Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/186

BAILEY.BAINBRIDGE. BAILEY, William Whitman, botanist, was born at West Point, N. Y., Feb. 22, 1843, son of Jacob Whitman Bailey, professor of chemistry, geology, and mineralogy at the military academy. He received his early training at the school for officers' children, and upon the death of his father in 1857, he removed to Providence, R. I., where he entered the university grammar school. He entered Brown university in 1860, and in 1862 joined the 10th regiment R. I. volunteers in the defence of Washington. Returning to college he was graduated in 1864, and remained at the university during the following year as assistant in the chemical laboratory. During a part of 1866 he was assistant chemist at the Manchester (N. H.) print works; then (1866-’67) assistant in chemistry at the Massachusetts institute of technology, and in May, 1867, was appointed botanist to the U. S. geological exploration of 40th parallel under Clarence King. Failing health compelled his return to the east in 1868, and for a time he was deputy secretary of the state of Rhode Island. From 1869 to 1871 he was assistant librarian at the Providence athenæum. During a part of 1872 he engaged in journalism in New York, and until 1877 was a private teacher of botany, meanwhile studying that science at Columbia college and at the Harvard summer school. He was appointed instructor in botany at Brown university in 1877, and was given the chair of botany in 1881. He was made a member of the Torrey botanical club, Boston society of natural history, New England botanical club, the Rhode Island horticultural society, the New York microscopical society, the Appalachian mountain club, a fellow of American association for advancement of science, and a member of several military and social organizations. He was appointed, June, 1896, by President Cleveland a member of the board of visitors to the United States military academy, and served as secretary of the board. Among his published writings are: "The Botanical Collector's Hand-Book" (1881); "My Boyhood at West Point" (1891); "Botanist Note-Book" (1894); "Among Rhode Island Wild Rowers" (1895); and contributions in prose and verse to many periodicals and to the daily press. BAINBRIDGE, William, naval officer, was born at Princeton, N. J., May 7, 1774, the fourth son of Absalom Bainbridge, who was fifth in descent from Sir Arthur Bainbridge of Durham county, England, whose son settled in New Jersey. William was of an adventurous disposition, and shipped at the age of fifteen before the mast. When only eighteen he was appointed first mate of a vessel. On the first voyage a mutiny arose among the crew, who seized the captain and would have thrown him overboard had not young Bainbridge and the second mate fought and conquered the mutineers. He was made commander in the following year, and in 1796, while off the island of St. Johns, on the ship Hope, a British schooner of eight guns and thirty men attacked him. The enemy did not show her colors until the first fire had been returned. The Hope was equipped with only four guns and eleven men, but the enemy was compelled to strike her flag. In 1798 he was appointed lieutenant and commander of the Retaliation, and ordered to cruise in the West Indies with the brig Norfolk and the frigate Montezuma to protect American commerce against French cruisers. In November, 1798, they sighted two French frigates, one of which, the Insurgent, began to fire upon the Retaliation, which, taken by surprise, struck her colors. He craftily saved the other ships from capture by representing them to be of very heavy armament. Lieutenant Bainbridge was taken by his captors to Guadaloupe, the governor of which place returned to him his vessel; he effected the release of a large number of Americans held as prisoners and subjected to cruel treatment, and with them he sailed to the United States, where he was promoted to the rank of master, 1798, and given command of the brig-of-war Norfolk, of eighteen guns. He reported to the government the ill-treatment received by American prisoners at Guadaloupe, and this resulted in the retaliation act that led to war with France. In command of the Norfolk, Bainbridge was ordered to the West Indies. He returned in August, 1799, and sailed again in September for Cape François, leaving in October, on the 8th of which month he captured the French lugger Republican. In May, 1800, Captain Bainbridge took command of the frigate George Washington to carry tribute to Algiers, when he was compelled by the Dey to convey an ambassador to Constantinople with presents to the sultan, together with upwards of two hundred Turkish passengers. When Bainbridge remonstrated, the Dey replied, "You pay me tribute by which you become my slaves, I have, therefore, a right to order you as I may think proper." Bainbridge, in his report, said: "I hope I may never again be sent to Algiers with tribute unless I am authorized to deliver it from the mouth of our cannon."