10 



ALEXANDER II. 



War Department was informed, became gray 

 in tho service of the Union. II o was well 

 known throughout the country, but more par- 

 ticularly in Missouri, having tilled the office of 

 I'rovost-Marshal-General of that State in an 

 able, tirm, and upright manner. His head- 

 quarters were in St. Louis in the year 1865. 

 Colonel Alexander belonged to the old-school 

 class of army otlieers, ami, like many others, 

 was outstripped in the race for rank by junior 

 officers who entered the lists full of ardor and 

 vigor at the outbreak of the civil war. lie 

 commanded the I tah Expedition until relieved 

 by General Johnston, when Grant, Sherman, 

 and McClellan were simply lieutenants, and 

 his service extended through a period of forty 

 years. Graduating at the West Point Military 

 Academy, June 80, 1823, he was the next 

 day promoted brevet second-lieutenant of the 

 Sixth Regular Infantry, and on the 25th of 

 December, 1827, was made a full lieutenant. 

 He attained the rank of captain of the Third 

 Infantry, July 7, 1848; was brevetted major, 

 April 18, 1848, for gallant conduct in the bat- 

 tles of Contreras and Churubusco. At tho 

 close of the Mexican War he was promoted to 

 be colonel of the Tenth Infantry, after which 

 he served the Government at Santa F6, New 

 Mexico, and other points. At the beginning 

 of the civil war, Colonel Alexander was sta- 

 tioned at Fort Laramie, and oifered his ser- 

 vices, and that of his regiment which was 

 much devoted to him, again and again to the 

 Government, but was retained on the frontier 

 on account of his influence with the Indians. 

 In the spring of 1863 he was ordered to St. 

 Louis as Acting Assistant Provost- Marshal- 

 General, the business of which office was to 

 superintend the district provost-marshals, to 

 be informed on the condition of the State, 

 execute the draft, arrest deserters, and to 

 superintend the mustering, in and out, of the 

 troops. This duty was usually assigned, in 

 the respective States, to old and tried army 

 officers, and Colonel Alexander's performance 

 of it, in a manner at once able, honest, and 

 faithful, is well attested. After a life of un- 

 questionable integrity and devotion to duty, 

 this lamented soldier was in 1869 placed upon 

 the retired list, having been brevetted a briga- 

 dier-general for his services in recruiting the 

 army during the war. 



ALEXANDER II, Emperor of Russia, was 

 assassinated by Nihilist conspirators, March 

 13th, at St. Petersburg. Born April 29, 1818, 

 Alexander Nicolaevitch's prospects of succeed- 

 ing to the throne seemed the remotest possible. 

 Four years afterward his uncle Constantino in 

 family conclave renounced the succession, and 

 in his seventh year Alexander I Pavlovitch 

 died in tho prime of his life, murdered it is 

 supposed, and was succeeded by Nicholas, the 

 third son of Paul I. Tho infant Alexander, 

 the Czar's eldest son, was now heir-apparent, 

 but, during the thirty years of his father's 

 reign, his* life was almost as unimportant as 



that of a grand duke in a collateral line, which 

 seemed his destined lot when in the cradle. 

 His earliest training was directed by his 

 mother, Alexandra Feodorevna, a sister of the 

 present German Emperor ; but his father soon 

 withdrew him from the care of the mild, re- 

 fined Czarina, and sought to inculcate in his 

 heir the thoughts and ways of a soldier. The 

 gentle, kindly, easy-going character of the 

 Czarevitch, different from the arbitrary and 

 passionate temper usually characteristic of the 

 Romanoff family, afforded poor material for a 

 military martinet. His tutor, the poet Shu- 

 kofsky, instilled in him a love of literature and 

 the contemplative science in vogue in Ger- 

 many. He was endowed with the linguistic 

 talent of his race in a marked degree, and ac- 

 quired a familiar acquaintance with the prin- 

 cipal modern languages. The ceremonial ob- 

 servances, incumbent on the heir to the throne 

 and nominal commander in the army, formed 

 the chief part of his public activity. At the 

 age of sixteen he was declared of age, and ap- 

 pointed Hetman of the Cossacks and Com- 

 mandant of the Guards. In 1836 and 1837 he 

 traveled through Northern Russia and Siberia, 

 where he procured the alleviation of the hard 

 lot of political exiles. In 1839 and 1840 he 

 visited various countries of Europe. In 1841 

 he was married to the Princess Maximiliane 

 Maria of Hesse (see MARIA ALEXANDBEVNA 

 in "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1880). From 

 this marriage came six sons (the Grand Dukes 

 Nicholas, Alexander, now Alexander III, 

 Vladimir, Alexis, Sergius, and Paul), and Ma- 

 ria, now Duchess of Edinburgh. In the fol- 

 lowing years he traveled in Southern Rus- 

 sia, the Caucasus, and Armenia. On one of 

 his tours he took part in an expedition against 

 a tribe of Circassian robbers. He held the 

 post of Director of the Military Schools, but 

 the duties were performed by his assistant, 

 General Rostoftsef, who afterward took a 

 prominent part in the emancipation of the 

 serfs. The Czarevitch was president of one of 

 the commissions appointed to inquire into the 

 condition of the serfs, but gave little attention 

 to the investigation, and favored rather the 

 proprietors than the peasantry. Nicholas was 

 disappointed in his son, who was overawed by 

 his father, as was nearly every one who came 

 in contact with that majestic autocrat. " My 

 son Shasha is an old woman," Nicholas once 

 said; "there will be nothing great done in his 

 time." Had he not wisely kept aloof from 

 state affairs, Alexander, from his very differ- 

 ent habits of mind, might have given his 

 father a better opinion of his strength of char- 

 acter by coming into unhappy conflict with 

 the " Iron Czar." He is said to have earnestly 

 protested against the advance on Turkey in 

 1853. The military schemes of Nicholas, to 

 which he had sacrificed all the best interests 

 of the empire, came to naught, and the Em- 

 peror died of shame and disappointment after 

 the loss of the Crimean War. Alexander II 



