Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/481

Rh ency or the public, is derived from the following incident : A representative in congress from Bun- combe Co. was in the habit of making speeches to which no one listened. One day, observing that many members were leaving the house while he was speaking, he declared that he did not care how many left — he was not speaking to the house, but to Buncombe.

BUNTING, Christopher William, Canadian publisher, b. in Amigan, county Limerick, Ireland, in September, 1837. He was educated in Ireland and Toronto, and was connected with the press in early life, but left journalism and engaged for many years in the West India trade. He has been for some time the proprietor and publisher of the Toronto '• Mail," the principal organ of the Con- servatives in Canada. He was first returned to Parliament in 1878.

BURBANK, Sidney, soldier, b. in Massachu- setts, 26 Sept., 1807 ; d. in Newport, Ky., 7 Dec, 1882. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1829, and entered the 1st infantry as second lieutenant. After some years of fron- tier duty, a,t various garrisons, he served in the " Black Hawk " war in 1832, and at the military academy from 1836 till 1839, as instructor of in- fantry tactics. He was made captain in 1839, and fought in the Florida war against the Seminole Indians. He was again on frontier duty from 1841 till 1859, when he became superintendent of the western recruiting service at Newport bar- racks, Ky. During the civil war he was colonel of the 2d infantry and in command of a brigade at- tached to the array of the Potomac. He was pres- ent at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettys- burg, and for his services received the brevet of brigadier-general. Subsequent to the war he joined his regiment, and was stationed at Newport bar- racks, Ky., and at Louisville. Later, from 1867 till 1869, he was in command of the district of Kentucky, and from 1869 till 1870 superintend- ent of general recruiting service. He was retired in 1870, after forty consecutive years of service.

BURBECK, Henry, soldier, b. in Boston, Mass., 8 June, 1754 ; d. in New London, Conn., 2 Oct., 1848. He was the son of an officer at Castle William, Boston harbor, and served with distinc- tion in the revolutionary war. In 1776 he was made a lieutenant, and subsequently participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, as well as in the terrible privations and sufferings of Valley Forge. He shared the perils of the mem- orable retreat through New Jersey, and was pres- ent at the battle of Monmouth. In 1777 he was made a captain in the artillery, and continued in active service until the close of the war, when he received the brevet of major. He again entered the service in 1786 as captain in the artillery, and was actively engaged for some time in the Indian war on the western border under Gen. Anthony Wayne. After several promotions he received the rank of colonel in the artillery, and in 1813 the brevet of brigadier-general. In 1815 he was mus- tered out of service.

BURBRIDGE, George Wheelock, Canadian jurist, b. in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, 6 Feb., 1847. He was graduated at Mount Allison Wesleyan col- lege in 1864, studied law, and in 1871 was admitted to the bar of New Brunswick, and began to prac- tise at St. John. He was secretary of the com- missioners for consolidating the laws of New Brunswick in 1877, became deputy minister of justice and solicitor of Indian affairs in 1882, and in 1883 was selected as one of the commissioners to revise and consolidate the statutes of Canada.

BURBRIDGE, Stephen Gano, soldier, b. m Scott CO., Ky., 19 Aug., 1831. He was educated at Georgetown college, and at the Kentucky military institute in Frankfort, after which he studied law with Senator Garrett Davis in Paris, Ky. From 1849 till 1853 he followed mercantile pursuits in Georgetown, D. C, and then turned his attention to agriculture. He conducted a large farm in Logan CO. until the beginning of the civil war, when he raised the 26th Kentucky infantry and was made its colonel. At the battle of Shiloh he distin- guished himself, and was made a brigadier-general. During Gen. Bragg's invasion of Kentucky in 1862, he was ordered to that state, and was variously en- gaged until the confederate forces were driven out. He then joined the expedition against Vicksburg, and participated in several actions. He had com- mand of the 1st brigade in the 1st division of the 13th corps of the army of the Mississippi, and led the charge at Arkansas Post that resulted in its capture, planting the American flag upon the fort, which had been placed in his hands, as a tribute to his gallantry, by Gen. A. G. Smith, for that pur- pose. Gen. Burbridge was also conspicuous at the capture of Port Gibson, and was among the first to enter the place. Later he was placed in command of the military district of Kentucky, and defeated Gen. John H. Morgan on his raid, driving him into Tennessee. For this service he received the thanks of President Lincoln, and on 4 July, 1864, the brevet of major-general. He resigned in 1865, and retired to Kentucky.

BURCHARD, Samnel Dickinson, clergyman, b. in Steuben, N. Y., 6 Sept., 1812; d. in Saratoga, I^. Y., 25 Sept., 1891. At eighteen years of age he removed to Kentucky, and was graduated at Cen- tre college, Danville, in 1836. Immediately after graduation he began to lecture on temperance, slavery, and religious questions, and thus became known throughout the state. He also won many friends in Kentucky by his services as a volunteer nurse during the cholera epidemic of 1837. He was licensed to preach in 1838, and was installed as pastor of a Presbyterian church in New York city, 1 May, 1839. He was very successful as a pastor and as a lecturer, and was at different times chan- cellor of Ingham university and president of Rut- gers female college. He was peculiarly happy in making addresses on occasions when it was desira- ble to entertain a miscellaneous audience. Having nearly finished an exceptionally honorable, useful, and unobtrusive career as a clergyman, it was his fate, near the close of the exceedingly bitter presi- dential canvass of 1884, to raise himself, by the utterance of a brief alliterative sentence, into the most unprecedented and unexpected political noto- riety. A few days before the election the repub- lican managers called a " ministers' meeting " in New York. About 600 clergymen, nominally rep- resenting all denominations, assembled, and Dr. Burchard addressed them in a dignified and, in the main, tempei'ate speech. In concluding, however, he stigmatized the democrats as the party of " Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion." Mr. Blaine, the repub- lican candidate for the presidency, was present, but failed to repudiate the sentiment on the spot. Extraordinary and, it was believed, successful effoi'ts had been made by the republicans to secure the Roman Catholic vote ; but these fatal words undid the work of months. Hardly had they been uttered when the democratic managers saw their importance, and the whole country, especially near the centres of Roman Catholic population, was placarded with posters headed "R. R. R.," with all manner of additions and variations. Liquor-deal-