MACPHERSON, JAMES (1736-96 ) . 'Transla tor' of the Ossianic poems, born at Ruthven, Inverness-shire, Scotland, October 27, 1736. After finishing his studies at King's College, Aberdeen, he became a schoolmaster in his native village, published a poem entitled The Highlander in 1758, and in the following year, having met Dr. Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, and John Home, the author of Douglas, he showed them some fragments of Gaelic verse, of which lie also gave them 'translations.' These 'translations,' sixteen in number, appeared in 1760 under the title Fragments of Ancient Poetry Collected in the Highlands. They awakened so much attention that the faculty of advocates in Edinburgh raised a subscription to enable Macpherson to make a tour through the Highlands for the purpose of collecting more ancient Gaelic poems. The result was the publication in London of alleged trans lations of the poems of Ossian, bearing the titles: Fingal, an Epic Poem, in Six Books (1762) ; and Temora, an Epic Poem, in. Eight Books (1763). A storm of controversy arose in regard to their genuineness. Blair defended their authenticity; Dr. Johnson called for the Gaelic manuscripts. which were not forthcoming. Scholars are now agreed that though the so-ealled Ossianic poems are largely the work of Macpherson, yet they have a real basis in Gaelic legend. As a sub stantial result of his fame, Macpherson was appointed Surveyor-General of the Floridas (1764) with a salary for life, and agent to the Nawab of _Arcot (1779). lie entered Parliament in the following year as member for Camelford, sat for ten years, and then retired to an estate which he had purchased in Inverness-shire, where he died. February 17, 1796. His body was sent to England and interred at his own request in Westminster Abbey. For the widespread interest in Alaepherson's translations and their immense intluenee on literature, consult: Beers, English, Romanticism (New York, 1898) ; for their rela tion to their originals, Dean of Lismore's Book, ed. by MacLaughlan. with introduction by Skene (London. 1862) ; and Poems of Ossian, with translations by Clerk (Edinburgh. 1870). Consult also Poems, trans. by Macpherson, with introd., ed. by Todd (London, 188S) ; Life and Letters, by Saunders (London, 1894). Sec OSSIAN.
MePHERSON, JAMES BIRDSEYE (1828-611.
An eminent American soldier, prominent on the Federal side in the Civil War. He was born in Sandusky, Ohio; graduated first in his class at West Point in 1353. having as classmates such men as Philip IL Sheridan. John B. Hood, and .fohn M. Schofield; and was appointed to the Corps of Engineers, with the rank of brevet sec and lieutenant. For a year after his graduation he was assistant instructor of practical engineer ing at the Military Academy, and was next en gaged from 1854 to 1857 as assistant engineer upon the defenses of the harbor of New York and the improvement of Hudson River. In 1857 he superintended the building of Fort Delaware. and in 1857-61 was superintending engineer of the construction of the defenses of Alcatraz Island, at San Francisco, Cal. upon the outbreak of the
Civil War he was assigned to duty at Boston, where he raised a force of engineers; and in August, 1861, he was promoted to be captain of engineers. The following November he was made aide-de-camp to General 'lancet:, and as sistant engineer of the Department of the :Mis souri, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. From February to April. 16'62, he served as chief engineer on the staff of General Grant, taking part in the capture of Fort Donelson and in the battle of Shiloh. In May, 1862. he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers and colonel in the Regular Army. He was with Halleck at the siege of Corinth; and when, after its capture by the Federal forces, the Confederates under Van Dorn and Price attempted to retake it in October, 1862, McPherson succeeded in penetrating their lines and reenfo•cing Roscerans, who was holding the place with a force much inferior to that of the Confederates. For his services at Corinth, McPherson was made major-general of volunteers October 8, 1862. In December he was put at the head of the Seventeenth Corps. and had a distinguished share in Grant's Mississippi cam paign, which terminated in the surrender of Vicksburg. After the fall of Vicksburg. Mc Pherson was, upon the recommendation of Gen eral Grant, appointed a brigadier-general in the Regular Army and commander of the District of Vicksburg. in February, 1864, lie was second in command to Sherman in the latter's expedition to Meridian, and on March 12th was made com mander of the Department and Army of the Ten nessee. In that command he maintained the reputation he had won in Mississippi, and ren dered valuable service during Sherman's cam paign in Georgia. The Army of the Tennes see engaged the Confederates at Resaca Slay 14th and 15th and at Dallas Slay 23, 1864; and on June 27th McPherson aided Thomas in an un successful assault upon Johnston's position at Kenesaw Mountain. Shortly thereafter lie was engaged in the series of eonflicts around Atlanta, in one of which, on July 22, 1364. he was killed, while making a reconnoissanee. General Grant, in a letter recommending him for promotion in 1863, praised him as "one of the ablest engineers and most skillful generals." and in his Personal Hemoirs, says: "In the death of McPherson the army lost one of its ablest, purest, and best generals." MeQUAID, 111'-kWad'. BERNARD •OHN (1823 —). The first Roman Catholic Bishop of Roch ester. N. Y. He was born in New York City; studied at Chain])ly College. near Montreal, and then entered Saint John's College at Fo•dham, N. Y., where he graduated in 1843. He was ordained a priest in I84S, and was sent to New Jersey. where he founded Seton Hall College and Seminary, of which he was president for ten years, though for part of that time also rector of the cathedral in Newark. In 1863 he became Bishop of Rochester. He devoted himself espe cially to organizing parochial schools.