Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/252

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MRGIXIA BIOGRAPHY

Juan de Nicaragua, in May, 1854, for inter- fering to prevent the arrest of a person charged with murder at Puntas Arenas. He was obliged to seek refuge in a hotel and while there protesting against his arrest, a glass bottle was thrown at him by a man in the crowd and struck him. This incident was the main reason for the bombardment and destruction of Greytown, or San Juan de Nicaragua, by the sloop of war Cyanc, under Commander Hollins, July 13, 1854, under instructions from the United States government. The post of governor of New Mexico was offered Mr. Borland by Presi- dent Pierce after the return of the former, but he declined, preferring to remain in the practice of his profession at Little Rock, and took no further part in political affairs except occasionally to declare himself an adherent of the states rights doctrines. Be- fore the ordinance of secession, which was passed May 6, 1861, he organized a body of troops and, under the direction of Gov. Rec- tor, at midnight of April 24, took possession of the buildings at Fort Smith one hour after the withdrawal of Captain Sturgis with the garrison. He raised the Third Arkansas Confederate Cavalry, became colonel of that regiment, and was subsequently a brigadier- general in the same service. His death oc- curred in Texas, January 31, 1864.

Garland, Landon Cabell, born in Nelson county, Virginia, March 21, 1810, son of Hon. 13avid Shepherd Garland, member of congress (q. v.). He was graduated from Hampden-Sidney College in 1829, and from 1830 to 1833 he was professor of chemistry in Washington College, Virginia. In the last mentioned year he became professor of physics, and in 1835, president of Randolph-

Macon College, remaining the incumbent ot this office until 1847. From that year until 1866 he filled the chair of mathematics and physics in the University of Alabama, of which he became president in 1855. He next became professor of physics and as- tronomy at the University of Mississippi, retaining this office until 1875, when he was chosen chancellor and professor of physics at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Ten- nessee. He traveled through Europe in 1875 in order to purchase the physical and astronomical apparatus of that university. He was a frequent contributor to the maga- zines of the Southern Methodist Episcopal church, and published a treatise on "Trigo- nometry, Plane and Spherical," Philadel- phia, 1841.

Brooke, Walter, born in Virginia, Decem- ber 13, 1813; graduated in 1835, and studied law. He emigrated to Kentucky, where he taught school two years, and then began to practice law in Lexington, Mississippi. He was elected a senator in congress in place of Henry S. Foote, who had resigned in order to accept the governorship, and served from March 11, 1852, till March 3, 1853. He was a member of the Mississippi secession con- vention of 1861 ; w-as elected a member of the provisional Confederate congress, in which he sat from February 18, 1861, till February 18, 1862, and was a candidate for the Confederate senate, but was defeated by James Phelan. He died in \'icksburg. Miss- issippi, February 19, 1869.

Atkinson, John Mayo Pleasants, born at "Mansfield," Dinwiddle county, Virginia, son of Robert and Mary Tabb (Mayo) At- kinson, and grandson of Roger Atkinson, a prominent merchant, was born January 10,