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[Page 185]
      Dale, Samuel, was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, died in Lauderdale county, Mississippi, May 24, 1841. His parents were Pennsylvanians of Scotch-Irish extraction. Samuel went with them in 1775 to the forks of Clinch river, Virginia, and in 1783 to the vicinity of the present town of Greensborough, Georgia. In both of these places the family lived with others in a stockade, being exposed to frequent attacks from Indians, and young Dale thus became familiar with savage warfare. After the death of his parents in 1791 he enlisted in 1793 as a scout in the service of the United States and soon became a famous Indian fighter, being known as "Big Sam." He commanded a battalion of Kentucky volunteers against the Creeks in February, 1814, and in December carried despatches for Gen. Jackson from Georgia to New Orleans in eight days with only one horse. After the war he became a trader at Dale's Ferry, Alabama, was appointed colonel of militia, held various local offices, and was a delegate in 1816 to the convention that divided the territory of Mississippi. He was a member of the first general assembly of Alabama territory in 1817, of the state legislature in 1819-20 and 1824-28, and of that of Mississippi in 1836. In 1821 he was one of a commission to locate a public road from Tuscaloosa through Pensacola to Blakely and Fort Claiborne, and on the completion of his duty, was made brigadier-general by the Alabama legislature and given a life pension. In 1831 he was appointed by the secretary of war, together with Col. George S. Gaines, to remove the Choctaw Indians to their new home on the Arkansas and Red rivers. (See "Life and Times of Gen. Sam. Dale," from notes of his own conversation, by John F. H. Claiborne, New York, 1860).

[Pages 185-186]
      Blackburn, Gideon, was born in Augusta county, Virginia, August 27, 1772; he was a nephew of Gen. Samuel Blackburn. His parents removed to East Tennessee, and he was placed under the instruction of the Rev. Mr. Doak. He was licensed to preach by the Abingdon Presbytery between 1792 and 1795, and with his Bible, hymn book, knapsack and rifle, plunged into the wilderness, and made his first preaching at a fort built for the protection of the frontier; established churches at Marysville, and several surrounding places. In 1803 he undertook a mission to the Cherokee Indians, and in 1811 became principal of Harpeth Academy, preaching at the same time and organizing several churches. From 1823 to 1827 he preached at Louisville, Kentucky, and in the latter year became president of Centre College, holding the office until 1830. He then removed to Versailles, where he preached and acted as agent of the Kentucky State Temperance Society. In 1833 he went to Illinois and in 1835 began to raise money for Illinois colleges, a work which resulted in Blackburn University at Carlinville, Illinois. He did not live to see its organization or the erection of its buildings, and it did not reach higher than a college grade. In 1805 the College of New Jersey conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and Dickinson College gave him those of Master of Arts and S. T. D. He died in Carlinville, Illinois, August 23, 1838.

[Page 186]
      Pegram, John, was born in Dinwiddie county, Virginia, November 16, 1773, son of Captain Edward and Mary (Lyle) Pegram. His grandfather, Edward Pegram, came from England in the fall of 1699 with a party of engineers under Col. Daniel Baker, whose daughter, Mary Scott Baker, he married. Their second son, Captain Edward Pegram (born about 1744, died March 30, 1816), was appointed "special commander" to defend his parish and county against the Indians, and thus became known as "King Pegram." He was also a captain in the American revolution and a juror in the trial of Aaron Burr. John Pegram was a magistrate for more than twenty years, a member of the house of delegates for many years and of the state senate for eight years; a representative in the fifteenth congress, 1818-19, completing the term of Peterson Goodwin, deceased; major-general of state militia in the war of 1812, and United states marshal of the eastern district of Virginia in Monroe's administration. He married (first) Miss Coleman, of Dinwiddie, and (second) Martha Ward Gregory, and was the father of fourteen children. He died in Dinwiddie county, Virginia, April 8, 1831.

