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MARTHA WASHINGTON.

HE reflected glory of Washington's character gave distinction to all who were

were many matrons of his day, equally noble and virtuous as she who bore him, yet "Mary, the mother of Washington," appears the most illustrious of them all. Beauty, accomplishments and noble worth belonged to Martha Dandridge as a maiden, and Martha Custis as a wife and mother, but her crowning glory in the world's esteem is the fact that she was the bosom companion of the Father of his Country. Martha Dandridge was born in New Kent county, Virginia, in May, 1732, about three months later than her illustrious husband. In 1749, she married Daniel Parke Custis, of New Kent, one of the wealthiest planters of Eastern Virginia, and settled, with her husband, on the banks of the Pamunkey river, where she bore four children. Her husband died when she was about twenty-five years of age, leaving her with two surviving children and a large fortune in lands and money. She became acquainted with Colonel Washington, in 1758, when his greatness was fast unfolding; and on the 6th of January, 1759, they were married. By the bequest of his half-brother, Lawrence Washington, he owned the beautiful estate of Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, and

1. He left her thirty thousand pounds sterling (about $148,000) in certificates of deposits in the Bank of England. These were in an iron chest, yet in the possession of her only surviving grand-child, George Washington Parke Custis, Esq., of Arlington House, Virginia.

there they made their home during the remainder of their lives. Occasionally, during the War for Independence, Mrs. Washington visited her husband in camp, and shared his honors, his anxieties, and his hopes. Almost at the very hour of his great victory at Yorktown, her only son, who was Washington's aid, expired a few miles distant from the scene of carnage; and with the shout of triumph, that filled his mother's heart with joy, came a stern messenger with tidings that poured it full of woe.'

While her husband was President of the United States, Mrs. Washington presided with dignity over the executive mansion, both in New York and Philadelphia; but the quiet of domestic life had more charms for her than the pomp of place, and she rejoiced greatly when both sat down again, at Mount Vernon, to enjoy the repose which declining age coveted. But that pleasant dream of life soon vanished, for her companion was taken away by death a little more than two years afterward. When she was certified of the departure of his spirit, she said, "Tis well; all is now over; I shall soon follow him; I have no more trials to pass through." In less than thirty months afterward the stricken widow was laid in the tomb, at the age of almost seventy-one years. In marble sarcophigi their remains now lie together, at Mount Vernon-that Mecca of many pilgrims.

SEVE

JOSHUA BARNEY.

2

Ho

EVERAL of the naval commanders who won glory for themselves and country during the war with England in 1812-15, commenced their nautical career, and learned their earliest nautical lessons, during the War of the Revolution. In that earlier naval school, Joshua Barney was educated for his profession. He was born in the city of Baltimore, on the 6th of July, 1759. made several sea voyages while yet a lad, and at the beginning of the War for Independence, he entered the sloop, Hornet, as master's mate, and accompanied the fleet of Commodore Hopkins to the West India seas, in 1775. He was at the capture of New Providence, and for his bravery there was promoted to a lieutenantcy. After being made prisoner and released three different times, he assisted in conquering a valuable prize, in the Autumn of 1779, which was taken into Philadelphia. The following year he married the daughter of alderman Bedford of that city, spent the honey-moon with his bride, and then repaired to Baltimore to resume his naval duties. He was soon afterward made a prisoner, and sent to England, where he escaped from a cruel confinement and returned to America. In 1782, he was placed in command of the Hyder Ally, of sixteen guns, belonging to the State of Pennsylvania. In April, of that year, he captured the British ship, General Monk, after an action of twenty-six minutes. This vessel was bought by the United States, and in September, it sailed for France, with Barney as commander, who bore dispatches for Dr. Franklin, at Paris. In that vessel he brought back the French loan to the United States in chests of gold and barrels of silver. Peace soon came, and he left the service, for awhile.

1. Mr. Custis died at Eltham, about thirty-five miles from Yorktown, from the effects of camp fever. Washington hastened thither as soon as public affairs at camp would allow him. Mrs. Washington and Dr. Craik were already there. The latter informed the chief, that his beloved step-son had just expired, on his arrival. He wept like a child; and when he recovered himself, he said to the weeping mother, "I adopt his two younger children as my own, from this hour." These were the present proprietor of Arlington House, and the late Eleanor Parke Custis, wife of Major Lawrence Lewis, the favorite nephew of Washington.

2. One of the Bahama Islands. They took possession of the town now called Nassau, and made the governor prisoner. He was afterward exchanged for Lord Stirling, who was made prisoner at the battle near Brooklin, at the close of August, 1776.

In 1796, Captain Barney went to France, with Mr. Monroe, as the bearer of the American flag to the National Convention. He there accepted an invitation to take command of a French squadron, but resigned his commission in 1800, and returned to America. Commodore Barney was among the most efficient commanders in service, when the United States declared war against England, in 1812; and the following year, he had charge of a flotilla in the Chesapeake Bay for the protection of the coast. When the British invaded Maryland, and pressed forward toward Washington city, near the close of the Summer of 1814, Barney abandoned his flotilla, and with his marines, engaged in a battle with the enemy at Bladensburg, where he was wounded in the thigh by a musket ball, which was never extracted. In May, 1815, he was sent on a mission to Europe, and on his return in the ensuing Autumn, he retired to private life, after having been in service forty-one years, and fought twenty-six battles and one duel. He visited Kentucky, in 1817, and started to emigrate thither the following year. When about to embark on the Ohio, at Pittsburg he was taken ill, and died there on the 1st of December, 1818, at the age of fifty-nine years.

JOHN BARRY.

