Thom through Totten

THOM, George (torn), soldier, born in Derry, New Hampshire, 21 February, 1819. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1839, assigned to the Topographical Engineers, and became 2d lieutenant in 1840. He served in connection with the survey of the boundary between the United States and the British provinces under the treaty of Washington, in 1842-'7 and on the staff of General Franklin Pierce in the war with Mexico. He became 1st lieutenant in 1849, and captain for fourteen years' service in July, 1853. In 1853-'6 he served in connection with the survey of the boundary between the United States and Mexico. At the opening of the Civil War he was a major, but was appointed colonel and additional aide-de-camp in November, 1861. Colonel Thom was continuously employed on engineer and other duty on the staff of General Henry W. Halleck till April, 1865, being present during the siege of Corinth. He was also present at the battle of Cedar Creek. Virginia. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel of engineers in 1866, and was thereafter in charge of river and harbor improvements in the New England states till 20 February, 1883, when, having been forty years in service, he was, at his own request, retired from active service. He became colonel of engineers in 1880, and was brevetted brigadier-general U. S. army, " tor faithful and meritorious services during the rebellion." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 76.


THOMAS, Amos Russell, physician, born in Watertown, New York, 3 October, 1826. He acquired his education while working on a farm, taught school, and was graduated at Syracuse Medical College in 1854. He moved to Philadelphia, was appointed to the chair of anatomy in the Penn Medical University, and also was lecturer on artistic anatomy in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for fifteen years. In 1863 he received a similar appointment in the School of design for women. During the Civil War he volunteered and served as army surgeon. In 1867 he connected himself with the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, of which he is now the dean. He has contributed numerous papers to medical literature, is the author of " Post-mortem Examinations and Morbid Anatomy" (Philadelphia. 1870), and general editor of the " Homoeopathic Materia Medica." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 77.


THOMAS, Charles, soldier, born in Pennsylvania about 1800; died in Washington, D. C., 1 February, 1878. He entered the army and became a lieutenant, of ordnance, 13 August, 1819, assistant quartermaster in May, 1826, captain in April, 1833, quartermaster with, the rank of major in July, 1838, and brevet lieutenant-colonel for meritorious services in Mexico, 30 May, 1848. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel and deputy quartermaster-general, U. S. Army, in May, 1850, colonel and assistant quartermaster-general in August, 1856, and brevet major-general, 13 March, 1865, for meritorious services during the Civil War. He was retired from active service in July, 1866, after having been in the army for more than forty-five years. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 77.


THOMAS, David, manufacturer, born near Neath, Glamorganshire, Wales, 3 November, 1794: died in Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, 20 June, 1882. He was employed in the business of manufacturing iron after 1812, and in 1839 came to this country and built the first of the furnaces of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company. He remained with this company till 1854, when, with his sons and others, he organized the Thomas iron Company, and built two blast-furnaces at Hokendauqua. They were at the time the largest and most productive anthracite blast-furnaces in the country. Afterward other furnaces were built by the company, and successfully operated. He was one of the proprietors of the Catasauqua manufacturing company which was organized to roll plate and bar-iron, for many years served as its president, and was an owner of the Lehigh fire-brick works at Catasauqua. Mr. Thomas was the first in this country to make the manufacture of anthracite pig-iron commercially successful, and was the first person in the world fully to realize the value of powerful blowing engines in the working of blast-furnaces. He supported the cause of the Union during the Civil War. In 1866 he was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 78.


THOMAS, Francis, 1799-1876, lawyer, statesman.  Opposed slavery in Maryland State Constitutional Convention of 1850.  Governor of Maryland, 1841-1844.  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland.  In Congress December 1831-March 1841 and 1861-1869.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery (Appletons’, 1888, p. 78; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 429; Congressional Globe)

THOMAS, Francis, governor of Maryland, born in Frederick County, Maryland, 3 February, 1799; died near Frankville. Maryland, 22 January, 1876. He was graduated at St. John's College, Annapolis, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1820, and began practice in Frankville. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1822, 1827, and 1829, being speaker the last year, was elected to five consecutive congresses, serving from 5 December, 1831, till 3 March, 1841, was president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company in 1839-'40, and governor of Maryland in 1841-'4. During his canvass for the governorship he fought a duel with William Price. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1850, and was instrumental in having a measure adopted that weakened the power of the slave-holding counties. He was again in Congress from 1861 till 1869. During the Civil War Mr. Thomas supported the Union cause, raised a volunteer brigade of 3,000 men, but he refused a command. He was a delegate to the Loyalist Convention of 1866, and subsequently opposed President Johnson. He was appointed collector of internal revenue for the Cumberland District, and served from April, 1870, till he was appointed minister to Peru, 25 March, 1872. He held this post till 9 July, 1875, and afterward retired to his farm near Frankland, where he was killed by a locomotive while walking on the railroad-track. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 78.


THOMAS, James H., Edgartown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Vice-President, 1839-40.


THOMAS, John, New York, abolitionist leader (Sorin, 1971).


THOMAS, Lorenzo, 1804-1875, Major General, U.S. Army  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 85; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 441; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 516)

THOMAS, Lorenzo, soldier, born in New Castle, Delaware, 26 October, 1804; died in Washington, D. C., 2 March, 1875. His father, Evan, was of Welsh extraction, and served in the militia during the war of 1812, and one of his uncles was a favorite officer of General Washington. He was at first destined for mercantile pursuits, but received an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy, and was graduated there in 1823. He served in the 4th U.S. Infantry in Florida till 1831, and again in the Florida war of 1836-'7, and as chief of staff of the army in that state in 1839-'40, becoming captain, 23 September, 1836, and major on the staff and assistant adjutant-general, 7 July, 1838. He there did duty in the last-named office at Washington till the Mexican war, in which he was chief of staff of General William O. Butler in 1846-'8, and of the Army of Mexico till June, 1848, and received the brevet of lieutenant-colonel for gallantry at Monterey. He was then adjutant-general at army headquarters, Washington, till 1853, and chief of staff to General Winfield Scott till 1861, when he was brevetted brigadier-general on 7 May, and made adjutant-general of the army on 3 August, with the full rank of brigadier-general. Here he served till 1863, when he was intrusted for two years with the organization of colored troops in the southern states. When President Johnson removed Edwin M. Stanton from his post as Secretary of War he appointed General Thomas secretary ad interim, 21 February, 1868, but, owing to Stanton's refusal to vacate, Thomas did not enter on the office. He was brevetted major-general, United States army, on 13 March, 1865, for services during the civil war, and on 22 February, 1869, he was retired. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 85.


THOMAS, Robert Harper, journalist, born in Philadelphia, 28 January, 1834, received a good English education, served as aide with the rank of colonel on the staff of Governor Andrew G. Curtin, and was commissioner of internal revenue from 1862 till 1866. In 1870 he purchased the "Valley Democrat," of Mechanicsburg, changing the name to the " Independent Journal," and subsequently to the "Farmer's Friend and Grange Advocate." He was commissioner from Pennsylvania to the World's industrial and cotton centennial exhibition at New Orleans in 1884-'5, and also to the American exposition at London in 1887. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.


THOMAS, George Henry, soldier, born in Southampton County, Virginia, 31 July, 1816; died in San Francisco, California, 28 March, 1870. He was descended, on his father's side, from Welsh ancestry, and, on his mother's, from a French Huguenot family. Not much is known of his youth. He was early distinguished for the thoroughness with which he mastered everything he undertook. His home life was pleasant and genial, and he was carefully educated in the best schools and academies of the region. At the age of nineteen he began the study of law, but the next year he received an appointment as cadet at the U. S. Military Academy. At the academy he rose steadily in rank, from 26th at the end of the first year to 12th at graduation. He was nicknamed, after the fashion of the place, "George Washington," from a fancied resemblance in appearance and character to the great patriot. He was graduated and commissioned 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Artillery, 1 July, 1840, and entered upon duty at New York, but was soon sent to Florida to take part in the Indian war, where, in 1841, he gained a brevet for gallantry. After a short stay at various posts on the south Atlantic coast, he was, in the autumn of 1845, sent to Texas. When the Mexican war began, he accompanied the column under General Zachary Taylor, distinguishing himself at Monterey, where he was brevetted captain, and at Buena Vista, 22 and 23 February, 1847, bore a more decisive part. The success of that battle was largely due to the artillery. "Without it," says General John E. Wool in his report, " we would not have maintained our position a single hour." Captain Thomas W. Sherman said: "Lieutenant Thomas more than sustained the reputation he has long enjoyed as an accurate and scientific artillerist." He was again brevetted for gallantry, thus earning three brevets in a little more than six years after entering the service. The citizens of his native county in the following July presented him with a superb sword. He remained on duty in Mexico and Texas till 1849, and was again sent to Florida. In 1851 he was detailed as instructor of artillery and cavalry at the military academy, where he remained until 1 May, 1854. Soon afterward two cavalry regiments were added to the army, and of one of them, the 2d, brevet Major Thomas was, on 12 May, 1855, appointed junior major. In the composition of this new regiment unusual care was taken in the selection of officers. Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War, and the choice was dictated not merely by ability but also by locality. Of the fifty-one officers that served in it prior to the beginning of the Civil War, thirty-one were from the south, and of these twenty-four entered the Confederate service, twelve of whom became general officers. Among these were Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, William J. Hardee, Earl Van Dorn, E. Kirby Smith, John Bell Hood, and Fitzhugh Lee. In the seclusion of garrison life in Texas during the exciting period from 1855 to 1861, Major Thomas watched with increasing apprehension the gradual approach of the inevitable conflict. In affection for and pride in his native state he was a Virginian of the Virginians; but he never for a moment doubted where his duty lay. Early in November, 1860, he left Texas on a long leave of absence. Before its expiration he was ordered, 11 April, 1861, to take charge of his regiment, which had been treacherously surrendered in Texas, and was now arriving in New York. He obeyed the order with alacrity and conducted the regiment to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Barracks. On his way there, he heard of the assault on Fort Sumter, and on reaching the place he renewed his oath of allegiance to the United States. On the 17th the Virginia convention adopted the ordinance of secession, and Robert E. Lee, colonel of his regiment, tendered his resignation on the 20th. Hardee, Van Dorn, Kirby Smith, and Hood had already resigned Thomas, unmoved, continued with ardor the preparations necessary to sustain the cause of his country. At the head of a brigade he soon crossed the Potomac into Virginia, where, on 2 July, he met and put to flight an insurgent militia force of his own state, under command of Colonel Thomas J. Jackson, drawn up to resist his movements. From that day till the end of the war he did not have or seek a single hour's respite from exacting labors in the field. He led the advance of Patterson's column toward Winchester prior to the battle of Bull Run, and at the close of that campaign he was appointed, 17 August, 1861, brigadier-general of volunteers, and assigned to duty in the Department of the Cumberland, which included Kentucky and Tennessee. He found the whole of Kentucky in a turmoil, when, on 10 September, he entered upon his work at Camp Dick Robinson, 100 miles south of Cincinnati. The Confederate Army had occupied Columbus in spite of the formal protest of legislature and governor, and Thomas was menaced with personal violence. The camp was swarming with unorganized Kentucky regiments and crowds of refugees from east Tennessee, eager to be armed and led back to drive the enemy from their homes. For the first few months General Thomas was fully occupied in instructing the raw recruits. It required infinite patience to work over these independent backwoodsmen into any semblance to soldiers. Little by little the task was accomplished, and the troops so organized became the first brigade of the Army of the Cumberland. General Robert Anderson was soon relieved from duty on account of failing health, and, after a short interregnum, General Don Carlos Buell was placed in command of the department. Under his orders, General Thomas continued his preparations for a movement in east Tennessee. Early in January, 1862, he placed the head of his column at Somerset, fifty miles south of Camp Dick Robinson, and on the night of the 18th encamped at Logan's Cross-Roads, ten miles from the enemy's position, with seven regiments of infantry, one squadron of cavalry, and two batteries. At early dawn the next morning he was attacked by a force consisting of nine regiments of infantry, two squadrons and two companies of cavalry, and two batteries. After a stout resistance General Thomas succeeded in placing one of his regiments on the flank of the enemy's line, when a charge was ordered, and the whole Confederate force was driven in confusion from the field, with the loss of its leader, General Felix K. Zollicoffer. Pursuit was continued till dark, when the enemy's works were reached. During the night that followed, most of the Confederate Army escaped across the river, leaving guns, small-arms, and other spoils. This contest, which is known as the battle of Mill Springs, was the first real victory for the National cause since the disaster at Hull liuu, six months before. The loss was 39 killed and 207 wounded on the National side, against 125 Confederates killed and 309 wounded. Immediately afterward the whole army entered upon the movements that culminated in the battle of Shiloh and the expulsion of the Confederate armies from the entire region between the Cumberland mountains and the Mississippi. General Thomas shared in all these operations. On 25 April, 1862, he was made major-general, and was assigned to the command of General Grant's army, the latter being made second in general command under Halleck, and thus virtually retired from active command for the time being. Soon after the occupation of Corinth, General Thomas returned to his old command, and with it went through the exhausting campaign by which, at the end of September, General Buell's whole army, save the isolated garrison at Nashville, was concentrated at Louisville, prepared to give battle to General Bragg, who had audaciously led his army from Chattanooga to the Ohio River. At Louisville, on 29 September, the command of the National Army was offered to General Thomas, but he declined it. On 30 October General Buell was superseded by General William S. Rosecrans, and General Thomas was placed in command of five divisions, forming the centre of the army. On 31 December, 1862, the contending forces, under Rosecrans and Bragg, met in bloody conflict on the banks of Stone River, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. By an impetuous and overwhelming charge of the enemy at dawn, the whole right wing of the National Army was swept back three miles, and its very existence was imperilled. But the centre, under Thomas, firmly held its ground and repelled every assault till nightfall. The contest was renewed on 2 January, 1863, when, by a bold and fiery attack of a part of Thomas's force on the enemy's right, the Confederate position was endangered, and Bragg, in the night of the 3d, retreated. The National Army lay nearly motionless until June, when it entered on that series of brilliant flanking movements which, without any serious conflict, drove the enemy from Tennessee and compelled the abandonment of Chattanooga on 8 September. The terrible battle of Chickamauga followed, when, on 19 and 20 September, the Confederate army, re-enforced by Longstreet's corps from Virginia and some troops from Mississippi, put forth almost superhuman efforts to overwhelm the National forces in detail, and thus secure, once more, the prize of Chattanooga, the gateway to the heart of the Confederacy. Again, as at Stone River, the right was swept away, carrying with it the commander of the army and two corps commanders. General Thomas was thus left with but little more than six out of thirteen divisions to maintain his ground against five corps flushed with seeming victory and eager with the hope of making him an easy prey. From noon till night the battle raged. Every assault of the enemy had been repelled, the National troops were full of confidence and ardor, and the final assault of the day was made by a National brigade following up with the bayonet a retreating Confederate division. In the night, by orders of the army commander, General Thomas fell back to Rossville, five miles, and there awaited all the next day the expected attack; but the enemy was in no condition to make it. For the only time in its history, the Army of the Cumberland left the enemy to bury its dead. General Daniel H. Hill, commanding a Confederate corps in that battle, who had served in both eastern and western armies, said: "It seems to me the elan of the southern soldier was never seen after Chickamauga. That barren victory sealed the fate of the southern Confederacy." Following this great battle, General Thomas on 19 October was placed in command of the Army of the Cumberland. Its affairs were in a most critical condition. All communication with its base of supplies was cut off, an almost impassable river was in its rear, from the heights of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge the enemy looked down on the beleaguered force, slowly starving in its stronghold. Immediate measures were taken for its relief, and from every quarter troops were hurried toward Chattanooga, both to open communications and to re-enforce the army for active operations. Two corps from the Potomac and two from Mississippi were speedily forwarded, and all were placed under command of General Grant. To his almost despairing message to General Thomas to hold the place, came the cheering reply, " We will hold the town till we starve." Thomas had then in store six days' supply for 50,000 men. Preparations were at last completed, and on 23 November the forces from Mississippi, aided by a division from Thomas, attacked the northern end of Mission ridge, and gained some ground. On the 24th Lookout mountain was captured by the forces from the Potomac, strengthened by two of Thomas's brigades. On the 25th, under Thomas's leadership, the Army of the Cumberland, released from its long imprisonment, stormed and carried the three lines of rifle-pits at the base, midway, and on the summit of Mission ridge, and drove the Confederate Army, in utter rout, from the fortified position it had held so confidently for two months. As the jubilant National troops reached the summit, of the ridge, the whistle of the first steamboat, loaded with supplies, told that the siege was indeed ended. In the spring of 1864 General Thomas entered upon the Atlanta Campaign, at the head of 65,000 veterans, being two thirds of the grand army commanded by General Sherman. He occupied the centre of the line. From Chattanooga to Atlanta it was an almost continuous battle of a hundred days. The relative amount of work done by each of the three armies is indicated by the losses. The Army of the Cumberland lost, in killed and wounded, 32 per cent., the Army of the Tennessee 20 per cent., the Army of the Ohio 16 per cent. On 1 September, at Jonesboro, the 14th Army Corps of Thomas's army made a successful assault, completely driving from the field the enemy's right, and on the 2d the 20th Corps, also of Thomas's command, entered Atlanta, and the campaign was ended. When General Hood placed his whole force across the railroad north of Atlanta, and, turning his cavalry loose in Tennessee, threatened to cut off supplies from Sherman's army, General Thomas was sent to Nashville, while General Sherman prepared for his march to the sea. At the end of October the 4th and 23d Corps were sent to Tennessee, with instructions to General Thomas to use them in guarding the line of the river during Sherman's absence. It was supposed that Hood would follow Sherman's army through Georgia, but it was soon found that the entire force that had confronted Sherman on his way to Atlanta was now threatening Thomas. All the available troops were concentrated, and Hood's advance was resisted to the utmost. After a series of escapes from desperate hazards, a part of the two National corps under General John M. Schofield, on the afternoon of 30 November, 1864, at Franklin, Tennessee. signally defeated the repeated assaults of Hood's army, inflicting upon it irreparable losses, including six generals killed and a large number wounded. That night the National force retired to Nashville, where it was re-enforced by a corps from Missouri and a division from Chattanooga. Hood boldly advanced to the vicinity and fortified himself. Nearly all Thomas's mounted force had accompanied Sherman, leaving all the remaining cavalry to be remounted. The troops from Missouri and Chattanooga were destitute of transportation. Thus in midwinter, at 200 miles from the main base of supplies, and in the presence of a bold and active enemy, he had thrust upon him a task that at any time was almost overwhelming. Some called him “slow," yet, within two weeks from the day when his unsupplied and dismounted army reached Nashville, it was ready to take the field. But. General Grant at City Point grew so impatient over what he considered needless delay, that he issued an order dismissing General Thomas from command, and directing him to report to one of the corps commanders. After a fuller explanation of the causes of the delay, this unexampled order was suspended, but General Grant himself set out for the scene of operations. A terrible storm of sleet and rain, freezing as it fell, came up on 9 December, rendering all movement impossible. On the 14th a thaw began. On the 15th and 16th, in exact accordance with the detailed order of battle, the confident troops of General Thomas, who had never lost faith in their leader, by skilful and energetic movements, completely overthrew the last organized Confederate Army in the southwest. A feeble remnant, despoiled of guns and transportation, came together some weeks later at Tupelo, Mississippi, nearly 250 miles distant. As an army it never again took the field. What General Thomas accomplished in this campaign, and with what means, cannot be better told than in the words of his despatch to General Halleck on 21 December: "I fought the battles of the 15th and 16th with the troops but partially equipped; and notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather and the partial equipment, have been enabled to drive the enemy beyond Duck River, crossing two streams with my troops without the aid of pontoons, and without little transportation to bring up supplies of provisions and ammunition. . . . Too much must not be expected of troops that have to be reorganized, especially when they have the task of destroying a force, "in a winter campaign, which was enabled to make an obstinate resistance to twice its numbers in spring and summer." Following this great victory came the operations of the cavalry as organized by General Thomas in Alabama and Georgia, resulting in the taking of  Selma and the capture of Jefferson Davis. But the battle of Nashville was substantially the end of the rebellion in that quarter. For it he received the appointment of major-general in the U. S. Army, accompanied by the assurance of the Secretary of War that "no commander has more justly earned promotion by devoted, disinterested, and valuable services to his country." He also received the thanks of Congress and of the legislature of Tennessee, together with a gold medal presented to him by the latter body on the first anniversary of the battle. With the close of the war, General Thomas bent all his energies to the restoration of peace and order throughout his command. In May. 1869, he was placed in command of the Military Division of the Pacific, and held it until his death. Though he had seen more continuous, varied, and active service than any officer of his age and rank in the army, General Thomas was emphatically a lover of peace. His whole nature and disposition were orderly, gentle, and kindly. He abhorred war, not merely because of its cruelty, but also because of the turmoil and disorder it occasioned. Though a lover of home life, he never was allowed to remain long in one place, the average length of time that he was stationed at any one post being less than five months. He enjoyed the calm and peaceful life of nature, loving trees and flowers and the open air. His range of reading was not very wide, but he was well acquainted with natural science, was a good geologist, expert in woodcraft, and well versed in botany. The museums of the Smithsonian institution contain rare and curious specimens contributed by him. In his own profession he was thoroughly trained in all departments, so that, when he was placed in command of a corps, he had had personal experience of every arm of the service. When the war ended he was the only general officer of high rank and distinction (except Sheridan and Hancock) who had served uninterruptedly in the army. He had carefully studied military and international law. and especially the constitution of the United States, and was a thorough believer in the ideas on which the government was based. No man was ever more scrupulous to subordinate the military to the civil power. The general of the army, his classmate and life-long friend, in announcing his death, said: "The very Impersonation of honesty, integrity, and honor, he will stand to posterity as the beauty of the soldier and gentleman. Though he leaves no child to bear his name, the old Army of the Cumberland, numbered by tens of thousands, called him father, and will weep for him in tears of manly grief." He was buried with all the honors of his rank at Troy, New York, on 8 April, 1870. A fine equestrian statue, in bronze, by J. Q. A. Ward, erected by the soldiers of his old army, perpetuates his appearance and features in the capital of the  country. (See illustration.) His biography has been written by Thomas B. Van Home (New York, 1882). See also John W. De Peyster's "Sketch of G. H. Thomas" (1870) and James A. Garfield's "Oration before the Society of the Army of the Cumberland," 25 November, 1870 (Cincinnati, 1871). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 79-82.


THOMAS, Henry Goddard, soldier, born in Portland, Maine, 5 April, 1837. He was graduated at Amherst in 1858, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He enlisted as a private in the 5th Maine Volunteers in April, 1861, and was captain in that regiment from June till August, when he was given that rank in the 11th regular Infantry. He was present at the first battle of Bull Run and the action at Snicker's Gap, Virginia, was appointed colonel of the 2d U. S. Colored Regiment in February, 1863, and engaged in the actions of Bristol Station, Rappahannock Station, and Mine Run, Virginia. He then organized the 19th U. S. Colored Regiment, and became its colonel in December, 1863. In February, 1864, he was in command at Camp Birney, Maryland, and he led a brigade in the 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac, from May, 1864, till November, being engaged at the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Petersburg, and Hatcher's Run. He was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 30 November, 1864, transferred to the Army of the James, led a brigade and division in the 25th Corps of that army, and temporarily commanded the corps. During the war he received the brevets of major, 12 May, 1864, for gallant and meritorious services in the battle of Spottsylvania; lieutenant-colonel, 30 July, 1864, for services at Petersburg; and colonel, brigadier-general, and major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865, for services during the war. He was honorably mustered out of the volunteer service in 1866, but remained in the United States Army, and is now paymaster, with the rank of major. General Thomas was the first regular officer to accept a colonelcy of colored troops. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 82.


