620 



OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



June 3. COLVOOORESSES, Captain GEORGE 

 M., U. S. N., a distinguished naval officer, of 

 Greek birth; was murdered at Bridgeport, 

 Conn., aged about 60 years. He was born in 

 Missolonghi, Greece, and saw his father and 

 mother murdered by the Turks in the massa- 

 cre of that city in 1824. Seeing that he 

 would fall a victim to the revengeful Turks, he 

 ran to the shore with another boy andjurnped 

 into a skiff. They paddled off toward the 

 United States man-of-war Constitution, which 

 lay in port, under Commodore Elliott. As 

 soon as it was discovered that they were es- 

 caping from the Turks, Commodore Elliott or- 

 dered a boat to their rescue and they were 

 taken on board the Constitution and brought 

 to America. Soon after young Colvocoresses 

 landed he entered the Naval Academy at An- 

 napolis, Md., being appointed from Vermont in 

 February, 1832. In 1836-'37 he was attached 

 to the frigate United States in the Mediter- 

 ranean squadron. He was promoted to passed 

 midshipman June 23, 1 838 ; was lieutenant Oc- 

 tober 7, 1843, and served on various ships till 

 July 1, 1861, when he was commissioned com- 

 mander, commanding the sloop Saratoga, of 

 the South Atlantic blockading squadron, till 

 1864, and the sloop St. Mary's, of the Pacific 

 squadron, from 1865 to 1866. He chanced to 

 be on duty in Valparaiso when that port w r as 

 menaced by a powerful Spanish squadron, un- 

 der the command of Admiral Pinzon, and was 

 exceedingly active in his efforts to protect the 

 rights and property of American citizens. 

 For his success, as well as for a famous corre- 

 spondence with the Spanish admiral, he will 

 be long remembered there. He was retired 

 with the rank of captain in 1867. Captain 

 Colvocoresses was a gallant and deserving offi- 

 cer, and took an active part in the late war of 

 the country, receiving a large amount of 

 prize-money from various captures in which 

 he participated. The circumstances of his 

 death were peculiarly distressing. Leaving 

 his home in Litchfield, Conn., upon a business- 

 trip to New York City, he reached Bridgeport 

 in the evening, with the intention of taking the 

 boat for New York, but was waylaid, mur- 

 dered, and robbed of a large amount of property 

 upon his person. Captain Colvocoresses was 

 a man of remarkable courage, and was widely 

 esteemed for his many virtues. 



June 4. PLATT, ISAAC, a veteran political 

 editor and journalist; died at Poughkeepsie, 

 N. Y., aged about 70 years. In 1828 he estab- 

 lished the Dutches* Intelligencer, a strong anti- 

 Jackson paper, surrendered mostly to politics. 

 The county, however, went heavily for Jackson, 

 remaining on that side until 1837, when it be- 

 came Whig. Subsequently, one of the old pa- 

 pers, changing its views, was united with Mr. 

 Platt's paper, The Eagle, which still survives. 

 His editorial career extended over a period of 

 forty-four years. 



June 5. BERMINGHAM, Very Reverend T., 

 D. D., a Roman Catholic clergyman, Vicar- 



General of the Diocese of South Carolina; 

 died in New York City, aged 75 years. lie 

 was born in the county of Tipperary, Ireland, 

 in 1797; left his country in 1827, and, after a 

 brief sojourn in Canada, went to Charleston, 

 S. C., in 1829, and took his ecclesiastical 

 course at the seminary of Bishop England, by 

 whom he was ordained in 1831. His first mis- 

 sion was to Columbus, Ga., and thence he 

 was transferred to Columbia and Edgefield, 

 S. C., in which latter mission he was engaged 

 until the commencement of the late war. It 

 was while in the charge of this mission that he 

 erected the granite church in Edgefield, raised 

 at a cost of over $30,000, and gathered in 

 small sums from his friends in different parts 

 of the country. At the close of the war, upon 

 his return to Charleston, he was appointed, by 

 the Right Reverend Bishop Lynch, Vicar-Gen- 

 eral of the Diocese of South Carolina, and this 

 dignity, with which he was then invested, he 

 retained to the day of his death. The last two 

 years of his life he chiefly devoted outside of 

 the charge of his spiritual duties to the erec- 

 tion of a worthy edifice of Catholic worship, 

 on Sullivan's Island, suitable to the growing 

 population and importance of this sea-side sum- 

 mer resort, which building is not yet wholly 

 completed. 



June 5. SHORTER, JOHN GILL, an Alabama 

 jurist and political leader, a native of Georgia, 

 but long resident in Alabama ; died in Eut'au- 

 la, Ala. He was a son of Hon. Eli Short- 

 er, of Georgia, but removed to Alabama while 

 yet a young man, and, from his wealth, 

 his learning, and his high character, he 

 speedily became prominent in political cir- 

 cles. He was for several years a State Sena- 

 tor ; was circuit judge for his district, from 

 1855 to 1861 ; was a member of the first Pro- 

 visional Confederate Congress ; and in the au- 

 tumn of 1861 was elected Governor as successor 

 of Governor Andrew Moore, and through the 

 succeeding two years, though the war raged 

 within portions of his State, he maintained his 

 authority and control of the State in such a 

 way as to give general satisfaction. He was 

 a man of the most estimable private char- 

 acter, an active and devoted Christian, and 

 greatly esteemed for his amiable and generous 

 nature. 



June 7. BEERS, WILLIAM F., a New York 

 journalist ; died in that city, aged 35 years. 

 He was born in Ireland, but came to this coun- 

 try at a very early age. When only ten years 

 old, he entered the office of the Sun, and re- 

 mained there for four or five years ; after 

 which he spent about six years in the book- 

 pffice of Smith & McDougall. He next went 

 into the composing-room of the Times, where 

 he remained until the beginning of the war. 

 While here, he became a prominent and re- 

 spected member of the Typographical Union. 

 When the call for volunteers was sounded, K- 

 enlisted as a private in the Tenth New York 

 Volunteers, and served with credit until the 



