medal from the city of New York. He was given the commission of 2d lieutenant in the 2d U. S. infantry, and served in California, in charge of Fort Yuma, and elsewhere in the west, being engaged in frequent actions with hostile Indians. While stationed at Fort Yuma, the command under Maj. Samuel P. Heintzelman was compelled to fall back on San Diego for want of supplies, and Sweeny was ordered to remain with ten men. The Indians besieged his camp from 5 June until 6 Dec., 1851, but he was finally extricated by a government exploring expedition under Capt. Lorenzo Sitgreaves. After other duties at various posts he was promoted captain, 19 Jan., 1861. Soon after the beginning of the civil war he was ordered to St. Louis and given command of the arsenal, which contained immense quantities of munitions of war of all kinds, sufficient fully to arm and equip 60,000 men, together with over forty tons of powder. Capt. Sweeny had but forty unassigned recruits under him, while in St. Louis there were nearly 3,000 hostile minute-men, fully equipped. Advances were made to induce him to surrender the arsenal; but the reply, that if a serious attempt should be made to capture the arsenal he would blow it to atoms, prevented any action on the part of the Confederate sympathizers. He was second in command of the Union troops at the surrender of the state forces at Camp Jackson, and conducted the final negotiations, in consequence of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon's having been disabled. Subsequently he was instrumental in the organization of the Missouri three-months' volunteers, and he was appointed brigadier-general on 20 May, 1861. In the campaign that followed he took an active part with Gen. Lyon, and was severely wounded at the battle of Wilson's Creek, and later he was acting assistant adjutant - general under Gen. John C. Frémont. He then accepted the command of the 52d Illinois volunteers, and was attached to the army under Gen. Grant, participating in the capture of Fort Donelson, after which he took 6,000 prisoners to Alton, Ill. At a critical moment toward the close of the first day of the battle of Shiloh a gap existed between the right flank of Sweeny's brigade and Gen. William T. Sherman's left. The defence of this position, which was the key of the situation, was intrusted to him by Sherman, who has since said: “I attach more importance to that event than to any of the hundred achievements which I have since heard saved the day." His commission of brigadier-general of volunteers dates from 29 Nov., 1862, and thereafter he commanded a division of the 16th army corps and was engaged in protecting the Memphis and Charleston railroad. He was promoted major of the 16th infantry, 20 Oct., 1863, and in the Atlanta campaign had the 2d division of the 16th corps in the Army of the Tennessee. At Snake Creek gap his command took possession of the gap twenty-four hours in advance of the cavalry, and held it in spite of every effort of the enemy. He took part in the battle of Resaca and forced a passage across Oostenaula river at Lay's Ferry, where he fought a successful battle, which action resulted in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's retreat southward. He also participated in the battles of Dallas and Kenesaw Mountain, and at the battle before Atlanta on 22 July, 1864, his division drove the enemy back with great slaughter, capturing four battle-flags and 900 prisoners. Subsequently he had command of the post of Nashville until July, 1865, and he was mustered out of volunteer service on 24 Aug. of that year. He participated in the Fenian invasion of Canada in 1866, and was present at the battle of

Limestone Ridge. During this period he was out of the National service, but was reinstated by the president soon afterward and given posts in the southern states. Gen. Sweeny was presented with a sword by the city of Brooklyn for services rendered in the civil war. He was retired on 11 May, 1870, with the rank of brigadier-general.

