Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/186

154 ment, and of the district of northeast Missouri, which he soon cleared of guerillas. He was made a brigadier - general of volunteers, 29 Nov., 1862, and did good service in defence of Cape Girardeau in the spring of 1863, and during Price's raid in October, 1864, and I'esigned in 1865. He was sheriff of St. Louis county. Mo., in 1866 and 1870, clerk of the criminal court in 1875-'6, U. S. commissioner to the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. and inspector in the U. S. Indian service in 1878 and again in 1882.

McNEILL, William Gibbs, civil engineer, b. in Wilmington, N. C, 3 Oct., 1800 : d. in Brooklyn, N. Y., 16 Feb., 1853. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1817, and entered the artillery branch of the service as 3d lieutenant, serving on topographical duty until January, 1823, when he was transferred to the corps of topograph- ical engineers with the brevet rank of captain. Subsequently, while in this corps, his work included engagements on the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal in 1824-'6, on Kanawha, James, and Roanoke rivers in 1827, and as member of the board of engineers on the construction of the Balti- more and Ohio railroad in 1827-30, and he be- came chief engineer in charge of the construction of the Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad in 1830-'6, meanwhile also holding engineering ap- pointments to various other roads. He then was chief engineer in charge of the construction of railroads till 1837, and during the latter year he also had charge of the examination of the coasts of North and South Carolina, but he resigned from the army in November, after attaining the rank of brevet major on the staff of the topographical en- gineers. He had achieved the reputation of being one of the foremost railroad engineers in the United States, and his services were sought for at unusual prices. At the time of the Dorr rebellion in 1842 he was commissioned major-general of Rhode Island militia, and commanded the state troops during that excitement. He was president of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal company in 1842-'3, and chief engineer of the dry dock at the U. S. navy-yard in Brooklyn in 1844-"5. Subse- quently he held consulting appointments princi- pally to various railroad and other pitblic works in the United States and Cuba.

MacNEVIN, William James, physician, b. in Ballynahowne, Countv G-alway, Ireland, 21 March, 1763 ; d. in New York city, 12 July, 1841. At the age of twelve he was sent to Austria, where his uncle. Baron O'Kelly MacNevin, was physician to the Empress Maria Teresa. He was educated at Prague, and, after a course of medicine in that city, finished his professional studies in the Uni- versity of Vienna, taking the degree of M. D. in 1784. He then returned to Ireland, where he be- came one of the leaders of the United Irishmen, and was imprisoned from 1798 till 1802. On his release he went to Prance, and entered the Irish legion in the army of Napoleon, but, despairing of a French invasion of Ireland, he came to the United States in 1805. Soon after his arrival he began the practice of his profession, in which he quickly attained distinction. In 1808 he was ap- pointed professor of obstetrics in the College of physicians and surgeons, and in 1811 filled the chair of chemistry and materia medica. He was the first to establish a chemical laboratory in New York. In 1826 he resigned his professorship, and, in conjunction with Dr. Valentine Mott. Dr. John W. Francis, Dr. David Hosack, and others, founded a new medical school on Duane street, in which he lectured on materia medica and therapeutics till . He was president of "The Friends of Ire- land " and a member of nearly every Irish society in New York city. He published a pamphlet for immi- grants entitled "Directions, or Advice to Irishmen arriving in America," and he established a bureau to obtain places for Irish servant-girls. Besides his great professional attainments. Dr. MacNevin was a man of wide learning and rare accomplish- ments. He was a proficient in the principal modern languages and well versed in their literature. His writings were mainly on medical, scientific, and political subjects, and were commonly in the form of essays and lectures. His principal works are " Rambles through Switzerland in the Summer and Autumn of 1802 " (Dublin, 1803) ; " Pieces of Irish History," with Thomas Addis Emmet (New York, 1807) ; " Chemical Examination of the Min- eral Water of Schooley's Mountain" (1815); and " Exposition of the Atomic Theory of Chemistry " (1819). He also published an edition of "Brande's Chemistry." and was associate editor for three years, with Dr. Benjamin De Witt, of New York, of the '• Medical and Philosophical Journal."

McNIEL, John, soldier, b. in Hillsborough, N. H., in 1784: d. in Washington, D. C, 23 Feb., 1850. He was commissioned captain in the 11th infantry on 12 March. 1813, and became major on 15 Aug. At the battle of Chippewa, 5 July, 1814, the bayonet charge of this regiment under his command secured the victory to the Americans, for which he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel. He was brevetted colonel on 25 July, 1814, for services at the battle of Ni- agara, in which he was severely wounded, and hebecame lieu- tenant-colonel of the 1st in- fantrv on 24 Feb.," 1818, re- maining in the service after the peace. He attained the rank of brevet brigadier- gen- eral on 25 July, 1824, and was made colonel of the 1st infantry on 28 Aug., 1826, but resigned his commission on 23 April, 1830, having been appointed in 1829 surveyor of the port of Boston, which office he held for several years.

McNIERNEY, Francis, R. C. bishop, b. in New York city, 25 April. 1828 : d. in Albany, N. Y., 2 Jan., 1894. He received an English education, and then went to Montreal, where, after completing his clerical education, he entered the seminary of" the Sulpicians for the study of theology and philosophy. He was ordained in St. Patrick's cathedral. New York, 17 Aug., 1854, and made private secretary of Archbishop McCloskey, which post he held for seventeen years, until, in 1871, he was appointed titular bishop of Rhesina and coadjutor of Albany. He was consecrated in St. Patrick's cathedral, New York, 21 April, 1871. On 19 Feb., 1874, he was appointed administrator of the diocese of Albany, and on 12 Oct., 1877, became bishop of that see by the right of succession. He has administered both the spiritual and temporal affairs of his diocese with great success. He was present at the 3d plenary council of Baltimore