[Pages 186-187]
      Marshall, Louis, born at "Oak Hill," Virginia, October 7, 1773, son of Col. Thomas Marshall, born 1730, died 1802, and his wife, Mary Randolph (Keith) Marshall, and grandson of Captain John and Elizabeth (Markham) Marshall, the former named "of the Forest;" in 1785 his father removed to Lexington, Kentucky, and he accompanied him, and thereafter made his home in that state; his education was acquired by study at home, and he prepared for the profession of medicine and surgery at Edinburgh and Paris, residing in the latter named city during the French revolution, and was one of the party of students engaged in the attack on the Bastille, was also present at the massacre of the Swiss guard, witnessed the murder of Prince de Lamballe, was arrested and imprisoned for several years, and was at one time condemned to death, but his life was saved by the strategem of the turnkey; his brothers, John and James, then in Paris, as representatives from the United States, procured his release; in 1800 he began the practice of his profession in Woodford county, Kentucky, and he also established a private school, and shortly afterward he discontinued his medical practice, establishing an academy in Woodford, of which he was the preceptor until 1830, his pupils including sons of the best families of Kentucky, his adopted state; he served as president of Washington College, Lexington, Virginia, from 1830 to 1834, and filled a similar office in Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, Agatha Smith, and his father then gave him the estate, "Buckpond," in Woodford county, Kentucky, where he resided until his death in April, 1866.

[Page 187]
      Ewing, Finis, was born in Bedford county, Virginia, June 10, 1773, died in Lexington, Missouri, July 4, 1841. He was of Scotch-Irish descent and both of his parents were noted for piety. His early education was neglected, but it is said that he studied for a time in college. After the death of his parents he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1823 married a daughter of William Davidson, a revolutionary general. Soon afterward he went to Logan county, Kentucky, where he was licensed to preach, and in 1803 was ordained by the Cumberland presbytery. he met with remarkable success as a revivalist, but his ordination was not recognized by the Kentucky synod, and the presbytery being dissolved, and the action of the synod having been sustained by the general assembly, he, with two others, organized in 1810 the new Cumberland Presbyterian church, which now numbers about two thousand congregations. In doctrine they occupy a middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism. A few years After originating the new denomination Mr. Ewing removed to Todd county, Kentucky, and became pastor of the Lebanon congregation, near Ewingsville. In 1820 he proceeded to Missouri, settled in what is now Cooper county, and organized a congregation at New Lebanon, which still flourishes. In 1836 he removed to Lexington, Fayette county, where he preached till his death. He is the author of "Lectures on Divinity," which contains the gem of the peculiarities of the creed of the Cumberland Presbyterians.

