Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/482

450 determined me not to give it place in the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near headquarters. I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the muses, and to whom Nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations.&rdquo; A few days before the British evacuated Boston she visited the Revolutionary camp and was received with marked attention by Washington and his officers. Thomas Jefferson said that her verses were beneath criticism. In 1775 the Wheatley family was broken up by death, and, after attempting and failing to support herself, she married in 1778 a colored man named Peters, who, according to different accounts, was a grocer, lawyer, or barber. This marriage proved unhappy, and Peters became reduced in circumstances. During the Revolution they resided in Wilmington, Del., and they afterward returned to Boston, where they lived in wretched poverty. Among the attentions that she received in London was a gift from the lord mayor of a copy of &ldquo;Paradise Lost,&rdquo; which was sold after her death, and is now in the library of Harvard. Her publications are &ldquo;An Elegiac Poem on the Death of George Whitefield, Chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon&rdquo; (Boston, 1770); &ldquo;Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, by Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley, of Boston,&rdquo; to certify which an attestation was addressed to the public and signed by Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, John Hancock, Rev. Samuel Mather, John Wheatley, Andrew Eliot, and others (London, 1773; 3d ed., Albany, 1793; republished as &ldquo;The Negro Equalled by Few Europeans,&rdquo; 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1801; 2d ed., Walpole, N. H., 1802; 3d ed., with a memoir, Boston, 1834); and &ldquo;Elegy Sacred to the Memory of Dr. Samuel Cooper&rdquo; (1784). The &ldquo;Letters of Phillis Wheatley&rdquo; were printed privately by Charles Deane from the &ldquo;Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society&rdquo; (Boston, 1864).

WHEATLEY, Sarah, actress, b. in St. John, New Brunswick, in 1790; d. in New York city in July, 1854. Her father, whose name was Ross, died when she was two years of age. She made her first appearance in New York at the Park theatre on 12 Nov., 1805, and in 1806 married Frederick Wheatley, an actor, and retired from the stage; but on his failure in business she resumed her profession for the support of her family and achieved success. Mrs. Wheatley was noted for her artistic representation of old women. &mdash; Her son, William, actor, b. in New York city, 5 Dec., 1816; d. there, 3 Nov., 1876, made his first appearance on the stage at the Park theatre, New York, in 1826 as Albert in &ldquo;William Tell,&rdquo; during the engagement of Macready, with whom he travelled through the United States. In 1842 he was engaged at the Walnut street theatre in Philadelphia, and in 1843 he retired and visited Nicaragua, where he raised the first American flag in Virgin bay. He returned to the United States, and in 1853 leased, with John Drew, the Arch street theatre in Philadelphia, of which he was sole manager in 1855-'8. Afterward he controlled the Continental theatre in Philadelphia, and leased Niblo's Garden, New York, of which he was manager from 1865 till he retired in 1868. During this period the &ldquo;Black Crook&rdquo; was first produced. Mr. Wheatley's best characters were Doricourt in &ldquo;The Belle's Stratagem,&rdquo; Rover in &ldquo;Wild Oats,&rdquo; Captain Absolute in &ldquo;The Rivals,&rdquo; and Claude Melnotte in &ldquo;The Lady of Lyons.&rdquo;

WHEATON, Frank, soldier, b. in Providence, R. I., 8 May, 1833. He was educated in common schools, became a civil engineer,and engaged in

and in the Mexican boundary surveys from 1850 till he was commissioned 1st lieutenant in the 1st U. S. cavalry, 3 March, 1855. He served at Jefferson barracks, Mo., and in Kansas until 1856, and in the field against Cheyenne Indians till 1857, being in action near Fort Kearny, Neb. He was on the Utah expedition till August, 1858, on duty with his regiment in the Indian territory, and then on recruiting service till July, 1861, having been promoted captain in March. He received permission to accept the commission of lieutenant-colonel of the 2d Rhode Island volunteers in July, 1861, became colonel in the same month, and took part in the battle of Bull Run, also serving in the principal engagements of the Army of the Potomac, including the peninsula and Maryland campaigns. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers in November, 1869, commanding a brigade during the operations of the same army in 1863-'4, and then a division of the 6th corps, distinguishing himself in the operations in the Shenandoah valley in 1864, and those that culminated in the surrender at Appomattox in 1865. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers for gallant and meritorious services at the Opequan, Fisher's Hill, and Middletown, Va., and received brevets in the regular army to the grade of major-general for the battles of the Wilderness, Cedar Creek, and Petersburg, respectively. He became lieutenant-colonel of the 39th infantry, 28 July, 1866, was transferred to the 21st infantry in March, 1869, and promoted colonel of the 2d infantry, 15 Dec., 1874. Since the war Gen. Wheaton has held commands in Dakota, Montana, and Nebraska. In July, 1866, he was presented with a sword by his native state for gallant services in the above-mentioned battles.

WHEATON, Henry, lawyer, b. in Providence, R. I., 27 Nov., 1785; d. in Dorchester, Mass., 11 March, 1848. He was a descendant of Robert Wheaton, a Baptist clergyman, who emigrated from Swansey, Wales, to Salem, Mass., but subsequently settled in Rhode Island. After graduation at Brown in 1802, Henry studied law under Nathaniel Searle, was admitted to the bar in 1805, and in that year continued his studies in Poictiers and London. On his return to this country he practised law in Providence till he removed in 1812 to New York, where he edited in 1812-'15 the &ldquo;National Advocate,&rdquo; the organ of the administration party. In this paper he published notable articles on the question of neutral rights in connection with the then existing war with England. On 26 Oct., 1814, he became division judge-advocate of the army, and from 1815 till 1819 he was a justice of the marine court of New York city. From 1816 till 1827 he was reporter for the U. S. supreme court in Washington, D. C., and published &ldquo;Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of the United States &rdquo; (12 vols., New York, 1826-'7). This was termed by a German