OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. 



669 



forces, so as to bind it up with them in recip- 

 rocal action and equivalent effect, which gained 

 for him the Magellanic gold medal of the 

 American Philosophical Society in 1864. 2. 

 Estimate of the mass and distance of the sun, 

 from the influence upon the barometer of the 

 constrained relative motions of the earth and 

 sun. 3. The discovery that "V," which is 

 the ratio between the electrostatic and electro- 

 magnetic units, is also the time integral of 

 stellar rotation, thus completing the demon- 

 stration of Faraday's conjecture. 4. Exten- 

 sion of planetary and stellar harmonies, so as 

 to show that all the bodies of the solar system 

 are so arranged as to indicate harmonic vibra- 

 tions in an interstellar elastic medium. 5. Dem- 

 onstration that the phyllotactic law, which 

 had been extended to planetary cycles, is also 

 operative in the vibrations of chemical atoms. 



6. Application of the principle of conservation 

 of areas to all cases of nebular condensation, 

 so as to show that the maximum gravitating 

 acceleration at the center of a stellar system 

 is always determined by luminous undulation. 



7. Correction of an error in regard to the den- 

 sity of the luminiferous ether. 8. Correction 

 of an error in regard to the elasticity of the 

 luminiferous ether. 9. Demonstration of the 

 Chase-Maxwell ratio. These and other re- 

 searches were published in the u Proceedings 

 of the American Philosophical Society," and 

 have also appeared in the transactions of the 

 Royal Society, the French Academy and else- 

 where, He was a member of scientific socie- 

 ties both at home and abroad, and was Vice- 

 President of the American Philosophical Soci- 

 ety. Prof. Chase published "Elements of 

 Arithmetic " ; " Common-School Arithmetic, 1 ' 

 and "Elements of Meteorology" (Philadel- 

 phia, 1884). 



Cheatham, Benjamin Franklin, an American 

 soldier, born in Davidson County, Tenn., in 

 1819; died in Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 4, 1886. 

 He was educated in Nashville, and after spend- 

 ing a year in mercantile pursuits in Philadel- 

 phia, he returned South and took charge of 

 his father's farm. At the first call for volun- 

 teers for the Mexican War, he entered the serv- 

 ice as captain of the First Tennessee Regitnent, 

 with which he participated in the battle of 

 Monterey and the affair at Medelin, on March 

 25, 1847, displaying great courage on both 

 occasions. He was discharged at the end of 

 the year's term of service, and, returning to 

 Nashville, raised the Third Tennessee Regiment, 

 and with this joined Gen. Scott on his march 

 to the capital, taking part in nearly all the 

 battles around the city of Mexico ; and in sev- 

 eral as senior colonel, commanding a brigade. 

 He was discharged in July, 1848, and then 

 spent several years in California. At the out- 

 break of the civil war, he organized, at the 

 request of the Military Board of Tennessee, 

 the whole supply department for the Western 

 army of the Confederacy, and was thus em- 

 ployed till May, 1861, when he was commis- 



sioned a brigadier-general. During Septem- 

 ber, 1861, he was in command at Mayfield, 

 Ky., but fell back when Gen. Grant occupied 

 Paducah. He led three regiments in the bat- 

 tle of Belmont, Nov. 7, 1861, and was after- 

 ward placed in command at Columbus, Ky., 

 which he was forced to evacuate during Gen. 

 Grant's victorious march. On the advance of 

 Gen. Bragg into Kentucky, in September, 1862, 

 Cheatham, then a major-general, was placed 

 in command of the Fourth Division of Jiis army, 

 which was actively engaged in the battle of 

 Perryville, Oct. 7, 8, 1862. He commanded a 

 division of Bragg's army at the battle of Mur- 

 freesboro', Dec. 31, 1862, and retained the posi- 

 tion during the retreat from Tullahoma, and the 

 retrograde movement from Chattanooga, in 

 September, 1863. He also took part in the bat- 

 tles of Chickamauga, Sept. 19, 20, 1863. Presi- 

 dent Grant tendered him an official appoint- 

 ment, which he declined in a letter of grateful 

 appreciation. He served four years as Superin- 

 tendent of the Tennessee Prison, and accepted 

 the postmastership of Nashville from President 

 Cleveland a short time before his death. 



Chesbrongh, Ellis Sylvester, an American civil 

 engineer, born in Baltimore, Md., July 6, 

 1813; died in Chicago, 111., Aug. 19, 1886. 

 The boy left school at the age of thirteen, and 

 became chainman of an engineering party in the 

 preliminary survey of the Baltimore and Ohio 

 Railway. After several years' experience in 

 this capacity, he became sub-assistant on the 

 proposed Allegheny and Portage Railroad. 

 In 1831 he did valuable work on the Paterson 

 and Hudson River Railroad. He was sent to 

 South Carolina in 1837 as senior assistant to a 

 corps of seventy engineers, nearly all older 

 than himself, to engage in the construction of 

 the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston Rail- 

 road, of which he afterward became resident 

 engineer. In 1846 he was made chief engi- 

 neer of the western division of the Boston 

 water-works; and in 1850 chief commissioner 

 in the Boston Water Department. From 1851 

 till 1855 he was city engineer, having charge 

 of all the water-works under the Cochituate 

 Water-Board, besides being the surveyor of the 

 streets and harbor improvements. This office 

 he relinquished, and planned the sewerage sys- 

 tem of Chicago, under the direction of the 

 Board of Sewerage Commissioners of that city, 

 becoming chief engineer when the Board of 

 Public Works was organized. The river- tun- 

 nels devised by him proved successful, not- 

 withstanding much adverse criticism. In 1879 

 he became Commissioner of Public Works in 

 Chicago. He was consulted on water ques- 

 tions by the authorities in Boston, Chicago, 

 New York, Memphis, Detroit, and Toronto ; 

 and on sewerage, by Boston, Des Moines, 

 Providence, Milwaukee, and other cities. Mr. 

 Chesbrough was a corresponding member of 

 the American Institute of Architects, and 

 President of the Society of Civil Engineers 

 from November, 1877, till November, 1878. 



