Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/510

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482
FLETCHER
FLEURY

was colonel of the 31st Missouri regiment in the National army from 18(32 till 1864, when he became colonel of the 47th Missouri, and in that year was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1863 he was captured and taken to Libby prison. In 1865-9 he was governor of Missouri, and issued the proclamation abolishing slavery in that state. Gov. Fletcher was a delegate to the National Republican convention of 1860 and 1864. He was the first speaker in the first Republican convention held in a slave-state, and although his parents were slave- owners, he had been an ardent abolitionist since his boyhood. He has made many political speeches, most of which were published, but they have never been collected in book-form.


FLETCHER, William A., jurist, b. in Massa- chusetts ; d. in Ann Arbor, Mich., about 1855. He was engaged in mercantile affairs until he removed to Michigan in 1820, when he studied law. For many years he was one of the most successful law- yers in Detroit, and became attorney-general of the territory. On the adoption of the first state con- stitution in 1835 he was appointed chief justice of the supreme court, and was employed by the legis- lature to prepare the first codification of the laws of Michigan. In 1842 he retired from the bench and resumed his law practice. He published " Re- vised Statutes of Michigan " (Detroit, 1838).


FLETCHER, William Baldwin, physician, b. in Indianapolis, Ind., 18 Aug., 1837. He was edu- cated in the Lancaster academy in Massachusetts, and, after graduating at the New York college of ])]iysicians and surgeons, began to practice in Indianapdlis. During the war he served in vari- ous cajjacities as scout and volunteer engineer, and had charge of one department of secret ser- vice. In July, 1861, he was captured by the Con- federates, and imprisoned for nine months. Sub- sequently he served on the medical staff in various departments. He was a delegate to the session of the American medical association held in Boston in 1865. He represented Marion county in the state senate in 1882-3, and since 1882 he has been devoted to the investigation of cerebral circulation. In 1883 he was appointed superintendent of Indi- ana Hospital for the insane, and since that time has published several pamphlets on the manage- ment of the insane. Among his contributions to medical journals are : " The Discovery of Various Entozoa found in Pork"; "Human Entozoa"; " Report of Five Cases of Trichiniasis " ; and he has published a monograph on the " History of Asiatic Cholera" (Cincinnati, 1863).


FLEURIEU, Charles Pierre Claret, Comte de, French naval officer, b. in Lvons, 22 Jan., 1738 ; d. in Paris, 18 Aug., 1810. He entered the navy at the age of thirteen years, and became a lieutenant in 1759. The peace of 1763 gave him occasion to apply himself to office work and study, and he assisted the engineer Ferdinand Berthoud, in 1766, in his invention of the marine watch or chronometer. In 1768 he was appointed to the command of the frigate " Isis " on an expedition to experiment with the new instrument, sailing from Aix in November of that year. He took ob- servations at Martinique, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico, Havana, Jamaica, Colon, and New Orleans, and after touching at NewYork, Boston, and New- foundland, returned to Aix on 11 Oct., 1769. The results of this expedition were important to geog- raphy, as he established the exact position of all the points visited, and published them in his later works. In 1776 Fleurieu was appointed inspector- general of ports and navy-yards, and from 1778 till 1783 he elaborated all the plans for the naval war against England, to assist the struggle tor the independence of the United States. In 1790-'l he was minister of the navy, and in 1793 was impris- oned under the reign of terror, but was released in 1794, and under the directory was appointed to the bureau of longitudes. He was a member of the council of 500 in 1797, and in 1800 was called by Bonaparte to the council of state. In 1805 he was minister plenipotentiary for the signature of the treaty ceding Louisiana to the United States, and on his return became intendant of the imperial house, senator, in 1806 admiral, and in 1808 governor of the Tuilerics. His body was buried in the Pantheon. His works are " Voyage fait en 1768 et '69 pour eprouver en mer les hor- loges marines" (2 vols., Paris, 1773); "Longitude exacte des divers points des Antilles, et de I'Ame- rique du Nord" (1773); "Les Antilles, leur flore et leur faune " (1774) ; " Le Neptune Americo- Septentrional " (1780) ; and " Ilistoire des aventu- riers espagnols, cjui conquerirent I'Amei'ique" (1800). Fleurieu also published a fine " Atlas of the Caribbean Sea and the Coasts of North America and Newfoundland" (1776), and "Voyage autour du monde d'fitienne Marchand," with an atlas and notes on the discoveries on the northwest coast of America from 1537 till 1791 (1798).


FLEURY, Ernest de. Baron de Lisle, traveller, b. in Lyons, France ; d. in New York city, 14 Sept., 1867. He was educated in Paris, and in- herited a large property. In 1844 or 1846 he came to the United States, visited California, and was subsequently employed in locating the Nicara- gua route. He travelled entensively in Central and South America. In 1858 he settled in the city of ^Mexico, and in 1864 espoused the cause of Maximilian, joining the imperial army, and being commissioned captain. Just before the downfall of the emperor he was promoted to the colonelcy of a regiment of chasseurs. At the surrender of Maximilian he became a prisoner of war, was tried by court-martial, and sentenced to be shot ; but two days before the date fixed for his execution he bribed the guard, escaped in disguise to Vera Cruz, and sailed by way of Havana to New York. He took passage for France by the next steamer, but died suddenly before the day of departure.


FLEURY, Louis de, chevalier and viscount, soldier, b. in Limoges, Prance, about 1740; executed in Paris in 1794. He was descended from Hercule Andre de Fleury, tutor of the grandson of Louis XIV., and became cardinal and prime minister. He was major in the regiment Rouergue. Soon after the news of the American revolt reached France he came to this country, was kindly received by Washington, and accepted a commission. He was educated for an engineer, and, as his talents were brought into requisition, he proved himself a brave and intelligent soldier. He was engaged at Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, and in the battle of the Brandywine. In token of his gallantry at the latter place, congress presented him with a horse. He was sub-inspector under Steuben in 1777 and 1778. adjutant-general of Lee's division, 4 June, 1778, and second in command of a light-infantry corps in the Rhode Island expedition, and afterward commanded a battalion of light-infantry under Washington. When Rocharabeau arrived in 1780, Fleury left the American service and became an officer under him. At the storming of Stony Point in July, 1779, he commanded the van of the right column, and was the first to enter the British works, striking their colors with his own hand. He returned to France, having received a congressional vote of thanks.