PIATT, prat, Donn, American lawyer and journalist: h. Cincinnati, Ohio. 29 June 1819; d. Cleveland, Ohio, 12 Nov. 1891. He was educated at the Athenaeum, now Saint Xavier's College, Cincinnati, and by private tutors. Though he studied law with his father for a number of years and became a partner in his older brother's law firm, he devoted much of his time during these years to writing for news papers. In 1852 he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton County, Ohio. On account of the failing health of his wife—he had married in 1847—he went to France in the summer of 1853 and settled in Paris, from which city he did considerable writing for American and English newspapers on current events. In April 1854 he was ap pointed secretary of legation at Paris by President Pierce, acting as charge-d'aff ores whenever his chief was absent or ill and ac quitting himself in this responsible position with great credit. In 1855 he returned to the United States and again took up his former interests, politics and journalism. He was an active sup porter of Lincoln and Fremont. On the out break of the Civil War he entered the Union army as a private, attained the rank of colonel and was assistant adjutant-general and chief of staff of General Schenck. He resigned in
1864, and in the fall of 1865 was elected as a Republican member of the Ohio house of rep resentatives. In 1868 he accepted the position of Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial. In March 1871 he founded and began to edit the Washington Capital. In 1880 he decided to retire to his old home in Ohio, Mac-o-c.hee,. about 100 miles north of Cin cinnati. He did not dispose of his financial interest in the Capital, however, until 1890. During the years of his retirement he devoted himself to literature and farming. He wrote 'The Memoirs of the Men Who Saved the Union' (Chicago- 1887); 'The Lone Grave of the Shenandoah and Other Tales' • 'Poems and Plays' (Cincinnati 1893); Meditations> (Cincinnati n. d.) ; with H. V. Boynton, 'General George H. Thomas' (Cincinnati 1893). Consult Miller, C. G., 'Donn Piatt: His Work and His Ways' (Cincinnati 1893).