THOMAS, John Addison, soldier, born in Tennessee in 1811; died in Paris, France, 26 March, 1858. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1833, assigned to the 3d U.S. Artillery, served in garrison and as assistant instructor of infantry tactics, and became 2d lieutenant on 1 December, 1835, and 1st lieutenant, 30 June, 1837. In 1840-1 he was assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics at West Point, and in 1842-5 he was commandant of cadets and instructor of infantry tactics. He was made captain on 19 November, 1843, and resigned on 28 May, 1846, to practise law in New York City. On 23 July, 1846, he became colonel of the 4th New York Regiment, which had been raised for the war with Mexico, but was not mustered into service. He was chief engineer of New York State in 1853-'4, and from 19 April. 1853, to 15 January, 1854, was advocate of the United States in London, England, under the convention of 8 February, 1853, with Great Britain for the adjustment of American claims. From 1 November, 1855, till 4 April, 1857, he was assistant U. S. Secretary of State in Washington, D. C. He gained reputation by his report of the convention with Great Britain, and by other state papers. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 85.


THOMAS, Philip Francis, governor of Maryland, born in Easton, Talbot County, Maryland, 12 September, 1810. ne is a connection of Sir Philip Francis, the supposed author of the "Junius Letters," for whom he is named. After receiving his education at the academy in Easton and at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and practised in his native town. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1836, and served in the legislature in 1838, and again in 1843-'5. Being elected to Congress as a Democrat, he served from 2 December, 1839, till 3 March, 1841, and declined a renomination to the 28th Congress, and resumed the practice of law. He was governor of the state from 1848 till 1851. He was judge of the land-office of the eastern shore of Maryland, and in 1851 was made comptroller of the treasury, an office that was created by the constitution adopted in that year, but resigned in 1853 and accepted the place of collector of the port of Baltimore. During the Mormon war he was offered the governorship of the territory, which he declined, and he also declined the post of treasurer of the United States which was tendered him by President Buchanan. On 16 February. 1860. he was appointed commissioner of patents, and in December, 1860, he succeeded Howell Cobb as Secretary of the Treasury in Buchanan’s cabinet, serving until 11 January, 1861. He was elected a member of the House of Delegates of Maryland in 1866, and during the session was elected to the U. S. Senate, but was refused a seat on 19 February, 1868 on the ground of "having given aid and comfort to the rebellion," but in 1874 he was chosen to the House of Representatives as a Democrat, and served from 6 December, 1875, till 3 March, 1877. In 1878 he was again elected to the legislature, and after serving one term resumed the practice of his profession in Easton, where he still resides. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.


THOMAS, Robert Bally, editor, born in West Boylston, Massachusetts. 24 April, 1766; died there, 19 May, 1846. Annually he prepared for the press the "Farmer's Almanac" (Boston. 1793-1846), which was exceedingly popular and has been continued since his death, attaining a circulation of 225,000. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.


THOMAS, Seth, manufacturer, born in Plymouth Hollow (now Thomaston), Connecticut, 1 December 1816: died in Thomaston, Connecticut, 28 April, 1888. His father, Seth (1786-1859), for whom Thomaston was named, was employed as a joiner in the clock-factory of Eli Terry (q. v.) in Plymouth, and afterward began the manufacture of metal-movement clocks. The son enlarged the factory at Thomaston and introduced his clocks into all parts of the world, including China and Japan. His boast was that he had manufactured every kind of time-piece, from a delicate watch to a tower-clock. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.


THOMAS, Stephen, soldier, born in Bethel, Windsor County, Vermont, 6 December, 1809. He received a common school education, and was apprenticed to the trade of woollen manufacturing. He served in the legislature in 1838-9. 1845-'6, and 1860-1, was a delegate to the state Constitutional Conventions of 1844 and 1851, state senator in 1848-9, register of the probate court of Orange County in 1842-'6, and judge of the same in 1847-9. On 12 November, 1861, he was appointed colonel of volunteers, and enlisted a regiment of infantry and two batteries. He was mustered into the U. S. service on 21 January, 1862, commanding the 8th Vermont Regiment, and was mustered out on 21 January, 1865. On 1 February, 1865, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers and served until 24 August, 1865. In 1867-8 he was Lieutenant-Governor of Vermont. From 1870 till 1877 he was U. S. pension-agent, and since then has engaged in farming in Vermont. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp.


THOMAS' HOUSE, CALIFORNIA, May 27, 1864. Detachment of 1st Battalion, California Volunteers. Sergt. Wilson with 9 men came upon the camp of a band of hostile Indians near Thomas' house on Trinity river. The Indians fled to the woods, 3 men and a squaw being killed. When the soldiers attempted to reach the ranch they were fired upon by 15 or 20 Indians on the other side of the river. Wilson withdrew his command to the shelter of the woods and from there kept up a desultory fire until dark, when he retired. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868-869.


THOMAS' STATION, GEORGIA, December 4, 1864 . (See Waynesboro, same date.)


THOMASVILLE, MISSOURI, September 18, 1864. Detachment of 5th Missouri State Militia Cavalry. Captain Charveaux with 45 men attacked the camp of Colonel Coleman's band of Confederates and after a skirmish of half an hour killed 21, captured 10 men, 24 head of horses, 5 mules, 9 saddles and 30 stands of small arms. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 869.


THOME, Arthur, Augusta, Kentucky, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1839-1840.


THOME, James A., 1809-1873, August, Kentucky, abolitionist, anti-slavery activist, educator, clergyman.  Father was a slaveholder.  Thome was a member and Vice President, 1839-1840, of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS).  He was a lecturing agent for the AASS in Ohio.  Professor at Oberlin College.  Took part in the famous Lane Seminary debates on slavery in 1833 and 1834.  He supported immediate emancipation.  He left Lane for Oberlin.  He was sent by the AASS to observe the effect of emancipation in the West Indies.  He and Horace Kimball, who was the editor of the Herald of Freedom, wrote their account “Emancipation in the West Indies,” which was published in 1838.  It was an important report, utilized by the abolitionist cause in determining the feasibility of freeing slaves in the U.S.  After the Civil War, Thome raised funds for people newly freed from slavery.  (Dumond, 1961m pp., 152, 155, 174; Filler, 1960, pp. 68, 140; Mabee, 1970, p. 272; Pease, 1965, pp. 91-93)


THOMPSON, Cyrus, LeRoy, New York, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1843-1846.


THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce, 1795-1868, Vermont, abolitionist, noted author, novelist, lawyer, political leader.  Member of the Liberty Party.  Editor, from 1849-1856, of the anti-slavery newspaper, Green Mountain Freeman.  (Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 88-89, Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 454)

THOMPSON, Daniel Pierce, author, born in Charlestown (now a part of Boston),  Massachusetts, 1 October, 1793; died in Montpelier, Vermont, 6 June, 1868. He was the grandson of Daniel, who was a cousin of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, and was killed at the battle of Lexington. He was brought up on a farm, prepared himself for college under difficulties, taught for one winter, and then entered Middlebury College, where he was graduated in 1820. Going to Virginia as a family tutor, he studied law there, and was admitted to the bar in 1823, after which he returned to Vermont and settled in Montpelier. He was register of probate in 1824, and clerk of the legislature in 1830-'3, and was then appointed to compile the “Laws of Vermont from 1824 down to and including the Year 1834” (Montpelier, 1835). He was judge of probate from 1837 till 1840, from 1843 till 1845 clerk of the supreme and county courts, and from 1853 till 1855 Secretary of State. From 1849 till 1856 he edited a weekly political paper called the “Green Mountain Free man.” He was a popular lecturer before lyceums and orator on public occasions. Mr. Thompson began to contribute poems and sketches to periodicals while he was in college, and continued to write frequently for the newspapers and magazines, besides publishing political pamphlets. He took part in the anti-Masonic controversy, and published a satirical novel on the subject, entitled “The Adventures of Timothy Peacock, Esq., or Freemasonry Practically Illustrated,” which appeared under the pen-name of “A Member of the Vermont Bar” (Middlebury, 1835). In 1835 he wrote for the “New England Galaxy,” of Boston, a prize tale called “May Martin, or the Money-Diggers,” which was issued in book-form (Montpelier, 1835), and reprinted in London. Next appeared “The Green Mountain Boys,” a romance, in which the principal men connected with the history of Vermont in the Revolutionary period are brought into the plot (Montpelier, 1840; republished in Boston and London); “Locke Amsden, or the Schoolmaster” (Boston, 1845); “Lucy Hosmer, or the Guardian and the Ghost” (1848); and “The Rangers, or the Tory's Daughter” (1851). His later romances are “Tales of the Green Mountains” (1852); “Gaut Gurley, or the Trappers of Lake Umbagog” (1857); “The Doomed Chief, or Two Hundred Years Ago,” based on the story of King Philip (Philadelphia, 1860); and “Centeola, and other Tales” (New York, 1864). He was also the author of a “History of Montpelier, 1781-1860, with Biographical Sketches” (Montpelier, 1860). In later life he published monographs on topics of American history and on biographical subjects in various magazines. A novel, with the title of “The Honest Lawyer, or the Fair Castaway,” was left unfinished. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 88-89.


THOMPSON, Edward R., naval officer, born in Pennsylvania about 1808; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 February, 1879. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman on 1 December, 1826, became a lieutenant on 8 March, 1837, served during the Mexican War on the brig " Porpoise" and the frigate "Potomac" in the Gulf of Mexico, cruised on the coast of Africa in the " Porpoise " in 1851-'2, and in command of the "Dolphin " in 1856-'7, having been promoted commander on 14 September. 1855. He had charge of the steamer "Seminole" in the early part of the Civil War, but, being unfit for further active service, was placed on the retired list on 3 December, 1861. On 4 April, 1867, his rank was raised to that of commodore. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 89.


THOMPSON, Edwin, 1809-1888, Lynn, Massachusetts, reformer, orator, clergyman, temperance reformer, abolitionist, Society of Friends, Quaker, traveling anti-slavery lecturer.  (Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 89)

THOMPSON, Edwin, reformer, born in Lynn,  Massachusetts, in July, 1809; died in East Walpole,  Massachusetts, 22 May, 1888. He was of Quaker descent, and early interested himself in the anti-slavery movement. At the suggestion of Wendell Phillips, he became a public speaker in its furtherance, travelling through the state, often on foot, lecturing in churches and school-houses, and winning a reputation as an orator by his fluency and great fund of anecdotes. While speaking in New Bedford, he roused Frederick Douglass to take up active work in behalf of his race. He was also interested from an early period in the temperance reform, which he did much to promote. Mr. Thompson was ordained as a Universalist clergyman in 1840, and afterward resided at East Walpole. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 89.


THOMPSON, Egbert, naval officer, born in New York City, 6 June, 1820; died in Washington, D. C., 5 January, 1881. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 13 March, 1837, served in Commodore Charles Wilkes's exploring expedition in 1838-'42. and became a passed midshipman, 29 June, 1843. As executive officer of the schooner "Bonita," in the Gulf Squadron during the Mexican War, he participated in the expedition against Front era, and the capture of Tobasco, Tampico, Vera Cruz, and Tuspan. His vessel covered the landing of General Winfield Scott's army at Vera Cruz, and captured several prizes during the war. He served in the  steamer " Michigan " on the lakes in 1847-'50, and at Philadelphia Navy-yard in 1850-'l. He was  commissioned a lieutenant, 27 September, 1850, and was in the steamer "Fulton" in 1850 when she was wrecked. When the Civil War began he was attached to the steamer " Powhatan," which went to Pensacola Navy-yard, and contributed to the relief of Fort Pickens. He commanded the river ironclad steamer " Pittsburg," in the Mississippi Flotilla, in which he participated in the battle of Fort Donelson, when he was obliged to run her ashore to keep from sinking, ne was commended for gallantry in running the batteries of Island No. 10, for which he received the thanks of the navy department, and he took part in the attacks on Fort Madrid and Fort Pillow, and the battle with the Confederate rams, he was commissioned a commander, 16 July, 1862, served at the rendezvous at Philadelphia in 1863-'4, and commanded the steamer "McDonough" in the South Atlantic Blockade in 1864-'5, and the steamer " Dacotah," of the South Pacific Squadron, in 1866-'7. He was commissioned captain, 26 July, 1867, and was commandant of the Naval Station at Mound City, Illinois, in 1869—'71. He commanded the steam sloop "Canandaigua," of the North Atlantic Squadron, in 1871-'2, and was retired on 6 January, 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 89-90.


THOMPSON, Elizabeth, philanthropist, born in Lyndon, Vermont, 21 February, 1821. She is the daughter of Samuel Howell, a poor farmer, and at the age of nine went to aid in the household duties of a neighbor's family as a maid of all work, receiving as wages twenty-five cents a week. Her education was chiefly self-acquired, but she was remarkably handsome, and, while on a visit to Boston in 1843, so impressed Thomas Thompson, a well-known millionaire of that city, that he sought her acquaintance. Early in 1844 they were married, and until his death in 1869 spent much of their income for charitable purposes. The use of the entire income of his immense estate was then left to Mrs. Thompson. She has given large sums to the cause of temperance, and " Figures of Hell," a tract written by her and filled with much statistical information, has been widely circulated. Mrs. Thompson has given more than $100,000 toward providing with business pursuits the heads of families, hundreds of whom have been enabled to establish themselves by her bounty. Among her many charities is the gift of $10,000 which was expended by a commission authorized by Congress to investigate the yellow fever. She founded the town of Long Mont, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and gave 640 acres of land with $300 to each colonist in Saline County, Kansas. Mrs. Thompson contributed largely to the purchase of  the Vassar college telescope, and gave to the Concord school of philosophy the building in which its summer assemblies are held. She suggested the idea of a song-service for the poor, and incurred large expense in putting it into practical operation in many of the large cities of this country. Francis B. Carpenter's painting of the " Signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by Lincoln in the Presence of his Cabinet" was purchased by her and presented to Congress. In consequence of this she was granted the freedom of the floor of the house, a right which no other woman, not even the president's wife, possesses. […].  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 90.


THOMPSON, George, 1804-1878, English abolitionist, reformer, orator.  Helped organize and spoke to more than 150 abolitionist groups in the United States.  Worked with abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison.  He was often threatened by pro-slavery mobs and was threatened with death in Boston.

(Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 43, 221; Sinha, 2016, pp. 221, 233, 234, 241, 253, 272-275, 278, 290, 434, 565; Wilson, 1872, Vol. 2, p. 69; Yellin, 1994, pp. 28, 49-50, 69, 172-173, 221, 260, 260n, 282, 310-312, 311n, 320n; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 90; Hinks, Peter P., & John R. McKivigan, Eds., Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition.  Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 2007, Vol. 2, pp. 679-680; Rice, C. Duncan, The Scots Abolitionists, 1833-1861, 1981; Temperely, Howard, British Anti-Slavery, 1833-1870, 1972)

THOMPSON, George, English reformer, born in Liverpool, England, 18 June, 1804; died in Leeds, England, 7 October, 1878. He entered actively into the agitation against slavery in the British colonies, and contributed largely to its downfall, and subsequently to that of the apprentice system. Afterward he joined the Anti-corn-law league, and also took an active part in forming the India association. In 1834, at the request of William Lloyd Garrison and others, he came to the United States to speak in behalf of the abolition of slavery. He addressed meetings in various parts of the northern states, and his efforts led to the formation of more than 150 anti-slavery societies; but he was often threatened by mobs, and finally in Boston,  Massachusetts, escaped death only by fleeing in a small row-boat to an English vessel and going to St. John, New Brunswick, whence he sailed for England in November, 1835. Mr. Thompson's visit created such excitement that President Jackson denounced him in a message to Congress. He made a second visit to this country in 1851, and another during the Civil War, when a public reception was given to him in the house of representatives, at which President Lincoln and his cabinet were present. He aided greatly in preventing the recognition of the southern Confederacy by the British Government. Mr. Thompson was also concerned in the work of the National parliamentary reform association. In 1847 he was chosen a member of parliament for the Tower Hamlets. About 1870 a testimonial fund was raised for him by his admirers in this country and England. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 90.


THOMPSON, George, died 1893, American abolitionist.  In 1841, planned escape of slaves, and was arrested in Palmyra, Missouri with Alonson Work and James Burr.  They were arrested and tried.  Thompson served four years and eleven months.  Wrote about the experience in Prison Life and Reflections.


THOMPSON, George Washington, lawyer, born in St. Clairsville, Ohio, 14 Mav. 1806; died near Wheeling, West Virginia, 24 February, 1888. He was graduated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1824, studied law in Richmond, Virginia, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in his native town, but afterward moved to western Virginia. He was U. S. district attorney in 1846 and was elected to Congress as a Democrat in the following year, serving from 1 December, 1851, till 30 July, 1852, when he resigned to accept a seat on the bench of the circuit court of his state. He was re-elected in 1860, but, declining to take the test oaths that were required by the reorganized government of Virginia, retired from public life. He had previously served on the commission that was appointed to determine the boundary between Virginia and Ohio. He was a frequent contributor to the Boston "Quarterly Review" in 1839-'42, and, besides numerous legal, political, and educational addresses, has published "Dissertation on the Historical Right of Virginia to the Territory Northwest of the Ohio ": "Life of Linn Boyd "; " The Living Forces of the Universe", (Philadelphia, 1866); and "Deus Semper." When he was eighty years old he wrote " The Song of Eighty," a poem (printed privately, 1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 90-91.


THOMPSON, Henry, radical abolitionist, son-in-law to abolitionist John Brown (see entry for John Brown). (Rodriguez, 2007, p. 206)


THOMPSON, Jacob, cabinet officer, born in Caswell County, North Carolina, 15 Mav, 1810; died in Memphis, Tennessee, 24 March, 1885. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1831, admitted to the bar in 1834, and settled in the Chickasaw Country, Mississippi, where he practised law with success. In 1838 he was chosen to Congress as a Democrat, and he served by continued re-election from 1839 till 1857, advocating the repudiation by Mississippi of part of the state bonds and opposing the compromise measures of 1850, on the ground that they were not favorable enough to the south. While he was in Congress he held for some time the chairmanship of the Committee on Indian affairs, and in 1845 he refused an appointment that was tendered him by the governor of Mississippi to a vacancy in the U. S. Senate. President Buchanan made him Secretary of the Interior in 1857, and he held that office till 8 January, 1861, when he resigned, giving as his reason that troops had been ordered to re-enforce Fort Sumter contrary to an agreement that this should not be done without the consent of the cabinet. In acknowledging his letter the president reminded him that the matter had been decided in a cabinet meeting six days before. In December, 1860, while still in office, he had been appointed by the legislature of Mississippi a commissioner to urge on North Carolina the adoption of an ordinance of secession. In 1862-'4 he was governor of Mississippi, and afterward he served as aide-de-camp to General Beauregard. In the summer of 1864 he was sent as a Confederate Commissioner to Canada, where he promoted the plan to release the prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, and to seize that city. He has also been charged with instigating plots to burn northern cities and commit other outrages. After the war he returned to the United States. At his death an order of Sec. Lucius Q. C. Lamar to fly the National flag at half-mast over the buildings of the interior department caused much excitement at the north. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 91.


THOMPSON, James, jurist, born in Middlesex, Butler County, Pennsylvania, 1 October, 1806; died in Philadelphia, 28 January, 1874. After receiving a good education, he began life as a printer, subsequently studied law, and in 1829 was admitted to the bar. He was chosen to the legislature in 1832, 1833, and 1834, during the latter year serving as speaker of the house, although he was the youngest member. He was a presidential elector in 1836, voting for Martin Van Buren, in 1838 a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, and in 1839 was appointed president-judge of the 6th judicial district of the state, in which office he served until 1844, when he was elected by the Democrats to Congress, being re-elected in 1846 and 1848. In 1855, against his desire, he was again elected to the legislature, where he remained one term, and after that declined nominations for both the legislature and Congress. In 1857 he was elected to the supreme court of the state, and served nine years as justice and six years as chief justice. On the expiration of his term he was renominated by the Democrats, but failed of an election, though running ahead of his ticket. He mingled with his judicial qualities warm affections and genial manners. His judicial opinions are found in the supreme court reports, from vol. xxx. to vol. lxxii. inclusive. After his retirement he resumed the practice of law in Philadelphia, and his death occurred suddenly while he was engaged in arguing a cause before the same court over which he had so recently presided, his opponent in the cause being his predecessor in the office of chief justice, George W. Woodward. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 91.


THOMPSON, John Burton, senator, born near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, 14 December, 1810; died in Harrodsburg, 7 January, 1874. His ancestor came to Virginia from England as a captain in the Royal Navy. John was educated at private schools, studied law under his father, and succeeded to his extensive practice at Harrodsburg. He served as commonwealth's attorney, was chosen to the legislature in 1835 and 1836, and in 1840 was elected to Congress as a Whig to fill a vacancy, serving from 7 December, 1840, till 3 March, 1843. He raised a company of cavalry for the Mexican war, but more than the necessary number of volunteers from his state offered themselves, and it was not accepted. He served again in Congress in 1847-'51, and in the latter year, when Archibald Dixon was nominated by the Whigs for governor, Thompson, who had been a candidate for the office, was given second place on the ticket. Dixon was defeated, but Thompson was elected by a large majority, and in 1853 was sent to the U. S. Senate, where he served a full term. In that body he was a member of the committees on private land-claims and pensions. Mr. Thompson was especially eminent as a jury lawyer, and was also a successful orator. His most noted political speech was that on the Cuban question. He was a man of broad culture, quiet and even reserved in manner. In politics he was a Clay Whig till the disruption of the party just before the Civil War, when he became a Unionist. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 92.


THOMPSON, John Reuben, author, born in Richmond, Virginia, 33 October, 1833, died in New York City, 30 April, 1873. He was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1844, afterward studied law there, and settled in Richmond, with every prospect of success in his profession. But he had always been a lover of literature and a keen student of it, and these proclivities became more dominating after he had completed his education. Accordingly, in 1847, he accepted the editorship of the "Southern Literary Messenger." This magazine was a power in its day, and did no little to foster a literary spirit among the younger race of southern men. Sir. Thompson brought, a great deal of zeal and energy into the editorial chair, and during the twelve years in which he successfully carried forward his literary work in connection with this monthly he imparted to it such a character as no southern magazine has ever had before or since. He did much to bring southern talent to light, and in the pages of the Southern Messenger" Donald G. Mitchell first published his "Reveries of a Bachelor" and "Dream Life." Here too appeared the early writings of John Esten Cooke. Philip Pendleton Cooke. Paul H. Hayne, and Henry Timrod. In 1854 Mr. Thompson went to Europe in search of health. During this absence he wrote papers for the "Southern Messenger," which long afterward he collected in book-form. One copy had been sent to the author, and the edition, except this, was burned in the publishing-house. His health continued so delicate that in 1859 he resigned his editorship in Richmond and went to Augusta, Georgia, where he edited the "Southern Field and Fireside." In 1863 he went abroad again in such delicate health that his friends did not expect him to reach the farther shore alive; but the sea-voyage revived him. and he rapidly improved. He chose London as his residence, where he was regularly engaged on the staff of the "London Index," and contributed to "Blackwood's Magazine." Sometime after the Civil War he returned home in broken health and dispirited. Finding it impossible to do anything in the way of literature in the south, he became literary editor of the " New York Evening Post," continuing as such for several years, until his health failed again. He made a last effort to restore it by going to Colorado in 1873, where he spent the winter, returning in the spring, only to die. Mr. Thompson was a polished and graceful writer, both of prose and verse, but he did his most effective work as a literary editor. Many of his lyrics are household words in the south, especially in his native state, and his influence in fostering the talents of writers that have since distinguished themselves was decided. He was greatly beloved for his genial and refined nature. Among his most admired poems are " The Burial of Latane," "The Death of Stuart," and " The Battle Rainbow." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 92.


