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Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Barney, Joshua, 1759- (search)
the Continental schooner Wasp and British brig Tender, in Delaware Bay, before he was seventeen years of age, his conduct was so gallant that he was made a lieutenant. In that capacity he served in the Sachem (Capt. I. Robinson), and after a severe action with a British brig, in which his commander was wounded, young Barney brought her into port. Soon afterwards he was made a prisoner, but was speedily released, and in the Andrea Doria he was engaged in the defence of the Delaware River in 1777. He was again made prisoner, and was exchanged in August. 1778. A third time he was made captive (1779), and after his exchange was a fourth time made a prisoner, while serving in the Saratoga, 16, was sent to England, and confined in the famous Mill prison, from which he escaped in May, 1781. He was retaken, and again escaped, and arrived in Philadelphia in March, 1782, where he took command of the Hyder Ali, 16, in which he captured the General Monk, of heavier force and metal. For this
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Barry, John, 1745-1803 (search)
John Barry. vessel captured by a commissioned officer of the United States navy. Barry was transferred to the frigate Effingham; and in the Delaware, at the head of four boats, he captured an English schooner, Commodore Barry's monument. in 1777, without the loss of a man. He was publicly thanked by Washington. When Howe took Philadelphia, late in 1777, Barry took the Effingham Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. up the Delaware with the hope the Delaware with the hope of saving her, but she w1777, Barry took the Effingham Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. up the Delaware with the hope the Delaware with the hope of saving her, but she was burned by the British. Howe had offered him a large bribe if he would deliver the ship to him at Philadelphia, but it was scornfully rejected. Barry took command of the Raleigh, 32, in September, 1778, but British cruisers compelled him to run her ashore in Penobscot Bay. In the frigate Alliance, in 1781, he sailed for France with Col. John Laurens, who was sent on a special mission; and afterwards he cruised successfully with that ship. At the close of May he captured the Atlanta and Tre
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Bartlett, Josiah, 1729- (search)
ernor lieutenant-colonel of the militia, but on account of his patriotic tendencies he was deprived of the office in 1775. He was a member of the committee of safety, upon whom for a time devolved the whole executive power of the of government of the State. A delegate to Congress in 1775-76, he was the first to give his vote for the Declaration of Independence, and its first signer after the President of Congress. He was with Stark in the Bennington campaign (see Bennington, battle of), in 1777. as agent of the State to provide medicine and other necessaries for the New Hampshire troops. In Congress again in 1778, he was active in committee duties: and in 1779 he was appointed chief-justice of the Common Pleas in his State. In 1782 he was a judge of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and chief-justice in 1788. Judge, Bartlett retired from public life in 1794, on account of feeble health, having been president of the State from 1790 to 1793, and, under the new constitution, go
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Bemis's Heights, battles of. (search)
ening to go home. He told him that he had reason to think that if they had improved the 20th of September it might have ruined the enemy. That is past, he said: let me entreat you to improve the present time. Gates was offended, and, treating the brave Arnold with silent contempt, sat still. A long time Burgoyne waited for further fidings from Clinton. On Oct. 4, he called a council of officers. It was decided to fight their way through the American lines, and, on the morning of oct. 7, 1777, the whole army moved. Towards the American left wing Burgoyne pressed with 1,500 picked men, eight brass cannon, and two howitzers, leaving the main army on the heights in command of Brigadiers Specht and Hamilton, and the redoubts near the river with Brigadier-General Gall. Phillips, Fraser, and Riedesel were with Burgoyne. Canadian rangers, loyalists, and Indians were sent to hang on the American rear, while Burgoyne should attack their front. This movement was discerned before the Br
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Benson, Egbert, 1746-1833 (search)
Benson, Egbert, 1746-1833 Jurist; born in New York City, June 21, 1746; was graduated at King's College (now Columbia University) in 1765; took an active part in political events preliminary to the war for independence; was a member of the Committee of Safety, and, in 1777, was appointed the first attorney-general of the State of New York. He was also a member of the first State legislature. He was a member of the Continental Congress from 1784 to 1789, and of the new Congress from 1789 to 1793, also from 1813 to 1815. From 1789 to 1802, he was a regent of the New York University, judge of the Supreme Court of New York (1794-1801), and of the United States Circuit Court. He was the first president of the New York Historical Society. Judge Benson was the author of a Vindication of the captors of Major Andre;, and a Memoir on Dutch names of places. He died in Jamaica, Long Island, Aug. 24, 1833.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Blair, John, 1732-1800 (search)
Blair, John, 1732-1800 Jurist; born in Williamsburg, Va., in 1732; was educated at the College of William and Mary; studied law at the Temple, London; soon rose to the first rank as a lawyer; was a member of the House of Burgesses as early as 1765, and was one of the dissolved Virginia Assembly who met at the Raleigh Tavern, in the summer of 1774, and drafted the Virginia non-importation agreement. He was one of the committee who, in June, 1776, drew up the plan for the Virginia State government, and in 1777 was elected a judge of the Court of Appeals; then chief-justice, and, in 1780, a judge of the High Court of Chancery. he was one of the framers of the national Constitution; and, in 1789. Washington appointed him a judge of the United States Supreme Court. He resigned his seat on the bench of that court in 1796, and died in Williamsburg, Va., Aug. 31, 1800.
