Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/493

Rh BURNS, Francis, M. E. bishop, b. in Albany, N. Y., 5 Dec, 1809 ; d. in Baltimore, Md., 18 April, 1868. New York was still a slave-state when at five years of age the little negro Francis Burns was in- dentured as a servant by his parents, who were so poor that they took this method of reducing ex- penses. He was converted at the age of fifteen, and soon entered the Lexington Heights academy and studied for the ministry. He obtained a fair education, and soon evinced such talent as a leader among his own people that, after serving as an ex- horter and preacher under the direction of the Methodist church, he was appointed to the Libe- rian mission in 1834, and landed in Monrovia on 18 Oct. His first appointment was as a teacher at Cape Palmas. He joined the Liberia mission con- ference in 1838, and from 1840 till 1842 was an as- sistant on the Bassa circuit. During 1843 and the early part of 1844 he was engaged at Monrovia, but sailed for the United States, and was ordained dea- con in Brooklyn, N. Y., 16 June, and, later on the same day, crossed over to New York and was or- dained elder in the Mulberry street church. Bishop Janes officiating. In the same year he returned to Liberia. The next session of the conference ap- pointed him presiding elder of the Cape Palmas district. In 1851, by order of the missionary board, he was detailed to open an academy at Monrovia and superintend the mission there. In 1858 he visited the United States and was ordained mis- sionary bishop at Perry, Wyoming co., N. Y., Bishops Janes and Baker officiating. Almost im- mediately he returned to Africa, and labored there for five years until his health failed. He returned to the United States by the advice of a physician, and died shortly afterward.

BURNS, James Austin, educator, b. in Ox- ford, Me., 25 Jan., 1840. He was educated at Bow- doin, wiiere in 1885 he received the degree of Ph. D. In August, 1861, he entered the U. S. volun- teer service as lieutenant in the 7th Connecticut infantry, and was promoted to be captain in 1862, after which he served on the staffs of Gens. Viele, Stephens, Seymour, Strong, and Terry, and was en- gaged in the sieges of Ports Pulaski, Sumter, and Wagner, and in the investment of Petersburg. Subsequent to the war he settled in Atlanta, Ga., where he has followed the profession of civil engi- neering and also filled the chair of chemistry in the Southern medical college in Atlanta. He has publislied a series of " Juxtalinear Translations of the Classics" (Atlanta, 1886 et seq.). The set in- cludes Virgil, Horace, Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, Ho- mer, Xenophon, Demosthenes, and Sophocles.

BURNS, John, soldier, b. in Burlington, N. J., 5 Sept., 1793 ; d. in Gettysburg, Pa., 7 Feb., 1872. He was of Scottish ancestry, and through his father claimed relationship with the poet. He was among the first to volunteer for the war of 1812 ; was pres- ent in the actions at Plattsburg, Queenstown, and Lundy's Lane, in which last-named engagement he was one of Col. Miller's regiment that captured the British battery in the centre and turned the tide in favor of the Americans. He volunteered prompt- ly for the war with Mexico, and again for the civil war. For this last service he was rejected on ac- count of his age by the United States mustering officer, but managed to go with the army as a teamster, and was always anxious to borrow a rifle and be in the ranks when the enemy was encoun- tered. His age soon told against him, and, con- trary to his will, he was sent home to Gettysburg, where his townsmen made him constable to keep him busy and contented. When the foremost Con- federate scouts approached in June, 1863, he went out with a party of volunteers to fight them, but was turned back by the national cavalry. When the Confederates under Gen. Early occupied the town, 26 June, Burns had to be locked up for as- serting his civil authority as constable in opposi- tion to that of the Confederate provost guard. As soon as the enemy advanced toward York, Burns resumed his official functions and began to arrest Confederate stragglers, including a chaplain named Gwin, who bore despatches. Two days later the National advance under Gen. Buford arrived and relieved the veteran from his self-imposed duty of facing the Army of Northern Virginia single-hand- ed. Shortly after the preliminary skirmishing of the battle of Gettysburg began. Burns met a wounded Union soldier, borrowed his rifle and am-, munition, with which he went to the front and offered his services as a volunteer to Maj. Cham- berlain, of the 155th Pennsylvania regiment. He was referred to the 7th Wisconsin volunteers, near by, they being sharply engaged with the enemy. The old man proved himself such a skilful sharp- shooter that the colonel commanding the regi- ment sent him a favorite long-range rifle, which he used all day with deadly effect in the advanced line ; but he was badly wounded in the afternoon, wlien the National troops were forced back. He told a plausible story to his Confederate captors, and got himself carried to his own house, where his wounds were dressed by the surgeons ; and, after a narrow escape from execution as an un- uniformed combatant, he was left when the Con- federates were in turn driven back and finally de- feated. The story of his patriotic zeal aroused the greatest interest in the northern states; he was lauded as the " hero of Gettysburg," and after the war, as his home was on the battle-field, became an object of curiosity to visitors and accumulated a competence through their generosity. During the last two years of his life his mind failed, and his friends were unable to prevent his wandering about the country. He was found in New York city on a cold winter's night in December, 1871, in a state of destitution, and was cared for and sent home, but died of pneumonia.

BURNS, Robert, Canadian clergyman, b. in Borrowstounness, Linlithgowshire, Scotland, 13 Feb., 1798 ; d. in Toronto, 19 Aug., 1869. He was graduated in arts at Edinburgh university in 1805, and in divinity in 1810. He was minister of St. George's church, Paisley, from July, 1811, till the disruption which, in May, 1843, resulted in the secession of the Free Church from the Established. He came out with the Free Church, and in March, 1845, removed to Canada, and the same year became minister of Knox church, Toronto, a charge which he retained till 1856. In that year he was appointed professor of church history and apologetics in Knox college, Toronto, retiring in 1864. He penetrated the remotest bush-regions in the land of his adoption, so that his name was familiar throughout Canada. When pastor in Paisley he, for fourteen years, occupied the same pulpit as Dr. Witherspoon, the only clergyman whose name was affixed to the " Declaration of Independence." In 1838-'9 he edited the Edinburgh " Christian Instructor." His publications include " Letters to Dr. Chalmers on the Protestant and Roman Catholic Religions "(Paisley, 1818) ; "Historical Dissertation on the Law and Practice of Great Britain, and particularly of Scotland, with regard to the Poor" (2d ed.," Edinburgh, 1819): "'Woodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Clhurch of Scotland " (4 vols., Glasgow, 1830) ; " Treatise on Pluralities " (1824) ; and a " Life of Dr. McGill." His