THOMPSON, Joseph Parrish, 1819-1979, Berlin, Germany, scholar, author, abolitionist.  Wrote Christianity and Emancipation (1863).  “Worked unceasingly to arouse public opinion in behalf of Negro slaves” (Scribner’s, p. 465).  (Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 93; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 464)

THOMPSON, Joseph Parrish, scholar, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7 August, 1819; died in Berlin, Germany, 20 September, 1879. He was graduated at Yale in 1838, studied theology for a few months in Andover seminary, and then at Yale from 1839 till 1840, when he was ordained as a Congregational minister. He was pastor of the Chapel street church in New Haven from that time till 1845, and during this period was one of the founders of the “New Englander.” From 1845 till his resignation in 1871 he had charge of the Broadway tabernacle in New York City. Dr. Thompson devoted much time to the study of Egyptology, in which he attained high rank. In 1852-'3 he visited Palestine, Egypt, and other eastern countries, and from that time he published continual contributions to this branch of learning in periodicals, the transactions of societies, and cyclopædias. He lectured on Egyptology in Andover seminary in 1871, and in 1872-'9 resided in Berlin, Germany, occupied in oriental studies, took an active part in the social, political, and scientific discussions, and was a member of various foreign societies, before which he delivered addresses, and contributed essays to their publications. These have been issued under the title of “American Comments on European Questions” (New York, 1884). In 1875 Dr. Thompson went to England to explain at public meetings “the attitude of Germany in regard to Ultramontanism,” for which service he was rewarded by the thanks of the German government, expressed in person by Prince Bismarck, and Dr. Thompson originated the plan of the Albany Congregationalist convention in 1852, and was a manager of the American Congregational Union and the American Home Missionary Society. He also aided in establishing the New York “Independent.” Harvard gave him the degree of D. D. in 1856, and the University of New York that of LL. D. in 1868. He published “Memoir of Timothy Dwight” (New Haven, 1844); “Lectures to Young Men” (New York, 1846); “Hints to Employers” (1847); “Memoir of David Hale” (1850); “Foster on Missions, with a Preliminary Essay” (1850); “Stray Meditations” (1852; revised ed., entitled “The Believer's Refuge," 1857); “The Invaluable Possession” (1856); “Egypt, Past and Present” (Boston, 1856); “The Early Witnesses” (1857); “Memoir of Reverend David T. Stoddard” (New York, 1858); “The Christian Graces” (1859); “The College as a Religious Institution” (1859); “Love and Penalty” (1860); “Bryant Gray” (1863); “Christianity and Emancipation” (1863); “The Holy Comforter” (1866); “Man in Genesis and Geology” (1869); “Theology of Christ, from His Own Words” (1870); “Home Worship” (1871); “Church and State in the United States” (1874); “Jesus of Nazareth: His Life, for the Young” (1875); “The United States as a Nation,” lectures (1877); and “The Workman: his False Friends and his True Friends” (1879).  Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 93.


THOMPSON, Joseph Pascal, 1818-1894, African American, former slave, clergyman, medical doctor, abolitionist. (Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., & Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, eds. African American National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2013, Vol. 11, p. 148)


THOMPSON, Launt, sculptor, born in Abbeyleix. Queen's County, Ireland, 8 February, 1833. At the age of fourteen he went to Albany, New York, and there entered the office of professor of anatomy. While there he spent his leisure hours with drawing, but later entered a medical college. When Erastus D. Palmer, the sculptor, offered to receive him as his pupil, he gladly availed himself of the opportunity, and abandoned medicine for art. He worked in Palmer's studio for nine years, producing several portrait-busts and ideal heads of some merit, and in 1858 moved to New York City. Here, having shown a remarkable talent for medallion portraits, he found ample employment. He became an associate of the Academy of Design in 1859, and three years later his bust, "The Trapper," secured his election as an academician. In 1868-'9 he was in Rome, and in 1875 he went again to Italy, remaining until 1881, in which year he returned to New York. In 1874 he was vice-president of the National Academy. Among his works are "Elaine," a bust; "Morning Glory," a medallion; statues of Abraham Pierson, at Yale College (1874), represented in the accompanying illustration; Napoleon I., at Milford, Pennsylvania; General John Sedgwick, at West Point (1869); Winfield Scott, at the Soldiers' home, Washington, D. C.; Charles Morgan, in Clinton, Conn, (about 1871); and Ambrose E. Burnside. an equestrian statue, at Providence, Rhode Island (1887); "The Color-Bearer," at Pittsfield,  Massachusetts; a medallion portrait of John A.-Dix, made for the sanitary fair; and portrait-busts of William C. Bryant, in the Metropolitan museum. New York; James Gordon Bennett, the elder; Robert B. Minturn; Captain Charles H. Marshall; Edwin Booth as " Hamlet"; Stephen H. Tyng (1870); and Charles L. Elliott and Samuel F. B. Morse (1871). Yale conferred on him the honorary degree of M. A. in 1874. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 93.


THOMPSON, Maurice, author, born in Fairfield, Indiana, 9 September, 1844. His parents, who were southerners, moved to Kentucky, and thence to the hill-region of northern Georgia. The son was educated by private tutors, and early became interested in the study of out-door life. He served through the Civil War in the Confederate Army, and at its close went to Indiana, became a civil engineer on a railway survey, and in due season rose to be chief engineer. He then studied law, and opened an office at Crawfordsville. He was elected in 1879 to the legislature, and appointed in 1885 state geologist of Indiana and chief of the department of natural history. He has written much for periodicals, and has published in book-form " Hoosier Mosaics" (New York, 1875); "The Witchery of Archery" (1878); "A Tallahassee Girl " (Boston, 1882); "His Second Campaign " (1882); "Songs of Fair Weather" (1883); "At Love's Extremes" (1885); "Byways and Bird Notes" (1885); "The Bovs' Book of 'Sports" (1886); "A Banker of Bankersville" (1886); "Sylvan Secrets" (1887); "The Story of Louisiana," in the " Commonwealth Series " (1888); and " A Fortnight of Folly" (New York, 1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 94.


THOMPSON, Merriwether Jeff, soldier, born in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 22 January, 1826; died in St. Joseph, Missouri, in July, 1876. He was educated in the common schools, was mayor of the city of St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1859, and was appointed brigadier-general in the Missouri state guards early in 1861, and in the Confederate Army in October of that year. He was a most successful scout and partisan officer, and achieved frequent successes by strategy and daring against greatly superior forces. He was held in high regard by General Sterling Price and General Leonidas Polk, under both of whom he served. He recruited his command personally, and, as a rule, clothed, armed, and subsisted them without expense to the Confederate government. He was the inventor of a hemp-break, which is now in general use, and an improved pistol-lock. He surveyed, as civil engineer, the greater part of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad and parts of the Kansas and Nebraska road. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 94.


THOMPSON, Richard Wigginton, Secretary of the Navy, born in Culpeper County, Virginia, 9 June, 1809. He received a good education, and moved in 1831 to Kentucky, whence, after serving as a store-keeper's clerk in Louisville, he went to Lawrence County, Indiana. There he taught for a few months, and then returned to mercantile business, at the same time studying law at night. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, began to practise in Bedford, Indiana, and served in the lower house of the legislature in 1834-'6, and in the upper house in 1830-'8. He was for a short time president, pro tempore, of the state senate, and acting lieutenant-governor. He was a presidential elector on the Harrison ticket in 1840, zealously supporting General Harrison in public speeches and by his pen, served in Congress in 1841-'3, having been chosen as a Whig, and was a defeated candidate for elector on the Clay ticket in 1844. He served again in Congress in 1847-'9, declining a renomination, and also refused the Austrian mission, which was offered him by President Taylor, the recordership of the land-office, which Fillmore tendered him. He was offered a seat on the bench of the court of claims, which President Lincoln urged him to accept. He was again a presidential elector, on the Republican ticket, in 1864, and delegate to the National conventions of that party in 1868 and 1876. In the latter he nominated Oliver P. Morton for the presidency. In 1867-'9 he was judge of the 18th circuit of the state. On 12 March, 1877. Mr. Thompson entered President Hayes's cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, and he served nearly through the administration, resigning in 1881 to become chairman of the American Committee of the Panama Canal Company. He is also a director of the Panama Railroad. He has written many political platforms, and obtained a reputation for his ability in formulating party-principles. He has published "The Papacy and the Civil Power" (New York, 1876), and a " History of the Tariff" (Chicago, 1888).  Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 94.


THOMPSON, Smith, jurist, born in Stanford, Dutchess County. New York, 17 January. 1768; died in Poughkeepsie, New York, 18 December, 1843. He was graduated at Princeton in 1788, studied law with Chancellor James Kent in Poughkeepsie, teaching part of the time, and was admitted to the bar in 1792. He practised for some time in Troy, but, on the removal of Chancellor Kent from Poughkeepsie to New York, Mr. Thompson returned to the former place. In 1800 he was chosen to the legislature, and in 1801 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. In the latter year he was appointed attorney for the middle district of New York, but declined. From 1802 till 1814 he was associate justice of the state supreme court, meanwhile declining the mayoralty of New York City, and in the latter year he became chief justice, which post he held till he was called in 1818 to the portfolio of the navy in President Monroe's cabinet. In 1823 he was raised to the bench of the U. S. Supreme Court, to succeed Judge Brockholst Livingston, where he remained till his death. Judge Thompson was interested in many benevolent enterprises, and at the time of his death was the oldest vice-president of the American Bible society. He made a reputation for sound legal learning on the bench of his native state, which he sustained in the U. S. Supreme Court. His funeral sermon, which was delivered by Reverend A. M. Mann, in the Reformed Dutch church, Poughkeepsie, was published in pamphlet-form (Poughkeepsie, 1844). The vignette of Judge Thompson is copied from the original painting by Asher B. Durand. Yale and Princeton gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1824 and Harvard in 1835. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 94-95.


THOMPSON, Thomas, philanthropist, born in Boston,  Massachusetts, 27 August, 1798; died in New York City, 28 March, 1869. He was graduated at Harvard in 1817, and studied divinity under William Ellery Channing, but abandoned it to devote himself to the fine arts. His first collection of pictures, which was said to be the finest in Boston at that time and valued at $92,000, was destroyed in the burning of Tremont Temple in 1852. He gathered another collection worth $500,000, and, besides this, possessed property valued at nearly $1,000,000. He had bequeathed this to form a fund the income of which should be used to aid poor needle-women of Boston, but because his property was taxed in that city at what he thought an exorbitant rate, he moved to New York about 1860, cancelled his will, and made another in favor of the needle-women of Brattleboro, Vermont, and Rhinebeck, New York Mr. Thompson's mode of life was eccentric, and it is said that before his removal from Boston he had never travelled on a steamboat or a railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 95.


THOMPSON, John Leverett, soldier, born in Plymouth, New Hampshire, 2 February, 1835; died in Chicago, Illinois, 31 January, 1888, was the son of William C. Thompson. He studied at Dartmouth and Williams, and read law in Worcester,  Massachusetts, and Poughkeepsie, New York, and then at Harvard laws school, where he was graduated in 1858. He was admitted to the bar at. Worcester, and continued his studies in Berlin, Munich, and Paris. In 1860 he settled in Chicago, and at the opening of the Civil War enlisted as a private of artillery. He rose to be corporal, and was made lieutenant in the 1st Rhode Island Cavalry, in which he was commissioned captain, 3 December, 1861; major, 3 July, 1862; lieutenant-colonel on 11 July; and colonel on 4 January, 1863. In March, 1864, He took command of the 1st New Hampshire Cavalry. He served first with the Army of the Potomac, and in 1864 with Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley, taking part in many engagements, and at the close of the war received the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1866 he formed a law-partnership with Norman Williams. General Thompson was connected with the work of the Citizens' association, and was president of the Union League Club of Chicago. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 95.


THOMPSON, Waddy, lawyer, born in Pickensville, South Carolina, 8 September, 1798; died in Tallahassee, Florida, 23 November, 1868. He was graduated at South Carolina College in 1814 and admitted to the bar in 1819. He was a member of the legislature from 1826 till 1830, when he became solicitor of the western circuit. During the nullification excitement in 1835 he was elected by the legislature brigadier-general of militia. From 1835 till 1841 he was a member of Congress, and was active in debate as a leader of the Whig Party, and serving in 1840 as chairman of the committee on military affairs. In 1842 he was appointed minister to Mexico. During his mission, he made two important treaties, and procured the liberation of more than 200 Texan prisoners, many of whom were sent home at his own charge. On his return he published "Recollections of Mexico," which is valuable as a calm estimate of that country written on the eve of the war with the United States (New York, 1846). He was a cotton-planter in Florida, but spent most of his time after his return from Mexico on his estate near Greenville, South Carolina. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 95.


THOMPSON, William Tappan, humorist, born in Ravenna, Ohio, 31 August, 1812; died in Savannah, Georgia, 24 March, 1882. His father was a Virginian and his mother a native of Dublin, Ireland, and the son was the first white child that was born in the Western Reserve. He lost his mother at the age of eleven, and moved to Philadelphia with his father, who died soon afterward, and the lad entered the office of the Philadelphia "Chronicle." This he left to become secretary to James D. Wescott, territorial governor of Florida, with whom he also studied law, but in 1835 he went to Augusta, Georgia. and became associated with Judge Augustus B. Longstreet in editing the " States Rights Sentinel." He served as a volunteer against the Seminoles in 1835-6, and in the autumn of the latter year established at Augusta the " Mirror," the first purely literary paper in the state. It was not a financial success, and was merged in the " Family Companion" at Macon, whither Mr. Thompson moved. Afterward he conducted the "Miscellany" in Madison, Georgia, to which he contributed his "Major Jones Letters," which first won him a reputation, and which were afterward collected in book form as "Major Jones's Courtship" (Philadelphia, 1840; unauthorized ed., entitled "Rancy Cottem's Courtship, by Major Joseph Jones "). In 1845 he became associated with Park Benjamin in the publication at Baltimore of the " Western Continent," a weekly, of which he was afterward sole editor and proprietor, but he sold it in 1850, and, removing to Savannah, founded the "Morning News," with which he remained connected till his death. During the Civil War he was aide to Governor Joseph E. Brown, and in 1864 he served in the ranks as a volunteer. He was at one time one of the wardens of the Port of Savannah, sat in the State Constitutional Convention of 1877, and was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1868. His political editorials were forcible and often bitter, but in private life he was simple and genial. His humorous works at one time were widely popular. Besides the one mentioned above, they include "Major Jones's Chronicles of Pineville" (1843: new and unauthorized ed., entitled " Major Jones's Georgia Scenes"); "Major Jones's Sketches of Travel" (1848); "The Live Indian," a farce; and a dramatization of " The Vicar of Wakefield," which was produced with success in this country and abroad. He also edited " Hotchkiss's Codification of the Statute Laws of Georgia" (1845). After his death another collection of his sketches was published by his daughter, Mrs. May A. Wade, with the title "John's Alive, or the Bride of a Ghost, and other Sketches" (Philadelphia, 1883). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 95-96.


THOMPSON, William, surgeon, born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 28 January, 1833, was educated in the Academy of Chambersburg and under private tutors, and was graduated at Jefferson Medical College in 1855. Soon afterward he had a lucrative practice at Lower Merion, near Philadelphia, which he relinquished in 1861 in order to enter the regular army as assistant surgeon. He was with the Army of the Potomac throughout the Civil War, either in the field or at Washington. For his services after the battle of South Mountain he received the thanks of President Lincoln. He originated two reforms for improving the medical field service: the system of brigade supplies, and the division hospital system. Both these reforms were extended to all the armies by the war department. He was raised to the post of medical inspector of the Department of Washington in 1864, received two brevets, and after the war was sent to Louisiana, but he resigned from the army, 25 February, 1866. Dr. Thomson introduced the local use of carbolic acid as a disinfectant in the treatment of wounds, published an article on the treatment of hospital gangrene by bromine, and was the first, in conjunction with Dr. William F. Norris, successfully to apply the negative process of photography by wet collodion in clinical microscopy. The Army Medical museum has been largely indebted to Dr. Thomson for its success, and in its catalogue he is mentioned as the largest contributor both of papers and specimens. Since his retirement from the army Dr. Thomson has practised his profession in Philadelphia. He was elected vice-president of the ophthalmological section of the International Medical Congress that met in Philadelphia in 1870, has lectured at Wills hospital on diseases of the eye for many veal's, and was elected its emeritus surgeon in 1877. He has been clinical lecturer on diseases of the eye and ear in Jefferson Medical College since 1873, and ophthalmic surgeon to the college hospital since 1877. Among his important contributions to medical literature are a series of papers published in the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences," in conjunction with Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, on the use of the ophthalmoscope in the diagnosis of intracranial tumors, and clinical reports of cases of severe and prolonged headache, dependent upon astigmatism, which have been relieved by the correction of optical defects. He revised the section on diseases and injuries of the eye in Dr. Samuel D. Gross's "System of Surgery," and has invented a new method of diagnosing and correcting ametropia by means of a simple instrument, which is now in general use among ophthalmological surgeons in this country and Europe. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 96-97.


THOMPSON, Frank, railway superintendent, born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 5 July, 1841, was educated at Chambersburg Academy, and in 1858 began to learn the railway business in the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's shops at Altoona. Colonel Thomas A. Scott appointed him to a responsible position in the U. S. military railway system early in 1861, and he was sent to Alexandria, Virginia, where he assisted in rebuilding bridges and restoring shops, machinery, and rolling stock. On 1 July, 1862, he was transferred to General Don Carlos Buell's army, but, after accompanying it during its march through Kentucky, he returned to the Army of the Potomac. He was then engaged in directing the lines of railroad that played an important part in the Antietam Campaign, and was subsequently made assistant superintendent of the lines south of Acquia Creek. He co-operated with Colonel Scott in removing the 11th and 12th Corps, with their full equipment of artillery and wagons, to Chattanooga, and was afterward given control of the lines south of Nashville, which he rendered capable of transmitting sufficient re-enforcements and supplies to relieve the National Army from its embarrassments, and enable it to assume the offensive. He resigned from the military service in 1864, and on 1 June of that year became superintendent of the eastern division of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad. While holding this office he organized a system of track-inspection which was adopted by the entire road, and made improvements in the construction of the roadway. In 1873 he was made superintendent of motive power on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and in 1874 became its general manager. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 97.


THOMPSON'S COVE, TENNESSEE, October 3, 1863. 1st Brigade, 2d Cavalry Division and Wilder's Brigade of Mounted Infantry. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 868.


THOMPSON'S BRIDGE, North Carolina, December 18, 1862. (See Goldsboro, Foster's Expedition to.)


THOMPSON'S CREEK, LOUISIANA, October 5, 1864. A report of Col . John S. Scott, commanding the 1st Louisiana Confederate cavalry, mentions an attack made by him on a Federal camp 1 mile from Jackson on the south side of Thompson's creek. The Federals were routed and driven from the camp for a distance of 5 miles, where they attempted to make a stand, but were again driven. The casualties were not reported. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 869.


THOMPSON'S CREEK, SOUTH CAROLINA, March 2, 1865. 1st Division, 20th Army Corps. After the occupation of Chesterfield on this date, Brigadier-General New Jersey Jackson, commanding the division, turned his attention to securing the bridges across Thompson's creek to the north of the town, over which the enemy had retreated. General Hawley was sent with his brigade to the upper bridge, which was soon captured but slightly damaged. Selfridge's brigade moved to the lower bridge, but was met by a heavy fire from the enemy's sharpshooters and a battery on the north side of the stream. Selfridge stationed his sharpshooters so as to effectually cover the bridge in case an attempt was made to burn it. Later Robinson's brigade was sent across at the upper bridge to turn the enemy's right, but the Confederates abandoned their position before Robinson came within striking distance. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 869.


THOMPSON'S CREEK, SOUTH CAROLINA, March 3, 1865. 17th Army Corps. About 10 a. m. on the 2nd Major-General Frank P. Blair, commanding the 17th corps, received an order from General Sherman to advance on Cheraw, but owing to the fact that the 15th corps was not in supporting distance, the movement was not begun until the following morning, when Blair moved at daylight with a strong infantry skirmish line deployed in advance. The 9th Illinois mounted infantry was sent to ascertain the practicability of crossing Thompson's creek north of Bear creek, with a view of turning the enemy's position. The regiment reported all the bridges to the north destroyed, and Blair advanced until the enemy was encountered in force in a strong position on the west side of the creek. The Federal skirmish line was strengthened and soon drove the Confederates from their line of earthworks and across the creek, saving the bridge, which the enemy had already fired. The main body of the corps then moved forward to Cheraw. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 869.


THOMPSON'S HILL, MISSISSIPPI, May 1, 1863. (See Port Gibson.)


THOMPSON'S PLANTATION, LOUISIANA, January 23, 1865. Couriers of 3d Rhode Island Cavalry. A squad of couriers came upon some guerrillas at Thompson's plantation and immediately charged and drove them. Subsequently another outlaw band attacked the couriers, of whom 4 were captured because of their poor mounts. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 869.


