Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/264

 DIHKKLL

DI CJESNOLA

colored students, a bmneli of the state university. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention at Cincinnati in 1880, and a presiden- tial elector on the Democratic ticket of the same year. In 1881 he was apiKjinted to fill the vacancy in the house of representatives cau.sed by the death of M. P. O'Connor and took his seat in the 47th conprress, but Mr. O'Connor's claim to an el-jclion having been successfully contested by E. W. yi. Mackey, Mr. Dibble lost his seat. He afterward represented the 1st South Carolina dis- trict in the 48tli, 49th, oOth and ."ilst congresses, 188:{-iM.

DIBRELL, George Gibbs, representative, was born in White county, Tcnn., April 12, 1823. He matriculated at the East Tennessee university, leaving at the end of the year to devote himself to agriculture. In 1861 lie was elected a member of the state constitutional convention, and later in the same j'ear represented his district in the Tennessee legislature. In 1862 he entered the Confederate armj-, rising by jiromotion from pri- vate to the rank of colonel, and in 1864 to that of brigadier-general of cavalry. After Lee's sur- render he was stationed in Greensboro, N.C., as custodian of the archives. In 1870 he was again a representative in the state legislature. He was a representative in the 44th, 45tli, 46th, 47tli and 48th congresses, 187o-8.j.

DI CESNOLA, Emmanuele Pietro Paolo Maria Luigi Palma, soldier and areha-ologist, was born in Kivarolo, near Turin, June 2!), 1832. His family originally came from Spain in 1190, but resided in Piedmont after 1282, and as early as the four- teenth century. The Palmas were immensely rich and invested

^

with feudal power over twentj'-two

towns and villages in Naples, in Sicily, and in the region near Turin. Luigi Palma di Cesnola re- ceived a collegiate education with a view to his prepara- tion for the priest- hood. In 1848 war broke out between Austria and Sardinia and he left college and volunteered as a private in the Sardinian army. In February, 1849, he was promoted for military valor to a lieutenancy in the 9th regiment of the Queen's royal brigade on the battle-field at Novara. He was then the youngest commissioned officer in the Sardinian regular army. After the close of this war he was sent to the Royal military acad-

emy at Cherasco. where he was graduated in 1851. He served in the army several years, took part in the Crimean war, and at the end of 1860 came to America, landing in New York. In June, 1801, he was married to Mary Isabel, daugh- ter of Cajit. Samuel Chester Reid of the United States navy, the heroic commander of the priva- teer General Armstroruj, and the original designer of the present American flag. He entered the volunteer service in the civil war in 1861, as lieutenant-colonel of the 11th New York cavalry. In 1862 he was commissioned colonel of the 4th New York cavalry, led the brigade attached to the 11th army corps for several months, and for his "heroic conduct'' on the battle-field in a charge on June 17, 1863, he was complimented by General Kilpatrick and at the sanie time was presented with the sword of that officer. In leading the fifth charge on that day he was severely wounded, was made prisoner of war, and was confined for over nine months in Libby prison, where he planned the escape of the Union prisoners in which the caAalry under Kil- patrick, Custer and Dalilgren were to take an important part in their raid around Richmond in 1864, but Secretary of War Stanton declined to give his consent and the plan was not carried out. He was with Sheridan throughout the campaign in the Shenandoah valle)% and when the term of service of his regiment exjiired he remained at the head of Devin's brigade at the written request of Gen. Wesley Merritt, his division commander. President Lincoln in I860, in the presence of Senator Ira Harris and the Hon. W. H. Seward, conferred on him the brevet rank of brigadier-general, and appointed him the American consul at Cyprus, and he became an American citizen. He remained in Cyprus until 1877, when the consulate was abolished. While holding this ottice, he rendered the inestimable service characterized by Sir Henry Layard as " adding a new chapter to the liistory of art and archicology," by making arch.vological explora- tions in that island and collecting a large num- ber of antiquities, afterward displaj'ed in the Metropolitan museum of art, which furnished the long missing link connecting Egj^ptian and Assyrian art with that of Greece. Many lit- erary and scientific societies of Europe and Amer- ica conferred upon him honorary membership. Kings Victor Emmanuel and Humbert of Italy bestowed upon him several knifjhtly orders as did the King of Bavaria. In 1882 King Humbert of Italy caused a large gold medal to be struck in his lionor and .sent him as a New Year's gift. In 1897, througli the secretary of war, he received the congressional " medal of honor " for which he had neither applied nor authorized any one to do so in his name. It was bestowed upon him for