Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/36

16 sojourn in the capital gave public lessons in botany and founded a museum of natural history. He was an excellent taxidermist, and formed a large col- lection of specimens, of which he sent many boxes to the Royal museum in Madrid, and the rest was delivered after his death to his executor. Dr. Saenz de Alfaro, in Mexico. From Guatemala he went to explore Yucatan, where he died. Besides manu- script catalogues of his collections, he wrote " Res- puesta a Don Vicente Cervantes sobre la Goma El- astica 6 Arbol del Hule" (Mexico, 1799).

LONGNECKER, Henry Clay, lawyer, b. in Allen, Cumberland co., Pa., 17 April, 1820; d. in Allentown, Lehigh co.. Pa., 16 Sept., 1871. He was educated at the Norwich military academy. Vt., and entered Lafayette college in 1841, but was not graduated. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1843, and practised in Northampton and Lehigh counties. He served in the Mexican war in 1847-8 as 1st lieutenant and adjutant of voltigeurs, being wounded at Chapultepec, and in 1848 was chosen district attorney of Lehigh county. He was a member of state Democratic conventions in 1851 and 1854, but in 1856 became a Republi- can, and in 1859-'61 was a member of congress, where he served on the conmiittee on military affairs. He became colonel of the 9th Pennsyl- vania regiment in 1861, led a brigade in western Virginia at the beginning of the civil war. and com- manded a brigade of militia at Antietam. In 1867 he became an associate judge of Lehigh county.

LONGSTREET, James, soldier, b. in Edgefield district, S. C, 8 Jan., 1821. He removed with his mother to Alabama in 1831, and was appointed from that state to the U. S. military academy, where he was graduated in 1842, and assigned to the 4th infantry. He served at Jefferson Bar- (5^ "= ^ 1 ,^^ racks. Mo., in 1842-'4, on frontier duty at Nat- chitoches, La., in 1844- '5, in the military occu- pation of Texas in 1845- '6, and in the war with Mexico, being engaged in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Pal- ma, Monterey, the siege of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gor- do, San Antonio, Churu- busco, and Moleno del Rey. For gallant and meritorious eoTiduct in the two latter battles he was brevetted captain and major, and he had previously been promoted 1st lieutenant, 23 Feb., 1847. At the storming of Chapultepec, 8 Sept., 1847, he was severely wounded in the assault on the fortified convent. He served as adjutant, 8th infantry, from 8 June, 1847, till 1 July. 1849, and on frontier and garrison duty, chiefly in Texas, till 1858, being made captain, 7 Dec, 1852. He became paymaster, 19 July, 1858, and resigned, 1 June, 1861. He was commissioned brigadier-general in the Confederate service, and at the first battle of Bull Run com- manded a brigade on the right of the Confederate line, where he held a large force of the National army from operating in support of McDowell's flank attack. On Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's re- treat before McClellan at Yorktown, Longstreet commanded the rear-guard, having been made a major-general. On 5 May, 1862, he made a stand at Williamsburg, and was at once attacked by Heintzelman, Hooker, and Kearny. He held his ground until his opponents were re-enforced by Hancock, whai he was driven back into his works. He took part in the seven days' battles around Richmond, and at the second battle of Bull Run. when in command of the 1st corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, came to the relief of Jackson, when he was hard pressed by Pope's army, and bv a determined charge in flank decided the fortunes of the day. At Fredericksburg he held the Con- federate left. In 1863 he was detached with two of his divisions for service south of James river. On Hooker's movement, which led to the battle of Chance] lorsville, Longstreet was ordered to rejoin the army of Lee, but did not arrive in time to par- ticipate in the battle. He commanded the right wing of the Army of Northern Vii-ginia at the battle of Gettysburg, and tried to dissuade Lee from ordering the disastrous charge on the third day. When Lee retreated to Virginia, Longstreet, with five brigades, was transferred to the Army of Tennessee under Bragg, and at the battle of Chickamauga held the left wing of the Confederate army. He was then detached to capture Knoxville, but found it too strongly fortified to be taken by assault. Early in 1864 he rejoined Lee. and was wounded by the fire of his own troops in the battle of the Wilderness. He commanded the 1st corps of the Army of Northern Virginia in all the ojjerations in 1864, and was included in the surrender at Appomattox, 9 April, 1865. He was known in the army as "Old Pete." and was con- sidered the hardest fighter in the Confederate ser- vice. He had the unbounded confidence of his troops, who were devoted to him, and the whole army felt better when in the presence of the enemy it was passed along the line that " Old Pete was up." After the war Gen. Longstreet es- tablished his residence in New Orleans, where he engaged in commercial business in the firm of Longstreet, Owens and Company. He was ap- pointed surveyor of customs of the port of New Orleans by President Grant, supervisor of internal revenue in Louisiana, postmaster at New Orleans,, minister from the United States to Turkey, and U. S. marshal for the district of Georgia. In 1898 he was appointetl commissioner of railways.

LONGSTREET, William, inventor, b. in New Jersey about 1760; d. in Georgia in 1814. He removed in boyhood to Augusta, Ga. As early as 26 Sept., 1790, he addressed a letter to Thomas Telfair, then governor of Georgia, asking his assistance, or that of the legislature, in raising funds to enable him to construct a boat to be propelled by the new power. This was three years before Fulton's letter to the Earl of Stanhope announcing his theory &ldquo;respecting the moving of ships by the means of steam.&rdquo; Failing to obtain public aid at that time, Longstreet's invention remained for several years in abeyance until, at last securing funds from private sources, he was enabled to launch a boat on Savannah river, which moved against the current at the rate of five miles an hour. This was in 1807, a few days after Fulton had made a similarly successful experiment on the Hudson. Besides this invention, Longstreet patented a valuable improvement in cotton-gins, called the &ldquo;breast roller,&rdquo; moved by horse power, which entirely superseded the old method. He set up two of his gins in Augusta, which were propelled by steam and worked admirably; but they were destroyed by fire within a week. He next erected a set of steam mills near St. Mary's, Ga., which were destroyed by the British in 1812. These disasters exhausted his resources and discouraged his enterprise, though he was confident that steam would soon supersede all other motive powers. &mdash; His son,