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OLMSTED-OLUSTEE STATION

of the Rhode Island forces. He fought conspicuously at Red Bank, Springfield, Monmouth, and Yorktown, and after the war he was collector of the port of Providence, and president of the Rhode Island Society of Cincinnati. He died in Providence, R. I., Nov. 10, 1812.

Delaware the captain and the other three colonel), and was often the chief officer Americans contrived to secure the rest of the crew and officers (fourteen in number) below the hatches. They then took possession of the vessel and made for Little Egg Harbor. A short time after, the Active was boarded by the sloop Convention of Philadelphia, and, with the privateer Girard, cruising with her, was taken Olney, JESSE, geographer; born in to Philadelphia. The prize was there Union, Conn., Oct. 12, 1798; taught school libelled in the State court of admiralty. for some years; then devoted himself to Here the two vessels claimed an equal the preparation of text-books, geographies, share in the prize, and the court decreed a history of the United States, arithmeone-fourth to the crew of the Convention, tics, readers, etc. He died in Stratford, one-fourth to the State of Pennsylvania Conn., July 31, 1872. as owner of the Convention, one-fourth to Olney, RICHARD, lawyer; born in the Girard, and the remaining one-fourth Oxford, Mass., Sept. 15, 1835; graduated only to Olmstead and his three com- at Brown University in 1856; admitted to panions. Olmstead appealed to Congress, the bar in 1859; member of the Massaand the committee of appeals decided in chusetts legislature; appointed United his favor. The Pennsylvania court re- States Attorney-General by President fused to yield, and directed the prize sold Cleveland in 1893, and Secretary of State and the money paid into court to await in 1895. its further order. This contest continued until 1809, when the authorities of Pennsylvania offered armed resistance to the United States marshal at Philadelphia, upon which he called to his assistance a posse comitatus of 2,000 men. The mat ter was, however, adjusted without an actual collision, and the money, amounting to $18,000, paid to the United States marshal.

Olmsted, DENISON, scientist; born in East Hartford, Conn., June 18, 1791; graduated at Yale in 1813; taught in New London schools, Yale College, and the University of North Carolina. He published the Geological Survey of North Carolina; Text-books on Astronomy and Natural Philosophy; and Astronomical Observations in the Smithsonian Collections. He died in New Haven, Conn., May 13, 1859.

Olney, STEPHEN, military officer; born in North Providence, R. I., in October, 1755; brother of Jeremiah Olney; entered the army as a lieutenant in his brother's company in 1775, and served with distinction in several of the principal battles of the Revolutionary War. He served under Lafayette in Virginia, and was distinguished in the capture of a British redoubt at Yorktown during the siege, where he was severely wounded by a bayonet-thrust. Colonel Olney held many town offices, and for twenty years represented his native town in the Assembly. He died in North Providence, R. I., Nov. 23, 1832.

Olustee Station, BATTLE AT. Early in 1864 the national government was informed that the citizens of Florida, tired of the war, desired a reunion with the national government. The President commissioned his private secretary (John Hay) a major, and sent him to Charleston to accompany a military expedition which General Gillmore was to send to Florida, Hay to act in a civil capacity if required. The expedition was commanded by Gen. Truman Seymour, who left Hilton Head (Feb. 5, 1864) in transports with 6,000 troops, and arrived at Jacksonville, Fla., Olney, JEREMIAHI, military officer; born on the 7th. Driving the Confederates from in Providence, R. I., in 1750; was made there, the Nationals pursued them into lieutenant-colonel at the beginning of the the interior. General Finnegan was in Revolutionary War (afterwards made command of a considerable Confederate

Olmsted, FREDERICK LAW, landscape architect; born in Hartford, Conn., April 26, 1822; chief designer (with Calvert Vaux) of Central Park, New York City, 1857; and, with others, of many public parks in Brooklyn, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago (including World's Fair), Milwaukee, Louisville, Washington, etc. He died in Waverly, Mass., Aug. 28, 1903.

and all phases of the æsthetic were not neglected, it was the fine panorama of the material West which afforded the most interest.

Trans-Mississippi Exposition was an epitCast in a different figure, this ome of the wealth-and not only of the wealth, but of the progress of the great central region of the nation.

force in Florida, and stoutly opposed this the best of the material resources of their movement. At Olustee Station, on a rail- commonwealths; and while art and music way that crossed the peninsula in the heart of a cypress swamp, the Nationals encountered Finnegan, strongly posted. A sharp battle occurred (Feb. 20), when Seymour was repulsed and retreated to Jacksonville. The estimated loss to the Nationals in this expedition was about 2,000 men; the Confederate loss, 1,000 men and several guns. Seymour carried with him about 1,000 of the wounded, and left 250 on the field, besides many dead and dying. The expedition returned to Hilton Head. The Nationals destroyed stores valued at $1,000,000. At about the same time Admiral Bailey destroyed the Confederate salt-works on the coast of Florida, valued at $3,000,000.

the exposition put the progress of the reOne of the speakers at the opening of gion in a nutshell when he made note of the fact that in the land where only fifty years ago the Indians wandered at will, there are now 22,000,000 people, with an aggregate wealth of $22,000,000,000.

