Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/122

 DAllLliKEX

DAHLGREN

to duty, his eyesight fully restoreil. In 1^43 he sailed to the Mediterranean on the frigate Cum- berland, returning late in 184.J by reason of the threatened war with Mexico. He was assigned tu ordnance duty at "Washington in 1847, much against his wish, as his inclination was for active service afloat. His progress and promotion was rapid and he introduced imijrovements and innovations that made the ordnance department of the U.S. navy the most etiicient and formid- able in the world, and this in spite of determined opposition from the t)lder ordnance officers. He continued in the department for sixteen years, reaching the position of chief of ordnance. The Dahlgi-en shell gun and its accessories was the crowning result of his inventions, and when in 1861 the civil war put it to the severest tests it proved the wisdom and forethought of its inventor and projector. He instituted the foundry for cannon, the gun-carriage ship, and the experi- mental battery. He was made commander in is,").j, and in order to test his apparent innovations, he was allowed to equip the sloop-of-war I'lymouth with his XI. -inch guns and other modern ord- nance considered too heavy for sea service. In 1857 he visited the European coast from Portu- gal to Holland, and in 1858-59 cruised in the AVest Indies, testing the gun's efficiency and adaptability to naval warfare. In the civil war liis guns and heavy ammunition quieted the Merrimar in Hampton Roads, opened the Missis- sippi at New Orleans and Vicksburg, gave Port Royal to the Union forces as a naval station, sealed Charleston, Wilmington and Savannah to blockade runners, captured Mobile, and sunk the Alabama. In 1861 Commander Dahlgren was at the Washington navy yard and because of the disaffection in the navy, he was the senior officer left in that yard loyal to the government. He held the yard for four dajs, until Federal troops relieved him. He was promoted captain in July, 1861, remaining commander of the yard. In July, 1862, he was made chief of the Bureau of ordnance, and in February, 1863, he received from congress a vote of thanks and was made rear- admiral. In July, 1863, he succeeded to the command of the South Atlantic blockading sfjuadron whicii comprised ninety vessels of war including the iron-clad monitor fleet at Charles- ton, and guarded three hundred miles of coa.st and twenty-five ports. He succeeded in silencing Fort Sumter and the batteries on Morris Island, put a stop to blockade running, led a successful exf>edition on the St. John's river, co-operated with Sherman in the capture of Savannah and entered Cliarleston in February, 186.">. He com- manded the South Pacific sf|uadron in 1866 and was again chief of ordnance, 1800-70, being relieved at his own request and appointed to the

command of the Washington navy yard. He was married after lie returned to Washington, in 1865, to Mrs. Madeleine Vinton Goddard, only daughter of the Hon. S. F. Vinton, representative in congress from Ohio. His published works include: 32 pdr. Practice for liamjcrs (1848); Exer- cise and Jlanceuver for the Boat lloicitzer (1852); Boat Armament (1852. 2d ed., 1856); Fercnssion System (1853); Ordnance Memoranda (1853); Shells- and Shell-ffuns (1856); and Memoir of Ulric Dahhjren (1872); besides numerous reports, memoranda and notes on ordnance published in pamphlet. He died suddenlj- in Washington, D.C., July 12, 1870, and was buried in the family burying groimd at Laurel Ilill, Philadelphia.

DAHLGREN, Madeleine Vinton, author, was born in (iallipolis, Ohio, in 18o5; daughter of Samuel F. Vinton, representative from Ohio in 18th-24th and 28th-31st congresses, 1823-37, and 1843-51. Her mother was of French parent- age. Madeleine was educated at the Putnam female seminary, at the French boarding- school of i\I. Picot, Philadelphia, and at the Convent of Visita- tion at Georgetown, D.C. She was mar- ried early in life to _ Daniel Con vers God 'W'' dard of Danesville, \,r^ - Ohio, the first assist- ant .secretary of the interior department, ^ and was left a widow with two children. Romaine Madeleine, afterward tiie Baron- ess Von-Overbeck, ami Vinton, who died in 1877, a gradviate of the U.S. military academy and lieutenant, U.S.A. On Aug. 2, 1865, she was married to Rear- Admiral John Adolph Dahl- gren. U.S. X., and their three cliildren were Eric, Ulrica and John. Her literary work was done chiefly in Washington, D.C. where she made her home during the winter. Her first compositions appeared over the pen names '"Corinne"' and "Cornelia. In 1862 she pro- duced '* Catholicism, Liberalism and Socialism, translated from Donoso Cortes's original Spanish, together with a sketch of the life of Cortes from the Italian, for which she received an autograph letter from Pius IX., and a letter from the Queen of Spain, sent through the state depart- ment. In 1871 she began her opposition to the movement in behalf of woman suflFrage, and her essays on the subject signed " Cornelia " A\ere extensively jmblished. Her brochure " Thoughts on Female Suffrage" published that year was-

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