78 



BACIIE, ALEXANDER D. 



cers, 17 killed, 44 wounded, and 20 missing; 

 men, 292 killed, 868 wounded, and 1,331 miss- 

 ing. Others officers, 4 wounded ; men, 2 

 killed, 9 wounded, and 175 missing. Total 

 officers, 587 killed, 1,505 wounded, and 483 



missing; men, 10,407 killed, 27,805 wounded, 

 and 43,264 missing. Total officers and men, 

 10,994 killed, 29,310 wounded, and 43,747 

 missing. (On the history of the trans-Leithaa 

 Provinces of Austria, see HUNGARY.) 



B. 



BAOHE, ALEXANDER DALLAS, LL. D., A. A. 

 S., an eminent physicist and author, Superin- 

 tendent of the American Coast Survey, born in 

 Philadelphia, July 19, 1806 ; died at Newport, 

 R. I., February 17, 1867. He was a great- 

 grandson of Benjamin Franklin, his grandfather, 

 Richard Bache, having married Sarah, the phi- 

 losopher's only daughter. After receiving the 

 best instruction of the schools of his native 

 city, he entered the U. S. Military Academy at 

 West Point, in 1821, and graduated with the 

 highest honors in 1825, receiving immediately 

 a commission as Lieutenant of Topographical 

 Engineers. He was employed for the next 

 three years in engineering duties, by the Gov- 

 ernment, mostly under the superintendence of 

 the late General Totten, in the construction of 

 Fort Adams and other work's at the entrance 

 of Narragansett Bay, R. I. In 1827 he was 

 elected Professor of Mathematics in the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, where he remained till 

 1832, when he was appointed by the trustees 

 of the will of Stephen Girard to take charge of 

 the organization of the Girard College, and for 

 this purpose he spent some time in Europe en- 

 gaged in studying the great schools of the Con- 

 tinent. The report which he published on his 

 return was the most valuable contribution 

 which, up to that time, had been made to our 

 knowledge of European education. He was 

 made president of the future college provided 

 for by the injudicious will of Mr. Girard, but 

 as great delays were experienced in its prepara- 

 tion, and still greater were anticipated, Mr. 

 Bache, in 1839, resigned his connection witli it, 

 and became principal of the Philadelphia High 

 School, a public city collegiate institution, then 

 just established, from which situation he was 

 appointed by the Government, in 1843, to the 

 office of Superintendent of the Coast Survey, on 

 the death of Professor F. R. Hassler, by whom 

 this work had been begun nearly thirty years 

 before. The Coast Survey, though now recog- 

 nized as a work of very great importance, had 

 not been up to this time appreciated; the Gov- 

 ernment had made frequent changes in its poli- 

 cy in regard to it, and Congress had been so 

 niggardly in its appropriations, that but little 

 more than a beginning had been made. The 

 actual survey had extended eastwardly from 

 New York, only as far as Point Judith, and 

 southwardly onV to Cape Henlopen, and the 

 remainder of the c^ast, but imperfectly known, 

 yielded an ample artnual harvest of wrecks, de- 

 stroying 'property ami life to a vast extent. 

 Professor Hassler, while a man of great scien- 



tific ability, was of foreign birth, and possessed 

 less capacity than some others to influence and 

 control our National Legislature, and induce 

 them to appreciate the importance and vastness 

 of the enterprise. Professor Bache, on the 

 other hand, was possessed of large scientific ac- 

 quirements, and of extraordinary abilities for 

 planning and executing an undertaking involv- 

 ing so much comprehensiveness in its design and 

 so much minuteness in its details. He also had 

 those commanding intellectual and moral quali- 

 ties which enabled him to impress upon the 

 Government, and especially upon the members 

 of Congress, something like a just estimate of 

 what such a work required for its successful ac- 

 complishment. Our sea-coast, on the Atlantic 

 alone, was already more extensive than that of 

 any other civilized nation, but in 1845, it was 

 still further lengthened by the annexation of 

 Texas, and in 1848 we came in possession of 

 upward of two thousand miles on the Pacific, 

 by the acquisition of California, since which 

 time our entire seaboard line, exclusive of all 

 but the largest indentations, measures not less 

 than twelve thousand and six hundred miles. 

 To accomplish the complete survey of this long 

 line of coast, and to reduce all its most impor- 

 tant features, whether of the water or the land, 

 to a system of maps and charts, in order to meet 

 the necessities of commerce, and to answer the 

 questions of science, was an undertaking of 

 formidable dimensions, far surpassing in im- 

 portance any other which had then been en- 

 tered upon by the Government. Professor 

 Bache addressed himself to the work with the 

 utmost zeal, immediately on his appointment as 

 superintendent, in 1843. He formed his plans 

 on a scale proportionate to the magnitude of 

 the enterprise, and its importance to the inter- 

 ests of the country. He divided the whole 

 coast into eleven sections, of which nine were 

 upon the Atlantic and two upon the Pacific, 

 and in the several sections he placed separate 

 parties, each completely organized for carrying 

 forward the survey of that particular portion 

 of the coast all working together in accord- 

 ance with plans which he had devised, all 

 guided by his superintending mind, and report- 

 ing their results to him as their common chief. 

 The work has thus been prosecuted throughout 

 its whole extent at one and the same time ; and 

 though its superintendence became a herculean 

 task, yet its progress has been far more rapid 

 and its success more complete. It has con- 

 stantly employed hundreds of men of science, 

 and officers of the Army and the Navy, together 



