Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/189

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MACPHERSON
MCPHERSON

credits of Upper and Lower Canada, and in 1872 was president of the Interoecanic railway com- pany. He represented the Saugeen division in the legislative council of Canada from October, 1804, till the union, and was called to the senate in May, 1867. He was appointed speaker of the senate and a member of the cabinet, without a portfolio, 11 Feb., 1880, and on 17 Oct.. 1883. resigned the speakership and was appointed minister of the in- terior. He resigned the latter office in August, 1885. He has been a member of the corporation of Helhnuth college, London, Out., vice-president of the Montreal board of trade, and president of the St. Andrew's society of Toronto. In July, 1884, the honor of knighthood was conferred upon him. He is the author of a pamphlet on " Bank- ing and Currency" (Toronto, 1809), and also of pamphlets on public expenditure and other ques- tions, that were published between 1877 and 1882.


MACPHERSON, David Murdoch, Canadian dairyman, b. in Lancaster township, Glengarry, 17 Nov., 1847. He was educated at Lancaster high-school, engaged in farming till 1868, and in 1870 began to make cheese from the milk of eight cows. In 1873 he established a factory, and in 1887 he had seventy factories, receiving the milk of 25,000 cows, and manufactured about 5,000,000 pounds of cheese. In 1875 Mr. Maepherson re- ceived the first prize as champion ploughman of the province of Ontario, in 1880 was elected president of the Dairymen's association of eastern Ontario and of the Glengarry farmers' institute, and the same year was commissioned by the government of Ontario to represent the dairy interests of that province at the Colonial industrial exhibition in London in that year. He has taken out six patents for inventions in improved and original cheese- manufacturing machinery, has made several dis- coveries in the process of cheese-making, and in 1887 constructed an improved model which, it is claimed, has reduced farm Ijarn building to a sci- ence. He was for a time corresponding editor of the Hamilton " Live-Stock Journal,'" and edited the " Cheese-Makers' Manual " (Montreal, 1880).


Mcpherson, Edward, author, b. in Gettysburg, Pa.. 31 July. 1830 ; d. there. 14 Dec, 1895. He was graduated at Pennsylvania college, studied law, and subsequently settled in that place as a journalist, but was compelled, through the failure of his health, to abandon literary woi'k. He published a series of articles in the Philadelphia " Bulletin " in 1851, afterward printed in pamphlet-form, in which he advocated the sale by the state of its main line of public improvements. This, with a similar series published in 1858, was instrumental in effecting that measm-e, and in the same year he was elected to congress as a Republican, and served from 1859 till 1863. In the lat- ter year he was appointed deputy commissioner of internal revenue, but, after a service of six months, he became clerk of the lower house of congress, and held that office till 1873. His term of service in this office was the longest since the beginning of the government. He was chief of the bureau of engraving and printing in 1877-'8. permanent president of the Republican national convention in 1870, and after 1879 he was engaged in jour- nalism in Gettysburg. The University of Penn- sylvania gave him the degree of LL. D., and Princeton that of A. M. in 1877. He published " Political History of the United States during the Great Rebellion" (Washington, 1865); "The Political History of the United States during Reconstruction " (1870) ; and a " Hand-Book of Politics " (1872 : new ed. every second year) ; and edited the "New York Tribune Almanac" after 1877. For several years he was the American edi- tor of the German " Almanack de Gotha."


Mcpherson, James Blrdseye, soldier, b. in Sandusky, Ohio, 14 Nov., 1828 ; d. near Atlanta, Ga., 22 July, 1864. He was graduated at the U. S. military academy in 1853, first in a class of fifty- two members, ainong whom were Philip H, Sheri- dan, John M. Schofield, and John B. Hood. He was appointed success- ively brevet 2d lieutenant in 1853, 2d lieutenant in 1854, 1st lieuten- ant in 1858, and captain in 1801 in the corps of engi- neers, and served on fortification and other con- struction duty un- til the beginning of the civil war. He was then sta- tioned in Califor- nia, but immedi- ately applied for active duty with the army in the

field, where his

promotion was very rapid. He became lieutenant-colonel, 12 Nov., 1801; colonel, 1 May, 1862; brigadier-general of volunteers, 15 May, 1862; and major-general of vohuiteers, 8 Oct., 1802, Gen. Henry W. Halleck had known him in California, and, on assuming command of the Department of the Missouri, placed him on his staff. When active operations began in the spring of 1802 he was transferred to the staff of Gen. Grant, with whom he served as chief engineer at Fort Henry. Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, and luka. From June to October, 1802, he was in charge of the railroads in western Tennessee. On 2 Oct. he received command of a brigade and joined Gen. William S. Rosecrans just at the close of the battle of Corinth, and led the advance in the pursuit of the Confederate army, under Gen. Earl Van Dorn, during the following days. He was promoted to the command of a division stationed at Bolivar, Tenn., on 14 Oct. In November and December, 1802, he commanded the right wing of Grant's army in the advance along the Mississippi central railroad, and was engaged at Lamar, Miss., 12 Nov., 1802, and in various skirmishes during the advance to and retreat from Oxford, Miss. In the reorganization of Grant's army in January, 1803, he was appointed to the command of the 17th army corps. He endeavored to open a passage, via Lake Providence and Tensas bayou, to the Mississippi below Vicksburg in February and March, and also to get in rear of Vicksburg, by the Yazoo pass and Yazoo river, in April, 1803, but in both attempts was unsuccessful, owing to the insuperable physical difficulties of the route. In the final campaign against Vicksburg from the rear, McPherson's corps bore a prominent part, although one of his divisions did not join him until near its close. At the battle of Port Gibson, 1 May, 1803, just after crossing the Mississippi, part of his coi-ps, led by McPherson in person, turned the enemy's right flank, and, driving him from a post that he had held all day, decided the battle. Advancing into the interior, McPherson's corps constituted the right wing, and on 12 May engaged part of Johnston's army at Raymond and completely routed it. On 14 May, in connec-