Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/176

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156
DEVEREUX
DEVIN

Fair Oaks, and was in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. In 186:3 he commanded a division in the 11th corps at the battle of Chancellorsville, where he was severely wounded. Returning to the field in the spring of 1864, he was appointed to the command of a division in the 18th army corps, reorganized as the 3d division of the 24th corps, and "his troops were the first to occupy Richmond when it was evacuated by the Confederates. Gen. Devens was brevetted major-general for gallantry and good conduct at the capture of Richmond, and remained in the service for a year after the ter- mination of hostilities, his principal duty being as commander of the district of Charleston, which comprised the eastern portion of South Carolina. In June, 1866, at his own request, he was mustered out of service, and immediately resumed the prac- tice of his profession in Worcester. In April, 1867, he was appointed one of the justices of the superior court of Massachusetts, and in 1873 was made one of the justices of the supreme court of the state. In 1877 he became attorney-general in the cabinet of President Hayes. On his return to Massachu- setts in 1881 he was reappointed one of the jus- tices of the supreme court of the state, in which office he continued. His only publications were his legal opinions and addresses on public occa- sions. Of his addresses tlie most important were those at the centennial celebration of the battle of Bunker Hill, at the dedication of the soldiers' monuments in Boston and Worcester, on the deaths of Gen. Meade and Gen. Grant, and as presiding officer at the 250th anniversary of Harvard.


DEVEREUX, John Henry, railroad manager, b. in Boston, Mass., 5 April, 1832 ; d. in Cleveland, Ohio, 17 March, 1886. He was educated in the Portsmouth. N. H., academy, and in 1848 went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he served as construction engineer on several railroads. He removed to Ten- nessee in 1852, and became prominent in railroad affairs there. At the beginning of the civil war he offered his services to the government, and aided the Union cause as superintendent of mili- tary railroads in Virginia. He resigned in 1864, and returned to Cleveland, where he became one of the foremost railroad men in the west. He was chosen president of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cin- cinnati, and Indianapolis railroad in June, 1873, of the Atlantic and Great Western in 1874, and of the Indianapolis and St. Louis in 1880, being receiver of the last-named road from May till September, 1882. In 1877 Gen. Devereux, by his personal courage, prevented 800 of his men from joining in the railroad riots. He was prominent in the councils of the Protestant Episcopal church.


DEVEREUX, Thomas Pollock, lawyer, b. in Newbern, N. C, 17 Dec, 1793 ; d. in Coiniemara, Halifax co., N. C, 24 March, 1869. He was a great-grandson of Jonathan Edwards, was gradu- ated at Yale in 1813, and studied at the Litchfield, Conn., law-school, but did not practise till pecun- iary losses forced him to do so. He was U. S. district attorney for North Carolina under the ad- ministrations of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, and in 1826 was appointed reporter for the State supreme court. The death of an uncle left him, in middle life, the care of a large estate, and he spent the rest of his days on his plantation, but served for some time as chairman of the Hali- fax county court. He published " Reports of the North Carolina Supreme Court, 1826-'34 " (4 vols., Raleigh, 1829-'36), " Reports in the Superior Court, 1834-'40 " (4 vols., 1837-40), and " Equity Reports, 1826--'40 " (4 vols., 1838-40). In the preparation of some of these he was assisted by W. 11. Battle.


DEVILLE, Edward Gaston, Canadian sur- veyor, b. in La Charite Sur Loire Nievre, France, in 1849. He was educated at the naval school, Brest, and afterward joined the French navy, and had charge of extensive hydrographic sur^ieys in the South Sea islands, Peru, and elsewhere. He re- tired from the navy in 1874 and went to Canada, and soon after his arrival there entered the service of the Quebec government, where he remained until 1879 as inspector of surveys and scientific ex- plorer. He was commissioned as provincial land svirveyor in 1877; as Dominion land and topo- graphical surveyor in 1878 ; in 1881 he became in- spector of Dominion land surveys, and in 1885 was appointed surveyoT-general of Canada. He is a fellow of the Royal astronomical society and of the Royal society of Canada. He is the author of " Astronomic and Geodetic Calculations," and of several scientific papers.


DE VILLIERS, Charles A., soldier, b. in 1826. He had been an officer in the French army, and afterward became colonel of the 11th Ohio volun- teers. At the beginning of the civil war in the United States he was taken prisoner, 17 July, 1861, and sent to Richmond. About the middle of Sep- tember following he eluded the guards and escaped. Under the guise of a mendicant Frenchman, aged, infirm, and nearly blind, he succeeded in obtaining the commandant's permission to go to Fort Mon- roe, under a flag of truce, that he might embark "for his dear old home in France." After two weeks' delay the supposed Frenchman was assisted on board a transport at Norfolk and taken to the Union boat. When safely under his own flag, he cast off his pack, green goggles, and rags, thanked the officers for their politeness, shouted a loud huzza for the stars and stripes, and gave them the pleasing information that they had just parted with Col. De Villiers, of the llth Ohio. He ar- rived safely in Washington, rejoined his regiment, and was made brigadier-general, 10 Oct., 1861. He had been the military instructor of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth. He received his discharge from the army on 23 April. 1862, and returned to France.


DEVIN, Thomas C., b. in New York city in 1822 ; d. there, 4 April, 1878. He received a common-school education, followed the trade of a painter, and became lieutenant-colonel of the 1st New York militia regiment. Just after the battle of Bull Run, Mr. Devin accosted Thurlow Weed, at that time a stranger to him, and said that he wished authority to raise a cavalry company for immediate service. Mr. Weed telegraphed to Gov. Morgan for a captain's commission for Mr. Devin, obtained it. and in two days the company had been recruited and was on its way to Washington. At the end of the three months for which he had enlisted he entered the service again as colonel of the 6th New York cavalry. His command was attached to the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, and participated in all the battles fought by that corps from Antietam to Lee's surrender. At Five Forks he commanded his brigade, and carried the Confederate earthworks. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers, 15 Aug., 1864, for bravery at Front Royal, where his command captured two stands of colors, and wl^ere he was wounded ; and major-general, 13 March, 1865, for his services during the war. He entered the regular army as lieutenant-colonel of the 8th cavalry, 28 July, 1866, commanding the district of Montana. On 2 March, 1867, he was brevetted colonel. U. S. army, for gallantry at Fisher's Hill, and brigadier-general for services at Sailor's Creek. He then commanded the district of Arizona, and on