THOMPSON'S STATION, TENNESSEE, March 4-5, 1863. Expedition under Colonel John Coburn. On the morning of the 4th Coburn moved out from Franklin for a movement on Spring Hill, cooperating with another detachment from Eagleville. The column consisted of the 3d Brigade, 1st Division, Reserve Corps, Army of the Cumberland; 600 cavalry from the 9th Pennsylvania, 4th Kentucky and 2nd Michigan; the 124th Ohio infantry, and some artillery, and numbered 2,837 men. About 10:30 a. m. the cavalry advance encountered the enemy's pickets 4 miles out of Franklin. The 33d Indiana and 22nd Wisconsin, with a section of artillery, were sent out on the right; the 124th Ohio and the 19th Michigan with the same amount of artillery, deployed to the left; while the 85th Indiana guarded the forage train of 80 wagons in the rear. For half an hour a brisk cannonade was continued, after which the enemy retired from the front. Shortly after he was seen massing in the direction of the Lewisburg road to the left. The cavalry was sent to disperse the Confederates and after some 3 hours of skirmishing succeeded in doing so with a loss of 2 wounded. Early next morning the forage train was sent back to Franklin and at 8 p. m. Coburn moved on, the cavalry in advance with a line of skirmishers extending half a mile on each side of the road. After an hour's march a small force of Confederate cavalry was seen on the Lewisburg road and a portion of the 4th Kentucky was sent to drive it. A mile from Thompson's station a Confederate outpost of considerable size was encountered and slowly driven, skirmishing briskly all the time. Thompson's station is situated on a prairie almost surrounded by a range of hills. The approach of both the railroad and the turnpike is through a gap, a quarter of a mile from which the station is located. Beyond the station and the field in which it stands is an extensive stretch of timber, within which the enemy lay concealed. As soon as the head of the Federal column appeared in the gap the Confederate artillery opened lire. The Union guns were placed on the ridge on either side of the gap, the two on the right being supported by the 33d and 85th Indiana and the 3 on the left by the 22nd Wisconsin and 19th Michigan, while the 124th Ohio guarded the train a quarter of a mile to the rear. A demonstration was then made by the Federal cavalry under Colonel Thomas J. Jordan on the enemy's right, while the two Indiana regiments were advanced toward the depot to take the battery operating on the turnpike near there. Meantime a large Confederate force in the timber rallied to the support of the battery, and Coburn learning at the same time that 1,0oo or more cavalry were moving on the Lewisburg road to his left, determined at once to retreat and ordered the Indiana regiments back The enemy followed closely, but three or four assaults were repulsed. The cavalry by this time had gotten out of the hole into which Coburn had been drawn, the artillery also had withdrawn and the train had left some hours before, leaving the infantry to repel assault after assault, until the Confederates were compelled to retire from the front. Then Coburn commenced his retreat, only to find that Forrest had gained his rear and there was nothing left for him to do but surrender. During the engagement of 2 days his command had sustained the following losses: killed 60; wounded, mortally 28, severely 120, slightly 84; missing 1. Some 1,100 were captured, of whom 85 died of exposure while in captivity. The Confederate casualties were 56 killed, 289 wounded and 12 missing. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 869-870.


THOMPSON'S STATION, TENN., March 9, 1863. Detachment of Cavalry of the Army of the Cumberland. On the morning of the 9th Colonel Robert H. G. Minty with his cavalry moved toward Thompson's station. Six miles from the town the enemy was first encountered, the pickets being driven rapidly by a detachment of the 4th U. S. Four and a half miles further on Armstrong's cavalry brigade, 600 strong, was in position, but after Minty had formed his line of battle the enemy declined fight and commenced a rapid retreat. The 4th U. S. and the 7th Pennsylvania cavalry pressed them closely, until at the station the Confederates turned and made a stand, but after a short but sharp skirmish they were driven from the field by the above named regiments. The Federals had 3 killed and 1 wounded, while the Confederates suffered to the extent of 5 killed, several wounded and 13 captured. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 870-871.


THOMPSON'S STATION, TENNESSEE, March 23, 1863. Detachment of Granger's Cavalry. Major-General Gordon Granger reported from Franklin, under the date of March 23, as follows: "Our cavalry has driven the rebel advance back to Thompson's station, where their main body is strongly posted. We made an effort to dislodge them, but failed, with a loss of 1 officer and 4 men." The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 871.

THOMPSON'S STATION, TENNESSEE, May 2, 1863. 1st Cavalry Brigade, Army of the Cumberland. An abstract from the "Record of Events" of the cavalry, Department of the Cumberland, for May, 1863, contains the following: "May 2, the 1st brigade, under command of Colonel A. P. Campbell, left camp at 3 a. m., on the Lewisburg pike. When about 7 miles south of Franklin, near Thompson's station, at daylight a portion of the command made a charge into the camp of the enemy, capturing 24 prisoners and killing 2." The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 871.


THOMPSON'S STATION, TENNESSEE, November 29-30, 1864. 4th Army Corps; Part of the 23d Army Corps. On the afternoon of the 29th a small wagon train was attacked by a party of Confederate cavalry near Thompson's station as Schofield's army was on the march from Columbia to Franklin. Later in the evening reports came in that the enemy was trying to gain possession of the hills east of the station. Toward midnight Schofield moved forward with Ruger's division and found that the enemy was not disposed to contest the possession of the road. Orders were accord1ngly given for the train, consisting of some 800 vehicles of different kinds, to move at 1 a. m. on the 30th. As all these wagons, ambulances, etc., had to pass singly over a bridge it was daylight before the corps could be put in motion. Wood's division had been deployed north of the Spring Hill road to cover the movements of the train, but about 3 a. m. the enemy made an attack on the train north of Thompson's station. Kimball's division was hurried forward to the rescue, but before it arrived Major Steele, of General Stanley's staff, had collected a sufficient number of stragglers to repel the attack. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 871.


THOMBURG, VIRGINIA, August 6, 1862. Expedition from Fredericksburg under Brigadier-General John Gibbon. The cavalry in the advance of the expedition was fired with a 6-pounder gun and driven back by the Confederate cavalry, when it approached Thornburg on the Mattapony river. The Confederates were stopped by the skirmishers and four or five shells from Monroe's guns. The casualties were not reported. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 871.


THOMSON, John Edgar, civil engineer, born in Springfield, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 10 February, 1808; died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 27 May, 1874. He was the son of John Thomson, the engineer who planned the first experimental railroad in the United States, and was thoroughly trained and educated in the profession by his father. In 1827 he began his own career in the engineering corps that was employed upon the original surveys of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad,, having received his appointment from the secretary of the Board of Canal Commissioners of Pennsylvania, and three years later he entered the service of the Camden and Amboy Railroad as principal assistant engineer of the eastern division. In 1832 he was appointed chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad, which then controlled the longest line under a single company in this country, and later he was its general manager. In 1847 he became chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and in 1852 he was made its president, which office he held until his death. Mr. Thomson took chief charge of the road before it was finished, and during the twenty-eight years of his administration dividends were regularly paid on the stock with the exception of a single semiannual dividend in 1857. When his presidency began, the Pennsylvania Company owned 246 miles of road and had a capital of $13,000,000; and it has since become a corporation controlling 2,346 miles of railroad and 66 miles of canal, with a capital of $150,000,000. Mr. Thomson possessed remarkable engineering ability and executive skill. He was connected with other railroad enterprises in various parts of the country, and was a director in many companies. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 99.


THOMSON, John Renshaw, senator, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 25 September, 1800; died in Princeton. New Jersey, 13 September, 1862. He studied for some time at Princeton, but left without taking his degree, in order to pursue a commercial career. He went to China in 1817, and in 1820 had regularly established himself in the Chinese trade, and opened a house in Canton, where President Monroe appointed him U. S. consul in 1823. He returned to the United States in 1825, married a sister of Commodore Robert F. Stockton, and resided at Princeton. He was appointed a director of the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 1835, which office he held during his lifetime. He canvassed the state in 1842 in support of the Constitutional convention that met in 1844. and was nominated the same year for governor by the Democratic party, but was defeated. On the resignation of Commodore Stockton as U. S. Senator in 1853. Mr. Thomson was elected for the remainder of the term, and he was re-elected in 1857 for six years. His second wife was a daughter of General Aaron Ward, and after Mr. Thomson s death she married Governor Thomas Swann of Maryland. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 99.


THOMSON, Mortimer, humorist, born in Riga, Monroe County, New York, 2 September, 1832: died in New York City, 25 June, 1875. He was taken to Ann Arbor, Michigan, by his parents in childhood, and entered the University of Michigan, but was expelled, with about forty others, for belonging to college secret societies. After going on the stage, and then travelling as a salesman for a New York firm, he adopted journalism as a profession. He was first brought into notice by his letters from Niagara Falls, in the New York "Tribune," and he also wrote rhymed police-court reports, and a series of sketches of New York fortune-tellers, which was afterward published in book-form as "The Witches of New York " (New York, 1859). His report of the Pierce Butler sale of slaves at Savannah, Georgia, about 1859, occupied several pages of the "Tribune," and was reprinted in the other daily papers, translated into several foreign languages, and circulated by the Anti-slavery society as a tract. During about eight years he delivered many popular lectures, including one in rhyme on " Pluck " and one on " Cheek" in prose. His wife was a daughter of Mrs. Parton, "Tanny Fern." Thomson's books, as well as most of his fugitive writings, appeared under the penname of "Q. K. Philander Doesticks. P. B.," which had been given him by the editor of a university magazine to which his earliest contributions were made. Thomson afterward asserted that it signified "Queer Kritter, Philander Doesticks, Perfect Brick." His works include "Doesticks—What he Says " (New York, 1855); "Plu-ri-bus-tah: a Song that's by No Author," a travesty of Longfellow's "Hiawatha " (1856); "History and Records of the Elephant Club," with "Knight Russ Oekside. M. D." (Edward F. Underhill); "Nothing to Say, being a Satire on Snobbery" (1857); and several smaller humorous collections. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 99.


THOREAU, Henry David, 1817-1862, poet, author of Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854), reformer and anti-slavery activist.  Wrote antislavery poetry.  Gave lectures and wrote on slavery’s immorality.  Wrote anti-slavery essay, “Reform and the Reformers” and “Herald of Freedom.”  Advocate of passive resistance to civil government.  Active participant in Underground Railroad.  Supporter of radical abolitionist John Brown. 

(Appletons’, 1888, vol. VI, pp. 100-101; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 491; Filler, 1960, pp. 45, 94, 120, 158, 183, 215, 241, 267; Glick, 1972; Gougeon, 1995; Harding, 1982; Mabee, 1970, pp. 4, 215, 248, 263, 265, 266, 267, 321, 322, 342, 376; Richardson, 1986; Rodriguez, 2007, pp. 476-477; Taylor, 1996; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 599)

THOREAU, Henry David, author, born in Concord,  Massachusetts, 12 July, 1817; died there, 6 May, 1862. His grandfather, John Thoreau, came from St. Helier, a parish in the Island of Jersey, about 1773, and moved from Boston to Concord in 1800. Henry, the third of four children, went to school in Boston for a little more than a year, then attended the schools in Concord, fitted for college at a private school, entered Harvard in 1833, and was graduated in 1837, a fair scholar but not eminent. The family being in humble circumstances, the father was assisted in paying his small expenses by the boy's aunts, his elder sister, who was then teaching, the beneficiary fund of the college, and Henry's own exertions at school-keeping. Thoreau afterward led a literary life, writing, lecturing, reading, and meeting his modest physical needs by surveying, pencil-making, engineering, and carpentering. He was never married, and never left Concord except for a lecturing-tour, or a pedestrian excursion. Cities he disliked; civilization he did not believe in. Nature was his passion, and the wilder it was the more he loved it. He was a fine scholar, especially in Greek, translated two of the tragedies of Æschylus, was intimate with the Greek anthology, and knew Pindar, Simonides, and all the great lyric poets. In English poetry he preferred Milton to Shakespeare, and was more familiar with the writers of the 17th century than with modern men. He was no mean poet himself; in fact, he possessed the essential quality of the poet—a soaring imagination. He possessed an eye and an ear for beauty, and had he been gifted with the power of musical expression, would have been distinguished. No complete collection of his pieces has ever been made or could be, but fragments are exquisite. Emerson said that his poem on “Smoke” surpassed any by Simonides. That Thoreau was a man of aspiration, a pure idealist, reverent, spiritual, is plain from his intimacy with Bronson Alcot and Emerson, the latter of whom spoke these words at his funeral: “His soul was made for the noblest society; he had in a short life exhausted the capabilities of this world; wherever there is knowledge, wherever there is virtue, wherever there is beauty, he will find a home.” His religion was that of the transcendentalists. The element of negation in it was large, and in his case conspicuous and acrid. Horace Greeley found fault with his “defiant pantheism,” and an editor struck out the following passage from a contribution: “It [the pine-tree] is as immortal as I am, and, perchance, will go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still.” His doctrine was that of individualism. Therein he differed from Emerson, who was sympathetic and began at the divine end. Thoreau began with the ground and reasoned up. He saw beauty in ashes, and “never chanced to meet with any man so cheering and elevating and encouraging, so infinitely suggestive, as the stillness and solitude of the Well-meadow field.” He aimed at becoming elemental and spontaneous. He wrote hymns to the night quite in the pagan fashion. His very aptitudes brought him in contact with the earth. His aspect suggested a faun, one who was in the secret of the wilderness. Mr. Sanborn, his friend and biographer, thus describes him: “He is a little under size, with a huge Emersonian nose, bluish gray eyes, brown hair, and a ruddy weather-beaten face, which reminds one of some shrewd and honest animal's—some retired philosophical woodchuck or magnanimous fox.” Another friend mentions his sloping shoulders, his long arms, his large hands and feet. “I fancy,” he wrote, “the saying that man was created a little lower than the angels should have been a little lower than the animals.” He built a hut on the shore of Walden pond in 1845, and lived there, with occasional absences, about two years and a half. He built on Emerson's land, though he had wished to build elsewhere. The house had no lock to the door, no curtain to the window. It belonged to nature as much as to man, and to all men as much as to anyone. When Thoreau left it, it was bought by a Scotch gardener, who carried it off a little way and used it as a cottage. Then a farmer bought it, moved it still farther away, and converted it into a tool-house. A pile of stones marks the site of Thoreau's hut. He went into the woods, not because he wished to avoid his fellow-men, as a misanthrope, but because he wanted to confront Nature, to deal with her at first hand, to lead his own life, to meet primitive conditions; and having done this, he abandoned the enterprise, recommending no one to try it who had not “a pretty good supply of internal sunshine. . . . To live alone comfortably, he must have that self-comfort which rays out of Nature—a portion of it at least.” At Walden he labored, studied, meditated, edited his first book, the “Week,” and gauged his genius. He redeemed and consecrated the spot. The refusal to pay taxes, and his consequent imprisonment, were due to a more specific cause— namely, his dissent from the theory of human government and from the practice of the American state, which supported slavery. He stood simply and plainly on the rights and duty of the individual. The act was heroic as he performed it, and, when read by the light of his philosophy, was consistent. Thoreau was anything but sour, surly, or morose. He could sing, and even dance, on occasion.  He was sweet with children; fond of kittens; a sunbeam at home; the best of brothers, gentle, patient, helpful. Those he loved he gave his heart to, and if they were few it was perhaps because his affections were not as expansive as they were deep. But he showed little emotion, having learned, like the Indian, to control his feelings. He cultivated stoicism. He had the pride as well as the conceit of egotism, and while the latter gave most offence to those who did not know him well, the former was the real cause of his conduct. Thoreau had no zeal of authorship, yet he wrote a great deal, and left a mass of manuscripts, mostly in prose, for he produced very few verses after he was thirty years old. The “Dial,” the “Democratic Review,” “Graham's Magazine,” “The Union Magazine,” “Putnam's Magazine,” the “Atlantic Monthly,” the “Tribune,” all contained contributions from him. Every volume of the “Dial” had something; the third volume many articles. The essay on “Resistance to Civil Government” was printed in “Æsthetic Papers.” Only two of the seven volumes of his printed works appeared in his lifetime—“A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers” (Boston, 1849) and “Walden, or Life in the Woods” (1854). The others are “Excursions in Field and Forest,” with a memoir by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1863); “The Maine Woods” (1864); “Cape Cod” (1865); “Letters to Various Persons,” with nine poems (1865); and “A Yankee in Canada,'” with anti-slavery and reform papers (1866). His life has been written by William Ellery Channing under the title “The Poet-Naturalist” (1873), and by Franklin B. Sanborn in the “American Men of Letters” series (1882). The former is a rhapsody rather than a biography, and is largely composed of extracts from Thoreau's journals, which had never seen the light before. It also contains a full list of his publications. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 100-101.


THORN HILL, ALABAMA, January 4, 1865. Detachments of the 10th, 12th and 13th Indiana, and 2nd Tennessee Cavalry. The detachments, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel W. F. Prosser, of the Tennessee regiment, while in pursuit of the Confederates retreating from Tennessee, came up with Colonel Russell's command at the junction of the Moulton and Tuscaloosa roads, a few miles east of Thorn Hill, about noon. The enemy did not wait to receive the attack, but fled precipitately, leaving a few prisoners, 5 wagons, all the headquarters papers, etc., to fall into the hands of the Federals. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 871.


THORN HILL, TENNESSEE, October 10, 1864. Detachment of 10th Michigan Infantry. The only mention of this affair is contained in Confederate reports, the following being an extract from Brigadier-General John C. Vaughn's: "Major Day despatches me from Rogersville that Lieutenant Hayes, of his battalion, met 30 select men from the 10th Michigan at Thorn Hill, north of Bean's station, killing and capturing the entire party, but 3." The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 872.


THORNBURGH, Thomas T., soldier, born in Tennessee about 1843; died near White River Agency, Wyoming, 29 September, 1879. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy, and promoted 2d lieutenant in the 2d U.S. Artillery in 1867. At the opening of the Civil War and prior to his admission to West Point he enlisted in the 6th East Tennessee Volunteers in 1861, and passed rapidly through the grades of private, sergeant-major, lieutenant, and adjutant. He took part in the battle of Mill Spring, Morgan's retreat to the Ohio, and of Stone River. As an officer of artillery he served in garrison in California (excepting a tour of duty at the artillery-school) until 1870, and as professor of military science at East Tennessee University till 1873, having been promoted 1st lieutenant in April, 1870. In April, 1875, he was appointed paymaster with rank of major, serving in that department until May, 1878, when he exchanged into the 4th U. S. Infantry, with the same rank. He commanded the post of Fort Fred Steele, Wyoming, until 1879, when he was killed while in command of an expedition against the Ute Indians. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 102.


THOROUGHFARE GAP, VIRGINIA, April 2, 1862. 28th Pennsylvania Infantry. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 872.


THOROUGHFARE GAP, VIRGINIA, August 28, 1862. (See Bull Run, August 30.) The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 872.

THOROUGHFARE GAP, VIRGINIA, October 17, 1862. Detachment of General Stahel's Cavalry. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 872.


THOROUGHFARE GAP, VIRGINIA, November 5, 1862. Thoroughfare Gap, Virginia, June 17, 1863. 1st Rhode Island Cavalry. In pursuance of orders Colonel A. N. Duffie with his regiment left Manassas Junction to go to Middleburg via Thoroughfare gap. At the gap his skirmishers met and engaged the enemy, which proved to be a brigade of cavalry. The Confederates being stronger than his own command, Duffie made a demonstration on the left flank in order to pass unseen. The enemy withdrew, and the Federals proceeded to Middleburg without further molestation. No casualties were reported. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 872.


THOROUGHFARE MOUNTAIN, VIRGINIA, January 27, 1864. The only official mention of this affair is contained in a despatch from Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart, which says that a company of the 4th Virginia cavalry on detached service in the vicinity of Thoroughfare mountain encountered a Federal scouting party of 14 men, of whom 12 were captured. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 872.


THORTON, Gustavus Brown, sanitarian. born, in Bowling Green, Virginia. 22 February, 1835. was graduated at the Memphis Medical College in 1858, and at the medical department of the University of New York in 1860. At the beginning of the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army, and in 1862-'5 was chief surgeon of a division. In 1868 he was appointed physician in charge of the Memphis City hospital, and continued so until in 1879, when he became president of the Memphis board of health; also since 1880 he has been a member of the Tennessee state board of health, both of which appointments he still holds. Dr. Thornton acquired reputation by his heroism and skill during the three great yellow-fever epidemics In Memphis in 1873-'8 and 1879. He is a member of various sanitary and medical societies, and was in 1882 president of the Tennessee State Medical Society. In addition to his official reports as president of the Memphis board of health, he has contributed numerous memoirs on sanitary subjects to the "Proceedings of the American Public Health Association" and to the transactions of other societies of which he is a member. These include "Yellow Fever, Pathology and Treatment" (1880); "Memphis Sanitation and Quarantine in 1879 and 1880'' (1880); "The Negro Mortality of Memphis" (1882); "Sanitation of the Mississippi Valley " (1884); "Gulf Coast Quarantine " (1884); and " Six Years' Sanitary Work in Memphis " (1886). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 103.


THORNTON, James Shepard, naval officer, born in Merrimack, New Hampshire, 25 February, 1820; died in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 14 May, 1875. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 15 January, 1841, served in the sloop "John Adams" in the Gulf Squadron during the Mexican War, and became a passed midshipman, 10 August, 1840. He resigned from the navy, 9 May, 1850, but was reinstated in 1854, promoted to master, 14 September. 1855, and to lieutenant the next day. During the civil war he served in the brig "Bainbridge " on the Atlantic coast in 1861, was executive officer of the flag-ship " Hartford "at the passage of the forts and batteries below New Orleans, and in the engagement with the Confederate fleet, with the ram "Arkansas " and the batteries at Vicksburg, during which he served with great credit. He was promoted to lieutenant-commander, 10 July, 1862, and had charge of the steam gunboat " Winona" in engagements at Mobile, where he made a reconnaissance of Fort Gaines in sounding approaches under fire, and destroyed several Confederate steamers. He was the executive officer of the "Kearsarge" in the fight with the "Alabama," off Cherbourg, and was given a vote of thanks, and advanced thirty numbers in his grade for his gallantry in this victory. He served at the U.S. Navy-yard at Portsmouth, NEW HAMPSHIRE, in 1866-'7, was promoted to commander, 25 July, 1866, and commissioned captain, 24 May, 1872. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 104.


THORNTON, Jessy Quinn, 1810-1888, jurist, lawyer.  Chief Justice of the Oregon Provisional Government, 1847.  Supporter of “Wilmot Proviso” to prohibit extension of slavery in the new territories acquired after war with Mexico.  (Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 502; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 607)


THORNTON, Thomas C. clergyman, born in Dumfries, Virginia, 12 October, 1794: died in Mississippi, 23 March, 1860. He was educated in his native place, became an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal church at the age of sixteen, and was received into the Baltimore conference three years later. In 1841 he was appointed president of a college in Mississippi. He left the Methodist church in 1845, and attached himself to the Protestant Episcopal church, but returned to his former connection in 1850, and in 1853 was readmitted to the Mississippi conference. He was the author of "Inquiry into the History of Slavery in the United States" (Washington, 1841). in which he replied to the antislavery arguments of William E. Channing, and of "Theological Colloquies." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 104.


THORNTON. William A., soldier, born in New York state in 1803: died on Governor's Island, New York harbor, 6 April, 1866. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1825, and assigned to the artillery. He was made captain of ordnance on 7 July, 1838, commanded the ordnance depot in New York and the Watervliet and St. Louis Arsenals, served on boards for the trial of small arms and cannon, and was inspector of contract arms in 1858-'61. He was promoted major on 28 May, 1861, and was commander of Watervliet Arsenal till 1863, and subsequently inspector of contract arms and ordnance till his death, being promoted lieutenant-colonel of ordnance on 3 March, 1863, colonel on 15 September, 1863, and brigadier-general by brevet on 13 March. 1865. During the last year of his life he was commandant of the New York Arsenal on Governor's Island. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 105.


