Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/698

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664
GLASS
GLEIG

and finished it in a year. He did not live, however, to learn that his work had been approved by some of the ripest scholars of the country. He died shortly afterward, intrusting his irianuscript to Mr. Reynolds, by whom it was published in 1835. It was highly commended by such competent judges as Professors Anthon, Maclean, and Alex- ander, and Presidents Wylie, Duer, and Pisk. It was used as a text-book for some time in the gram- mar-school of Columbia college, and miglit have won its way into general acceptation but for the fact that the stereotyped plates were destroyed in a fire, and the book was never reprinted. The fa- tality which pursued poor Glass through life seemed to follow iiim after death. " Washingtonii Vita" has now become a literary curiosity. On the title- page appeared a selection in Latin purporting to be from the fragments of Cicero, prophesying the future appearance and deeds of Washington. It is said that scholars investigated the fragments of Cicero without success ; and their bewilderment was only relieved when Prof. Anthon acknowledged that he had written the passage himself.


GLASS, James W., artist, 'b. in 1825 ; d. in 1857. He became a pupil of Huntington in New York city in 1845, and went to London two years later, where he applied himself to art for several years, returning to the United States in 1856. His " Last Return from Duty," an equestrian portrait of the Duke of Wellington, brought him first into promi- nence in England. It was purchased by Lord Ellesmere, and a duplicate was ordered by the queen. The subject has been engraved by James Faed. He was particularly successful in his draw- ing of horses. His works include " The Battle of Naseby," " The Royal Standard," " Puritan and Cavalier." and " The Free Companion."


GLASSON, John J., naval officer, b. in New York city; d. there, 13 March, 1882. He was appointed midshipman, 1 Feb., 1823, and in that year served under Com. Porter in the suppression of piracy in the West Indies. In 1837 he received the commission of lieutenant, and commanded the schooner " Pal- con," of the Home squadron, in the attack on Vera Cruz in 1848. He was also engaged in the rescue of 120 inhabitants of the town of Valladolid, Yuca- tan, which was burned and sacked by the Indians in an insurrection. While in these waters he aided the French bark " L'Asie de Dunkirk " in a peril- ous position off the harbor of Aguador. He com- manded the store-ship " Lexington," in Perry's Japan expedition, in 1853-'4, was appointed com- mander in 1855, and stationed at New Bedford, Mass., from 1861 till 1863. He was retired in Oc- tober, 1864, but was in the navy-yard at Norfolk, Va., in charge of stores for the supply of the Coast squadron in the Atlantic, and the fiotilla force in the Chesapeake from 1864 till 1866. He was made commodore on the retired list, 4 April, 1867.


GLAZIER, Willard, author, b. in Fowler, St. Lawrence co., N. Y., 22 Aug., 1841. He spent his boyhood on a farm, and was educated principally at the state normal-school at Albany. He taught in Schodack, N. Y., in 1859-60, and in 1861 en- listed in the 2d New York, or Harris cavalry regiment. He had reached the rank of lieutenant, when he was taken prisoner in a cavalry skirmish near Buckland Mills, Va., on 18 Oct., 1863, and sent to Libby prison. He was afterward transferred to Georgia, to Charleston, and then to Columbia, S. C, whence he made his escape, but was recaptured near Springfield, Ga. He escaped again from Syl- vania, Ga., 19 Dec, 1864, and returned home, his term of service having expired, but on 25 Feb., 1865, entered the army again as 1st lieutenant in the 26th New York cavalry, and served till the end of tlie war. He has since devoted himself to litera- ture, and frequently delivered lectures. In 1876 he went from Boston to San Francisco on horse- back, and was captured by hostile Indians near Skull Rocks, Wyoming territory, but made his escape. In 1881 he made a canoe voyage of 3,000 miles, from the head-waters to the mouth of the Mississippi, and claimed to be the discoverer of a small lake south of Lake Itasca, which he main- tains should be regarded as the true source of the Mississippi. It has since been found that this lake is laid down on the maps of the government sur- veys. Capt. Glazier's works include "Capture, Prison-Pen, and Escape," over 400,000 copies of which were sold (Albany, 1865) ; " Three Years in the Federal Cavalry " (New York, 1870) ; " Battles for the Union" (Hartford, 1874); "Heroes of Three Wars " (Philadelphia. 1878) ; " Peculiarities of American Cities " (1883) ; and " Down the Great River" (1887). See his life by John A. Owens, en- titled " Sword and Pen " (Philadelphia, 1884).


GLEASON, Frederic Grant, musician, b. in Middletown, Conn., 17 Dec, 1848. After studying under Dudley Buck, he, in 1869, went to Leipsic, Germany, where he pursued his musical educa- tion under Moscheles and Richter. Later, in Ber- lin, Weitzmann, and, in London, Oscar Beringer were among his teachers. On his return to the United States he settled in Hartford, Conn., and in 1876 he went to Chicago, where he is now (1889) musical critic of the " Tribune." His chief com- positions are two operas of the grand romantic type, " Otho Visconti " and "Montezuma." The vorspiel and many parts of " Otho Visconti " have been published (New York). The vorspiel has been played under Theodore Thomas, and the introduc- tion to the second act and the vorspiel under Mr. Gleason. Under Theodore Thomas several selec- tions from " Montezuma " have been rendered, and the introduction to the second act was given at the National music teachers' convention at the Academy of Music, New York. 2 July, 1885.


GLEIG, George Robert, author, b. in Stirling, Scotland, 20 April, 1796; d. in Winch field, near Stratfieldsaye, Berkshire, England, 11 July, 1888. He was educated at Glasgow and Baliol college, Oxford, joined a regiment in Cork in 1812, and was transferred to the 85th light infantry, which was sent to Spain in 1813. Pie served under Wel- lington in the Peninsular war, was sent with his regiment to this country, and took part in the battles of Bladensburg — where he was wounded — Baltimore, and New Orleans. He returned to Eng- land in 1815, was retired from the army, took or- ders, and in 1819 was appointed to a curacy in Kent. In 1821 the Archbishop of Canterbury presented him to the perpetual curacy of Ash, to which was added the charge of Ivy church, Kent. He was appointed chaplain of Chelsea hospital in 1834, and during the last four years of his service was by Wellington made chaplain-general to the forces, which office he lield until he retired at the age of eighty. His exertions to establish a system of edu- cation for the soldiers gained for him tlie post of inspector-general of military schools. In 1848 he was prebendary of St. Paul's cathedral. Mr. Gleig was for half a century a contributor to " Black- wood's Magazine." and occasionally published pa- pers in the " London Quarterly " and the " Edin- burgh Review," also contributing to " Eraser's Magazine," of which he was for two years the edi- tor. , He was probably the oldest of living writers, he having as lately as 1886 contributed to the " Fortnightly Review " an article on the second