[Pages 187-188]
      Lewis, Meriwether, was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, August 18, 1774, youngest son of Captain William and Lucy (Meriwether) Lewis. His uncle on the death of Meriwether's father became his guardian. Meriwether attended a Latin school, and conducted his mother's farm. He enlisted in the state militia called out by President Washington to suppress the opposition to the excise taxes in Western Pennsylvania, and then joined the regular service as lieutenant. He was promoted to captain in 1797, and became paymaster of the First United States Infantry. In 1797 the American philosophical Society, through the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson, under took to secure some competent person to ascend the Missouri river, cross the Stony Mountains, and descend the nearest river to the Pacific. Captain Lewis, then stationed at Charlottesville on recruiting duty, solicited Mr. Jefferson to be allowed to make the journey, but André Michaux, the botanist, was appointed and proceeded as far as Kentucky, when he was recalled by the French minister, then in Philadelphia, and the attempt was abandoned. Captain Lewis served as private secretary to President Jefferson, 1801-03, and when congress voted the money to carry out the President's project of crossing the continent to the Pacific, he was entrusted with the command of the enterprise with Captain William Clark, as second in command. He pursued a course in the natural sciences and astronomical observations at Philadelphia and at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, preparatory to the undertaking. The instructions, signed by President Jefferson, January 20, 1803, detailed the scientific, geographical, commercial and diplomatical purposes of the expedition and provided for all contingencies likely to arise. The treaty of Paris, April 13, 1803, had meantime transferred the territory of Louisiana to the United States, and the information reached Washington about the first day of July. On July 5, 1803, Captain Lewis left Washington for Pittsburgh, where he was to select his stores, outfit and men. Delays retarded the journey down the Ohio and the expedition could not enter the Missouri until the ice had broken up in the spring of 1804. They ascended the Missouri to its sources, crossed the Rocky Mountains, struck the headwaters of the Columbia river, floated down that river to its mouth and explored much of the Oregon country. They started East, March 23, 1806, and reached Washington, February 14, 1807. Congress granted to the two chiefs and their followers the donation of lands which had been promised as a reward for their toil and dangers. Captain Lewis was soon after appointed governor of Louisiana and Captain Clark commissioned a general in the militia and agent in the United States for Indian affairs in the territory of Louisiana. On reaching St. Louis, Governor Lewis found much confusion in public affairs, and in September, 1809, set out to Washington to carry valuable vouchers of accounts and his journal of the expedition to and from the Pacific. While at the home of a Mr. Gruider, in Kentucky, in a fit of hypochondria, Governor Lewis killed himself. He died October 8, 1809.

[Page 188]
      Hall, William, born in Virginia in 1774; for several years he was a member of the state legislature, and was at one time speaker of the senate; in 1829, on the resignation of Samuel Houston, he became governor of Tennessee, in which state he resided for man years; from 1831 to 1833 he was a member of congress, having been elected on the Democratic ticket; he was a major-general of militia, served in the Indian wars, and commanded a regiment of Tennessee riflemen under General Jackson in the war of 1812, displaying great bravery in the performance of his duties; he died in Green Garden, Sumner county, Tennessee, in October, 1856.

[Pages 188-189]
      Taylor, Robert Barraud, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, March 24, 1774, and was graduated at the College of William and Mary in 1793. After law study he entered the bar of Virginia, and followed practice in Norfolk, winning wide reputation as an eminent lawyer. During the last four years of his life he was judge of the general court of Virginia. He took part in the defense of Norfolk during the war of 1812 as brigadier-general of the state militia, and as a result of his conspicuous service was offered the same rank in the United States army, but declined to serve. He was a member of the famous Virginia constitutional convention of 1829. He was also at an earlier date a member of the Virginia assembly. Judge Taylor was one of the members of the first board of visitors of the University of Virginia, serving from 1819 to 1822. He died in Norfolk, April 13, 1834. He was a son of Robert Taylor and Catherine (Curle) Barraud.

[Page 189]
      Empie, Adam, born in Schenectady, New York, September 5, 1775, son of John Empie, of Dutch descent. He was educated at Union (New York) College, entered the Episcopal ministry and held charges in New York and North Carolina. After the death of Dr. Wilmer, in 1827, he was made president of William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia. Under him the college started on an upward course. In 1826, the last year of Dr. Smith's administration, the number of students was only twelve, which in 1836, the last year of Dr. Empie's administration, had increased to sixty-nine. In 1839 the attendance reached one hundred and forty. He resigned the presidency to take the rectorship of the new church of St. James, in Richmond. There he continued to serve acceptably until 1853, when, enfeebled by age and disease, he retired to Wilmington, where he died, November 6, 1860.

