VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
1853-54, and from 1856 to i860 was on fron-
tier duty; during the years 1861-62 he com-
manded a brigade of horse artillery, being
attached to the Army of the Potomac and
was actively engaged in the battles of An-
tietam and Fredericksburg, and in Novem-
ber, 1862, was appointed brigadier-general
of volunteers ; was wounded and taken pris-
oner at Chancellorsville, May 6, 1863, re-
joined the army at Gettysburg, and in No-
vember was appointed provost marshal of
the southern district of New York ; at the
expiration of his term in February, 1865, he
rejoined his regiment at Petersburg, and
served with the Second Corps, and in com-
mand of the reserve artillery until the close
Of the war, when he was brevetted briga-
dier-general in the regular army, the reward
of gallant service and meritorious conduct ;
was mustered out of volunteer service in
1866 with the rank of major, and served on
various posts, commanding Fort Independ-
ence from April 29, 1873, until his death,
which occurred in Fort Independence, Boston
harbor. February 7, 1875, aged fifty-six years.
McCormick, Leander J., born at "Walnut Grove." \'irginia, February 8. 1819, son of Robert and Mary McChesney (Hall) Mc- Cormick; his education was obtained in the public schools of Rockbridge county, after which he devoted his attention to agricul- tural pursuits, assisting his father and brothers in the work of the farm and in per- fecting and constructing the reaping ma- chine invented by his brother Cyrus ; he in- herited in marked degree his father's turn of mind, and helped to make various improve- ments in his brother's reaper, including a seat or stand from which a man could divide the grain in sheaves suitable for binding, an improvement on the divider seat, both in
the year 1845, ^"d later a seat for the driver,
who previously had ridden on one of the
horses, all of which made the machine rnbre
useful and practical ; in 1847 h^ ^^'^s sent by
his brother Cyrus to Cincinnati. Ohio, to
superintend the construction of one hundred
reaping machines, and in the following year
removed to Chicago, Illinois, there being
joined by his brother in 1849, 3^id they es-
tablished a factory, Leander J. McCormick
assuming entire charge of the manufactur-
ing department, continuing until the year
1879, when the business was incorporated
as the McCormick Harvesting Machine
Company, and Leander J. McCormick re-
tired from active participation in .the busi-
n^-ss ; in 1871 he presented the University
of Virginia with a twenty-six-inch refract-
ing telescope constructed by Alvan Clark
K Sons, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, at
the time the largest refracting lens in the
world, and the observatory building was
known as the McCormick Observatory ; he
married, in 1845, Henrietta Maria, daugh-
ter of John Hamilton, of Rockbridge coun-
ty, Virginia; she died in Chicago in No-
vember, 1899; their son, Robert S., was sec-
retary of legation under United States min-
ister, Robert T. Lincoln, in London, and he
married a daughter of Joseph Medill, edi-
tor of the Chicago "Tribune," and in 1901
was appointed by President McKinley en-
voy extraordinary and minister plenipoten-
tiary of the United States to Austria-Hun-
gary ; Leander J. McCormick died in Chi-
coga. Illinois, February 20, 1900.
Walker, Cornelius, clergyman, was born at Richmond. \'irginia, June 12, 1819, son of William Woodson and Mary (Bosher) A\'alker. He attended the Episcopal high school at Fairfax county. \'irginia ; was
