Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/371

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PETERS 1854); " Diseases of the Eyes" (8vo, 1855); " Treatment of Asiatic Cholera " (12mo, 1867) ; and " Principles and Practice of Medicine," published in numbers, and which is to form 2 vols. 8vo. In conjunction with Dr. Wother- spoon he translated Rokitansky's " Pathologi- cal Anatomy" (8vo, 1849); and in conjunc- tion with Dr. F. G. Snelling and others he has published a " Materia Medica " (8vo, 1856-'60). He has been editor of the " North American Journal of Homoeopathy" and of the Trans- actions of the Pathological Society." PETERS, Richard, an American jurist, born at Blockley, near Philadelphia, Aug. 22, 1744, died there, Aug. 21, 1828. He was educated for the law, but at the breaking out of the revolution became captain of a company of volunteers, and in June, 1776, was appointed by congress secretary of the board of war. On resigning this post in 1781 he was elected to congress, and after the organization of the government he became judge of the United States district court for Pennsylvania, a post which he retained for the rest of his life. The admiralty law of the United States may be said to owe to him its foundation. His son RICHARD succeeded Mr. Wheaton as reporter of the United States supreme court, and pub- lished " Reports of the United States Circuit Court, Third Circuit, 1803-'18 " (17 vols. 8vo) ;

  • ' Condensed Reports of Cases in the United

States Supreme Court, to 1827 " (6 vols. 8vo, 1835) ; "Digest of Cases in the United States Supreme Court and District Courts to 1847 " (2 vols., 1848) ; and " Case of the Cherokee Nation against the State of Georgia" (1831). He edited "Chitty on Bills" (1819), and "Washington's Circuit Court Reports, Third Circuit, 1803-'27" (4 vols., 1826-'9). PETERS, Samuel Andrew, an American clergy- man, born in Hebron, Conn., Dec. 12, 1735, died in New York, April 19, 1826. He grad- uated at Yale college in 1757, became in 1760 a clergyman of the church of England, and in 1762 took charge of the churches of Hartford and Hebron. Being a tory, he was forced in 1774 to flee to England, where he revenged himself on the Puritans by publishing in 1781 " A General History of Connecticut," which has been called the " most unscrupulous and malicious of lying narratives." In 1794 he was chosen bishop of Vermont, but he was never consecrated. In 1805 he returned to America, and in 1807 published in New York a " History of the Rev. Hugh Peters," his great-uncle. In 1817 he made a journey to the falls of St. Anthony, claiming a large tract of land in that region. He afterward lived in New York in poverty and obscurity, though he obtained a pension and a grant for confiscated property. He is the "Parson Pe- ter " of TrumbullV" McFingal." PETERSBURG, a city and port of entry of Dinwiddie co., Virginia, on the S. bank of the Appomattox river, 12 m. above its entrance into the James at City Point, and 23 m. S. PETERSBURG (SIEGE OF) 357 of Richmond ; pop. in 1850, 14,010 ; in 1860, 18,266 ; in 1870, 18,950, of whom 10,185 were colored. It is lighted with gas, and abundant- ly supplied with water from a reservoir. It is well built and naturally drained, the ground descending gradually from the heights on the southern outskirts to the river. There is a public park, called Poplar Lawn. The princi- pal public buildings are the custom house and post office, court house, two market houses, and theatre. The river is navigable to this place, which is at the head of tide water, and, it having been dredged and improved, vessels of large size now ascend to the wharves in the city. Immediately above the city the falls afford extensive water power. Above the falls the Appomattox is made navigable for bateaux to Farmville, 107 m. The Atlantic, Missis- sippi, and Ohio (with a branch to City Point), the Petersburg, and the Richmond and Peters- burg railroads connect the city with the prin- cipal points of the state, and furnish a continu- ous line to Mobile, Ala., and also to Memphis, Tenn. The handling of cotton and tobacco, with wheat, corn, and general country produce, is the chief business. The foreign commerce, except in tobacco and cotton, is inconsiderable. There are ten tobacco factories, four cotton factories, four flour and grist mills, a whiskey distillery, four banks, two hotels, six schools of a high grade, one weekly (agricultural) and three daily newspapers, and 24 churches and chapels, viz. : 6 Baptist (4 colored), 4 Epis- copal (1 colored), ' 1 Jewish, 9 Methodist (1 colored), 3 Presbyterian, and 1 Roman Cath- olic. Petersburg was incorporated in 1748. It was twice occupied by the British under Gen. Phillips during the revolutionary war. The Petersburg volunteers served with dis- tinction on the Canada frontier during the war of 1812. PETERSBURG, Siege of, a series of operations in the last ten months of the civil war in the United States. After the second battle of Cold Harbor (see CHICKAHOMINY) Grant crossed the James, June 14, 1864, and took up his position at City Point, at the junction of the Appomat- tox and the James. Butler, in command of the army of the James, had already established himself close by, to the right, on the peninsu- la of Bermuda Hundreds. Lee at almost the same time crossed the Chickahominy, and took up a position which covered Richmond from attack on the N. and E. sides of the James. Including the force which he found there, Lee had about 70,000 men, while Grant had about 100,000. The first serious attempt to seize Petersburg was made unsuccessfully on June 15, by the corps of W. F. Smith of the army of the James. Grant directed another attack to be made, on the afternoon of the 16th, by the three corps of Smith, Hancock, and Burnside. The result of a series of engagements which cost the federals 10,268 men (1,198 killed, 6,853 wounded, and 2,217 missing), as stated by Grant, was that "the enemy was merely