Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/513

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MUZZARELLI
MYER

1824 he was appointed governor of the estate of Mexico, in which place he served with honesty and economy, leaving in the treasury the sum of $900,- 000. He was appointed general commander of Puebla and protested against the revolution of Acordada; but his forces revolted and he was obliged to deliver the command to Gen. Guerrero in 1828. In consequence of the political disturb- ances of the country in 1832, the chamber of depu- ties appointed him temporary president of the re- public, which place he held from 14 Aug. till 27 Dec, 1832, when the capital declared in favor of Gomez Pedraza. He then retired from public life till 1836, when the federal constitution was changed for a policy of centralization, and a body was estab- lished under the name of " poder conservador," of which Muzquiz was made president, and in 1840 he was re-elected. In 1845 congress passed an act givino: the name of Muzquiz to his native town.


MUZZARELLI, Antoiiie Jules Cesar Venceslas Ermanigilde (moo-zah-rel-le), French edu- cator, b. in Angouleme, 20 Sept., 1847. His grand- father served as a volunteer during the war of American independence, and his father was a law- yer who was transported to Cayenne on the acces- sion of Napoleon III. The son entered the army in 18(37 and served as captain of engineers during the Franco-German war and against the commu- nists in 1871. He emigrated in 1876 to the United States, but afterward visited Peru and Chili, and during the Pacific war accompanied the Chilian army as a reporter, returning in 1880 to the United States, where he became a lecturer and a professor in the Oswego, N. Y., college of languages. He has published " Histoire de la guerre du Pacifique, recits d'un reporter " (2 vols., Paris, 1880) ; " Etude sur la situation politique de I'Amerique du Sud envisagee en general, et en partieulier des rcsultats de la guerre du Pacifique" (1881); "La question du C!anal de Panama " (1881), etc.


MUZZEY, Artemas Bowers, clergyman, b. in Lexington, Mass., 21 Sept., 1802 ; d. in Cambridge, 21 April, 1892. He was graduated at Harvard and at the divinity-school, and was pastor of the Uni- tarian church in Framingham. He afterward held pastorates in Cambridge, Concord, N. H., and Newburyport, Mass., but retired in May, 1865. He published " The Young Man's Friend " (Boston. 1836); "Sunday-School Guide" (1837): "Moral Teacher " (1839) ; " The Young Maiden " (1840) ; "Man a Soul" (1842); "The Fireside" (1849): " The Sabbath - School Hvmn and Tune Book " (1855); "Christ in the Will, the Heart, and the Life," sermons (1861) ; " The Blade and the Ear. Thoughts for a Young Man" (1864); "Value of Study of Intellectual Philosophy to the Minis- ter" (1869); "The Higher Education" (1871): "Personal Recollections of Rev. Dr. Channing" (1874-'5) ; " Immortality in the Light of Scripture and Science" (1876); " Personal Recollection of Men in the Battle of Lexington " (1877) ; " Truths Consequent on Belief in a God " (1879) ; " Remi- niscences of Men of the Revolution and their Families " (1883) ; " Education of Old Age " (1884) ; and numerous tracts, essays, and reports on com- mon schools and Sunday-schools.


MYER, Albert James, chief signal officer, b. in Newburg, N. Y., 20 Sept., 1827; d. in Buffalo, N. Y., 24 Aug., 1880. ' He was graduated at Hobart college in 1847 and at Buffalo medical college in 1851. In September, 1854. he entered the U. S. army as assistant surgeon and was assigned to duty in Texas. He devised a system for signalling with flags by day and torches by night, whereby mes- sages could be sent many miles accurately and with considerable rapidity. The simplicity of this sys- tem was such that it has commended itself to the armies of the world. He demonstrated the impor- tance and possibility of his work by signal duty in Texas and New Mexi- co, and in Jime, 1860, he was appointed ma- jor and signal officer, which post congress created as a reward for his services. He per- formed signal duty in New Mexico until the beginning of the civil war, when he was or- dered to Washington and assigned to duty in the Army of the Potomac. Through- out the peninsular campaign he served as chief signal officer to Gen. George B. McClel- lan, participating in all

of the battles from

Bull Run to Antietam. He then returned to Wash- ington, where he took charge of the U. S. signal office on 3 March, 1863, with the rank of colonel. At this time he introduced the study of military signals at the U. S. military academy, and was a member of the central board of examination for admission to the U. S! signal corps. In December, 1863, he was assigned to reconnoissance on Missis- sippi river, and later he became chief signal officer of the division of West Mississippi under Gen. Ed- ward R. S. Canby, by whom he wa,s commissioned to arrange the terms of surrender of Fort Gaines. He was relieved of his command at this time by the secretary of war on the ground that his nomi- nation had "not been confirmed, and his appoint- ment of chief signal officer was revoked on 21 July, 1864 ; but he was brevetted brigadier-general on 13 March, 1865. After his removal from the army he settled in Buffalo, and there devoted his time to the preparation of a "Manual. of Signals for the U. S. Army and Navy" (New York, 1868). He was reappointed colonel and chief signal officer on 28 July, 1866. An act of congress, approved 9 Feb., 1870, authorized provision for taking meteorologi- cal observations at the military stations in the in- terior of the continent and at other points, and for giving notice on the northern lakes and seaboard by telegraph and signals of the approach and force of storms ; and the execution of this duty was con- fided to Gen. Myer, as he had been interested pre- viously in the subject of storm telegraphy. Ar- rangements were made with the telegraph compa- nies, and the first observations of this simultarie- ous meteorological system were made, 1 Nov., 1870, 7.35 A. M., at twenty-four stations. The first storm warning was telegraphed to all stations on the Great Lakes, 8 Nov., 1870, and the practical work- ing of the scheme was assured. The work of the weather bureau soon became popular and was rap- idly extended, and at the date of Gen. Myer's death there were over 100 reporting stations, with a force of 500 men. Gen. Myer was familiarly known as "Old Probabilities," a name which properly came to him not only as the executive head of his bu- reau, but for the persistent and systematic manner in which he developed and organized the scientific workings of the signal corps, his labors not being merelv'executive. "in 1873 Gen. Myer represented the United States at the International congi'ess of meteorologists in Vienna. On 1 July, 1875, the