Many of the States contributed liberally buildings, while the general government to the exposition in the way of suitable appropriated $200,000 for its building, and in it placed exhibits of great interest. The government took official notice of the exposition by issuing a series of postagestamps, from one cent to $2, inclusive, commemorative of the event. hundred millions of these stamps were Over three of ordered for the first instalment. The dethe great West and its progress, illustraThe signs on the stamps are appropriate to ting phases of pioneer life.

Omaha, the metropolis of Nebraska; county seat of Douglas county; military headquarters of the Department of the Platte; has extensive machine, car, and repair shops, smelting and refining works, large trade, seven national banks, and an assessed property valuation of $101,256,290. Population in 1890, 140,452; in 1900, 102,555. The city was the seat the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. corner-stone of the exhibition was laid on Arbor Day, 1897, and the opening ceremonies were held June 1, 1898. In the telegram which President McKinley sent to the exposition, after setting in motion its machinery, he paid a tribute, for which the success of this exposition will give warrant, when he said that nowhere have the unconquerable determination, the self-reliant strength, and the sturdy manhood of American citizenship been more forcibly illustrated than in the achievements of the people from beyond the Mississippi.

don W. Wattles, president; Alvin Saunders, The officers of the exposition were: Gorresident vice-president; Herman Kountze, treasurer; John A. Wakefield, secretary; Major T. S. Clarkson, general manager, with an executive committee of seven, and vice-presidents for each of the twen ty-four Trans-Mississippi States. exposition covered a tract of more than The 200 acres, containing a theatre and many handsome buildings. water amphiwar with Spain, the exposition was well Despite the fact that the country was at attended and a great success in every way.

It would not be easy to estimate the value of such an exposition as this in illustrating to the nation at large the immense resources of the region which the Dakota family. They are represented Omaha Indians, a tribe of Indians of lies in the great Mississippi basin and in Marquette's map in 1673. They were contiguous to it. The exhibits of the divided into clans, and cultivated corn and mining, the manufacturing, the agricult- beans. One of their customs was to proure, the forestry, the horticulture, the hibit a man from speaking to his fathercommerce were an epitome of the business in-law and mother-in-law. They were reof this vast region extending from the duced, about the year 1800, by small-pox, Canadian line to the Gulf of Mexico. The from a population capable of sending out States themselves. through appropriations, 700 warriors to about 300. They then provided the funds to show to the world burned their villages and became wander

20

O'MAHONY "ON TO RICHMOND !”

ers. They were then relentlessly pursued a territory in the Mormon settlements in by the Sioux. They had increased in number, when Lewis and Clarke found them on the Quicoure in 1805, to about 600. They have from time to time ceded lands to the United States, and since 1855 have been settled, and have devoted themselves exclusively to agriculture. In 1899 they numbered 1,202, and were settled on the Omaha and Winnebago agency, in Nebraska.

O'Mahony, JOHN FRANCIS, Fenian leader; born in Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1816; emigrated to the United States in 1854; organized the Fenian Brotherhood in 1860; issued bonds of the Irish Republic, which were purchased by his followers to the amount of nearly a million dollars. He died in New York City, Feb. 7, 1877. Omnibus Bill, THE. The subject of the admission of California as a State of the Union, in 1850, created so much sectional ill-feeling that danger to the integrity of the Union was apprehended. Henry Clay, feeling this apprehension, offered a plan of compromise in the United States Senate, Jan. 29, 1850, in a series of resolutions, providing for the admission of California as a State; the organization of new territorial governments; fixing the boundary of Texas; declaring it to be inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia while that institution existed in Maryland, without the consent of the people of the District, and without just compensation to the owners of slaves within the District; that more effectual laws should be made for the restitution of fugitive slaves; and that Congress had no power to prohibit or obstruct the trade in slaves between the several States. Clay spoke eloquently in favor of this plan. Mr. Webster approved it, and Senator Foote, of Mississippi, moved that the whole subject be referred to a committee of thirteen-six Southern members and six Northern members-they to choose the thirteenth. This resolution was adopted April 18; the committee was appointed, and Mr. Clay was made chairman of it. On May 8, Mr. Clay reported a plan of compromise in a series of bills substantially the same as that of Jan. 29. It was called an "omnibus bill." Long debates ensued, and on July 31 the whole batch was rejected except the proposition to establish

Deseret, called Utah. Then the compromise measures contained in the omnibus bill were taken up separately. In August a bill for the admission of California passed the Senate; also for providing a territorial government for New Mexico. In September a fugitive slave bill passed the Senate; also a bill for the suppression of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia. All of these bills were adopted in the House of Representatives in September, and received the signature of President Fillmore. See CLAY, HENRY.

