Monterey, and then went to Agua Nueva, beyond Saltillo, where he was joined by General John B. Wool with his command from Chihuahua. General Santa-Anna saw the invitation offered by the withdrawal of General Taylor's troops, and with a well-appointed army, 20,000 strong, marched with the assurance of easily recovering their lost territory. General Taylor fell back to the narrow pass in front of the hacienda of Buena Vista, and here stood on the defensive. His force was 5,400 of all arms; but of these, only three batteries of artillery, one squadron of dragoons, one mounted company of Texans, and one regiment of Mississippi riflemen, had ever been under Are. Some skirmishing occurred on 22 February, and a general assault along the whole line was made on the morning of the 23d. The battle, with varying fortune, continued throughout the day; at evening the enemy retired, and during the night retreated by the route on which he had advanced, having suffered much by the casualties of battle, but still more by desertions. So Santa-Anna returned with but a remnant of the regular army of Mexico, on which reliance had been placed to repel invasion, and thenceforward peace was undisturbed in the valley of the Rio Grande. At that time General Taylor's capacity was not justly estimated, his golden silence being often misunderstood. His reply to Secretary Marcy's strictures in regard to the capitulation of Monterey exhibited such vigor of thought and grace of expression that many attributed it to a member of his staff who had a literary reputation. It was written by General Taylor's own hand, in the open air, by his camp-fire at Victoria, Mexico. Many years of military routine had not dulled his desire for knowledge; he had extensively studied both ancient and modern history, especially the English. Unpretending, meditative, observant,  and conclusive, he was best understood and most  appreciated by those who had known him long and intimately. In a campaign he gathered information from all who approached him, however sinister their motive might be. By comparison and elimination he gained a knowledge that was often surprising as to the position and designs of the enemy. In battle he was vigilantly active, though quiet in bearing; calm and considerate, though stern and inflexible; but when the excitement of danger and strife had subsided, he had a further tenderness and care for the wounded, and none more sincerely mourned for those who had bravely fallen in the line of their duty. Before his nomination for the presidency General Taylor had no political aspirations and looked forward to the time when he should retire from the army as the beginning of a farmer's life. He had planned for his retreat a stock-farm in the hills of Jefferson County, behind his cotton-plantation on the Mississippi River. In his case, as in some other notable instances, the fact of not desiring office rather increased than diminished popular confidence, so that unseeking he was sought. From early manhood he had served continually in the U. S. Army. His duties had led him to consider the welfare of the country as one and indivisible, and his opinions were free from party or sectional intensity. Conscious of his want of knowledge of the machinery of the civil service, he formed his cabinet to supplement his own information. They were men well known to the public by the eminent civil stations they had occupied, and were only thus known to General Taylor, who as president hail literally no friends to reward and no enemies to punish. The cabinet was constituted as follows: John M. Clayton, of Delaware, Secretary of State; William M. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Treasury; George W. Crawford, of Georgia, Secretary of War; W. Ballard Preston, of Virginia, Secretary of the Navy; Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, attorney-general; Alexander 11. H. Stuart, of Virginia, Secretary of the Interior. All these had served in the U. S. Senate or the House of Representatives, and all were lawyers. Taylor was the popular hero of a foreign war which had been victoriously ended, bringing to the United States a large acquisition of territory with an alluring harvest of gold, but. all unheeded, bringing also a large addition to the elements of sectional contention. These were soon developed, and while the upper air was calm and the sun of prosperity shone brightly on the land, the attentive listener could hear the rumbling sound of approaching convulsion. President Taylor, with the keen watchfulness and intuitive perception that had characterized him as a commander in the field, easily saw and appreciated the danger; but before it had reached the stage for official action he died. His party and local relations, being a Whig and a southern planter, gave him the vantage-ground for the exercise of a restraining influence in the threatened contest. His views, matured under former responsibilities, were tersely given to confidential friends, and as none of his cabinet (except Attorney-General Stuart) survive, their consultations I cannot be learned unless from preserved manuscript. During the brief period of his administration the rules that would govern it were made manifest, and no law for civil-service reform was needful for his guidance. With him the bestowal of office was a trust held for the people; it was not to be gained by proof of party zeal and labor. The fact of holding Democratic opinions was not a disqualification for the office. Nepotism had with him no quarter. So strict was he in this that to be a relative was an obstacle to appointment. General Winfield Scott related to the writer an anecdote that may appropriately close this sketch. He said he had remarked to his wife that General Taylor was an upright man, to which she replied: "He is not"; that he insisted his long acquaintance should enable him to judge better than she. But she persisted in her denial, and he asked: "Then what manner of man is he?'" When she responded: "He is a downright man." As president he had purity, patriotism, and discretion to guide him in his new field of duty, and had he lived long enough to stamp his character on his administration, it would have been found that the great soldier was equally fitted to bo the head of a government. General Taylor's life was written by Joseph R. Fry and Robert T. Conrad (Philadelphia, 1848) and by John Frost (New York, 1848).—His wife, Margaret, born in Calvert County, Maryland, about 1790;diednear Pascagoula, Louisiana, 18 August, 1852, was the daughter of Walter Smith, a Maryland planter. She received a home education, married early in life, and, until her husband's election to the presidency, resided with him chiefly in garrisons or on the frontier. During the Florida war she established herself at Tampa bay, and did good service among the sick and wounded in the hospitals there. Mrs. Taylor was without social ambition, and when General Taylor became president she reluctantly accepted her responsibilities, regarding the office as a "plot to deprive her of her husband's society and to shorten his life by unnecessary care." She surrendered to her youngest daughter the superintendence of the household, and took no part in social duties.—Her eldest daughter, Sarah, became the wife of Jefferson Davis. — Another daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1826, was educated in Philadelphia, married Maj. William W. S. Bliss in her nineteenth year, and, on her father's inauguration, became mistress of the White House. Mrs. Bliss, or Miss Betty, as she was popularly called, was a graceful and accomplished hostess, and, it is said, "did the honors of the establishment with the artlessness of a rustic belle and the grace of a duchess." After the death of her father in 1850, and her husband in 1853, she spent several years in retirement, subsequently marrying Philip Dandridge, of Winchester. Virginia. whom she survives.— His only son, Richard, soldier, born in New Orleans, 27 January 1826; died in New York City, 12 April. 1879. was sent to Edinburgh, Scotland, when thirteen years old. where he spent three years in studying the classics, and then a year in France. He entered the junior class at Yale in 1843, and was graduated there in 1845. He was a wide and voracious though a desultory reader. From college he went to his father's camp on the Rio Grande, and he was present at Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma. His health then became impaired, and he returned home. He resided on a cotton-plantation in Jefferson County. Mississippi, until 1849, when he moved to a sugar-estate in St. Charles parish, Louisiana, almost twenty miles above New Orleans, where he was residing when the Civil War began. He was in the state senate from 1856 to 1860, was a delegate to the Charleston Democratic convention in 1860, and afterward to that at Baltimore, and was a member of the Secession convention of Louisiana. As a member of the military committee, he aided the governor in organizing troops, and in June, 1861. went to Virginia as colonel of the 9th Louisiana Volunteers. The day he reached Richmond he left for Manassas, arriving there at dusk on the day of the battle. In the autumn he was made a brigadier-general, and in the spring of 1862 he led his brigade in the valley campaign under " Stonewall " Jackson. He distinguished himself at Front Royal, Middletown, Winchester, Strasburg, Cross Keys, and Port Republic, and Jackson recommended him for promotion. Taylor was also with Jackson in the seven days' battles before Richmond. He was promoted to major-general, and assigned to the command of Louisiana. The fatigues and exposures of his campaigns there brought on a partial and temporary paralysis of the lower limbs; but in August he assumed command. The only communication across the Mississippi retained by the Confederates was between Vicksburg and Port Hudson; but Taylor showed great ability in raising, organizing, supplying, and handling an army, and he gradually won back the state west of the Mississippi from the National forces. He had reclaimed the whole of this when Vicksburg fell, 4 July, 1863, and was then compelled to fall back west of Berwick's bay. General Taylor's principal achievement during the war was his defeat of General Nathaniel P. Banks at Sabine Cross-Roads, near Mansfield, De Soto parish, Louisiana, 8 April, 1864. With 8,000 men he at tacked the advance of the northern army and routed it, capturing twenty-two guns and a large number of prisoners. He followed Banks, who fell back to Pleasant hill, and on the next day again attacked him, when Taylor was defeated, losing the fruits of the first day's victory. These two days' fighting have been frequently compared to that of Shiloh—a surprise and defeat on the first day, followed by a substantial victory of the National forces on the second. In the summer of 1864 Taylor was promoted to be a lieutenant-general, and ordered to the command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, etc. Here he was able merely to protract the contest, while the great armies decided it. After Lee and Johnston capitulated there was nothing for him, and he surrendered to General Edward R. S. Canby, at Citronelle, 8 May, 1865. The war left Taylor ruined in fortune, and he soon went abroad. Returning home, he took part in politics as an adviser, and his counsel was held in special esteem by Samuel J. Tilden in his presidential canvass. During this period he wrote his memoir of the war, entitled "Destruction and the construction" (New York, 1879).—His brother, Joseph Pannel, soldier, born near Louisville, Kentucky, 4 May, 1796;died in Washington, D. C, 29 June, 1864, served in the ranks on the Canadian frontier during the war of 1812, was appointed a lieutenant of U. S. infantry on 20 May, 1813, served through the war with Great Britain, and was retained on the. peace establishment as lieutenant of artillery, becoming a captain in July, 1825. He was appointed commissary of subsistence in 1829, and thenceforth served in that department, becoming assistant commissary-general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in 1841. On 30 May, 1848, he was brevetted colonel for his services in prosecuting the war with Mexico, during which he was chief commissary of the army on the upper line of operations. In September, 1861, he was made colonel and commissary-general, and on 9 February, 1863, was promoted brigadier-general, his wife was a daughter of Justice John McLean.—Their son, John McLean, soldier, born in Washington, D. C., 21 November, 1828; died in Baltimore, Mil., 21 November, 1875, entered the U. S. Army as 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Artillery on 3 March, 1848, and was promoted 1st lieutenant on 30 June, 1851, and captain and commissary of subsistence on 11 May, 1851. He served faithfully in his department during the Civil War, becoming major on 9 February, 1863, and receiving the brevets of lieutenant-colonel and colonel to date from 13 March, 1865.—Another son, Joseph Hancock, soldier, born in Kentucky, 26 January. 1836;died in Omaha. Nebraska, 13 March, 1885, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1856, and commissioned 2d lieutenant of cavalry on 16 January, 1857. He served in Kansas, in the Utah Expedition, and in a campaign in 1860 against the Kiowa and Comanche Indians of Colorado. He was promoted 1st lieutenant on 22 April, 1861, and captain on 14 May, and was appointed acting adjutant-general of General Edwin V. Sumner's division on 27 November, 1861. During the Peninsula Campaign, and subsequently in the Maryland Campaign, he served as acting assistant adjutant-general of the 2d Corps, winning the brevet of major at Fair Oaks, and that of lieutenant-colonel at the Antietam. He was assistant adjutant-general at Fredericksburg, and assistant inspector-general of cavalry in Stoneman's raid. On 1 June, 1863, he was assigned to duty as assistant adjutant-general of the department at Washington. He was appointed a major on the staff on 30 March, 1866, and on 13 August was brevetted colonel for faithful services during the war. He was on duty in different military departments till his death, which was due to disease that he had contracted in the line of duty. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 51-56.


