surgeon, microscopist, and naturalist to the U. S. geological survey, and in 1873 became chief medical officer of the U. S. Indian service. He has pub- lished numerous articles on ventilation and kindred subjects, and is the author of a report on the " Hy- giene of Massachusetts " (1843), and earlier reports to the Massachusetts legislature on the registration of births, marriages, and deaths. He is noted as the discoverer of collodion.
CURTIS, Newton Martin, soldier, b. in De
Peyster, St. Lawrence co., N. Y., 21 May, 18o5. He
was educated at common schools, and at Gouver-
neur Wesleyan seminary, in 1854r-'5. He became
a prominent democrat, was postmaster of his native
town in 1857-'61, and democratic candidate for
assembly in 1860. He enrolled a volunteer com-
pany on 14 April, 1861, was commissioned captain
in the 16th New York regiment on 7 May, and
served in the Army of the Potomac. He became
lieutenant-colonel and then colonel of the 142d
New York infantry, and during the battle of Cold
Harbor was assigned to the command of a bi'igade
whose leader had been killed in the action. He
was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 28
Oct., 1864, and for his services at the capture of
Fort Fisher was promoted on the field to briga-
dier-general of volunteers, and was also thanked
by the legislature of New York. He was brevetted
major-general of volunteers, 13 March, 1865, and
assigned to duty as chief of staff to Gen. B. 0. C.
Ord. On 1 July, 1865, he was given the command
of southwestern Virginia, with headquarters at
Lynchburg, and was mustered out on 15 Jan., 1866.
He was collector of customs in the district of Os-
wegatehie, N. Y., in 1866-'7, special agent of the
U. S. treasury from 1867 till his resignation in
1880, and a member of the legislature in 1883-5,
having been elected as a republican. He was presi-
dent of the state agricultural society in 1880, and
has been secretary and trustee of the state agricul-
tural station since its organization in that year.
CURTIS, Samuel Ryan, soldier, b. 'in New
York state, 3 Feb., 1807; d. in Council Bluffs,
Iowa, 26 Dec, 1866. He removed when a child to
Ohio, and was gi^aduated at the U. S. military
academy in 1831, but resigned from the army in
1832, and became a civil engineer, superintending
the Muskingum river improvements in 1837-'9.
He then studied law, and practised in Ohio from
1841 till 1846. He had become a captain of militia
in 1833, was lieutenant-colonel in 1837-'42, colonel
in 1843-'45, and in 1846 was made adjutant-gen-
eral of Ohio for the special purpose of organizing
the state's quota of volunteers for the Mexican
war. He served in that war as colonel of the 2d
Ohio regiment, and was commandant of Camargo,
a large military depot, holding it on 18 Feb., 1847,
against Gen. IJrrea, and then pursuing the enemy
by forced marches through the mountains to Ramos,
Mexico, thus opening Gen. Taylor's communica-
tions. After the discharge of his regiment he
served on Gen. Wool's staff, and as goverpor of
Saltillo, Mexico, in 1847-8. He then engaged in
engineering in the west, and in 1855 settled as a
lawyer in Keokuk, Iowa. While a resident of this
place he was elected to congi'ess as a republican,
and served two terms and part of a third, from
1857 till 1861, being a member of the committees
on military affairs and the Pacific railroad. He
was also a delegate from Iowa to the peace con-
gress of February, 1861. He I'esigned from con-
gress in 1861 to become colonel of tlie 2d Iowa
regiment, and on 17 May was commissioned briga-
dier-general of volunteers, being on the first list
sent to the senate for confirmation. He took
charge of the large camp of instruction near St.
Louis in August and September, 1861, commanded
the southwestern district of Missouri from 26
Dec, 1861, till February, 1862, and the army of
the southwest till August, 1862. On 6-8 March,
at Pea Ridge, Ark., he gained a decisive victory
over a Confederate force, commanded by Gens.
Price and McCulloch. He was promoted to major-
general of volunteers on 21 March, 1862, and from
14 July till 29 August occupied Helena, Ark.,
having marched over one thousand miles through
wildernesses and swamps. While on leave of ab-
sence, from 29 Aug. till 24 Sept., 1862, he was
president of the Pacific railroad convention in
Chicago. He was at the head of the Department
of the Missouri from September, 1862, till May,
1863, and of that of Kansas from 1 Jan., 1864, till
7 Feb., 1865, commanding at Fort Leavenworth
during the Price raid of October, 1864. and aiding
in the defeat and pursuit of Gen. Price's army.
He commanded the Department of the Northwest
from 16 Feb. till 26 Jixly, 1865, was U. S. commis-
sioner to negotiate treaties with various Indian
tribes from August till November, 1865, and to
examine the Union Pacific railroad till April, 1866.
CURTIS, Thomas, clergyman, b. in England
about 1780; d. in 1858. He came to the United
States in 1829, was pastor for some years of the
Wentworth street Baptist church in Charleston,
S. C, and subsequently established a young ladies'
school at Limestone Spring. Dr. Curtis was a man
of extensive knowledge and very powerful as a
preacher. While in England he was the publisher
of the " Encyclopaedia Metropolitana." He per-
ished in a burning steamer on the Potomac river.
— His son, Thomas F., b. in England, 26 Sept.,
1815 : d. in Cambridge, Mass., 9 Aug., 1872, was
educated at a southern college, and studied the-
ology. After holding a pastorate near Boston for
several years, he accepted the chair of theology in
Lewisburg university. Pa., but resigned in 1865,
and in 1867 removed to Cambridge, Mass. He
suffered with softening of the brain for some time
before his death. Dr. Curtis published " Com-
munion: the Distinction between Christian and
Church Fellowship"; " Progress of Baptist Prin-
ciples in the last Hundred Years " ; and, after his
resignation, " The Human Element in the Inspira-
tion of the Sacred Scriptures," in which he took
similar views with Bishop Colenso, but went be-
yond him in some particulars, repudiating both
the inspiration and authenticity of much of the
Old Testament and part of the New (1867).
CURTIS, William Edmund, jurist, b. in
Litchfield, Conn., in 1824; d. in Watertown,
Conn., 6 July, 1880. lie was graduated at Trinity
in 1843, admitted to the bar in 1847, and practised
in New York city, where he rose rapidly in his
profession. In 1871 he was elected judge of the
New York supreme court, and at the time of his
death was chief justice of the superior court. He
was commissioner of the board of education, and
for four years its president, and also vice-president
of the geographical society. Judge Curtis received the degree of LL. D. "from Trinity in 1862.
CURTISS, Abby Allin, poet, b. in Pomfret, Conn., 15 Sept., 1820. Her father, Daniel Allin, was a sea-captain of Providence, R. I. In 1852 she married Daniel S. Curtiss, a Chicago journalist, and soon afterward removed with him to a farm in Madison, Wis. Her first piece, "Take me Home to Die," appeared in " Neal's Gazette " in 1846. She has published '* Home Ballads " (Boston, 1850), and contributed to periodicals under the signature of "Nillo."
