Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/402

 POSEY

POST

Hill College and Theological Seminary in Mobile. He introduced tlie Nuns of the Visitation in 1832, built for tlu'ui a convent and academy at Sum- merville, Ala., in 18;J3, and the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 1835-50. He welcomed mt'mb.Ts of tiie Society of Jesus ; founded an asylum for tiiose made orphans by the epidemics of yellow fever, and introduced a colony of Sisters of Ciiarity to care for them. He also introduced tiie Brothers of Christian Instruction ; established labt.r and parish schools, and a girls' school at St. Augustine, Fla. He visited Europe a second time in 1849, and after his return was prominent in tiie deliberations of the councils of his church, being for sometime previous to his death senior bishop of the American hierarchy. He died at the Providence Infirmary. Mobile, Ala., May 14, 1859. POSEY, Thomas, senator and soldier, was born in Fairfax county, Va., July 9, 1750. He removed to tiie western frontier of Virginia in 1769 ; served in Lord Dunmore's Shawnee expedi- tion in 1774, as quartermaster of General Andrew LewLs's division, and fought in the battle at Point Pleasant, Oct. 10, 1774. He was appointed a member of the committee of correspondence of Virginia in 1775 ; and raised and commanded a company which became a part of the 7th Vir- ginia regiment, March 20, 1776. He fought at Gwynn's island, July 8, 1776 ; joined Washing- ton's army at Middlebrook, N.J., in 1777, where his company was transferred to Morgan's rifle- men, and took part in the engagement at Piscat- away, N.J. He was sent to re-inforce General Gates in northern New York and fought at Bemis's Heights, Sept. 19, and Stillwater, Oct. 7, 1777. He was promoted major April 30, 1778 ; commanded the 2d Virginia regiment at Mon- mouth, June 28, 1778 ; was transferred to the 7th Virginia regiment, Sept. 14, and in October, 1778. led an expedition against tlie Indians after the m.-Lssacre of Wyoming, July 5, 1778. He joined Washington's army at Middlebrook, N.J., in the spring of 1779, and commanded the 11th Virginia infantry, and shortly afterward a batta- lion of Colonel Febiger's regiment. In the assault on Stony Point, July 15, 1779, he received the arms of the British officers. General Wayne being severely wounded. He was sent south to rein- force General Greene, who had succeeded General Gates, and was present at the surrender of Corn- wallis at Yorktown. Oct. 19, 1781. He wa.s pro- moted lieutenant-colonel Sept. 11, 1782; organized a new regiment, which he commanded in Georgia under General Wayne until the evacuation of Savannah by the British. July 11, 1782. and was retired March 10. 1783. He was married first in 1773. to Martha, daughter of Gen. Sampson Matthews of Augusta county. Va.: and .secondly, Jan 22, 1784, to Mary, daughter of John and Lucy

(Thornton) Alexander, and widow of Maj. George Thornton. He served in the army as brigadier- general from Feb. 14, 1793, to Feb. 28, 1794, and commanded a brigade under General Wayne in tj,ie Northwest. He removed to Kentucky in 1794; was state senator for several years and speaker of the senate, 1805-06. In 1809, when war was threatened, he was commissioned major-general and organized the Kentucky volunteers, and after the danger from war had ended, removed to Attakapas, La. In 1812 he raised and com- manded a volunteer company'. When Louisiana was admitted as a state, John Noel Destrehan and A. B. Magruder were elected U.S. senators, but Destrehan resigned before taking his seat, and General Posey was appointed to the vacancy, serving from Dec. 7, 1812, to Feb. 5, 1813, when James Brown was elected to complete the term. He was governor of Indiana Territory, 1813-16 ; the defeated candidate for governor of the new state in 1816. and U.S. Indian agent at Shawnee- town. 111., 181G-18, where he died March 19, 1818. POST, Alfred Charles, surgeon, was born in New Y\)rk city, Jan. 13, 1806 ; son of Joel and Elizabeth (Browne) Post ; grandson of Jotham and Winifred (Wright) Post, and a descendant of Richard Post, who emigrated from Holland to Massacliusetts with a party of Pilgrims, and settled on Long Island, about 1640, where he founded the town of Southampton, and became a New York merchant. Alfred Charles Post was graduated at Columbia, A.B., 1822 ; studied med- icine under his uncle Dr. Wright Post (q.v.), and was graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New Y''ork city, in 1827. He continued his medical studies in the schools and hospitals of Paris, Berlin and Edinburgh, 1827-29, and in the latter year settled in practice in New York city, giving most of his attention to surgery. He was luarried, in 1832, to Harriet, daughter of Cyre- nius Beers of New York. He was a demonstrator of anatomy at the College of Physicians and Sur- geons, 1831-35 ; surgeon of the New York hospi- tal, 1836-86 ; professor of opthalmic anatomy and surgery and of the principles and practice of surgery, in Castleton Medical college, Vermont, 1842-44 ; was influential in the establishment of the medical department of the University of the City of New York, in 1851 : professor of surgery there, 1851-75, and emeritus professor, 1875-86. He was consulting surgeon of the Women's, St. Luke's and the Presbyterian hospitals ; vice- president of the New York Academy of Medicine, 1861-60, and president, 1867-68. He was presi- dent of the Pathological society : the New York Medical Missionary association ; a director of the Union Theological seminary, 18.56-86 ; and a member of the Gyna?cological Society of Boston, and of the county and state medical societies of