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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bissell, George Edwin

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17359571911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 4 — Bissell, George Edwin

BISSELL, GEORGE EDWIN (1839–  ), American sculptor, son of a quarryman and marble-cutter, was born at New Preston, Connecticut, on the 16th of February 1839. During the Civil War he served as a private in the 23rd Connecticut volunteers in the Department of the Gulf (1862–1863), and on being mustered out became acting assistant paymaster in the South Atlantic squadron. At the close of the war he joined his father in business. He studied the art of sculpture abroad in 1875–1876, and lived much in Paris during the years 1883–1896, with occasional visits to America. Among his more important works are the soldiers’ and sailors’ monument, and a statue of Colonel Chatfield, at Waterbury, Connecticut; and statues of General Gates at Saratoga, New York, of Chancellor John Watts in Trinity churchyard, New York City; of Colonel Abraham de Peyster in Bowling Green, New York City; of Abraham Lincoln at Edinburgh; of Burns and “Highland Mary,” in Ayr, Scotland; of Chancellor James Kent, in the Congressional library, Washington; and of President Arthur in Madison Square, New York City.