Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/310

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\IRG1XIA BIOGRAPHY


strongest supporters in his able and brilliant administrative career.

Shortly after his retirement from the head- mastership of the "University School," his "Old lioys" presented to the University of X'irginia a superb portrait of their old "Mas- ter" painted in London by the celebrated I"".nglish portrait painter, Walter Urwick. The university authorities devoted the whole (A "Founder's Day" to the presentation of the portrait, the presentation address being made by the Hon. Alexander Hamilton (one of the "Old Boys"), the acceptance by Pro- fessor William M. Thornton of the Univer- sity (one of the old "Assistant Masters" of the school), while the Hon. Armistead C. Ciordon, of Staunton, Rector of the Univer- sity, contributed a noble poem entitled "The Head-Master."

During the period of his active partici})a- tion in educational work, he achieved a wide distinction both as scholar and author. In the period of his earlier manhood he had been a frequent contributor of prose and \ erse to the Southern magazines and papers. After the war ended, many of his articles and critiques were published in "Harper's Monthly," "The Century," and ])eriodicals of a like standing in America, while in Eng- land, "The Saturday Review," "The Oxford and Cambridge Review," "The Academy, " and others of the foremost English monthly and weekly publications have gladly ac- cepted his contributions. His associations through many years with . the late Poet Laureate and his family had been very inti- mate, and he continues a frequent visitor at 'I'ennyson's home. After the death of the singer of mighty song, Captain McCabe published in "The Century" in its issue for March, 1902, a very notable article which was received with signal favor both in America and (jreat liritain. entitled "I'er- sonal Recollections of Alfred, Lord Tenny- son. "

Other productions of his pen were : "The I )cfcnce of Petersburg. 1864-65" ( Rich- nidii!]. 1X7(1). translated into German Ijy i'.aron Mannsberg. of the Prussian "Artil- lery of the Guard" and read before the offi- cers of the Eleventh Corps of the German Army; "Uallads of liattle and Bravery." a striking anlhology of heroic verse (New \'ork, llari)er l>rothers, 1879); "Aids to Latin Orthography," translated from the German of W'ilhelm lirambach, and revised


by the translator ( Harper Brothers, 1877) ; a new edition, "in large |)art rewritten and greatly augmented," of "Bingham's Latin (irammar" (Philadelphia, Butler ils: Com})any. 1884) ; a revnsed edition of "Bingham's Latin Reader" (Philadelphia, Butler & Company, 1886). followed in the same year by a new edition of "Bingham's Caesar," in which he substituted a new text ( Kraner's. edited by Dittenberger ), re-wrote the "Notes," and carefully revised and cor- rected the vocabulary and etymologies. Among his addresses and monographs may be mentioned "Virginia Schools before and after the Revolution," delivered before the "Society of the Alumni" at the University of \'irginia in 1888, and later expanded into a monograph with copious notes; his address before the "New England Society in City of New York" in 1899. which attract- ed the editorial comment of the leading newspapers of the country ; "John R. Thompson," an eloquent and scholarly ad- dress on the occasion of the presentation of the portrait of the Virginia poet to the Uni- versity of Virginia in 1899; his memorial address at the. University of Virginia, in 1905, when the late Professor Thomas R. Price's library was presented to that insti- tution ; his "Memoir of Joseph Bryan," pub- lished in 1909; his sketch of Major Andrew Reid Venable, of J. E. B. Stuart's stafif (1909) ; his historical address in the capitol at Richmond on presenting to the survivors of Pegram's battalion their old battle-flag that Colonel Pegram's mother had preserved and given back to them (1886) ; his address on "The First University in America, 1619- 1622," delivered before the "Colonial Dames in Virginia" at Dutch Gap, site of the ancient "Henricopolis," in May, 191 1 ; and his many addresses delivered on "Memorial Day" in various parts of the South. In addition to his prose, Cai)tain McCabe's poems, written in the war time, find a place in all the lead- ing anthologies published in this country.

Captain McCabe's rank as a Latinist is a high one among Latin scholars both in the New and the Old World. Professor Charl- ton T. Lewis, in the preface to "Lewis's Latin Dictionary" (Harper Brothers, New York, 1889), niakes acknowledgment in his preface of McCabe's ability as a linguist, and in another place writes: "Mr. McCabe has won a position among the leading Latin- ists of America." Dr. Basil L. Gildersleeve,