Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

About the 1st of December, 1863, GENERAL DAVIS returned to Chicago on recruiting service, and in a short space of time he succeeded in increasing his regiment up to one thousand seven hundred men, being three hundred in excess of the maximum organization required. From this time he was connected with the armies of the West. After having taken part in BANKS' disastrous retreat down the Red river, during which he was slightly wounded in the leg, GENERAL DAVIS, then commanding a brigade in the cavalry division, was ordered to join the Army of the Cumberland, in January, 1865, at Memphis. He remained in command of his brigade part of the time in Memphis, and being engaged also in several raids, until the suspension of active hostilities, when he resigned and returned to his old home in Chicago. From this time till that of his death, GENERAL DAVIS played a very prominent part in that city as a politician, orator, and lawyer. He was for several months a part proprietor of the Evening Post, but having been chosen City Attorney in 1867, he was obliged to confine himself wholly to the discharge of the duties of this office, which he filled with honor to himself and profit to the city's interest. His term of office expired last December, and this fall, feeling the need of a vacation and some recreation after years of toil, he determined to pass a series of months in traveling through Europe, in order to renew the associations of twenty years before, and also being impelled by a desire to witness more closely the gigantic duel now going on between France and Prussia. He sailed, together with the family of COLONEL R. W. HAYDEN, one of his old war comrades and an intimate friend, on the 8th of October last, in the ill-fated "Cambria," and shared the fate of the other passengers of that steamer.

GENERAL DAVIS was peculiarly fitted to be a cavalry officer; brave, without rashness, he knew just when a headlong daring was expedient, as he evinced in the charge at Darkesville. Of great presence of mind, and always cool, he had the dash and fire necessary to make a successful cavalry leader, and that personal magnetism which caused his men to worship him. Of peculiar

modesty, and inclined to be reserved in his intercourse with strangers, he was the most genial and attractive of men on any convivial occasion, and his brilliant wit, his sparkling conversational powers, and ready polished eloquence will long be remembered by those who have had the pleasure to meet him at the banquet, or hear him from the rostrum. "HONEST JOHN DAVIS" was the soubriquet of his father, and if there be any truth in the commonly received idea that the qualities of mind and heart are transmitted from father to son, there could be no better illustration thereof than in him, for never was there a man of more spotless integrity, or one more utterly incapable of anything false or treacherous, in whom honor seemed innate. Our country has indeed lost a brave soldier, and an honest, true citizen, in HASBROUCK DAVIS.

COL. JAMES T. BOYD.

DIED.--At Eureka, Kansas, of heart disease, COLONEL JAMES T. BOYD, aged 35 years.

COLONEL BOYD was born on the Island of Jersey in 1835. Ho came to this country in 1854, and remained in the city of New York for five years. In 1859 he went out to the Rocky Mountains. Returning in 1861, he first heard of the war then threatening our country as he reached Iowa. The President had just made his first call for troops, and although COLONEL BOYD was born and nurtured under the British flag, he had been long enough in this country to be at heart an American, and to revere our flag as deeply as though it was his own.

Iowa, like all the Northern States, was responding heartily to the call for troops, and COLONEL BOYD, feeling that any insult to the flag was a personal insult, immediately enlisted as a private

soldier in one of the earliest regiments that Iowa sent into the three months' service.

On its return, after its expiration of service, he resumed hist journey eastward and joined his friends in Chicago. In September, 1861, he enlisted in the Fifty-first Illinois Infantry, then being recruited, and mustered into that regiment as Second Lieutenant, Company D. Accompanying his regiment to the field in July, 1862, he was promoted to be First Lieutenant of the same company. At the battle of Stone River, commanding Company B (of which company he was afterward Captain), he received a severe wound in his right thigh, which incapacitated him for field service for over two years. But as his high sense of duty would not allow him to wear the uniform of our country in idleness, and although actually unfitted, by reason of his wounds for any service, he asked to be assigned to duty, and was detailed as Assistant Provost Marshal at Nashville, a position he was eminently qualified to fill. In 1864, his wound being partially healed, he asked to be relieved from post duty, and rejoined his regiment, which then, with our beloved THOMAS, was working its way toward Atlanta. After the battles of Franklin and Nashville, he was promoted to be Lieutenant Colonel of his regiment, and he accompanied it to the Rio Grande, where it remained until ordered home to be mustered out of service, September 25, 1865. This, in brief, is the mili tary history of COLONEL BOYD. The devotion to duty which he always manifested, the heartfelt reverence for our flag which characterized him, words can never describe. In the hour of danger he was always the bravest among brave. Loyal and true to his friends, he was beloved by all who knew him. Possessing a brilliancy of wit that is rarely equaled, he was not only the life of all social gatherings, but in the field, when his men would be tired and desponding, his cheerful smile and brilliant example would inspire them anew. After laying aside the sword and returning to the walks of civil life, he settled in Kansas. Being always a great sufferer, the climate there increased his ailments, and far from all the comforts of life, yet blessed with the care of a

