Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/391

 WHEATON

WHEATON

6th corps. In the Chancellorsville campaign, General Wheaton's brigade took an important part in the long niglit march to Fredericksburg, and lost heavily in the assault on Marye's Heights and the battle of Salem Heights, May 3- 4, 1863. The 6th corps arrived at Gettysburg on the morning of the second da}', and when General Ne\vtf)n took command of the 1st corps, General Wheaton commanded the 3d division of the 6th corps. He joined in the pursuit of Lee, was pro- moted major, U.S.A., Nov. 5, 1863, and fought at Mine Run, Nov. 26-28, 1863. Wlien the 6th corps was reorganized. General Wheaton com- manded the 1st brigade, 2d division (Getty). He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, U.S.A., May 5, 18G4, for services at the Wilderness. His brigade suffei-ed heavily at the bloody angle at Spottsylvania and at Cold Harbor. When the 6th corps, under Wright, entered upon the Shenan- doah campaign, General Wheaton commanded the 1st division, and was brevetted colonel, U.S. A., for Cedar Creek, Oct. 19, 1864, and major- general of volunteers for Opequam, Fisher's Hill and Middletown, Va. After returning to the Army of the Potomac, he fought at Petersburg, Va., and was brevetted brigadier-general, U.S.A., for services there, and major-general, U.S.A., March 13, 1865. He was mvistered out of the vol- unteer service April 30, 1866 ; was promoted lieu- tenant-colonel, 39th infantry, July 28, 1866, and led the expedition against the Modoc Indians in 1872. He was promoted colonel, Dec. 15, 1874, brigadier-general, April 8, 1892, and major-gen- eral, April 2. 1897. He was retired May 8, 1897. He received from Brown university the honorary degree of A.M. in 1865, and in July, 1866, the citizens of Rhode Island presented him with a sword of honor. General Wheaton died in Wash- ington, D.C., June 19, 1903.

WHEATON, Henry, jurist and author, was born in Providence, R.I., Nov, 27, 1785 ; son of Seth and Abigail (Wheaton) Wheaton ; grandson of Nathaniel and Hannah (Burr) Wheaton and of Ephraim and Mary (Goffe) Wheaton ; great- grandson of Daniel and Tibitha (Bo wen) Whea- ton ; of Samuel Burr : of the Rev. Ephraim and Mary (Mason) Wheaton, and of William Goffe, the regicide ; greats-grandson of the Rev. Ephraim and JIary (Mason) Wheaton ; and greats-grandson of Robert and Alice (Bovven) Wheaton, the im- migrants, who came from Wales to Rehoboth, Mass., in the seventeenth century. He was graduated at Brown, A.B., 1802, A.M., 1805. and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1805. He studied law in Poitiers, Paris and London, 1805- 07 ; practised in Providence, R.I., and was mar- ried in 1811, to his cousin Catherine, daughter of Levi and Martha (Burrill) Wheaton. In 1812 he removed to New York city, becoming editor of

the National Advocate. In 1814 he became di- vision judge-advocate of the army, and from 1815 to 1819 he was one of the justices of the marine court in the city of New York. He was reporter of the supreme court of the United States, 1816- 27 ; a member of the New York constitutional convention of 1821 ; a member of the assembly in 1823, and a commissioner to revise the statute law of New York in 1825. He served as charge d'affaires to Denmark, 1827-35 ; minister resi- dent in Prussia the following two years, and in 1837 became minister plenipotentiary. Upon his return to America in 1847 he was engaged as lec- turer at Harvard on international law, but died before entering upon the office. He received from Brown the degree of LL.D. in 1819 ; from Harvard A.M. in 1825 and LL.D. in 1845, and from Hamilton LL.D. in 1843. He is the author of : Considerations on Uniform Bankrupt Laws throughout the United States {ISm) ; Digest of the Law of Maritime Captures and Prizes (1815); Science of Public or Lnternational Law (1821); Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1820 (\82i); Continuation to 1S39 (1829) ; Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of the United States, 1816-27 (12 vols., 1826-27); History of the Northmen (1831); Li- quiry into the British Claim to Right of Search (1832); Elements of International Law (1836); Progres dn Droit des Gens en Europe (1841). He died in Dorchester, Mass., March 11, 1848.

WHEATON, Laban, educationist, was born in Norton, Mass., March 13, 1754; son of Dr. George and Elizabeth (Morey) Wheaton ; grandson of Ephraim and Mary (Goffe) Wheaton, and great- grandson of the Rev. Ephraim and Mary (Mason) Wheaton and of William Goffe, the I'egicide. He attended Wrentham academy ; was graduated from Harvard, A.B., 1774, A.M., 1777; taught school in Norton a short time ; studied theology with Abiel Leonard of Woodstock, Conn., and was appointed chaplain in the Continental army in 1775. His health prevented his accepting a call to Framingham, Mass. He engaged in an unfortunate mercantile venture, and in 1785 began the study of law, ijractising his profession first in Milton, and after 1788 in Norton. He was a representative in the state legislature seven years and in the llth-14tli congresses, 1809-17; was appointed chief-justice of the court of common pleas in 1810, and of the court of sessions in 1819, and retired from public life in 1827. Mr. Wlieaton was married in 1794, to Fanny, daughter of Samuel Morey of Norton, and they had four children, two of whom lived to a mature age. One of these, his only daugh- ter, died in 1834, and in memory of her he estab- lislied the Wheaton Female seminar}- in Norton, 1835. He died in Norton, Mass., March 23, 1846.