"On to Richmond!" At the beginning of 1862 the loyal people became very impatient of the immobility of the immense Army of the Potomac, and from every quarter was heard the cry, "Push on to Richmond!" Edwin M. Stanton succeeded Mr. Cameron as Secretary of War, Jan. 13, 1862, and the President issued a general order, Jan. 27, in which he directed a general forward movement of all the land and naval forces on Feb. 22 following. This order sent a thrill of joy through the heart of the loyal people, and it was heightened when an order directed McClellan to move against the inferior Confederate force at Manassas. McClellan remonstrated, and proposed to take his great army to Richmond by the circuitous route of Fort Monroe and the Virginia peninsula. The President finally yielded, and the movement by the longer route was begun. After the Confederates had voluntarily evacuated Manassas, the army was first moved in that direction, not, as the commander-in-chief said, to pursue them and take Richmond, but to give his troops "a little active experience before beginning the campaign."

The

promenade," as one of his French aides called it, disappointed the people, and the cry was resumed, "On to Richmond!” The Army of the Potomac did not begin its march to Richmond until April. The President, satisfied that General McClellan's official burdens were greater than he could profitably bear, kindly relieved him of the chief care of the armies, and gave him, March 11, the command of only the Department of the Potomac.

While Hooker and Lee were contending near CHANCELLORSVILLE (q. v.), a greater part of the cavalry of the Army of

"ON TO RICHMOND !”—“ ON TO WASHINGTON !”

the Potomac was raiding on the communi- Rapidan. For a while the opposing armies
cations of Lee's army with Richmond. rested. Meade advanced cautiously, and
Stoneman, with 10,000 men, at first per- at the middle of September he crossed
formed this service. He rode rapidly, cross- the Rappahannock, and drove Lee beyond
ing rivers, and along rough roads, and the Rapidan, where the latter took a
struck the Virginia Central Railway near strong defensive position. Here ended
Louisa Court-house, destroying much of it the race towards Richmond. Meanwhile
before daylight. They were only slightly the cavalry of Buford and Kilpatrick
opposed, and at midnight of May 2, 1863, had been active between the two rivers,
the raiders were divided for separate work. and had frequent skirmishes with Stuart's
On the morning of the 3d one party de- mounted force. Troops had been drawn
stroyed canal boats, bridges, and Con- from each army and sent to other fields
federate supplies at Columbia, on the of service, and Lee was compelled to
James River. Colonel Kilpatrick, with take a defensive position. His defences
another party, struck the Fredericksburg were too strong for a prudent commander
Railway at Hungary Station and destroy- to assail directly. See RICHMOND, CAM-
ed the depot and railway there, and, PAIGN AGAINST.
sweeping down within 2 miles of Rich-
mond, captured a lieutenant and eleven
men within the Confederate works of that
capital. Then he struck the Virginia Cen-
tral Railway at Meadows Bridge, on the
Chickahominy; and thence pushed on, de-
stroying Confederate property, to Glou-
cester Point, on the York River. Another
party, under Lieutenant-Colonel Davis,
destroyed the station and railway at Han-
over Court-house, and followed the road
to within 7 miles of Richmond, and also
pushed on to Gloucester Point. Another sounding throughout the South. It was an
party, under Gregg and Buford, destroyed
the railway property at Hanover Junction.
They all returned to the Rappahannock
by May 8; but they had not effected the
errand they were sent upon-namely, the
complete destruction of Lee's communica-
tions with Richmond.

Three days after General Lee escaped into Virginia, July 17-18, 1863, General Meade crossed the Potomac to follow his flying antagonist. The Nationals marched rapidly along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, while the Confederates went rapidly up the Shenandoah Valley, after trying to check Meade by threatening to re-enter Maryland. Failing in this, Lee hastened to oppose a movement that menaced his front and flank, and threatened to cut off his retreat to Richmond. During that exciting race there were several skirmishes in the mountain-passes. Finally Lee, by a quick and skilful movement, while Meade was detained at Manassas Gap by a heavy skirmish, dashed through Chester Gap, and, crossing the Rappahannock, took a position between that stream and the

