Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/364

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MILLER
MILLER

as colonel, was in command of the 29th regi- ment of Indiana volunteers. He was engaged from the beginning of hostilities in the west. At the battle of Stone river he charged at the head of a brigade across the river, drove Gen. John C. Breckin- ridge from his posi- tion, and received a bullet-wound in his neck. For his gal- lantry in this ac- tion he was promot- ed brigadier - gen- eral of volunteers. In the battle of Lib- erty Gap he made another charge with his brigade, and at the moment of vic- tory was severely wounded in the eye.

He commanded a

division of 8.000 men on the left at the battle of Nashville, and was brevetted major-general of vol- unteers in 1865. At the close of the war he was offered a colonel's commission in the regular army, but declined, settled in San Francisco, and for four years was collector of the port. He then engaged in business, and was an originator and president of the Alaska commercial fur company, in which he amassed a large fortune. He was a Republican presidential elector in 1872, 1876, and 1880, a mem- ber of the California constitutional convention in 1879, and was elected to the U. S. senate as a Re- publican in January, 1881. serving from the follow- ing March until his death. He was a member of the senate committees on foreign relations and naval affairs in the 47th congress, and in the 48th and 49th chairman of the former, and a member of that on civil service and retrenchment.


MILLER, John Henry, publisher, b. in Waldeck, Germany, in 1702; d. in Bethlehem, Pa., 31 March, 1782. He came to this country and was employed by Benjamin Franklin and William Bradford to superintend their German printing. He published the Lancaster, Pa., “Gazette” in 1752, and from 1762 till 1779 “Der Wöchentliche Philadelphische Staatsbote.” He did a large business throughout the colonies in printing almanacs, laws, school-books, and the classics, and in reprinting English and German works.


MILLER, Jonathan P., reformer, b. in Ran- dolph, Vt.. in 1797; d. in 3iontpelier in 1847. He was educated at the University of Vermont and became a lawyer. In 1824 he went to Greece as a volunteer, and after the siege and fall of Misso- longhi in April, 1826, he returned to Vermont and lectured through New York and the New England states for the benefit of the Greek cause. At the solicitation of the Boston and New York Greek committee Col. Miller went to Greece a second time as their general agent, and distributed several cargoes of provisions and clothing to the suffering Greeks, returning to Montpelier, Vt., in 1827. He introduced anti-slavery resolutions into the Vermont legislature in 1833. He was a delegate from his state to the world's anti-slavery conven- tion in London in 1840, and from that time until his death gave a large part of his time and fortune to the furtherance of the anti-slavery cause. MILLER, Joseph Nelson, naval officer, b. in Ohio, 22 Nov., 1836. He entered the navy in 1851, became passed midshipman in 1856, master in 1858, lieutenant in 1860, lieutenant-commander in , commander in 1870, and captain in 1881. He served as executive officer on the iron-clad" Passaic" in the attack upon Fort Sumter and Fort McAllis- ter during the spring of 1863, and in the same capacity on board the " Monadnock " in both .ne Fort Fisher fights, and was highly recommended for ability and bravery in these actions. He be- came commodore in 1894 and rear-admiral in 1897.


MILLER, Madison, soldier, b. in Mercer, Pa., 6 Feb.. 1811 ; d. in St. Louis, 27 Feb., 1896. He was appointed captain of the 2d regiment of Illi- nois volunteers in the Mexican war, and wounded at the battle of Buena Vista. He was judge of El Dorado county, Cal., in 1851-'2, was subsequently for several years a resident of Carondelet, Mo., and president of the St. Louis and Iron Mountain railroad. At the beginning of the civil war he entered the U. S. army as captain of the 1st IMis- souri infantry, was promoted colonel of volunteers in 1862, commanded the 2d brigade of the 6th division at Shiloh, where he was captured, and while a prisoner was one of a commission sent by the Confederates to Washington to arrange for an exchange of prisoners. In March, 1865, he received the brevet of brigadier-general for meritorious service at Wilson's Creek and Shiloh. He was in the Missouri senate in 1865, and after 1867 had been fund commissioner of the Missouri railroad.


MILLER, Morris Smith, soldier, b. in Utica, N. Y., 2 April, 1814; d. in New Orleans, La., 11 March, 1870. He was graduated at the U. S. mili- tary academy in 1834, became 1st lieutenant in 1837, captain in 1846. quartermaster with the rank of major in 1861, and lieutenant-colonel on the staff and deputy quartermaster-general in 1866. In March, 1865, he was brevetted colonel and brigadier-general for faithful service in the quarter- master's department during the civil war. He had served during the Canada border disturbances, was in the Florida and Mexican wars, and in 1861. as quartermaster at Washington, D. C, was responsible for all the arrangements for the arrival of troops to defend the capital. Upon the attack on the Massa- chusetts volunteers in Baltimore, 19 April, 1861, he was ordered by Gen. Winfield Scott to Annapolis to attend to forwarding the New York and Massa- chusetts troops that were expected by that route. Finding that no troops had arrived, he returned, but a second attempt was successful, and he reached Annapolis in time to forward the fii'st troops that arrived in Washington. Throughout the entire war he remained in the quartermaster's department at Washington. After four years, during which $20,000,000 passed through his hands, an exami- nation of his accounts showed that less than $20 was to be disallowed.


MILLER, Nathan, member of the Continental congress, b. in Rhode Island about 1750 ; d. there after 1787. He was a brigadier-general of militia, and a delegate to the Continental congress in 1785-6, but did not take his seat till 14 July. 1786. He was not active in debate in that body. On 27 July he voted in the affirmative on the bill " for imposing duties on foreign goods for the j)urpose of paying the debt contracted in the war with Great Britain," and on 13 Oct., in the affirmative, on the motion " for establishing a board to liqui- date all accounts between the United States and individual states."


MILLER, Samuel Freeman, jurist, b. in Richmond, Ky.. 5 April, 1816 ; d. in Washington, D. C., 12 Oct., 1890. He was graduated at Transylvania university, Ky., in 1838, practised for a short time, and afterward became a lawyer. He was strongly in favor of emancipation, and did much to further that