TAYLORS BAYOU, TEXAS, September 27, 1862. Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. Spaight, commanding a Confederate battalion. states in a report that Federal troops in 3 launches attempted to burn the Eastern Texas railroad bridge at the mouth of Taylor's bayou, but were driven off by the guard stationed there. This is the only official mention of the affair. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 866.


TAYLOR'S CREEK, ARKANSAS, May 11, 1863. 2nd Cavalry Brigade, 13th Army Corps. A scouting party of this brigade, 1,200 strong, while on a ten days' expedition, fell in with Marmaduke's army. The detachment had been divided and encountered two different portions of the enemy on the L'Anguille river. After a sharp fight the Federals withdrew, having lost 1 killed and 4 wounded. In the Confederate reports this action is called Crowley's Ridge. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 866.


TAYLOR'S FARM, MISSOURI, August 1. 1863. 9th Kansas Cavalry. Captain Charles F. Coleman, commanding Company D, 9th Kansas, came up with a band of guerrillas which had robbed a Federal train encamped on the Little Blue river at Taylor's farm. Several volleys were fired before the Confederates retired, leaving 4 dead on the field. The Federals suffered no loss. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, pp. 866-867.


TAYLOR'S HOLE CREEK, North Carolina, March 16, 1865. (See Averasboro, same date.)


TAYLOR'S RIDGE, GEORGIA, November 27, 1863. (See Ringgold Gap.)


TAYLOR'S RIDGE, GEORGIA, April 27, 1864. Kilpatrick's Cavalry Division. Brigadier-General Judson Kilpatrick reported from Ringgold under date of April 28: "The enemy attacked our pickets at Taylor's ridge last night. They succeeded in getting between the outpost and reserve of the second post from camp on an old Alabama road, and attacked the outpost, but did not succeed in capturing any of them. They captured 5 out of 7 horses that were on the outpost." The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 867.


TAYLORSVILLE, VIRGINIA, February 29, 1864. 6th New York Cavalry; Kilpatrick's raid. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 867.


TAZEWELL, TENNESSEE, July 22, 1862. Detachments of 2nd East Tennessee and 49th Indiana Infantry. This force, under Colonel J. T. P. Carter, while scouting in the vicinity of Tazewell awaited in the brush the approach of 60 Confederates. When they came up fire was opened and continued until it was learned that the Confederates were under a flag of truce which could not be seen in the darkness. Two of the enemy were killed and 15 wounded, while the Federals sustained no loss'. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 867.