[Page 189]
      Lyell, Thomas, born in Richmond county, Virginia, May 13, 1775, son of John and Sarah Lyell, members of the Protestant Episcopal church, but being isolated from the privileges of that church attended the Methodist church, hence the son was brought up a Methodist; in 1790, when only fifteen years of age, he began to exhort, and two years later to preach in Virginia and subsequently in Providence, Rhode Island; from 1797 to 1804 he served as chaplain of the United States house of representatives; was admitted to the diaconate in the Protestant Episcopal church by Bishop Claggett in 1804, and advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Moore in the following year; as rector of Christ Church, New York City, from 1805 to 1848; secretary of the diocesan convention, from 1811 to 1816; member of the standing committee, from 1813 to 1848; deputy to the general convention, from 1818 to 1844; trustee of the General Theological Seminary, from 1822 to 1848; and senior member of the board of trustees of the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting Learning and Religion in the State of New York at the time of his death, which occurred in New York City, March 4, 1848; he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Brown in 1803, and that of Doctor of Divinity from Columbia in 1822; his first wife was a daughter Rev. Dr. Abraham Beach, rector of Trinity Parish.

[Page 189]
      Arbuckle, Matthew, born in Greenbrier county, Virginia, in 1776; died at Fort Smith, Arkansas, June 11, 1851. He entered the army as an ensign in 1799, became a captain in 1806, major in 1812, lieutenant-colonel in 1814, colonel of the Seventh Infantry in 1820, and brevet brigadier-general in 1830. In 1817 he was successful in an expedition against the Fowltoun Indians, and in 1846-47 served in the Mexican war. He commanded at New Orleans, Fort Gibson and Fort Smith. During much of his life he was brought constantly in contact with the Indians of the frontier, and by his knowledge of their character, always kept their confidence.

[Pages 189-190]
      Bledsoe, Jesse, born in Culpeper county, Virginia, April 6, 1776, died near Nacogdoches, Texas, June 30, 1837. When a boy he emigrated to Kentucky and then studied at the Transylvania Seminary, where be became a fine scholar. He afterward studied law and practiced with great success. In 1808 he became secretary of state under Governor Charles Scott, and in 1812 was a member of the legislature. He was elected United States senator from Kentucky, and served from May, 1813, till 1815. From 1817 till 1820 he was state senator. In 1820 he was a presidential elector, and in 1822 was appointed circuit judge in the Lexington district. Accordingly he settled in Lexington, where he also became professor of law in Transylvania University. Later he returned to the practice of his profession, in 1833 removed to Mississippi, and in 1835 to Texas, where he was engaged collecting historical material at the time of his death.

[Page 190]
      Tyler, Samuel, born in James City county, Virginia, about 1776, nephew of John Tyler, judge of United States district court (1811). He attended William and Mary College, passed the ordinary period of classical study, and entered on the study of law with an application that in a very short time placed him among the foremost lawyers at the bar. He was elected to the legislature in 1798, and supported the resolutions of 1798-99, which announced the accepted creed in Virginia until the war of 1861. On December 23, 1801, he qualified as a member of the council, and was shortly after sent by James Monroe, the governor, to Washington, to watch the course of the election between Jefferson and Burr. At this time he wrote that Pennsylvania had her courier at hand, and stood ready to sent twenty-two thousand troops to Washington should the attempt to set aside the lawful President prevail. he advised that in case of extremities, a confederacy should be formed between that state and all south of the Potomac. On December 21, 1803, he qualified as chancellor of the Williamsburg district, an office just vacated by Mann Page. It was said of him that "he combined the energies of an active and masculine mind, with an accurate knowledge of things," which especially became the high office filled by him. He died at Williamsburg, March 28, 1812.

