Mcpherson. 644 McQUAID. enue for a short time, auJ from 18C3 to 1S73, from 1S81 to 1883, and from 1889 to 1891 was clerk of the Natiomil House of Kepresentatives. He was permanent president of the Republican National Convention in 1876, in 1877-78 was chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and from 1878 to 1880 was editor of the Phila- delphia I'ress. He became editor of The Hand- book of Politics in 1872, and from 1877 until his deatli was editor of the Xeir Yorl: Tribune Al- manac. He was also a political editorial writer on the Tribune. He published A Political His- tory of the United Stales During the Great Re- bellion (1805). and A Political History of the United Stales During Reconstruction (1870). MACPHERSON, James (1736-96). 'Transla- tor' of the Ossianic poems, born at Ruthven, Inverncss-slure, Scotland, October 27, 1736. After finishing his studies at King's College, Aberdeen, he became a schoolmaster in iiis native village, publislied a poem entitled The Highlander in 1758, and in the following year, having met Dr. Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, and John Home, the author of Douglas, he showed them some fragments of Gaelic verse, of which he also gave them 'translations.' These 'translations,' sixteen in number, appeared in 17C0 under the title Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands. They awakened so much attention that the faculty of advocates in Edinburgh raised a subscription to enable Macpherson to make a tour through the Highlands for the purpose of collecting more ancient (iaclic poems. The result was the publication in London of alleged trans- lations of the poems of Ossian, bearing the titles: Fingul, an Epic Poem, in Six Hooks ( 1762) ; and Temora, an Epic Poem, in Eight Hooks (1763). A storm of controversy arose in regard to their genuineness. Blair defended their authenticity; Dr. .Johnson called for the Gaelic manuscripts, which were not forthcoming. Scholars are now agreed that though the so-called Ossianic poems are largely the work of Jlacpherson, yet they have a real basis in Gaelic legend. As a sub- stantial result of his fame, Macpherson was appointed Survcyor-(ieneral of the Floridas (1764) with a salary for life, and agent to the Nawab of Arcot(1779). He entered Parliament in the following year as member for Camelford, sat for ten years, and then retired to an estate which he had purchased in Inverness-shire, where he died. February 17, 1706. His body was sent to England and interred at his own request in Westminster Abbey. For the widespread interest in JIae]iherson's translations and their immense influence on literature, consult: Beers, English Romanlieism (New York, 1898); for their rela- tion to their originals. Dean of Lismore's Book, ed. by MacLaughlan. with introduction by Skene (London. 1862); and Poems of Ossian, with translations by Clerk (Edinburgh. 1S70). Consult also Poems, trans, by JIacpherson. with introd.. ed. by Todd (London, 1888) ; Life and Letters, by Saunders (London, 1894). Sec Cs.sian. Mcpherson, .Lames Birdseye (1828-64). An eiiiimnt American soldier, prominent on the Federal side in the Civil War. He was born in Sandusky. Ohio; graduated first in his class at West Point in 18.53. having as classmates such men as Philip H. Sheridan. .Tohn B. Hood, and John M. Schofield ; and was appointed to the Corps of Engineers, with the rank of brevet sec- ond lieutenant. For a year after his graduation he was assistant instructor of practical engineer- ing at the il Hilary Academy, and was ne.xt en- gaged from 1854 to 1857 as assistant engineer upon the defenses of the harbor of New York and the improvement of Hudson River. In I.S57 he suiicrintended the building of Fort Delaware, and in 1857-61 was superintending engineer of the construction of the defenses of Aleatraz Island, at San Francisco. Cal. Upon the outl)reak of the Civil 'ar he was assigned to duty at Boston, where he raised a force of engineers ; and in August, 1861. he was promoted to be captain of engineers. The following November he was made aide-de-camp to General Halleck. and as- sistant engineer of the Department of the Mis- souri, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. From Feliruary to April. 1862, he served as chief engineer on the stafT of General Grant, taking part in the capture of Fort Donclson and in the battle of Shiloh. In May, 1862. lie was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers and colonel in the Regular Army. He was with Halleck at the siege of Corinth ; and when, after its capture by the Federal forces, the Confederates under Van Dorn and Price attempted to retake it in (Jctolx'r, 1862, MePherson succeeded in penetrating their lines and reenforcing Rosecrans. who was holding the place with a force much inferior to that of the Confederates. For his services at Corinth, MePherson was made major-general of volunteers October 8, 1862. In December he was put at the head of the Seventeenth Corps, and had a distinguished share in Grant's Mississip])i cam- paign, which terminated in the surrender nt Vicksburg. After the fall of Vicksburg. Me- Pherson was, upon the recommendation of Gen- eral Grant, appointed a brigadier-general in the Regular Army and commander of the Distriet of Vicksburg. In February, 1864, he was second in conunand to Sherman in the hitter's expedition to Meridian, and on IMarch 12th was made com- mander of the Department and Army of the Ten- nessee. In that command he maintained the reputation he had won in Mississippi, and ren- dered valuable service during Sherman's cam- paign in Georgia. The Army of the Tennes- see engaged the Confederates at Resaca Mav 14th and 1,5th and at Dallas May 28, 1864; and im ■June 27th MePherson aided Thomas in an un- successful assault upon Johnston's position at Kenesaw Mountain. Shortly thereafter he wa« engaged in the series of conflicts around Atlanl;i, in one of which, on .July 22. 1864, be was killed, while making a reconnoissance. General Grant, in a letter recommending him for promotion in 1863, praised him as "one of the ablest engineers and most skillful generals," and in his Persoimt Memoirs, says: "In the death of MePherson the army lost one of its ablest, purest, and best generals." MCQTJAID, ni'-kw;id', Bermard .John (1S23 — ). The first Roman Catliolic ]5isliop of Roeli- ester, N. Y. He was born in New Y'ork City; studied at Chambly College, near Montreal, and then entered Saint .John's College at Fordham, N, Y., where he graduated in 1843. He was ordained a priest in 1848. and was .sent to New .Jersey, where be founded Seton Hall College and Seminary, of which he was president for ten years, though for part of that time also rector "f the cathedral in Newark. In 1868 he became
