Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/113

Rh graduated in 1833 at the Vermont academy of medicine. He taught for a year in a private medical school, and from 1834 to 1840 was professor of anatomy and physiology in the Vermont academy of medicine. He conceived the idea of founding a university in Albany, raised $10,000 for the object, and delivered in that city the first American course of medical lectures illustrated with dissections of the human body. He made two visits to Europe, one in 1839 and one in 1845, for the purpose of inspecting the principal schools of the old world, and went to Naples in 1861 as U. S. consul. He was one of the originators of the Young Men's Christian association, and was also instrumental in founding the Dudley observatory.

ARMSTRONG, David Hartley, senator, b. in Nova Scotia. 21 Oct., 1812 ; d. in St. Louis, Mo., 18 March, 1893. He received an academic education, and, having removed to St. Louis, Mo., 16 Sept., 1837, opened and taught the first public school in the state, 1 April, 1838. He was comptroller of St. Louis from 1847 to 1850, and member of the board of police commissioners from 1873 to 1875 and again in 1877, serving as its vice-president and filling other local offices. He was chosen U. S. senator from Missouri as a democrat in October, 1877, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lewis V. Bogy, and served until 1879.

ARMSTRONG, David Maitland, artist, b. in Newburg, N. Y., about 1837. He was graduated at Trinity college, Hartford, in 1858, studied law in New York, and practised that profession for a short time. It soon became evident to him that his choice of the law was a mistake, and he turned his attention to art. He studied in Rome and Paris under the best teachers, and divided his time mainly between Italy and New York. For four years he was U. S. consul-general for Italy, resident at Rome, and was director of the American art department at the Paris exposition of 1878, when he received the decoration of the legion of honor.

ARMSTRONG, George Dodd, author, b. in Mendham, N. J., 15 Sept., 1813 ; d. in Norfolk, Va., 12 May, 1899. He was graduated at Princeton in 1832, was a teacher, and then entered the union theological seminary, Prince Edward co., Va. Two years later he became professor of chemistry and "mechanics in Washington college, now Washington and Lee university, Lexington. In 1851 he resigned his professorship and took pastoral charge of a church in Norfolk. The degree of S. T. D. was conferred on him by the college of William and Mary in 1854. He has contributed from an early age to periodicals, and published "The Christian Doctrine of Slavery" (New York, 1857); "Scriptural Examination of the Doctrine of Baptism," and "The Theology of Christian Experience" (1857); "The Summer of the Pestilence: a History of the Ravages of the Yellow Fever in Norfolk, Va., in 1855" (Philadelphia, 1857): "Sacraments of the New Testament" (1880); and "The Books of Nature and Revelation collated" (1886).

ARMSTRONG, James, naval officer, b. in Shelbyville, Ky., 17 Jan., 1794; d. 27 Aug., 1868. He joined the navy as midshipman in 1809, and was assigned to the sloop of war "Frolic," which was captured by the British 20 April, 1814, her guns having been thrown overboard during the chase in the hope of escaping from a superior enemy. He rose by the regular steps of promotion to be a captain in 1841. He commanded the East India squadron in 1855, and assisted at the capture of the barrier torts near Canton, China, in 1857. He was in command of the navy-yard at Pensacola, Fla.. when that state seceded in 1861, and surrendered without resistance when a greatly superior military force demanded possession. In 1866 he was promoted to be commodore.

ARMSTRONG, James, soldier, b. in Pennsylvania in the early part of the 18th century; d. in Carlisle, Pa.. 3 March, 1795. Of his_ early life little is known. He served as a colonel in the successful defence of Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, in the summer of 1776, and commanded the Pennsylvania militia in the defence of Germantown in October. 1777. He was a member of congress from 2 Dec, 1793, till the day of his death.

ARMSTRONG, James, Canadian jurist, b. in Berthier, province of Quebec, 27 April, 1821. He was called to the bar in 1844, became queen's counsel in 1867, was nominated crown prosecutor for the district of Richelieu in 1864, and was appointed chief justice of St. Lucia, West Indies, by the imperial government in 1871. Subsequently he was appointed chief justice of Tobago, West Indies, which office he held conjointly with the chief justiceship of St. Lucia until his resignation in 1882. St. Lucia was one of the French colonies acquired by Great Britain by conquest in 1795, and the French laws were allowed to remain in force. Some unimportant changes were afterward made, but as far back as 1845 the chief justice made a report upon the laws, in which he said that no one knew what the law of the colony really was. Such was the state of the law when Mr. Armstrong became judge, partly owing to the appointment of judges who knew nothing of French jurisprudence, and particularly of that of ante-revolutionary France. The criminal law of France before the revolution was in force in St. Lucia for many years, portions of the English law being from time to time introduced. Chief justice Armstrong convinced the imperial government of the absolute necessity of introducing the English criminal law into the colony, subject to the enactments of the colonial legislature. A code of civil law, based in great measure upon the civil code of Quebec, was compiled by Mr. Armstrong and the governor of St. Lucia. Mr. Armstrong afterward prepared a code of civil procedure, which the legislature adopted, and passed resolutions thanking him for his labors. He was created a companion of the order of St. Michael and St. George in 1857. He is the author of a treatise on the law of marriage in the province of Quebec, written before the civil code came into force, and a treatise on the laws of intestacy in the different provinces and northwest territories of the dominion (1886). He is president of the Montreal and Sorel railway.

ARMSTRONG, James F., naval officer, b. in New Jersey. 20 Nov., 1817; d. in New Haven, Conn., 19 April, 1873. He was appointed midshipman from Connecticut in 1832. His first service was on the sailing frigate " Delaware " in the Mediterranean, whence he was transferred to the sloop "Boston" in the West India squadron, in 1837. He became passed midshipman 23 June, 1838, and lieutenant 8 Dec, 1842, and in this grade was alternately on sea and shore duty until the civil war, when he was placed in command of the steamer "Sumpter" on the blockading squadron. As commander, dating from 27 April, 1861, he continued on the blockading service, took part in the capture of Fort Macon, 25 April, 1862. and was subsequently commissioned captain 16 July, 1862. His last cruise was in 1864, after which he was on the reserve list until 1871, when he was reinstated and was detailed for shore duty on the Pacific coast.

ARMSTRONG, John, soldier, b. in the north of Ireland in 1725 ; d. in Carlisle, Pa., 9 March, 1795,