Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/552

 532 BENNINGTON army then in the field against Napoleon, and fought the French at Eylau, Feb. 7-8, 1807, but on June 14 he was beaten at Friedland. He was present at the battle of Borodino (1812) as aid to Gen. Kutuzoff. On Oct. 18 of the same year he gained a brilliant advantage by surprise over Murat at Tarutino. He left the service on account of difficulties with Kutuzoff, but reentered it on Kutuzoff 's death. He had an important part at the taking of Leipsic, and was in command of the army which was be- sieging Hamburg when Napoleon was over- thrown in 1814. After the peace of 1815 the command of the second army, which was sta- tioned in the south of Russia, was given to him. He resigned in 1818, and died poor and blind. II. Alexander Levin, count, a Hanoverian statesman, son of the preceding, born at Zakret, near Wilna, July 21, 1809. Pie occupied the highest positions in the cabinet and the cham- bers from 1841 to 1866, when Hanover was annexed to Prussia. Hit Uuilolf vcn, a Hano- verian statesman, belonging to a junior branch of the same family, born in Luneburg, July 20, 1824. After many able but ineffectual attempts, as a member of the chambers and in other capacities, to protect Hanover against the fatal course of George V., he was elected in 1866, after the annexation of his country to Prussia, to the North German diet and the Prussian assembly of delegates, and became vice presi- dent of these bodies and a statesmanlike leader of the liberal national party. He has presided since the close of 1868 over the local adminis- tration of the province of Hanover, and at- tended the conferences at Versailles in Decem- ber, 1870, in respect to the formation of the new German empire. BEXNINGTON, a S. W. county of Vermont, bordering on New York and Massachusetts; area, about 700 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 21,325. It is skirted by the Green mountains on the east, and watered by the Battenkill, Hoosick, and smaller streams. In the N. part of the county, especially in Dorset township, large quantities of marble are quarried, some varie- ties of which are very white and fine, and take a high polish. The county is crossed by the Harlem Extension, Troy and Boston, and Rensselaer and Saratoga railroads. The chief productions in 1870 were 108,537 bushels of Indian corn, 161,876 of oats, 196,791 of pota- toes, 35,542 tons of hay, 416,655 Ibs. of cheese, 412,092 of butter, 146,419 of wool, and 170,- 268 of maple sugar. There were 2,529 horses, 5,659 milch cows, 4,543 other cattle, 82,068 sheep, and 2,592 swine. Capitals, Bennington and Manchester. BENNINGTON, a township in the S. W. part of Bennington co., Vt., 102 m. S. by W. of Montpelier; pop. in 1870, 5,760. It is on the Harlem Extension and Troy and Boston rail- roads, and includes the villages of Bennington, one of the capitals of the county, Bennington Centre or Old Bennington, North Bennington, and Bennington Iron Works. It has impor- BENSON tant manufactories of fine porcelain and Parian ware, material in abundance and of excellent quality being found in the vicinity of the town. On Aug. 16, 1777, Gen. Stark, at the head of a body of New Hampshire militia, defeated in Bennington a detachment of Burgoyne's army under Col. Bauin. Shortly after the re- treat of the latter the battle was renewed by a British reenforcement, which in turn retreat- ed on the approach of darkness. The British lost 200 killed, 600 prisoners, and 1,000 stand of arms; the Americans, 14 killed and 42 wounded. No trace now remains to indicate the precise locality of the engagement. BEANO, Saint, bishop of Meissen, born at Hildesheim about 1010, died June 16, 1107. He was a Benedictine of Hildesheim when in 1051 he was appointed canon of the church in Goslar, whence he was promoted by Henry IV. to the bishopric of Meissen. In the war between that emperor and Pope Gregory VII., he ultimately declared for the pope, and was several times made a prisoner. When in 1085 he supported in a council the excommunica- tion pronounced against the emperor, the latter took from him his bishopric, which was after- ward restored by the antipope Clement III. In the 15th century pilgrimages were made to his tomb, and in 1523 he was canonized. BENOOWE, Benne, or Binoe (the mother of waters), a river of central Africa, the main tributary of the Quorra or Niger, formerly known as the Chadda, Tchadda, or Tsadda, because it was supposed to be an outlet of Lake Tchad ; but there is probably no connec- tion between it and that lake. It rises in an unexplored region in the interior of Soodan, flows W. through Adamawa or Fumbina, receiv- ing its three principal branches, the Kebbi and the Gongola from the north and the Faro from the sonth, turns S. W. and joins the Niger just above the town of Igbebe, 250 m. from the sea. The Benoowe is more than 700 m. long. It was seen by the Lander brothers in 1830, and explored for 104 m. by Richard Lan- der, Allen, and Oldfield in 1833. Dr. Earth, while travelling in Adamawa in 1851, came upon the river at the mouth of the Faro, as- certained its true name, and says it was 800 feet wide at that point. In consequence of his reports, an expedition under Dr. Baikie, fitted out at the joint expense of Mr. Macgre- gor Laird and the English government, sailed up the Benoowe in a steamer in 1854, to a point about 400 m. from the Niger and below the mouth of the Faro. Dr. Baikie made a second expedition in 1857, but added little to the stock of knowledge already possessed. During the rainy season, in August and Sep- tember, the volume of water poured by the Benoowe into the Niger is enormous. The right bank of the river and part of the left is in the power of the Fellatahs. BENSON, George, an English dissenting clergy- man and author, born in Great Salkeld in 1699, died in 1763. From 1721 to 1763 he