Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/458

428 BRYSON, Andrew, naval officer, b. in New York city. 22 July, 1822; d in Washington, 7 Feb., 1892. He entered the navy, became lieutenant on 30 Aug., 1851; commander, 16 July, 1862; captain. 25 July, 1866; commodore, 14 Feb., 1873; rear-admiral, 25 March, 1880, with which rank he was retired on 1 July, 1881. During the civil war he commanded the steamer "Chippewa" on special service in 1862-'3; the iron-clad "Lehigh," of the South Atlantic blockading squadron, in 1863, being present at the reduction of Fort Macon, and in the principal actions off Charleston from 22 Sept., 1863, till 5 April, 1864, receiving a wound from a shell, and in 1864-'5 commanded the iron-clad "Essex" in the Mississippi squadron. Previous to his retirement, after forty-three years of service, he was in command of the South Atlantic station.

BUCARELI Y URSUA, Antonio Maria de (boo-cah-ray'-le), forty-seventh viceroy of Mexico. He filled that office from 2 Sept., 1771, till his death, 9 April, 1779. Bucareli's administration was very successful in every respect. In his time three great benevolent institutions were founded: the Montepio, the Hospicio, and the Cuna. He also established the mining court, and obtained from the king of Spain permission to use quick-silver from the Mexican mines. Many other improvements and industries for the public welfare were promoted by him, and a promenade in the city of Mexico still bears his name. His remains are buried in the colegiata of Guadalupe.

BUCHAN, David, British explorer, b. in 1780; lost at sea in 1837. He became a lieutenant in the British navy in 1806, and commanded a schooner on the Newfoundland station in 1810, when he was despatched by Admiral Sir John Duckworth to explore the river Exploit and open communications with the natives. He penetrated 160 miles into the interior early in 1811, sustaining many hardships. In 1816 he was promoted commander, and in 1818 sent out on an expedition to the north pole, at the same time that Ross and Parry were despatched in search of the northwest passage. The "Dorothea" and "Trent," commanded by Capt. Buehan and Lieut. Franklin, sailed in April, 1818, and reached Magdalena bay, Spitzbergen, about 1 June. They attempted to penetrate the ice-field on 7 June, and were shut up in the floes for thirteen days. On 6 July they made another attempt to find a passage through the ice-barrier, and sailed northward until the ice closed in on them in lat. 80° 34' N. After vainly attempting to drag the vessels northward by means of ropes and ice-anchors, they sailed for the coast of Greenland. The "Dorothea" was disabled by the floating ice, and the expedition consequently returned to Deptford on 18 Oct. Buehan was made a captain in 1823, and for some time was commodore on the Newfoundland station. In 1825 he became high sheriff in Newfoundland. A few years later he set out on a new arctic expedition, and was never heard from afterward. His vessel is supposed to have been burned at sea. He made important observations on the variations of the needle, on undercurrents, on the temperature of the ocean's depths, and on the compression of the earth at the pole.

BUCHANAN, Franklin, naval officer, b. in Baltimore, Md., 17 Sept., 1800; d. in Talbot co., Md., 11 May, 1874. He entered the navy as a midshipman, 28 Jan., 1815, served some years at sea, and before reaching the age of twenty-one served as acting-lieutenant on a cruise to India. He became lieutenant, 13 Jan., 1825, and in July, 1826, commanded the frigate "Baltimore," built for the emperor of Brazil, on her voyage to Rio Janeiro. On his return he sailed in the Pacific, part of the time being attached to the "Peacock." On 8 Sept., 1841, he was promoted to master-commandant, having charge of the "Mississippi," and afterward of the "Vincennes." In 1845 he was selected by the secretary of the navy to organize the naval academy at Annapolis. The same year he opened the school as its first superintendent, but in 1847 left the place for the command of the "German- town," in which he took part in the Mexican war, participating in the capture of Vera Cruz. In 1852 he commanded the "Susquehanna," flagship of Com. Perry's Japan expedition, which opened China and Japan to the commerce of the world, and on 14 Sept., 1855, was made captain. He was made commandant of the Washington navy-yard in 1859, but on 22 April, 1861, after the attack on the Massachusetts troops in Baltimore, resigned his commission. Finding that his state did not secede, he wrote to Gideon "Welles, secretary of the navy, withdrawing his resignation, and asking to be restored, but his request was refused. He entered the confederate navy in September, 1861, with the rank of captain, superintended the fitting out of the "Merrimac," and commanded her in the attack on the federal fleet in Hampton Roads, when the "Cumberland" was sunk and the "Congress " blown up. He was so severely wounded, in this action that he could not take command of his vessel in her subsequent combat with the "Monitor." For his gallantry at this time he was thanked by the confederate congress, and promoted to full admiral and senior officer of the confederate navy. Subsequently he was placed in command of the naval defences of Mobile, and there superintended the construction of the iron-clad ram "Tennessee," which he commanded during the action with the union fleet in Mobile bay, 5 Aug., 1864. His vessel finally surrendered after her armor had been penetrated and her steering apparatus disabled, and Admiral Buchanan was again wounded and taken prisoner of war, but was exchanged in February following. After the war he was for a time president of the Maryland agricultural college, and afterward was for a few months an agent for a St. Louis life insurance company.

BUCHANAN, Isaac, Canadian statesman, b. in Glasgow, Scotland, 21 July, 1810; d. 1 Oct., 1883. He migrated to Canada in 1833, and became one of the principal pioneer merchants of Upper-Canada, and was elected to the 1st Parliament of the united provinces in 1840 as a supporter of the principle of responsible government, professing allegiance to neither of the political parties. He entered the Tache-Macdonald cabinet in 1864 as president of the council, declining the salary of the office, and retired on the formation of the coalition government. He was appointed a Dominion arbitrator in 1878, and retained that appointment until his death. Mr. Buchanan was an able writer on political and commercial questions, and was the author of "The Relations of the Industry of Canada with the Mother-Country and the United States."

BUCHANAN, James, fifteenth president of the United States, b. near Mercersburg, Pa., 23 April, 1791; d. in Lancaster, Pa., 1 June, 1868. The days of his youth were those of the nation's youth; his public career of forty years saw all our great extensions of boundary on the south and west, acquired from foreign powers, the admission of thirteen new states, the development of many important questions of internal and foreign policy, and the gradual rise and final culmination of a great and disastrous insurrection. He was educated at a school in Mercersburg and at Dickinson college, Pa., where