TAZEWELL, TENNESSEE, August 2, 1862. 26th Brigade, 7th Division, Army of the Ohio. The brigade, commanded by Colonel J. F. De Courcy, was sent out from Cumberland gap on a foraging expedition. Near Tazewell some slight picket skirmishing occurred in which the Union loss was 2 men wounded, while the Confederates had 1 man killed and several wounded. The expedition returned to Cumberland gap on the 5th with 200 wagon loads of forage. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 867.


TAZEWELL, TENNESSEE, August 6, 1862. 26th Brigade, 7th Division. Army of the Ohio. During operations about Cumberland gap the brigade under Colonel John F. De Courcy was sent across the hills to Tazewell to gather forage. As it was about to start on its return the Confederates attacked in force, making a desperate attempt to cut off the advanced gun of the column. The effort was unsuccessful, however, and the Federals managed to retire and take a position beyond the town, where they remained until the Confederates withdrew. The casualties were rather heavy, but were not definitely ascertained. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 867.


TAZEWELL, TENNESSEE, January 19, 1864. (See Big Springs, same date.)


TAZEWELL, TENNESSEE, January 24, 1864. U. S. Troops of the District of the Clinch. About 3 a. m. some 600 Confederates attacked the post of Tazewell. About 100 of the enemy made a dash into the town, but were repulsed. No casualties were reported. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 867.


TAZEWELL, TENNESSEE, March 5, 1865. Detachment of 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry. Part of Giltner's Confederate command surrounded Tazewell and demanded a surrender. When it was refused the enemy attacked vigorously, but was repulsed with rather heavy loss in killed and wounded. The Federal loss, if any, was not reported. Tebb's Bend, Kentucky, July 4, 1863. (See Green River Bridge.) The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 867.


TEALL, Francis Augustus, editor, born in Port Anne, Washington County, New York, 16 August, 1822. He entered a printing-office in 1836, afterward supplemented his common-school education by the study of languages, and in 1841 went to New York City. Here he worked at the case, with Walt Whitman as a fellow-compositor, and was soon advanced to the place of proof-reader. In this capacity he has rendered much critical service of an editorial character on a large variety of works. Among other interesting things that received his attention were the original proofs of Edgar A. Poe's " Raven " and "Bells." He assisted Ephraim G. Squier in preparing his " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" (Washington, 1848), and John R. Bartlett in the first edition of his "Dictionary of Americanisms," and made the analytical index to the American edition of Napier's "Peninsular War." For some time he was on the editorial staff of the ' American Whig Review," and in 1853 succeeded Mr. Whitman as editor of a newspaper at Huntington, L. I. He acted as proof-reader, contributor, and associate editor on the different editions of the "American Cyclopaedia," and he noted the pronunciation of the titles in the volume of index to the second edition and in the text of the condensed edition. Since 1882 he has been employed in the compilation of the "Century Dictionary." The University of Rochester gave him the degree of A. M. in 1875. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 57.


TEAMSTERS. That to each regiment of dragoons, artillery, and mounted riflemen in the regular army there shall be added one principal teamster with the rank and compensation of quartermaster-sergeant, and to each company of the same, two teamsters, with the compensation of artificers; (Act March 3, 1847.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 610).


TELEGRAPH, (Universal.) It consists of an upright post of moderate height, of two movable arms fixed on the same pivot near the top of it, and of a mark called s an indicator on one side of it, merely to distinguish the low numbers 1, 2, 3, from the high numbers, 7,6,5. Fig. 228, A represents the telegraph exhibiting the sign 17, the other positions of which the arms are capable being dotted. Fig. 228, B represents the telegraph fitted up to make nocturnal signals. One lantern, called the central light, is fixed to the same pivot upon which the arms move. Two other lanterns are attached to the extremities of the arms. A fourth lantern, used as an indicator, is fixed on the same horizontal

TABLE OF THE SIGNS OR COMBINATIONS.

Positions. Appearance. Positions. Appearance. By Day. By Night. By Day. By Night. FINISH: level with the central light at a distance from it equal to twice the length of the arm, and in the same plane nearly in which the arms revolve. Hence the whole apparatus consists of two fixed and of two movable lights four in all. The number of telegraphic signs, combinations, or changes which this telegraph is capable of exhibiting is shown in Fig. 229, and one of those, No. 4, in the day telegraph is liable to be confounded with the post and should not, therefore, be used. The number is, however, amply sufficient for telegraphic communication whether by alphabet or by reference to a telegraphic dictionary of words and sentences. The indicator, both by day and night, is merely a mark and nothing more, and the central light by night and the post by day are also merely guides to the eye. The signs of the telegraph are in reality, therefore, only composed of combinations of two movable bodies by day and two lights by night. It has been ascertained by experiment that the arms for day signals should be about 1 foot in length per mile in order to be distinguished by a common portable telescope. By the above rule, a telegraphic arm of six feet in length may suffice for stations six miles apart, but it is better to add a little to these dimensions. The width of the arm need not exceed 3/13 of its length. The indicator should be of the same width, but only of the arm in length. The height of the post should be such that movable objects near it should not obscure the indicator or arms when the telegraph is erected in the field. The telegraphs hitherto constructed on this principle are of two sizes: one having arms of 5 1/2 feet in length, with the lantern pivots placed 6 1/2 feet from the centre of motion; the other having arms 2 1/2  feet in length only, with the lantern pivots 3 feet 2 inches from the centre of motion. The latter are perfectly portable, as the whole apparatus does not weigh more than 34 lbs. In clear weather these small telegraphs make signals distinctly visible at a distance of three miles.

In cases of emergency, where the portable telegraph is not with an army, it has been ascertained by experiment that the most expeditious and satisfactory arrangement will always be to copy the regular construction as closely as circumstances will permit. A post, with two planks for the arms fixed externally on each side of the post, each worked merely by a couple of strings without pulleys, will constitute a day telegraph, and the addition of lanterns will convert the same simple apparatus into a night telegraph. In both cases the arms must be counterpoised by wood or iron, and also by weights in some rude manner, which must not impair the clearness of the telegraphic signs. (Consult Aide Memoire to the Military Sciences by British Officers. See SIGNALS.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 610-612).


TELFORD'S STATION, TENNESSEE, September 8, 1863. (See Limestone Creek.)


TELLER, Henry Moore, senator, born in Granger, Allegany County. New York, 23 May, 1830. He was educated at Alfred University, New York, studied law, was admitted to the bar in Binghamton, New York, in 1858, and moved to Illinois in the same year, and to Colorado in 1861. He was major-general of Colorado Militia in 1862-'4, but held no political office till, on the admission of Colorado as a state in 1876, he was chosen U. S. Senator as a Republican, and took his seat, 4 Dec 1876. He was re-elected for the term that ended in 1883, and in 1877-'8 served as chairman of a special committee on election frauds, that was known as the Teller committee. On 17 April, 1882, he resigned, on his appointment by President Arthur to the portfolio of the interior, which he held till the close of the latter's administration. He was then re-elected to the Senate for the term that will end in 1891. Alfred University gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 60.