SWEET, Alexander Edwin, editor, b. in St. John, New Brunswick, 28 March, 1841. His father, James, removed to San Antonio, Tex., in 1849, and was afterward mayor of that town. He also served in the Confederate army as a lieutenantcolonel. The son was sent to school in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and in 1859 went to Europe and entered the Polytechnic institute, in Carlsruhe. Returning to Texas in 1863, he served in the Confederate army in the 33d Texas cavalry. After the war he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in San Antonio for several years. In 1879 he became editor of the San Antonio "Express," and, still practising law, became city attorney. Afterward he was editor of the San Antonio " Herald," and a contributor of humorous paragraphs to the Galveston "News." In May, 1881, he removed to Austin, Texas, and formed there a partnership for the publication of a weekly journal entitled "Texas Siftings," which was removed to New York in 1884. With J. Amory Knox he has published "On a Mexican Mustang through Texas from the Gulf to the Rio Grande" (Hartford, 1883). SWEET, Benjamin Jeffrey, soldier, b. in Kirkland, Oneida co., N. Y., 24 April, 1832; d. in Washington, D. C., 1 Jan., 1874. His father was a clergyman in poor health, and at nine years of age the boy was set at work in a cotton-mill. When he was sixteen his father removed to Stockbridge, Wis., and settled upon a piece of wild forest land, where the son spent a year in clearing a homestead for the family. At the age of seventeen he entered Appleton college, but remained only a year, and then returned home, where he alternately taught and worked on his father's farm. His spare hours he devoted to the study of the law. Before he was twenty-seven he was elected to the senate of Wisconsin, but at the opening of the civil war he was commissioned major of the 6th Wisconsin regiment. Soon afterward he resigned and raised two fresh regiments, the 21st and 22d Wisconsin, of the first of which he became colonel. In the battle of Perryville, where it formed a part of one corps that during all of one day sustained an attack from the whole of Bragg's army, it lost 300 in killed and wounded. Col. Sweet had been for several days confined to an ambulance by malarial fever, but when the battle began he mounted his horse and took command of his regiment. During the battle he received a wound that was supposed to be mortal. His life was saved by the careful tending of his wife, but his health was permanently shattered. He was given a colonelcy in the Veteran reserve corps, and stationed at Gallatin, Tenn., building a fort there in the winter of 1862-'3. In May, 1864, he was ordered to take command of the prison at Camp Douglas, Chicago, where about_10,000 Confederate soldiers were confined. In June he discovered that an outbreak had been planned for the 4th of July which should liberate and arm the prisoners, and result in the sacking and burning of Chicago. He quickly strengthened his defences and re-enforced his garrison, and the attempt was thus rendered hopeless. Early in November, Col. Sweet received positive information that the post was to be attacked on election night, only three days following; 5,000 armed men under com

petent leaders were then in Chicago, ready for the assault on the camp, and muskets were there in abundance to arm the 9,000 prisoners. Chicago was to be burned, and its flames were to be the signal for a general uprising of 500,000 well-armed men throughout the western country. Every available soldier had been sent to the front by the government, and Sweet had in the garrison but 796 men, most of whom were unfit for active duty. Moreover, it was too late to receive re-enforcements. His only hope of safety lay in the speedy arrest of the Confederate leaders who were then in Chicago. In this emergency he called to his aid one of his prisoners, a Texas ranger named John T. Shanks, who was well acquainted with the Confederate officers, and engaged him to ferret them out. To gain him confidence with the Confederates, he allowed Shanks to escape from the prison, and made great efforts for his recapture. Col. Sweet thought he could trust the man; but he had him constantly shadowed by detectives pledged to take his life in case of his treachery. Shanks did his work so well that within thirty-six hours the leaders of the intended assault were in irons, and a large quantity of contraband arms was in the possession of the government. When Chicago awoke to the danger it had escaped, its citizens collected at a massmeeting and publicly thanked Col. Sweet for the service he had rendered. For it also the government promoted him to the rank of brigadier-gen- | eral of volunteers. When he was mustered out of service at the close of the war he resumed the practice of his profession in Wisconsin, but in 1869 he was appointed U. S. pension-agent at Chicago. He held this position till April, 1870, when he was made supervisor of internal revenue for Illinois. This office he held till January, 1872, when he was called to Washington to be 1st deputy commissioner of internal revenue.

