Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/474

 GWIN

GWIN

medal of progress from the Vienna exjiosition of 1ST3 and a gold medal from the exposition at Paris in 1878 for his geographies and wall maps. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Har- vard in 1849 and that of LL.D. from Union in 18.54. His lectures delivered in French before the Lowell institute, Boston, in 1849, were trans- lated by President Felton and published under the title Earth and 3Ian (1853). He also pub- lislied Directions for Meteorological Observations (1850) and Meteorological and Physical Fables (1851-54). His other literary labors include biographical memoirs of Carl Ritter (1860), of James H. Coffin (1875), and of Louis Agassiz 1883); a series of geographies and wall maps (1866-75), a Treatise on Physical Ueography (1878); associate editorship of Johnson's Cyclopwdia (1874-77); Creation, or the Biblical Cosmogony in the Light of Modern Science (1884) and papers pub- lished ill the American Journal of Science. See sketch of his life and record of his services to science by James D. Dana in Biographical Me- moirs of the National Academy of Sciences (1888) He died in Princeton, N.J., Feb. 8, 1884.

QWIN, William, naval officer, was born in Columbus, Ind., Dec. 5, 1833. He entered the U..S. navy as midshipman, April 7, 1847, and was regularly promoted, reaching the rank of lieuten- ant, Sept. 16, 1855, and lieutenant-commander, July 16, 1863. He was an officer on the Cam- bridge and Commodore Perry on blockading duty with the Atlantic .squadron in 1861, and on the formation of the river flotilla in January, 1863, he was assigned to the Tyler, a Mississipjii steamboat transformed into a gunboat, but not iron-clad. His first service in the west was in removing tor- pedoes planted in the Tennessee river and in the capture of Fort Henry, Feb. 6, 1863, when his vessel with the Conestoga and Lexington acted as the reserve to the iron-plated gunboats liold- '-^ rng the advance in the assault. Hy orders of (- eneral Grant be then pro- ceeded up ~" the Tenuessee river, destroyed or captured the enemy's boats, and a new gun- boat, and broke up their camps. He returned in time to take part in the second day's unsuccessful assault on Fort Donelson, Feb. 14, 1863, when, as at Fort Henry, he was assigned to a position far in the rear, and the shells fired 6rom the Tyler and Conestoga passing over the Federal iron- clads holding the advance line did more damage to the U.S. gunboats than to the Confederate

U.S.CUM-BOAT "tVLErV

fort and he ordered the guns to stop firing. The Tyler was detained in the Tennessee river to co- operate with the army of General Grant while the rest of Flag-officer Foote's fleet proceeded down the river to Cairo and thence to Island No. 10. Lieutenant Gwin took part in the battle of Pittsburg Landing, April 7, 1863, and by shelling the enemy enabled the army to recover the ground lost on the first day of the battle. On July 15, 1863, the Tyler with a large body of soldiers on board left the combined fleet then stationed above Vioksburg and under sealed orders proceeded to the mouth of the Yazoo river, where he met the Queen of the West and the Carondelet going in the same direction. The Tyler had proceeded about six miles when she met the Confederate iron-clad ram Arkansas steaming down the river in the direction of the Federal fleet. As his boat was of wood, Lieu- tenant-Commander Gwin fired a few shots against the armored side of the ram, but they glanced off and he stopped the engines and awaited the Carondelet, an iron-clad, when they united in a running fire against the Arkansas while steaming together down the ri\ er. The soldiers on board were unprotected from the shot of the ram and under the restraint furnished by the good fight made by the Carondelet Commander Gwin was enabled to escape, as was the Queen of the Vest. On reaching the Federal fleet the Tyler announce^i the approach of the Arkansas, and after tbo Confederate ram had run the gauntlet of the entire fleet Gwin was dispatched to Cairo to announce the news of the escape of the Arkansas, then under protection of the batteries at Vicks- burg. On Dec. 37, 1863, he was given command of a fleet of four iron-clads and two gunboats with the Benton as flagship, and tlirected to attack the Confederate batteries at Haynes's Bluff on the Yazoo river, but after a gallant fight of an hour and a quarter, during which time the Benton received twenty-five damaging shot and her commander was mortally wounded, the gunboats withdrew. He died on the gunboat Beutnn near Haynes's Blulf. Miss., Jan. 3, 1863. QWIN, William McKendree, senator, was born in Sumner county, Term., Oct. 9, 1805; son of the Rev. James Gwin, a Methodist preacher and a' soldier under General Jackson. He was graduated at Transylvania university, M.D., in 1838, having previously studied law at Gallatin, Tenn. He practised medicine in Clinton, Miss. In 1833 President Jackson appointed him U.S. marshal for the district of Mississippi. He represented the Vicksburg district in the 37th congress, 1841-43, and declined a reelection on account of his poverty. President Polk ap- pointed him superintendent of the building <;f the U.S. custom house in New Orleans and he