Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/243

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BATCHELDER.


BATE.


BATCHELDER, Richard N., soldier, was born at Mereditli. N. H., July 27, 1832. He was ap- pointed regimental quartermaster of the 1st N. H. regiment, April 30, 1861. He was promoted captain and assistant quartermaster, and assigned to duty as chief quartermaster of the corps of observation in August, 1861; chief quartermaster second division, second corps, army of the Po- tomac, March, 1862; lieutenant-colonel and chief quartermaster, second corps, army of the Po- tomac, January, 1863; acting chief quartermas- ter, army of the Potomac, June, 1864; colonel and chief quartermaster, army of the Potomac, August, 1864. Here he had charge of the im- mense baggage trains of that great force, com- prising some five thousand wagons and thirty thousand horses and mules, on the campaign from the Rapidan to the James. He was brevetted major, lieutenant-colonel and brigadier-general of volunteers, and major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel. United States army, for faithful and meritorious service during the war. He was ap- pointed captain and assistant quartermaster in the regular service in February, 1865, and from that date until 1889 he served as assistant and chief quartermaster at various depots, posts and departments. He received seven brevets for faithful and meritorious services during the war, and medals of honor were awarded him by Con- gress under the act of July 12, 1862, and under that of March 3, 1863, for "such officers, non- commissioned officers and privates as have most distinguished or who may hereafter most distin- guish themselves in action." He was brevetted "for most distinguished gallantry in action against Mosby's guerrillas, between Catlett's and Fairfax stations, Va., Oct. 13-15, 1863, while serving as lieutenant-colonel and quartermaster of volunteers, chief quartermaster of the second army corps." On July 10, 1890, he was appointed quartermaster-general of the arnay by President Harrison. During his six years of service in that capacity he handled forty-three millions of dol- lars. He was retired from active service July 27, 1896. He died at Washington, D.C., Jan. 4, 1901. BATCHELDER, Samuel, manufacturer, was born at Jaffrey. N. H.. June 8, 1784. In 1808 he entered tlie cotton manufacturing business in Ipswich, N.H., and later transferred his interests to Lowell, Mass. He thoroughly understood both the practical and tlieoretical sides of his business, and became very influential among manufactur- ing men and elsewhere. He was president of five large manufacturing establishments at one time, with an aggregate capital of five million dollars. Aside from making a number of useful inventions and impi'ovements in machinery, he was the author of " Responsibilities of the North in Relation to Slavery," published in 1856, and


wrote, when he was nearly eighty years of age, ?. "History of the Progress of Cotton Manufac- tures in the United States." He died at Cam- bridge. Mass., Feb. 5, 1879.

BATCHELOR, Joseph B., lawyer, was born in Halifax county, N. C, in 1825. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina in 1845, and two years later received a license to practise law. In 1855 he was appointed to the office of attorney- general of North CaroUna, which office he held for two years. He was a leading member of the North Carolina legislature of 1860 that voted for the call of the convention which passed the ordi- nance of secession. He gave largely of his ample means for the vigorous prosecution of the war. At the close of the war he engaged in the prac- tice of his profession at Raleigh, N. C. In 1879 Mr. Batchelor began legal proceedings by which about $700,000 were saved to the state of its interest in the North Carolina railroad. Soon after the adoption of the "Code of Civil Pro- cedure " he secured the passage of the act of the legislature that is styled " Batchelor's Stay Law," which was a necessity to prevent the utter ruin of the agricultural and laboring classes of the state after the construction given by the courts to the "Code of Civil Procedure." He was also largely influential in securing the establishment of the orphan asylum at Oxford. In 1891 the University of North Carohna conferred on him, the honorary degree of LL. D.

BATE, William Bremage, senator, was born at Castilian Springs, Tenn., Oct. 7, 1826. He was educated at an academy and became clerk on a steamboat. At the breaking out of the Mexican war he volunteered as a private, serving thus until its close, when, returning to his native state, he was elected to the lower house of the Tennessee legislature. In 1852 he was graduated from the Lebanon law school, going thence to Gallatin, where he began to practise law. From 1854 to 1860 he acted as attorney-general f^or the Nashville district, during which time he declined a nomination as representative in Con- gress. In 1860 he was a Democratic presidential elector. The following year he joined the Con- federate army as a private, and was promoted through the ranks of captain, colonel, and brig- adier-general to that of major-general, serving throughout the war. At its close he returned to Tennessee and again began to practise law. In 1868 he was a delegate to the Democratic national convention, and he served for twelve years on the national Democratic executive committee for Tennessee. In 1876 he was a Democratic elector for the state at large, and was elected governor of Tennessee in 1882 and 1884. He was elected United States senator in 1887, to which office he was re-elected in 1893, and in 1899.