SWEET, Elnathan, civil engineer, b. in Cheshire, Mass., 20 Nov., 1837. He was graduated in the scientific course at Union college in 1859, and became a civil engineer, making a specialty of constructing bridges and other engineering work by contract. In 1876-'80 he was division engineer of New York state canals, and he was elected state engineer in 1883, which office he held for four years from 1 Jan., 1884. Mr. Sweet's principal contribution to engineering science consists in the determination of the laws that govern the propulsion of vessels in narrow channels, an account of which he published in 1880 in the “Transactions" of the American society of civil engineers, of which organization he was elected a member in 1878. His writings include annual reports that he issued from Albany during the years he held office, and various technical papers.

has also published "Twilight Hours in the Adirondacks (Syracuse. 1870), and has now (1888) ready for the press "The Philosophy of English Versification."-His brother, John Edson, inventor, b. in Pompey, Onondaga co., N. Y., 21 Oct.,. 1832, was educated in a district school, and in 1873-9 was professor of practical mechanics at Cornell university. He was a founder of the American society of mechanical engineers, of which he was president in 1883-'4. He is believed to be the first to suggest the use of pipe-lines for transporting oil from the oil-wells, and is the inventor of the straight-line high-speed engine, and one of the first to construct a composing-machine to form a matrix for casting stereotype-plates directly without the use of movable type. He is a contributor to the London “Engineering” and “American Machinist.” SWEETSER, Henry Edward, journalist, b. in New York city, 19 Feb., 1837; d. there, 17 Feb.,. 1870. After graduation at Yale in 1858 he devoted himself to mercantile pursuits, and then became a reporter for the New York "Times." In 1860 he was made night editor of the " World," and in 1863 he founded, with his brother, Charles H. Sweetser, the "Round Table," from which he withdrew in 1866, and, after a short visit to Europe, returned to New York and engaged in editorial work until his death. His brother, Charles Humphreys, journalist, b. in Athol, Mass., 25 Aug., 1841; d. in Palatka, Fla., 1 Jan., 1871, after graduation at Amhefst in 1862 engaged in journalistic work, aided in founding the Round Table," and became connected with the New York "Evening Gazette." He was an originator of the "Evening Mail" in 1867, and the "City" in 1869. After the failure of the latter enterprise he removed to Minnesota, and subsequently to Chicago, where he became literary editor of the “Times,” but, owing to impaired health, he went to Florida. He published "Songs of Amherst" (Amherst, 1860); "History of Amherst College" (1860); and “Tourist's and Invalid's Guide to the Northwest" (New York, 1867).

SWEETSER, Moses Forster, author, b. in Newburyport, Mass., 22 Sept., 1848. His uncle, Andrew J. Sweetser, was a pioneer of Dakota, and another uncle, Henry, served under Gen. William Walker in Nicaragua. He studied at Beloit and Columbian colleges, and travelled in Europe and the East. He is the author of "Artist Biographies" (15 vols., Boston, 1877-'8); Europe for $2.00 a Day" (Boston, 1875); "Summer Days Down East" (Portland, 1883); several guide-books to the White mountains, and Osgood's (now Cassell's) "Pocket Guide to Europe" (Boston, 1883).

SWEETSER, William, physician, b. in Boston, Mass., 8 Sept., 1797; d. in New York city, 14 Oct., 1875. He was graduated at Harvard in 1815,

tised in Boston, Burlington, Vt., and New York city. From 1825 till 1832 he was professor of medicine in the University of Vermont, and from 1845 till 1861 he held the same chair in Bowdoin. He also lectured in Jefferson medical college, Philadelphia, and in the medical schools of Castleton, Vt., and was professor of medicine in Hobart col

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published "Dissertation on Cynanche Trachealis or Croup" and "Dissertation on the Functions of the Extreme Capillary Vessels in Health and Disease," to which were awarded the Boylston premiums for 1820 and 1823 (Boston, 1823); "Dissertation on Intemperance," to which was awarded a premium by the Massachusetts medical society (1829); "Treatise on Consumption" (1823-'6); "Treatise on Digestion and its Disorders" (1837);

publications are “Abstract of the Baron Joseph de Rogniat's Considerations on the Art of War," with notes (Boston, 1817); Sketch of the Bunker Hill Battle" (1818; 3d ed., 1827); “Sketches of a Few Distinguished Men of Newbury and Newburyport" (1846); "Who was the Commander at Bunker Hill with Remarks on Frothingham's History of the Battle, "" with an appendix (1850); “Defence of Col. Timothy Pickering against Bancroft's History" (1859); "Original Planning and Construction of Bunker Hill Monument," with engravings (Albany, 1863); and fugitive poems.

