McDOWELL, the extreme s. co. of West Virginia, on the border line of Virginia, watered by a fork of the Sandy river; 900 sq.m.; pop. '80, 3,074. It is mountainous in the s. and e. parts. The productions are: Indian corn, oats, Irish aud sweet potatoes, tobacco, butter, and wool. Co. seat, Perrysville.
McDOWELL, EPHRAIM, 1771-1830; b. in Rockbridge co., Va.; attended medical lectures in Edinburgh in 1793-94; settled in Danville, Ky., in 1795, and became the leading practical surgeon in several states. He performed the first operation recorded in this country in ovarian surcrery at Danville, in Dee., 1809. A report of this and of other cases, from the pen of trie operator himself, appeared in the Eclectic Repertory and Analytic Reekla in 1816. He was skillful in every branch of the surgical art, having cut no less than 32 times for stone in the bladder without losing a single ease.
McDOWELL, InwiN, b. Columbus, Ohio, 1818; was educated partly at a French military school, and afterwards at the military academy of West Point, where be gradu ated in 1833, remaining there until 1845, in the service of the government. He served in the war with Mexico, and was brevetted a capt. for good conduct at the battle of I3uena Vista. After the close of the war he acted as assistant adjt.gen., 'An,* assigned to duty in various departmetts until 1858, when he occupied a year's leave gf absence in visiting Europe. In 1861 he was in Washington, and at the outbreak of the rebellion was employed in organizing the volunteer troops. He was commissioned brig.gen. IT. S. army, May 14, 1861, and on 31ay 27 was appointed to the command of the army of the Potomac, of which army he was the head during the disastrous defeat at Bull Run, July 21. On being superseded in this comMand. he was placed in charge of the defenses of Washington, but Mar. 14, 1862, was commissioned a maj.gen. of volunteers, and given a corps command in the army of the Potomac. He served in northern
Viroinia, and at the second defeat of Bull Run. During the last year of the war he was empt'loyed on court-martial duty, and in command of the department of the Pacific. In 1865 lie received his brevet of maj.gen, in the U. S. army, and the following year was mustered out of the volunteer service. He has since been commissioned maj.gen. U. S. army, and has eonunanded the departmentS of the east, the south, and the Pacific, being still (1881) in the latter command.
McDUFFIE an e. co. in Georgia, having the Liitle river for its n. boundary, and intersected by tbe Georgia railroad; 350 sq m. • pop. '80, 9,449. The surface is varied, generally heavily thnbered, and the soil is fertile. Co. seat, Thomson.
McDUFFIE, GEORGE, 1788-1851; b. Ga.; graduated at South Carolina college, entered the bar in 1814, and was chosen a member of the South Carolina legislature in 1818. In a duel arising out of a political dispute he received a wound, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. From 1821 to 1834 he was A member of congress, where he opposed internal improvements and the protective tariff, and in his capacity as eliair man of the ways and means committee, defended the U. S. bank. In his earlier public career he had been an advocate of a centralized government; but in congress, following the general sentiment of his state, he advocated states rights, and was one of the ablest defenders of the right of nullification driring the controversy between the federal gov ernment and South Carolina, which had its immediate cause in the hostility of the latter to a high protective tariff, and was carried on from 1820 to 1832. In 1835, having resigned his seat in congress, he was elected governor of South Carolina; and he was a S. senator from 1843 to 1846, when ill-health compelled him to resign.