Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/535

Rh FORSYTH, Benjamin, soldier, b. in Stokes county, N. C, d. near Oldtown, N. Y., 28 June, 1814. He was a member of the legislature of North Caro- lina, 1807-'8, and was appointed a lieutenant of in- fantry from North Carolina in April, 1808, and be- came a captain of riflemen in July of that year. He commanded in the successful assault on Gana- noque, Upper Canada, in September, 1813, and also at the capture of the British guard at Elizabeth- town, Canada, in February, 1813. For the latter service he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel. He also distinguished himself at the capture of Fort George, 27 May, 1818, and at the attack on York on 27 April of the same year. He was killed in a battle with a superior force of British and Indians. — His only son, James N., after his father's death, was adopted as a child of the state by the legisla- ture of North Carolina, and provision was made for his education at the public expense. He en- tered the university in 1824, subsequently was ap- pointed a midshipman in the navy, and was on board the sloop " Hornet," which was lost at sea.

FORSYTH, James W., soldier, b. in Ohio about 1835. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1856, and assigned to the infantry. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant on 15 March, 1861, was for two months assistant instructor to a brigade of Ohio volunteers, and on 24 Oct. was made captain. He was on Gen. McClellan's staff during the peninsular and Maryland campaigns, was brevetted major on 20 Sept., 1863, for gal- lantry at Chickamauga, and in 1864-'5 was as- sistant adjutant-general of volunteers and chief- of-staff to Gen. Sheridan. He took part in the Richmond and Shenandoah campaigns, and was lantry at Opequan, Fisher's Hill, and Middletown, brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers for gal- 19 Oct., 1864 ; colonel in the regular army, 1 April, 1865, for services at Five Forks, and brigadier-gen- eral on 9 April, for services during the war. He was given the full commission of brigadier-general of volunteers on 19 May, and in 1866-'7 was assist- ant inspector-general of the Department of the Gulf. He was aide to Gen. Sheridan in 1869-'73, military secretary of the division of the Missouri in 1873-'8, and was then assigned to frontier duty, taking part in the Bannock campaign of 1878. In 1886 he became colonel of the 7th cavalry. He has published "Report of an Expedition up the Yellowstone River in 1875 " (Washington, 1875).

FORSYTH, John, statesman, b. in Frederick county, Va., 22 Oct., 1780; d. in Washington, D. C, 21 Oct., 1841. His father was an Englishman, but fought in the American army in the Revolu- tion. John removed to Georgia with his family when he was four years old. He was graduated at Princeton in 1799, studied law, and was ad- mitted to the bar at Augusta. Ga., in 1802. He was elected attorney-general in 1808, and was after- ward chosen to congress as a Democrat, serving from 1813 till 1818, when he became U. S. senator. He resigned in 1819, having been appointed minis- ter to Spain, and conducted the negotiations which resulted in the cession of Florida to the United States. He served in congress again from 1823 till 1827, when he was elected governor of Georgia, and in 1829 was again chosen U. S. senator in place of J. M. Berrien, who had resigned. He opposed nullification, voted for Henry Clay's compromise act of 1833, and supported Jackson in the debate regarding the removal of deposits from the U. S. bank. He was a delegate to the anti-tariff con- vention at Milledgeville, Ga., in 1832, but with- drew on the ground that it did not fairly represent the people of Georgia. He resigned his senator- ship on 27 June, 1834, to become secretary of state under President Jackson, and continued to serve under Van Buren till 3 March, 1841. — His son, Jolin, editor, b. in Georgia in 1813 ; d. in Mobile, Ala., 2 May, 1879, was lor many years one of the foremost Democratic editors of the south. In 1856 he was appointed minister to Mexico, but in 1858 demanded his passports, and withdrew from the legation. In 1861, with Marshall J. Crawford, of Georgia, he represented the Confederate states as commissioner to the National government, but his request for an unofficial interview with Sec. Seward was declined. He removed to Mobile after the civil war and engaged in journalistic work until feeble health compelled him to retire.

FORSYTH, John, clergyman, b. in Newburg, N. Y., in 1811 ; d. there, 17 Oct., 1886. He was graduated at Rutgers in 1829, studied theology at the University of Edinburgh, under the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, and in Glasgow, under Dr. Thomas Dick, and was licensed to pi"each in April, 1833, by the presbytery of Aberdeen, Scotland. He then returned to the United States and was or- dained in 1834 by the presbytery of New York. He held pastorates in Philadelphia in 1834-'6, and in Newburg. N. Y., in 1836-47, occupying at the same time the chair of biblical literature in the theo- logical seminary of the Reformed church at that place. He was professor of Latin at Princeton from 1847 till 1853, again professor at Newburg in 1853-'5, and in 1860-'3 held the chair of the English language and literature in Rutgers. He was appointed chaplain and professor of moral philosophy at West Point in 1871, and served there till 1881, when he was retired with the pay of colonel. He was for many years president of the Board of education of Newburg, and is the au- thor of numerous pamphlets and sermons, an American edition of Dick's " Theology," with a life of the author (2 vols., New York, 1836) ; " His- tory of the Public Schools of Newburg " (New- burg, 1863) ; " Lives of the Early Governors of New York," published in the Newburg " Daily Union " in 1863 ; and a translation and enlarge- ment of Moll's " Exposition of the Psalms " (in Lang's " Commentary," 1871). He also contrib- uted largely to current literature.

FORT, George Franklin, governor of New Jersev, b. in Pemberton, N. J., in Mav, 1809 ; d. in New Egypt, Ocean co., N. J., 22 April, 1872. He was educated in his native county, and was gradu- ated in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1830. He became a successful practitioner, and, while actively engaged, was elected to the assem- bly from Monm^outh county. In 1844 he was a member of the State constitutional convention, and was subsequently elected to the state senate. In 1850 he was elected governor of New Jersey, serving two terms, till 1854, and was afterward a judge of the court of errors and appeals. He held other public offices, and was an active member of the prison reform committee. Princeton gave him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1847. He was the author of " Early History and Antiquities of Free- masonry " (Philadelphia, 1875).

FORT, Greenberry Lafayette, soldier and politician, b. in French Grant, Scioto co., Ohio, 11 Oct., 1825; d. in Lacon, 111., 13 Jan., 1883. In May, 1834, his parents left Ohio and settled in Marshall county, 111., where he was brought up on a farm and attended school. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began practice in Lacon, where he was elected sheriff' in 1850, was clerk of the circuit court in 1852, and county judge in 1857-61. In his first case Abraham Lincoln was