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Bland, Theodoric, 1742-1790 (search)
y, Va., in 1742; was, by his maternal side, fourth in descent from Pocahontas (q. v.), his mother being Jane Rolfe. John Randolph was his nephew. He received the degree of M. D. at Edinburgh, returned home in 1764, and practised medicine. Bland led volunteers in opposing Governor Dunmore, and published some bitter letters against that officer over the signature of Cassius. He became captain of the 1st Troop of Virginia cavalry, and joined the main Continental army as lieutenant-colonel in 1777. Brave, vigilant, and judicious, he was intrusted with the command of Burgoyne's captive troops at Albemarle Barracks in Virginia; and was member of the Continental Congress in 1780-83. In the legislature and in the convention of his State he opposed the adoption of the national Constitution; but represented Virginia in the first Congress held under it, dying while it was in session. Colonel Bland was a poet as well as a soldier and patriot. The Bland papers, containing many valuable memo
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Blennerhassett, Harman, 1764- (search)
Blennerhassett, Harman, 1764- Scholar; born in Hampshire, England, Oct. 8, 1764 or 1765; was of Irish descent: educated at the University of Dublin; studied law and practised there; and in 1796 married the beautiful Adelaide Agnew, daughter of General Agnew. who was killed in the battle at Germantown, 1777. Being a republican in principle, he became involved in the political troubles in Ireland in 1798. Blennerhassett's Island residence. when he sold his estates in England. and came to America with an ample fortune. He purchased an island in the Ohio River. nearly opposite Marietta, built an elegant mansion, furnished it luxuriantly, and there he and his accomplished wife were living in happiness and contentment, surrounded by books. philosophical apparatus, pictures, and other means for intellectual culture, when Aaron Burr entered that paradise, and tempted and ruined its dwellers. A mob of militiamen laid the island waste, in a degree. and Blennerhassett and his wife
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Boone, Daniel, 1735-1820 (search)
ed by some Indians, but escaped, and returned home in 1771. In 1773 he led a party of settlers to the wilds he had explored; and in 1774 conducted a party of surveyors to the Daniel Boone. falls of the Ohio (now Louisville). He had taken his family with the other families to Kentucky in 1773, where they were in perpetual danger from the barbarians of the forest. He had several fights with the Indians; and in 1775 he built a fort on the Kentucky River on the present site of Boonesboro. In 1777 several attacks were made on this fort by the Indians. They was repulsed, but in February, 1778. Boone was captured by them, and taken to Chillicothe, beyond the Ohio, and thence to Detroit. Adopted as a son in an Indian family, he became a favorite, but managed to escape in June following, and returned to his fort and kindred. In August, about 450 Indians attacked his fort, which he bravely defended with about fifty men. At different times two of his sons were killed by the Indians. Boo
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Boudinot, Elias, 1740-1821 (search)
Boudinot, Elias, 1740-1821 Philanthropist; born in Philadelphia, Pa., May 2, 1740; began the practice of law in New Jersey and was an early advocate of freedom for the American colonies. Congress appointed him commissary-general of prisoners in 1777; and during the same year he was elected a member of that body. He became its president in 1782, and as such he signed the ratification of the treaty of peace. Mr. Boudinot resumed the practice of law in 1789. In 1796 Washington appointed him superintendent of the mint, which position he held until 1805. when he resigned all public employments, and retired to Bourlington. On becoming trustee of the College of Princeton in 1805, he endowed it with a valuable cabinet of natural history. Mr. Boudinot took great interest in foreign missions, and became a member of the board of commissioners in 1812; and in 1816 he was chosen the first president of the American Bible: Society (q. v.), to both of which and to benevolent institutions h
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