OBITUARIES. AMERICAN. 



611 



ton, D. C., March 5, 1887. He was graduated 

 at the United States Military Academy, and 

 commissioned second lieutenant in the Fourth 

 United States Infantry in 1857. Previous to 

 the civil war he was stationed on the Pacific 

 coast, and had at one time under his charge the 

 steamer "Massachusetts" during the San Juan 

 troubles. He served with the volunteer forces 

 of the Union during the war, and was brevetted 

 major, June 27, 1862, for gallant services in 

 the battle of Gaines's Mill, Va., and lieutenant- 

 colonel, March 13, 1865, for meritorious serv- 

 ices in connection with the volunteer army. 

 In the regular army he was commissioned ma- 

 jor March 20, 1878, and lieutenant-colonel 

 March 22, 1885. He was appointed military 

 secretary to the Joint Commission of Congress 

 on the reorganization of the army under the 

 Burnside bill in 1878, and the same year be- 

 came chief of the Publication Office of War 

 Records of the Rebellion. He was thoroughly 

 impartial in this important public work, a re- 

 markably strong master of details, and a per- 

 sistent searcher of records bearing on disputed 

 points in the history of the war. For these 

 reasons, if none other, his death before the 

 completion of the immense historical work he 

 had in hand was a public calamity, 



Scroggs, Gnstavos A., an American lawyer, 

 born in Darlington, Beaver County, Ky., Aug. 

 8, 1820 ; died in Buffalo, N. Y., Jan. 24, 1887. 

 He was a lineal descendant of Sir William 

 Scroggs, the English judge, who died in 1683. 

 He removed to Buffalo, N. Y., in 1848, studied 

 law, and was admitted to the bar of Erie 

 County. Previous to the civil war he was 

 sheriff of Erie County, a United States com- 

 missioner, and an officer in the National Guard. 

 At the outbreak of the war he organized the 

 Twenty-first Regiment of New York Volun- 

 teers. In 1 862 he was appointed by President 

 Lincoln provost-marshal of the Thirtieth Dis- 

 trict of New York, and after holding the office 

 two years resigned it to take command of the 

 Twenty-fifth Regiment of United States Colored 

 Infantry, under Gen. Banks. He was a Repub- 

 lican from the organization of that party, but 

 was once the candidate of the American Party 

 for the office of Lieutenant-Governor. Mr. 

 Scroggs was very popular, and successful as an 

 instructor of students in law, and was proud 

 of the fact that the late Emory Storrs, of Chi- 

 cago, was one of his pupils. 



Shaw, Aaron, an American lawyer, born in 

 Orange County, N. Y., in 1811 ; died in Olney, 

 111., Jan. 8, 1887. He held the office of State's 

 Attorney in the Fourth Judicial District of 

 Illinois for two terms of four years each, was 

 a member of the State House' of Representa- 

 tives in 1849-'50, and a Representative in Con- 

 gross in 1857- > 59, serving as a member of the 

 committee on the militia. He also held the 

 office of Judge of the Circuit Court. 



Sheldon, James, an American lawyer, born in 

 Buffalo, N. Y., Sept. 6, 1821 ; died there May 

 1, 1887. In 1837 he entered Hobart College, 



Geneva, N. Y., subsequently studying law, and 

 being admitted to the bar in 1843. He became 

 successively city attorney, county judge from 

 1853 till 1864, United States commissioner, 

 supervisor for the Eleventh Ward of Buffalo, 

 Judge of the Superior Court in 1871 for the 

 term of fourteen years, and Chief Judge in 

 1878. He was connected with many educa- 

 tional and charitable organizations, and was a 

 fluent and scholarly writer. 



Sill, Edward Rowland, an American educator, 

 born in Windsor, Conn., April 29, 1841 ; died 

 in Cleveland, O., Feb. 27, 1887. He was gradu- 

 ated at Yale University in 1861. Owing to 

 failing health he set out with a classmate on 

 a voyage around Cape Horn to California 

 after graduation, remaining on the Pacific coast 

 till July, 1866, when he returned to the East. 

 In the following spring he studied theology in 

 the Harvard Divinity School ; but, believing 

 his strength to be inadequate for the exactions 

 of an active clerical life, he abandoned these 

 studies, and for nearly two years was engaged 

 in literary work in New York city. After 

 teaching for three years in Medina County 

 and in Cayahoga Falls, Ohio, he accepted the 

 office of principal of the High-School at Oak- 

 land, and returned to California in 1871. 

 Three years later lie was appointed Professor 

 of English in the University of California. He 

 occupied that chair for a period of eight years, 

 attracting marked attention by his fine scholar- 

 ship, his devotion to his work, his rare power 

 of stimulating pupils, and his intelligent and 

 persistent advocacy of the cause of higher 

 education. He resigned his professorship in 

 March, 1882, to resume literary work, and re- 

 turned to Cayahoga Falls. He died in the 

 Cleveland Hospital after undergoing a surgical 

 operation. He published " The Hermitage, 

 and other Poems" (New York, 1867). 



Smith, Francis S., an American author, born 

 in New York city Dec. 29, 1819; died there 

 Feb. 1, 1887. In 1833 he was apprenticed to 

 the printer's trade in the office of ''The Al- 

 bion," and subsequently worked as a composi- 

 tor on Porter's " Spirit of the Times," the 

 " New York Tribune," the " New York Globe," 

 and the "Sunday Dispatch." In the latter 

 establishment he became a reporter, and began 

 his career as a story-writer. A dramatization 

 of his "Eveleen Wilson" proved the foundation 

 of Maggie Mitchell's fame as an actress. Mr. 

 Smith was soon advanced to the editor's chair. 

 The influence of his stories upon the circulation 

 of the paper induced the proprietors to start a 

 weekly literary periodical with Mr. Smith as 

 editor. In 1859 the paper, then known as 

 "The New York Weekly," was sold by its 

 owner to Francis S. Smith, his editor, and 

 Francis S. Street, his book-keeper, by whom 

 it was personally conducted till the death of 

 Mr. Street a few years ago. This event laid 

 additional burdens on Mr. Smith in the direc- 

 tion of the periodical, under which his consti- 

 tution began to fail, and he sought relief by 