"THE first commodore in the American Navy," was not the brave John Barry,

Yet he was active servi

about as early as Esek Hopkins, to whom that honor, conferred by Congress, properly belongs. Barry was a native of Wexford, in Ireland, where he was born in 1745. He was educated for the sea, and at the age of fifteen years ho came to America, and was employed as commander in the merchant service, until the Revolution commenced. When, in February, 1776, Commodore Hopkins sailed with a small squadron against the fleet of Dunmore, then committing depredations on the Virginia coast, Barry left the Delaware, in the Lexington, of sixteen guns, to clear the Virginia waters of the numerous small cruisers of the enemy which infested them. He performed that service well; and prior to the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, he was promoted to the frigate, Effingham. Circumstances prevented his departure in that vessel from the Delaware, and at the head of a volunteer company, under the command of General Cadwalader, he assisted in some of the operations which resulted in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, near the close of 1776. He was with the army during the succeeding Winter; and when, the next Autumn, the British took possession of Philadelphia, he went up the Delaware with the Effingham, and endeavored to save her, at the same time indignantly refusing an offered bribe to employ her in the king's service. He greatly annoyed the British shipping in the Delaware, by secret night enterprises in small boats. In September, 1778, his sphere of usefulness was enlarged by being appointed to the command of the Raleigh, of thirty-two guns, in which he sailed from Boston. He fell in with a British fleet, and after a severe action of many hours, he was compelled to run his vessel ashore, upon a barren island. He had terribly handled his antagonists, and but for the treachery of one of his men, he would have burned the Raleigh, and deprived the enemy of all advantage. A court-martial honorably acquitted him of all blame.

Early in 1781, Captain Barry took command of the frigate Alliance, and in that vessel he conveyed to L'Orient, Colonel John Laurens, a special ambassador to the court of France. In May he had an engagement with two English vessels, in which he was severely wounded. He was victorious, and his antag

onists became prizes. In the Autumn, Captain Barry conveyed La Fayette and Count Noailles to France, in the Alliance, and then he cruised successfully among the West India islands, until March, 1782, when he encountered a British squadron. His skill, coolness, and bravery, were eminently displayed in that engagement. He fought chiefly in defence of the American sloop-of-war, Luzerne, which was conveying a large amount of specie. It was saved, and contributed to found the Bank of North America, the first institution of the kind in the United States. After the close of the war, Captain Barry continued in the service, and he was efficient in protecting our commerce from the depredations of French vessels, when war between France and the United States commenced on the ocean, in 1797. Captain Barry died at Philadelphia, on the 13th of September, 1803, at the age of fifty-eight years.

RICHARD GRIDLEY.

VERY few Americans directed their attention to military engineering, previous their services to the Continental Congress, were eagerly accepted and commissioned. At the opening of the war, near Boston, in 1775, Richard Gridley was the only efficient American engineer in the army. He was a native of Boston, where he was born in 1711. His brother, Jeremy, was the able attorney-general of Massachusetts, who defended the Writs of Assistance,2 and other government measures, against the patriotic attacks of James Otis, and his compatriots. We have no record of the early life of Richard. His first appearance before posterity was as an engineer in the provincial army, sent to capture the strong fortress of Louisburg, on Cape Breton, in 1745. After that event, he entered the regular army, and in 1755, he was lieutenant-colonel of infantry, and chief engineer. He accompanied General Winslow, in that capacity, to Albany, in the Summer of 1756, preparatory to an expedition against Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. He proceeded to erect fortifications at the head of Lake George. The expedition failed, through the tardiness of Lord Loudon. In 1758, Colonel Gridley served under General Amherst, and was with Wolfe, at Quebec. When the War for Independence began at Lexington and Concord, the patriotism and skill of Colonel Gridley caused his appointment of chief engineer of the army that soon gathered around Boston; and under his directions, all the fortifications erected during the Summer of 1775, and Winter of 1776, in that vicinity, were constructed. Up to that time he had received the half-pay of a British officer, and possessed Magdalen Island as a gift for his services under Wolfe. He was wounded in the battle on Breed's ["Bunker's "] Hill, yet not so as to disable him. In September, 1775, Congress gave him the commission of a majorgeneral, and made him commander-in-chief of the Continental artillery, to which office Colonel Henry Knox succeeded in November following. After the British left Boston, in March, 1776, General Gridley was engaged in throwing up fortifications at several points about the Harbor. He died at Stoughton, Massachusetts, on the 21st of June, 1796, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.

1. See sketch of Robert Morris.

2. General search-warrants, which allowed the officers of the king to break open any citizen's store or dwelling to search for contraband merchandise. It opened a way to many abuses, and the people violently opposed the measure. This was among the first of those government measures which drove the Americans into rebellion.

Thbeleron

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

THE only material memorials of the author of the Declaration of Independence, in our country, are a dilapidated granite obelisk over his neglected grave at Monticello;' a bronze statue in front of the President's House at Washington city, erected by private munificence; a fine statue upon a monument to Washington, erected by the State of Virginia, at Richmond, and a few busts. The nation has quarried no stone for his monument, nor is it requisite. The DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, written on parchment, and preserved in the memory of generations, is a nobler monument than can be wrought from brass or marble.

Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 13th of April, 1743. He was of Welsh descent. When his father died, his mother was left with Thomas and another son, and six little daughters. They

1. It is within an enclosed family burial-ground, just in the edge of the forest which covers the western portion of Monticello. Visitors, with Vandal hand, have so broken off pieces of the obelisk, to carry away with them, that it now presents a sad appearance. To preserve the marble tablet, on which is the following inscription, written by Jefferson himself, the present [1855] proprietor has removed it to his house:

"Here lies buried, THOMAS JEFFERSON, Author of the Declaration of American Independence; of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom; and Father of the University of Virginia."