Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/172

BABCOCK.BACHE. BABCOCK, Orville E., soldier, was born at Franklin. Vt., Dec. 25, 1835. He entered the military academy at West Point in 1856, and was graduated in 1861 as 2d lieutenant in the corps of engineers. He served during the civil war, first in drilling volunteers, then as assistant engineer in the construction of the defences at Washington, D. C. and from June to August, 1861, acted as aide-de-camp to Major-General Banks on the upper Potomac and Shenandoah Valley. In November, 1861, he was promoted lieutenant, and from Feb. 24 to March 4. 1862, he was at Harper’s Ferry, constructing and guarding the pontoon bridge across the Potomac for General Banks’s movement to Winchester. He served in the Virginia peninsular campaign, being engaged in the siege of Yorktown. and for his services during that siege he was brevetted captain. On June 1, 1863, he was promoted to the full rank, and in November was brevetted major for his gallantry at the siege of Knoxville. Tenn. From May to December, 1864, he was aide-de-camp to General Grant in the Richmond campaign, and on March 13, 1865, was brevetted colonel and brigadier-general for his services during the war. From April 9, 1866, to March 4, 1869, he served at the headquarters of the general commanding the armies of the United States, and until 1877 was under the orders of the President at the executive mansion, being superintending engineer of public buildings and grounds, and certain public works in the District of Columbia, and also of the Washington aqueduct, the chain bridge over the Potomac river, of the Anacosta bridge, of the construction of the east wing of the building for the state, war and navy departments, and of the 5th lighthouse district. From March 3, 1873, to March 3, 1877, he was colonel, ex-officio, by act of Congress. He was drowned at Mosquito Inlet, Fla., June 2, 1884. BABCOCK, Rufus, clergyman, was born at Colebrook, Conn., Sept. 18, 1798; son of Rufus Babcock, who had been a soldier in the revolutionary war, and was pastor of the Baptist church at Colebrook from 1794 to 1842, and who married a daughter of Capt. Timothy Moore, under whom he had served as a soldier. After his graduation from Brown university, in 1821. he became a tutor at the Columbian college. Washington, D. C., remaining there for two years, pursuing at the name time his theological studies. He then entered the Baptist ministry in 1823, holding pastorates at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1823-'26; Salem, Mass., 1826-'33, retiring in 1837 to become pastor of Spruce street church, Philadelphia, Pa.; thence to New Bedford, Mass.; Poughkeepsie, N. Y.; and Paterson, N. J. From 1833 to 1836 he was president of Waterville college. He was corresponding secretary of the American and foreign bible society, president of the American Baptist publication society, and from 1828 to 1875 a trustee of Brown university. His publications include: "Claims of Education Societies" (1829); "Review of Beckwith on Baptism" (1829); "Making Light of Christ" (1830); "Memoirs of Andrew Fuller" (1830); "Sketches of George Leonard, Abraham Booth and Isaac Backus" (1832); "History of Waterville College" (1836); "Tales of Truth for the Young" (1837); "Personal Recollections of J. M. Peck" (1858); and "Emigrant's Mother" (1859). He was also editor of the Baptist Memorial. He received the degree of D. D. from Bowdoin college, 1834. He died at Salem, Mass., May 4, 1875. BACHE, Alexander Dallas, physicist, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 19, 1806; son of Richard and Sarah (Franklin) Bache and great-grandson of Benjamin and Deborah (Reed) Franklin. He was graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1825, and remained there as instructor in engineering. He was professor of natural philosophy and chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 1828-’36. In 1828 he was elected a member of the Franklin institute, and was its corresponding secretary. In 1836 he became the first president of Girard college. The college building had not been finished, and Mr. Bache was sent to Europe to investigate the best educational methods of the old world. On his return, two years later, he published a large volume reporting the results of his study. "This report," says Joseph Henry, "has done more, perhaps, to improve the theory and art of education in this country than any other work ever published." The college was still, however, in a state of incompletion. and in order to use his time to advantage. Professor Bache undertook to reorganize the Philadelphia high school. This was accomplished in a year, and he then became principal of the high school and superintendent of the public schools of Philadelphia. In 1842 he returned to his former chair at the University of Pennsylvania. but the following year left it to succeed Mr. Hassler, superintendent of the United States coast survey. This survey, though begun in 1807, had accomplished very little, extending only from New York harbor to Point Judith, and south to Cape Henlopen. Professor Bache, with the intuitive