vanced to the grade of commander, 25 July, 1866. j He commanded the double-turreted monitor " Ter- ror" in 1870-'l, in which he went to Havana under | great difficulties, owing to defective boilers, and arrived in season on the occasion when the Spanish students were executed by order of the govern- ment. During the excitement and threatened war with Spain owing to the "Virginius" affair, he was selected to command the sea-going iron-clad " Dic- tator," then one of the most formidable vessels of the navy, in which he was for some time the senior officer of the forces in the harbor of Havana. He remained in command of the " Dictator " until May, 1877. He was commissioned captain, 8 Aug., 1876, was equipment-officer at the Norfolk navy-yard in 1879-'80, and captain of the yard in 1880-'!. He commanded the steam sloop " Brooklyn," on the South Atlantic station, in 1881-4. Hevas a mem- ber of the naval examining and retiring board in 1885-'6, was promoted to commodore, 7 Oct., 1886, and is now president of the retiring-board.
WEBB, Charles, soldier, b. in Stamford, Conn.,
13 Feb., 1724; d. after 1794. He was a member of
the Connecticut legislature in 1758, and was re-
chosen twenty-three times. He served in the
French war, and attained the rank of captain in
1760, was sent by congress, in May, 1775, on a
tour of inspection to Ticonderoga, and became
colonel of the 19th regiment in July, 1775. He
participated in the battles of Long Island, 27 Aug.,
1776, White Plains, 28 Oct., 1776, and Whitemarsh,
5 Dec, 1777, in which his regiment suffered severe-
ly. He retired from the service in June, 1778.
WEBB, Charles Henry, author, b. in Rouse's
Point, Clinton co., N. Y., 24 Jan., 1834. He re-
ceived his preliminary education in his native
place. In early youth he ran away to sea, was ab-
sent three years, and on his return went to Illinois,
to which state his parents had removed in the
mean time. He was editorially connected with the
New York "Times" in 1860-3 and with the San
Francisco " Bulletin " in 1863-'4, and then edited
" The Californian," a weekly, which he left in 1866.
He had been engaged in business on the banks of
Mississippi river from 1856 till 1860, dealt subse-
quently in wheat in Chicago, and at a later period
was a banker and broker in Wall street. New York.
In 1868 he invented and patented " Webb's adder,"
an adding-machine which was placed upon the
market in that year ; and in 1874 he invented, pat-
ented, and manufactured a cartridge-loading ma-
chine, the utility of which was recognized by the
manufacturers of fire-arms and others. Mr. Webb
is now engaged in constructing an improved add-
er. He has published " Liffith Lank, or Lunacy,"
a travesty of Charles Reade's " Griffith Gaunt "
(New York, 1867) ; " St. Twel'mo, or the Cunei-
form Cyclopedist of Chattanooga," a travesty of
Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson's " St. Elmo " (1868) ;
"John Paul's Book" (Hartford, 1874); "The
Wickedest Woman in New York" (New York,
1875); "Parodies, Prose, and Verse " (1876); and
" Sea- Weed and what we seed : my Vacation at
Long Branch and Saratoga " (1876). In San Fran-
cisco he brought out two plays, " Our Friend from
Victoria" (1865), and " Ar'rah-na-Poke," a bur-
lesque of Dion Boucicault's " Arrah-na-Pogue "
(1865). He edited, under the name of " John Paul,"
" The Celebrated Jumping Frog."
WEBB, George James, musician, b. near Salis-
bury, Wiltshire, England, 24 June, 1803 ; d. in Or-
ange, N. J., 7 Oct., 1887. He studied music under
Alexander Lucas in Salisbury, and became organ-
ist of the church at Falmouth. In 1830 he came
to the United States, settling in Boston. He be-
came well known as an organist and teacher, and
was the friend and associate of Lowell Mason.
When the Boston academy of music was founded,
in 1833, he and Mason were appointed as musical
directors. He also held office in the Handel and
Haydn society, and other associations. In 1871 he,
resided in Orange, N. J., and his time after this
was devoted principally to teaching his new meth-
od for treating the voice. He wrote, with Chester
G. Allen, " Voice-Culture " (New York, 1871 ; re-
vised ed., 1884), and edited collections of vocal
music, most of them jointly with Lowell Mason.
WEBB, James, Jurist, b. in Georgia in 1792 ;
d. in Goliad, Tex., 1 Nov., 1856. He was educated
at William and Mary college, studied law, and, re-
moving to Georgia, practised his profession for a
few years, after which he was made judge of the
supreme court. While filling this office he was
appointed U. S. district judge in the territory of
Florida, which post he held for many years, when
he resigned. In 1839 he removed to the republic
of Texas, and was successively attorney-general and
secretary of state under the administration of Presi-
dent Mirabeau B. Lamar. He served one term in
the Texas senate, and after the annexation was re-
porter of the decisions of the supreme court, and
secretary of state. At the time of his death he was
judge of the 14th judicial district. With Thomas
II. Duval he published "Reports of Cases in the
Supreme Court of the State of Texas, 1846-8"
(3 vols., Galveston. 1848-'51).
WEBB, John Russell, educator, b. in Brown-
ville, Jefferson co., N. Y., 6 Aug.. 1824 ; d. in Ben-
ton Harbor, Berrien co., Mich., 10 Sept., 1887. He
was graduated at the New York state normal
school at Albany among the first students in 1846.
While still a pupil of David P. Page, he conceived
the idea of teaching children to read by familiariz-
ing them at once with the complete forms of words,
without first compelling them to learn the letters
of the alphabet. Soon after leaving school, and
while teaching, he published a book to exemplify
this method. He taught with success, went to In-
dianapolis in 1851, and soon afterward relinquished
professional work on account of failing health, and
settled in Minneapolis, Minn., removing in 1861 to
Michigan. He published " John's First Book " (Wa-
tertown, N. Y., 1846) and " Webb's Word Method,"
in which he expounded his system cf instruction
(Detroit, 1864; revised ed., New York, 1885). be-
sides a series of readers emhodving the method.
WEBB, Samuel Blatchley, soldier, b. in
Wethersfield, Conn., 15 Dec., 1753; d. in Claverack, N. Y.,
3 Dec., 1807. He was descended from Richard
Webb, of Gloucestershire, England, who was made
a freeman of Boston in 1632, and accompanied the
Rev. Thomas Hooker in the settlement of Hartford,
Conn., in 1635. He was a step-son and private
secretary to Silas Deane, and took part at an
early age in the movements that preceded the
Revolution. In command of a company of light infantry
he left Wethersfield for Boston on hearing of
the battle of Lexington, participated in the battle
of Bunker Hill, where he was wounded, and was
commended in general orders for gallantry. A letter
that he wrote to his step-father describing that
battle is now possessed by the Connecticut historical
society at Hartford. He was soon afterward
appointed aide to Gen. Israel Putnam, and on 21
June, 1776, was made private secretary and aide-de-camp
to Washington, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He wrote the order for promulgating
the Declaration of Independence in New York city,
9 July, 1776, and was associated with Col. Joseph
Reed a few days later in refusing to receive a
let-
