BOWLING GREEN. 



BROWNING, ELIZABETH B. 73 



tie of the Alma. At Inkermann he also ren- 

 dered efficient service, for which he received 

 the thanks of the British Parliament and high 

 honors from the Sultan of Turkey. On the 

 23d of February, 1855, he stormed the enemy's 

 works on one side of the harbor of Sebasto- 

 poL On the 5th of June he aided in storming 

 the redoubts of the Mamelon Vert. In the 

 charge on the Malakoff he was wounded by a 

 shell and borne from the field, as it was sup- 

 posed, mortally wounded. His vigorous con- 

 stitution, however, enabled him to rally, and 

 regain partial, though never complete, health. 

 He was chosen in 1856, on his return to France, 

 Senator, and in March, 1857, Marshal of France. 

 Queen Victoria bestowed on him the Grand 

 Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1855, in 

 token of her appreciation of his abilities as a 

 commander; and Napoleon HI. gave him the 

 order of the Legion of Honor the same year. 

 No one of the marshals had so completely won 

 the love of the French people, and it was with 

 great sorrow that they learned in the Italian 

 campaign that their favorite general was inca- 

 pacitated bv ill health for leading the army. 



BOWLING GREEN has been a flourishing 

 town. It is the capital of Warren County, 

 Kentucky, situated on the Barren River, an 

 affluent of Green River, 145 miles southwest of 

 Frankfort. Its situation is at the head of navi- 

 gation. Steamboats of medium size make reg- 

 ular passages, in all stages of the water, hence 

 to Louisville. Population in 1860, about 3,000. 

 It was, in 1861, a point of much strategic impor- 

 tance. Being at the junction of two Kentucky 

 railroads whicli enter Tennessee, it possessed 

 facilities for transportation to an almost un- 

 limited extent, and could secure supplies to the 

 full capacity of the Confederate States to spare. 

 The approaches to the town can be commanded 

 by a small force, as the railroad crosses a bridge 

 over Barren River. General Buckner with a 

 force of nearly ten thousand men occupied the 

 town in September. 



It was his plan to march upon Louisville 

 without delay, after breaking up the encamp- 

 ment at Camp Boone, but he was delayed by 

 the tearing up of a portion of the railroad track 

 near Cave City, by which the train drawing a 

 portion of his troops was thrown from the track. 



Subsequently, it became the head-quarters of 

 a large Confederate army, assembled to defend 

 the approach to Nashville. It was estimated, 

 at one period, at 25,000 men. By the capture 

 of Fort Henry, the flank of the army stationed 

 here was turned, and they were forced to evac- 

 uate the town. A large body of the troops, un- 

 der General Buckner, retreated to Fort Donel- 

 son, and were made prisoners on the surrender 

 of that position in February, 1862. 



BRIGGS, GEOEGE NixoV, LL.D., an Amer- 

 ican statesman and philanthropist, born in 

 Adams, Mass., April 12, 1796, died at Pitts- 

 field, Mass., Sept. 12, 1861. His father served 

 under Stark and Allen at Bennington. At the 

 age of 13, he was apprenticed to a hatter at 



White Creek, N. Y., where he remained for 

 two years, when an elder brother had him 

 taken from the shop and sent him to an acad- 

 emy for a year. Notwithstanding the death of 

 this brother at the close of that year, young 

 Briggs resolved to obtain a professional educa- 

 tion, and at the* age of 16 commenced the study 

 of law, which he prosecuted for 5 years, when 

 he was admitted to the bar of Berkshire Co., 

 and soon distinguished himself as an advocate, 

 and in 1827, in the defence of a Stockbridge 

 Indian, who was tried for murder at ' Lenox, 

 established his reputation as one of the ablest 

 criminal lawyers in the State. In 1830 he was 

 elected to Congress from the Berkshire dis- 

 trict, and was reflected for sis successive terms. 

 Here he soon became known as an able and 

 efficient legislator, and an eloquent and effective 

 debater. In 1843 he was elected Governor of 

 Massachusetts, and was continued in office by 

 annual reelection till 1851. During his admin- 

 istration, the murder of Dr. Parkman by Prof. 

 Webster occurred, and the most extraordinary 

 efforts were made to induce the Governor to 

 extend the executive clemency to the wretched 

 offender, either in the way of pardon or com- 

 mutation of sentence. To a person of GOT. 

 Briggs' amiable disposition the trial was a se- 

 vere one, but believing that the good of the 

 community required the maintenance of the law 

 and the execution of the offender, he was firm 

 and refused to interpose. On his retirement 

 from the gubernatorial office in 1851, Gov. 

 Briggs was appointed one of the Judges of the 

 Court of Common Pleas, which office he con- 

 tinued to fill till the reorganization of the" 

 Courts of the State in 1856. In 1861 he was 

 appointed one of a commission to adjust the 

 claims between the United States and New 

 Granada ; but his death, which was the result 

 of the accidental discharge of a fowling piece, 

 occurred before he had entered upon his duties 

 in the commission. He had taken a deep in- 

 terest in the great struggle upon which the na- 

 tion had just entered, and one of his last public 

 acts was the addressing a regiment of Massa- 

 chusetts Volunteers, of which his son was the 

 commander. Gov. Briggs had taken through 

 life an active interest in the religious and benev- 

 olent enterprises of the age, and at the time 

 of his death was president of the American 

 Baptist Missionary Union, of the American 

 Tract Society at Boston, the American Tem- 

 perance Union, and the Massachusetts Sabbath 

 School Union, and director in several other 

 benevolent societies. 



BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT, an Eng- 

 lish poetess, born in London in 1809, died at 

 Florence, Italy, July 29, 1861. Her education 

 was conducted mostly at home, her father be- 

 ing a man of fortune and of high culture, and 

 was of a more masculine character than is 

 often bestowed on females. She early acquired 

 a thorough familiarity with the writings of the 

 Greek dramatists, which has had its influence 

 in her subsequent writings. She also acquired 



