OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



643 



In 1869 he was elected Governor, and was an- 

 nually reflected till 1873. 



PASOHALL, GEOKGE W., died in Washington, 

 D. 0., February 16th. He was born in Greene 

 County, Ga., in 1812, was admitted to the bar 

 in 1832, and in 1837 removed to Arkansas, 

 where he was elected a Judge of the Supreme 

 Court. After a few years he resigned this 

 position and resumed practice. He removed 

 to Texas in 1848, and in 1857 established "The 

 Southern Intelligencer" at Austin. In 1860 

 he opposed secession, and advocated the elec- 

 tion of Douglas to the Presidency. In 1869 

 he removed to Washington. He prepared 

 five volumes of Texas reports, and a digest of 

 reports and one of Statutes; also an anno- 

 tated edition of the Constitution of the United 

 States. 



PAULOING, Rear-Admiral HIRAM, died at 

 Huntington, L. L, October 20, 1878. He was 

 born in Westchester County, N. Y., December 

 11, 1797, and was the son of John Paulding, one 

 of the captors of Major Andre. In 1811 he 

 entered the navy as a midshipman. For gallant 

 service in the battle of Lake Champlain, Con- 

 gress voted him a sword. He became a cap- 

 tain in 1843. While in command of the home 

 squadron in 1857 he broke up an expedition 

 against Nicaragua under the lead of William 

 Walker, who had landed his force at Punta- 

 renas in the harbor of Grey town. Having ar- 

 rived in the flag-ship Wabash, Paulding landed a 

 force under command of Captain Engle. Walk- 

 er surrendered with 132 followers, who were 

 disarmed and sent to the United States. Pauld- 

 ing acted in this matter without specific in- 

 structions, and his arrest of Walker on foreign 

 soil was not fully approved by the United 

 States Government. In December, 1860, he 

 was presented with a sword by Nicaragua, but 

 he was not permitted by Congress to accept a 

 tract of land which had been offered to him 

 by that Government. In July, 1862, he was 

 commissioned as rear-admiral on the retired 

 list. From 1862 to 1866 he was in command 

 of the navy yard at New York, was governor 

 of the naval asylum in Philadelphia from 1866 

 to 1863, and was port admiral at Boston from 

 1869 to 1871. He was the author of a " Journal 

 of a Cruise among the Islands of the Pacific," 

 published in 1831. 



PEARSON, RICHMOND MUMFORD, died at Win- 

 ston, N. C., January 12th. He was born in 

 Davie County, N. 0., June 28, 1805. He was 

 admitted to the bar in 1826, and was a mem- 

 ber of the Legislature from 1829 to 1832. For 

 twelve years he was a Judge of the Superior 

 Court, and was then elected by the Legislature 

 to the Supreme Bench. In 1859 he became 

 Chief Justice, which position he continued to 

 occupy until his death. 



PEASE, JOSEPH L., for seven years editor 

 and proprietor of the " Connecticut Western 

 News," died at Canaan, Conn., June 30th, aged 

 42 years. 



PECK, General JOHN JAMES, died at Syra- 



cuse, N. Y., April 21st. He was born at Man- 

 lius, Onondaga County, N. Y., January 4, 1821. 

 He graduated at West Point in 1843. For his 

 services in the Mexican war he was made a 

 major. In 1853 he resigned his commission 

 in the army and returned to Syracuse. lie 

 entered the late war as a brigadier-general and 

 became attached to the Fourth Army Corps. 

 He took part in the operations against Manas- 

 sas, and commanded several miles of the lines 

 at the siege of Yorktown. He participated in 

 the battle of Fair Oaks, and afterward took 

 command of a division which bore an impor- 

 tant part in the battle of Malvern Hill. While 

 at Harrison's Landing he was made major- 

 general, his commission dating from July 4, 

 1862. In August of the same year he was 

 placed in command of the defenses at York- 

 town, and in September was assigned to the 

 command of all the troops in Virginia south 

 of the James. He constructed the defenses of 

 Norfolk, and repulsed the attacks of General 

 Longstreet upon Suffolk, forcing the latter to 

 raise his siege and retire. In August, 1863, 

 General Peck was assigned to the command 

 of the Department of North Carolina. In May, 

 1864, he assumed command of the Department 

 of the East, with his headquarters in New York. 

 He was mustered out of the service in August, 

 1865. 



PEYTON, BAILIE, died at Gallatin, Tenn., Au- 

 gust 18th. He was born in Sumner County, 

 Tenn. From 1833 to 1837 he was a Represent- 

 ative in Congress, and during the Mexican 

 war served on General Taylor's staff. In 1849 

 he was appointed Minister to Chili, and for a 

 time he was United States District Attorney 

 for Louisiana. After he had practiced law for 

 a few years in California, he returned to his 

 native State, and in 1860 was a Presidential 

 elector on the Bell and Everett ticket. He 

 afterward entered the Confederate army. 



PHELPS, JOHN F., for thirty-five years editor 

 of the May ville (N. Y.) " Sentinel," died there 

 February 2d, aged 59 years. 



PICKERING, CHARLES, naturalist, died in Bos- 

 ton, March 18th. He was the grandson of 

 Timothy Pickering, a distinguished statesman 

 of the post- revolutionary epoch, and was born 

 in Susquehanna County, Pa., November 10, 

 1805. In 1823 he graduated at Harvard Col- 

 lege, and then studied medicine in the Harvard 

 Medical School. In 1838 he joined the United 

 States Exploring Expedition under Command- 

 er Wilkes as naturalist. On the return of the 

 expedition in 1842, Dr. Pickering went to In- 

 dia and eastern Africa for the purpose of more 

 thoroughly studying the human inhabitants of 

 these regions. In 1848 appeared his work, 

 a Races of Man and their Geographical Distri- 

 bution" (4to, Philadelphia), in 1854 his " Geo- 

 graphical Distribution of Animals and Man " 

 (Boston), and in 1861 his " Geographical Dis- 

 tribution of Plants." To the proceedings of 

 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 

 and of the American Philosophical Society he 



