Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/330

 PIATT

PIATT

professor emeritus, 1831-35. He was surgeon ex- traordinary of the almshouse infirmary, lbOl-16; was elected consulting surgeon to the Institute for the Blind in 1822; president of the Phreno- logical society of Philadelphia in 1823, and presi- dent of the Philadelphia Medical society in 1824. He was a member of the American Philosophical society; of the Royal Academy of Medicine of France, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine and Chirurgy of London. He introduced numerous valuable surgical instru- ments and improved modifications of others, and by the number and success of his operations, became the " father of American surgery." He die.l in Piiiladelphia, Pa., July 7, 1768.

PIATT, Abratn Sanders, soldier, was born in Cincinnati. Oliio, May 2, 1821; son of Benjamin M. and Elizabeth (Barnett) Piatt; grandson of Capt. Jacob and Hannah Cook (McCuUough) Piatt, and great-grandson of John and Frances (Van Vleet) Wycoff Piatt of Six Mile Run, N.J. He was a student at the Athena?um and at Kinmont academy in Cincinnati, and engaged in farming in the Macacheek valley. He began the study of law in 1846. and founded, and for several years edited, the Macacheek Press. He enlisted in the volunteer army early in 1861, was appointed colonel of the 13th Ohio infantry, April 30, 1861, and raised in July, 1861, the first Zouave regi- ment in Ohio, which became the 34th Ohio in- fantry, and of which he was made colonel. He continued to recruit with permission from the state authorities, and organized another regi- ment, known as the 54th, with the intention of forming a brigade, but was ordered to join General Rosecrans in West Virginia. He engaged in various skirmishes with the enemy on the march, and in March, 1862, returned home on sick leave. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, Feb. 22, 1862, and on his return commanded a brigade under General Schenck in the army of the Shenandoah. He commanded the post at Winchester, Va., for a short time, and in July, 1862, was assigned to a brigade in the reserve corps of Gen. S. D. Sturgis, Army of Virginia, and was attached to the 5th corps, Aug. 27-31, in the second battle of Bull Run. He also took part in the battle of Fredericksburg, in com- mand of the 1st brigade, 3rd division, 3rd corps. He resigned from the service in April, 1863, and resumed farming. He became a member of the National (Greenback-Labor) part}', and was its candidate for governor, Oct. 14, 1879. He was a member of the Patrons of Husbandry, serving for two years as its state lecturer, and contributed poems to his own publication and to the Cincin- nati Commercial. In 1903 he was living at his home Mac-a-cheek, near West Liberty. Ohio, and devoting his time to agriculture.

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PIATT, Donn, journalist, was born in Cincin- nati, Ohio, June 29, 1819; son of Benjamin M. and Elizabeth (Barnett) Piatt. He attended the Athenaeum school in Cincinnati for three years, studied law under his father, and in the office of his brother, Jacob Wycoff Piatt, and his brother-in-law, N. C. Read, and was ad- mitted to the bar, settling in practice in Cincinnati. In 1840 he became editor of the Democratic Club, published at AVest Liberty, and afterward at Mac-a- cheek, the family home. He was mar- ried in August, 1847, to Louise, daughter of Timothy Kirby of

Cincinnati, Ohio. While in Europe she con- tributed letters to the Home Journal, which were published in book form, as Bell Smith Abroad (1855). He was married, secondly, in July. 1866, to Ella, sister of his deceased wife. He was judge of the court of common pleas of Hamilton county, 1852-53; secretary of the U.S. legation at Paris, 1854-55, and charge d'affaires from December, 1854, to October, 1855, when he resigned. He was a speaker in the Fremont and Dayton campaign in 1856, and in 1860, with Robert C. Schenck, canvassed southern Illinois for Lincoln and Hamlin. He volunteered as a private early in 1861, raised a company, and in June, 1861, became assistant adjutant-general and chief-of-staff of General Robert C. Schenck, serving with him in the battles of Vienna, Va., June 17, and at Bull Run, July 21. He also served under Rosecrans in western Virginia and in the Shenandoah valle.v, in opposing General T. J. Jackson, and in the relief of Milroy at McDowell. He was made assistant inspector- general with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, when Schenck was given command of a divi- sion by Fremont, and was chief-of-staff with the rank of colonel, when Schenck commanded the 8th corps and the middle department at Balti- more, Md., September, 1862. During the absence of his chief, Piatt ordered General Birney to recruit a negro brigade in Maryland, which order aroused the indignation of President Lincoln, who threatened to dismiss him from the army in disgrace. He was judge advocate of the com- mission that investigated the military conduct of Gen. Don Carlos Buell. and favored Buell's acquittal; was sent to Winchester to observe the situation in June, 1863, and ordered General