of twenty. He was ordained priest in 1850, and appointed successively regent of studies, sub-prior, and naaster of novices in liis convent. In 1860 he was ordered to Mendoza to organize the studies in the convent of that city. While he was lecturing before his brethren there was an earthquake, destroying the convent as well as the whole city, and burying the greater part of the monks under the ruins. He made heroic efforts during the catastrophe, and saved several lives. In 1800 he was summoned to Buenos Ayres ; but, as he insisted on making the journey on foot, it took him two years to reach the capital. Travelling across the pampas, he acted as missionary on the way, converting several Indian tribes. He was elected prior of the convent of Buenos Ayres in 1862, and in 1867 was appointed provincial of his order in the Argentine Republic. Shortly after his appointment there was an outbreak of cholera, and he devoted himself entirely to the service of the sick, until he himself became a victim. He wrote several works, the principal of which are "El Tercero Instruido " and "Metodo Espiritual."
LOSSING, Benson John, author, b. in Beekman,
Dutchess co., N. Y., 12 Feb., 1813; d. in
Dover Plains, in the same county, 3 June, 1891.
After attending school, Benson was apprenticed
to a watchmaker in Poughkeepsie, who, when he
had served nearly seven years, took him into
partnership. Two years later he became joint
proprietor and editor of the Poughkeepsie
“Telegraph,” and in 1836 he began with his partner the
publication of a literary journal called the
“Poughkeepsie Casket.” Mr. Lossing placed himself
under the instruction of a wood-engraver in New
York, became an engraver on wood, and was
engaged in 1838 by the publisher of the “Family
Magazine” to become its editor and illustrator.
He performed this service for the last two of the
eight volumes of this the earliest fully illustrated
American magazine. In 1839 he established
himself in New York as a professional wood-engraver,
a craft that had then but three practitioners
besides himself in the city, and two years later he
severed his business connection with the
Poughkeepsie publications. In 1848 he matured the
plan of his principal work, the “Pictorial Field-Book
of the Revolution,” which was published
in thirty illustrated numbers (New York, 1850-'2).
For twenty years Mr. Lossing was a frequent
contributor of illustrated papers to Harper's
“Magazine.” For the London “Art Journal” he
prepared a series of articles descriptive of the scenery,
history, and legends of the Hudson river, which were
published, with illustrations from his sketches, in
that monthly in 1860-'1, and afterward in a volume
entitled “The Hudson, from the Wilderness to the
Sea” (New York, 1866). From the papers, letters,
and orderly books of Gen. Philip Schuyler he
prepared “The Life and Times of Philip Schuyler”
(2 vols., New York, 1860; new ed., 1880). Early
in 1862 he began the compilation of a “Pictorial
Field-Book of the Civil War in the United
States,” which was issued in three illustrated volumes
(vol. i., Philadelphia, 1866; vols. ii. and iii.,
Hartford, 1869). On its completion he prepared a
“Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812” (New
York, 1868). Since 1868 Mr. Lossing resided on a
farm near Dover Plains, Dutchess co., N. Y. In
1873 he received from Michigan university the
degree of LL. D. In 1872-'5 he edited the “American
Historical Record and Repository of Notes and
Queries,” published in Philadelphia. Besides the
works already mentioned he was the author of
“Outline History of the Fine Arts” (New York, 1841);
“Lives of the Presidents of the United States”
(1847); “Seventeen Hundred and Seventy-Six, or
the War for Independence” (1847); “Life of Gen.
Zachary Taylor” (1847); “Life of Gen. Winfield
Scott” (1847); “The New World” (1847); “Lives
of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence”
(1848); an illustrated “History of the United
States for Schools” (1854), which was followed by
the other volumes of a graded series; “Biographies
of Eminent Americans” (1855); “Mount Vernon
and its Associations” (1859); “Life of Washington,”
illustrated (1860); “Vassar College and its
Founder” (1867); “Pictorial Description of Ohio”
(1869); “Memorial of Lieut. John Trout Greble ”
(printed privately, 1870); an illustrated “Memoir
of Dr. Alexander Anderson,” the first engraver on
wood in America, published by the New York
historical society (1870); a “History of England”
for schools (1871); a large history of the United
States entitled “Our Country,” with 500 illustrations
by Felix O. C. Darley (3 vols., 1873); an
illustrated work on the progress of industries in the
United States between 1776 and 1876, entitled
“The American Centenary” (Philadelphia, 1876);
“Story of the United States Navy for Boys” (New
York, 1880); “Cyclopædia of United States
History,” with over 1,000 illustrations (1881);
“Biography of James A. Garfield” (1881); an illustrated
“History of New York City” (1884); “Mary and
Martha Washington” (1886); “Two Spies: Nathan
Hale and John André” (1886); and “The Empire
State, a Compendious History of the Commonwealth
of New York” (1887). Mr. Lossing annotated
Francis Hopkinson's “Pretty Story,” with a
biography of the author of the allegory, which was
published under the title of “The Old Farm and
the New Farm” (New York, 1857). With Edwin
Williams he compiled the “Statesman's Manual”
(4 vols., 1858) and the “National History of the
United States ” (2 vols., 1858). He also edited and
annotated the “Diaries of Washington” (1859),
and the “Recollections and Private Memoirs of
Washington,” by George W. P. Custis (1860), edited
the “Poems” of William Wilson, with an
accompanying biography (Poughkeepsie, 1869), and
prepared an edition of John Trumbull's
“McFingal,” with a life (New York, 1871).
LOTRINIÈRE, Michael Eustace Gaspard, Marquis de, Canadian soldier, b. in Canada in 1723 ; d. in New York in 1799. He embraced the military profession, became one of the ablest engineers of his time, and was appointed engineer to the French colony in 1753. Soon after the defeat of Baron Dieskau in 1755 he built Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), with the object of preventing the English from entering Canada. In 1758 he contributed more than any other person to the defeat of the English at Carillon, which Montcalm occupied reluctantly at his earnest advice. For this and other services he was made chevalier of St. Louis in 1760, and shortly afterward a marquis. He was deprived of some of his domains by the English government, and on his return from England, where he had gone to demand the restoration of his property, he met his death from yellow fever in the city of New York. The Marquis de la Lotbiniere was a member of the Institute of France, and other learned societies in Europe. — His eldest son, Eustace Gaspard Michael Chartier de, Canadian statesman, b. in Canada: d. there in 1821, inherited his father's title, but did not use it. He aided in defending Fort St. Jean against the English colonists in 1775, several years afterward was elected to the chamber of assembly, and in 1798 unanimously
