Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 3.djvu/282

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X'IRGIXIA rilOGRAPHY

for (irdnanco tluty ; afterwards to captain, and was assigned to the charge of the gen- eral reserve ordnance train of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was paroled at Ap- pomattox Court House, \'irginia, Ajiril 9, 1865, being then ordnance officer of Grimes's (formerly Rodes') Division, Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. He taught from 1865 to 1867 at Midway School, Char- lottes\ille, \'irginia, as professor of Greek in the Louisiana State University (1867), and at the Episcopal High School of Vir- ginia (,1867-69). He passed the year of 1869-70 at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig, studying classical philology, and on his return was chosen principal of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, and profes- sor of history and the English language and literature, where he remained for ten years (1870-801. He resigned his position at St. Jc'hn's College in 1880, and conducted for two years a university school at EUicott City, ^L•^ryland (1880-82), when he was chosen professor of the English language and literature in the University of Virginia. Here he remained for fourteen years, the l.'ist three years as professor of the English language alone, when he resigned, and filled a temporary vacancy in the chair of English literature at the Woman's College of Balti- more for one year (1896-97), since which time he has been taking private pupils in the city of Baltimore, and doing literary work. He has served as vice-president of the Modern Language Association of America (1887-88), and of the Spelling Reform Association, and at president of the American Dialect So- ciety (1890-91), and of the American Philo- logical Association (1893-94). The degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him by St. John's College in 1874. While a student

at the University of \'irginia he assisted in organizing the Young Men's Christian As- sociation, and was its president for one term ; was a member of the Jefferson So- ciety, the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, the University Cricket Club, and the "South- em Ciuard," which organization he accom- p;.nied to Harper's Ferry on the secession of "Virginia, April 17, 1861. While a professor in the University of X'irginia, he was a member of the vestry of Christ Church, Charlottesville, for ten years : often repre- sented that church in the \^irginia diocesan councils, and was a delegate from the dio- cese of Virginia to the Triennial Convention of the Protestant Episcopal church at Min- neapolis in 1895, and in Washington, D. C, in 1898. In 1900 he became, by invitation, a niemlier of .Mpha Chapter. Phi Betta Kappa, William and Mary College. Virginia, the ]iarent chapter in the Lniited States, from which all otlicr cha])ters trace their origin. He is editor of "Selections in English Prose from Elizabeth to \'ictoria" (1891); "Hayne's Speech to which \\'ebster Re- plied" (1894), "Macbeth" (1897), and "Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America" (1901). He is the author of a translation of "Beowulf" (1882), often re- printed, of "Elene and other Anglo-Saxon Poems" (1889), reprinted; a "History of the University of \'irginia," prepared in 1899, and (if numerous essays and reviews in var- ious periodicals. He married, April 19, 1871, Kate Huntington Noland, daughter of the late Maj. Burr Powell Noland, of Mid- dleburg. Loudoun county. Virginia, and had one son, James Mercer Garnett, Jr., a lawyer of Baltimore, Maryland. He still resides in i'laltimore, ^farvland.