[Pages 190-191]
      Bacon, Edmund, born in New Kent county, Virginia, in January, 1776; died in Edgefield, South Carolina, February 2, 1826. While quite young he was chosen by the citizens of Augusta Georgia, where he was at school, to welcome Washington, then on an official tour through the South as President. "This delicate and honorable task," says a contemporary historian, Judge O'Neall, "he accomplished in an address so fortunate as to have attracted not only the attention of that great man, but to have procured from him, for the orator, a present of several law books. He was graduated at the Litchfield, Connecticut, Law School, and settled in Savannah, where he acquired a fortune at the bar before attaining the age of thirty-three. He was retained in the settlement of the estate of Gen. Nathanael Greene, near Savannah, and it is a curious coincidence that a quotation from one of the law books presented to Mr. Bacon by Gen. Washington enabled him to gain a mooted point for the succession to the estate of the second general of the revolution. Owing to ill health, he removed in search of a more healthful location to Edgefield, where he soon became a leading practitioner. He is the "Ned Brace" of Judge Longstreet's "Georgia Scenes," and as a wit and humorist was conspicuous among his contemporaries. He displayed a lavish hospitality, and was the acknowledged autocrat of the table insomuch that on a certain occasion, when the learned Dr. Jonathan Maxcy, president of South Carolina College, was present as a guest, no sooner had Dr. Bacon left the room than Dr. Maxcy enthusiastically exclaimed, "A perfect Garrick, Sir! A living breathing, acting Garrick!"

