Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/687

Rh the " Decatnr," in the capture of the forts and town of Tnspan, and afterward commanded the flotilla on the Alvarado river, and acted as governor and collector of Alvarado and Tlacotalpam until pros- trated by yellow fever. He was 1st lieutenant of the " Plymouth " in China in 1851, and ascended the Min river to confer with the viceroy of the province on behalf of the missionaries. In 1853-'4 he participated in the Japan expedition under Com. Perry. He was commissioned commander on 14 Sept., 18S5, and assigned to the steam sloop " Pocahontas " at the beginning of hostilities in 1861, and. arriving at Fort Sumter an hour before the surrender, brought away the garrison. He afterward commanded the steamer " Monticello," and took part in the fight at Hatteras Inlet, cross- ing the bar, after landing troops, and engaging the forts at short range. lie next commanded the " Seminole," and sustained a severe fire from the forts at Shipping Point on the Potomac river. At the battle of Port Royal the " Seminole " ran in, near the close of the action, between Hilton Head and Bay Point, and, with the support of two gun- boats, raked Fort Walker and drove out the ene- my. His vessel was subsequently employed in blockading service, then returned to Hampton Roads, and took an active part in the attack on Sewell's Point in May, 18G2. He was commis- sioned captain on 16 July, 1862, was assigned to the " Ossipee," and commanded the division of the western Gulf blockading squadron off Mobile, and then the division off the coast of Texas, making many captures, xintil he returned to the north in 1864 on account of illness. He was made a com- modore on the retired list on 28 Sept., 1866.

GILLISS, James Melville, astronomer, b. in Georgetown, D. C, 6 Sept., 1811 ; d. in Washing- ton, D. C, 9 Feb., 1865. He entered the U. S. navy as a midshipman at the age of fifteen, and made his first cruise on the " Delaware." Subse- quently he served on the " Concord " and on the "Java," and in 1831, after an examination, was advanced to passed midshipman. To obtain a scientific education he spent a year in the Uni- versity of Virginia, and later pursued higher studies in Paris. In 1836 he became as- sistant in the depot of charts and instru- ments in Washing- ton, and soon aft- erward was given charge of the small wooden building, which was then the only observatory in Washington. Soon after the sailing of the U. S. exploring expedition under Capt. Charles Wilkes, he received special instructionsfromthe secretary of the navy concerning the determination of differences of longitude by means of moon-culminations, occultations, and ecHpses, with magnetic and meteorological observations. His active astronomical career began with this work, and Dr. Benjamin A. Gould says in this connection : " It was Gilliss who first in all the land conducted a working observatory, lie who first gave his whole time to practical astronomical work, he who first published a volume of observa- tions, first prepared a catalogue of stars, and planned and carried into effect the construction of a working observatory as contrasted with one intended chiefly for purposes of instruction." He was made lieutenant in February, 1838, and until the return of the expedition was active in making observations of every culmination of the moon and every occultation visible in Washington that occurred between two hours before sunset and two hours after sunrise. His report on the " As- tronomical Observations made at the Naval Ob- servatory " (Washington, 1846) was the first to be published in the United States. In August, 1842, a bill was passed by congress, authorizing the establishment of an astronomical observatory, and the duty of preparing the plans for a building and arranging for the instruments was assigned to Lieut. Gilliss. After consulting American as- tronomers he visited Europe, where he studied the latest forms of apparatus, and on his return began the erection of the building, had the instruments mounted and essentially adjusted, and a library procured, all within eighteen months. The super- intendence of the new building was given to Lieut. Matthew F. Maury, while Lieut. Gilliss was assigned to duty on the coast survey in reducing for its use the entire series of moon-culminations previously observed and published by him. Fif- teen manuscript folio volumes in the archives of the survey contain this valuable work. From November, 1848, till October, 1852, he was engaged in making observations for the determination of the solar parallax. A station was established in December. 1849, on the hill of Santa Lucia, in San- tiago, Chili, where he completed a series of obser- vations of great value. He likewise accumulated a vast amount of information concerning earth- quakes and other subjects, and the establishment of a national observatory in Chili is due to his in- fluence. On his return he published " The U. S. Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemi- spheres in 1849-'52" (2 vols., Washington, 1855 ei seq.). He visited Peru in August, 1858, for the purpose of observing the total eclipse of the sun of that year, and, notwithstanding his prostration with a fever, he directed the mounting of the in- struments and obtained satisfactory results from his observations. His report was published by the Smithsonian institution as "An Account of the Total Eclipse of the Sun on September 7, 1858 " (Washington, 1859). In 1860 he observed the total eclipse of the sun in Washington territory. After the departure of Comd'r Maury from Washington in April, 1861, Lieut. Gilliss was assigned to the charge of the observatory in Washington. Under him it became one of the few first-class observa- tories in the world. He found a vast amount of work left in arrears by his predecessor, no reduc- tion of the observations of the previous six years having been made. Lieut. Gilliss applied himself to the work of completing them and of adding new and valuable observations with such assiduity that he gained a high reputation among the eminent astronomers of the world. He made many valu- able improvements in the instruments used in astronomy, and was the author of various govern- ment reports. Lieut. Gilliss was one of the origi- nal members of the National academy of sciences.

GILLMORE, Quincy Adams, soldier, b. in Black River, Lorain co.,'Ohio, 28 Feb.. 1825; d. in Brooklyn, N. Y.. 7 April, 1888. His childhood was spent (Ml his father's farm ; his regular studies were begun at the Norwalk, Ohio, academy, and for three winters preceding his twentieth birthday he was a teacher in a district-school, and meanwhile attended two terms at the high-school at Elyria, Ohio. A poem