1)E LEON
DE LEON
the medical depiirtnient of the Universitj' of
Pennsylvaiiiu in is;}(i, and at once jiassed examina-
tion fur assistant surj^eon in the army. He was
attached to the command of CJen. William S.
Harney, U.S.A., then in the field in Florida,
and with it served tiuougliout the Seminole
war. Thence lie was transferred to frontier
service until the declaration of the war with
Mexico, when he was attached to General
Taylor's army at Matamoras, and was in every
battle on the Rio CJrande line up to the siege of
Vera Cruz. There he was transferred to General
ScUt's army as surgeon of Worth's division
an 1 was in every fight u[) to the city of Mexico.
Galbint and impulsive, lie gained the army
nickname of "the Fighting Doctor." from
leatling charges at Ciiapultepec and Molino del
Key. when line officers were shot down. For
this he was mentioned in orders and tlianked
by resolution of congress. Dr. De Leon agaiu
served on the southwestern frontier until 11^60,
wiien lie asked a year's leave to travel in the
Orient. On the secession of South Carolina he
resigned and was made acting surgeon-general
of the Confederacy by President Davis, organ-
izing the medical department and .serving in the
field in tiie Penin.sula and Riclimond campaigns.
Then he went to the Trans-Mississippi depart-
ment, and on the surrender of most of that
army, crossed into Mexico with ]\Iagruder and
others, remaining a j-ear. In ISGG lie returned
to Alhucjuenjue, N.M., where he practised his
profession until his death there, Sept. 3, 1872.
DE LEON, Edwin, diplomatist, was born in
Columbia, S.C, May 4, 1818; second son of Dr.
M. Hendricks and Rebecca (Lopez) De Leon,
and grandson of John Jacob and Hannah (Hen-
dricks) De Leon. He
graduated at South
Carolina college in
1837; was admitted
to the bar in Febru-
ary, 1840, and began
practice. Within a
year he was invited
by Colonel Locke to
the joint editorship
of The Iicptihlican, of
_ Sav.innah. Ga. He ac-
■ cei>ted the i)f:)sition
- and was making it a
financial and i)olitical
tcUi^U A^C^ {h^^. success, wlien his Co-
— ■ '^' luinbia, S.C, friends
started the Tchgnqih there and invited him to conduct it. In IS.jO, by invitation of the Southern wing in congress, Mr. De l^on went to Washington, afnd in conjunc- tion with EUwood Fisher established 77te South-
ern Press, which he edited until 1854, when
President Pierce appointed him consul general
and diplomatic agent to Egypt and dependencies.
This ofUce he resigned in 1801, and the next
year was selected by Jefferson Davis as diplo-
matic agent of the Confederacy in Europe.
He returned to America in 1867 to take part in
the campaign; but again went to Egypt and
Europe and returned to America in 1879 to
arrange to introduce the telephone into Egj-pt.
which he did under the Viceroy's firnin, in 1881.
Later he lived in Constantinople and Greece,
and Lust in London, writing for home and
foreign periodicals and publishing his books.
From early life Mr. De Leon's bent was literary.
He was editor of his college journal and early
contributed regularly to the leading magazines
and reviews. In later life he was the close
friend of Thackeray, Dickens, Tennyson and
Hawthorne; as well as of "Chinese" Gordon,
de Lesseps, King Otho of Greece, who decorated
liini, and other notables. He was twice thanked
by resolution of congress; first for braving
Abbas Pacha when he threatened extermination
of Greeks in Alexandria; and again when he
took the flag-ship of Com. Duncan N. Ingrabam,
U.S.N., to Jaffa, and demanded reparation for
the murder of the American missionaries under
threat of bombardment. Among the more im-
jiortant of his publications are: Askaros Kassis,
the Copt (romance of Egyptian life, 1869); The
Khedive's Egypt (descriptive and statistical, 1872);
Under the Stars and the Crescent (Romance of
South America and Egypt, 1879) and Thirty Years
of Life in Three Continents (reminiscences, 2 vols.,
1886). In November, 1891, he crossed the ocean
to arrange a series of lectures in the United
States, and died in New York city, Dec. 1, 1891.
DE LEON, Thomas Cooper, journalist and au-
thor, Avas born in Columbia, S.C, ^lay 21, 1839;
son of Dr. M. Hendricks and Rebecca (Lopez)
De Leon, and brother of David Camden and Ed-
win De Leon When a child he removed with
his guardian, Edwin De Leon, to Washington,
D.C , Avliere he was educated at private schools
and at Georgetown college. He was audit clerk
in the bureau of topographical engineers from
18.")8 to 1861, when he resigned to join the Con-
federacy. From 1S6.') to 1807 he was contributor
to magazines, editor and correspondent in Bal-
timore and New York. He was managing editor,
as colleague to John Forsyth, of the ^Mobile Unj-
ister, 1867, and on the latter's death in 1877 be-
came its editor-in-chief. In 1878 he was editor
of The Gulf City, and later of The Gossip, IVIobile.
He was le.s.see of the ^lobile theatre, 1873-85, and
president of tiie Go.ssip publishing company,
Mobile, m85-97. His published works include,
novels: Cros!< 7'»ry<o.sY'.s (I860); Juny {lti7Q); Creole