Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/319

 GILLISS

GILLMAN

drove out the garrison from Fort Walker; ami was on blockade duty in May, 1862, in the attack on Sewell's Point, Va. He was commissioned captain, July 16, 1863, and assigned to the Ossi- pee, and commanded the division of the western gulf squadron off Mobile and subsequently of the division off Texas. He was obliged to retire from active service in 1864, and returned north to re- cuperate his health. On Sept. 28, 1866, he was promoted commodore and placed on the retired list. He died in Wilmington, Del., Feb. 25, 1873. QILLISS, James Melville, astronomer, was born in Georgetown, D.C., Sept. 6, 1811. He en- tered the U.S. navy as midshipman in 1827, mak- ing his first cruises on the Delaware, the Concord and the Java. He was made passed midshipman in 18.31, and gave one year to the study of the sciences at the University of Virginia and subse- quently studied in Paris. He was made assistant in the bureau of charts and instruments, navy department, Washington, D.C, in 1836 and had charge of the small building that served as the first observatory in Washington. His active a.stronomical work began when Secretary J. K. Paulding instructed him, in 1838, to determine, in conjunction with the scientists accompanying the Wilkes expedition to the Southern Seas, the differences of longitude by means of moon-calcu- lations, occultations and eclipses, with magnetic and meteorological observations, and he was the pioneer American astronomer to conduct a work- ing observatory, to publish a volume of observa- tions, to catalogue the stars and to direct the science to practical use outside the field of in- struction. He was promoted lieutenant in 1838, and in 1813 he prepared the jjlans for the astro- nomical observatory established by congress. Be- fore completing the building and selecting the instruments, he visited Europe to obtain the best information as to apparatus and on his return he completed and equipped the observator3' in the short time of eighteen months. The establish- ment was passed to the superintendence of Lieut M. F. Maury, and Gillis was assigned to the coast survey, where he reduced for the use of the de- partment the entire record of observations made by him and embraced in fifteen manuscript folio volumes. He was employed in observations to determine the solar parallax, 1848-52, making a station at Santa Lucia, Chili, South America, where he gained observations of value in 1849-50. He also studied the phenomena of earthquakes and while in Chili laid the foundation for a na- tional observatory there. In 18.58 he visited Peru, to observe the total eclipse of the sun, and in 1860 he observed a total eclipse from a point in Washington Territory. In 1861 he was assigned to the charge of the Washington observatory, and in 1863 was advanced to the rank of captain. He

was a charter member of the National academy of sciences, and published: Astronomical Observa- tions made at the Xaval Observatory (1846); 2'he United Slates Astronomical Expedition to the South- ern Hemisphere in 1849-52 (1855, et seq.); An Account of the Total Eclipse of the Simon September 7, 1S5S (1859), and other scientific papers. He (lied in Waslungton, D.C, Feb. 9, 1865.

QILLMAN, Henry, scientist and author, was born in Kiusale, Ireland, Nov. 10, 1833; eldest son of Edward and Eleanor Mandeville (Hackett) Gillman; grandson of Henry Gillman of Belrose and Rock House, and of Capt. John Hackett of H.B.M. 8th Hussar regiment; and descended from an old British family. He also de- scended from Jolin Winthrop, lord of the manor of Groton in Suffolk, uncle of John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, 1630. He studied un- der private tutors, and subsequently at Hamilton acailemy, Bandon. With his parents he removed to the United States in 1850 and settled in Detroit, Mich. He was at first assistant on the government geo- detic survey of the great lakes, and then in charge of a topographical and hydrographical party of the survey, 1851-69; assistant superin- tendent of construction in the 10th and 11th light- house districts on the uortliern lakes, 1870-76, and superintendent and librarian of the public library, Detroit, Mich., 1880-85. In 1886 he was appointed by President Cleveland U.S. consul at Jerusalem. While there he made such a decided stand against the expulsion of the Jews, by the Turks, from Palestine, that his position was fi- nally upheld by several of the European powers, and the Turkish government was obliged to modify the laws relating to the Jews. He de- voted his leisure time to the study of the antiq- uities of Jerusalem, and through his efforts Johns Hopkins university procured and published in 1887 a facsimile of the original long-lost nian- u.script of the " Didache," the famous " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," thus for the first time given in this form to the Christian world. He also made a facsimile copy of the ancient Greek manuscripts of the "Epistles of St. Clement," which was embodied in the posthumous edition of Bishop Lightfoot's celebrated work " The Apos- tolic Fathers" in 1890. In May, 1891, he left Jerusalem, and after an extended tour of Asia