TEMPLE, William Grenville, naval officer, born in Rutland, Vermont, 23 March, 1824. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 18 April, 1840, was graduated at the Naval Academy in 1846, and was attached to the " Boston" when she was wrecked at Eleuthera, Bahama Islands, 15 March, 1846, taking charge of the sick men from the wreck in the schooner "Volant."' In February, 1847, he was ordered to the steamer "Scourge," in which he participated in the bombardment and capture of Vera Cruz and in the engagements at Alvarado, Tuspan, and Tabasco, sometimes having command of batteries and landing parties in operations on shore against the Mexicans. He assisted in the survey of the interoceanic canal and railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in 1850-'2, was promoted to master, 21 July, 1854, and to lieutenant, 18 April, 1855. After cruising in the frigate “Lancaster " on the Pacific Station in 1859-'61, he commanded the steamer "Flambeau" at New York for one month, and was on duty as ordnance officer there for seven months. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862, and commanded the gun-boat "Pembina," in the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. From November, 1862, he was fleet-captain of the Eastern Gulf Blockading Squadron until 19 September, 1864. While he was fleet-captain he at times commanded the "San Jacinto" on special service, and in July, 1864, he led a force of sailors in defence of the approaches to Washington. He commanded the steamer "Pontoosuc " from November, 1864, till May, 1865, participating in both attacks on Fort Fisher, in the capture of Wilmington, North Carolina, in the bombardment of forts on James River, at Dutch gap, and at the capture of Petersburg and Richmond. He was promoted to commander, 3 March, 1865, had the steamer "Tacony" in the North Atlantic Squadron in 1865-'6, and was on ordnance duty in 1866-'70. He was made captain, 28 August, 1870, and in December, 1884, was delegated to escort King Kalakaua, of the Sandwich Islands, in his visit to this country, for which service Congress allowed him to accept the decoration of knight commander of the royal order of Kamehameha I. He was promoted to commodore, 5 June, 1878, was a member of the examining and retiring board in 1879-'81, and became its president in June, 1881. He was promoted to rear-admiral, 22 February, 1884, and voluntarily retired from active service on 29 February, 1884. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 61.


TENAILLE is a low work, constructed in the main ditch, upon the lines of defence, between the bastions, before the curtain, composed of two faces, and sometimes of two flanks and a small curtain. TENAILLONS are works sometimes found constructed in an old fortress, on each side of the ravelin the short faces being traced, on the prolongations of the faces of the ravelin, from the counterscarp of its ditch; the long faces being directed for flanking defence, to about the middle of the faces of the bastions. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 613).


TENAILLONS (Demi) are very similar to tenaillons, excepting that their short faces are directed, perpendicular to the faces of the ravelin, about one-third or one-half down from the flanked angle. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 613).


TEN EYCK, John Conover, 1814-1879, lawyer.  Republican U.S. Senator from New Jersey.  Was a Whig until 1856.  Joined Republican Party in 1856.  Chosen senator in 1859.  Served until March 1865.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 62; Congressional Globe)

TEN EYCK, John Conover, senator, born in Freehold, New Jersey, 12 March, 1814; died in Mount Holly, New Jersey, 24 August, 1879. He received his education from private tutors, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1835, and practised in Mount Holly, New Jersey. He served as prosecuting attorney for Burlington County in 1839-49,and was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1844. Mr. Ten Eyck was a Whig till 1856, when he joined the Republican party, and he was afterward chosen to the U. S. Senate, where he held his seat from 5 December, 1859, till 3 March, 1865. In the Senate Mr. Ten Eyck took part in various debates, including that on the electoral vote of Louisiana in 1865, but his principal services were performed on the judiciary and other committees. On 24 April, 1875, he was appointed a member of a commission to revise the New Jersey constitution, and on the death of Abram 0. Zabriskie he became its president. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 62.


TEN ISLAND FORD, ALABAMA, July 14, 1864. Rousseau's Raid. In a raid on the West Point & Montgomery railroad during the Atlanta campaign, Brigadier-General Lovell H. Rousseau, commanding, the main body of the command moved from Greensport to cross the Coosa river at Ten Island ford, 4 miles below. At the ford the advance was met by a severe fire from the enemy posted on the east bank and sheltered by the rocks and trees. Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick deployed the 4th and 5th la. on two of the islands, while Major Graham, who had crossed at Greensport. pressed vigorously on the enemy's flank and finally drove him from his position. The Union loss was 1 man of the 8th Indiana cavalry wounded. The Confederate loss, as near as could be ascertained, was 15 killed, 40 wounded and 8 captured. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, pp. 867-868.


TEN MILE RUN, FLORIDA, February 8, 1864. Cavalry of Florida Expedition. As an incident of the expedition, Colonel Guy V. Henry with the cavalry moved out from Jacksonville, engaged the enemy at Camp Finegan on Ten Mile Run, rode him down and when he fled pursued for several miles. Five field guns, 3 flags, considerable transportation material, clothing and camp equipage were captured. No casualties were reported.  The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868.


TENT. (See CAMP.)


TENNEY, William Jewett, author, in Newport, R. I., in 1814; died in Newark, New Jersey, 20 September, 1883. He was graduated at Yale in 1832, and studied medicine in Boston, but abandoned it for law, which he studied in New Haven, Connecticut After his admission to the bar he opened an office in New York City, but was connected with the " Journal of Commerce " in 1841 and with the "Evening Post" in 1842-'3 and 1847-8. In 1853 he edited the “ Mining Magazine," and in the same year entered the employ of the firm of D. Appleton and County, whose "Annual Cyclopaedia" he edited from its inception till his death (1861-82). He resided for a long time in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was several times chosen a freeholder, and was for fourteen years in the city council. He prepared the plan for organizing the public-school system there, was president of the school board, and during Buchanan's administration collector of the port. For two years he was presiding judge of one of the criminal courts in Brooklyn, New York, and he was usually known as Judge Tenney. He became a convert to Roman Catholicism. He added a sixteenth volume to Thomas H. Benton's "Abridgment of the Debates of Congress." and indexed the work (16 vols., New York, 185760), edited "The Queens of England" (1852), and was the author of a "Military and Naval History of the Rebellion in the United States" (1865) and a work on "Grammatical Analysis" (1866). — His wife, Sarah Brownson, author, born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, 7 June. 1839; died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 30 October, 1876, was the only daughter of Dr. Orestes A. Brownson, and inherited much of her father's power of analysis. She was the author of " Marian Elwood, or How Girls Live" (New York, 1859); "At Anchor" (1865); and "Life of Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, Prince and Priest" (1873). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 63.


TERMAN'S FERRY, KENTUCKY, January 6, 1864. Detachment of 14th Kentucky Infantry. Confederate Colonel Ferguson with 150 men of his regiment attacked 75 Federals under Captain King while the latter were encamped for the night near Terman's ferry on the Sandy river. One Federal lieutenant was killed and another and 8 men were captured.


