Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/48

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
28
LORING
LORING

est writers of his day. was an ardent temperance re- former, and was often called on to speak on special occasions. In 1737 he delivered the annual elec- tion sermon, in the presence of Gov. Jonathan Belcher, in which he urged that '• the infamy may be taken from the memory and names of those who had suffered from the witchcraft delusion, and rep- aration made to their children for the injuries done them." He also opposed the system of revivals as conducted by Whitefield, and wrote a paper on the subject, entitled " Testimony against the Rev. George Whitefield and his Conduct." He left a manuscript journal of thirty volumes, biographi- cal and historical, most of which has been lost.


LORING, James Spear, author, b. in Boston, Mass.. 6 Aug., 1799; d. in Brooklyn, K Y., 12 April, 1884. His father, James, was for fifty-five years a Boston printer and bookseller, edited the " Christian Watchman," and published the " Mas- sachusetts State Register" in 1800-'48. The son was for thirty years a bookseller in Boston, and a contributor of historical and biographical articles to the " New England Historical and Genealogical Register." He afterward removed to Brooklyn, N. Y. He was the author of "A Hundred Boston Orators" (Boston, 1852).


LORING, Joshua, naval officer, b. in Boston, Mass., in 1716; d. in Highgate, England, in 1781. He was a captain in the royal navy in 1757, com- manded in the operations on Lake George and Lake Champlain in 1759, and on Lake Ontario the next year, accompanying Gen. Jeffrey Amherst to Montreal. He was subsequently proscribed and banished, the committee on confiscated estates ad- vertising for sale his " large mansion-house, to- gether with about sixty -five acres of mowing- land." in Roxbury, and his house and garden in Boston, " next to the South writing-school adjoin- ing the common." He went to England, and in a contemporary record of his death is described as " one of the oldest captains of the royal navy, and late commodore of the lakes of North America."


LORING, Joshua, commissary of prisoners, b. in Hingham, Mass., in December, 1737; d. in Edge- field, England, in August, 1789. He was high sheriff of Massachusetts in 1768, subsequently mayor of Hingham, and one of those who signed an address to Gov. Hutchinson in 1774, and to Gov. Gage in 1775, approving their course. One of Gage"s last official acts was the appointment of Loring, in June, 1775, as "sole vendue-master and auctioneer." He went to Halifax with the royal army the next year, and early in 1777 was appoint- ed by Sir William Howe commissary of prisoners, toward whom he was accused of excessive cruelty. Gen. Ethan Allen said of him that " he murdered precipitately, in cold blood, near or quite two thou- sand helpless prisoners in New York." But Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman, in his letters to his wife, describes Loring as having treated him with "kindness, complaisance, and friendship." Other authorities agree that Loring starved prisoners so that 300 died before an exchange could be effected. His wife, IMiss Lloyd, of Dorchester, Mass.. was a brilliant and unprincipled woman, noted for her extravagance and love of play, at which she occa- sionally lost as much as 300 guineas at a sitting. Loring owed his appointment of commissary of prisoners to her influence with Howe. LORING, William Win^, soldier, b. in Wil- mington, N. C, 4 Dec, 1818 ; d. in New York city, 30 Dec, 1886. When he was about thirteen years old he enlisted in a company of volunteers to fight the Seminole Indians in Florida, participated in several battles, and was promoted to a 2d lieu- tenancy. 16 June. 1837. He was sent to school at Alexandria, Va.. and subsequently at Georgetown. D. C, was graduated in the law in 1842, and, re- turning to Florida, was elected to the legislature. Early in 1846 he was made senior captain of a new regiment of mounted riflemen, and on 16 Feb.. 1847, was placed in command, with the rank of ma- jor. In the assault on the Mexican intrenched camp at Contreras, Loring's regiment was tempo- rarily detached for special service, which resulted in its being first in the main works of the Mexicans, and leading in the pur- suit of the enemy as far as San An- gel. But at this moment counter orders were re- ceived. Loring and his regiment were the first to enter the Mexican batteries at Cha- pultepec on the side next the capi- tal, and, though without orders, he led the fighting on

the causeway from

that point to the Belen Gate, where he received a wound that necessitated the amputation of his left arm. For '• gallant and meritorious conduct " at Contreras and Churubusco he received the bre- vet of lieutenant-colonel, and for Chapultepec and Garita de Belen that of colonel. He was pro- moted lieutenant-colonel, 5 March, 1848. The citi- zens of Appalachicola, Fla., presented him with a sword on which were engraved the words that Gen. Scott had addressed to the Rifles on the field of Chapultepec : " Brave Rifles, you have gone through fire and blood, and come out steel." In April, 1849, he successfully marched across the continent to Oregon as escort to a party of gold- seekers, and on 3 Oct. he was assigned to the com- mand of the 11th military department. Some time afterward he was ordered to Texas, where Le re- mained till August, 1856. and was promoted to the rank of colonel on 30 Dec. Till 8 April. 1858, he was engaged against hostile Indians in New Mexi- co, and he afterward took part in the Utah ex- pedition of 1858. In 1859 he received leave of absence to visit Europe. Egypt, and the Holy Land, and on his return he commanded the Department of New Mexico until 13 May, 1861, when he re- signed and was appointed brigadier-general in the Confederate army. He served in the Army of Northern Virginia, on 15 Feb., 1862, was pro- moted to major-general, and led a division till the end of the civil war, frequently commanding a corps. In the spring of 1863. when Gen. Grant was operating for the investment of Vicksburg, Loring was sent to Fort Pemberton, where he mounted two heavy siege-guns that silenced the fire of the U. S. gun-boat " Chillicothe." His exclamation. " Give her a blizzard, boys ! " on this occasion, was the origin of the name of " Old Blizzard," by which he was afterward known. Gen. Loring ac- cepted, service in the army of the khedive of Egypt in December, 1869, as a liwa pacha, or general of brigade. Shortly after his arrival in Cairo he was assigned to the conunand of Alexandria and its de- fences extending along the coast to the Rosetta mouth of the Nile. On 10 Dec, 1875, he was or- dered to accompany, as chief of staff and military