Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/629

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GARDNER
GARDNER
597

native town. The war found him a strong Whig. He raised a company, was assigned with it to Richmond's regiment, of which he presently be- came lieutenant-colonel, and was later a member of the council of war aTid of the Rhode Island state government. He was residing in Newport in 1778, when the French squadron under Count d'Estaing was blockaded there by the greatly su- perior British fleet under Admiral Howe. A sud- den and dense fog prevented an immediate attack by the English ; but they occupied both entrances to the harbor, and waited for daylight. Capt. Gardner had noted from his housetop, through a spy-glass, the disposition of the hostile fleets, and, as soon as it was dark, rowed himself to the ship of the French admiral, offered to pilot him to a safe position, and with his own hand steered the admiral's ship through a channel which he had known from boyhood, the other vessels, with all lights extinguished, following singly in his wake. Having piloted the French beyond the enemy and to clear water, he returned to the island, reached his own house V)efore daylight, and was among the groups along the water-front who marvelled, when the fog lifted, at the disappearance of the French fleet. Count d'Estaing's report of the affair to Louis XVI. was confidential, since its disclosure would have exposed his guide to 'the dangerous displeasure of the English government, and of the Tory element in Rhode Island ; but the king, through his ambassador in the United States, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, sent to the amateur pilot a sum of money, with which the latter bought an estate near Newport, and built upon it a house, portions of which still remain in the cottage known to the visitor of to-day as "Bateman's." Throughout the war Capt. Gardner was a trusted adviser of the French oflicers in Rhode Island, and of Gen. Washington, who was his friend and correspondent. After peace was declared he was made French consul at Newport, where he resided until his death, being president of a bank, warden of Trinity church, and head of the volunteer fire department of the town. — His great- grandson, Dorsey, b. in Philadelphia, 1 Aug., 1842; d. in Short Hills, N. J., 30 Nov., 1894, was a grandson of Dr. .lohn Syng Dorsey. He removed to Trenton, and entered Yale in 1860. but was not graduated. In 1864-'5 he published the Daily Monitor," a journal established at Trenton in support of the Lincoln administration in the conduct of the war, and with the special purpose of creating public sentiment through New Jersey against the extension of the exclusive privilege of transportation between New York and Philadelphia, which was then possessed by the Camden and Amboy railroad company. In 1866-'8 he was one of the editors and proprietors of the " Round Table." a weekly literary and critical journal published in New Yoi"k. After spending several months in Europe, he held editorial positions on the " Com- mercial Advertiser" and the "Christian Union," of New York, until he removed to Florida in 1869. Returning thence to Philadelphia in 1872, he be- came one of the secretaries of the U. S. centennial commission, and was charged with the publication of all the official documents relating to the Inter- national exhibition of 1876, including its catalogue and eleven volumes of final reports. Subsequently he assisted, in the state department at Washington, in the preparation of the oflicial report on the Paris international exhibition of 1881 by the U. S. commissioner-general, Richard C. McCormick. He has published " Quatre Bras, Ligny, and Waterloo : a Narrative of the Campaign in Belgium, 1815 " (Boston and London, 1882), and " A Condensed Etymological Dictionary of the English Lan- guage," a rearrangement, on an etymological basis, of the " American Dictionary of the English Lan- guage " of Dr. Noah Webster (Springfield, Mass., and New York, 1884 ; London, 1886).


GARDNER, Charles K., soldier, b. in Morris county, N. J., in 1787; d. in Washington, D. C, 1 Nov., 1869. He entered the army as ensign in the 6th U. S. infantry in May, 1808. In the war of 1812 he was promoted captain of the 3d in- fantry, anil was adjutant-general of the division of the north, under Gen. Jacob Brown. He partici- pated in the battles of Chrystlers Field, Chippewa, and Niagara, was at the siege of Fort Erie, and in February, 1815, was promoted lieutenant-colonel for distinguished service. At the battle of Niagara, in which Gen. Winfield Scott was severely wound- ed, Col. Gardner carried him off the field. In 1816 he was appointed adjutant-general of the northern division of the army, which post he resigned in 1827. During both terms of Gen. Jackson's ad- ministration he was first assistant postmaster-gen- eral, and he was auditor of the treasury in the post- oifice department under President Van Buren from 1836 till 1841. During the administration of President Polk he was postmaster of the city of Washington. In 1850 he was transferred to the treasury department, where he remained until ad- vanced age compelled his resignation in 1867. He is the author of " A Dictionary of Commissioned Officers who have served in the Armv of the Unit- ed States from 1789 to 1853 " (New York, 1853) ; " A Compendium of Military Tactics " ; and " A Permanent Designation of Companies, and Com- pany Books, by the First Letters of the Alphabet"


GARDNER, Elizabeth Jane, artist, b. in Exe- ter, N. H., in 1842. She has spent most of her professional life in Paris, studying under Merle, Bouguereau, and Lefebre. Miss Gardner's special- ty is ideal figure-pieces. Among her important works are " Cornelia and her Jewels " ; " Cin- derella," exhibited at the Paris salon (1872) ; " Co- rinne " (Paris, 1874) ; " Moses in the Bulrushes " (Paris, 1878); and "Maud Muller" (1879). The " Fortune Teller " and " Corinne " received a medal at the Pliihideliihia exhibition of 1876.


GARDNER, George, British botanist, b. in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1812 ; d. in Ceylon in 1849. In 1836 he visited Brazil and other parts of South America, and explored the interior as far as the tributaries of the Amazon, and from near the equator to the twenty-third degree of south lati- tude. Some of this region had never been visited by a European. During his travels he collected niany rare botanical specimens, with which he re- turned to England in 1841. In 1848 he went to Ceylon in search of botanical specimens, and died there the next year. He was the author of " Trav- els in the Interior of Brazil " (London, 1846).


GARDNER, George Warren, clergyman, b. in Pomtret. Vt., 8 Oct., 1828. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1852, and in 1853 became principal of the New London, N. H., institution, continuing in that relation until 1861. He was ordained as a minister of the gospel in 1858, and in November, 1861, installed pastor of the 1st Baptist church in Charlestown, Mass. He left this place in 1872 to become corresponding secretary of the American Baptist missionary union. From 1876 till 1878 he was pastor of the 1st Baptist church in Cleveland, Ohio, and from 1881 till 1885 president of the Central university of Iowa. Durmg 1870 he visited Europe, extending his travels to Egypt, Palestine, and Greece. He has performed editorial