SWETT, William, educator, b. in Henniker, N. H., 13 Aug., 1825; d. in Beverly, Mass., 25 March, 1884. He was a deaf-mute, and was graduated at the institution for deaf-mutes at Hartford, Conn., in 1842, after which he became president of the Gallaudet association of deaf-mutes. From 1879 till his death he was superintendent of the New England industrial school for deaf-mutes, which he founded in Beverly. He edited the 'Deaf-Mute's Friend," and was the author of "The Adventures of a Deaf-Mute in the White Mountains" (Henniker, 1874).

SWIFT, Benjamin, senator, b. in Amenia, N.Y., 5 April, 1781; d. in St. Albans, Vt., 11 Nov., 1847. He received an academical education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1806, and began to practise at Bennington, Vt. He removed subsequently to Manchester, and then to St. Albans, where he also engaged in farming. He was a member of the state house of representatives in 1813-'14 and 1825-'6, served in congress from Vermont for two terms in 1827-31, and was elected a U. S. senator from the same state, serving from 2 Dec., 1833, till 3 March, 1839.

SWIFT, Ebenezer, surgeon, b. in Wareham, Mass., 8 Oct., 1819; d. in Hamilton, Bermuda, 24 Sept., 1885. He was graduated at the medical department of the University of the city of New York in 1842, and in March, 1847, became acting assistant surgeon in the U. S. army. His first service was with the army of invasion and occupation of Mexico, and he was on duty at Gen. Winfield Scott's headquarters until July, 1848. Subsequently he served at various posts in the east, in Texas, and on expeditions against hostile Indians until June, 1856. Meanwhile he had been made captain and assistant surgeon on 30 Aug., 1852. He had command of Fort Chadbourne, Tex., was on temporary duty at Fort Columbus in New York harbor during the prevalence of the cholera, and accompanied the troops under Gen. Albert S. Johnston to Utah in May, ‍1859. After serving at various stations in Missouri, Kansas, and Dakota, he was made full surgeon on 21 May, 1861, and appointed medical director of Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel's division of the Army of the Tennessee. In December, 1862, he became medical director of that army, and early in 1863 he was transferred to Philadelphia, where he was chief medical officer and superintendent of hospitals in and around Philadelphia, and from November, 1863, till June, 1864, medical director of the Department of the South. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel and colonel on 13 March, 1865, and from February till June, 1865, held the office of medical director with the ranks of lieutenant-colonel and colonel. On 20 June, 1869, he received the additional brevet of brigadier-general for meritorious services voluntarily rendered during the prevalence of cholera at Fort Harker, Kan. In 1874 he became medical | director of the Department of the South, and thereafter, until his retirement on 8 Oct., 1883, he was assistant medical purveyor in New York city.

SWIFT, Elisha Pope, clergyman, b. in Williamstown, Mass., 12 Aug., 1792; d. in Alleghany, Pa., 3 April, 1865. He was graduated at Williams in 1813, studied two years at Princeton theological seminary, was licensed to preach by the presbytery of New Brunswick in April, 1816, and ordained as a Congregationalist, 3 Sept., 1817. After preaching in Dover and Milford, Del., he became pastor of the 2d Presbyterian church at Pittsburg in 1819, and remained there thirteen years. He was secretary of the Western foreign missionary society in 1831-'5, and pastor of the 1st Presbyterian church, Alleghany, in 1835-'65. He was a member of the board of directors of the Western theological seminary from its organization, and president of the board from 1861 till his death. He established the "Western Foreign Missionary Chronicle " in 1833, and continued it three years. He published "The Sacred Manual” (Pittsburg, 1821), and sermons and addresses.