THORNWELL, James Henley, clergyman, born in Marlborough district, South Carolina, in 1812; died in Charlotte, North Carolina, 1 August, 1862. He was graduated at South Carolina College in 1829, and entered upon the study of the law, which he soon abandoned to devote himself to the ministry in the Presbyterian church. He was chosen, in 1836, professor of logic and belles-lettres in South Carolina College, in 1842 professor of the evidences of Christianity and chaplain, and in 1852 its president. In 1856 he became a professor in the Presbyterian theological seminary at Columbia. For a short time he was pastor of the Globe Street Presbyterian church in Charleston. Dr. Thornwell was one of the ablest men that the south has ever produced. To logical and metaphysical faculties of a high order he added a fine literary style, and an easy and effective address. He was an uncompromising champion of the old-school Presbyterian theology, and m politics advocated extreme southern views. He was the author of several published sermons and addresses, "Arguments of Romanists Discussed and Refuted " (New York, 1845); ' Discourses on Truth " (1854); "Rights and Duties of Masters" (1861); "The State of the Country " (1861); and numerous articles in defence of slavery and secession in the "Southern Presbyterian Review." His collected works were edited by Reverend John B. Adger (2 vols., Richmond, 1874). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 105.


THORPE, Thomas Bangs, author, born in Westfield.  Massachusetts, 1 March, 1815; died in New York City in October, 1878. He was for three years at Wesleyan University, and while at college gave evidence of literary and artistic talent. One of his early paintings, "The Bold Dragoon, "adapted from Washington Irving's story, was highly commended. After leaving college on account of his health. Mr. Thorpe made a tour of the south, west, and finally settled in Louisiana in 1836. His first literary production of note, " Tom Owen, the Bee-Hunter," was widely quoted, and his next contribution to periodical literature—the mirth provoking sketch entitled "The Big Bear of Arkansas"— placed him in the foremost rank of early American humorists. He was for a time editor of a Whig newspaper in New Orleans. In 1844 he edited the " Concordia Intelligencer," and in 1846 established "The Conservator" at Baton Rouge, but sold the paper a few years later, and in 1859 became the editor and publisher of the New York "Spirit of the Times." Mr. Thorpe served in the Mexican war, and attained the rank of colonel. His contributions to periodical literature, particularly "Blackwood's, the "Knickerbocker," and "Harper's Magazine," show versatile talent of a high order, and several of his paintings, notably "Niagara as it Is," display ability. His published works include " Our Army of the Rio Grande" (Philadelphia, 1846); "Mysteries of the Backwoods" (1846); "Our Army at Monterey" (1847); "Lynde Weiss, an Autobiography " (1854); "The Hive of the Bee-Hunter" (New York, 1854); "A Voice to America" (1855); "Scenes in Arkansas" (1858); and "Reminiscences of Charles L. Elliott." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 105.


THRASHER, John S, journalist, born in Portland, Maine, in 1817; died in Galveston, Texas, 10 November, 1879. While he was a youth his parents moved to Havana, Cuba, where he followed for some time a successful mercantile career, but abandoned it for journalism, purchasing, in 1849, the " Faro Industrial," which was then the only Liberal newspaper. In September, 1851, his paper was suppressed, and he was condemned by court-martial to ten years' imprisonment with hard labor at Ceuta and perpetual banishment from Cuba. After several months the U. S. minister at Madrid secured his release. He afterward established in New Orleans a Sunday journal called the " Beacon of Cuba," and in 1853-5 was an active member of the junta that organized a filibustering expedition to he led by General John A. Quitman. When the U. S. authorities prevented the departure of this expedition, Thrasher went to New York City. For several years he travelled in Central and South America as a newspaper correspondent, and edited the "Noticioso de nuevo York," a journal devoted to the interests of Spanish-American countries. Marrying a lady whose property was in Texas, he moved to the south, and remained there during the Civil War, acting as agent for the associated press at Atlanta. After the war he edited for several years Frank Leslie's "Illustration Americana" in New York City, and afterward resided in Galveston. He published a translation of Alexander von Humboldt's " Personal Narrative of Travels," with notes and an introductory essay (New York, 1850), also many essays on the social, commercial, and political conditions of Cuba. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 106.


THREE CREEKS, VIRGINIA, December 9, 1864. (See Belfield.)


THRELKELD'S FERRY, ARKANSAS, February 5, 1863. Detachments of 1st Arkansas and 10th Illinois Cavalry. This affair was an incident of and expedition from Fayetteville to the Arkansas river. Colonel James Stuart with 225 men attacked a guerrilla camp, and in the engagement killed several and captured 7 of the enemy. One Federal soldier was drowned in crossing the river.


THROCKMORTON, James Webb, governor of Texas, born in Sparta, Tennessee, 1 February, 1825. He accompanied his father to Texas in 1841, became a lawyer, and entered the legislature in 1851, serving continuously in one branch or the other till the beginning of the Civil War. He was a member of the convention that passed the ordinance of secession, against which he voted, with six others, but he joined the Confederate Army in the spring of 1861, and served as a captain, and afterward as a major till November, 1863, when he resigned in order to take his seat again in the state senate. In 1864 he was appointed a brigadier-general of state troops, and in May, 1864, was placed by the state military authorities in command on the northwestern border of Texas, where he made treaties with the Comanches, Cheyennes, and other tribes, returning from the plains in June, 1865, after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention that was called in accordance with President Johnson's proclamation in 1865, and was elected its president. In 1863 he was chosen governor for four years, but in 1867 he was removed from office by General Philip II. Sheridan's orders. He was elected to Congress, taking his seat on 6 December, 1875, and served through two terms. On 3 December, 1883, he re-entered the house, and in 1885 he was re-elected. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 106-107.


THROOP, Amos Gager, 1811-1894, businessman, politician, abolitionist, philanthropist.  In 1891, he founded the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), earlier known as Throop University.  Mayor of Pasadena, California, elected in 1888.


THURSTON, Charles Mynn, soldier, born in Lexington, Kentucky, 22 February, 1786; died in Cumberland, Maryland, 18 February, 1873, entered the U. S. Military Academy in 1813, and in July, 1814, was commissioned as lieutenant of artillery, and assigned to duty on Governor's Island, New York Harbor, where he was engaged in erecting fortifications till the close of the war with Great Britain. He became adjutant of his regiment in 1821, and during the Florida war in 1835-'6 was acting adjutant-general of the Florida army. Resigning on 31 August, 1836, he settled on a farm at Cumberland, Maryland. He became president of a bank in 1838, and mayor in 1861. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the volunteer service as brigadier-general, and served in guarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad till April, 1862. when he resigned. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 107-108.


THURSTON, Daniel, Winthrop, Maine, abolitionist.  Manager, 1833-1840, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. (Abolitionist, Vol. I, No. XII, December, 1833)


THURSTON, David, Winthrop, Maine, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1833-40


THURSTON, Gates Phillips, soldier, born in Dayton, Ohio, 11 June, 1835, was graduated at Miami University in 1855. studied law. and began practice in Dayton, where he entered the volunteer service at the beginning of the Civil War as a captain in the 1st Ohio Infantry. He was promoted major and assistant adjutant-general on 4 September. 1863, and subsequently lieutenant-colonel, for special acts of gallantry at Shiloh and Stone River, and was brevetted colonel and brigadier-general of volunteers for gallantry at Chickamauga. Since the war he has followed his profession at Nashville, Tennessee. He is corresponding secretary of the Tennessee Historical Society, has contributed articles on military history and other subjects to northern and southern magazines, and has in preparation an illustrated work on the mound-builders, describing recent discoveries in the vicinity of Nashville and elsewhere. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 108.


THURMAN, Allen Granbery, statesman, born in Lynchburg. Virginia, 18 November, 1813. His father was the Reverend Pleasant Thurman, a minister of the Methodist church, and his mother the only daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Allen, nephew and adopted son of Joseph Hewes, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. His parents moved to Chillicothe in 1819, and he made that place his home until he settled in Columbus, in 1853, where he has since resided. His education was in the Chillicothe Academy, and at the hands of his mother. At the age of eight he assisted in land-surveying and at twenty-one he was private secretary to Governor Lucas, studied law with his uncle, Governor William Allen, afterward was admitted to the bar in 1835, and in a few years was employed in almost every litigated case in Ross County. In 1844 he was elected by the Democrats to Congress, and he entered that body, 1 December, 1845, as its youngest member. Preferring the practice of the law, he declined a renomination to Congress, and remained at the bar until 1851, when he was elected to the supreme bench in Ohio. From December, 1854, till February, 1856, he served as chief justice, and on the expiration of his term he refused a renomination. His opinions, contained in the first five volumes of the state reports, are remarkable for the clear and forcible expression of his views and the accuracy of his statements of the law. In 1867 he was the choice of his party for governor of Ohio. Rutherford B. Hayes, his opponent, was elected by a majority of fewer than 3,000 votes, though the Republican majority in 1866 was more than 43,000. Mr. Thurman was then elected to the Senate to succeed Benjamin F. Wade. He took his seat. 4 March, 1869, and from the first was recognized as the leader of the Democratic minority. He was a member of the committee on the judiciary and on the accession of his party to power, in the 46th Congress, he was made its chairman, and also chosen president, pro tempore, of the Senate, owing to the illness of Vice-President Wheeler. In 1874 he was elected to the Senate for a second term, and in his twelve years of service, ending 4 March, 1881, he won a reputation for judicial fairness and readiness, dignity and power in debate, especially upon questions of constitutional law. Besides his labor in the judiciary committee he rendered valuable service in the committee on private land claims. He was the author of the act to compel the Pacific Railroad Corporations to fulfil their obligations to the government, since known as the " Thurman act," the passage of which he forced in spite of the combined influence of those companies. His arguments against the constitutionality of the civil rights bills have since been sustained by the U. S. Supreme Court in language that is almost identical with that of his speeches. Efforts to secure for the rebellious states the most favorable reconstruction legislation, in which he vigorously persisted while in the Senate, led to a charge that he had disapproved the war for the integrity of the Union. His true position he thus defined in a letter to a friend: "I did all I could to help to preserve the Union without a war. but after it began I thought there was but one thing to do, and that was to fight it out. I therefore sustained all constitutional measures that tended, in my judgment, to put down the rebellion. I never believed in the doctrine of secession." Mr. Thurman retired from the Senate not alone with the high respect of his partisan associates, but also with that of senators of opposite political views, one of whom, James G. Blaine, with whom he often contended in debate, says, in his "Twenty Years of Congress": "Mr. Thurman's rank in the Senate was established from the day he took his seat, and was never lowered during the period of his service. He was an admirably disciplined debater, was fair in his method of statement, logical in his argument, honest in his conclusions. He had no tricks in discussion, no catch-phrases to secure attention, but was always direct and manly. . . . His retirement from the Senate was a serious loss to his party—a loss, indeed, to the body." General Garfield, before his election to the presidency, had been chosen to succeed Mr. Thurman in the Senate; but the contest had not interrupted friendly relations of many years standing, and, as a mark of his regard, the new president, soon after his inauguration, associated Mr. Thurman with William M. Evarts, of New York, and Timothy O. Howe, of Wisconsin, on the commission to the International Monetary Conference to be held in Paris. In the Democratic National Convention of 1876. Mr. Thurman received some votes as a presidential candidate. In 1880 the first ballot gave him the entire vote of the Ohio delegation, with considerable support from other states. In 1884 he was a delegate-at-large to the National Convention, was again put in nomination for the presidency, and stood next to Cleveland and Bayard upon the first ballot. In the convention of 1888 he was nominated for vice-president by acclamation. See "Lives and Public Services of Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman," by W. U. Hensel and George F. Parker (New York, 1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 108.


THURSTON, Robert Lawton, mechanical-engineer, born in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 13 December, 1800; died in Providence, Rhode Island, 13 January, 1874. He early developed talent as a mechanic, and on attaining his majority began to learn the trade of a machinist. His skill attracted the attention of John Babcock, who invited his assistance in the manufacture of an experimental steam-engine which was placed in a small ferry-boat for use near Fall River. Its success led to the construction of engines for the "Rushlight" and the "Babcock," which ran between Providence and New York. He then entered the iron business in Fall River, but in 1830 returned to Providence, where, with the son of John Babcock, he founded in 1834 the first steam-engine building establishment in New England, known as the Providence Steam-engine Company. They purchased the Sickles patent for the " drop cut-off" for steam-engines, and were the first either in America or in Europe to manufacture a standard form of expansion steam-engine. For a series of years they were engaged in litigation with George H. Corliss, against whom they brought suit for infringement of the Sickles patent. This case, which was one of the most noted patent suits that was ever tried, called for the services of several of the most eminent lawyers and mechanical experts of the time. The Greene engine, which they introduced, is now claimed by many engineers to be one of the best of modern steam-engines. In 1863 the unsettled condition of affairs resulting from the Civil War, with incidental lack of business, led to Mr. Thurston's withdrawal.—His son, Robert Henry, mechanical engineer, born in Providence, Rhode Island, 25 October, 1839, received his early training in the workshops of his father and was graduated in the scientific course at Brown in 1859. After two years' experience with his father's company, he entered the U. S. Navy as third assistant engineer, and served on various vessels during the Civil War. He was present at the battle of Port Royal and at the siege of Charleston, and was attached to the North and South Atlantic Squadrons until 1865, when he was detailed as assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he also lectured on chemistry. In 1870 he visited Europe for the purpose of studying the British iron manufacturing districts, and on 1 April, 1872, he resigned from the navy, after attaining the rank of 1st assistant engineer. Meanwhile, in 1871, he had been called to the chair of mechanical engineering at the Stevens institute of technology, where he remained until 1885, when he was appointed director of the Sibley College of Cornell University with the professorship of mechanical engineering. In 1871, on behalf of a committee of the American institute, he made a series of experiments on steam-boilers, in which for the first time all losses of heat were noted, and, by condensing all the steam that was generated, the quantity of water "entrained" by the steam was measured. Professor Thurston was appointed a member of the U. S. Commission to the World's Fair in Vienna in 1873. and, besides serving on the international jury, edited the " Reports of the United States Commissioners to the International Exhibition, Vienna. 1873" (4 vols., Washington, 1875-'6). which includes his own special "Report on Machinery and Manufactures." He was a member of the U. S. commission on the causes of boiler-explosions, and of the U. S. board to test iron, steel, and other metals. His extensive knowledge of matters connected with mechanical engineering has led to his being called upon frequently to testify in court on disputed points as an expert. The degree of doctor of engineering was conferred on him by Stevens institute of technology in 188.5, and he is a regular, honorary, or corresponding member of various scientific and technical societies at home and abroad. He was vice-president of the American association for the advancement of science in 1877-'8 and 1884, vice-president of the American institute of mining engineers in 18?8-'9. and president of the American society of mechanical engineers in 1880-'3. Professor Thurston has invented a magnesium burning-lamp, an autographic-recording testing-machine, a newform of steam-engine governor, an apparatus for determining the value of lubricants, and various other devices. He is the author of about 250 papers, including contributions to " The Popular Science Monthly, 'Journal of the Franklin Institute," "Van Nostrand's Magazine," "Science," "The Forum," and like periodicals, and addresses before scientific and other societies. His books are " History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine" (New York, 1878): "Friction and Lubrication" (1879); "Materials of Engineering" (3 vols., 1884-'6); "Friction mid Lost Work in Machinery and Mill Work" (1884); "Text-Book of the Materials of Construction " (1885): "Stationary Steam-Engines for Electric Lighting Purposes " (1884); "Steam-Boiler Explosions in Theory and in Practice-' (1887); and "A Manual of Steam Boilers: their Design. Construction, and Management" (1888). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 109-110.


TIBBITS, William Badger, soldier, born in Hoosick, New York, 31 March, 1837: died in Troy, New York, 10 February, 1880, was graduated at Union in 1859, began the study of law, and engaged in manufacturing. At President Lincoln's first call for troops he recruited a company, and was mustered into the service as captain on 14 May, 1861. He was engaged at Big Bethel., Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Bristow Station, and the second battle of Bull Run, was promoted major of the 2d New York Volunteer Infantry on 13 October, 1862, participated in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and, when his term of service expired, raised a regiment that was called the Griswold light Cavalry, of  which he was made colonel, his commission dating from 20 November, 1863. He served under General Julius Stahel, first encountering the enemy at New Market on 15 May, 1864. He was present at Piedmont on 5 June, was constantly engaged during the following three months, taking part in numerous actions, and was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers on 17 November. At the close of the war he was ordered to the west with his command. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers on 13 March, 1865, commissioned as brigadier-general on 18 October, 1865, and mustered out on 15 January, 1866, returning to Troy with health impaired by injuries received in the service. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 110


TICKFAW BRIDGE, LOUISIANA, May 16, 1863. (See Amite River, May 9-18.)


TICKNOR, William Davis, publisher, born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, 6 August, 1810: died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 10 April, 1864. In youth he was employed in the office of his uncle, Benjamin, a money-broker, and he afterward became teller in the old Columbian bank of Boston. He began the business of a publisher in Boston in 1832. in connection with John Allen, under the firm-name of Allen and Ticknor. successors of the old publishing-house of Carter, Hendee, and Company. In the following year Mr. Allen retired, leaving Mr. Ticknor to carry on the business for twelve years. This he did under his own name, which will be found on the title-pages of the early American editions of Tennyson and many New England authors. In 1845 John Reed and James T. Fields became his partners, and the imprint was changed to Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, but the legal firm-name remained William D. Ticknor and Company, during Mr. Ticknor's lifetime. On the retirement of Mr. Reed, in 1854, the style In, name Ticknor and Fields, continuing as such for about ten years. During this period the last-named firm purchased and continued to publish the " Atlantic Monthly" and the "North American Review. On the death of Mr. Ticknor his interest was continued in behalf of his son, Howard M and James R. Osgood. Among the important events of this epoch were the establishment of "Our Young Folks" (1864), edited by Howard M. Ticknor. and of "Every Saturday'' (1866), edited by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. In 1868 the younger Ticknor retired, and a new co-partnership was formed among the other members, under the firm name of Fields, Osgood, and Company. In 1870 Benjamin H. Ticknor was admitted, and in 1871 Mr. Fields withdrew, when the firm became James R. Osgood and Company. In 1885  it became Ticknor and Company, consisting of Benjamin H. and Thomas B. Ticknor and George F. Godfrey. From the beginning the publications of the house were characterized by intrinsic merit and by the neatness and correctness of their typography. The interests of American writers met with unusual consideration, and it became a mark of distinction for young writers to have secured them as publishers. 'William D. Ticknor was one of the first of American publishers to make payment for the works of foreign authors, beginning with £100 to Tennyson in 1842. The house always continued this custom, and it is probably not too much to say that its example did more than any other one thing to establish a principle that is now so generally recognized and acted upon. For three decades the curtained office of their establishment in di« quaint old building at the corner of Washington and School streets, seen in the illustration, was the reason of Dickens, Emerson, Hawthorne, Holmes, Longfellow Lowell. Sumner, Thackeray, Whipple, and Whittier. This building (the oldest but one now standing in Boston), one of the landmarks of the city, was built immediately after the great fire of 1711. and was occupied for various domestic and mercantile purposes, at one time being an apothecary-shop by the father of James Freeman Clarke, until, 1828 it became the book-store of Carter, Hendee and Company, from whom it passed to Allen and Ticknor. It remained in the hands of William D. Ticknor and his immediate successors until 1866, when increasing business required their removal to Tredmont street; but it is still a book-store. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 112.


TIDBALL, John Caldwell, soldier, born in Ohio County. Va. (now West Virginia), 25 January. 1825. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1848, being assigned to the 3d U.S. Artillery. He served fit the various stations of his regiment until 1861, when, having attained the rank of captain, he was placed in command of a battery, and engaged in the principal actions of the Army of the Potomac from the battle of Bull Run until and including the battle of Gettysburg in 1863. During the latter part of the campaign in Pennsylvania Captain Tidball commanded a brigade of horse artillery. He was appointed colonel of the 4th New York Volunteer Artillery, 28 August, 1863, and commanded the artillery of the 2d Corps of the Army of the Potomac during the Richmond Campaign, including the battles of the Wilderness and the siege of Petersburg. He was commandant of cadets at West Point from 10 July till 22 September, 1804, and led the artillery of the 9th Corps from 9 October, 1864, till 2 April, 1865, in the operations that terminated in the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. After he was mustered out of the volunteer service he commanded his battery at the Presidio of San Francisco until his promotion in February, 1867, to major of the 2d U.S. Artillery, thence serving in command of the district of Astoria and Alaska, and the post of Raleigh, North Carolina, and as superintendent of artillery instruction at the U. S. artillery-school at, Fort Monroe, Virginia, till January, 1880. He was then appointed aide-de-camp to the general of the army, with rank of colonel, serving until 8 February, 1884. He became lieutenant-colonel of the 3d U.S. Artillery, 30 June, 1882, and colonel of the 1st U.S. Artillery, 22 March, 1885, and has commanded the artillery-school and post of Fort Monroe since 1 November, 1883. In 1889 he will be retired from active service. He has received the brevets of brigadier-general of volunteers for gallant and distinguished services at Spotsylvania, major-general of volunteers for services at Fort Sedgwick, major in the regular army for Gaines's Mills, lieutenant-colonel for Antietam. colonel for gallantry at Fort Stedman, and brigadier-general, 13 March, 1865, for gallant and meritorious services during the rebellion. General Tidball is the author of a " Manual of Heavy Artillery Service" which has been adopted by the war department (Washington, 1880). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 112-113.


TIER SHOT. Grape shot sometimes so called. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 613).


TIFFANY, Charles Louis, jeweler, born in Killingly, Connecticut, 15 February, 1812. He received an academic education, and then entered the cotton-mill of his father. In 1837 he came to New York City without means, and established with John B. Young a fancy-goods and stationery store at 259 Broadway. The capital for the enterprise, $1,000, was lent to the young men by Mr. Tiffany's father. They invested their money in various novel goods, including Chinese curiosities. Success favored the new house, and in 1841 the firm became Tiffany, Young, and Ellis, by the admission of the latter as a partner. During the same year Mr. Young was sent abroad to select novelties and establish closer relations with European houses. The firm moved to 271 Broadway in 1847, and then began the manufacture of gold jewelry. During the disturbances in Europe in 1848, diamonds declined fifty per cent, in Paris, and, taking advantage of this, they made large purchases. In 1851 they began the manufacture of sterling silver ware. Various changes in the firm resulted in the establishment of a Paris branch, and the firm-name in New York became Tiffany and Company. The salesrooms were moved to 550 Broadway in 1851, and during the Civil War a large business was carried on in the manufacture of swords and similar articles. At the World's Fair in Paris in 1867 their exhibit received the first award. The building which they now occupy on Union Square was erected for their accommodation in 1867, and the firm was incorporated as a stock company in 1868. The products of their manufacture received the highest honors at the World's fairs in Philadelphia in 187-6, and again in Paris in 1878. Mr. Tiffany has been honored with testimonials by foreign powers, and he has been decorated by the French and Russian governments. He is active in the affairs of New York City, and is a liberal patron of art. His residence, among the finest in the country, is situated on Madison Avenue near Central Park, and is represented in the accompanying illustration. —His son, Louis Comfort, artist, born in New York, 18 February, 1848, studied under George Inness and Samuel Colman, subsequently under Leon Bailly in Paris, and during five years travelled and sketched in Europe and Africa. In 1870 he became a member of the Water-color society; the following year he was elected an associate of the National Academy, and he became an academician in 1880. He is also a member of the Society of American Artists. Among his works in oil are "Fruit-Vender, under the Sea-Wall at Nassau" (1870); "Market Day, Morlaix," and "Duane Street, New York" (1878); and "Bow-Zarea. Algiers." His water-colors include "Meditation" (1872): "Shop in Switzerland." "Old and New Mosques at Cairo," and "Lazy Life in the East" (1877; "Algiers" (1877); and "Cobblers at Borifarik" (1878). He devotes much time to decorative work, and has furnished many cartoons and designs for windows for the Tiffany glass Company, of which he is the founder. The interior work of his father's house in New York was executed under his supervision. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 113.


