Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/779

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SULLY
SULLY

was founded by his uncle, and of which he was the senior trustee. His In-other, Michael Lucas, farmer, b. in Franklinton, Ohio, 6 Aug., 1807; d. in Henderson, Ky., 29 Jan.. 1879. was educated at Ohio university and at Centre college. Ken- tucky, and afterward engaged in farming. He pmeeeded atonjeto improve the immense trai-t of land thai he inherited from his father, raised mules and blooded horses, and was an originator of the Ohio stock importing company, which introduced a new era of stock-breeding in the west. In 1854 he sold his Ohio estate, bought 80,000 acres of land in Illinois, and engaged in farming on a larger scale than had ever been attempted before. He introduced new methods and improved machinery on his farm of " Broadlands," but, meeting with re- verses, he sold part of his property and retired to his farm of 40,000 acres at Burr Oaks, 111. The estate embraced sixty-five square miles.


SULLY, Thomas, painter, b. at Horncastle, Lin- colnshire, England, 8 June, 1783 ; d. in Philadel- phia. Pa., 5 Nov., 1872. At the age of nine he was brought by his parents to the United States. His father placed him in Kilo in an insurance broker's office, but it soon became evi- dent that art was his true vocation. In 1799 he. joined his brother Laurence, a miniature-painter, at Richmond, Va., and two years later re- moved with him to Norfolk. Thomas soon surpassed his In-other, and began to try his hand at oil portraits, aided somewhat by Henry Bembr'dge. He de-

termined to go to

London for study, and worked hard to gain suffi- cient money to carry him there. But the death of his brother in 1804 decided him to remain and pro- tect the latter's family, whom he had left unpro- vided for. In 1806, after marrying his brother's widow, Sully went to New York, where he resided until 1808. In 1807 he made a short visit to Bos- ton, where he had some instruction and advice from Gilbert Stuart. He returned to Philadelphia in 1809, and went the same year to London. Here he studied for some time under Benjamin West, and made copies after old masters that had been contracted for in this country, after which he em- barked for New York in 1810. He now settled permanently in Philadelphia. During the follow- ing years he executed numerous portraits, notably those of George Frederick Cooke as Richard III., which is owned by the Pennsylvania academy ; Benjamin Rush (1814); and Com. Decatur, in the city-hall. New Y"ork. In 1818 the legislature of North Carolina applied to him for two full-length portraits of Washington. Sully, in reply, proposed to paint a historical picture which should repre- sent some memorable action of the great com- mander, and suggested the crossing of the Dela- ware. This was agreed upon ; but when Sully wrote for the dimensions of the space that the pic- ture was to occupy, he received no answer. Nev- ertheless, he proceeded with the work on a canvas of large size. When, after a considerable expense of time and money, the picture was finished, he was informed that there was no place fitted to re- ceive it, and it was thrown upon his hands. The picture finally came into the possession of the Boston museum. Sully was perhaps most successful in his portraits of women. Henry T. Tuckerman says of him : " His organization fits him to sympathize with the fair and lovely rather than the grand or comic. . . . Sully's forte is the grace- ful." Among his numerous portraits, of which many have been engraved, an- those of Gen. Jona- than Williams (1815); Bishop William White, of Pennsylvania ; Lafayette, in Independence hall, Philadelphia ; Thomas Jefferson, painted for the United States military academy (1821) ; Fanny Kemble and her father, Charles Kemble ; Reverdy Johnson ; Charles Carroll, of Carrollton ; Queen Vic- toria, painted in 1837-'8 for the St. George society, Philadelphia; Rembrandt Peale ; Percival Drayton (1827) ; Alexander J. Dallas; Dr. Philip Syng Phys- ick ; Joseph Hopkinson ; George M. Dallas ; and Robert F. Stockton (1851). The Corcoran gallery owns the portraits of James Madison, Andrew Jackson (1825), John Marshall, and a portrait of himself. He painted also some figure-pieces and historical pictures, among which are " Capture of Major Andre " (1812) and " Miranda " (1815). Sully wrote an autobiographical sketch, "Recollections of an Old Painter," which appeared in " Hours at Home " for November, 1869. His " Hints to Young Painters," which he prepared for the press in 1851 und revised in 1871, was published after his death (Philadelphia, 1873). His son, THOMAS, and his daughter, JANE, afterward Mrs. John C. Darley, followed their father's profession. Another son, Alfred, soldier, b. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1821 ; d. in Fort Vancouver, Washington territory, 17 April, 1879, was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1841, assigned to the 2d infantry, which was then engaged in the Seminole war, and participated with credit in the attack on Hawe Creek camp, 25 Jan., 1842. He was on garrison duty on the great lakes till the Mexican war, and after the siege of Vcra Cruz in 1847 was ordered to the north on recruiting service. He was then stationed in California, and on 22 Feb., 1849, was promoted to captain. In 1853 he was sent with others to re-enforce the governor of Oregon in his operations against the Rogue river Indians, and in December of that year, while on his way to New York, he was wrecked off the California coast rind remained six days on a desert island. lie was then in Minnesota, Nebraska, and Dakota till 1858, and, after spending a year in Europe on leave of absence, took part in operations against the Chey- enne Indians in I860-'!. He then served in the de- fences of Washington till 4 March, 1862, when he became colonel of the 1st Minnesota regiment. He led a brigade during the change of base to James river, and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, U. S. army, for gallantry at Fair Oaks, and colonel for Malvern Hill. After engaging in the northern Virginia and Maryland campaigns, he was made brigadier-general of volunteers, 1 Oct., 1862. He led his brigade at Chancellorsville, and in May, 1863, was assigned to the command of the De- partment of Dakota, where he soon gained note by his expeditions against hostile northwestern Indians, especially in the engagement at White Stone Hill, 3 Sept., 1863, that at Tah-kah-ha- kuty. 28 July, 1864, and the skirmish in the Bad Lands, 8 Aug., 1864. He was given the brevet of major-general of volunteers, and that of brigadier- general in the regular army, at the close of the war, and subsequently served on the board of pro- motion, and was on special service in the interior department at Washington. He was made lieu-