PROMINENT PERSONS
283
at the head of his class. In his third year he
was appointed acting assistant professor of
mathematics at the academy, and continued
as such after his commissioning as second
lieutenant of engineers, until 1825, when he
became principal assistant professor of en-
gineering. In 1826 he went abroad under
orders of the war department, to study
public engineering works and military in-
stitutions, and he spent some time, by spec-
ial favor of the French government at the
military school of application for engineers
and artillerists in Metz, and was frequently
the guest of Lafayette. He returned to
West Point in 1830, and resumed his duties
a.-, acting professor of engineering, which
chair he accepted in 1832, and held, with
that of dean, after 1838, until his death by
suicide, during a tit of insanity resulting
from learning that the board of visitors had
recommended his being placed on the retired
list, although assured by the president that
he should be retained. Professor Mahan
vv-as appointed by the governor of Virginia,
in 1850, a member of the board of engmeers
t(.- decide the controversy between the city
of Wheeling and the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad Company as to the proper route
of the railroad to Wheeling. He received
the degree of LL. D. from William and
Mary College in 1852: from Brown in 1852;
and from Dartmouth in 1867. He was a
member of many scientific societies in the
United States, and a corporate member of
the National Academy of Sciences in 1863.
He gained a world-wide reputation by his
ttxt-books, which were used in the military
academy and in many universities. They
include "Treatise on Field Fortifications,"
"Elementary Course of Civil Engineering,"
"Elementary Treatise on Advanced Guard,
Outposts, and Detachment Service of
Troops," "Elementary Treatise on Indus-
trial Drawing," "Descriptive Geometry, as
applied to the Drawing of Fortifications and
Stereometry," and "Military Engineering,"
including "Field Fortifications, Military
Mining, and Siege Operations," and "Per-
manent Fortifications." He edited, with
additions, an American reprint of Mosely's
"Mechanical Principles of Engineering and
Architecture." His portrait, painted by
Robert W. Weir, is included in the collec-
tions of professors to be seen in the library
of the United States Military Academy. He
died September 16, 1871, near Stony Point,
New York.
Trotter, James Fisher, born in Brunswick county, X'irginia, November 5. 1802; emi- grated with his parents to eastern Tennes- see, and in 1820 became a lawyer. He set- tled in Hamilton, Mississippi, in 1823. After serving several terms in the legislature, he became a judge of the circuit court, and in 1838 succeeded Judge Black in the United States senate, as a Democrat. After serv- ing from February to December of that year, he resigned to accept a seat on the bench of the court of appeals of Mississippi, which he held till 1840, then resuming his profession. He was vice-chancellor of the northern district of the state, 1855-57, and professor of law in the University of Miss- i.=sippi. 1860-62. He supported the southern cause during the civil war, and after its close labored earnestly for peace. He be- came a circuit judge in 1866, and died in Holly Springs, Mississippi, March 9, the sr-me year.
Plumer, William Swan, born in Griers- burg (now Darlington), Beaver county.
