Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/210

 1-^RENCH

FRENCH

chaplain to congress in 1841 ; rector of the church of the Epipliany, Washington, D.C., 1842-56; and chajilain and pi'ofessor of geography, history and etliics at the U.S. military academy, West Point, N.Y., 1856-71. He received the degree of D.D. from Trinity and Columbia colleges in 1860. He publislied; English Grammar (1863) and Practical Etiiics (ISGi). He died at West Point, N.Y., July 8. 18TI.

FRENCH, Mansfield, educator, was born in Manchester, Vt., Feb. 21, 1810. He attended Bennington seminary, 1826-30, and the divinity school of Kenyon college, Ohio, 1830-34, where he also served as principal of the preparatory school of the college. In April. 1831, he joined the Rev. Luther G. Binghana as projirietor of the Marietta Institute of Education which, Dec. 17, 1832, was incorporated as Slarietta Colle- giate institute and Western Teachers' seminary, changed to Marietta college, February, 1835. He also founded the Granville female sem- inary, and the Circleville female college, of which he was for a time principal. In 1845 he joined the North Ohio conference of the Method- ist church and was president of the female college, Xenia, Ohio, 1845^8. In 1853, with the Rev. John F. Wright, he took the first movement before the Cincinnati conference toward estab- lishing a college for colored persons in Ohio. In 1855 Mr. Wright was appointed president and Mr. French secretary of the committee which authorized the purchase of Xenia Springs prop- erty, and on Aug. 30, 1856, Wilberforce univer- sity was incorporated with twenty-four trustees, of which four- were colored men. Mr. French was made secretary of the board. In 1858 he removed to New York city where he con- tinued the publication of The Beauty of Holiness, a religious monthly, devoted largely to anti- slavery agitation. In 1862 be went to Wash- ington at the request of prominent New York abolitionists to present to President Lincoln the claims of "contraband" slaves to the fostering care of the nation. He visited Port Royal, S.C., in 1862, and at a meeting at Cooper Union, New York, in the same year, organized the " National Freedraan's relief association," of which he was elected general agent. In Marcli, 1863, he gath- ered a large class of teachers and undertook the education of the colored population of Port Royal. He established negi'o families on abandoned plan- tations, and taught them improved methods of farming. During the progress of the civd war he organized an expedition to intercept tele- graphic communication between the Confederate forces and delivered the messages to the war de- ])artment at Washington. In 1832 he was married to Miss Winchell. who aided him in his missionary work. He died at Pearsalls, N.Y'., March 15, 1876.

FRENCH, Samuel Gibbs, soldier, was born in Gloucester county, N.J., Nov. 22, 1818; son of Samuel and Rebecca (Clark) French; and a direct descendant from Thomas French, who was baptized in the church in Nether-Hayford, Northamptonshire, England, in 1537, and whose descendant, Thomas French, left the church of England, became a Quaker, was persecuted and imprisoned, and finally, OQ Julv 23, 1680, landed in Burlington, West New Jersey, with his wife and nine chil- dren, being one of the landed proprie- tors there. Samuel G. French acquired his early education chiefly at Burling- ton, N.J., was grad- j uated from the U.S. f\ military academy in * 1843 and was com- missioned brevet 2d ^ lieutenant in the ^ u^ U.S. army. He was ^ "^ O^^l^^H-C^ appointed 2d lieuten- ant, 3d artillery, Aug. 11, 1846; 1st lieutenant, March 8, 1847, and captain on the staff, assistant quartermaster, U.S.A., Jan. 12, 1848. He served with distinction in the Mexican war, being brev- etted 1st lieutenant, Sept. 23, 1846, '• for gallant and meritorious conduct in the several conflicts at Monterey " ; and captain, Feb. 23, 1847, for gallantry at Buena Vista. He resigned from the army in April, 1856, and became a planter in Greenville, Miss. On Feb. 12, 1861, he was ap- pointed chief of ordnance in the army of the state of Mississipi^i ; and on Oct. 23, 1861, was ap- pointed brigadier-general of the provisional army of the Confederate States and major-general, Aug. 31, 1862. He commanded a brigade and subsequently a division in Gen. D. H. HilFs corps at Petersburg, Va., and led the demonstra- tion again.st Harrison's Landing, July 4, 1862, and against Suffolk, Sept. 22, 1802. He was transferred to Hood's army in the west, and on Oct. 5, 1864, was directed with his division to break the line of communication of Shei'man's army by capturing Allatoona Pass. Gen. J. M. Corse defended the pass with desperate bravery, and when reinfoi-cements arrived General French withdrew his division to New Hope Ciuircli. After the close of the war he went to Alabama, and in 1899 was a resident of Pensacola, Fla. He was married, April 26, 1853, to Eliza Matilda, daughter of Josejih L. Roberts of Natchez, Miss. She died, June 13, 1857, leaving one daughter. General French was married in 1865 to Jlary Fon- taine, daughter of Gen. Anderson Aberci'ombie.