"On to Washington!" The seizure of the national capital, with the treasury and archives of the government, was a part of the plan of the Confederates everywhere and of the government at Montgomery. Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederacy, was sent by Jefferson Davis to treat with Virginia for its annexation to the league, and at various points on his journey, whenever he made speeches to the people, the burden was, “On to Washington!" That cry was already re

echo of the prophecy of the Confederate
Secretary of War. "Nothing is more
probable," said the Richmond Inquirer,
in 1861, "than that President Davis will
soon march an army through North Caro-
lina and Virginia to Washington"; and
it called upon Virginians who wished to
"join the Southern army" to organize at
once. "The first fruits of Virginia seces-
sion," said the New Orleans Picayune, on
the 18th, "will be the removal of Lincoln
and his cabinet, and whatever he can
carry away, to the safer neighborhood of
Harrisburg or Cincinnati-perhaps to Buf-
falo or Cleveland." The Vicksburg (Miss.)
Whig of the 20th said: “Maj. Ben Me-
Culloch has organized a force of 5,000 men
to seize the Federal capital the instant
the first blood is spilled." On the evening
of the same day, when news of bloodshed
in Baltimore reached Montgomery (see
BALTIMORE), bonfires were built in front of
the Exchange Hotel, and from its balcony
Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia, in a speech
to the multitude, said that he was in "favor
of an immediate march on Washington."

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"ON TO WASHINGTON !"-ONEIDA

At the departure of the 2d Regi- cannot remain under the jurisdiction of ment of South Carolina Infantry for the United States Congress without humilRichmond, the colonel, as he handed iating Southern pride and disputing the flag just presented to it to the color- Southern rights. Both are essential to sergeant, said: "To your particular charge greatness of character, and both must cois committed this noble gift. Plant it operate in the destiny to be achieved." A where honor calls. If opportunity offers, correspondent of the Charleston Courier, let it be the first to kiss the breezes of writing from Montgomery, said: The deheaven from the dome of the Capitol at sire for taking Washington, I believe, inWashington." The Richmond Examiner creases every hour; and all things, to my said, on April 23-the day when Stephens thinking, seem tending to this consummaarrived in that city: "The capture of tion. We are in lively hope that before Washington City is perfectly within the three months roll by the [Confederate] power of Virginia and Maryland, if Vir- government-Congress, departments, and ginia will only make the proper effort all-will have removed to the present Fedby her constituted authorities. There eral capital." Hundreds of similar exnever was half the unanimity among the pressions were uttered by Southern polipeople before, nor a tithe of the zeal upon ticians and Southern newspapers; and any subject that is now manifested to Alexander H. Stephens brought his logic take Washington ard drive from it every to bear upon the matter in a speech at AtBlack Republican who is a dweller there. lanta, Ga., April 30, 1861, in the followFrom the mountain-tops and valleys to the ing manner: "A general opinion prevails shores of the sea there is one wild shout that Washington City is soon to be atof fierce resolve to capture Washington tacked. On this subject I can only say, City at all and every human hazard." our object is peace. We wish no aggressions on any man's rights, and will make none. But if Maryland secedes, the District of Columbia will fall to her by reversionary right-the same as Sumter to South Carolina, Pulaski to Georgia, and Pickens to Florida. When we have the right, we will demand the surrender of Washington, just as we did in the other cases, and will enforce our demand at every hazard and at whatever cost." At the same time went forth from the free-labor States, “On to Washington!" for its preservation; and it was responded to effectually by hundreds of thousands of loyal citizens.

On the same day Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, ordered a regiment of State troops to march for Washington; and the Goldsboro (N. C.) Tribune of the 24th, speaking of the grand movement of Virginia and a rumored one in Maryland, said: "It makes good the words of Secretary Walker, of Montgomery, in regard to the Federal metropolis. It transfers the lines of battle from the Potomac to the Pennsylvania border." The Raleigh (N. C.) Standard of the same date said: Our streets are alive with soldiers" (North Carolina was then a professedly loyal State); and added, "Washington City will be too hot to hold Abraham Lincoln and his government. North Carolina has said it, and she will do all she can to make good her declaration." The Eufaula (Ala.) Express said, on the 25th: "Our policy at this time should be to seize the old Federal capital, and take old Lincoln and his cabinet prisoners of war." The Milledgeville (Ga.) Southern Recorder said: "The government of the Confederate States must possess the city of Washington. It is folly to think it can be used any longer as the headquarters of the Lincoln government, as no access can be had to it except by passing through Virginia and Maryland. The District of Columbia

Onderdonk, HENRY, author; born in North Hempstead, N. Y., June 11, 1804; graduated at Columbia in 1827. Among his publications are Revolutionary Histories of Queens; New York; Suffolk; and Kings Counties; Long Island and New York in the Olden Times; The Annals of Hempstead, N. Y., etc. He died in Jamaica, N. Y., June 22, 1886.

Oneida, THE. The first warlike measure of the Americans previous to the hostilities begun in 1812 was the construction, at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., of the brig Oneida, 16 guns, by Christian Berg and Henry Eckford. She was launched in 1809, and was intended for a twofold pur

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