to Gen. Hooker, and was engaged in the campaign of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and in the Atlanta campaign in 1864. He was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, 8 Aug., 1864, ordered to Gen. Sheridan in October, and was with him at Cedar Creek. On 13 March, 1865, he was brevetted major-general of volunteers, and was on duty in South Carolina. He was appointed register in bankruptcy for the first district of Maine in 1868, and represented Portland in the legislature in 1872-'4. — Another son of William Pitt, Francis, soldier, b. in Portland, Me., 18 March, 1839, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1858, and studied law at Harvard and in New York. He was appointed captain in the 19th U. S. infantry on 14 May, 1861, and was severely wounded at Shiloh. From October, 1862, till July, 1863, he was colonel of the 25th Maine volunteers, and commanded a brigade in front of Washington and near Centreville, Va. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, 10 May, 1864, and major-general, 9 Nov., 1865. In 1864 he was with Gen. Banks in the Red river expedition, and was present at Sabine Cross-Roads, Pleasant Hill, and Monett's Bluff, where, leading his brigade in an assault, he lost a leg. In November, 1864, he was on duty in Washington, and in 1865 was in command of the 1st infantry division, Department of West Virginia, and was afterward assigned to Hancock's 1st veteran corps. He was a member of the Wirtz military commission in Washington in 1865, and assistant commander of the bureau of refugees, freedmen, and abandoned lands in 1866. He was retired with the rank of brigadier-general in the regular army, 1 Nov., 1866. He served as mayor of Portland in 1876, but declined a renomination. — Another son of William Pitt, Samuel, soldier, b. in Portland, Me., 6 Jan., 1841; d. in Centreville, Va., 1 Sept., 1862, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1861. He began to study law, but soon entered the military service as 2d lieutenant in the 2d Maine battery, 30 Nov., 1861. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant, 3 June, 1862, was aide to Gen. Zebulon B. Tower in July, 1862, and was mortally wounded in the second battle of Bull Run, 31 Aug. — Samuel Clement's son, Joshua Abbe, b. in Rockland, Me., was appointed 2d lieutenant in the 1st U. S. cavalry, 24 March, 1862; 2d lieutenant 5th artillery, 6 Sept., 1862; 1st lieutenant, 30 Nov., 1865; captain, 26 June, 1882; and was wounded at Chickamauga. — Another son, Samuel, b. in Rockland, Me., was appointed 2d lieutenant in the 5th Maine battery, 18 Jan., 1865. He is a lawyer and politician in Stamford, Conn.
FESSENDEN, Thomas, clergyman, b. in
Cambridge, Mass., in 1739; d. in 1813. He was the son
of Rev. William Fessenden, of Cambridge, and
uncle to the first Samuel. After graduation at
Harvard in 1758, he became pastor in Walpole, N. H.,
which charge he held from 1767 till 1813. He was
author of “The Science of Sanctity” (1804), and
“The Boston Self-styled Gentlemen-Reviewers
reviewed” (1806). — His son, Thomas Green, author,
b. at Walpole, N. H., 22 April, 1771; d. in Boston,
Mass., 11 Nov., 1837. He was graduated at Dartmouth
in 1796, and during his college term wrote
a ballad, entitled “Jonathan's Courtship,” which
was reprinted in England. He studied law in
Vermont with Nathaniel Chipman, occupying his
leisure in writing humorous poems and other papers
for the “Farmer's Weekly Museum” of Walpole, of
which Joseph Dennie was then editor. He went to
England in 1801, as agent for a new hydraulic
machine, which proved a failure and involved him
in pecuniary difficulties. While in London he
became interested in the construction of a patent
mill on the Thames, in which enterprise he was
completely ruined. At this time he formed the
acquaintance of Benjamin Douglas Perkins, patentee
of the metallic tractors, which he advertised in
a poem in Hudibrastic verse, entitled “Terrible
Tractoration,” in which he satirized the medical
faculty, who opposed the use of these instruments
(published anonymously, London, 1803).
Hawthorne says: “It is a work of strange, grotesque
ideas, aptly expressed.” The poem was enlarged
and republished in New York in 1806 as “The
Minute Philosopher.” He returned to the United
States in 1804 and settled in Boston, but afterward
edited the “Weekly Inspector” in New York for
two years, and in 1812 began to practise law in
Bellows Falls, Vt. He removed to Brattleborough, Vt.,
in 1815, and was editor of the “Reporter” there,
but from 1816 till 1822 conducted the “Intelligencer”
at Bellows Falls. In the latter year he
established, in Boston, “The New England Farmer,”
with which he remained connected till his
death. He edited, also, “The Horticultural Register”
and “The Silk Manual,” and published
“Original Poems”; “Democracy Unveiled” (1806);
“Pills, Poetical, Political, and Philosophical;
prescribed for the Purpose of purging the Public of
Piddling Philosophers, Penny Poetasters, of Paltry
Politicians and Petty Partisans. By Peter Pepperbox,
Poet and Physician” (Philadelphia, 1809);
“American Clerk's Companion” (1815); “The
Ladies' Monitor” (1818); and “Laws of Patents
for New Inventions ” (1822). His last satire was a
little poem, entitled “Wooden Booksellers.” See
an article on Mr. Fessenden, by Nathaniel
Hawthorne, included in the volume entitled “Fanshawe,
and other Pieces” (Boston, 1876).
FEUCHTWANGER, Lewis, chemist, b. in
Fürth, Bavaria, 11 Jan., 1805; d. in New York city,
25 June, 1876. He was the son of a mineralogist,
and inherited a taste for natural science, to which he
devoted special attention at the University of Jena.
After receiving his doctor's degree there in 1827,
he came to the United States in 1829, and settled
in New York, where he opened the first German
pharmacy, and also practised medicine, being
particularly active during the cholera epidemic of
1832. Subsequently he devoted his entire attention
to chemistry and mineralogy, and became engaged
in the manufacture and sale of rare chemicals. He
introduced in 1829 the alloy called German silver,
and was the first to call the attention of the U. S.
government to the availability and desirability of
nickel for small coins. In 1837 he issued, by
permission of the U. S. government, a large quantity
of one-cent pieces in nickel, and in 1864 he had
struck off a number of three-cent pieces in the
same metal, but they were not put into circulation.
After the great fire of 1846 he called the attention
of the authorities of New York to the fact that
saltpetre would explode under certain conditions.
This statement created much discussion; the
expression “Will saltpetre explode?” became a
byword, and a play was acted at one of the theatres
in which a character representing Dr. Feuchtwanger
was presented. He made two large collections
of minerals, one of which he exhibited in
London at the World's fair in 1851, and the other,
which he bequeathed to his daughters, was for a
time on exhibition at the Museum of natural
history in Central park, New York. Dr. Feuchtwanger
was a member of scientific societies in this
country and abroad, and contributed papers to
Silliman's “American Journal of Science” and to
the “Proceedings” of the American association for
the advancement of science. He published a
