OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



631 



a company of the 1st New Hampshire regiment 

 of three months' men, and served during the 

 campaign. Returning home he was appointed 

 lieutenant-colonel of the 4th New Hampshire 

 volunteers, and upon the resignation of Col. 

 Whipple, in March, 1862, was made commander 

 of the regiment. Col. Bell was for some time 

 a member of Gen. T. W. Sherman's staff, and 

 was inspector general of the Department of the 

 South from November, 1861, to March, 1862. 

 Previously to the Wilmington expedition he 

 had been several times temporarily a brigade 

 commander, and had served bravely at Poco- 

 taglio and at the siege of Fort Wagner. At 

 the attack on Fort Fisher he commanded a 

 brigade of Gen. Ames' division, and was mor- 

 tally wounded while leading his men in an 

 assault upon one of the traverses of that work. 

 He was a brother of Chief Justice Bell, of 

 Manchester, N. H., of the late Dr. Luther V. 

 Bell, of the McLean Lunatic Asylum, and of 

 Dr. John Bell, U. S. A. 



Jan. 17. WHEATON, Hon. LABAN, died at 

 his residence in Norton, Mass., aged 68 years. 

 He graduated at Brown University in 1817, and 

 was the founder of the Wheaton Female Semi- 

 nary. 



Jan. 18. LATIMEIJ, JOHN R., a prominent 

 citizen of Delaware, died at Wilmington. He 

 was for nearly twenty years a successful mer- 

 chant in Canton, China, and since his retire- 

 ment from active mercantile life, has been 

 prominent in unobtrusive nets of benevolence. 



Jan. 20. BUELL, WILLIAM, a canal contract- 

 or, died at his residence in Gates, Monroe Co., 

 N. Y., aged 74 years. He was born in Canada, 

 and removed to Rochester, N. Y., penniless, 

 but with a determination to work, his first job 

 being to saw a cord of wood in payment for his 

 newspaper. He commenced business as a sub- 

 contractor on the Erie Canal, but soon con- 

 tracted largely upon his own account. Among 

 his heaviest undertakings were the Lockport 

 Locks and the Rochester Aqueduct. 



Jan. 21. WHEELOCK, Brevet Brig.-General 

 CHAELES, Colonel 97th New York volunteers, 

 died at Washington, D. C., from disease con- 

 tracted in the service. He was a native and 

 resident of Oneida County, N. Y., where he 

 was engaged at the beginning of the war in a 

 large and prosperous business., which he aban- 

 doned immediately after the fall of Fort Sumter, 

 and devoted his whole time to raising men for 

 the army, pledging himself to provide for their 

 families. In the summer of 1861 he said to a 

 friend : " I am worth, I think, in the neighbor- 

 hood of $10,000. Half of this I have already 

 given or pledged to aid the war, and if my 

 country wants the other half it can have it, 

 and myself into the bargain." Becoming im- 

 patient with the slow progress of the war, he 

 soon after commenced raising a regiment on 

 his own hook, fed and housed several hundred 

 men at his personal expense for many months, 

 and after a series of embarrassments and disap- 

 pointments that would have disheartened almost 



any other man, completed its organisation and 

 marched it to the field. Entirely without mili- 

 tary experience, and with but a very limited 

 general education, he became one of the best 

 volunteer officers in the service, and so signally 

 distinguished himself that he was brevetted 

 brigadier-general for bravery and good soldier- 

 ship. He had seen much service, was engaged^ 

 in many of the bloodiest battles in Virginia, 

 was taken prisoner, if we mistake not, at the 

 second battle of Bull Run, and tasted for many 

 months the sweets of prison life at Richmond, 

 but was subsequently exchanged, when he re- 

 joined his old regiment and did more gallant 

 service in behalf of the old flag. 



Jan. 23. BACON, DAVID FRANCIS, M. D., an 

 author and son of the Rev. David Bacon, Mis- 

 sionary pioneer in Ohio and Michigan, died in 

 New York, aged 51 years. He was born in 

 Prospect, Conn., graduated at Yale College in 

 the class of 1831, and at the Medical College 

 in 1836, and shortly afterwards was sent out by 

 the American Colonization Society as principal 

 colonial physician in Liberia. After his return 

 from Africa, he published three parts of a work 

 entitled k ' Wanderings on the Seas and Shores 

 of Africa," in which his observations on the 

 west coast of that country are very minutely 

 recorded (N. Y., 1843. 8vo). During most 

 of his life he resided in New York, and at one 

 time he was actively engaged in political affairs, 

 as an earnest advocate of the election of Henry 

 Clay to the Presidency. He was a frequent 

 contributor to the periodicals of the day. In 

 1835 he published a work, evincing much re- 

 search, entitled " Lives of the Apostles." 



Jan. 27 NOBLE, SAMUEL, the oldest man in 

 Boston, died in that city, aged 99 years. He 

 was a native of Durham, New Hampshire. 



Jan. 28. JACKSON, Dr. ROBERT MONTGOMERY 

 SMITH, Medical Inspector of the 23d army 

 corps, and acting medical director of the De- 

 partment of the Ohio, died at Chattanooga, 

 Tenn. He was a native of Pennsylvania, and 

 a resident of Cresson, Pa., at the commence- 

 ment of the war. He was widely known 

 throughout Pennsylvania, being distinguished 

 for great force of character, decided opinion, 

 and some eccentricity withal. He was a man 

 of strong and generous feelings, and intense in 

 his patriotism. As a scientific man he had few 

 superiors in Pennsylvania. He was thoroughly 

 versed in all departments of natural science, 

 and as a geologist and botanist was specially 

 distinguished. He was a member of the Penn- 

 sylvania Geological Commission, of which Pro- 

 fessor Rogers was chief, and very much of the 

 results of that survey are due to the skill and 

 industry of Dr. Jackson. He was an enthusi- 

 astic mountaineer, and believed that in the pure 

 air of the AUeghanies the enervated and listless 

 inhabitants of cities and the lowlands would 

 find health, strength, and energy. He published, 

 some years ago, a work called " The Mountain," 

 which is distinguished by a love of nature, and 

 by a scientific handling of the topics, which, 



