Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/224

 PROMINENT PERSONS

179

Buckingham, James Silk, born in Flush- ing. England, in 1786. He was intended for the church, but being of an adventurous turn of mind, became a sailor, bookseller*s clerk, law student, printer and captain of a West Indiaman. He was employed in 1813 by the Pasha of Egypt to select a route for a canal across the Isthmus of Suez, but after being robbed the pasha relinquished his design and Buckingham went to India and commanded a ship in the service of the Sultan of Muscat. After this he went through many adventures. He published, at various times, volumes of his travels in Palestine, in Arabia, in Mesopotamia, in Assyria and Media, and two volumes on Belgium, the Rhine and Switzerland, and two volumes on France, Piedmont and Swit- zerland. He lectured through Great Britain in support of various reforms, and repre- sented Sheffield in parliament from 1832 to 1837. He subsequently traveled in America as a lecturer on temperance and slavery. He became a citizen of the United States in 18 10. as appears by papers filed in the re- corder's office in the borough of Norfolk, Norfolk county. Virginia. He died June 30. 1855.

Call, Richard Keith, born near Peters- burg, Virginia, in 179 1. He was appointed first lieutenant in the Forty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment, July 15, 1814; brevet captain, November 7, 1814; was vol- unteer aide to General Jackson in April, 1818; promoted to captain in July, 1818, and resigned from the army. May i, 1822. He was a member of the legislative council of Florida in April. 1822; brigadier-general of West Florida militia in January, 1823; delegate to congress from 1823 to 1825 : and

receiver of the West Florida land office in March, 1825. He was governor of Florida from 1835 ^o 1840, and led an army against the Seminole Indians from December 6, 1835, ^o December 6, 1836, commanding in the second and third battles of Wahoo Swamp. November 18-21, 1836. It is said that at the battle of Ouithlacoochie, Gov- ernor Call personally saved General Clinch and his command from being cut to pieces, contrary to the statement made by the lat- ter in the history of the Florida war. A con- troversy with Secretary of War Poinsett hi President Van Buren's cabinet cost Gov- ernor Call his office. He was subsequently a Whig and worked earnestly for Harrison's election, canvassing the northern states in his behalf. President Harrison reappointed him governor of Florida, which office he held until 1844, but was an unsuccessful candidate for governor the following year. He had sacrificed his fortune, health and popularity to protect the people of Florida during the Seminole war, but they could not forgive him for turning to the Whigs, and he never again was elected to an office in the state, but was major-general of militia fiom July I to December 8, 1846. He labor- ed industriously in the interest of Florida. He projected and built the third railroad in the United States, from Tallahassee to St. Marks, and located and laid out the town of Port Leon, which was afterwards destroy- ed by a cyclone. He was devoted to Gen- eral Jackson, by whose side he had fought for every inch of ground from Tennessee to the Peninsula, and, regarding himself as one of the builders of the nation, during the civil war he was one of the few men in the South who regarded secession as treason.

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