TERRE NOIR CREEK, ARKANSAS, April 2, 1864. (See Camden, Arkansas, Expedition to.)


TERRE PLEIN is a name given to any space which is level, or nearly so; thus, the area on the rampart, between the banquette and the interior slope of the rampart, is called the terre-plein of the rampart. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 613).


TERRILL, William Rufus, soldier, born in Covington, Virginia, 21 April. 1834; died near Perryville, Kentucky, 8 October, 1862. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1853, assigned to the 3d U.S. Artillery, was assistant professor of mathematics there in 1853-'4, on duty in Kansas in 1854-'5, and assistant in the U. S. coast survey from 1855 till 1861. He was appointed captain in the 5th U.S. Artillery, 14 August, 1861, and took part with great credit in the battle of Shiloh. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 9 September, 1862, and was killed in the battle of Perryville in the following month.—His brother, James Barbour, soldier, born in Warm Springs, Bath County, Virginia, 20 February, 1838; died near Bethesda Church, Virginia, 31 May, 1864, was graduated at Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, in 1858, and after attending the law-school of Judge Brockenborough began practice in the courts of his native county in 1860. In May, 1861, he was appointed major of the 13th Virginia Infantry. He was promoted to the colonelcy, and was with his regiment at the first and second battles of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Cross Keys, Port Republic, Cedar Run, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania, and was killed at Bethesda Church. His commanding general said his regiment, "the 13th, was never required to take a position that they did not take it, nor to hold one that they did not hold it." His nomination as brigadier-general was confirmed by the Confederate Senate on the day of his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 65.


TERRISVILLE, TENNESSEE, January 14, 1864. Detachments of the 15th Pennsylvania and 10th Ohio Cavalry. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868.


TERRY, Alfred Howe, soldier, born in Hartford, Connecticut, 10 November, 1827. He was educated in the schools of New Haven and at the Yale law-school, but, having been already admitted to the bar, he was not graduated. He began the practice of his profession in 1849, and was clerk of the superior and supreme courts of Connecticut from 1854 till 1860. He had been an active member of the Connecticut Militia, and was in command of the 2d Regiment of state troops when the Civil War began. In response to President Lincoln's call for three months' troops, he was appointed colonel of the 2d Connecticut Volunteers, and with that regiment was present at the first battle of Bull Run. At the expiration of the term of service he returned to Connecticut, organized the 7th Connecticut Volunteers, of which he was appointed colonel, and on 17 September was again mustered into the National service. He was present in command of his regiment at the capture of Port Royal, South Carolina, and also at the siege of Fort Pulaski, of which he was placed in charge after its capitulation. On 25 April, 1862, he was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, and he served as such at the battle of Pocotaligo and in the operations against Charleston. He commanded the successful demonstration up Stono River during the descent on Morris Island, and at the action on James Island. His force was then withdrawn, and he was assigned by General Quincy A. Gillmore to the command of the troops on Morris Island, which post he held during the siege of Forts Wagner and Sumter. After the reduction of Fort Wagner he was assigned to the command of the northern district of the Department of the South, including the islands from which operations against Charleston had been carried on. General Terry commanded the 1st Division of the 10th Army Corps, Army of the James, during the Virginia Campaign of 1864, and at times the corps itself. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers on 20 August, 1864, became permanent commander of the 10th Corps in October, and held that place until the corps was merged in the 24th in the following December, when he was assigned to lead the 1st Division of the new corps. He commanded at the action of Chester Station, and was engaged at the battle of Drewry's Bluff, the various combats in front of the Bermuda Hundred lines, the battle of Fussell's Mills, the action at Deep Bottom, the siege of Petersburg, the actions at Newmarket heights on the Newmarket road, the Darbytown road, and the Williamsburg road. On 2 January, 1865, after the failure of the first attempt to take Fort Fisher, which commanded the sea approaches to Wilmington, North Carolina. General Terry was ordered to renew the attack with a force numbering a little over 8,000 men. On the 13th he debarked his troops about five miles above the fort, and, finding himself confronted by General Robert P. Hoke's Confederate division, proceeded to throw a line of strong intrenchments across the peninsula between the sea and Cape Fear River, facing toward Wilmington, and about two miles north of the fort. After the landing of the troops, the co-operating fleet, under Admiral David D. Porter, numbering 44 vessels and mounting upward of 500 guns, opened fire upon the work, and from 4.30 to 6 p. m. four shots a second, or 20,000 in all, were fired. This was the heaviest bombardment of the war. On the 14th the line of intrenchment was completed, and General Charles J. Paine's division of infantry was placed upon it. While this was in progress, General Terry made a reconnaissance of the fort, and, in view of the difficulty of landing supplies for his troops and the materials for a siege upon an open, unprotected beach in midwinter, he determined to carry the work by assault the next day, and the plan of attack was arranged with Admiral Porter. At 11 A. m. on the 15th the entire fleet opened fire, silencing nearly every gun in the fort. General Newton M. Curtis's brigade of General Adelbert Ames's division was then pushed forward by regiments to a point 200 yards from the fort, where it sheltered itself in shallow trenches, and the remainder of the division was brought up within supporting distance. Admiral Porter had landed 2,000 sailors and marines, and their commander pushed a line of skirmishers up within 200 yards of the eastern extremity of the northern face of the work, the attack of the troops being upon the western extremity of that face. At 3.30 p. m., on a signal from General Terry to Admiral Porter, the fire of the fleet was diverted from the points of attack, and the leading brigade rushed upon the work and gained a foothold upon the parapet. The column of sailors and marines followed the example of the troops, but, having to advance for a distance of about 600 yards along the open beach, they were unable to stem the fire of the work. Some of them reached the foot of the parapet, but the mass of them, after a display of great gallantry, was forced to fall back. After General Curtis had gained the parapet. General Ames ordered forward in succession the second and third brigades of his division, and they entered the fort. This was constructed with a series of traverses, each of which was stubbornly held. Hand-to-hand fighting of the most obstinate character ensued, the traverses being used successively as breastworks, over the tops of which the opposing parties fired into one another's faces. By five o'clock nine of these traverses had teen carried. General Terry then ordered up re-enforcements, consisting of a brigade and an additional regiment from the intrenched line, the sailors and marines taking their places there; by nine o'clock two more traverses were carried, and an hour later the occupation of the work was complete. The Confederate force fell back disorganized to a small work near the point of the peninsula, where, being immediately pursued, it surrendered unconditionally. The garrison originally numbered 2,500 men, of whom 1,971 men, with 112 officers, were captured; the others were killed or wounded. The fall of the fort was followed by the abandonment of Fort Caswell and the other defences of the Cape Fear River. In these works were captured 169 pieces of artillery, 2,000 small arms, and a considerable quantity of ammunition and commissary stores. The National loss was 681 men, of whom 88 were killed. For this General Terry was promoted to be brigadier-general in the regular army and major-general of volunteers, and Congress passed a vote of thanks "to Brevet Major General A. H. Terry and the officers and soldiers under his command for the unsurpassed gallantry and skill exhibited by them in the attack upon Fort Fisher, and the brilliant and decisive victory by which that important work has been captured from the rebel forces and placed in the possession and under the authority of the United States, and for their long and faithful service and unwavering devotion to the cause of the country in the midst of the greatest difficulties and dangers." General Terry was engaged in the capture of Wilmington. North Carolina, and commanded at the combat at Northeast Creek, which followed. In April, 1865, the 10th Army Corps was reconstituted, and General Terry was assigned to its command, and with it took part in the subsequent operations under General William T. Sherman in North Carolina. He was brevetted major-general in the regular army on 13 March, 1865, for his services at the capture of Wilmington. Since the close of the war he has commanded in succession the Departments of Virginia, Dakota, and the South, and again the Department of Dakota. He was promoted to the rank of major-general, 3 March, 1886. and was in charge of the Division of the Missouri, with headquarters at Chicago, until his voluntary retirement from the army in April, 1888. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 65-66.


