Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/297

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
BIRNEY
BISHOP
269

bad habits. As a presiding officer in a public meeting he was said to have no superior. As a public speaker he was generally calm and judicial in tone; but when under strong excitement he rose to eloquence. His chief writings were as fol- lows : " Ten Letters on Slavery and Colonization," addressed to R. R. Gurley (the first dated 12 July, 1832, the last 11 Dec, 1833) ; " Six Essays on Slavery and Colonization," published in the Hunts- ville (Ala.) "Advocate" (May, June, and July, 1833) ; " Letter on Colonization," resigning vice- presidency of Kentucky colonization society (15 July, 1834) ; " Letters to the Presbyterian Church " (1834); "Addresses and Speeches" (1835); "Vin- dication of the Abolitionists " (1835) ; " The Phi- lanthropist," a weekly newspaper (1836 and to Sep- tember, 1837) ; " Letter to Col. Stone " (May, 1836) ; "Address to Slaveholders " (October, 1836) ; "Argu- ment on Fugitive Slave Case " (1837) ; " Letter to P. li. Elmore," of South Carolina (1838) ; " Politi- cal Obligations of Abolitionists " (1839) ; "Report on the Duty of Political Action," for executive committee of the American anti-slavery society (May, 1839); "American Churches the Bulwarks of American Slavery " (1840) ; " Speeches in Eng- land" (1840); "Letter of Acceptance'; "Articles in Q. A. S. Magazine and Emancipator " (1837-44) ; "Examination of the Decision of the U. S. Su- preme Court," in the case of Strader et al., v. Graham (1850). — His son, James, b. in Danville, Ky., 7 June, 1817, was a state senator in Michigan in 1859, and was lieutenant-governor of the state and acting governor in 1861-'3. He was appoint- ed by Pi-esident Grant, in 1876. minister at the Hague, and held that office until 1882. — Another son, William, lawyer, b. near Iluntsville, Ala., 28 May, 1819. While pursuing his studies in Paris, in February, 1848, he took an active part in the revolution, and he was appointed on public compe- tition professor of English literature in the college at Bourges. He entered the U. S. national service as captain in April, 1861, and rose through all the grades to the rank of brevet major-general of volunteers, commanding a division for the last two years of the civil war. He participated in the {principal battles in Virginia, and, being sent for a short time to Florida after the battle of Olustee, regained possession of the principal parts of the state and of several of the confederate strongholds. In 1863-4, having been detailed by the war de- partment as one of three superintendents of the organization of U. S. colored troops, he enlisted, mustered in, armed, equipped, drilled, and sent to the field seven regiments of those troops. In this work he opened all the slave-prisons in Baltimore, and freed their inmates, including many slaves be- longing to men in the confederate armies. The result of his operations was to hasten the abolition of slavery in Maryland. He passed four years in Florida after the war, and in 1874 removed to Washington, D. C, where he practised his profes- sion and became attorney for the District of Co- lumbia.— The third son, Dion, physician, entered the army as lieutenant at the beginning of the civil war, rose to the rank of captain, and died in 1864 of disease contracted in the service.— The fourth son, David Bell, b. in Huntsville, Ala., 29 May, 1825 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 18 Oct., 1864, studied law in Cincinnati, and, after engaging m business in Michigan, began the practice of law in Philadelphia in 1848. He entered the army as lieutenant-colonel at the beginning of the civil war, and was m.ade colonel of the 23d Pennsyl- vania volunteers, which regiment he raised, prin- cipally at his own expense, in the summer of 1861. He was promoted successively to brigadier- and major-general of volunteers, and distinguished himself in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, the second battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. After the death of Gen. Berry he commanded the division, receiv- ing his commission as major-general, 23 May, 1863. He commanded the 3d corps at Gettysburg, after Gen. Sickles was wounded, and on 23 July, 1864, was given the command of the 10th corps. He died of disease contracted in the service. — A fifth son, Fitzhugh, died, in 1864, of wounds and disease, in the service with the rank of colonel. — A grandson, James Gillespie, was lieutenant and captain of cavalry, served as staff officer under Custer and Sheridan, was appointed lieutenant in the regular army at the close of the war, and died soon afterward of disease contracted in the service.


BISCACCIANTI, Eliza (Ostinelli), vocalist, b. in Boston in 1825. Louis Ostinelli, her father, leader of orchestras, married, in April, 1822, the daughter of Mr. Hewett, a musical composer of Boston. Eliza went to Italy in 1843, studied under the best masters, married Signer Biscaccianti, also a musician, and in May, 1847, made her first ap- pearance at Milan with success. She made her debut in America at the Astor place opera-house. New York, in February, 1848, and in Philadelphia, 1 March, 1848, at the Chestnut street theatre, as Lucia. She sang in the principal cities of the United States with success, and became an espe- cial favorite in California.


BISHOP, Anna, singer, b. in London, England, m 1814 ; d. in New York city, 18 March, 1884. She was the daughter of a drawing-master named Ri- viere, studied the piano-forte under Moscheles, be- came distinguished for her singing, in 1831 became the wife of the composer Sir Hen- ry Rowley Bishop, and took a promi- nent part in the oratorios and coun- try festivals in England. On the advice of the harp- ist Bochsa, she cul- tivated Italian mu- sic, and, eloping with him in 1839, she sang in the principal cities of the continent till 1843, and then in Italy, where she achieved success as

an operatic singer.

In 1846 she returned to England, and in 1847 crossed the Atlantic and sang with great applause in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 1855, while making a tour in Australia, Bochsa, her companion, died. After her return to the United States she married Martin Schultz, a merchant of New York. She continued to sing in American cities, where her high and flexible soprano voice was highly appreciated, and made various tours to Australia, China, the East Indies, and Spanish-American countries. In February, 1866, on a voyage from Honolulu to Chma, the vessel was wrecked on a coral reef, and she suffered forty davs of privation, but reached the Ladrone islands 'in safety, whence she embarked for Manila and sang there and in Chma, although her wardrobe and .lewelry were lost. In 1868 she lost her voice and retired from the concert stage.