WILLIAM THOMAS SAMPSON. 
309 
diligence and trustworthiness, were people of good traits who 
had never received anything except by toil. They had emi¬ 
grated from Ireland to the United States in 1836, and settled 
on the. outskirts of Palmyra, in the state of New York. It 
was here on the banks of the Erie Canal that their son Wil¬ 
liam was ‘born in February, 1840, and here that we watch 
the hurrying feet of his youth and are made aware of his 
industrious and helpful disposition. The story of his early 
years gives evidence that he was avid of learning and pos¬ 
sessed instincts of so high an order as to excite the admira¬ 
tion of his school teachers and lead to the recommendation 
on their part which resulted in his selection by a Represent¬ 
ative in Congress for appointment to the United States Naval 
Academy. He entered this institution in 1857, when he 
was between 17 and 18 years of age, and was graduated four 
years later, at the outbreak of the Civil War. His course at 
the academy is characterized by intense and successful 
mental application; he probably studied more and longer 
than any of his classmates, but he also acquired more and 
exceeded them in the order of merit at graduation. 
His creditable service in the Civil War as a junior officer 
in the Federal Navy was followed in the long succeeding 
years of peace, during which his career was outwardly much 
the same as that of the other naval officers of his time, by a 
line of conduct from which it became known throughout a 
widening hut always limited circle that he was self-disciplined 
and steady and methodical, and that he gave studious and 
energetic attention to whatever was committed to him. With 
a versatile mind that would probably have brought him a 
measure of success in any of the eminent professions, he de¬ 
voted his chief efforts to scientific pursuits and made many 
important investigations that have had a far-reaching effect 
in relation to modern ordnance, armor, and ammunition. 
He laid the foundation for the success of these more weighty 
investigations which were carried on in his maturer years— 
after he had passed the age of forty—by the clear insight 
which he had earlier attained in physics and chemistry dur- 
43—Bull. Phil. Soc., Wash., Vol. 14. 
