Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/114

94 wrote brilliantly and intelligently upon those sub- jects. The " Peter Scriber Letters " and " Major Jack Downing's Letters " (New York, 1834), first published in the " Daily Advertiser," detail his interviews with President Jackson and the plans for overthrowing the U. S. bank. For many years his house in New York was the resort of the poet Halleck and other of the Knickerbocker writers.

DAVIS, Charles Henry Stanley, physician, b. in Goshen, Conn.. 4 March, 1840. He i-cccivcd his medical education in the University of Maryland and at the medical-school of the New York uni- versity, where he was graduated in 1865. He studied afterward in the hospitals of New York and Boston, Paris and London, and settled in Meri- den. Conn. He was a member of the Connecticut state legislature in 1873, 1884, and 1885. He has travelled extensively in Europe, and has studied hospital practice in London and Paris. He was one of the founders of the American philological society in 1864, and was its first corresponding sec- retary and its vice-president. He is a member of numerous medical and historical societies, among v/hich is la Societe d'Anthropologie of Paris, has contributed to many of the medical and scientific periodicals of this country and of Europe, and was the editor of the first volume of the " Boston Medi- cal Register," 1865. He has published a " History of Wallingford and Meriden " (Meriden, 1870)"; " The Voice as a Musical Instrument " (Boston, 1879); " Education and Training of Feeble-Mind- ed. Imbecile, and Idiot Children " (New York, 1883) ; and an " Index to Periodical Literature " (American News Company, New York, 1878-'81).

DAVIS, Cushman Kelloara, senator, b. in Henderson, Jefferson co., N. Y., 16 June, 1838. He removed with his parents, when a child, to Wau- kesha, Wis., attended Carroll college in that town, and was graduated at Michigan university in 1857. He then studied law, and in 1859 began prac- tice at Waukesha. He became a 2d lieutenant in the 28th Wisconsin regiment in 1861, and served as assistant adjutant general during most of the civil war on the staff of Gen. Willis A. Gorman. He was compelled to leave the army in 1864 by an attack of typhoid fever, and in 1865 went to Min- nesota and resumed the practice of his profession at St. Paul. He was elected to the Minnesota leg- islature in 1866, was U. S. district attorney for Minnesota in 1867-'71, and in 1873 was elected governor of the state on the Republican ticket, serving one term, and declining a re-nomination. He was an unsuccessful candidate for U. S. sena- tor in 1875, and again in 1881, but on 18 Jan., 1887, was elected to the office. Michigan univer- sity gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1886. He has delivered many lectures, of which the best known is "Modern Feudalism" (1870), and has published "The Law in Shakespeare" (1884).

DAVIS, Daniel, lawyer, b. in Barnstable, Mass., 8 May, 1762; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 27 Oct., 1835. He settled in Portland (then called Fal- mouth) in 1782, and held offices in Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a part. In 1804 he re- moved to Boston, and in 1832 to Cambridge. He was U. S. attorney for Maine in 1796-1801, and solicitor-general of Massachusetts in 1800-32. He was author of several legal works, the principal ones being " Criminal Justice " (Boston, 2d ed., 1828) and " Precedents of Indictments " (Boston, 1831). —His son, Charles Henry, naval officer, b. in Boston, Mass., 16 Jan., 1807; d. in Washington, D. C, 18 Feb., 1877. He entered the U. S. navy as a midshipman in 1823, and was attached to the frigate " United States," of the Pacific squadron, in 1827-8. In March, 1829, he became passed midshipman, and was ordered to the "Ontario," of the i\li'(litcn-a,nean squadron. He received his commission as lieutenant in March, 1834, and, after serving in 1837-'8 on the " Vincennes," of the Pacific squadron, and in 1840-'l on the " Inde- pendence," of the Brazil squadron, was on special duty from 1842 till 1856, being engaged first on ordnance duty and then as assistant in the coast survey. During 1846-'9 he was occupied in a sur- vey of the waters about Nantucket, in the course of which he discovered the " new south shoal " and several smaller shoals directly in the track of vessels sailing between New York and Europe, and of coast- ing vessels from Boston. These discoveries were thought to account for several wrecks and accidents before unexplained, and called forth the special ac- knowledgments of insurance companies and mer- chants. He became commander in June, 1854, and was given the " St. Marys," in the Pacific squadron, during 1857-'9, after which he was appointed super- intendent of the " American Nautical Almanac." He had filled this place in 1849-56, and the exist- ence of the "Almanac" was largely due to his efforts. In November, 1861, he became captain, and during that year was a mem- ber of the board of officers con- vened for the purpose of mak- ing a thorough investigation of the southern coast and har- bors, their ac- cess and de- fences. The in- formation thus acquired led to the organiza- tionof the expe- dition against Port Royal, S. C, in which Capt. Davis was chief of staff ^

and fleet-officer. In May, 1862, he was appointed flag-officer of the Mississippi flotilla, succeeding Andrew H. Foote in that capacity. Soon after his arrival, the Confederate fleet lying below Fort Pillow, consisting of eight iron-clad steamers, "four of which were fitted up as rams, steamed up for an engagement. The flotilla was quickly put in motion to receive them, and, after an ac- tion lasting about an hour, three of the Confed- erate gun-boats were disabled, and the fleet re- treated under the guns of Fort Pillow. Subse- quently (5 June) the fort was abandoned. Three days later the flotilla moved down the river near Memphis, and again engaged the Confederate fleet. A running fight ensued, in which all the Confederate vessels were either captured or destroyed, except the " Van Horn." After the engagement Capt. Davis received the surrender of Memphis, then joined Admiral Farragut, and was engaged in operations around Vicksburg, and in expeditions up the Yazoo river. He was commissioned commodore in July, 1862, and became chief of the bureau of navigation in Washington, and was made rear-admiral, to date from February, 1863. In 1865 he was appointed superintendent of the naval observatory in Washington, and in 1867 commanded the South Atlantic squadron. He returned to Washington in 1869, and, after being