48
\'1RG1XIA BIOGRAPHY
from the United States Military Academy,
where he had Robert E. Lee as a class-
mate and personal friend. After two years
service on the plains, he resigned from the
army. He then began to study law under
his uncle, Samuel Taylor, in Richmond,
Virginia, but forsook it to accept a position
a? a tutor in Renyon (Ohio) College. After
two years he took up the study of the-
ology, and took orders in the Episcopal
church, and became an assistant of Bishop
Smith, of Kentucky, but conscientious
scruples as to infant baptism led him to
leave the ministry, though he remained a
zealous churchman. He then went to
Springfield. Illinois, where he was admitted
to the bar and practiced in the same courts
with Lincoln and Douglas, and then in
Washington City. In 1848, he became a
professor in the University of Mississippi,
leaving it in 1854 to take a chair in the Uni-
versity of Virginia, and where he remained
until the breaking out of the civil war. He
was at first a strong Union man, but when
Virginia seceded he changed his views.
Commissioned colonel, he was soon made
assistant secretary of war. When he re-
turned, Jefferson Davis was imprisoned,
and in 1866 Col. Bledsoe published his
work, "Is Davis a Traitor ; or was Seces-
sion a Constitutional Right?" He went to
Baltimore the same year, and conducted the
Louisa School. At the same time he edited
the "Southern Review," which was after-
ward made the organ of the Methodist
Episcopal church, with which Col. Bled-
soe connected himself, and some years later
became one of its ministers. He published
several scholarly works. He died suddenly,
at Alexandria, Virginia, December 8, 1877.
Brooke, John Mercer, born December 18,
1826, son of Gen. George Mercer Brooke
and Lucy Thomas, his wife. He was born
at Tampa Bay, Florida, where his father, a
distinguished officer of the United States
army, was on duty. From his early youth
he became familiar with army life, and he
received such schooling as officers could
then provide their children at army posts,
his training being principally at Fort How-
ard, Wisconsin, one of the extreme northern
stations. At the age of fifteen he was ap-
pointed to the United States Naval Acad-
emy, from which he graduated in 1847, hav-
ing previously seen some service as mid-
shipman on board the Delaware. He served
on the Coast Survey, 1849-50, and was sta-
tioned at the Naval Observatory, 1851-53.
He was assigned to the duty of surveying
the route between California and China, and
with special reference to the islands in the
Pacific ocean. His deep-sea soundings
measured from 6,000 to 20,400 feet. It was
then that he put to practical use the deep-
sea sounding apparatus, which was so use-
ful when the submarine telegraph cable
came to be laid, and in recognition of his
scr\ices to science, he received from King
William I, of Prussia, the gold science
medal of the Academy of Berlin. In 1861
he resigned his commission, and entered the
service of the state of \'irginia. His inven-
tive genius was of inestimable value to the
struggling Confederacy, which was particu-
l.-irly weak in na\al resources. One of his
most important achievements, and which
ga\e to the navies of the world a hitherto
unknown offensive device, was the sub-
merged bow on ship construction, which
came to be known as the ram, and which he
applied to the Confederate States ship Vir-
