The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Hitchcock, Ethan Allen (soldier)

HITCHCOCK, Ethan Allen, American soldier: b. Vergennes, Vt., 18 May 1798; d. Sparta, Ga., 5 Aug. 1870. He was a grandson of Ethan Allen (q.v.), and was graouated at West Point in 1817, entering the corps of artillery as a third lieutenant. In 1829 he became the military commandant of the corpa of cadets, in which office he continued until 1833. He served in Florida against the Indians, and in the war with Mexico, where he received two brevets, one as colonel and another as brigadier-general. In 1855 he printed for private circulation a pamphlet in support of his opinion that genuine alchemy was not an art for making gold, but that the alchemists were students of man, whose perfection was symbolized by their ‘philosophers stone.’ He subsequently published ‘Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists’ (1857); ‘Swedenborg a Hermetic Philosopher’ (1858); ‘Notes on the Vita Nuova of Dante’ (1866).