Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/228

 1)E LEON

DE LEON

the medical depiirtnient of the Universitj' of Pennsylvaiiiu in is;}(i, and at once jiassed examina- tion fur assistant surj^eon in the army. He was attached to the command of CJen. William S. Harney, U.S.A., then in the field in Florida, and with it served tiuougliout the Seminole war. Thence lie was transferred to frontier service until the declaration of the war with Mexico, when he was attached to General Taylor's army at Matamoras, and was in every battle on the Rio CJrande line up to the siege of Vera Cruz. There he was transferred to General ScUt's army as surgeon of Worth's division an 1 was in every fight u[) to the city of Mexico. Galbint and impulsive, lie gained the army nickname of "the Fighting Doctor." from leatling charges at Ciiapultepec and Molino del Key. when line officers were shot down. For this he was mentioned in orders and tlianked by resolution of congress. Dr. De Leon agaiu served on the southwestern frontier until 11^60, wiien lie asked a year's leave to travel in the Orient. On the secession of South Carolina he resigned and was made acting surgeon-general of the Confederacy by President Davis, organ- izing the medical department and .serving in the field in tiie Penin.sula and Riclimond campaigns. Then he went to the Trans-Mississippi depart- ment, and on the surrender of most of that army, crossed into Mexico with ]\Iagruder and others, remaining a j-ear. In ISGG lie returned to Alhucjuenjue, N.M., where he practised his profession until his death there, Sept. 3, 1872. DE LEON, Edwin, diplomatist, was born in Columbia, S.C, May 4, 1818; second son of Dr. M. Hendricks and Rebecca (Lopez) De Leon, and grandson of John Jacob and Hannah (Hen- dricks) De Leon. He graduated at South Carolina college in 1837; was admitted to the bar in Febru- ary, 1840, and began practice. Within a year he was invited by Colonel Locke to the joint editorship of The Iicptihlican, of _ Sav.innah. Ga. He ac-

■ cei>ted the i)f:)sition
 * and was making it a

financial and i)olitical

tcUi^U A^C^ {h^^. success, wlien his Co-

— ■ '^' luinbia, S.C, friends

started the Tchgnqih there and invited him to conduct it. In IS.jO, by invitation of the Southern wing in congress, Mr. De l^on went to Washington, afnd in conjunc- tion with EUwood Fisher established 77te South-

ern Press, which he edited until 1854, when President Pierce appointed him consul general and diplomatic agent to Egypt and dependencies. This ofUce he resigned in 1801, and the next year was selected by Jefferson Davis as diplo- matic agent of the Confederacy in Europe. He returned to America in 1867 to take part in the campaign; but again went to Egypt and Europe and returned to America in 1879 to arrange to introduce the telephone into Egj-pt. which he did under the Viceroy's firnin, in 1881. Later he lived in Constantinople and Greece, and Lust in London, writing for home and foreign periodicals and publishing his books. From early life Mr. De Leon's bent was literary. He was editor of his college journal and early contributed regularly to the leading magazines and reviews. In later life he was the close friend of Thackeray, Dickens, Tennyson and Hawthorne; as well as of "Chinese" Gordon, de Lesseps, King Otho of Greece, who decorated liini, and other notables. He was twice thanked by resolution of congress; first for braving Abbas Pacha when he threatened extermination of Greeks in Alexandria; and again when he took the flag-ship of Com. Duncan N. Ingrabam, U.S.N., to Jaffa, and demanded reparation for the murder of the American missionaries under threat of bombardment. Among the more im- jiortant of his publications are: Askaros Kassis, the Copt (romance of Egyptian life, 1869); The Khedive's Egypt (descriptive and statistical, 1872); Under the Stars and the Crescent (Romance of South America and Egypt, 1879) and Thirty Years of Life in Three Continents (reminiscences, 2 vols., 1886). In November, 1891, he crossed the ocean to arrange a series of lectures in the United States, and died in New York city, Dec. 1, 1891. DE LEON, Thomas Cooper, journalist and au- thor, Avas born in Columbia, S.C, ^lay 21, 1839; son of Dr. M. Hendricks and Rebecca (Lopez) De Leon, and brother of David Camden and Ed- win De Leon When a child he removed with his guardian, Edwin De Leon, to Washington, D.C, Avliere he was educated at private schools and at Georgetown college. He was audit clerk in the bureau of topographical engineers from 18.")8 to 1861, when he resigned to join the Con- federacy. From 1S6.') to 1807 he was contributor to magazines, editor and correspondent in Bal- timore and New York. He was managing editor, as colleague to John Forsyth, of the ^Mobile Unj- ister, 1867, and on the latter's death in 1877 be- came its editor-in-chief. In 1878 he was editor of The Gulf City, and later of The Gossip, IVIobile. He was le.s.see of the ^lobile theatre, 1873-85, and president of tiie Go.ssip publishing company, Mobile, m85-97. His published works include, novels: Cros!< 7'»ry<o.sY'.s (I860); Juny {lti7Q); Creole