[Pages 191-193]
      Clay, Henry, was born in Hanover county, Virginia, April 12, 1777. His father, John Clay, was a Baptist minister, a man of excellent character, "remarkable for his fine voice and delivery;" his mother was a daughter of George Hudson, a woman of sterling character. Henry attended a school where the teacher was able to teach little but reading, writing and arithmetic. Henry worked on the farm, and his riding to and from mill to have grain ground, won for him the sobriquet of "the mill-boy of the Slashes." His widowed mother became the wife of Captain Henry Watkins, of Richmond, who procured for him a clerkship in a store in that city, and afterwards a position as copyist in the chancery clerk's office. Here he attracted the attention of Chancellor George Wythe, who made him his secretary and for four years directed his reading and by his conversation shaped his thoughts. At the end of four years young Clay became a law student in the office of Attorney-General Robert Brooke, and after a year was admitted to practice. In his twenty-first year he joined his parents in Kentucky, whither they had removed, settling in Lexington, where he practiced law, and made himself conspicuous by his oratory in a debating society. For a time he was commonwealth's attorney, resigning in favor of a friend. In 1799 he married Lucretia Hart, by whom he had eleven children, and purchased "Ashland," an estate of some six hundred acres. He now actively entered into politics as a Democratic Republican. He was a slave owner throughout life but was favorable to slave emancipation, which for a time affected his popularity. In 1803 he was elected to the Kentucky legislature, and distinguished himself by his oratory and a duel with Colonel Joseph H. Davies. In 1806 he was appointed to the United States senate to fill out an unfinished term, though constitutionally under age. On leaving the senate he was elected to the legislature, and was chosen speaker. He procured the defeat of a bill forbidding that any decision of a British court or British work of law should be read as authority before any Kentucky court. His early interest in domestic manufactures was manifested by his introduction of a resolution that the members of the legislature should wear clothes made in this country, and this led to an altercation with Humphrey Marshall which resulted in a duel. In 1810 he was appointed to the national senate to fill a vacancy. On the expiration of his term he was elected in 1811 to the house of representatives and was made speaker. Here he opposed the recharter of the bank and favored domestic manufacturing for government purposes. He strongly advocated war measures against Great Britain. In 1813 he was reëlected speaker, but resigned to become a member of the commission which negotiated peace at Ghent in 1814. He returned home in 1815, was reëlected to congress and declined the mission to Russia and the secretaryship of war. He was again chosen speaker, and with Calhoun opposed the reduction of taxes, and laid the foundation of a protective tariff system. In 1817 his vote to pay congressmen $1,500 a year instead of six dollars a day nearly cost him his seat. In 1817 President Monroe offered him the secretaryship of war and the mission to England, both of which he declined. He was again chosen speaker. He labored for internal improvements, was the champion of South American independence, denounced Jackson's conduct in the Seminole war, and favored the Missouri compromise. In 1824 he was a presidential candidate; the election was thrown into the house, resulting in the choice of Adams, who made Clay secretary of state. There was much acrimonious feeling resulting in a duel between Clay and John Randolph, which was harmless to both. In 1828 the National Republican party was formed, composed of the Adams and Clay elements of the old Democratic Republican party and a high tariff was passed. In 1831 he was elected to the United States senate, and in 1832, was the unsuccessful candidate of the National Republican party. He did not approve of Jackson's proclamation against south carolina, and introduced his compromise tariff bill, which became a law, whereupon South Carolina repealed her nullification ordinance, and clay having virtually abandoned his tariff doctrines again came to be know as "the pacificator." This made him popular in the South, and put him at the head of the new combination Whig party. In 1834 he denounced the President for removing the public deposits from the United States Bank, and his resolutions were adopted by the senate. Jackson sent in an earnest protest, demanding that it be entered upon the journal, which was refused, Mr. Clay using his greatest power in condemning the President's course. In 1835-36 the great anti-slavery contest began. Petitions praying for abolition came to congress from various northern states; Mr. Calhoun moved that they be rejected without consideration. Mr. Clay opposed any curtailment of the right of petition, and voted "yea" on a motion to receive. President Jackson suggested a law prohibiting the circulation in the Southern States, through the mails, of "incendiary publications intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection," and Mr. Calhoun offered a bill to carry such proposed law into effect. Mr. Clay, while denouncing the abolitionists for treasonable conduct, opposed Calhoun's bill as inexpedient and it was defeated. As chairman of the senate committee on foreign affairs, Clay advocated delay in admitting Texas into the Union. During Van Buren's administration Clay opposed with such vigor the sub-treasury system advocated by Van Buren that it failed in three successive congressional sessions. The contests in regard to it broke up the alliance between Clay and Calhoun. Meantime, petitions protesting against slavery, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, poured in from the northern states, and Mr. Clay moved in the senate that the petitions be received, and referred to the committee on the District of Columbia. Calhoun started discussion by offering resolutions setting forth his thoughts on the relations between slavery and the union of the states. Mr. Clay proposed substitutes offering among other things that the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia would be a violation of the good faith "implied in the cession of the District," accompanying it with remarks in which he was understood to deplore the attacks on slavery no less, if not more, than the existence of slavery itself.
      During the canvass of 1840, Clay declared all the old questions of Bank, tariff and internal improvement "obsolete questions," but on the accession of Harrison as President, Clay rallied the Whigs in favor of these measures, and brought about a breach in the Whig party by running counter to the known views of President Tyler. On March 31, 1842, Clay left the senate, as he said, "forever." on May 1, 1844, he was a third time nominated for President by the Whig national convention without any ballot. Polk became president, the annexation of Texas followed, as well as the war with Mexico. Clay protested against the Mexican war, referring to the declaration of congress that "war existed by the act of Mexico," and said that no earthy consideration could ever have tempted or provoked him to vote for a bill with such a palpable falsehood stamped upon its face. Later on he contemplated selling "Ashland," to satisfy pressing pecuniary obligations, but the president of the bank at Lexington, to whom he was offering a payment, informed him that sums of money had arrived from various parts of the country to pay his debts, and every note and mortgage of his was canceled. Clay was deeply moved, but to his inquiries the answer given was that the names of the donors were unknown. Mr. Clay took no part in the canvass that elected President Taylor, but in December, 1848, he was unanimously reëlected to the senate, and took his seat December, 1849. He took an active part in framing the bill for the admission of California, for territorial government in New Mexico and Utah, the settlement of the western boundary of Texas, the provision of new laws for the return of fugitive slaves to their masters, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the decision that congress had no power to prohibit or obstruct the trade in slaves between slaveholding states. This was the famous compromise of 1850, the last plan of the kind to which he gave his mind and energies. When congress adjourned Clay went to Cuba for his health, and returned to Ashland. In December, 1851 he was again in Washington, but appeared only once in the senate. He lived to see the substance of his celebrated compromise measure on the subject of slavery pass into the political platforms of the Whig and Democratic parties at the national convention of June, 1852. After appropriate funeral services in the senate chamber his remains were removed to Kentucky, the people assembling by thousands in the cities through which the funeral train passed, to do honor to his memory. He died June 29, 1852, and on July 10, he was buried at Lexington, Kentucky, where an imposing monument has been erected. Nine months before his death his friends in new York caused to be made a gold medal in commemoration of his public services. Mr. Clay said: "If anyone desires to know the leading and paramount object of my public life, the preservation of the Union will furnish him with the key." Mr. Clay died June 29, 1852.