TERRY, Henry Dwight, soldier, born in Hartford, Connecticut, 16 March, 1812; died in Washington, D. C, in June, 1869. He early settled in Michigan, where he entered the legal profession, and settled in Detroit. Although he was in active practice, he had for many years devoted considerable attention to military matters, and when the first call was made for troops in June, 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, he raised the 5th Michigan Infantry, of which he was appointed colonel. The regiment was mustered into service on 28 August, 1861, and ordered to the Army of the Potomac. He soon gained the command of a brigade, and on 17 July, 1862, was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. He served through the war in the Army of the Potomac, and when he was mustered out of service, in 1865, resumed the practice of his profession in Washington, D. C. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 67.


TERRY, William, soldier, born in Amherst County, Virginia, 14 August, 1824; died near Wytheville, Virginia, 5 September, 1888. He was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1848, studied law, and in 1851 was admitted to the bar. Settling in Wytheville, he practised his profession and was one of the editors and owners of "The Telegraph," published in that place. In April, 1861, he became a lieutenant in the 4th Virginia Infantry, in General Thomas J. Jackson's brigade. In 1862 he was promoted major, and in February, 1864, became colonel. He was commissioned brigadier-general on 20 May, 1864. At the close of the Civil War he returned to practice in Wytheville, and in 1868 was nominated for Congress, but, being under political disabilities, withdrew. He was afterward elected to Congress from Virginia as a Conservative, and served from 4 March, 1871, till 3 March, 1873, and again from 6 December, 1875, till 3 March, 1877. Subsequently he resumed his legal business. He was drowned while trying to ford Reed creek, near his home. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 67.


TERRY, William Richard, soldier, born in Liberty, Virginia, 12 March, 1827. He was graduated at the Virginia Military Institute in 1850, and then turned his attention to commercial pursuits. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate service as captain of Virginia cavalry, and was soon promoted and given command of the 24th Virginia Regiment. On 20 May, 1864, he was made brigadier-general, and given a command in General George E. Pickett's division in the Army of Northern Virginia, which was known as Kemper's brigade. After the war he served as a member of the Virginia Senate for eight years, and for some time was superintendent of the penitentiary in Richmond. At present he is superintendent of the Lee camp soldiers' home in Richmond. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 67.


TETE-DU-PONT. A held-intrenchment covering a bridge. (See REDAN.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 613).


TEXAS COUNTY, MISSOURI, September 12, 1863. 5th Missouri Militia Cavalry.


TEXAS COUNTY, MISSOURI, January 9-11, 1865. Detachment of the 16th Missouri Cavalry. A report of Brigadier-General Egbert B. Brown, commanding the District of Rolla, says: "I have the honor to report that Captain William Monks, 16th Missouri cavalry, had several skirmishes with Yeates' band of guerrillas in Texas county on the 9th, 10th. and 11th instant, in which he killed 9 and wounded 1. The wounded guerrilla escaped." The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868.


TEXAS PRAIRIE, MISSOURI, August 29. 1863. Detachment of 2nd Colorado Mounted Infantry. Captain Lyman D. Rowell, while scouting on Texas prairie with 75 men, came upon a band of 8 bushwhackers. The surprise was so complete that the guerrillas had no time to mount, and took to the brush on foot. A portion of the Union force followed, while another portion in attempting to cut off the fleeing enemy ran upon a mounted picket of 4 men, of whom 2 were immediately killed. The other outlaws escaped. No casualties were sustained by Rowell's command. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868.


THACHER, John Marshall, commissioner of patents, born in Barre, Vermont, 1 July, 1836. He was graduated at the University of Vermont in 1859, and studied law. For a time he practised in Virginia, but at the beginning of the Civil War he entered the National forces and served as captain in the 13th Vermont Regiment. He was appointed assistant examiner in the patent-office in 1864, and was promoted through the different grades until 1 November, 1874, when he became commissioner, which office he held until 1 October, 1875. He then resigned and moved to Chicago, where he has since practised his profession. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 69.


THARIN, Robert Seymour Symmes, born 1830, Charleston, South Carolina, lawyer (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 70)

THARIN, Robert Seymour Symmes (tha'rin), lawyer, born at Magnolia, near Charleston, South Carolina, 10 January, 1830. The family-seat at Magnolia was also the birthplace of Robert's father, William Cunnington Tharin, grandson of its founder, Colonel William Cunnington, an officer on General Francis Marion's staff. Robert was graduated at the College of Charleston in 1857 and at the law-school of the University of New York in 1863. He began practice in Wetumpka, Alabama, in 1859. During the political excitement of this time, he became known for his Union sentiments and his sympathy with non-slaveholders. He advocated the establishment of small farms and factories, the emigration of the blacks to Africa, the representation of non-slaveholders, who were in the majority, in legislatures, conventions, and congress, and the repeal of the Ordinance of Secession. His Union sentiments led to an attack on him by a mob in 1861, and he fled to Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Tharin then settled in Richmond, Indiana, and enlisted as a, private in the Indiana volunteers, but was mustered out in 1862. While he was in the service he wrote a letter to the London “Daily News,” denouncing his former law-partner, William L. Yancey, who was then commissioner from the southern Confederacy to England. This letter, Mr. Yancey afterward confessed, was worth an army corps to the Union, as it defeated recognition. He returned to the south after the war, and in 1884 was corporation counsel of Charleston, South Carolina In February, 1888, he was tendered, by the Industrial conference at Washington, a nomination for president of the United States, but declined on the ground that the body was not a convention, and that presidential conventions are dangerous to the people who are not represented therein. He is now employed in the auditor's office in Washington. He is the author of “Arbitrary Arrests in the South” (New York, 1863), and “Letters on the Political Situation” (Charleston, South Carolina, 1871).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 70.


THATCHER, Benjamin Bussey, 1809-1840, Boston, Massachusetts, author.  Co-founder of the Young Men’s Colonization Society of Boston.  Published and edited, in 1833, The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom, published monthly.  Defended the American Colonization Society and colonization. 

