Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/524

the general commanding the troops at Plymouth, N. C, for his gallantry. He was on the ram " Al- bemarle " when she was blown up by Lieut. Gush- ing, and assisted in capturing Cushing's party. He has been president of the North Carolina medi- cal society, and has contributed to periodical lit- erature under the pen-name of " Civis." His pub- lications include a pamphlet on "Higher Educa- tion," and an article on " Hypodermic Medication." FOOTE, Henry Stuart, senator, b. in Fauquier county, Va.. 28 Feb., 1804 ; d. in Nashville, Tenn., 20 May, 1880. He was graduated at Washington college, Lexington, Va., in 1819, admitted to the bar in 1822, and in 1824 went to Tuscumbia, Ala., where he edited a Democratic newspaper. He re- moved to Jackson, Miss., in 1826, and acquired an ex- tensive practice, but was also active in politics, and in 1844 was a presidential elector. He was chosen to the U. S. sen- ate as a Union- ist in 1847, took part in favor of the compro- mise lucasiiresof 1850, and served as chairman of the committee on foreign rela- tions. He re- signed his seat in the senate in the autumn of 1852 to canvass his state as a Union candidate for the govern- orship, his op- ponent being Jefferson Davis,

who had been

persuaded to take the place of Gen. John A. Quit- man on the secession ticket, when it became evident that the latter must be defeated. Foote was elect- ed and served one term, till 1854, when he removed to California, but returned to Mississippi in 1858, and practised law at Vicksburg. He strongly opposed secession in the southern convention at Knoxville in May, 1859, and when the question was seriously agitated in Mississippi he removed to Tennessee. i5ut he subsequently was elected to the Confederate congress, where he was noticeable for his hostility to Jefferson Davis, and finally for his opposition to the continuance of the war. He was in favor of accepting the terms offered by President Lincoln in 1868 and 1864. After the war he resided for a time in Washington, D. C, and supported the administration of Gen. Grant, who made him superintendent of the U. S. mint at New Orleans. He held this office till shortly before his death, when failing health compelled him to re- turn to his home near Nashville. Gov. Foote was an able criminal lawyer, an astute politician, and a popular orator. He had a violent temper, and during his political career fought several duels, two of which were with Sergeant S. Prentiss, one with John A. Winston, and one with John P. H. Claiborne. He also had a personal encounter with Thomas H. Benton on the floor of the U. S. senate. He published " Texas and the Texans " (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1841) : "The War of the Rebellion, or Scylla and Charybdis " (New York, 1860) ; " Bench and Bar of the South and Southwest " (St. Louis, 1876) ; and " Personal Reminiscences."

FOOTE, Henry Wilder, clergyman, b. in Sa- lem, Mass., 2 June" 1838 ; d. 80 May, 1889. He was graduated at Harvard in 1858 and at the divinity- scliool in 1801, and entered the Unitarian minis- try, becoming in that same year pastor of King's chapel, Boston, where he remained until his death, fie was president of the Boston benevolent frater- nity of churches, and, besides occasional sermons and pamphlets, published " Annals of King's Chap- el" (2 vols., Boston, lSS2-'7).

FOOTE, Samuel Augustus, senator, b. in Che- shire, Conn., 8 Nov., 1780 ; d. there, 15 Sept., 1846. He was graduated at Yale in 1797. and became a merchant in New Haven. He served in the legis- lature for many years, and was speaker of the house in 1825-'6. He was elected to congress as a Whig, and served in 1819-'21, and again in 1828-'5. In 1827-'88 he served one term in the U. S. senate, but was defeated as a candidate for re-election by Nathan Smith. He was in congress again in 1888-'4, but resigned on being elected governor of Connecticut, which office he filled for one term. He was a presidential elector on the Clay and Frelinghuysen ticket in 1844. It was he who in 1829 ottered the resolutions " on the public lands " that occasioned the great debate between Hayne and Webster. — His son, Andrew Hull, naval offi- cer, b. in New Haven, Conn., 12 Sept., 1806 ; d. in New York city, 26 June, 1863, was entered as midshipman, 4 Dec, 1822, on the elder Com. David Porter's squadron that was sent out in 1828 to break up the piratical nests among the West India islands. He was promoted lieutenant in 1880, and in 1849 was appointed captain of the brig " Perry," in which he cruised off the African coast for two years, doing effective service in the suppression of the slave-trade. He was put in command of the sloop-of-war " Plymouth " in 1856, and arrived at Canton, China, on the eve of the hostilities between the Chinese and English. He exerted himself to protect American property, and was fired on by the Barrier forts while thus engaged. He obtained permission from Com. Armstrong to demand an apology, and when it was refused he attacked the forts, four in number, with the " Portsmouth " and the "Levant," breached the largest, and carried them by storm. His loss was 40, while that of the enemy was 400. At the beginning of the civil war he was chosen by the government to command the western flotilla. The equipment and organiza- tion of this flotilla taxed the energies of Flag- officer Foote to the utmost, and he always spoke of it as his great- est work. In the beginningof Feb- ruary, 1862, in connection with the land forces under Grant, he moved upon Fort Henry on the Tennessee, and upon the 6th, after a hotly con- tested engage- ment before the army came up, he

carried the fort

with his gun-boats. His bravery and conduct were conspicuous ; and this proved to be his most important achievement in the war. The same impetuosity marked the succeeding action on the 14th, in the combined assault upon Fort Donelson, where for an hour and a half