[Pages 193-194]
      Grundy, Felix, born in Berkeley county, Virginia, September 11, 1777. His father, an Englishman, removed to Pennsylvania, and then to Kentucky. His first instruction was from his mother, and he later attended Dr James Priestley's Academy at Bardstown, Kentucky. He became a lawyer; in 1799 was elected to the constitutional convention, and also to the legislature, of which he was a member till 1806. In 1806 he became a judge of the state supreme court, and afterwards chief justice. In 1807 he resigned and removed to Nashville, Tennessee, where he achieved a great reputation as a criminal lawyer. He was elected to congress in 1811 and 1813. In 1819 he was elected to the legislature. In 1829 he was elected to the United States senate. In 1838 he became attorney-general in President Van Buren's cabinet, resigning to reënter the senate. He opposed all protection except that which is incidental to a tariff levied for revenue, favored the compromise bill of 1833, and suggested and was a member of the committee that revised it; his last political act was to speak in Tennessee for Van Buren against Harrison; he was an orator of note, and his most finished oration was that delivered on the death of Jefferson and Adams; he died in Nashville, Tennessee, December 19, 1840, his remains were interred in the Nashville City Cemetery, where a monument has been erected to his memory.

[Pages 194-195]
      Gaines, Edmund Pendleton, was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, March 20, 1777, died in new Orleans, Louisiana, June 6, 1849. He was son of James Gaines, who commanded a company in the revolutionary war, was a member of the North carolina legislature, and took part in the convention which ratified the federal constitution. He was a grandson of William H. Gaines and Isabella Pendleton, sister of Hon. Edmund Pendleton. Edmund early showed a preference for a military life. Having joined the United States army, he was appointed second lieutenant of the Sixth Infantry, January 10, 1799, and in April, 1802, was promoted to first lieutenant. He was for many years actively employed on the frontier, and was instrumental in procuring the arrest of Aaron Burr. He was collector of the port of Mobile in 1805, and was promoted to captain in 1807. About 1811 he resigned from the army, intending to become a lawyer, but at the beginning of the war of 1812 returned, and became a major on March 24. He became colonel in 1813, and at Chrysler's Field, on November 11, covered with his regiment the retreat of the American forces. Later in the same year he was made adjutant general, with the rank of colonel. He was promoted to brigadier-general March 9, 1814, and for gallant conduct in the defence of Fort Erie, in August, 1814, when he was severely wounded "repelling with great slaughter the attack of a British veteran army superior in number," he was brevetted major-general, and receive the thanks of congress, with a gold medal. Similar honor was done him by the state of Virginia, Tennessee and New York. He was appointed, in 1816, one of the commissioners to treat with the Creek Indians. He was in command of the southern military district in 1817, when the Creeks and Seminoles began to commit depredations on the frontier of Georgia and Alabama, and having moved against them, was in desperate straits when he was joined by Gen. Jackson — a circumstance which may be regarded as the initiative of those measures which in 1820 added Florida to the United States. In the troubles which arose with the Seminoles in 1836, and which cost Gen. Thompson his life, he was again engaged, and was severely wounded at Ouithlacoochie. When the Mexican war began, some ten years later, he made himself trouble with the government by assuming the liberty of calling out a number of the southern militia without orders, and was tried by court-martial, but not censured. He was a man of simplicity and integrity of character.