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Rh anti-slavery agitator, and after the capture of Port Royal, at the earnest solicitation of Lewis Tappan and other abolitionists, he went to Washington and laid before President Lincoln his views of the nation's duty toward "contraband" slaves. In June. 1863, he visited Port Royal, inspected the condition of the negroes, and resolved to return to the north and induce teachers to go back with him. On 10 Feb., 1862, he organized a large meeting at Cooper Institute, New York city, where his account of the need of instruction among the colored peo- ple excited such interest and sympathy that at once the " National f reedman's relief association " was formed, and he was elected general agent. In March, 1868, he again sailed for Port Royal, this time accompanied by a large corps of teachers. He next attempted to have the negroes placed on the abandoned plantations, and taught methodical farming under white superintendents. In this plan he met with much military and civil opposi- tion, but finally met with partial success. Mr. French was the personal friend of President Lin- coln, of See. Stanton, and Salmon P. Chase. At one period during the civil war j\Ir. French organ- ized an expedition to intercept telegraphic commu- nications between the Confederate forces, and de- livered their messages at Washington. He was popularly known as " Chaplain French."

FRENCH, William Henry, soldier, b. in Balti- more, Md., 13 Jan., 1815 ; d. 'there, 20 May, 1881. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1887, and entered the army as 2d lieutenant of artillery. He served in the Seminole war in Florida and on the Canada border in 1837-"8. During the Mexican war he was aide-de-camp to Gen. Franklin Pierce, and on the staff of Gen. Patter- son ; was engaged in the siege of Vera Cruz, in the battles of Churubusco and Contreras, and brevetted major for gallantry at the capture of the city of Mexico. Between 1850 and 1852 he again served against the Seminole Indians in Florida, and was on garrison and frontier duty till 1861, when he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and served in the Army of the Potomac during the peninsular campaign. He was engaged at the bat- tles of Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Oakgrove, Gaines's Mill, Peach Orchard, Savage Station, Glendale, and Malvern Hill. In the Rlaryland campaign he commanded a division of Sumner's corps at the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg, Septem- ber, 1862, and in the next month was appointed major-general of volunteers. He served in the Rappahannock campaign, in the battles of Fred- ericksburg and Chancellorsville, commanded the 3d army corps in its operations at Mine Run, from November, 1863, till May, 1864, when he was mus- tered out of volunteer service. He commanded the 2d artillery on the Pacific coast from 1865 till 1872, and in 1875, having passed through the suc- cessive military grades, was appointed lieutenant- colonel, in command at Fort McHenry, Baltimore. In July, 1880, at his own request, being over sixty- two years of age, he was retired.

FRENEAU, Philip, poet. b. in New York city, 2 Jan., 1752 : d. near Freehold, N. J.. 18 Dec, 1832. He was graduated at Princeton in 1771. Some of his published poems were written before he left college. He made a voyage to the Danish West Indies in 1776, and there wrote several of his long- est poems. In 1778 he visited Bermuda, and on his return became a contributor to " The United States Magazine," edited by Hugh H. Bracken- ridge. On a second voyage in 1780 to the West Indies he was captured by an English cruiser, and his experiences as a prisoner are recorded in bitter terms in " The British Prison-Ship." On regain- ing his liberty the next year, he wrote frequently in prose and verse for the " Freeman's Journal." After the close of the war he was variously em- ployed as an editor, and master of a vessel in voy- ages to the West Indies and to the southern states until 1790, when he became editor of the New York " Daily Advertiser." Jefferson became in- terested in him, and appointed him translator for the state department, and at the saTue time Fre- neau assumed the editorship of the " National Ga- zette." The violence of this paper's attacks on the Federalists aroused Hamilton's ire, who accused Freneau of being the pensioned tool of Jefferson, which compelled the latter to write an explanatory letter to Washington. Freneau's next newspaper undertaking was the "Jersey Chronicle," which he published for a short time at his residence. Mount Pleasant, N. J. In 1797 he issued in New York the " Time-piece and Literary Companion," but his connection with it was brief. Be- tween this time and his death in 1832 he seems to have done little of public inter- est. He lost his life from exposure, having got astray in a bog meadow on returning to his home from the village near which he lived. His first liter- ary publication, "A Poem on the Rising Glory of America " (Philadelphia, 1771), was written for the college commencement.

Brackenridge has been considered the joint author in this production, on the strength of a statement on the title-page to Brackenridge's poem on " Divine Revelation," which reads : " By the same person . . . who, Sept. 25, 1771, delivered a small poem on ' The Ris- ing Glory of America.'" Freneau undoubtedly composed the poem, as he included it in his col- lected poems, published by himself at Monmouth, N. J. Brackenridge merely recited the piece at the commencement. Freneau published " Voyage to Boston," a poem (New York, 1774; reprinted in Philadelphia, 1775) ; "General Gage's Confession " (New York, 1775): "The British Prison-Ship," a poem in four cantos (1781) ; " The Poems of Philip Freneau, written chiefly during the Late War" (1786 ; reprinted, with a preface by J. R. Smith, in London, 1861) ; "A Journey from Philadelphia to New York, by Robert Slender, Stocking- weaver " (1787; republished in 1809, under the title "A Laughable Poem, or Robert Slender's Journey from Philadelphia to New York ") ; " The Miscel- laneous Works of Mr. Philip Freneau" (1788); "The Village Merchant." a poem (1794) ; "Poems written between the Years 1768 and 1794" (1795; new ed., Monmouth, N. J., 1799); "Letters on Various Interesting and Important Subjects, by Robert Slender " (1799) ; " Poems written and pub- lished during the American Revolutionary War" (1809) ; and " A Collection of Poems on American Affairs " (New York, 1815). Evert A. Duyckinck edited an edition of his " Poems of the American Revolution" (New York, 1865). Freneau also made a translation of Abbe Robins's "Voyages and Travels" (Philadelphia. 1783).— His brother, Peter, journalist, b. in New Jersey in 1757 ; d. in Charles-