SWIFT, John White, merchant, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 30 Jan., 1750; d. in Bucks county, Pa., in 1819. His father, John, was a merchant, a common councilman in 1757-276, and then collector of the port of Philadelphia from 1762 till 1772. John White was graduated at the College of Philadelphia in 1767, and became a merchant at Quebec. On the approach of Gen. Richard Montgomery he joined his command, serving as captain, and was wounded in the assault on that place. On his recovery, Gen. Wooster appointed him inspector of accounts and works at Montreal, which post he resigned on the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. He was purser of the ship" Empress of China," the first vessel to enter Canton, China, under the American flag.-His son, John, lawyer, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 27 June, 1790; d. there, 9 June, 1873, was admitted to the bar in 1811. He was a leader of the Whigs of Philadelphia, and was mayor in 1832-'8, 1839-'41, and 1845-'9, winning applause by the courage with which he quelled several riots, leading the police in person.

SWIFT, Jonathan Williams, naval officer, b. in Taunton, Mass., 30 March, 1808; d. in Geneva, N. Y., 30 July, 1877. He entered the navy as midshipman, 25 Aug., 1823, and cruised in the sloop

Cyane," of the Mediterranean station, in 1823-25, and the frigate" Brandywine," of the Pacific station, in 1826-'9. He became passed midshipman, 23 March, 1829, and was then on leave for four years. He was commissioned a lieutenant, 3 March, 1831, and the next year made a short cruise in the sloop" John Adams" in the Mediterranean. After this he was on leave and waiting orders until his death, except for a short cruise in the steamer "Fulton on the Home station in 1840, and was placed on the reserved list by the action of the board of retirement, 14 Sept., 1855. He was promoted to commodore on the retired list, 4 April, 1867, and resided at Geneva, N. Y., until his death.

SWIFT, Joseph Gardner, soldier, b. in Nantucket, Mass., 31 Dec., 1783; d. in Geneva, N. Y., 23 July, 1865. He was a descendant of Thomas Swift, one of the first settlers of Dorchester, Mass., in 1630, and his father, Dr. Foster Swift, was a surgeon in the U. S. army. Joseph was educated at Bristol academy, Taunton, Mass., and was the first graduate of the U. S. military academy, 12 Oct., 1802. He entered the army as 2d lieutenant of engineers, and was promoted captain in October, 1806, and major, 23 Feb., 1808. He was aide to Gen. William Pinckney in 1812, became lieutenantcolonel, 6 July, 1812, and colonel and principal engineer, 31 July, 1812. He was chief engineer in planning the defences of New York harbor in

