Fork, 1858) ; " Life of Rev. Devereux Jarratt, by Himself, abridged by Bishop Meade " (Washing- ton, 1840) : " Companion to the Font and the Pulpit" (1846) ; " Lectures on the Pastoral Office" (New York, 1849) ; " Reasons for loving the Epis- copal Church " (Philadelphia, 1852 ; New York, 1858); "Old Churches. Ministers, and Families of Virginia " (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1857) ; and " The Bible and the Classics" (New York, 1861). See "Memorial of Bishop Meade" (Baltimore, 1857), by Rev. John Johns, I). D. — Another son, Richard Kidder, politician, b. in Frederick county, Va., about 1795; d. in Virginia, 20 April, 1862, was well educated, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Petersburg. He was elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 6 Dec, 1847, till 3 March, 1853, and in the latter year declined the appointment of charge d'affaires in Sardinia. He was afterward appointed minister to Brazil, and held this office from 27 July, 1857, till 9 July, 1861, when he returned to Virginia and supported the Confederacy.
MEAGHER, Thomas Francis (marr), soldier,
b. in Waterford, Ireland, 3 Aug., 1823; d. near
Fort Benton, Montana, 1 July, 1867. His father,
a merchant, who had made a fortune in the
Newfoundland trade, represented Waterford in parliament
for several years. At the age of nine Thomas
Francis was sent to the Jesuit college of Clongowes
Wood, County Kildare, where he remained six
years, and then entered Stonyhurst college, near
Preston, England. In 1843 he left that institution,
and soon afterward made his appearance as a public
speaker at the great national meeting at Kilkenny,
over which Daniel O'Connell presided. From that
time he was devoted to the cause of Ireland, and
in 1846 became one of the leaders of the Young
Ireland party, whose object was to obtain Irish
independence by force of arms. In 1848 he was sent
to Paris with an address to the provisional government
of France from the Irish confederation, and
on his return he presented the citizens of Waterford
with an Irish tricolor, upon which occasion he
made a fiery patriotic speech. On 21 March he
was arrested on the charge of sedition, and was
bailed to appear at the court of queen's bench.
After the passage of the treason-felony act Meagher
was arrested again, and in October, 1848, was
convicted of treason and sentenced to death. The
sentence was afterward commuted to banishment
for life, and on 9 July, 1849, he was transported to
Van Diemen's Land, but he escaped in 1852 and
took refuge in the United States. In 1855 he had
begun the study of the law, and he was subsequently
admitted to the bar, but at the beginning
of the civil war he at once abandoned his profession,
and, organizing a company of zouaves for the
National army, he joined the 69th New York volunteers,
under Col. Michael Corcoran, and served
during the first campaign in Virginia. At the first
battle of Bull Run, where he was acting major of
his regiment, a horse was shot under him. Upon
the expiration of his three months' term of service
he returned to New York, and in the latter part of
1861 organized the “Irish brigade,” being elected
colonel of the first regiment. He was afterward
assigned to command the brigade, his commission as
brigadier-general bearing the date of 3 Feb., 1862.
Gen. Meagher and his command fought bravely
during the seven days' battles around Richmond,
Va., and at the second battle of Bull Run,
Fredericksburg, and Antietam, where again a horse
was shot under him. At Fredericksburg he was
wounded in the leg. After Chancellorsville his
brigade was so decimated that he resigned, and
was out of the war until early in 1864, when he
was recommissioned brigadier-general of volunteers
and assigned to the command of the district
of Etowah. In January, 1865, he was relieved
from duty in Tennessee, and ordered to report to
Gen. Sherman in Savannah, but the close of the
war prevented his performing any further active
service. After being mustered out of the service
in 1865, Gen. Meagher became secretary of
Montana territory, and in the following September,
Gov. Sydney Edgerton, being on the point of leaving
the territory for a few months, appointed Gen.
Meagher governor pro tempore. The hostile attitude
of the Indians compelled him to take measures
to protect the white settlers. While engaged in
this duty he fell into the Missouri, from the deck
of a steamboat, and was drowned. He was the
author of “Speeches on the Legislative Independence
of Ireland” (New York, 1852), of which six
editions were issued.
MEANS, Alexander, clergyman, b. in States-
ville, N. C, 6 Feb., 1801 ; d. in Oxford, Ga., 5 June,
1883. He was educated at the academy in States-
ville, but removed to Georgia about 1822, and, after
teaching for four years, attended medical lectures
at Transylvania university. In 1826 he began the
practice of medicine in Covington, Ga., and in 1828
was licensed to preach by the Methodist Episcopal
church. He was called to the charge of a manual-
labor school near Covington in 1834, and on the
organization of Emory college, at Oxford, in 1838,
he was chosen professor of physical sciences, which
chair he held for eighteen years. In 1840 he was
appointed professor of chemistry and pharmacy in
the Medical college of Georgia, at Augusta, deliver-
ing the regular course of lectures there during the
winter months in addition to his duties at Emory.
He was made president of the Masonic female col-
lege in 1853, and in 1854 called to the presidency
of Emory, but in 1855 resigned to accept the
professorship of chemistry in Atlanta medical col-
lege, which he held for twelve years, including the
period of the civil war. He was a member of the
Georgia state convention in 1861, and opposed the
ordinance of secession, but on the passage of that
act promptly identified himself with the south.
After the civil war he became state chemist of
Georgia at Savannah, and resumed his relations
with Emory college as professor of natural philoso-
phy. He received the degree of M. D. from the
Medical college of Augusta in 1841, that of D. D. in
1854, and that of LL. D. in 1858 from Emory. His
publications include papers on chemistry in the
"Medical and Surgical Journal " and other south-
ern monthly periodicals.
MEANS, John Hugh, governor of South Carolina, b. in Fairfield district, S. C, 18 Aug., 1812 ; d. in Manassas, Va., 28 Aug., 1862. His father, Thomas, was a native of Boston, Mass. The son was graduated at South Carolina college in 1832, after which he engaged in planting. His advocacy of state sovereignty brought him into notice, and
he served in the legislature during the agitation regarding state rights. Pie was elected governor of South Carolina in 1850 and served one term, the constitution of the state forbidding re-election. During his administration he made many speeches favoring secession, and gave much attention to the state militia. He was president of the convention of 1852 which passed a resolution that affirmed the right of the state to dissolve at once all political connection with her co-states and that she forbear the exercise of this manifest right of self-government from considerations of expediency only. He then retired to private life, but was a delegate to
