HODGE, JAMES T. 



HOLBROOK, JOHN E. 



383 



His early education in art was procured from 

 his father, an eminent engraver, but in 1806 

 ho went to Munich to study painting, and at 

 first manifested a strong preference for genre. 

 In 1813-'15 he was attached to the staff of 

 General "Wrede, and made the campaign of 

 France, participating in most of the important 

 battles, and making sketches of them on the 

 spot. During the campaign he produced many 

 genre pictures, following apparently the school 

 of Adam and Kobell; but from the close of 

 that campaign he became a painter of battle- 

 scenes, and speedily won distinction by the 

 spirit and truthfulness of his representations. 

 Among the best of his pictures of this period 

 were : " The Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube " (1817) ; 

 "The Surprise of a French. Village by the Cos- 

 sacks" (1817); "The Defence of the Bridge 

 of Kinzig" (1818); "A Scaramouch between 

 the French Dragoons and the Austrian Hus- 

 sars" (1819); "The Cossacks crossing the 

 Rhine" (1819); "The Don Cossacks with 

 French Peasants as Prisoners" (1820); "The 

 Bivouac of Austrian Troops" (1822), etc., etc. 

 In 1818 he visited Italy, and there painted the 

 " Matinee PartenTcirchen," one of the finest 

 pictures in the Leuchtenberg Collection. A 

 few years later he followed King Otho into 

 Greece, and during his stay there produced 

 the best of all his pictures, " Landing of the 

 Young King at Nauplia," which is now in the 

 New Pinacothek at Munich. In 1839 he was 

 called to the Russian court to paint a series 

 of twelve pictures on the events of the cam- 



Eaign of 1812. The most remarkable of these 

 5 his "Passage of the Beresina." Returning 

 to Munich, he painted "The Battle of Leipsic" 

 for King Maximilian, and some years later a 

 series of thirty-nine pictures illustrating the 

 Grecian struggle for independence. In 1867 

 he sent to the Universal Exposition at Paris 

 one of his finest productions, " The Capture 

 of the Polish Horses." He founded in Munich, 

 with Herr Quaglio, " The Society of Arts." 

 He was a member of the Academies of Berlin, 

 Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Munich, and a 

 chevalier of many national and foreign orders 

 of merit. His facility of composition, and the 

 minute exactness of his finish of the details 

 of all his paintings, were alike admirable. 



HODGE, JAMES TIIACHEE, an American ge- 

 ologist and civil engineer, born in Plymouth, 

 Mass., in 1816; lost on board the R. G. Co- 

 burn, in Lake Huron, about October 20, 1871. 

 He was a descendant of Dr. James Thacher, 

 the medical historian of the Revolutionary 

 War, and a man of high repute on other sub- 

 jects. Mr. Hodge graduated from Harvard 

 College in 1836, with a high standing, espe- 

 cially in physical science and in technical 

 studies. Upon leaving Cambridge, his inter- 

 est in the natural sciences induced him to fore- 

 go the temptation to enter upon the study of 

 one of the common learned professions, and he 

 devoted himself to the pursuit of geology and 

 mineralogy, which at that time seldom afforded 



the favorable opportunities that have since 

 made it a lucrative calling. His scientific 

 knowledge and zeal soon attracted the atten- 

 tion of professional experts, and his services 

 came into request as a practical geologist. He 

 was employed in the State geological survey 

 of Maine, under Dr. Charles T. Jackson, and 

 in that of Pennsylvania, under Prof. Henry 

 D. Rogers, in which capacity he increased his 

 reputation, already high for a young man, for 

 faithful and thorough work, untiring industry, 

 and singular firmness and energy of characte'r. 

 He subsequently took part in numerous pri- 

 vate enterprises for the development of the 

 mining resources of the country, and the pro- 

 motion of mechanical inventions, travelled 

 extensively in the United States and in 

 England, and contributed voluminous and im- 

 portant papers on scientific and industrial 

 topics to some of the leading publications in 

 those departments. He was a large contrib- 

 utor to the "New American Cyclopaedia." 

 He had been engaged for some years past 

 in the exploration of the mining regions 

 of the new Territories, and, for the two or 

 three months previous to his death, in a ge- 

 ological investigation in the Lake Superior 

 region, from which he was returning when he 

 embarked on the ill-fated steamer. 



HOLBROOK, JOHN EDWAED, M. D., an emi- 

 nent naturalist, professor, and author, born in 

 Beaufort, S. C., in 1795 ; died in Norfolk (North 

 Wrentham), Mass., October 8, 1871. At an 

 early age he removed with his parents to 

 Wrentham, Mass., the home, for many genera- 

 tions, of the Holbrook family. He graduated 

 at Brown University in 1815, and was a student 

 of medical science in Philadelphia, London, 

 and Edinburgh. He spent two years on the 

 Continent, devoting much time to natural his- 

 tory. Returning to South Carolina, he was 

 elected, in 1824, Professor of Anatomy in the 

 medical college at Charleston. Here, under 

 difficulties unknown to students of this day, 

 he wrote his great work on the reptiles of the 

 United States. It was published at Philadel- 

 phia in 1842. The simplicity and precision of 

 its descriptions, and the wonderful beauty and 

 correctness of the illustrations, made the book 

 a splendid contribution to this department of 

 science. At a later day Dr. Holbrook under- 

 took a voluminous treatise on the fishes of the 

 Southern States. But, his love of truth re- 

 quiring him to draw the figures solely from 

 living specimens, he found the labor too great, 

 and confined his studies to the fishes of South 

 Carolina. Unfortunately, the war prevented 

 the completion of their publication. Since 

 1865 he had been in the habit of spending the 

 summers at the home of his boyhood. During 

 the past summer Dr. Holbrook had been de- 

 clining in health. A part of the season was 

 spent with his nephew at Douglas, Mass., 

 whence he returned, early in October, to Nor- 

 folk. He was about to make his annual visit 

 to Agassiz, between whom and Holbrook there 



