Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/83

 CULLUM

CULVER

18, 1861. was made cliief of staff to Gen. H. W. Halleck, commanding the department of Missouri. Here his chief fomid him invaluable in directing engineering operations on the western rivers, preparatory to offensive operations into Ken- tucky and Tennessee in order to throw the Union forces between the eastern and western armies of the Confederacy. He commanded Cairo, 111., directed the construction of the works in the siege of Corinth, and accompanied General Hal- leck to Washington July 23, 1862, when that officer was made general-in-chief of the U.S. armies. Here he was employed in inspecting and studying fortifications, and examining engineer- ing devices, and was on various engineer boards. He served on the U.S. sanitary commission, 1861- 64. When Nashville was selected in 1864 as a base of operations for the western army he pro- jected the necessary fortifications and on Sept. 8. 1864, he was ordered to West Point as superin- tendent of the military academy. He received brevets, March 13, 186r), as colonel, brigadier- general, and major-general in the regular army for meritorious services during the war, and was mustered out of the volunteer service, Sept. 1, 1866. He left AVest Point, Aug. 28, 1866, and served on A-arious boards for national defence, 1867-74. On Jan. 13, 1874, he was retired from active service on account of age, and thereafter devoted himself to literary, scientific and mili- tary study. He was married Sept. 23, 187.5, to Elizabeth, daughter of John C. Hamilton, and widow of Gen. Henry Wager Halleck. In con- junction with his wife he gave to the New York cancer hospital. New York city. 8200,000, and made liberal benefactions to other charities. By his will he bequeathed over a quarter of. a mil- lion dollars to the U.S. military academj^ to build a memorial hall. He was vice-president of the American geographical association, 1874 ; president of the Geographical literary society, 1880-92, and a member of various other organ- izations including the Century association and the Union club of New York city. He prepared Memoir of Military Bridges icith Indian Rubber Pon- toons for the U.S. army in 1847-48. He published a translation of Duparcq"s Elements of Military Art and History (1863) ; Systems of Militai-y Bridges (1863); Sketch of Maj.-Gen. Bichard Montgom- ery of the Continental Army {\876) : Campaigns and Engineers of the War of 1812-15 (IS19) ; Historical Sketch of the Fortification Defences of Narragansett Bay since the Founding in 163S of the Colony of Bhode Island (1884); and Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Acad- emy at West Point, Xeio York, from its Establishment, March 16, 1S02, to 1890, toith an early history of the U.S. Militai-y Academy (3d edition, 3 vols., 1891). He died in New York city, Feb. 29, 1892.

CULPEPER, John, representative, was born in Anson county, N.C., in 1761. He was proba- bly a descendant of John Culpeper, surveyor- general of the Carolinas, who laid out the city of Charles Town in 1680. He was a Baptist preacher, a representative in the 10th congress, 1807-09; was unseated, Jan. 2, 1808, and re-elected, Feb- ruary 23, serving the balance of the session. He was a representative in the 13th, 14th, 16th, 18th and 20th congresses, and was defeated for the loth, 17th and 19th congresses. He was agent of the Baptist state convention of North Carolina. He died in South Carolina at the residence of his son. the Rev. John Culpeper, in 1837.

CULVER, Erastus Dean, diplomatist, was born in Whitehall, N. Y., in 1806. He was gradu- ated at the University of Vermont in 1826, and was admitted to the bar, practising his profession in Greenwich, N.Y. He was elected to the state assembly in 1838 and in 1841. He represented his district in the 29th congress, 1845^7, and in 1855, upon removing to Brooklyn, N.Y., he was elected judge of the city court, remaining on the bench six years, meanwhile becoming a member of the law firm of Culver, Parker & Arthur of New York city. In 1862 he was appointed U.S. min- ister to Venezuela, remaining at that post until June 30, 1866. He afterward continued the practice of law in New York city. He died at Greenwich, N.Y., Oct. 15, 1889.

CULVER, Helen, philanthropist, was born in Little Valley, Cattaraugus coimty, N.Y., March 23, 1832; daughter of Lyman and Emiliza (Hull) Culver ; and granddaughter of Noah and Sallie (Fenn) Culver, and of Robert and Sarah (.Slocum) Hull. The Culvers came from Wallingford, England, and settled in and named Wallingford, Conn. Noah Culver removed thence to Walling- ford, Vt., and thence, in 1817, to Little Valley, Cattaraugus county, N.Y. The Hulls were Eng- lish settlers in Rhode Island. Helen Culver was gradviated from the Randolph (NY.) ladies' seminary, afterward Chamberlain institute, in 1853, and in the fall of the same year established a private school at Sycamore, 111. In the follow- ing spring she went to Chicago as principal of a primary school, and later taught in the grammar and liigh schools of Chicago until 1861. In 1863 she was appointed matron of the Officers' hospital at Murfreesboro, Tenn., by the U.S. sanitary commission, just after the battle of Stone's River. She soon resigned and entered the general hos- pital at the same place. In 1868 she went into the re? . estate business in the office of Charles J. Hull, in Chicago, operating in Chicago, 111., Bal- timore, Md., Savannah, Ga., Houston, Texas, Lincoln, Neb., and Boulder, Col. In December, 1895, she gave §1,000,000 to the University of Chicago as a memorial of Charles Jerold Hull, the