600 



RAWLINS, JOHN A. 



RAYMOND, HENRY J. 



derfer, Jr., civil engineer, and General James 

 Barnes, was appointed by the President of the 

 United States to make a thorough reexamina- 

 tion of so much of the Union Pacific road as 

 liad then been constructed. Their report, 

 which was submitted in November of the same 

 year, when 890 miles of the road had been 

 completed, closed as follows: "Deficiencies 

 exist, but they are, almost without exception, 

 those incident to all new roads, or of a char- 

 acter growing out of the peculiar duties en- 

 countered, or inseparably connected with the 

 unexampled progress of the work. A matter 

 of great importance, and highly creditable to 

 the able managers of the company, is that 

 they can all be supplied at an outlay but little 

 exceeding that which would have obviated 

 them in the first instance, but at the cost of 

 materially retarding the progress of the great 

 work. Under the circumstances, it is much 

 more a matter of surprise that so few mistakes 

 were made, and so few defects exist, than it 

 would be had serious deficiencies been of more 

 frequent occurrence ; and the country has rea- 

 sons to congratulate itself that this great work 

 of national importance is so rapidly approach- 

 ing completion under such favorable auspices." 

 RAWLINS, JOHN A., Major-General of the 

 United States Army and Secretary of War, 

 born at Guilford, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, 

 February 13, 1831 ; died in Washington, Sep- 

 tember 6, 1869. He was reared as a farmer 

 and charcoal-burner, which occupation he fol- 

 lowed till 1854, in the mean time improving 

 every opportunity he could command for read- 

 ing and study. Removing to Galena, 111., he 

 studied law, and, in 1855, was admitted to the 

 bar, and practised his profession successfully 

 until the commencement of the late war. His 

 principles were Democratic, and, in 1860, he 

 was candidate for presidential elector from 

 the 1st Congressional District of his native 

 State on the Douglas ticket. Though a de- 

 cided Democrat, and opposed to the war, upon 

 the fall of Fort Sumter he felt that it was no 

 longer a question of politics, and forthwith 

 gave all his sympathies to the support of the 

 Government. On receiving the news of the Bull 

 Run disaster, he engaged in raising troops, and 

 on the 15th of September following went into 

 service on the staff of General Grant, as assist- 

 ant adjutant-general with the rank of captain. 

 He was appointed a brigadier-general of vol- 

 unteers, to rank from August 11, 1863 ; was 

 bre vetted major-general of volunteers, to rank 

 from February 24, 1865 ; was appointed chief 

 of staff to the Lieutenant-General commanding 

 on March 3, 1865, with the rank of brigadier- 

 general in the United States Army, and was 

 commissioned a major-general in the United 

 States Army, to rank from March 13, 1865. 

 Through all the trying scenes of the great con- 

 flict he refused no hardship and shunned no 

 danger, but manfully supported his chief until 

 the victory was won, remaining upon his staff 

 until, on the resignation of General Schofield, 



March 11, 1869, he was appointed Secretary of 

 War, the arduous duties of which position he 

 performed with untiring faithfulness until a 

 few days previous to his death. 



RAYMOND, HENRY JAEVIS, an American 

 journalist, editor, author, and political leader, 

 born in Lima, Livingston County, N. Y., 

 January 24, 1820 ; died in New York City, 

 June 18, 1869. His father was a farmer, and 

 in that life Mr. Raymond's early days were 

 spent. As soon as he was old enough, he at- 

 tended the famous Lima Seminary, and there 

 laid the foundation of a solid education. In 

 the winter of 1835-'36 he taught a districts 

 school. After considerable solicitation, his 

 father finally consented to send young Ray- 

 mond to college, and he graduated with high 

 honors at the University of Vermont in 1840. 

 After leaving college he came to New York, 

 studied law, and maintained himself by teach- 

 ing, and by writing for the New- Yorker. He 

 was desirous of becoming a journalist; and 

 when, in 1841, Mr. Greeley established the 

 Tribune, Mr. Raymond was his assistant. Here 

 he greatly distinguished himself by his skillas 

 a reporter, a department of the journalistic 

 profession in which he had no superior in 

 promptness, accuracy, and tact. He made a 

 specialty of lectures, sermons, speeches, etc. ; 

 and, among other remarkable feats of this kind 

 of enterprise, reported Dr. Dionysius Lard- 

 ner's lectures so perfectly, that the lecturer 

 consented to their publication in two large 

 volumes, by Greeley & McElrath, with his 

 certificate of their accuracy. Mr. Raymond's 

 activity soon manifested itself in his zeal for 

 exclusive news, and in after-life he often ex- 



Eressed a regret that railroads and telegraphs 

 ad so reduced the opportunities of gaming 

 these victories. He often related a "beat" he 

 gained for the Tribune in his early days. He 

 went, with various reporters of rival journals, 

 to Boston, to report a speech of Daniel Web- 

 ster. The other journals each sent two short- 

 hand reporters to work against Raymond. He 

 took his notes in the method which he had 

 invented, and the company returned by the 

 night-boat. But while the others were enjoy- 

 ing themselves, Raymond was copying his 

 notes in the back cabin, which had been 

 turned into a printing-office, and when the boat 

 reached the city the whole speech, several 

 columns long, was in type, ready to be trans- 

 ferred to the presses, and by six o'clock the 

 readers of the Tribune had it before their eyes. 

 The other papers acknowledged themselves 

 beaten, and never used their short-hand re- 

 ports. After remaining on the Tribune about 

 seven years, he accepted a position on the staff 

 of the Courier and Enquirer, under James 

 Watson Webb. He remained with General 

 Webb eight years, until 1851, when, on account 

 of political differences, he left him, and went 

 to Europe for his health. The disagreement 

 arose from a difference of opinion in regard to 

 the measures before Congress in 1850, the 



