The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Browne, Junius Henri

BROWNE, Junius Henri, American journalist: b. Seneca Falls, N. Y., 14 Oct. 1833; d. New York, 2 April 1902. He was a graduate of Saint Xavier College, Cincinnati. In 1861 he became war correspondent for the New York Tribune, was wounded at Fort Donelson, and taken prisoner while engaged in an abortive expedition to run the Vicksburg batteries. After an imprisonment of 20 months in seven different prisons, he eluded his guard at Salisbury, N. C., traveled 400 miles through a hostile country, and reached the Union lines 14 Jan. 1865. His list of Union soldiers who died at Salisbury, published in the Tribune, is the only authentic account of their fate. After the war he served as correspondent of the New York Tribune, Times and other journals, and contributed many articles to leading periodicals. His best-known works are ‘Four Years in Secessia’ (1865); ‘The Great Metropolis: A Mirror of New York’ (1869); ‘Sights and Sensations in Europe’ (1872). A series of articles on women, which he wrote for the Galaxy, created a sensation in literary circles. His ‘Four Years in Secessia’ was hastily prepared and lacked much grace and elegance in its literary form, but its descriptions of various incidents of the war and particularly its information concerning the conditions of the Southern prisons and the Northern soldier confined in them, render the book especially valuable.