Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/273

Rh city of Mexico, and was wounded at Belen gate. He was aide-de-camp to Gen. Persifer F. Smith, from April, 1847, till May, 1848, at Baton Rouge, La. Lieut. Van Dorn engaged in the Seminole war in 1849-50, was made captain in the 2d cav- alry, 3 March, 1855, took part in the battle with the Comanches, 1 July, 1856, and commanded the expedition against those Indians near Washita Village, Indian territory, 1 Oct., 1858, where he was four, times wounded, twice dangerously by ar- rows. He was again engaged with the Comanches in the valley of Nessentunga, 13 May, 1859. He became major of the 2d cavalry, 28 June, 1860, but resigned on 31 Jan., 1861, and was appointed by the legislature of Mississippi brigadier-general of the state forces, afterward succeeding Jefferson Davis as major-general. He was appointed colonel of cavalry in the regular Confederate army, 16 March, 1861, took command of a body of Texan volunteers, and on 20 April captured the steamer " Star of the West " at Indianola. On 24 April, at the head of 800 men, at Salaria, he received the surrender of Maj. Caleb C. Sibley and seven com- panies of U. S. infantry, and on 9 May he received that of Col. Isaac V. D. Reeve with six companies of the 8th infantry. He became brigadier-gen- eral on 5 June, and major-general on 19 Sept., 1861, and on 29 Jan., 1862, took command of the Trans-Mississippi department. He was de- feated at Pea Ridge on 6-8 March (see Curtis, Samuel R.), and, being superseded by Gen. The- ophilus H. Holmes, joined the Army of Mississippi. At Corinth, 3-4 Oct., where he was in command with Gen. Sterling Price, he was again defeated, and he was superseded by Gen. John C. Pember- ton. On 20 Dec. he made an attack on Holly Springs, Miss., which was occupied by Col. Murphy with a body of U. S. troops, and captured a large amount of valuable stores. On 10 April, 1863, he made an unsuccessful attack on Gen. Gordon Gran- ger at Franklin. Tenn. In the following month Gen. Van Dorn was shot by a physician named Peters, on account of a private grievance. Gen. Van Dorn provoked many strictures at one time by an order restricting the comments of the press on the movements of the army, though the step was taken in obedience to the commands of Gen. Braxton Bragg. He possessed a cultivated taste, and was a fine draughtsman. When stationed at Newport, Ky., barracks, opposite Cincinnati, he devised and successfully tried in that city an ele- vated electric railway.

VAN DYKE, Hendrick, pioneer, b. in Holland about 1599 ; d. in New York in 1688. He came to this country in 1636 or in 1640, in the service of the West India company, as ensign commander of their troops. He was sent by Gpv. William Kieft on several expeditions against the Indians, and in 1643, under his orders, destroyed a large Indian vil- lage on Long Island sound, killing about 500 per- sons. He returned to Holland on 25 June, 1645, was appointed fiscal or attorney-general of the New Netherlands, and in 1646 sailed for New Amster- dam with Peter Stuyvesant, the new governor of the province. During the voyage he offended Stuyvesant, and when they reached New Amster- dam the governor excluded him from the council for twenty-nine months, and succeeded' in depriv- ing him of all his influence and dignities. In 1650 he made an earnest protest to the home govern- ment " against the excesses of Director Stuyvesant," but the latter influenced his dismissal in March, 1652. In 1655, at a time when the citizens were entirely unprepared for an attack, the Indian tribes that surrounded New Amsterdam landed within the city limits with 500 warriors, broke into houses, abused the people, and among others wounded Van Dyke, who was seated peacefully in his gar- den. The citizens rushed to the fort, a struggle ensued, and three Indians were killed. The sav- ages took to their boats, but in revenge laid waste the farms on the New Jersey coast, killed 50 of the inhabitants of Staten island, and took 100 pris- oners. This uprising is almost universally ex- plained by historians on the theory that Van "Dyke had killed an Indian woman who was stealing fruit from his garden : but the statement is not substan- tiated by the earliest and most reliable authorities. His closing years were passed in retirement. He is described as a " thrifty man, dealing in real es- tate, and loaning money." In 1675 he married the widow of Jacob Van Couwenhoven. See " Colonial New York," by George W. Schuyler (2 vols., New York, 1885). — His descendant in the fourth genera- tion. Henry Herbert, financier, b. in Kinderhook, N. Y., in 1809 : d. in New York city, 22 Jan., 1888, was apprenticed to a printer early in life, and at twenty-one years of age became editor of the Go- shen "Independent Republican." He was subse- quently connected with the Albany " Argus," and was active in state polities as a Free-soil Democrat, following the lead of Martin Van Buren in the revolt against the " Hunker " Democrats that re- sulted in the election of Zachary Taylor to the presidency as a Whig. He subsequently joined the Republican party, and was a presidential elec- tor on the Fremont ticket in 1856. He became superintendent of public instruction for the state of New York in 1857, and in 1861 superintendent of the state banking department, holding office till 1865, when he was chosen by President Johnson as- sistant U. S. treasurer. The failure of his health compelled his resignation of that post in 1869. He was president of the American safe deposit company in 1883-'8, and, among other business offices, held the presidency of the Erie transporta- tion company. — Henry's brother, Cornelius Van Allen, clergyman, b. in Kinderhook, N. Y., 13 Aug., 1818, studied at Kinderhook academy, was gradu- ated at Jefferson medical college in 1837, and the same year became a missionary to Syria, under the care of the American board. Having become pro- ficient in Arabic, he was appointed principal of a seminary at Abeih, on Mount Tabor, Palestine, and at the same time engaged in the preparation of mathematical and scientific books in the Ai-abic. He was ordained to the ministry of the Congrega- tional church in 1846, and after the death of Dr. Eli Smith was called by the American board to Bey- rout to complete the latter's work on the Arabic version of the Scriptures. As there were certain Erinciples in Dr. Smith's version that Dr. Van •yke found it necessary to change, he rewrote the whole, with the exception of the Pentateuch, in the style of the Koran. He was invited by the Amer- ican Bible society to come to New York in 1864, and to superintend its publication. After two years he completed an edition of the whole Bible, and one of the New Testament alone, with vowel points (New York, 1867). He was manager of the mission press in Beyrout in 1857-80, subsequently physician to St. John's hospital and professor of pathology in the Syrian Protestant college, and since 1882 has been physician to St. George's hospi- tal. Rutgers gave him the degree of D. D. in 1865. He has published tracts, is the author in Arabic of a series of mathematical, chemical, astronomical, and hygienic works, and has translated into that tongue the " Shorter Catechism " (Beyrout, 1843) and " The Sch5nberg-Cotta Family " (1865).