324 



GILMEK, JOHN A. 



editions in the next three years, and was 

 pirated by another author, who subsequently, 

 however, recanted the claims he had made to 

 its authorship. In 1857 he published a trans- 

 lation of a portion of August Oomte's writings, 

 under the title of "Philosophy of Mathema- 

 tics;" but it was less successful than his other 

 books. An original, brilliant, and independent 

 thinker, somewhat given to paradox, abhorring 

 every thing like pretence, sham, or cant, he was 

 sometimes a little too severe on those who did 

 not possess his own intellectual vigor. His 

 nature was, however, too genial and social to 

 give his positive assertions an. offensive tone. 

 He died of disease of the lungs, from which he 

 had been suffering for about a year. The last 

 four months he had only been able to perform 

 his college duties with great pain and diffi- 

 culty; but, through the force of a powerful 

 will, he had kept up, and on the day of his 

 death deluded himself with the belief that he 

 should return to his work in three or four 

 days. In his department of science he has left 

 behind him few equals and no superior. 



GILMER, JOHN A., a Southern politician, 

 born in Guilford County, 1ST. 0., November 4, 

 1805; died in Greensboro, N. 0., May 14, 

 1868. He was of poor but respectable parent- 

 age, and of studious habits ; and, having ac- 

 quired a good English education at winter 

 schools, he worked on a farm and in a shop 

 during the summer seasons, and finally taught 

 school till he obtained the means of taking a 

 three years' course at the academy at Greens- 

 boro. Here he distinguished himself as a lin- 

 guist and mathematician, and subsequently 

 taught for three years in a grammar-school. 

 Afterward he studied law, and was admitted 

 to the bar in 1832. His practice and reputa- 

 tion slowly advanced, and in 1846 he was 

 elected State Senator, and retained in the Sen- 

 ate by successive reflections till 1856, when 

 he was elected to the Thirty-fifth Congress, 

 and served on the Committee on Elections. 

 He was also a candidate of the "Whig party 

 for Governor in 1856, but was defeated. He 

 was reflected to the Thirty-sixth Congress, 

 and made chairman of the Committee on Elec- 

 tions, but before the expiration of his term with- 

 drew, North Carolina having been forced into 

 secession. During the war he remained quietly 

 at home, until 1864, when he was chosen a 

 member of the last Confederate Congress. After 

 the war, he was a delegate to the Philadelphia 

 "National Union Convention " in the summer 

 of 1866. 



GORTCHAKOFF, Prince PETEK DMITEIE- 

 VITOH, a Russian general and military governor 

 of remarkable administrative ability, born at 

 Moscow, in 1789; died in that city, in April, 

 1868. Having received a military education at 

 Dresden, he entered the artillery of the Impe- 

 rial Guard in 1807; was engaged in the war 

 with the Finns in 1809, and in the Turkish 

 war, in Moldavia, in 1810, taking an active part 

 in the battles of Rustschuk and Shumla. In 



GRANGER, FRANCIS. 



1811 he was in St. Petersburg, assisting in the 

 editing of ihe Military Journal; but in 181 2-' 14 

 he was again in the field, encountering all the 

 vicissitudes of the war with Napoleon. After the 

 restoration of peace in Western Europe, Prince 

 Gortchakoff, now recognized as an officer of 

 great courage and ability, was ordered to the 

 Caucasus. Here, for some years, all was quiet ; 

 but, in 1820, Mingrelia, Imeritia, and Georgia 

 rose simultaneously, and for a time it seemed 

 as if the Russian power in that region would 

 be blotted out forever. That it was not, was 

 due largely to the skill and address, as well as 

 the unflinching courage, of Prince Gortchakoff. 

 He held the wavering tribes to their allegiance ; 

 by his rapid and skilful movements subjugated 

 the district of Batchin, the principal seat of the 

 insurrection, and adroitly secured the evidence 

 of the plans of the insurgent leaders, and the 

 complicity of several powerful chiefs who had 

 professed to be friendly. For his great services 

 he was rewarded with the rank of major-gen- 

 eral and the governorship of Imeritia. For five 

 years he governed this important province 

 with remarkable ability, improving its commu- 

 nications, encouraging industry, but trampling 

 out, with the iron heel, every attempt at re- 

 volt. In 1826, war again occurring between 

 Russia and Turkey, he was appointed quarter- 

 master general of the Second Army, and dis- 

 tinguished himself before Shumla, and in the 

 campaign under Diebitsch in 1829. He subse- 

 quently returned to the Caucasus, but in 1836 

 was made Governor-General of Western Sibe- 

 ria, and for fifteen years managed the affairs of 

 that vast region with wonderful success, trans- 

 ferring the seat of the government to Omsk, 

 encouraging all the industries of the country, 

 and largely developing its resources. His 

 health failing under his manifold labors, he re- 

 turned to Moscow in 1851 ; but, having nearly 

 recovered in 1854, he was summoned to take 

 part in the Crimean War, was conspicuous for 

 his daring at the Alma, heading in person the 

 Yladimir regiment of foot, and had command 

 of the entire land forces in the retreat upon 

 Sebastopol, and subsequently was appointed 

 general of the Sixth Corps of Infantry. In 

 1855 the prince quitted the service, and be- 

 came a member of the Imperial Council. In 

 1857, on the fiftieth anniversary of his enter- 

 ing the army, he was made commander of the 

 Vladimir regiment which he had led so bravely 

 at the Alma, and held this honorary appoint- 

 ment to the end of his life. In 1863 he re- 

 turned to Moscow, and remained there till his 

 death. 



GRANGER, FRANCIS, an active and distin- 

 guished politician of New York, born in Suf- 

 field, Conn., in 1787; died in Canandaigua, 

 New York, August 28, 1868. He was the son 

 of Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General of the 

 United States from 1801 to 1814, and enjoyed 

 excellent advantages of early education. He 

 did not, however, enter Yale College until his 

 twentieth year, and graduated in the class of 