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 70-71; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 393; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 201, 204, 210, 223)

THATCHER, Benjamin Bussey, author, born in Warren, Maine, 8 October, 1809; died in Boston, 14 July, 1840. His father, Samuel, a graduate of Harvard in 1793 and a lawyer, represented Massachusetts in Congress in 1802-'5, serving afterward eleven years in the legislature. He was a trustee of Harvard and a founder of Warren Academy. The son, upon his graduation at Bowdoin in 1826, studied law and was admitted to the bar in Boston, but devoted himself to literature. In 1836-'8 he travelled in Europe for his health, contributing during the time to British and American periodicals. He wrote for the “North American Review” in 1831, and contributed to the “Essayist” several critiques on American poets which attracted notice. He edited the “Boston Book” in 1837, the “Colonizationist,” a periodical in the interests of the Liberian cause, which he further aided by eloquent speeches, and a volume of Mrs. Hemans's poems, to which he contributed a preface. He left in manuscript an account of his residence in Europe. His poems, some of which are in Griswold's “Poets and Poetry of America” (1842), and his reviews and essays, have never been collected. He published “Biography of North American Indians” (2 vols., New York, 1832; new ed., 1842); “Memoir of Phillis Wheatley” (Boston, 1834); “Memoir of S. Osgood Wright” (1834); “Traits of the Boston Tea-Party” (1835)”; “Traits of Indian Manners, etc.” (1835); and “Tales of the American Revolution” (1846). Appletons’ Cylocpædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 70-71


THATCHER, Ezekiel, Banstable, Massachusetts, abolitionist, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1854-1860-.


THATCHER, Henry Knox, naval officer, born in Thomaston. Maine, 26 May, 1806, died in Boston, Massachusetts, 5 April, 1880. He was a grandson of General Henry Knox. He received his early education in the schools of Boston, and in 1822 was admitted as a cadet at the U. S. Military Academy. The records of the academy show that he was absent on sick leave from 28 November, 1822, till April, 1823, when his resignation is recorded. He had exchanged his cadetship for the appointment in the U.S. Navy, which he entered as a midshipman, 4 March, 1823. He became a passed midshipman, 23 March, 1829, and was commissioned lieutenant, 28 February. 1833. After serving in various parts of the world, he was promoted to commander by action of the naval retiring board, 14 September, 1855. He commanded the sloop "Decatur," Pacific station. Early in 1862 he was ordered to command the sailing-sloop " Constellation" on the Mediterranean station, and he was thereby prevented from engaging in active operations during the first years of the Civil War. He was promoted to the grade of commodore, 16 July, 1862, without having had any commission as a captain. In July. 1863, he returned from the Mediterranean and took charge of the steam frigate "Colorado " on the North Atlantic blockade, and in her commanded the first Division of Commodore David D. Porter’s fleet in both attacks on Fort Fisher. He was then appointed acting rear-admiral in advance of his regular promotion to that grade, and was ordered to succeed Vice-Admiral Farragut in command of the Western Gulf Squadron at Mobile. There he conducted combined operations with General Edward R. S. Canby which resulted in the surrender of the city and the Confederate fleet after its flight and pursuit up Tombigbee River. The navy department sent him congratulations on the successful results at Mobile. Other points on the Gulf were quietly surrendered, and on 2 June. 1865, Galveston, Texas, was occupied by Thatcher’s squadron without opposition, and the entire coast was restored to the Union. He was placed in command of the consolidated Gulf Squadrons until May, 1866, after which he commanded the North Pacific Squadron until August, 1868. He was commissioned rear-admiral, 25 July, 1866, and was placed on the retired list, 26 May, 1868. After his return home he was port-admiral at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1869-'71, after which he was unemployed until his death. Upon his death the Secretary of the Navy published an obituary order and directed salutes of thirteen minute-guns to be fired in his honor, and flags to be displayed at half-mast. He was a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. While in command of the North Pacific Squadron he was presented with a medal and made  a knight of the order of Kamehameha I. by the king of the Hawaiian Islands, which honors he was allowed to accept by act of Congress. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 71.


THATCHER, Moses, N. Wrentham, Massachusetts, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1833-37, New England Anti-Slavery Society, Counsellor, co-founder


THATCHER, Tyler, , Massachusetts Abolition Society, Executive Committee, 1843-44


THAYER, Eli, 1819-1899, Worcester, Massachusetts, abolitionist, educator, Congressman, established Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society, 1854, which changed to New England Aid Company in 1855 

(Filler, 1960, pp. 238-239; Rodriguez, 2007, p. 56; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 71-72; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 402; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 488)

THAYER, Eli, educator, born in Mendon, Massachusetts, 11 June, 1819. He was graduated at Brown in 1845, was subsequently principal of the Worcester Academy, and in 1848 founded the Oread institute, collegiate school for young ladies, in Worcester,  Massachusetts, of which he is treasurer. He was for several years a member of the school board of Worcester, and in 1853 an alderman of the city. In 1853-'4 he was a representative in the legislature, and while there originated and organized the Emigrant aid Company, laboring till 1857 to combine the northern states in support of his plan to send anti-slavery settlers into Kansas, Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, and Ossawatomie were settled under the auspices of his company. Governor Charles Robinson, at the quarter-centennial celebration of Kansas, at Topeka, said: “Without these settlements Kansas would have been a slave state without a struggle; without the Aid society these towns would never have existed; and that society was born of the brain of Eli Thayer.” Charles Sumner also said that he would rather have the credit that is due to Eli Thayer for his Kansas work than be the hero of the battle of New Orleans. In 1857-'61 Mr. Thayer sat in Congress as a Republican, serving on the committee on militia, and as chairman of the committee on public lands. In 1860 he was a delegate for Oregon to the National Republican convention at Chicago and labored for the nomination of Lincoln. He has patented many inventions, which cover a wide field. Among these are a hydraulic elevator in use in this country and in Europe, a sectional safety steam boiler, and an automatic boiler-cleaner, or sediment-extractor. He has published a volume of congressional speeches (Boston, 1860); several lectures (Worcester, 1886); and is now writing a history of the Emigrant aid Company that he organized and its influence on our national history. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 71-72.


THAYER, John Milton, governor of Nebraska, born in Bellingham, Massachusetts. 24 January, 1820. After his graduation at Brown in 1841 he studied and practised law, and in 1854 moved to Nebraska, where he was a member in 1860 of the territorial legislature, and in 1866 of the Constitutional convention. Previous to his civil appointments he had been made brigadier-general of militia, and organized and commanded several expeditions against the Indians. In the Civil War. as colonel of the 1st Regiment of Nebraska Infantry, he led a brigade at Donelson and Shiloh, and was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 4 October, 1862. His appointment expired on 4 March, 1863, but he was reappointed on 13 March. He commanded a brigade and division at Vicksburg and Jackson, and led a storming column at Chickasaw Bayou, for which and for his services at Vicksburg he was brevetted major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865. He resigned, 19 July, 1865, and, returning to Nebraska, he served as U. S. Senator in 1867-'71, having been chosen as a Republican, and was then appointed by General Grant governor of Wyoming territory. In 1886 he was elected governor of Nebraska by a majority of about 25,000, which office he still holds (1888). He was department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in the state of Nebraska in 1886. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 72.