TIGE ARMS. Sometimes called pillar breech arms. Arms with a stem of steel, screwed into the middle of the breech pin, around which the charge of powder is placed. The ball enters free and rests upon the top of the pin which is tempered, and a few blows with a heavy ramrod forces the ball to fill the grooves of the rifled arm. This invention was an improvement by Capt. Thouvenin on Delvignes' plan of having a chamber for the powder smaller than the bore. Capt. Minie's invention superseded the tige arms, by means of a bullet which is forced to fill the grooves by the action of the charge itself at the instant of explosion. (See ARMS; RIFLED ORDNANCE.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 613).


TILDEN, Samuel Jones, statesman, born in New Lebanon, New York, 9 February, 1814; died at his country house, Graystone, Westchester County, New York, 4 August, 1886. The name of an ancestor, Nathaniel Tilden of Tenterden, yeoman, and that of Lydia, his wife, with seven children and seven servants, head the list of "such persons as embarked themselves in the good ship called the 'Hercules,' ... to be therein transported to the plantation called New England in America, from the port of Sandwich. England, in March, 1634. This Nathaniel Tilden had been mayor of Tenterden, as had been his uncle John before him. and as was his cousin John after him. He settled with his family at Scituate, whence the second generation of Tildens migrated to Lebanon, Connecticut To Isaac Tilden, the great-grandfather of Samuel J., was born at this place, in 1729, a son named John, who settled in what was afterward called New Lebanon, Columbia County, New York. Samuel J.'s father. Elam, the youngest of John Tilden's seven children, was born in 1781, and in 1802 married Polly Y. Jones, a descendant of William Jones, lieutenant-governor of the colony of New Haven. Eight children were born of this union, of whom Samuel J. was the fifth. The boy early developed great activity of mind and a remarkable command of language. His father, a farmer, who also carried on a mercantile business, was an intimate friend of Martin Van Buren, and the political controversy of the time was part of the very atmosphere of the Tilden household. In his eighteenth year Samuel prepared an address, which was adopted as a party manifesto by the Democrats, in regard to the issues of the pending state election. In the same year he entered Yale College, but almost at the outset his studies were interrupted by feeble health. He resumed them in 1834, when he entered the University of New York. Here he completed his academic education, and devoted himself to the study of law. While in college he wrote a series of papers in defence of President Van Buren's policy in regard to the United States bank. He made a more elaborate plea for the independent treasury system, as opposed to the union of bank and state, in a speech delivered to his neighbors at New Lebanon in October, 1840. On his admission to the bar, Mr. Tilden began practice in New York City, but continued to take an active part in politics. He was elected to the assembly in 1845, and while there was chairman of a committee appointed to inquire into the causes of the anti-rent disorders, and the masterly report on the whole subject of the great leasehold estates and their tenants was almost entirely his work. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1846. The three most memorable cases in which he was employed as a lawyer were the trial of the contested election of his friend, Azariah C. Flagg, as comptroller of New York City, the opposition on the part of the heirs of the murdered Dr. Burdell to Mrs. Cunningham's application for letters of administration on his estate, and the defence of the Pennsylvania coal Company to the claim of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company for payment of extra tolls. The hearing of the last-named consumed seventy days, and Mr. Tilden's argument in the ease was a marvel of analytical ingenuity and constructive ability. From 1855, more than half of the great railway corporations north of the Ohio and between the Hudson and Missouri Rivers were at some time clients of Mr. Tilden's. He was the author of many of the plans of reorganization that were rendered necessary by the early financial necessities of these companies. He took part in the Free-Soil revolt within the Democratic party in 1848. In 1851 he made a strong plea for respect to the constitution in dealing with the question of improvements on the state canals. In 1855 he was the candidate for attorney-general on the ticket of the 'Soft-Shell " Democrats. Throughout the Civil War he maintained that the struggle against the Confederacy could be successfully waged without resorting to extra-constitutional modes of action. By 1868 Mr. Tilden had definitely assumed the leadership of the Democratic Party in New York State. To the enactment of what was known as " the Tweed charter " of 1870, which confirmed the control of a corrupt ring over the government and revenues of New York City, Mr. Tilden offered the most determined opposition. To the side-partners of Tweed, the almost equally notorious persons who were engaged, by the aid of courts, in plundering the stockholders of the Erie Railway, Mr. Tilden had made himself similarly obnoxious. He was one of the founders of the Bar association, which was an organized protest against the perversion of the machinery of justice accomplished by judges George G. Barnard and Albert Cardozo and their allies. In the impeachment proceedings against these judges in 1872 Mr. Tilen's was the directing mind, and it was mainly for this purpose that he agreed to serve as a member of the assembly. On the exposure of the methods of plunder of the Tweed ring, which was made in the columns of the New York " Times " in July, 1871. Mr. Tilden undertook, through an examination of the bank-accounts of the chief members of the combination, a legal demonstration of the share of the spoil received by each, and the tables presented with his affidavit furnished the basis of the civil and criminal proceedings brought against the ring and its agents. He threw all his energy into the prosecution of suits in the name of the state against the men who had seized the machinery of local justice, and he resisted successfully the efforts of the ring and the politicians in its service to retain their hold on the state Democratic organization in the autumn of 1871. In 1874 he was the Democratic candidate for governor, and was elected by a plurality of 50,000 over Governor John A. Dix. His special message to the legislature on the extravagance and dishonesty that had characterized the management of the canals made a deep impression. During his administration the new Capitol building at Albany was begun (see illustration), which has cost $17,000,000, but is not finished. In June, 1876, the National Democratic Convention, assembled at St. Louis, nominated him for the presidency. (For an account of the election and its results, see Hayes, Rutherford B.) As finally declared, the electoral vote was 185 for Mr. Hayes and 184 for Mr. Tilden. The popular vote, as counted, gave Tilden 4,284,265: Haves, 4,033,295; Cooper, 81,737; Smith, 9,522. Mr. Tilden was opposed to the electoral commission, declaring his belief in "the exclusive jurisdiction of the two houses to count the electoral votes by their own servants and under such instruction as they might deem proper to give." From that time till the end of his life he was first among the leaders of the national Democracy, and the pressure for his renomination in 1880 became so great that his friends, who knew his fixed determination not to be a candidate, appealed to him for a formal announcement of his resolution, addressed to the delegates from his own state. Pour years later this declaration had to be repeated. His last important contribution to the history of his time was a communication addressed to John G. Carlisle, speaker of the House of Representatives, in regard to the urgent necessity of liberal appropriations for such a system of coast defences as would place the United States in a position of comparative safety against naval attack. Under the provisions of Mr. Tilden's will, the greater portion of his fortune (which was estimated at $5,000,000) was devoted to public uses, the chief of which was the establishment and endowment in the City of New York of a free public library; but the will was contested by his relatives, he never married. His life was written by Theodore P. Cook (New York. 1876), and his writings edited by John Bigelow (2 vols., 1885).— Mr. Tilden's elder brother, Moses Y. (1812-76), was a member of the legislature in 1869, and became known by his persistent opposition to the Tweed ring. With his brother, he built the Lebanon Springs Railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 114-116.


TILDEN, William P., Concord, New Hampshire, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1843-48, Manager, 1848-53.


TILLAFINNEY RIVER, SOUTH CAROLINA, December 6-9, 1864. (See Deveaux Neck.)


TILLSON, Davis, soldier, born in Rockland. Maine, 14 April, 1830. He entered the U. S. Military Academy in 1849, but two years later, having injured his foot so that it required amputation, he resigned. In 1857 he was elected to the Maine legislature, and in 1858 became adjutant-general of the state. On the inauguration of President Lincoln he was appointed collector of customs of the Waldoboro District, which place he resigned in 1861 to become captain of the 2d Maine Battery. He went to Washington in April, 1862 (having been detained in Maine during the winter, owing to the threatened difficulty with England on account of the '"Trent" affair), and was assigned to the Army of the Rappahannock under General Irvin McDowell. On 22 May he was promoted major  and made chief of artillery in General Edward O. C. Ord's division. After the battle of Cedar Mountain, 9 August, 1862, he was assigned to General McDowell's staff as chief of artillery, in which capacity he served during the three days' artillery fight at Rappahannock Station, and then at the second battle of Bull Run. Subsequently, until April, 1863. he was inspector of artillery, and in January was made lieutenant-colonel, and on 29 March was ordered to Cincinnati, having been commissioned brigadier-general to date from 29 November, 1862, and made chief of artillery for fortifications in the Department of the Ohio. He had charge of the defences of Cincinnati and the works on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and raised and organized two regiments of heavy artillery. In December, 1863, he was ordered to Knoxville, Tennessee,  where he supervised various works and was given a brigade in the 23d Army Corps, which he commanded in several engagements with Confederate cavalry and irregular troops during the winter of 1863-'4. He continued in charge of the works in this district, which were officially commended as the best in the military Division of the Mississippi, and also organized the 1st U. S. Heavy Artillery of colored troops and the 3d North Carolina Mounted Infantry. Subsequently he had command of the District of East Tennessee until early in 1865, when he was transferred to the 4th Division of the Department of the Cumberland, and held that command until the close of the war. He then offered his resignation; but his services were retained, and he remained on duty until 1 December, 1866, in charge of the Freedman’s Bureau at Memphis, and subsequently in Georgia. For a year he remained in Georgia after his resignation, engaged in cotton-planting, but then disposed of his interests there and returned to Rockland, Maine, where he has since been engaged in the granite business. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 119.


TILTON, David, Edgartown, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1838-40.


TILTON, Theodore, 1835-1907, New York, editor, abolitionist leader.  Originally supported gradual emancipation and African colonization. Later supported militant abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy and called for immediate abolition.  Worked as tireless anti-slavery leader through mid-1840s.  Encouraged Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to found the American Equal Rights Association, 1866. 

(Rodriguez, 2007, p. 170; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 120; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 551; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 681)

TILTON, Theodore, journalist, born in New York City, 2 October, 1835. He was graduated at the College of the city of New York in 1855, was employed for a year on the New York “Observer,” and then became an editor of the “Independent,” continuing on the staff from 1856 till 1871, the latter part of the time as editor-in-chief. He edited also, about six months of the last year, the Brooklyn “Union.” He then established the “Golden Age,” an independent political and literary weekly, but retired from it at the end of two years. In 1874 he charged Henry Ward Beecher with criminal intimacy with his wife (see BEECHER), and the case, tried by Plymouth church and the public courts, attracted wide attention. Mr. Tilton has written many political and reformatory articles, which have been reprinted in pamphlets. He has gained much reputation as an orator, being a constant and eloquent speaker in behalf of woman's rights, and, before the Civil War, in opposition to slavery. For twenty years he was a lyceum lecturer, speaking in nearly every northern state and territory. He went abroad in 1883, and has since remained there. Among his works are “The Sexton's Tale, and other Poems” (New York, 1867); “Sancta Sanctorum, or Proof-Sheets from an Editor's Table” (1869); “Tempest Tossed,” a romance (1873; republished in 1883); “Thou and I,” poems (1880); and “Suabian Stories,” ballads (1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 120.


TILTON, GEORGIA, May 13, 1864. 4th Army Corps. As Johnston's army fell back from Dalton to Resaca closely pursued by Howard, skirmishes occurred at several points along the route. One of these was with a detachment of Wheeler's cavalry at Tilton. No casualties reported. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 872.


TILTON, GEORGIA, October 13, 1864. (See Reseca, October 12.)


TIPPAH RIVER, MISSISSIPPI, February 24, 1864 7th Indiana Cavalry. This regiment, forming the rear-guard of Smith's column as it retired from before West Point during the Meridian expedition, was attacked by a considerable body of Confederates. The attack was repulsed, but not without a loss of 1 killed, 1 wounded and 2 captured. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 872.


TIMBER. Sawed or hewn timber is measured by the cubic foot, or more commonly by board measure, the unit of which is a superficial foot 1 inch thick. Usual rule for measuring round timber: multiply the length by the square of one-fourth the mean girth, for the solid contents, or; L being the length of the log, and C half the sum of the circumferences of the two ends. (Consult Ordnance Manual.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, pp. 613-614).


TIMBY, Theodore Ruggles, inventor, born in Dover, New York, 5 April, 1822. He received a common school education, and spent his youth on a farm. At an early age he developed inventive faculty, and in 1830 made a practicable working model of a floating dry-dock, which was condemned by nautical experts as impracticable in tidal waters. The first sight of the circular form of Castle Williams on Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York, suggested to him the idea of the revolving plan for defensive works, and in April, 1841, he went to Washington and exhibited a model and plans of a revolving battery, to be constructed of iron, to the chief of engineers and chief of ordnance of the U. S. Army. This model and plans were also submitted to John C. Calhoun and other officials in Washington. In January, 1843, he made a model of a -marine turret, and at that time filed a caveat in the U. S. patent-office for a metallic revolving fort, to be used on land or water, and to be revolved by propelling engines located within the same, acting upon suitable mechanism. From January, 1841, till 1861 Mr. Timby urged the importance of his plans upon the proper authorities at Washington and elsewhere, but without satisfactory results, although in 1848 a favorable report was made to the Secretary of War and indorsed by the chief of the ordnance bureau. Meanwhile, in 1850, he exhibited his plans to Napoleon III., and received some encouragement, but without practical result. In September, 1862, after developing many modifications of his original idea, he took out letters-patent covering the broad claim for "a revolving tower for defensive and offensive warfare, whether placed on land or water," and in the same year he entered into a written agreement with the contractors and builders of the original "Monitor" for the use of his patents, covering the revolving turret, by which they agreed to pay him a royalty of $5,000 on each turret that they constructed. Those facts show beyond a doubt that Mr. Timby is the original patentee of the revolving turrets, and that he was recognized as such by John Ericsson, the designer of the "Monitor' and similar iron-clad vessels. Among the elaborations and developments of the original idea of the revolving tower which he has perfected from time to time are the cordon of revolving towers across a channel (1801); a mole and tower system of defence (1880); the planetary system of revolving towers (1880); the subterranean system of defence (1881); and the revolving tower and shield system (1884), all of which he has patented in this and other countries. Mr. Timby invented and patented in 1844 the American turbine water-wheel, which was a success, and in 1801 he devised the method, now in universal use of firing heavy guns by electricity, as well as other inventions of practical utility. The degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Madison University in 1866. and that of S. D. by the University of Wooster. Ohio, in 1882. Mr. Timby founded in February, 1888. "Congress," a monthly journal, in Washington, D. C, and has prepared for the press a collection of didactic and philosophical prose and verse entitled " Beyond." Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 120.


TIMROD, Henry, poet, born in Charleston, South Carolina, 8 December, 1829; died in Columbia, South Carolina, 6 October, 1867. His grandfather was a German, who emigrated to this country before the Revolutionary war and settled in Charleston. His father, William (1792-1838), was a mechanic, but a man of very poetic temperament, who wrote some fine lyrics. He commanded a corps in the Seminole War, composed of Germans and men of German descent residing in Charleston, and from the exposure and hardships of the service contracted a disease that resulted finally in his death. Henry was educated at the University of Georgia, but took no degree. He was of scholarly tastes, and was a writer of verses from his childhood. After leaving the university he studied law in the office of James L. Petigru, but his enthusiasm for literature interfered with his studies, and he finally abandoned them and fitted himself for a college professor. William Gilmore Simms, who was then in the height of his fame, was in the habit of gathering round him those of the young men of Charleston that had literary proclivities, and he did much to foster the genius of Timrod, Paul H. Hayne, and other young southern writers. Timrod's first volume of poems (Boston, 1860) contained such fine work that it was hailed as an earnest of great excellence. In 1861 he began to write that series of war lyrics which made his name popular throughout the south. In 1862 a project was formed for having a volume of Timrod’s poems brought out in London; but the pressure of great events interrupted this scheme, and it was never put into execution. His delicate health forbade active service in the Held, but his pen was never idle. He was at the battle of Shiloh as war-correspondent of the Charleston "Mercury." In 1864 he went to Columbia, the capital of the state, where he edited the "South Carolinian." He lost everything when the city of Columbia was burned in February, 1865. He said of himself that he and his family woee brought to beggary, starvation, and almost death—that they had eaten up all the family silver and nearly all their furniture, and were reduced to despair. He writes in 1865: "I would consign every line I have written to eternal oblivion, for one hundred dollars in hand." But the struggle against such fearful odds, with his failing health, proved too much for him; life perceptibly ebbed away, and early in October, 1867, he died. His brother-poet and life-long friend, Paul H. Hayne, afterward published a volume of his collected works, prefaced by a very pathetic sketch of his life (New York, 1873). The south has probably never produced a poet of more delicate imagination, of greater rhythmic sweetness, of purer sentiment, and more tender emotion than this young man, who passed away before he had time or opportunity to attain that high standard of excellence which his undoubted genius fitted him to reach. His best-known poem is a short ode written for Memorial-day, 1867. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 121-122.


TIPTON, Thomas W., senator, born in Cadiz, Ohio, 5 August, 1817. He was graduated at Madison College, Pennsylvania, became a lawyer, and was elected to the legislature of Ohio in 1845, but, after some time, settled in Nebraska. He was elected a delegate to the Constitutional convention there, and became in 1860 a member of the territorial council. Subsequently he studied for the ministry, was appointed chaplain in the National Army, and served during the Civil War. He was U. S. Senator from Nebraska from 4 March, 1867. till 3 March, 1875. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 123.


TIPTON, MISSOURI, October 10, 1863. Detachment of 7th Missouri Militia Cavalry. As Confederate General Shelby moved into Tipton on the morning of the 10th his advance drove out the Federal rear-guard. When the Confederates were ready to move out in the afternoon, after having destroyed all the stores they could not carry away, they were met by a detachment of the 7th Missouri militia. In the charge which followed the Federals were driven with a loss (according to Shelby) of a great many killed and wounded and a number captured. Still later in the day some militia under Lieutenant Colonel Bazel F. Lazear came upon a few Confederate stragglers in Tipton, engaged in plundering and robbing and were immediately charged, 2 of them being killed and another wounded. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 873.


TIPTON, MISSOURI, September 1, 1864. Colonel David W. Wear, of the 45th Missouri infantry, reported from Sedalia, as follows: "Forty-two rebels entered Tipton at 6 o'clock this morning; killed 2 men; went in the direction of Boonville." The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 873.


TISHOMINGO CREEK, MISSISSIPPI, June 10, 1864. (See Brice's Cross Roads.)


TOBESOFKEE CREEK, Georgia, April 20, 1865. (See Spring Hill, same date.)


TOCQUEVILLE, "Alexis Charles Henri Cerel, Count de, French statesman, born in Paris, 29 July, 1805; died in Cannes, 10 April, 1859. He passed his early youth at his father's castle of Verneuil, near Mantes, received his education in the College of Metz, and studied law in Paris in 1823-'6, being graduated as licensie in the latter year. Through the influence of his family he was named, 5 April, 1827, judge auditor at the tribunal of Versailles, and soon afterward assistant judge. Later he became deputy assistant district attorney of the same city, and made the acquaintance of Gustave de Beaumont, with whom he was sent in 1831 to the United States by the Secretary of the Interior to study the penitentiary system of the country. They landed at. Boston on 12 May, and remained in the United States till March, 1832, visiting the principal prisons. They returned to France with six folio volumes of documents. Tocqueville published a few weeks later "Note sur le systeme penitentiaire et sur la mission conflee par M. le Ministre de l'interieur a MM. de Beaumont et de Tocqueville" (Paris, 1832), which attracted considerable attention. Tocqueville, becoming dissatisfied with his legal duties, resigned on 21 May, 1832, and opened an attorney's office. His 'Du systeme penitentiaire aux Etats-Unis et de son application en France" (Paris, 1832: 2d ed., with additions, 2 vols., 1830) was written in association with Gustave de Beaumont, and translated into several languages, including an English version by Francis Lieber (Philadelphia, 1833). The authors approved the solitary system as practised in the penitentiary of Cherry hill, in Philadelphia, and they caused the penitentiary system of France, and eventually of the continent, to be entirely remodeled. The French Academy awarded them a Montyon prize, and the success of their work was then considered as unprecedented in the annals of literature. He then visited England, married there in 1835, and in January of the latter year published the first part of his "De la Democratic en Amerique" (2 vols., Paris. 1835), which procured for the author an extraordinary prize of eight thousand francs from the French Academy. In the report of award it is called "one of the most remarkable works published in the nineteenth century, and such as the academy has seldom been called upon to crown." It was followed by the second part early in 1840. The work was translated into several languages, including an English version by Henry Reeve, entitled ' Democracy in America,' with a preface and notes by John Spencer (4 vols., New York, 1839-'40). Reeve's translation has been edited by Francis Bowen (2 vols., Cambridge, 1802), and there is also an abridgment, entitled "American Institutions and their Influence" (New York, 1856). The author was created a knight of the Legion of honor, 6 June, 1837, elected a member of the French Academy of moral sciences, 6 January, 1838, and given a seat in the Academic Francaise, 23 December, 1841. In parliament, where he served in 1839-'48, Tocqueville advocated the abolition of slavery, and urged the colonization of Algiers, which he visited in 1841 and 1846. Being returned to the constituent assembly after the revolution of 1848, he was chosen a member of the committee on legislation, elected vice-president of the assembly in 1849. and, after attending the diplomatic conferences in Brussels upon Italian affairs, was secretary of foreign relations from 2 June till 31 October, 1849. and strongly supported the French Expedition to Rome. He was arrested at the coup d'etat of 2 December 1851, and afterward retired to private life. Besides those already cited, his works include "Etat social et politique de la France," written at the invitation of John Stuart Mill, who translated and published it in the " Westminster Review" for April, 1836; "Memoire sur le pauperisme " (Cherbourg, 1836); "Lettre sur le systeme penitentiaire ' (Paris, 1838); "Lettre a Lord Brougham sur le droit de visite" (1843); " Le droit au travail" (1843); and " L'ancien regime et la revolution" (1856; translated into English, New York, 1856). Tocqueville's inedited works and correspondence were published by his friend, Gustave de Beaumont (2 vols., Paris, 1861; 2 vols., English translation, Boston, 1861); and the latter also published a complete edition of Tocqueville's works (9 vols., Paris, 1861-'5). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 124-125.


TOD, David, statesman, born in Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio, 21 February, 1805; died there, 13 November, 1868, was educated by his father, and admitted to the bar in 1827. He practised his profession in Warren for fifteen years, was elected to the state senate in 1838, and canvassed the state for Martin Van Buren in 1840. He was nominated for governor in 1844, but was defeated by 1,000 votes. He was appointed by President Polk minister to Brazil in 1847, and represented the United States there till 1852, when he returned, and took part in the canvass which resulted in the election of Franklin Pierce. In 1860 he was elected a delegate to the Charleston convention, was made first vice-president of that body, and presided over it when the southern wing of the Democratic Party withdrew. He was an advocate of compromise at the opening of the Civil War, but was a firm supporter of the government, and in 1861 was nominated for governor of Ohio by the Republicans, and elected by a majority of 55,000. During his term of two years, beginning 1 January, 1862, he gave much aid to the National administration. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 125.