1812–'13, and of the army during the campaign of 1813 on St. Lawrence river. He was brevetted brigadier-general, 19 Feb., 1814, for meritorious services, and was superintendent of the U. S. military academy from November, 1816, till January, 1817, but resigned in November, 1818, with other officers, on the appointment of the French general, Simon Bernard, to the charge of investigating and modifying the coast defences. He was U. S. surveyor of the port of New York in 1818-'27, then a civil engineer in the U. S. service, and superintendent of harbor improvements on the lakes in 1829-'45. In the winter of 1830-1 he constructed the railway from New Orleans to Lake Pontchartrain over an almost impassable swamp, in 1839 he was chief engineer of the Harlem railroad in New York, and in 1841 he was appointed by President Harrison on an embassy of peace to the govern- | ors of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. In 1851-22, with his son. McRae, he made the tour of Europe, and recorded his observations in a diary, in which is also a complete history of West Point academy. He contributed valuable articles to the scientific journals. See Charles B. Stuart's Lives and Works of Civil and Military Engineers of America (New York, 1871).-His brother, William Henry, engineer, b. in Taunton, Mass., 6 Nov., 1800; d. in New York city, 7 April, 1879, was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1819. He had previously been ordered, as a cadet, in 1818, to join Maj. Stephen H. Long's Rocky mountain expedition, with which he served till 1821. He was employed in the early surveys for the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, and for various railroads, and in constructing a map of post-offices and post-roads, and in 1832 became brevet captain and assistant topographical engineer. For the next ten years he was employed on the geodetic survey of the Atlantic coast, being in charge of river and harbor improvements in New England in 1837-'42, and resident and constructing engineer of the Massachusetts Western railroad (now part of the Boston and Albany) in 1836-'40, and becoming full captain in 1838. From 1844 till 1849 he was assistant to the chief of topographical engineers, and during this period, with Gov. John Davis, of Massachusetts, he made an examination of the Illinois and Michigan canal, of whose board of trustees he was president from 1845 till 1871, and which he assisted to complete. In 1847-'9 he was engaged in designing and constructing the first Minot's ledge light-house, which was swept away in a gale in April, 1851. This was the first iron-pile light-house in the United States. In 1849 Capt. Swift resigned from the army, and he was afterward successively president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore, the Massachusetts Western, and the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroads. During his last fifteen years he resided in New York city.-Another brother, JOHN, became brigadier-general of New York militia, and was killed, 12 July, 1814, after cutting off a picket of the enemy near Fort George, Canada.

SWIFT, Lewis, astronomer, b. in Clarkson, N. Y., 29 Feb., 1820. He was educated at Clarkson academy, where he completed his course in 1838, and then turned his attention to farm work. His father died in 1846, and, thrown upon his own resources, he studied magnetism and electricity, and for four years lectured on these subjects in Canada and the western states. He returned to farming in 1850, but soon began again to lecture on the wonders of the microscopic world, which he illustrated by means of a calcium light. All of his apparatus was constructed by himself and parts of it were of his own invention. In 1854 he established a hardware-store in Cortland county, N. Y., which in 1872 he moved to Rochester, where he has since resided. Meanwhile, he became interested in astronomy, and, building his own telescope, he began to make observations. His first work was in 1858, on Donati's comet, and his first astronomical paper was on this subject. For years he eagerly scanned the heavens for new comets, and in 1862 the great comet of that year was discovered by him. In 1869 he observed at Mattoon, Ill., a total solar eclipse, and, making particular study of the protuberances and corona, secured some valuable results. Two years later he found another comet, but it had been seen earlier in Europe. Three times since he has.caught brief glimpses of comets that no other observer has ever seen. After his removal to Rochester he discovered comets in 1877-'9, for which he thrice received the comet prize, a gold medal valued at sixty dollars, from the Imperial academy of sciences in Vienna. Hulbert H. Warner of Rochester, knowing under what disadvantages Dr. Swift was laboring in pursuing his astronomical studies, offered to build for his use an observatory, provided the people of the city would raise a sum sufficient to get him a refractor of sixteen-inch aperture. Nearly $12,000 were contributed, and the telescope is doing service in the great dome of the observatory, which, together with the attached residence for the family of the director, cost, exclusive of the instrument, nearly $100,000. 1880 Dr. Swift found a comet with a period of five and a half years, and in 1881 he discovered two others. For the former he received a special prize of $500 from Mr. Warner, which is the largest sum ever awarded for the discovery of any heavenly body, and for the latter in 1882 he received the Lalande prize of 540 francs from the French academy of sciences. Besides the foregoing, he independently discovered Winnecke's comet in 1871, Coggia's in 1874, and the BrooksSwift comet in 1883, there being in the latter case a difference of fifteen minutes in favor of William R. Brooks. In 1878 he observed the total eclipse of the sun at Denver, Col., and he saw at that time what he thinks were two intra-mercurial planets. His report of this discovery excited great interest and much controversy on both continents. Since he assumed in 1882 the directorship of the Warner observatory, he has found about 700 new nebulæ, which entitles him to third place as dis

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Lewis Swift