THAYER, Martin Russell, born 1819, jurist.  Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  In Congress 1862-1867.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 73; Congressional Globe)

THAYER, Martin Russell, jurist, born in Petersburg, Virginia, 27 January, 1819, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1840, admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1842, and began to practise in that city. In 1862-'7 he sat in Congress, having been elected as a Republican, serving in the committee on the bankrupt law and as chairman of the committee on private land claims. In 1862 he was appointed a commissioner to revise the revenue laws of Pennsylvania, and in 1867, declining re-election to Congress, he was appointed one of the judges of the district court of the County of Philadelphia, and he has recently been re-elected. In 1873 he was appointed on the board of visitors to West Point, and wrote the report. In the succeeding year he became president-judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia. He is the author of “The Duties of Citizenship” (Philadelphia, 1862); “The Great Victory: its Cost and Value” (1865); “The Law considered as a Progressive Science” (1870); “On Libraries” (1871); “The Life and Works of Francis Lieber” (1873); and “The Battle of Germantown” (1878). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 73.


THAYER, Sylvanus, soldier, born in Braintree,  Massachusetts, 9 June, 1785; died in South Braintree,  Massachusetts, 7 September. 1872. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1807, at the U. S. Military Academy in 1808, and assigned to the Corps of Engineers. During the next four years he was employed on engineer service on the eastern coast, and as instructor of mathematics at the academy, receiving promotion as 1st lieutenant, 1 July, 1812. Being called to the field in the latter year, he served as chief engineer under General Henry Dearborn, on the Niagara frontier; in 1813 under (Jen. Wade Hampton's division on Lake Champlain, receiving promotion to captain of engineers, 13 October, 1813, and in 1814 under General Moses Porter's forces in defence of Norfolk, Virginia, being brevetted major, 20 February, 1815, for distinguished services. In 1815 he was sent to Europe to examine military works and schools, and study the operations of the allied armies before Paris, but he was recalled in 1817 to the superintendency of the academy at West Point, which he assumed on 28 July of that year, and held till his resignation, 1 July, 1833. During the sixteen years of his administration he organized the school on its present basis, and raised it from an elementary condition to the same grade with the best military schools in the world. During his term of office he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, 3 March, 1823, made major, 24 May, 1828, and brevetted colonel, 3 March, 1833. Five years after his resignation he was again offered the charge of the academy, with almost absolute control, but he did not accept. On leaving West Point he was made a member of the board of engineers, of which he was president from 7 December, 1838, and for thirty years following he was engaged in the construction of defences in and about Boston harbor, which are models of his engineering skill and standards of economy and stability of construction. On 7 July. 1838, he was made lieutenant-colonel of engineers, and he became colonel, 3 March, 1863. On 1 June, 1863, he was retired from active service, after receiving the brevet; of brigadier-general the day before. The degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Dartmouth in 1810, and by Harvard in 1825, and that of LL. D. by St. John's College, Maryland, in 1830, by Kenyon and Dartmouth in 1846, and by Harvard in 1857. He was also a member of various scientific associations. General Thayer gave about $300,000 for the endowment of an academy, and $32,000 for a free library, at Braintree, and $70,000 for a school of architecture and civil engineering at Dartmouth. His body was reinterred at West Point, 8 November, 1877, and his statue was unveiled there, 11 June, 1883, General George W. Cullum making the presentation. It bears the inscription. " Colonel Thayer, Father of the United States Military Academy," and is represented in the accompanying illustration. A fine full-length portrait by Robert W. Weir is in the library at West Point. He was the author of "Papers on Practical Engineering" (1844). —His cousin, Martin Russell, jurist, born in Petersburg, Virginia, 27 January, 1819, was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1840, admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1842. and began to practise in that city. In 1862-'7 he sat in Congress, having been elected as a Republican, serving in the committee on the bankrupt law and as chairman of the committee on private land claims. In 1862 he was appointed a commissioner to revise the revenue laws of Pennsylvania, and in 1867, declining reelection to Congress, he was appointed one of the judges of the district court of the County of Philadelphia, and he has recently been re-elected. In 1873 he was appointed on the board of visitors to West Point, and wrote the report. In the succeeding year he became president-judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia. He is the author of "The Duties of Citizenship" (Philadelphia, 1862); "The Great Victory: its Cost and Value" (1865); "The Law considered as a Progressive Science" (1870); "On Libraries" (1871); "The Life and Works of Francis Lieber" (1873); and "The Battle of Germantown " (1878). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 73.


THE ISLAND, MISSOURI, March 30, 1863. 3d Wisconsin Cavalry. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868.


THE ORCHARDS, VIRGINIA, June 25, 1862. (See Oak Grove.)


THE PARK, LOUISIANA, February 4, 1865. Detachment of 31st Massachusetts Infantry. As an incident of an expedition from Plaquemine the Federal detachment, under Captain L. Frederick Shaw, was attacked by Confederates and for a time the Federals were hard pressed, but reinforcements arriving from Indian Village soon enabled them to drive the enemy away. One member of the expedition was killed. The Confederates left 2 badly wounded men in a house near by, one of whom died later in the day. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868.

THE PONDS, MISSISSIPPI, January 4, 1865. 3d Iowa Cavalry. As an incident of a Federal cavalry expedition from Memphis to destroy the Mobile & Ohio railroad, the 3d la., forming the rear-guard, had a slight skirmish with the Confederates at The Ponds, losing 1 man mortally wounded. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868.


THEAKER, Thomas Clarke, commissioner of patents, born in York County, Pennsylvania, 1 February, 1812; died in Oakland. Maryland, 16 July, 1883. He received a good English education, moved to Bridgeport, Ohio, in 1830, and was principally occupied as a machinist and millwright. He served in Congress as a Republican in 1859-61, and was an unsuccessful candidate for the ensuing Congress. He was made a member of a board of commissioners who were appointed to investigate the workings of the patent-office, and was afterward made by President Johnson commissioner of patents, serving from 17 August. 1865. till 6 June, 1868. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 74.


THEODOLITE. A surveying instrument for measuring the angular distances between objects projected on the plane of the horizon. In accurate surveying, when the instrument used for observing angles is a sextant or reflecting circle, or such that its plane must be brought into the plane of the three objects which form the angular points of the triangle to be measured, the altitudes of the two distant objects above the horizon of the observer must be determined, and a calculation is then necessary to reduce the observed angles to the plane of the horizon. With the theodolite this work is unnecessary. (Consult SIMMS' Treatise on Mathematical Instruments DAVIES' Surveying) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 613).


THIBODEAUX, LOUISIANA, June 20-21, 1863. (See La Fourche Crossing.)