Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/143

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ADJUTANT BIRD staff attached, taken from the general staff of the army, and under a "chief of the staff," who takes to himself the higher functions of adjutant, and leaves him merely the transmis- sion of orders and the regulation of the in- ternal routine duty of the corps. Owing to the difference of regulations and military sys- tems, as well as to the peculiarities of com- manders, there is practically a great variety in the functions of adjutants. In the army of the United States there is one adjutant, or adjutant general, attached to the war depart- ment, who issues the orders of the secretary of war and the general-in-chief, and has charge of the military record of the government. He is also head of the adjutant general's depart- ment, composed of a fixed number of colonels, lieutenant colonels, and majors, promoted by selection from the officers of the army, and assigned to duty in the bureaus of the adju- tant general's office or with the headquarters of armies, corps, divisions, brigades, or military divisions and departments ; they are called as- sistant adjutants general. Besides these, the governor of each state has an adjutant general, while the requirements of monarchical institu- tions have created in almost all European states hosts of titular adjutants general to the mon- arch, whose functions are imaginary, except when called upon to do duty with their mas- ter ; and even then these functions are of a purely formal kind. ADJUTANT BIRD. See MAEABOTT. ADLERBERG. I. Vladimir Fedoroviteh, count, a Russian statesman, born in St. Petersburg in 1793. His mother, the widow of a colonel, and superior of a seminary for the daughters of the nobility, was much befriended by the empress Maria Feodorovna, through whose influence the son became a favorite at court, and in 1817 adjutant to the grand duke Nicholas. After the latter's accession to the throne, Adlerberg became his constant companion, and was made general of infantry in 1843 and count in 1847. In 1852 he was appointed minister of the court, the most influential office in the person- al service of the imperial family, and which requires constant attendance on the emperor. After the death of Nicholas (1855), and at that emperor's urgent recommendation, he retained his post under Alexander II., whose full confi- dence he also enjoyed. In 1869 he retired on account of old age. For many years he had also officiated as postmaster general, and con- tributed much toward postal reform. His sister, widow of the councillor of state Bara- noff, brought up the daughters of the emperor Nicholas, and was made a countess in 1846. II. Adlerberg II., Alexander, count, eldest son of the preceding, succeeded him in 1869 as minis- ter of the court and chancellor of imperial dec- orations, and holds the rank of general of in- fantry and chief aide-de-camp of the czar. He is inseparable from the emperor, of whom he had been a schoolmate, and whom he accom- panied on his journey to Germany and the ADMETUS 123 Caucasus in 1871. III. Adlerberg III., Nicholas, brother of the preceding, was active in the Hungarian campaign of 1849, published in 1852 a narrative of his journey to the Holy Land (Ot Rima ' Yerwalem, "From Rome to Je- rusalem "), was governor of the province of Taurida in 1854-'5, and from 1857 was for some time military commissioner in connection with the Russian embassy at Berlin. Ho holds the rank of adjutant general of the emperor, and since 1861 also that of lieutenant general. He has been for several years governor general of Finland. ADLERCREUTZ, Karl Johan, count, a Swedish soldier, born April 27, 1757, died Aug. 21, 1815. He distinguished himself in the Finnish war against Russia in 1808, as adjutant general of Field Marshal Klingsporr, and on March 13, 1809, joined that officer in arresting Gusta- vus IV. -in his own palace. The king was deposed, and the diet on May 1 thanked AdLer- creutz and his fellow conspirators for having saved Sweden from ruin by their daring. He was made lieutenant general in 1809 and count in 1814. ADLERSPARRE. I. Georg, count, a Swedish soldier and statesman, born March 28, 1760, died Sept. 23, 1835. He enjoyed the confi- dence of Gustavus III., after whose death (1792) he retired from the army, and edited from 1797 to 1801 a periodical, Loaning i blan- dade Amnen, the liberal politics of which gave umbrage to the government. In 1809 he joined in the campaign against Russia, as well as in the conspiracy which culminated on March 13 in the arrest and deposition of Gustavus IV. He had insisted upon the con- summation of this event without bloodshed and revolutionary commotion. On May 1, 1809, he received the public thanks of the diet, and was promoted to various high dignities, eventu- ally including that of count and provincial gov- ernor general, which latter post he resigned in 1824. He was fined in 1831 for having pub- lished secret state papers and his private per- sonal correspondence with Swedish princes, but protested against the injustice of the pun- ishment and persisted in the publication (Handlingar rorande Sveriges dldre och nyare historia, 9 vols., Stockholm, 1830-'33). II. Karl August, count, an author, eldest son of the preceding, born in 1810, died in 1862. Like his father, he possessed poetical talent, and published various novels and lyrical effu- sions under the name of Albano. His reputa- tion rests on his historical works, entitled 1809 Ars Revolution, and 1809 och 1810 Tidstafior (respectively 2 and 3 voh., Stockholm, 1849), and Anteckningar om lortgdngna Samtida (3 vols., 1860-'62). ADMETUS, in Greek mythology, a king of Pherse, in Thessaly, who took part in the Caly- donian hunt and the Argonautic expedition. He is said to have obtained, through the inter- cession of Apollo, deliverance from death, on condition that his father, mother, or wife