TODD, John, 1818-1894, West Hanover, Pennsylvania, clergyman, abolitionist, temperance activist, station master on the Underground Railroad.  Supporter of radical militant abolitionist John Brown.  Co-founder of Tabor College in Tabor, Iowa.  (Morgan, James Patrick, John Todd and the Underground Railroad: Biography of an Iowa Abolitionist, McFarland, 2006)


TODD, John Blair Smith, soldier, born in Lexington, Kentucky, 4 April, 1814; died in Yankton, Dakota, 5 January, 1872. He went with his parents to Illinois in 1827, and from that state to the U. S. Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1837 and assigned to the 6th U.S. Infantry. He was made 1st lieutenant on 25 December, served with his regiment in the Florida war from 1837 till 1840, was on recruiting service during part of 1841, and in active service in the Florida War during the remainder of that year and part of 1842. He was made captain in 1843, and was on frontier duty in Indian Territory and Arkansas until 1846. He served in the war with Mexico in 1847, taking part in the siege of Vera Cruz and the battles of Cerro Gordo and Amazoque. He was on garrison and frontier duty till 1855. when he was engaged in the action of Blue Water against the Sioux Indians. He resigned on 16 September, 1850, and was an Indian trader at Fort Randall, Dakota, from that date till 1861, when he took his seat as a delegate to Congress, having been chosen as a Democrat. He served in the Civil War as brigadier-general of volunteers from 19 September, 1861, till 17 July, 1862, and was in command of the North Missouri District from 15 October to 1 December, 1861. He was again a delegate in Congress in 1863-'5, was elected speaker of the House of Representatives of Dakota in 1867, and was governor of the territory in 1869-'71. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 126-127.


TODD'S TAVERN, Virginia, May 5-8, 1864. (See Wilderness and Spottsylvania.)


TOISE is 2.132 yards. Reduction of old French toises to metres; 1 metre = 39.37079 English inches. (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 614).


TOM (known as Blind Tom), musical prodigy, born near Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia, 25 May, 1849. He is of pure Negro blood. His parents were slaves, and called him by the name of a member of their former owner's family, Thomas Greene Bethune. He was born blind, and the only sign of intelligence he gave in infancy was the interest he showed in sounds, such as the cries of animals, the moaning of the wind, the rushing of waters, and the pattering of rain. He could speak at an earlier age than other children, and with greater distinctness; but his words had no meaning for him, and while he was able to repeat entire conversations, he expressed his own wants by inarticulate sounds. When he was four years old a piano was brought to his master's house for the use of the young ladies of the family, and one night they were awakened by hearing him play one of their pieces. This was his first effort, yet he played with both hands, using the black and white keys. After this he was allowed the use of the instrument, and in a short time he was able to render with accuracy all the airs he heard. He also made some essays in original, or rather imitative, composition. He would run about the yard or fields, return to the piano, and, when asked what he was playing, would reply: "What the birds said to me," or "What the trees said to me." He has sometimes been compared to Mozart in childhood, but there is no instance recorded in musical history comparable to Blind Tom's attainments in phonetics and the power of reproduction and retention of sound at the same early age. Tom was brought to the north by his master, and made his first appearance in New York, at Hope chapel, 15 January, 1861, since which time he has travelled widely in this country and Europe. His musical feats, whether they are the result of mnemonic and imitative powers, or a genius for music, are astonishing. He plays one air with his right hand, accompanies it by another air in another key with his left, and sings a third air in a third key at the same time; and he can name any combination of notes that he hears struck on the piano, no matter how disconnected and puzzling the intervals. Not only can he play from memory any piece of music, however elaborate, after a single hearing, but he imitates the improvisation of another, note by note, then gives his own idea of it, and accompanies that with variations. His capacity for the most difficult musical performances since he was first brought to the north by his master has been subjected to the severest tests. He can only play what he hears or improvises; but he has about 5,000 pieces at the disposal of his memory, embracing the most difficult selections from Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Gottschalk, and Thalberg. During his performances he indulges in curious antics, and he applauds himself at the end by clapping his hands. He recites with ease in Greek, Latin, French, and German, besides imitating numberless musical instruments and all sorts of sounds, ne has partially acquired the power of vision, and can now see a luminous object within a very small space. But while Tom's powers of memory, manual dexterity, and imitative faculties are great, his renderings are devoid of color and individuality. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 129.


TOMAHAWK CROSSING, ARKANSAS, January 22, 1864. (See Clear Creek.)


TOMES, Robert, physician, born in New York City, 27 March, 1817; died in Brooklyn, New York, 28 August, 1882. He was graduated at Washington (now Trinity) College in 1835, and, after spending some time in the medical schools of Philadelphia, went to the University of Edinburgh, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1840. He then studied in Paris, and on his return to the United States settled in the practice of his profession in New York, but after a few years was appointed surgeon on a vessel belonging to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and made several voyages between Panama and San Francisco. In 1865 he was appointed U. S. consul at Rheims, France, which office he filled until 1867. Returning to the United States, he spent most of his life in literary occupation. He wrote for journals and magazines, and his series of papers in "Harper's Magazine" on American manners and society were widely popular. He published "The Bourbon Prince" (New York, 1853); "Richard the Lion-Hearted " (1854): "Oliver Cromwell" (1855); "Panama in 1855" (1855); "The Americans in Japan" (1857); "The Battles of America by Sea and Land" (3 vols., 1861); "The Champagne Country" (1867); and "The War with the South: a History of the Great American Rebellion" (3 vols., 1864-'7; German translation, 2 vols., 1864-'7). Dr. Tomes also translated works from the French and German. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 129.


TOMLINSON, Carver, Illinois, abolitionist, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1858-64.


TOMPKINS, Daniel D., vice-president of the United States, born in Fox Meadows (now Scarsdale). Westchester County, New York, 21 June, 1774: died on Staten Island, New York, 11 June, 1825. His father was Jonathan O. Tompkins, a farmer, who performed services useful to his country during the Revolutionary conflict. The son was graduated at Columbia in 1795, studied law, was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1797, gained rapid success in his profession, and soon began to take part in politics, being elected to the state constitutional convention of 1801. and in the same year to the assembly. He was a leader of the Republican Party in his state, and in 1804 was elected to the National House of Representatives, but resigned on 2 July, before the meeting of Congress, in order to take his seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of New York, having been nominated an associate justice on the promotion of James Kent to the chief justiceship. On 9 June, 1807, he resigned in order to become the candidate for governor of the Democratic wing of his party in opposition to Morgan Lewis. He was elected by a majority of 4,000 votes, and found himself in accord with the legislature in his support of the foreign policy of the Jefferson administration. He was continued in the office by the reunited Republican factions at the elections of 1809 and 1811. In 1812, in order to prevent the establishment of the Bank of North America in New York City as the successor to the defunct United States bank of Philadelphia, he resorted to the extraordinary power of proroguing the legislature that the constitution then gave him. which no governor ever used except himself in this instance. The charter of the bank had been approved by the house, a part of the Republicans voting with the Federalists, and when the legislature reassembled it was at once passed. In the election of 1813 his majority was reduced from 10,000 to 4,000, and there was a hostile lower house in the next legislature. Nevertheless, his bold act made him very popular with the common people, and his active patriotism during the war with Great Britain increased their admiration. He placed the militia in the field, and did more than the Federal government for the success of the operations on the Canadian border, pledging his personal and official credit when the New York banks refused to lend money on the security of the U. S. treasury notes without his indorsement. He advanced the means to maintain the military school at West Point, to continue the recruiting service in Connecticut, and to pay the workmen that were employed in the manufactory of arms at Springfield, he bought the weapons of private citizens that were delivered at the arsenal in New York City, and in a short time 40,000 militia were mustered and equipped for the defence of New York, Plattsburg, Sackett's Harbor, and Buffalo. When General John Armstrong retired from the secretaryship of war after the sacking of Washington, President Madison invited Tompkins to enter the cabinet as Secretary of State in the place of James Monroe, who assumed charge of the war department; but he declined on the ground that he could be of more service to the country as governor of New York. He was reelected in 1815, and in April, 1816, was nominated for the vice-presidency of the United States. His talents and public services were more conspicuous than those of James Monroe, but the northern Democrats were not strong enough to command the first place on the ticket. Before resigning the governorship and entering on the office of vice-president, to which he was elected by 183 out of 217 votes, he sent a message to the legislature, dated 28 January, 1817, recommending that a day be fixed for the abolition of slavery within the bounds of the state, and the assembly, acting on his suggestion, decreed that all slaves should be free on and after 4 July, 1827. He was re-elected vice-president by 215" of the 228 votes that were cast in 1820, and in the same year was proposed by his friends as a candidate for governor ; but his popularity had diminished, and charges of dishonesty were made in connection with his large disbursements during the war with Great Britain. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1821. The suspicion of embezzlement, which were due to a confusion in his accounts, unbalanced his mind and brought on a melancholy from which he sought escape in intoxicating drinks, thereby shortening his life. He was one of the founders of the New York Historical Society, one of the corporators of the city schools, and a regent of the State university. — Daniel's nephew, Daniel D., soldier, born in New York in 1799; died in Brooklyn. New York, 20 February, 1803, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1820, entered the ordnance corps, and on the reorganization of the army was made 2d lieutenant of artillery, the ordnance department being at that time merged in the artillery, with commission dating from 1 July, 1821 He was promoted 1st lieutenant on 1 March, 1835, and captain on 31 December, 1835, and in the Florida war against the Seminole Indians distinguished himself in the skirmish at San Velasco, in the battle of Wahoo Swamp, and in other actions, and was brevetted major on 11 September, 1836. He was appointed captain and assistant quartermaster on 7 July, 1838, became a major on the staff on 22 July, 1842, and during the Mexican War had charge of the forwarding of supplies from Philadelphia, receiving the brevet of lieutenant-colonel on 30 May, 1848, for meritorious performance of duties connected with the prosecution of the war. He was made a full lieutenant-colonel on 16 September, 1851, and colonel and assistant quartermaster-general on 22 December, 1856, and from the beginning of the Civil War till the time of his death he served as depot quartermaster in New York City, furnishing supplies to the armies in the field.—A son of the second Daniel D., Charles H., soldier, born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, 12 September, 1830, was educated at Kinsley's school at West Point, New York, and for two years at the U. S. Military Academy, but resigned without completing the course. He entered the service in 1856 in the dragoons, and after an enlistment of three years on the frontier, during which he passed through the principal noncommissioned grades, he was appointed 2d lieutenant in the 2d U. S. Cavalry, 23 March, 1861, and was promoted 1st lieutenant in April of the same year. While commanding a squadron of his regiment, the 5th U.S. Cavalry, within the defences of Washington, he made a "dashing reconnaissance in the direction of Fairfax Court-House, Virginia, 31 May, 1861. It was at night and resulted in the capture of two outposts of the enemy, with an estimated loss of twenty-five Confederates. Lieutenant Tompkins charged three times through the town, losing several men and horses, including two chargers which were shot under him. As one of the first cavalry affairs of the war, it attracted wide attention. Subsequently he served in the battle of Bull Run and upon the staff of General George Stoneman. He was appointed captain and assistant quartermaster, served for a few months as colonel of the 1st Vermont Cavalry, as lieutenant-colonel and quartermaster of volunteers in 1865-'6, and colonel and quartermaster in 1866-'7. He was made deputy quartermaster-general in the regular army in 1866, and assistant quartermaster-general with rank of colonel, 24 January, 1881. He participated in the operations of General Nathaniel P. Banks and General John Pope in the Shenandoah Campaign, and was recommended for the appointment of brigadier-general of volunteers for conspicuous services at the battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia. He has served from 1865 till 1888 as chief quartermaster of the principal military divisions of the army, and was at the last-named date chief quartermaster of the Division of the Atlantic. He was brevetted major for Fairfax Court-House, lieutenant-colonel for the Shenandoah Campaign, and colonel and brigadier-general. 13 March, 1865, for meritorious services during the war. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 130-131.


TOMPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY, June 6, 1862. Detachment of 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry. The pickets of a scouting party of 120 men of the 9th Pennsylvania, under Captain McCullough were driven in just as the detachment was about to leave camp. In the charge by the Federals which followed, McCullough was killed and 4 of his men were wounded. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 873.


TOMPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY, July 9, 1862. Detachment of the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Major T. J. Jordan, with three companies of his regiment, was stationed at Tompkinsville on this date to keep watch on the movements of the enemy, known to be in the vicinity. Shortly after reveille on the morning of the 9th, firing was heard on the road to Salina, and a few minutes later the pickets came in with the report that Morgan was approaching in force. Jordan ordered his men to mount and by the time his line of battle was formed the Confederates debouched from a wood about 300 yards away, opening upon the Federals with 2 pieces of artillery. Finding himself outnumbered by at least six to one, Jordan gave the order to retreat. The detachment fell back through a wood to gain the Burkesville road, but were attacked on the flank and rear by a party of Texas troops. A charge was ordered and the Texans swept aside, several of their number killed or wounded. Some 2 miles farther on the rear-guard, under Lieutenant Sullivan, was cut off and captured, Sullivan himself being killed after he surrendered. The Union loss was 4 killed, 7 wounded and 19 missing. The enemy lost 19 killed and 28 wounded. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 873.


TOMPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY, November 19, 1862. A Confederate report contains mention of an affair with some Federal cavalry near Tompkinsville during a scout in Kentucky. After half an hour of fighting the Federals were routed, losing 27 killed and a number wounded. The enemy's casualties were 4 killed and 3 wounded. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 873.


TOMPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY, November 24, 1862. Detachment 39th Brigade, 12th Division, 14th Army Corps. Colonel Joseph R. Scott, commanding the brigade, says in a report: "On the afternoon of the 24th the enemy made a slight demonstration upon Tompkinsville with cavalry and artillery. My pickets, aided by cavalry, repulsed them, capturing 1." The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 873.


TOMPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY, April 22, 1863. Tom's Brook, Virginia, October 9, 1864. 1st and 3d Cavalry Divisions, Army of West Virginia While General Sheridan was retiring toward Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, the cavalry corps of the army of West Virginia, under Major-General A. T. A. Torbert, attacked the enemy's cavalry at Tom's brook. The Federal force consisted of two divisions, under Generals Custer and Merritt, moving on parallel roads from 2 to 3 miles apart. The Confederates, commanded by Generals Rosser and Lomax, numbered from 4,000 to 6,000 men. The attack on the two roads was almost simultaneous, and for 2 hours sharp fighting prevailed, Custer's division attempting to turn the Confederate left, while Merritt pressed the center. About 11 a. m. the enemy gave way in disorder. Merritt followed down the Valley pike for more than 20 miles, charging every time the Confederates attempted to rally, while Custer did the same on the Back road for 12 miles. The two divisions captured some 300 prisoners, 11 pieces of artillery and all the Confederate ordnance, ambulance and wagon trains. The Federal casualties were 9 killed and 48 wounded. The enemy's loss was about 400. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 873-874.


TON, John, 1826-1896, Akersloot, North Holland, abolitionist.  Active in the Underground Railroad, aiding fugitive slaves.  Worked with other abolitionists in the area, including Cornelius Kuyper, Charles Dyer, and Charles and Henry Dalton.


TOOLS. The French ordinance of 1831 prescribes the following camp tools: reaping-hook, scythe, axe, shovel, mattock, and bill-hook. Each tool has a leather case and a shoulder belt, in order that it may be carried by the men. (See UTENSILS.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 614).


TOOMBS, Robert, senator, born in Wilkes County, Georgia. 2 July, 1810; died in Washington, Georgia, 15 December, 1885. He studied at the University of Georgia, was graduated at Union College in 1828, attended lectures in the law department of the University of Virginia the next year, and in 1830, by a special act of the legislature, was admitted to the bar before he had attained his majority. He then settled in his native county, subsequently attaining a reputation such as few lawyers ever enjoyed in the state. When the war with the Creek Indians in 1836 he raised a company of volunteers, led them as their captain, and served under General Winfield Scott until the close of hostilities. He was in the legislature in 1837-'40, and in 1842-'3 took an active part in politics, and was a leader of the so-called "State-rights Whigs." He supported William H. Harrison for the presidency in 1840, and Henry Clay in 1844, and in the latter year was chosen to Congress as a Southern Whig. His first speech in the House of Representatives was on the Oregon question, and placed him among the first debaters and orators in that body. He was active in the compromise measures in 1850, and greatly contributed to their passage. After eight years' service in the house he took his seat in the U. S. Senate in March, 1853, holding office by re-election till 1861. As a senator he was intolerant, dogmatic, and extreme, but able and eloquent. He believed in the absolute sovereignty of the states, and that it was a necessity for the south both to maintain and extend slavery. He advocated disunion with all the force of his oratory, and after the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency made a series of speeches in Georgia in which he asserted that the north would no longer respect the constitutional rights of the south, and that secession was the only remedy. When the state convention met in 1861, he was mainly instrumental in securing the majority of votes on the resolution to secede. He resigned his seat in the U. S. Senate in January, 1861, and in March was formally expelled from that body. He was a member of the Confederate Congress at its first session, and but for a misunderstanding might have been chosen president of the Confederacy. After the election of Jefferson Davis he became Secretary of State, but resigned in a few weeks to take the commission of brigadier-general in the army. He fought at the second battle of Bull Run and at the Antietam, but resigned and returned to Georgia. In 1864 he commanded the militia, of which he was brigadier-general. After the war he eluded arrest as a political prisoner, and passed two years in Cuba, France, and England, but returned on the restoration in 1867 of the privilege of habeas corpus, resumed practice, and accumulated an estate that was estimated at about $500,000. As he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the U. S. government, he was debarred from all the rights and privileges of citizenship. He was a member of the Georgia Democratic State Convention in 1872, and advocated Horace Greeley as a candidate for the presidency. In 1874 he began the railroad war, to which he devoted his energies until his death. The legislature of that year had passed a law taxing railroads as all other property was taxed. The railroads resisted, and General Toombs, in behalf of the state, took the matter into court, established the principle that they should pay the same taxes as other property, and collected $300,000, including some arrears of taxes. In the state convention of 1877 he introduced a resolution providing for the appointment of three commissioners who should have the power to oversee the business of the roads, to make and unmake rates, and to order improvements. In accordance with this provision, the next legislature adopted what is known as the commission railroad law. He continued his hostility to the United States government until his death. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 133.


TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS. (See ENGINEERS, Topographical.)


TOPOGRAPHY is the art of representing and describing in all its details the physical constitution, natural or artificial, of any determined portion of country; in making maps and giving a descriptive memoir. Military topography differs from geography in seeking to imitate sinuosities of ground; it represents graphically and describes technically commanding heights, water-courses, preferable sites for camps, different kinds of roads, the position of fords, extent of woods. It enumerates the resources that a country offers to troops and the difficulties which are interposed. By means of colored maps and other conventional signs, military topography presents before the eyes of a general much that is necessary to guide his operations. (Consult BARDIN. See RECONNOISSANCE; SURVEYS, Military.) (Scott, Military Dictionary, Van Nostrand, 1862, p. 614).


TORBERT, Alfred Thomas Archimedes, soldier, born in Georgetown, Delaware, 1 July, 1833; died at sea, 30 September, 1880. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1855. assigned to the 5th U.S. Infantry, served on frontier duty during the next five years in Texas and Florida, on the Utah Expedition, and in New Mexico, being promoted 1st lieutenant, 25 February, 1861. In April, 1861, he was sent to muster in New Jersey Volunteers, and was made colonel, on 16 September, of the 1st New Jersey Regiment. On 25 September, 1861, he was promoted to captain in the 5th U. S. Infantry. Colonel Torbert served through the Peninsula Campaign, was given a brigade in the 6th corps on 28 August, 1862, and fought in the battle of Manassas on the two following days. He also took part in the Maryland Campaign, and was wounded at the battle of Crampton's Gap, 14 September, where he made a brilliant bayonet charge. He was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on 29 November, 1862, and was at Gettysburg. He fought his last battle in the infantry at Rappahannock Station, 7 November, 1863, and in April. 1864, was placed in command of the 1st Division of Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, participating in the skirmishes at Milford station and North Anna River. He commanded at Hanover town, and then participated in the cavalry battle at Hawes's shop, 28 May, for which he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, U. S. Army. He also repelled the enemy at Matadequin Creek, 30 May, and drove them close to Cold Harbor. He took that place on the 31st with cavalry alone, after a severe fight, before the arrival of the infantry, and held it the next day against repeated assaults. He was now ordered by General Sheridan, with another division, to make a raid to Charlottesville, had the advance, and commanded at Trevillian station on 11 June. On 8 August. 1864. General Torbert was made chief of cavalry of the middle military division, and given command of three divisions when General Sheridan took command of the Army of the Shenandoah. When Sheridan was closely pressed at Winchester, Torbert was especially active with the cavalry and aided in putting the enemy to flight, for which he was brevetted colonel on 19 September, 1864. He had been brevetted major-general of volunteers on the previous 9 September. Returning through the valley, he halted after several actions at the command of General Sheridan, and fought the cavalry battle at Toms River on 9 October, completely routing General Thomas L. Rosser's command, and pursuing it many miles. On 19 October, at Cedar Greek, General Torbert assisted the 6th Corps in holding the pike to Winchester against desperate assaults. He commanded at Liberty Mills and Gordonsville on 23-23 December,1864, when his active service ended. After his return from a leave of absence on 27 February, 1865, he was in command of the Army of the Shenandoah, 22 April till 12 July, 1865, of the District of Winchester till 1 September, and of southeastern Virginia till 31 December. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general, U. S. Army, for Cedar Creek, and major-general for gallant and meritorious services during the war. He was mustered out of the volunteer service, 15 January, 1865, and resigned from the regular army, 31 October, 1866. He was appointed in 1869 minister to San Salvador, transferred as consul-general to Havana two years later, and filled the same post at Paris from 1873 till his resignation in 1878. He lost his life, while on his way to Mexico as president of a mining company, on the steamer "Vera Cruz," which foundered off the coast of Florida. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 134-135.


TORREY, Charles Turner, Reverend, 1813-1846, Massachusetts, clergyman, reformer, abolitionist leader.  Wrote Memoir of the Martyr.  Co-founder of Boston Vigilance Committee, which aided and defended fugitive slaves.  Leader, the National Convention of Friends of Immediate Emancipation, Albany, New York, 1840.  Arrested, tried and convicted of aiding in escape of slaves.  He died in prison.

