Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/393

 MILES

MILES

corps including 25,000 men, being then only twenty-six years okl. He was brevetted major- general of volunteers, Aug. 25, 1864, for •* higlily meritorious and distinguished conduct through- out the campaign and imrticularly for gallantry and valuable services in the battle of Reams's Station, Virginia ; " brigadier-general in the regular service, March 2, 1807, for Chancellors- ville. and major-general, March 2, 1867, for Spott- sylvania. He received the thanks of congress '• for distinguished services during the recent batth'S of the Old Wildernass and Spottsylvania Court House. Virginia." He also received a gress, approved March 3, 1803. " for distinguished gallantry in the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863, while holding with his command a line of abatis and rifle pits against a strong force of the enemy, until severely wounded ; while colonel 6lst New York volunteers, commanding a line of skirmishers in front of the 1st division, 2d army corps." He was transferred to the per- manent establishment, July 28, 1866, and com- missioned colonel of the 40th infantry, accepting the commission, Sept. 6, 1860. On March 15, 1869, he was transferred to the 5th infantry. On Dec. 15, 1880, he was promoted brigadier-general, on April 5, 1890, major-general, and on Sept. 29, 1895, by virtue of seniority, he became com- mander-in-chief of the U.S. army. On June 6, 1900, he was made lieutenant- general by an act of congress reviving the rank, and on Feb. 2, '1901, on the reorganization of the army, he was appointed by President McKinley lieutenant- general, U.S.A., which appointment was at once confirmed by the senate. His services in the west included the defeat of the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche Indians on the borders of the Staked Plains in 1875 ; the subjugation of the Sioux in Montana in 1876 ; the driving of Sitting Bull out of the United States ; the capture of the Nez Perces under Chief Joseph the same year, and the capture of the Bannocks near Yellowstone Park in 1878. He commanded the Deparment of the Columbia, 1880-85 ; the Department of Mis- souri, 1885-89; and conducted an Indian cam- paign in Arizona, 1886. in which he compelled the Apaches under Geronimo and Natchez to sur- render, Sept. 4, 1886. Tiie legislatures of Kansas, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona, passed unani- mous votes of tliaiiks for his services in their borders. He commanded the Department of the East, 1894-95, and visited Europe, and represented the U.S. army at the seat of the Turco-Grecian war and also at Queen Victoria's Diamond jubilee, 1897. In the war with Spain in 1898, he mobilized the regular army of 25.000 men and organized a volunteer army out of over 200,000 volunteers ready for any emergency. He personally took
 * ' medal of honor," as provided under act of con-

command at Santiago, July 11, 1898, and arranged the terms of capitulation which called foi the evacuation of Santiago and the surrender of the Spanish force occupying the eastern end of the island. Before the appearance of the Spanish commander to carrj- out the terms he generously left the formality of the surrender to the general in the Held and rei)aired to Guantanomo, where he prepared to lead a deUichment of 3,416 men in its brilliant and successful invasion of Porto Rico. There, after six affairs against sui)erior forces and with small loss of life, he completely subjugated the Spanish troops, who prayed for a cessation of hostilities long before he had carried out his plans. In the conduct of the war with Spain he fearlessly defended the U.S. army against the im- positions of contractore who provided unwhole- some food, and by ordering a rigid investigation of tlie conduct of the commissary department stopped what might have proved a fatal epidemic. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Harvard university in 1896 and from Brown uni- versity in 1901. He is the author of : Personal Recollections ; or, from New England to the Golden Gate (1897); Military Eurojye (1898); Observa- tions Abroad ; or, Report of Maj.-Gen. Nelson A. Miles Coynmanding U.S. Army, of his Tonr of Observation in Europe (1899). He was retired under operation of the law. Aug. 8. lOO.*^.

MILES, Richard Plus, R. C. bishop, was born in Prince George county, Md., May 17, 1791. His parents removed to Kentucky in 1795, and he entered St. Rose academy, Washington county, Ky., in 1807. He joined the Dominican brother- hood and was ordain- ed priest September, 1816, at Convent of St. Rose, of the Or- der of Preachers, Springfield, Ky. He accompanied the

Rev. Edward Fen- wick, (q.v.), into Ohio, where they es- tablished churches, and Bishop Flaget into the far west on the same mission. He established a con- vent of Dominican nuns near Springfield,

Ky., and was appointed father superior. He was provincial of the Dominicans of Kentucky and Ohio for several years. When the see of Nashville was established, July 28, 1837, he was appointed its bishop, and on Sept. 16, 1838, he was consecrated in the Convent of St. Rose of the Order of Preachers by Bishop Rosati of St. Louis. There was not one Roman Catholic priest in the

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