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eastern boundary survey, and in 1845 he was em- Bloyed in determining the northern boundaries of 'ew York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. In 1849 he was appointed assistant astronomer in the Mexican boundary commission, and in 1853 he had charge of the Pacific railroad survey along the 35th parallel. In 1856 he was appointed engineer for the southern light-house district and superintendent of the improvements of St. Clair flats and St. Mary's river. At the opening of the civil war he at once applied for service in the field, and was assigned as chief topographical engineer on the staff of Gen. Irvin McDowell. In this ca- pacity he was the author of the first maps of that part of Virginia that were issued during the war, and performed creditable service at the first battle of Fredericksburg. Upon the second advance of the army he was attached, as chief topographical engineer, to the staff of Gen. George B. McClellan, but, being appointed brigadier-general of volun- teers, was recalled in May, 1862, and assigned to the command of the defences of Washington south of Potomac river. His service here was so well performed that he received in orders the thanks of the president of the United States. His division was assigned in October, 1862, to the 9th corps, and took part in the movement down the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, upon the skirts of Lee's re- treating army. At Waterloo his division was at- tached to the 3d army corps, and he led it at the battle of Fredericksburg. At the battle of Chan- cellorsville it was much exposed, and suffered more, probably, in that engagement than any other divis- ion of the army. He was shot on Monday, 4 May, 1863, when the battle was practically at an end. and, living three days, was appointed major-general of volunteers for gallantry in action. He had re- ceived the brevets of lieutenant-colonel for the Manassas campaign, colonel for Fredericksburg, brigadier-general for Chancellorsville, and major- general for services during the war — all in the regular army. — His son, Charles William, was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1868. and is now chief ordnance officer of the Depart- ment of the Missouri, with the rank of captain.

WHIPPLE, Edwin Percy, author, b. in Glou- cester, Mass., 8 March, 1819 ; d. in Boston, Mass., 16 June, 1886. His father, Matthew, who died while Edwin was an infant, is said to have had " strong sense and fine social powers." His mother. Lydia Gardiner, was of a family in Gardiner, Me., noted for its mental gifts. She early removed to Salem, Mass., where her son was educated at the English high-school. Here he was noted for his precocity, and took high rank. At fourteen years of age he published articles in a Salem newspaper, and at fifteen, on leaving school, he became a clerk in the Bank of general interest. In 1837 he was employed in the office of a large broker's firm in Boston, and soon afterward he was appointed su- perintendent of the news-room and of the Mer- chants' exchange in State street. He was an active member of the Mercantile library association, and one of a club of six that was an offshoot from it, and held its sessions, known as " The Attic Nights," for literary exercises and debate. There his com- mand of the weapons of debate — his skill in intel- lectual fence and readiness of repartee, sustained by large stores of information and a subtle critical faculty — made him an acknowledged leader. In 1840 he delivered a poem before the Mercantile library association, portraying the manners and satirizing the absurdities of the day. He was intro- duced to the general public by a critical article, or rather panegyric, from his pen, on Macaulay, pub- lished in the " Boston Miscellany " for February, 1843, which drew from the great essayist a compli- mentary letter. The paper glows with enthusiasm, leading occasionally to exaggeration, but manifests a critical insight, and a sweep, energy, and vividness of style, that indicate the advent of a new force in litera- ture. In October of the same year he gave a lecture before the Mercantile library as- sociation on " The Lives of Authors," af- ter which he was con- tinually sought for as a lecturer, till he aban- doned the platform. He is said to have ad- dressed more than a thousand audiences in the northern and mid- dle states, from Ban-

gor to St. Louis. The

lectures, which embraced a wide range of topics, biographical, critical, and social, were of a philo- sophic cast, and abounded in fine analysis, shrewd observation, and acute insight, relieved by apt anecdote, epigrammatic wit, and poignant satire. Besides lecturing before lyceums, he addressed, on many occasions, the literary societies of col- leges, as Brown, Dartmouth, Waterville. and Am- herst ; and in 1850 was the Fourth-of-July orator before the city authorities of Boston. Mr. Whip- ple was an early and frequent contributor to Amer- ican reviews, and wrote numerous articles for the magazines and public journals. Some of his best writing is to be found in " Every Saturday," a weekly paper of which he was at one time edi- tor, in pithy, thoughtful papers, condensing with rare skill the results of years of observation, read- ing, and reflection. His first published book was " Essays and Reviews " (2 vols., New York, 1848-'9). Among the best of its papers are those on " Byron," " English Poets of the Nineteenth Century," " South's Sermons," " Henry Fielding," and " Rufus Choate." The portraiture of the great New Eng- land advocate — one of those rare and unique men whose elusive genius seems to defy characterization, and baffle all attempts to label it and put it into any moral pigeon-hole — is one of the happiest ex- amples of the writer's acute and discriminating analysis. Choate he pronounces " a kind of Mira- beau-Peel," who "combines a conservative intellect with a radical sensibility " ; whose emotions, like well-trained troops, are "impetuous by rule." "A fiery and fusing imagination lies at the centre of his large and flexible nature, and is the chief source of his power."

Mr. Whipple's next work was " Literature and Life" (1849). a thin volume containing his lectures on " Authors," " Wit and Humor," " The Ludicrous Side of Life," " Genius," and others. In 1871 a new edition was published, containing several additional papers. In 1860 he resigned his post in the Merchants' exchange in order to devote himself exclusively to literary pursuits. In 1866 appeared his "Character and Characteristic Men," a work composed of lectures and essays, in which the various qualities that make up the complex web of character, and the subtle essence that constitutes the individuality of great mon, are detected with penetrating vision and set forth in vivid language. The last paper, on "Washington and the Pnn-