Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/374

346 On 3 March, 1855, he became captain in the 2d U. S. cavahy, and, after raising a company in Indiana and Illinois, served on the Texas frontier, distinguishing himself in actions against the Comanche Indians. He was the first U. S. officer that crossed into Mexico in pursuit of hostile Indians. When Gen. Twiggs surrendered to the confederates in 1861, Capt. Brackett escaped. He commanded the cavalry at Blackburn's Ford and the first battle of Bull Run, and in August, 1861, became colonel of the 9th Illinois cavalry, serving with credit through the Arkansas campaign, and being severely wounded at Stewart's Plantation, where he saved a valuable train from falling into the hands of the confederates. On 28 June, 1862, he was brevetted major in the regular army for services in the Arkansas campaign, and on 17 July received his full commission as major in the 1st cavalry. In 1863 he was chief of cavalry in the department of the Missouri, and in 1864 assistant inspector-general of cavalry, in the department of the Cumberland. He was engaged in the battles around Atlanta, was brevetted lieutenant-colonel on 1 Sept., 1864, for his services there, and at the close of the war was brevetted colonel. After that time he served principally against hostile Indians in Nevada, Wyoming, and Arizona. He received his full commission as lieutenant-colonel, 2d cavalry, on 9 June, 1868, and on 20 March, 1879, when commanding the district of the Yellowstone, was made colonel of the 3d cavalry. He was afterward assigned to the command of Fort Davis, Texas, and in March, 1886, was recommended by the congressional delegation of Indiana and Texas for promotion to the rank of brigadier-general. He published "General Lane's Brigade in Central Mexico" (Cincinnati, 1854); "History of the United States Cavalry" (New York, 1865); and wrote many magazine and newspaper articles, especially in regard to military aifairs. Col. Brackett was retired in Februarv, 1891.

BRACKETT, Anthony, soldier, d. 21 Sept., 1689. He was a son of Anthony Brackett, of Greenland, N. H., and as early as 1662 settled in Portland (then Casco), Me., where he had a farm of 400 acres. On 11 Aug., 1676, the Indians made an attack; on Casco, and captured or killed thirty- four persons, Brackett, his wife and five children, and a negro servant, being among the prisoners. They were taken to Arrousic island, and in November managed to escape in a leaky birch-bark canoe, which Mrs. Brackett had mended with needle and thread. They boarded a vessel bound to Piscataqua, and, after peace had been made, returned to Casco, 12 April, 1678. In 1682 Brackett was given the command of Port Loyall, and in 1688 held the command of the three forts erected by Gov. Andros. He met his death at the hands of the Indians.

BRACKETT, Edward Augustus, sculptor, b. in Vassalborough, Me., 1 Oct., 1819. He began his career in 1838, and has produced portrait busts of Washington Allston, Richard Henry Dana, Bryant, Longfellow, Rufus Choate, Charles Sumner, John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Gen. Butler, and others. His marble group of the "Shipwrecked Mother and Child" is now the property of the Boston athenæum.—His brother, Walter M., painter, b. in Unity, Me., 14 June, 1823, began painting in 1843, giving his attention to portraits and ideal heads, and executed likenesses of Charles Sumner, Edward Everett, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. He also painted portraits of the first four secretaries of war, for the war department at Washington. For some years be has devoted himself almost exclusively to the painting of game fish, especially of salmon and trout. A series of four of his pictures, representing the capture of a salmon with a fly, was exhibited at the Crystal Palace, London. He now lives in Boston, Mass., where he has for some time been president of the art club, of which he was one of the original members.

BRACKETT, Joshua, physician, b. in Greenland, N. H., 5 May, 1733; d. 17 July, 1802. He was graduated at Harvard in 1752. At the desire of his parents he studied theology and began to preach, but afterward studied medicine with Dr. Jackson, of Portsmouth, N. H., and became a physician in that town. He was a zealous patriot, a member of the state committee of safety, and during the revolution was judge of the New Hampshire maritime court. He was a founder of the state medical society, and its president from 1793 till 1799. He gave it 143 volumes of medical works at its establishment, and his wife, Hannah Whipple, of Kittery, Me., left the society at her death, 23 April, 1805, a bequest of $500. Dr. Brackett bequeathed $1,500 to Harvard toward founding a professorship of natural history.

BRADBURY, James Ware, senator, b. in Parsonfield, Me., 10 June, 1802. He was graduated at Bowdoin in 1825 with Hawthorne and Longfellow, standing second in his class, and, after teaching in the Hallowell academy, began the study of law. He settled in Augusta in 1830, where' he was for a time editor of the "Maine Patriot," and was county attorney from 1834 till 1838. He was a member of the Baltimore convention of 1844, which nominated Polk for the presidency, and in 1847 was elected to the U. S. senate as a democrat. He was chairman of a select committee on French spoliations. Declining to be a candidate for re-election, he returned, at the close of his term, to the practice of his profession. He has been president of the Maine historical society for fourteen and a member for forty years, and is the oldest surviving ex-U. S. senator!

BRADBURY, Theophilus, jurist, b. in Newbury, Mass., 13 Nov., 1739 ; d. in Newburyport, Mass., 6 Sept., 1803. He was graduated at Harvard in 1757, and studied law while teaching at Falmouth (now Portland), Me. Having been admitted to the bar, he practised there from May, 1761, till 1779, when he returned to Newbury. Here he filled several local offices, and was at different times a member of both houses of the state legislature. He was elected to congress, took his seat 7 Dec, 1795, and was re-elected, but resigned in 1797, having been appointed a judge of the Massachusetts supreme court. He was a presidential elector in 1801, and was a member of the American academy of arts and sciences.

BRADBURY, William Batchelder, musician, b. in York, Me., 6 Oct., 1816; d. in Montclair, N. J., 7 Jan., 1868. He inherited a taste for music from his parents, who were excellent singers, his father being the leader of a choir. Before he was fourteen years old he had become a skillful mechanic, and mastered every instrument that came in his way, but never saw an organ or a piano until 1830, when he removed to Boston. Here he met Dr. Lowell Mason, and in 1834 was known as an organist. In 1840 he began teaching in New York and Brooklyn, where he gained popularity by his free singing-schools, and by his concerts, at which the performers, all children, sometimes numbered 1,000. In 1847 he went to Germany, where he studied harmony, composition, and vocal and instrumental music with the best masters. In 1854 he began in New York city, in connection with his