Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Bledsoe, Albert Taylor

BLEDSOE, Albert Taylor, educator, b. in Frankfort, Ky., 9 Nov., 1809; d. in Alexandria, Va., 8 Dec, 1877. He was appointed from Kentucky to the U. S. Military Academy, and was graduated in 1880, after which he served in the army at Fort Gibson, Indian territory, until 31 Aug., 1832, when he resigned. From 1833 till 1834 he was adjunct professor of mathematics and teacher of the French language at Kenyon, and in 183o-'6 professor of mathematics at Miami. After studying theology he was ordained a clergyman in the Protestant Episcopal church in 1835, and was connected with various churches in Ohio until 1838. Having previously studied law, he began its practice in Springfield, Ill., in 1838, and continued it there and in Washington, D. C., till 1848. During the years 1848-'54 he was professor of mathematics and astronomy at the University of Mississippi, and from 1854 till 1861 professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia. In 1861 he entered the confederate service as colonel, but was soon made chief of the war bureau and acting assistant secretary of war. In 1863 he went to England to collect material for his work on the constitution, which he published on his return in 1866. He then settled in Baltimore and began the publication of the "Southern Review," hitherto mainly of a political character, which under his editorship assumed a theological tone and became the recognized organ of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In 1868 he became principal of the Louisa school, Baltimore, and in 1871 was ordained a minister in the Methodist church. In addition to numerous contributions to periodicals he published "An Examination of Edwards on the Will" (Philadelphia, 1845); "A Theodicy or Vindication of the Divine Glory" (New York, 1853); "Liberty and Slavery" (Philadelphia, 1857); "Is Davis a Traitor? or was Secession a Constitutional Right previous to the War of 1861?" (Baltimore, 1866); and "Philosophy of Mathematics" (Philadelphia, 1866).