Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/783

Rh himself, the dietetic directions for the cruise, or- ganized the first steam service, and from 1838 till 1840 commanded the first steam war-vessel of our navy, the " Fulton II.," making the engineers on a par with the other oflBcers. the staff equal with the line, and, when the " Fulton " sti-uck and badly damaged the brig " Montevideo." he noted the principle of sinking an enemy by collision, studied the problem practically and mathemati- cally, and urged the adoption of the ram on war- steamers. He studied the problems of ordnance and armor, resistance and penetration, and was one of the committee that reported on the Ste- vens iron-clad battery. In charge of the school of gun-practice at Sandy Hook, he demonstrated the safety in use and the power of horizontal shell- fire from navy cannon and the effect of pivot-gun firing on the decks of ships, deducing ideas that are valuable in ship-construction. He organized and directed the school of apprentices for sail and steam service of the navy, went to Europe in one of the first steamships regularly crossing the At- lantic to study light-house illumination, and se- cured the passage of laws that adopted the Fresnel system of lenses, the first light being placed at Sandy Hook. With William C. Redfield he was influential in effecting revolutions in naval archi- tecture. The steamers " Missouri " and " Missis- sippi," then without peers in the world, were built in their chief features according to ideas that he strenuously insisted upon, and were conspicuously a success, while later ones, built on plans that he had condemned, were failures. He was made a captain on 9 Feb.. 1837. and given command of the yard on 12 June, 1841. he hoisted the com- modore's broad pennant. He commanded the eighty-gun squadron in Africa in 1843-'5, en- forcing the Webster-Ashburton treaty, carrying out a powder-and-ball policy at Berribee against the savages, and securing a decent burial-ground for American sailors. In the Mexican war he had oversight of the steam navy, and at the siege of Vera Cruz, in command of the Gulf fleet, when .Scott's light artillery was unable to breach the walls, he landed six of the heaviest ship's guns, and in "the naval battery " sent picked crews to batter down the wall at only 800 yards' distance. In two days the sailors fired 1,300 rounds, reducing the wall to rubbish and making a breach fifty feet wide, enabling Scott's army to dictate terms and proceed into the interior. He formed the first U. S. naval brigade of sailors trained as infantry, captured Tuspan, Tabasco, and Laguna, and blockaded the coast, occupying every important landing-place until the end of the war. In the fishery disputes with Canada he visited the waters of Newfoundland and assisted to bring about the reciprocity treaty of 1854. He organized and commanded the expedition to Japan, delivering the president's letter on 14 July, 1853, and on 31 March, 1854, signing a treaty of peace, amity, and protection to American sailors. On his return he wrote the report of the expedition, to which were added papers on special subjects by other writers and a preface and notes by Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D. The whole work is entitled " Report of Com. Perry's Expedition to Japan " (3 vols., Washing- ton, 1856). A bronze statue in Touro park, New- port, R. I., a marble bust by Erastus D. Palmer, of Albany, oil-portraits at Annapolis and Brooklyn, and a gold medal presented by the merchants of Boston, commemorate his services. See " Life of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, a Typical American Naval Officer," by William Elliot Griffis (Boston, 1887).— Matthew Calbraith's son, Mat- thew Calhraith, naval officer, b. about 1821 ; d. in New York city, 10 Nov., 1873, was appointed a midshipman in the U. S. navy, 1 June, 1835. and ordered to the frigate " Potomac." He was acting master of the brig " Homers " during its first cruise and the famous mutiny (see Mackknzik. Alexan- der S.), was on the frigate " Cumberland " during the Mexican war, and by permission of his father joined the army on the staff of Gen. Robert Pat- terson. He was made a lieutenant, 3 April, 1848, and served for several years on the coast survey. After various services, receiving his commission as captain. ho was placed on the retired list, 4 April, 1867. His sea-service covered a period of over fifteen years. — Christopher Raymond's grandson. Alexander James, soldier, b. in New London, Conn., 11 Dec, 1828, is the son of Nathanael Hazard. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1851, assigned to the 2(1 artillery, and served against the Seminole Indians in 1852. He was assistant professor of mathematics at West Point in 1852-'7, in frontier service in the northwest during hostilities with the Sioux and Chippewa Indians, and became captain in the quartermaster's depart- ment. He served in the civil war as chief quar- termaster of the Departnumt of Florida, and par- ticipated in the relief and defence of Fort Pickens. On 20 April, 1862, he became lieutenant-colonel of volunteers, and in 1864 he was made chief of a bu- reau in the quartermaster's department with the rank of colonel. He was brevetted major, lieuten- ant-colonel, and colonel, on 13 March, 1865, and also brigadier-general, U. S. army, for faithful and meritorious services in tliat department. He was commissioned major on 29 July, 1866, and lieuten- ant-colonel on 3 March, 1875. After 1869 he served as chief quartermaster of various departments, and was assistant quartermaster-general, and was retired from the army, 22 April, 1892. — Oliver Hazard's grandson, Thomas Sergeant, author, b. in Newport, R. I., 23 Jan., 1845. His mother is great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin. He was graduated at Harvard in 1866, studied at the Sorbonne and College of France, and at the Uni- versity of Berlin. He was tutor in German at Har- vard from 1868 till 1872, and instructor in English there from 1877 till 1881. Mr. Perry was editor of the " North American Review " from 1872 till 1874, and is the author of " Life and Letters of Francis Lieber " (Boston, 1882) ; " English Literature in the Eighteenth Century" (New York, 1883); "From Opitz to Lessing " (Boston, 1885); "The Evolution of the Snob" (1887); and "Historvof Greek Lit- erature " (New York, 1888).

PERRY, Edward Aylesworth, governor of Florida, b. in Richmond,* Berkshire county, Mass., 15 March, 1833 ; d. in Kerrville, Texas. 15 Oct.. 1889. He left Yale college in 1853 and went to Alabama, where he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1857, and began practice in Pensacola, Fla. At the beginning of the civil war he became captain of a company that he raised for the Confederate service, and was made colonel of his regiment, which he commanded at Seven Pines and the otherbattlos around Richmond, being wounded at Fi-aser's farm. He was then made brigadier-general, and led a bri- gade in the Army of Northern Virginia, which lost a larger number of men at Gettysburg than any other on the Confederate side. He was wounded a second time at the battle of the Wilderness in May, 1864. At the close of the war Gen. Perry resumed practice in Pensacola. He was elected governor of Florida for I'oui- years from January. 1885.

PERRY, Eli, philanthropist, b. in Cambridge, N. Y., 25 Dec, 1799; d. in Albany, N. Y., 17 May,