92 



CAMP ALLEGHANY. 



American River and hemmed in by the rail- 

 road embankment and the levee, rose till it 

 poured over the top of the levee, being 10 feet 

 higher inside the levee than on the outside in 

 the bed of the river. There was no way of 

 relief except by cutting the levee. This was a 

 hazardous enterprise, but was accomplished, 

 and the water fell at once 5 or 6 feet. It still 

 remained several feet deep for two or three 

 weeks in the lower part of the city, and three 

 times rose again to a considerable height. As 

 the flood began to subside, its direful results 

 became manifest ; a number of lives had been 

 lost, houses and stores had been twisted, over- 

 turned, undermined, and seriously injured ; cat- 

 tle, horses, and hogs had been drowned in large 

 numbers, gardens and fences destroyed, and 

 erery thing made desolate. The city, previous- 

 ly burdened with an enormous debt, had lost 

 at least $2,000,000, and ruin stared every man 

 in the face. Eepudiation was openly deter- 

 mined upon by the City Council, but was pre- 

 vented by the firmness of the city officers and 

 the indignation of the other cities of the State. 

 Liberal subscriptions were made for their aid 

 in other cities, San Francisco sending $30,000 

 in money, besides large quantities of provisions 

 and clothing, and other cities smaller amounts, 

 and the citizens took courage and began to re- 

 build their city again. On the Trinity Eiver 

 the loss of property was more than $150,000 ; 

 in Marysviile, $40,000 ; on the Feather River 

 the canals and dams of the Ophir Water Com- 

 pany, and their bulkhead apron and flume 

 were carried away, and an immense boom of 

 saw logs and large quanities of lumber swept 

 away. In Grass Valley the mines were se- 

 riously injured. Throughout all the mountain 

 region of California and Nevada a similar scene 

 of destruction was witnessed. 



CAMP ALLEGHANY. In the vicinity of 

 this camp, which was situated on the Green- 

 brier River, in Pocahontas Co., Western Virgi- 

 nia, a valley lying between the Flat Toptand 

 Kittatinny ranges, there was a sharp action on 

 the 13th of December. The Union troops were 

 commanded by Gen. Milroy, and consisted of 

 portions of the Ninth and Thirteenth Indiana, 

 the Twenty-fifth and Thirty-second Ohio, and 

 the Second Virginia, numbering in all 1,750 

 men. The Confederate force was under the 

 command of Gen. Johnson, of Georgia, and 

 was estimated at 2,000. The action com^ 

 menced about daylight and lasted till 3 o'clock 

 in the afternoon, when the Confederates set 

 fire to their camps and retreated to Staunton, 

 in the valley of Virginia, thus vacating West- 

 ern Virginia, at least that portion west of the 

 Kittatinny range. The loss, as officially report- 

 ed, was about equal on both sides ; the Federal 

 troops having 20 killed and 107 wounded, and 

 the Confederates 25 killed, 97 wounded, and 

 about 30 of their men being taken prisoners. 



CAMPBELL, JOHN, Lord Chancellor of Eng- 

 land, an English jurist, statesman, and author, 

 born at Springfield, near Cupar, Fifeshire, Scot- 



CAMPBELL. 



land, Sept. 15, 1781, died in London, June 23, 

 1861. His father was a Scottish clergyman, 

 and long minister of the kirk at Cupar. John 

 was educated at the University of St. Andrews, 

 and migrated early to London, where he was 

 entered as a student of law at Lincoln's Inn, 

 in 1800, and admitted to the bar in 1806. He 

 supported himself while studying his profession 

 by writing law reports and theatrical criticisms 

 for the " Morning Chronicle." His success as 

 a lawyer was slow but steady, and he aided bis 

 income and reputation by publishing reports of 

 the principal cases decided in the Courts of 

 King's Bench and Common Pleas. In 1821 he 

 married the eldest daughter of Sir James Scar- 

 lett, afterwards Lord Abinger. In 1827 he re- 

 ceived the appointment of King's Counsel. In 

 1830 he was elected member of parliament for 

 the borough of Stafford, 'and in 1832 that of 

 Dudley ; and in November of the latter year, 

 appointed solicitor-general, which office he re- 

 tained till Feb. 1834, when he was raised to 

 the position of attorney-general. He left office 

 when the Grey Ministry resigned in Nov. 1834, 

 and at the next general election was returned 

 to parliament by the city of Edinburgh, which 

 he continued to represent till he was raised to 

 the peerage. In 1835, on the accession of 

 Peel's Ministry, he was again appointed attor- 

 ney-general, and remained in that office till 

 June 1841, when he was appointed Lord Chan- 

 cellor of Ireland, and raised to the peerage as 

 Baron Campbell, his wife having previously be- 

 come a peeress as Baronesss Stratheden. In 

 Sept. 1841, he went out of office with the Mel- 

 bourne Administration. For the next five years 

 he was on the judicial committee of the Privy 

 Council, and one of the committee of appeals 

 in the House of Lords. During this interval 

 he devoted much attention to literary pursuits, 

 and prepared a series of elaborate biographies 

 of the " Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the 

 Great Seal, from the earliest times to the reign 

 of George IV." (7 vols. 8vo., London, 1846-'7,) 

 which he afterwards followed with 2 volumes 

 of the lives of the " Chief Justices of England 

 from the Norman Conquest to the death of 

 Lord Mansfield," (London, 1832.) Be after- 

 wards added a third volume, bringing the biog- 

 raphies down to 1832. These were all repub- 

 lished in this country. In 1836 he was called 

 to the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 

 caster, and a seat in the Russell Cabinet. In 

 1850 he succeeded Lord Denman as Chief-Jus- 

 tice of the Court of Queen's Bench, which post 

 he held till 1859, when Lord Palmerston ap- 

 pointed him Lord Chancellor, which office he 

 held till his death. Besides the reports and 

 biographies already mentioned, a collection of 

 his speeches at the bar and in the House of 

 Commons was published in 1842. His efforts 

 during the closing months of his life in the 

 House of Lords, over which he presided, were 

 directed to the simplification and improvement 

 of the statutes, so as to render the administration 

 of justice more equitable and accessible to all. 



