ency or the public, is derived from the following incident : A representative in congress from Bun- combe Co. was in the habit of making speeches to which no one listened. One day, observing that many members were leaving the house while he was speaking, he declared that he did not care how many left — he was not speaking to the house, but to Buncombe.
BUNTING, Christopher William, Canadian
publisher, b. in Amigan, county Limerick, Ireland,
in September, 1837. He was educated in Ireland
and Toronto, and was connected with the press in
early life, but left journalism and engaged for
many years in the West India trade. He has been
for some time the proprietor and publisher of the
Toronto '• Mail," the principal organ of the Con-
servatives in Canada. He was first returned to
Parliament in 1878.
BURBANK, Sidney, soldier, b. in Massachu-
setts, 26 Sept., 1807 ; d. in Newport, Ky., 7 Dec,
1882. He was graduated at the U. S. military
academy in 1829, and entered the 1st infantry
as second lieutenant. After some years of fron-
tier duty, a,t various garrisons, he served in the
" Black Hawk " war in 1832, and at the military
academy from 1836 till 1839, as instructor of in-
fantry tactics. He was made captain in 1839, and
fought in the Florida war against the Seminole
Indians. He was again on frontier duty from
1841 till 1859, when he became superintendent of
the western recruiting service at Newport bar-
racks, Ky. During the civil war he was colonel of
the 2d infantry and in command of a brigade at-
tached to the array of the Potomac. He was pres-
ent at the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettys-
burg, and for his services received the brevet of
brigadier-general. Subsequent to the war he joined
his regiment, and was stationed at Newport bar-
racks, Ky., and at Louisville. Later, from 1867
till 1869, he was in command of the district of
Kentucky, and from 1869 till 1870 superintend-
ent of general recruiting service. He was retired
in 1870, after forty consecutive years of service.
BURBECK, Henry, soldier, b. in Boston,
Mass., 8 June, 1754 ; d. in New London, Conn., 2
Oct., 1848. He was the son of an officer at Castle
William, Boston harbor, and served with distinc-
tion in the revolutionary war. In 1776 he was
made a lieutenant, and subsequently participated
in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, as
well as in the terrible privations and sufferings of
Valley Forge. He shared the perils of the mem-
orable retreat through New Jersey, and was pres-
ent at the battle of Monmouth. In 1777 he was
made a captain in the artillery, and continued in
active service until the close of the war, when he
received the brevet of major. He again entered
the service in 1786 as captain in the artillery, and
was actively engaged for some time in the Indian
war on the western border under Gen. Anthony
Wayne. After several promotions he received the
rank of colonel in the artillery, and in 1813 the
brevet of brigadier-general. In 1815 he was mus-
tered out of service.
BURBRIDGE, George Wheelock, Canadian
jurist, b. in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, 6 Feb., 1847.
He was graduated at Mount Allison Wesleyan col-
lege in 1864, studied law, and in 1871 was admitted
to the bar of New Brunswick, and began to prac-
tise at St. John. He was secretary of the com-
missioners for consolidating the laws of New
Brunswick in 1877, became deputy minister of
justice and solicitor of Indian affairs in 1882, and
in 1883 was selected as one of the commissioners
to revise and consolidate the statutes of Canada.
BURBRIDGE, Stephen Gano, soldier, b. m
Scott CO., Ky., 19 Aug., 1831. He was educated at
Georgetown college, and at the Kentucky military
institute in Frankfort, after which he studied law
with Senator Garrett Davis in Paris, Ky. From
1849 till 1853 he followed mercantile pursuits in
Georgetown, D. C, and then turned his attention to
agriculture. He conducted a large farm in Logan
CO. until the beginning of the civil war, when he
raised the 26th Kentucky infantry and was made
its colonel. At the battle of Shiloh he distin-
guished himself, and was made a brigadier-general.
During Gen. Bragg's invasion of Kentucky in 1862,
he was ordered to that state, and was variously en-
gaged until the confederate forces were driven out.
He then joined the expedition against Vicksburg,
and participated in several actions. He had com-
mand of the 1st brigade in the 1st division of the
13th corps of the army of the Mississippi, and led
the charge at Arkansas Post that resulted in its
capture, planting the American flag upon the fort,
which had been placed in his hands, as a tribute to
his gallantry, by Gen. A. G. Smith, for that pur-
pose. Gen. Burbridge was also conspicuous at the
capture of Port Gibson, and was among the first to
enter the place. Later he was placed in command
of the military district of Kentucky, and defeated
Gen. John H. Morgan on his raid, driving him into
Tennessee. For this service he received the thanks
of President Lincoln, and on 4 July, 1864, the
brevet of major-general. He resigned in 1865, and
retired to Kentucky.
BURCHARD, Samnel Dickinson, clergyman,
b. in Steuben, N. Y., 6 Sept., 1812; d. in Saratoga,
I^ . Y., 25 Sept., 1891. At eighteen years of age he
removed to Kentucky, and was graduated at Cen-
tre college, Danville, in 1836. Immediately after
graduation he began to lecture on temperance,
slavery, and religious questions, and thus became
known throughout the state. He also won many
friends in Kentucky by his services as a volunteer
nurse during the cholera epidemic of 1837. He
was licensed to preach in 1838, and was installed as
pastor of a Presbyterian church in New York city,
1 May, 1839. He was very successful as a pastor
and as a lecturer, and was at different times chan-
cellor of Ingham university and president of Rut-
gers female college. He was peculiarly happy in
making addresses on occasions when it was desira-
ble to entertain a miscellaneous audience. Having
nearly finished an exceptionally honorable, useful,
and unobtrusive career as a clergyman, it was his
fate, near the close of the exceedingly bitter presi-
dential canvass of 1884, to raise himself, by the
utterance of a brief alliterative sentence, into the
most unprecedented and unexpected political noto-
riety. A few days before the election the repub-
lican managers called a " ministers' meeting " in
New York. About 600 clergymen, nominally rep-
resenting all denominations, assembled, and Dr.
Burchard addressed them in a dignified and, in the
main, tempei'ate speech. In concluding, however,
he stigmatized the democrats as the party of " Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion." Mr. Blaine, the repub-
lican candidate for the presidency, was present,
but failed to repudiate the sentiment on the spot.
Extraordinary and, it was believed, successful
effoi'ts had been made by the republicans to secure
the Roman Catholic vote ; but these fatal words
undid the work of months. Hardly had they been
uttered when the democratic managers saw their
importance, and the whole country, especially near
the centres of Roman Catholic population, was
placarded with posters headed "R. R. R.," with all
manner of additions and variations. Liquor-deal-
