SKETCH OF ORMSBY MAC KNIGHT MITCHEL. 697 



actual pictorial representations, but by language alone. He possessed 

 the power of magnetism to a remarkable degree. He could at once 

 gain the sympathy of his audience, and always held it till he had 

 ceased to speak. To him, far more than to any other man, is due 

 the interest that grew up in astronomical science in America between 

 the years 1842 and 1860, for there was scarcely a town or city in the 

 United States in which he did not speak during that period. 



In 1859 he delivered a course of lectures in the Academy of Music 

 in New York for the benefit of an observatory that it was proposed 

 to erect in Central Park. The last lecture of this course was the last 

 he ever delivered. It was a fitting close to a brilliant work. The 

 Academy was crowded almost to the ceiling. On the platform were 

 seated many of the most prominent men in New York. As he led 

 his audience out into space, to planet and sua and system, it became 

 powerfully moved. When he closed, the ordinary methods of ap- 

 plause seemed inadequate. His hearers rose from their seats and 

 cheered an act not uncommon at meetings of a political nature, but 

 probably without precedent at an astronomical lecture. 



In 1860 Professor Mitchel was called to the directorship of the 

 Dudley Observatory at Albany, the building of which he had himself 

 designed. 



At the opening of the late civil war, Professor Mitchel felt called 

 upon to turn the military education he had received to the account of 

 the Government that had given it. He was appointed a brigadier- 

 general of volunteers. At the time of his appointment, Cincinnati 

 his former home was threatened by the Confederates, and he was 

 sent to defend it. After fortifying the city, he desired to occupy 

 East Tennessee. By order of the Secretary of War, he organized a 

 force for the purpose ; but it was necessary to move through a depart- 

 ment commanded by another general. That general would not con- 

 sent, and the expedition had to be abandoned. 



In April, 1862, he found himself in command of a division of 

 General Buell's army (detached from the main column, then proceed- 

 ing on the route to Corinth), and directed to observe the country 

 south of him. Without orders, he proceeded by forced marches to 

 Huntsville, Alabama, surprised and captured that part of the railroad 

 and territory lying between Stevenson and Decatur, with seventeen 

 locomotives and eighty cars, and held the territory he had been ordered 

 to observe. For this service President Lincoln promoted him to be 

 major-general. He asked for troops with which to march through 

 Georgia, but Mr. Lincoln replied that all available forces had been 

 given to General McClellan and General Halleck. He then asked to 

 be transferred to a more active field, but Mr. Lincoln directed him to 

 remain for future operations in the territory where his " military genius 

 had effected so much." Upon General Buell's arrival with the rest of 

 the Army of the Ohio at Huntsville, in July, 1862, General Mitchel 



