Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/368

342 Juan de los Llanos. 1 Aug., 1847, and participated in the battles of Cuiitivni^. Mnlinn del lu-y iwlinv he was wounded), and Chapultepec. and in the cap- ture of the city of Mexico, after which he served on frontier duty in Washington territory. In 1852 '3 he was superintendent of the cavalry re- cruiting service, and in 1853 commanded the cav- alry-school for practice at Jefferson barracks. Mo. He was made major of mounted rifles on 30 Dec., 1856, served on the Navajo expedition in 1858-'9, the Comanche expedition in 1860, and was the bearer of despatches to the war department in 1860-'l. He became lieutenant-colonel of the 3d cavalry, 10 June. 1861, was mustering and disburs- ing officer at Philadelphia, Pa., from 15 April, 1861, till 29 April, 1863, acting inspector-general of the Department of the Susquehanna from 29 June -till 30 Sept., 1863. and retired from active service, owing to impaired health, on 30 March, . hdving mustered into service more than 50,000 volunteers. He was brevetted colonel and brigadier-general, U. S. army, on 13 March, lsii.5, for faithful and meritorious services in recruit- ing the armies of the United States. From 1868 till 1870 he served as professor of military science in the University of Pennsylvania.

RUFFIN, Arnmand Gustave (rew-fang). French explorer, b. in Landerneau in 1731 ; d. in Xew Or- leans, La., in 1789. He entered the colonial ad- ministration in early life, and held offices in St. Lucia, Martinique, and Santo Domingo. In 1777 he was king's deputy-lieutenant at Cayenne, and in 1782 was in charge of the administration of Dutch Guiana, which had been retaken from the English. After the conclusion of peace he set out on a voy- age of exploration through the basins of Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and during a sojourn of thirty- two months made a valuable collection of speci- mens in natural history. Toward the beginning of 1789 he was sent to explore the upper basin of Mississippi river, but he died in Xew Orleans of yellow fever a few days after his arrival in that place. His works include " Tableau statistique et economique des Guianes " (Paris. 1783) ; " Voyage a travers les deserts de rAmazonie"(1787); "Quinze mi 'is sur les bords de 1'Orenoque " (1787) ; " Choix de plantes et d'insectes peu connus des Guianes et du Bresil" (1788); and "Observations sur les cannelier de la Guiane " (1788).

RUFFIN, Edmund (ruf'-fin), agriculturist, b. in Prince George county, Va.. 5 Jan., 1794; d. on his estate of Redmoor. in Amelia county, Va., 15 June, . In 1810-'12 he attended William and Mary college. He served in the legislature, was secretary of the state board of agriculture, agricultural sur- veyor of South Carolina, for many years was presi- dent of the Virginia agricultural society, and was the discoverer of the value of marl as a fertilizer of poor soil, by the use of which millions of dollars were added to the value of the real estate of east- ern Virginia. He was a state-rights man and a secessionist, and was a member of the Palmetto guard of South Carolina. At the beginning of the civil war he went to South Carolina, and, by order of Gen. Beauregard, his company was ordered to open fire on Fort Sumter, and as the oldest mem- ber he was selected by his comrades to fire the first gun, 12 April, 1861. He shot himself because he was unwilling to live under the U. S. government. Among other agricultural papers he edited the "Farmer's Register " from 1833 till 1842, and he also published " Essay on Calcareous Manures " (Richmond, 1831) ; " Essay on Agricultural Educa- tion" (1833); "Anticipations of the Future to serve as Issons for the Present Time " (1860) ; and edited " The Westover Manuscripts, containing the History of the Dividing-Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina ; a Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1783 ; and a Progress to the Mines. 1 ' by William Byrd. of Westover (Petersburg, 1841 ; 2d ed.. 2 vols.," Albany. 1866).

RUFFIN, George Lewis, lawyer, b. in Rich- mond. Va., 16 Dec., 1834; d. in Boston. Mass., 19 Xnv., 1886. He was of African descent, but of free parentage, and was educated at the public schools in Boston. He became a barber, studied law, and after graduation at Harvard in 1869 practised with success in Boston, served in the legislature as a Republican, and was appointed by Gov. Benjamin F. Butler judge of the municipal court in the Charlestown district in 1883, being the only colored justice that held office in Xew England.

RUFFIN, Thomas, jurist, b. in King and Queen county. Va.. 17 Nov., 1787: d. in Hillsboro', X. C., 15 Jan., 1870. After graduation at Princeton in 1805 he studied law, and removed to Hillsboro', X. C.. in 1807. He served in the legislature in 1813-'16, becoming speaker in the latter year, was judge of the supreme court in 1816-'18, and elected again from 1825, and was chief justice, of the state supreme court from 1829 till 1852, and again in 1 s.->i;-'s. after which he served as presiding judge of the county court. He was opposed to nullification in 1832 and to secession in 1860, but voted for the ordinance of secession in the convention. He was a delegate to the Peace congress that met in Wash- ington in 1861. The University of Xorth Carolina gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1834.

RUFFNER, Henry, educator, b. in Page coun- ty, Va.. 19 Jan., 1789; d. in Maiden, Kanawha co., Va., 17 Dec., 1861. His father removed to the val- ley of the Great Kanawha, where he bought large tracts of land, and was one of the first to manufac- ture salt there. The son was graduated at Wash- ington college, Va., in 1814, studied theology, was licensed by the presbytery of Lexington in 1819, and held various pastorates in the vicinity. He was professor at Washington college (now Wash- ington and Lee university) from 1819 till 1837, and its president from 1837 till 1848, when he resigned and retired to his farm. The degree of I). D. was conferred on him by Princeton in 1838 and that of LL. D. by Washington in 1849. He was the author of a " Discourse upon the Duration of Fu- ture Punishment " (Richmond, 1823) : " Inaugural Address" (Lexington. 1837) ; " Judith Bensaddi, a Romance " (1840) ; " The Fathers of the Desert, or an Account of the Origin and Practice of Monk- ery " (2 vols., New York, 1850) ; and several dis- courses, among which was an address against sla- very, known as the " Ruffner Pamphlet " (1847).

RUFZ DE LAVISON, Etienne (roofs), West Indian physician, b. in St. Pierre, Martinique. 14 Jan., 1806. He studied medicine in Paris, was admitted among the pupils of the Hotel Dieu hospital, and in 1835 obtained his diploma as doctor. In 1836 he was sent by the government to Marseilles to inquire into the means of checking an epidemic of Asiatic cholera. In 1838 he returned to Martinique to practise his profession, and became afterward chief surgeon of the hospital of St. Pierre, and superintendent of the lunatic asylum of the colony. He specially engaged in resean In - upon the poisons that were used by the negroes and the extinct tribes of Carib Indians, and presmt.' some interesting memoirs to the French academy of medicine, which were printed in the annals of that society. After the revolution of 1848 he was president of the state council of the colony in IM^ V. 1. Returning to Paris in 1856, he "was