devoted and affectionate wife, death found him. In all his sufferings his heart never misgave him. He met the great conqueror peacefully and cheerfully, crossing the dark river without a fear. And while we mourn his loss, we rejoice that we can thus briefly perpetuate his memory.

MAJOR GEORGE BURROUGHS.

(UNITED STATES CORPS OF ENGINEERS.)

From the Charleston (S. C.) Courier of January 24, 1870, we glean the following:

"SUDDEN DEATH.-We learn with regret of the sudden death of MAJOR George BurrOUGHS, Engineer of the Sixth Light-house District. MAJOR BURROUGHS left the city on an inspection tour about six days ago. On Friday, while on his return, he was taken ill with congestion of the brain, and at 8 o'clock, on Saturday night, after the vessel had reached the harbor, he died. His body has been embalmed, and awaits the orders of his friends. MAJOR BURROUGHS has been living in this city for some time, and his death will be regretted by a large circle of friends and acquaintances."

GEORGE BURROUGHS was born in Camden, New Jersey, December 11, 1841. He was the son of REV. HENry Burroughs, Jr., Rector of St. Paul's Church at that place, and SARAH TILDEN BurROUGHS. He was the descendant, in the fourth generation, of JOHN BURROUGHS, who came from Plymouth, England, in 1733, to Boston, Massachusetts, where the family still reside.

GEORGE removed with his parents to Northampton, Mass., in 1843, and from that place to Boston in 1852. During his early years he began to develop those qualities which gave him uniform success in school and college, and later, at the Military Academy. As a child, he was quick to learn, fond of study and of reading. He was exact and methodical in all his undertakings; energetic

and persevering in carrying his plans into effect, and careful, truthful, and conscientious in his relations to his fellow-men. He loved to be occupied and at work. It was one of his earliest wishes to become an engineer. He was a member of the Boston Latin School-one of the best classical schools in the country-for five years. He twice received the "Lawrence Prize," for exemplary conduct and punctuality. He graduated in 1857, with honor, receiving the Franklin Medal. In July, 1857 he entered Harvard University, and at once assumed the first rank in scholarship in his class. He left college when he received his appointment as cadet in the Military Academy, in 1858. We take from the published register of the graduates of the United States Military Academy the following, which is in brief his military history:

"Cadet at the United States Military Academy from July 1, 1858, to June 17, 1862, when he was graduated, and promoted in the army to Second Lieutenant, Corps of Engineers. Served during the rebellion of the seceding States, 1862-66, as Assistant Engineer of BRIGADIER GENERAL G. W. MORGAN'S Division (Army of the Ohio), July 30 to October 4, 1862, being engaged in defense of Cumberland Gap, East Tennessee, July 30 to September 17, 1862, and as Acting Aid-de-Camp to the Commanding General on the retreat through Eastern Kentucky to the Ohio river, September 17 to October 4, 1862; at Louisville, Ky., preparing drawings of the defenses of Cumberland Gap, October 4 to December 11, 1862, and constructing defenses of Louisville and Nashville Railroad, November 8 to December 11, 1862; as Assistant Engineer, Department of the Cumberland, December 12, 1862, to November 19, 1864, being engaged in the construction of the defenses of Nashville, December 15, 1862, to November 19, 1864 (except while on sick leave of absence, March 15 to May 15, 1864), from which he was occasionally detached for duty at Gallatin, Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, Clarksville, and Murfreesboro', for MAJOR GENERAL ROSECRANS' Tennessee campaign from Tallahoma to Chattanooga, July 20 to October 11, 1863, participating in the battle of Chicka

« ZurückWeiter »