(Dumond, 1961, p. 285; Mabee, 1970, pp. 266, 268; Wilson, 1872, Vol. 2, pp. 74-80; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 138; Pennsylvania Freeman, April 23, 1850; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 9, Pt. 2, p. 595; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Vol. 21, p. 757.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography:

TORREY, Charles Turner, reformer, born in Scituate,  Massachusetts, in 1813; died in Baltimore, Maryland, 9 May, 1846. His ancestor, James, was an early settler of Scituate. (See TORREY, WILLIAM.) Charles was graduated at Yale in 1830, studied theology, and occupied Congregational pastorates in Princeton, N.J., and Salem,  Massachusetts, but soon relinquished his professional duties to devote himself to anti-slavery labors in Maryland. In 1843 he attended a slaveholders’ convention in Baltimore, reported its proceedings, and was arrested and put in jail. In 1844, having been detected in his attempt to aid in the escape of several slaves, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to a long imprisonment in the state penitentiary, where he died of consumption that was brought on by ill usage. His body was taken to Boston, and his funeral attended from Tremont temple by an immense concourse of people. The story of his sufferings and death excited eager interest both in this country and in Europe, and “Torrey's blood crieth out” became a watch-word of the Abolition party, giving new impetus to the anti-slavery cause. He published a “Memoir of William R. Saxton” (Boston, 1838), and “Home, or the Pilgrim's Faith Revived,” a volume of sketches of life in Massachusetts, which he prepared in prison (1846). See “Memoir of the Martyr Torrey” (1847).   Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 138.

Chapter: “Underground Railroad. - Operations at the East and in the Middle States,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.

The arrests, imprisonments, trials, and death of Charles T. Torrey in the Maryland penitentiary are among the more memorable examples and incidents connected with the working of the Underground Railroad. The wide notoriety of his acts, his position as a young clergyman, the great respectability of his connections, the high standing of those who sought his reprieve or some mitigation of his sentence, with the persistent .refusal of the authorities to grant it, challenged scrutiny, demanded investigation, and compelled thoughtful men to ask and show cause why such acts of neighborly kindness should be so severely punished.

Mr. Torrey was born near the spot where the Pilgrims landed, and of an ancestry distinguished for · their piety and political standing. His parents dying in his early childhood, he was placed under the care of his grandparents. Quick and impulsive, he did not receive that thorough and careful restraint from these indulgent guardians which one·· of his mer. curial temperament required. When, therefore, he went forth into the world, he had not gained all that caution, that calm and calculating self-control, which one differently constituted and differently trained might have exhibited in the peculiarly trying circumstances in which he was afterward placed. When he was brought into close contact with slavery, and became acquainted with the sad story of the slave's wrongs and wants, he was not so well prepared to listen to the, cool counsels of prudence, as he was prompt to reduce to practice, without much refining and weighing of consequences, that '' disinterested benevolence'' which was the great idea of his religious creed.

Graduating from Yale College in the year 1830, he was settled in 1837 as pastor of the Richmond Street ·Congregational Church in Providence. In the mean ·time he had married the second daughter of Dr. Ide of West Medway, Massachusetts, his theological teacher, and granddaughter of the late Dr. Emmons of Franklin, of the same State, a distinguished theologian of his day. By this marriage he became allied to prominent leaders in a school of theology whose distinguishing feature had ever been an inflexible adherence to the logical conclusions of the doctrines of its Creed, in their practical as well as their theoretical results, thus extorting the admission of a veteran antislavery writer that he had “never known a Hopkinsian clergyman who was not an Abolitionist.”  The great reforms, especially the antislavery, then at their spring-tide, and stirring the public mind deeply, would not permit him to enjoy the quietude of a pastor's life. Accordingly he relinquished his pastorate in the autumn of 1838, and engaged in delivering antislavery lectures.

In 1842, there was a slave-holders convention at Annapolis, Maryland, .at which, as if the laws of that State were not inhuman and-unchristian enough, it was proposed, even at that late date, to make them still more oppressive and wicked. Among other propositions, hardly less degrading and cruel, they proposed to the legislature to prevent the emancipation of slave by will or deed ; to prevent free Negroes from coming into the State ; to sell free persons of color, convicted-of crime, into slavery out of the State ; to repeal the act allowing manumitted -Negroes to remain in the State without a certificate; to require free Negroes to give security for their good behavior; to forbid free Negroes from holding real estate; and also to prohibit them from holding meetings after sundown. Mr. Torrey went to the convention in the capacity of a Washington correspondent of several Northern papers. Whether or not the members of the convention were made suspicious by the nefarious purposes of their meeting, it soon transpired that they suspected Mr. Torrey of being an Abolitionist, and a question arose whether he should be allowed to remain, either on the floor or in the galleries. While this was discussed in the convention, a great excitement was pervading Annapolis, and the mob was debating the question whether he should be taken out of town to be tarred and feathered, or hung. The conclusion, however, was to commit him to jail,--a building he pronounced to be “old and ruinous, without bed, or even straw, for a prisoner." He was allowed, however, such necessities, by furnishing them at private expense. He was gratuitously defended by two able lawyers of the State, Alexander, and Palmer. Several of the Massachusetts delegation in Congress and others proffered their kind sympathy and good offices. After several days incarceration, the judge decided that there was no cause for detention, though he put him under five hundred dollars bonds to keep the peace, his lawyers kindly becoming his sureties. This false imprisonment, these “bonds," and an expenditure which, as a poor man heavily in debt, he was ill able to bear, were the price he was obliged to pay for being an Abolitionist, --nothing else being laid to his charge.

In this jail he became acquainted with thirteen persons who had been manumitted by their owner, who afterward died insolvent. Being seized by the creditors of the estate, these unoffending men and women were twice tried before the courts, where it was proved that their late owner was not insolvent when he manumitted them. But these decisions having been reversed by the chancellor, they were in jail awaiting a new trial, with small probability of a favorable result. Mr. Torrey, very naturally, became deeply interested in their case, and resolved to help them, if he could. In a letter to the" New York Evangelist," written a few days after his release, there occurs this sentence:” I feel with more force than ever the injunction to ' remember them that are in bonds as bound with them '; and, after listening to the history of their career, I sat down and wrote and signed and prayed over a solemn reconsecration of myself to the work of freeing the slaves, until no slaves shall be found in the land. May God help me to be faithful to that pledge in Annapolis jail! In that cell, God helping me, if it stands, I will celebrate the emancipation of the slaves in Maryland before ten years roll away."

There is a touching pathos in this incident in Mr. Torrey's life, which, had real chivalry, and not slavery, been the ruling spirit of the American people, would have rather endeared him to his countrymen than have consigned him to prison. Well born, with superior talents, education, and professional prospects, a charming home, cheered by the presence of a lovely wife and little ones, he sacrificed them, disregarded the popular sentiment of, the North, and braved the vengeance of the South, to aid the lowly and downtrodden. As the young reformer sits in the dreary and repulsive prison, surrounded by and listening to the story of the dusky victims of the same cruel power that had laid its ruthless hands on him, little aid from the imagination is required to suggest a picture worthy of the painter's art. It is easy now, as it was then, to criticize and charge him with imprudence, unfounded enthusiasm, and an improper estimate of 'the relative claims of his family and the slave. Doubtless he was imprudent. That he was too enthusiastic may be admitted, when his purpose is borne in mind to “celebrate the emancipation of the slaves in Maryland in ten years." That a cooler and more calculating judgment would have led him to hesitate before subjecting his family to the contingencies resulting from his decision is probable. But these were errors of judgment, "leaning to virtue's side." In the light of eternity, above the interests, the friendships, and 'conventionalisms of earth, at Heaven's chancery, when this ·act shall be tested by the standards of the great law of love, another estimate will be made. That solemn promise, then written down, will be deemed a worthier record than that of many a prudent man, who, at a safe distance, left the slave to suffer and perish, while he satisfied his conscience and sense of justice by discountenancing such rashness, such unlawful interference with the claims of the slave-master. The obloquy often cast, by those who heard the 'appeals 'of the fleeing fugitive only to disregard them, upon the few who, like Mr. Torrey, heard to heed, should be relieved by a recognition of the fact that seldom, if ever, were braver, more unselfish, and more chivalric deeds recorded on the page of history than were theirs. When, by reason of the unparalleled difficulties of the situation, all made mistakes, let not theirs alone be held up for public reprobation, which were made in the interests of humanity' and with such -sublime disregard of personal sacrifice and danger.

After his release, he went to Albany and became editor or a paper. While in that city, a slave, who had escaped to Canada, entreated him to go to Virginia and aid in the escape of his wife and little ones. To one with his feelings and convictions, with that vow on record, such an appeal could not come in vain. With the husband and father he started on 'his ill-fated errand of humanity' which proved not 'only unsuccessful 'in the immediate object for which it was undertaken, -but fatal to all like efforts on this part in behalf or the slave. He was again arrested, imprisoned, and placed on trial. He secured the services of Reverdy Johnson, but ·not until, with characteristic honesty, he had confessed that he had once aided one or that gentleman's slaves to escape. He experienced the annoyances and hardships that might be reasonably expected for such an offence in such a community. Through the kind offices of friends, however, they were much lessened and alleviated; and, like the Missouri prisoners, he at once entered ·upon his missionary efforts, conversing and· praying with his fellow-prisoners. But, while laboring for their benefit, he did not forget the great cause of freedom, but wrote to friends, to bodies secular and ecclesiastical, and one long and able letter to the State of Maryland. After being in jail some three months, awaiting his trial, he, in company with others, made an unsuccessful attempt to escape. Being betrayed, they failed of carrying their purpose into effect, and, he writes, were heavily ironed, and placed in damp, low-arched cells, and treated worse than if we had been murderers. I was loaded with irons weighing, I fudge, twenty-five pounds, so twisted that 1 could neither stand up, lie down, nor sleep for seven days and nights he said he slept none, from, pain and the utter prostration of the nervous system. His trial came on, he was· convicted, and, on the 30th of December, 1843, he was sentenced to six years' imprisonment in the penitentiary.

Strenuous efforts were .soon made for his release. Leading men, comprehending the essential wickedness of such a penalty for such an offence, signed memorials to the Governor of Maryland for pardon. Appeals, too, were made in person by several individuals. But the public sentiment of the State and of the South was too imbittered; and, though Governor Pratt expressed himself as personally favorable to the request, he did not deem it wise to brave the popular feeling against it. Some of the citizens of Baltimore approached Mr. Torrey with the idea of preparing the way for release by some seeming concession and the confession of doing wrong in violating slave laws. But he nobly adhered to his principles. In a letter dated 21st of December, 1844, he writes: "I cannot afford to concede any truth or principle to get out of prison. I am not rich enough." Indeed, it is doubtful whether any concession would have appeased the bloodthirsty appetite of the demon who now had him within his power. Though his health was failing, and it was evident he must soon succumb to the rigors of prison life, the· governor remained inexorable. He died in prison, on the 9th of May, 1846.

But the most humiliating fact remains to be noted. After his death, his remains were taken to Boston; and Park Street Church, in which a-brother-in-law was a worshipper, was engaged for the funeral services. The permission was, however, revoked, the, house of another denomination procured, and Tremont Temple was thronged by the multitude, many of whom were hardly less indignant at the heartless intolerance of Boston than at the barbarism in Maryland. His body was followed by a long procession to Mount Auburn, where a fitting monument was afterward raised to his memory. There lies, in the words of Whittier, the young, the beautiful, the brave! He is safe now from the malice of his enemies. Nothing can harm him more. His work for the poor and helpless was well and nobly done. In the wild woods of Canada, around many a happy fireside and holy family altar, his name is on the lips of God's poor. He put his soul in their soul's stead; he gave his life for those who had no claim on his love save that of human brotherhood."

On the evening of the day of his burial there was a large meeting in Faneuil Hall, at which addresses were made by General Fessenden of Maine, Henry B. Stanton, and Dr. Walter Channing, and a poem from James Russell Lowell was read. Referring to the acts for which: Mr. Torrey suffered, Mr. Stanton said: " Stripped of all extrinsic ornament, it was this, he aided oppressed men peaceably to cast away their chains; he gave liberty to men unjustly held .in bondage…He has done something for liberty, and his name deserves a place in the calendar of its martyrs. Now that he has been laid quietly and serenely in his grave, we may safely publish those acts to the world which, while he lived, could be safely known only to the few. In a letter addressed to me, while he was in prison awaiting his trial, he said: ' If I am a guilty man, I am a very guilty one; for I have aided nearly four hundred slaves to escape to freedom, the greater part of whom would probably but for my exertions have died in slavery.' “This statement was corroborated by the testimony of Jacob Gibbs, a colored man, who was Mr. Torrey's chief assistant in his efforts. The selection of Mr. Gibbs was not only an example of Mr. Torrey's shrewdness, but one instance, at least, in which the slave-masters overreached themselves, and where laws enacted in behalf of slavery, inured to the interests of freedom. For by the slave codes of all the slaveholding States the testimony of colored persons could not be received in court, so that Mr. Gibbs could never testify against his employer.

Source:  Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Vol. 2.  Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 74-80.


TORREY, Martin, Foxboro, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Abolition Society, Manager, 1842-, Executive Committee, 1843-45


TOTOPOTOMY, VIRGINIA, May 29-31, 1864. 2nd, 5th, 6th and 9th Army Corps. In the campaign from the Rapidan to the James the 2nd corps, Major-General Winfield S. Hancock commanding, advanced on the 29th on the road running from Haw's shop to Atlee's station, driving the enemy across the Totopotomy and into his works on the south side of the stream. Major-General H. G. Wright, with the 6th corps, was then moved to Hancock's right and Major-General G. K. Warren, with the 5th corps, to his left. Later the 9th corps, under Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, took a position between Warren and Hancock. Reconnaissances by the 2nd, 5th and 6th corps were ordered to be made at noon. Barlow's division of the 2nd corps encountered the enemy intrenched on the opposite bank and some sharp skirmishing occurred, but the Confederates clung to their position with such tenacity that Barlow was unable to dislodge them. Hancock ordered Birney's division to the right of Barlow and Gibbon's to the left, Gibbon's line being extended by the advance of Burnside's corps. In front of Gibbon's position the enemy's skirmishers were strongly intrenched, but Brooke's brigade of Barlow's division and Owen's of Gibbon's crossed the creek and by skillful maneuvering drove them out, capturing a large number of prisoners, after which the whole Union line was advanced down the stream. Tidball's batteries were placed near the Shelton house and opened a heavy fire on the batteries across the creek, silencing the guns, while incessant skirmish firing was kept up to develop the Confederate position. About 7 p. m. Hancock received orders to attack, but a little later the order was recalled and the line was directed to cease operations. At 11 a. m. on the 31st, Birney crossed Swift run and carried the enemy's line on the right of the Richmond road. Barlow and Gibbon pushed up close to the enemy's line and Wright's corps moved up within easy supporting distance, but owing to the unfavorable nature of the ground, Hancock deemed it inadvisable to assault. The four corps held their positions until the morning of June 1, when they were ordered to withdraw to Cold Harbor where Grant was planning to bring on a general engagement. The losses at Totopotomy are included in the official reports with those at the North Anna and Pamunkey rivers, so that it is impossible to give an accurate statement of casualties.


TOTTEN'S PLANTATION, MISSISSIPPI, August 2, 1862. Detachment of 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Army of the Southwest. Learning that some Confederate cavalry were encamped 10 miles from Wilkinsburg, Colonel C. E. Hovey, commanding the brigade sent a cavalry and infantry force to disperse them. At Totten's plantation four companies of Bolivar county troops were met and routed, 2 being killed and a number wounded. The Union Army, 1908, Vol. 6, p. 874.


TOTTEN, Benjamin J., naval officer, born in the West Indies in 1806; died in New Bedford,  Massachusetts, 9 May, 1877. He entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman, 2 March, 1823, became a passed midshipman, 20 February, 1830, was promoted to lieutenant, 29 March, 1834, and was commissioned a commander, 14 September, 1855. He was in charge of the sloop "Vincennes " in 1858-'60 on the coast of Africa to suppress the slave-trade, and the " Brandy wine " of the North Atlantic Squadron, 1862-'3, most of the time being stationed at Hampton Roads, Virginia. He was placed on the reserved list in July, 1862, and served at the naval rendezvous at New Bedford,  Massachusetts, during the rest of the war after May, 1863. He was retired, 1 October, 1864, and promoted to commodore on the retired list, 4 April, 1867, after which he was governor of the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia for two years. He was the author of "Totten's Naval Text-Book" (Boston, 1841; revised eds., New York, 1862 and 1864). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 140.


TOTTEN, George Muirson, civil engineer, born in New Haven, Connecticut, 28 May, 1809; died in New York City, 8 June, 1884. He was educated in Captain Alden Partridge's Military Academy in Middletown, Connecticut, and began work as a civil engineer on the Farmington Canal in 1827. Subsequently he went to Pennsylvania and was there employed upon the Juniata Canal. In 1831 he was one of the engineers of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in New Jersey, and in 1835 he was engaged in building the railroad from Reading to Port Clinton. For several years following he was employed in building railroads in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. In 1843 he was appointed engineer-in-chief of the Canal del Dique, which connects Magdalena River with the harbor of Carthagena in Colombia. He was appointed in 1850 engineer-in-chief of the Panama Railroad, and spent twenty-five years among difficulties of every sort in the completion of this arduous task. In 1879 he was associated with Ferdinand de Lesseps on the commission that went to the isthmus to decide on the canal project. Later he went to Venezuela, where he was engaged in the survey of a railroad, and he afterward became consulting engineer of the Panama Railroad. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 140-141.


TOTTEN, James, soldier, born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 11 September, 1818; died in Sedalia. Missouri, 1 October, 1871. He was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1841, became 1st lieutenant in 1847, engaged in the Florida War against the Seminole Indians in 1849-50, and became captain in 1855. He aided in quelling the Kansas disturbances in 1857-'8, and in expelling intruders from the Indian reserves in Kansas and Arkansas in 1860. While in command of Little Rock Arsenal in February, 1861, he was compelled to evacuate that post by a superior Confederate force under Governor Henry M. Rector. He served under General Nathaniel Lyon and General John C. Fremont in the military operations in Missouri as chief of artillery, was engaged at Camp Jackson, Booneville, and Wilson's Creek, and in June was brevetted major in the U. S. Army for Camp Jackson, and lieutenant-colonel in August, 1861, for " gallant and meritorious service " in all these actions. He became major in the 1st Missouri Volunteers, 19 August, 1861, lieutenant-colonel the next month, and assistant inspector-general, with the rank of major, in November. On 12 February, 1862, he became brigadier-general of Missouri Militia, in command of the central district of the state. He then engaged in several actions on the frontier and in pursuit of the enemy beyond Boston Mountains, Arkansas, became inspector-general of the Department of the Missouri in May, 1868, and chief of artillery and chief of ordnance in 1864. He was brevetted colonel, U. S. Army, on 13 March, 1865, "for gallant and meritorious conduct during the siege of Mobile, Alabama," and on the same day brigadier-general in the U. S. Army "for gallant and meritorious service in the field " during the Civil War. He was inspector-general of the Military Division of the Atlantic from 15 August, 1865, till" 27 August, 1866, and became lieutenant-colonel, U. S. Army, and assistant inspector-general, 13 June. 1867. In 1870 he was retired.—His son, Charles Adiel Lewis, inventor, born in New London, Connecticut, 3 February, 1851, was graduated at the U. S. Military Academy in 1873, was professor of military science and tactics in the Massachusetts agricultural College at Amherst in 1875-'8, and occupied a similar chair in St. Paul's cathedral school, Garden City, New York, in 1883-'6. He is now 1st lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Artillery. He served in the Bannock campaign in 1878, and in the Chiricahua Campaign in 1881. In 1877 he patented an improvement in explosives, one in collimating sights, one in signal-shells, and several minor inventions. He patented "Strategos," a war-game, in 1880, a system of weights and measures in 1884, and improvements in linear and other scales in 1885. Trinity gave him the degree of A. M. in 1885. He has written extensively on pyramid explorations, lectured in favor of Professor Piazzi Smyth's pyramid theories, and for several years was chairman of the committee on pyramid exploration in the International institute for preserving Anglo-Saxon weights and measures. His publications include '"Strategos, the American War-Game" (2 vols., New York, 1880); "An Important Question in Metrology," a plea for the Anglo-Saxon against the metric system (1883); and, under the pen-name of Ten Alcott, "Gems, Talismans, and Guardians, the Facts, Fancies, Legends, and Lore of Nativity" (1887). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, p. 141.


TOTTEN, Joseph Gilbert, soldier, born in New Haven, Connecticut, 23 August, 1788; died in Washington. D. C, 22 April, 1864. He received his earliest education under the direction of his maternal uncle, Jared Mansfield, by whom he was brought up after the death of his mother. After his uncle's occupation of the chair of mathematics at the U. S. Military Academy the boy received an appointment from Connecticut as cadet. In 1805 he was graduated and promoted 2d lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. Meanwhile Captain Mansfield, having been made surveyor-general of Ohio and the western territories, obtained the services of his nephew as secretary of the first systematic survey of any of the new states of the Union. While holding this place he resigned in 1806 from the army, but returned to the engineering corps two years later, and began his career as a military engineer under Colonel Jonathan Williams. His first work was on the construction of Castle Williams and Fort Clinton in New York harbor, of which he had special supervision in 1808-'12; and in July, 1810, he was promoted 1st lieutenant. During the war of 1812 he served as chief engineer of the army under General Stephen Van Rensselaer on the Niagara frontier, and participated in the battle of Queenstown. Subsequently he was chief engineer of the army under General Henry Dearborn in 1813, and of that under General Alexander Macomb in 1814. His services gained for him promotion to captain, and the brevets of major in 1813 and lieutenant-colonel for his conduct at Plattsburg in 1814. At the close of the war he returned to duties in connection with the National coast defences and served chiefly at Newport, Rhode Island, where he had charge of the construction of Fort Adams until 7 December, 1838, when, having passed through the grades of major in 1818 and lieutenant-colonel in 1828. he was appointed colonel and Chief Engineer of the U. S. Army. In connection with the labors incidental to this office, he was intrusted with the inspectorship and supervision of the U. S. Military Academy, which duties he filled until his death. At the beginning of the Mexican War he was called by General Winfield Scott to take charge of the engineering operations of the army that was to invade Mexico. In this capacity he directed the siege of Vera Cruz, for which he was brevetted brigadier-general. He then returned to his official duties in Washington, and, in addition to his regular work, was a member of the light-house board in 1851-8 and 1860-'4, also serving in 1855 as a state commissioner for the preservation of the harbor of New York, and later in similar capacity in Boston. In 1859-'61 he made a reconnaissance of the Pacific Coast of the United States to determine the requisites for its defence, and inspecting fortifications. After the beginning of the civil war he had charge of the Engineer Bureau in Washington, and acted on various military commissions. When the Corps of Engineers and that of Topographical Engineers were consolidated in 1863, he was made brigadier-general on 3 March, and for his long, faithful, and eminent services was brevetted major-general on 21 April, 1864. He was one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution from its establishment in 1845 until his death. General Totten was interested in natural science and was an authority on the conchology of the northern coast of the United States, publishing occasional papers, in which he described hitherto unknown species. The Gemma Tottenii and the Succinea Tottenii were so named in his honor. He also published papers on mineralogy. The degree of A. M. was conferred on him by Brown in 1829. and. in addition to membership in other scientific societies, he was named by act of Congress in 1863 one of the corporate members of the National Academy of Sciences. He published papers on scientific subjects, which appeared in transactions of societies of which he was a member, and various reports on national defences; and translated from the French "Essays on Hydraulic and Other Cements " (New York, 1842). See a sketch by General John G. Barnard in "Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences" (Washington, 1877). Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. VI, pp. 141-142.