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F BRYAN, GEORGE, was a native of the city of Dublin, in Ireland; the eldest son of an ancient and respectable family. He received a classical and liberal education, and very early imbibed the principles of liberty. Even before he had closed his studies, he entered with an ardent zeal the ranks of opposition to the tyrannic acts of Great Britain, against that much abused country. When arrived at the age of twenty-one, his father gave him his portion, being a sufficiency for a handsome establishment, in the wholesale mercantile business. He immediately embarked for Philadelphia, where he remained until his death. Although by profession a merchant, Mr. Bryan's active, patriotic, and highly improved mind, led him to a close observation of. and inquiry into, every thing in his adopted country; its government, laws, and resources for improve

ment.

After several years of extensive business. it pleased the wise disposer of events to defeat the plans of Mr. Bryan, and he was, by the occurrences of severe losses, reduced to comparative poverty. But he was rich in intellectual resources. In them he had a friend, valuable to himself and family, but much more so, as the history of his life shews, to his country. His education fitted him for any thing that extensive knowledge could accomplish.

Previous to the revolution, Mr. Bryan was introduced into various public employments. He was a delegate to the congress of 1775, for the purpose of petitioning and remonstrating against the arbitrary measures of Great Britain. After the declaration of independence, he was vice president of the state of Pennsylvania, and upon the death of president Wharton, in May, 1778, he was placed at the head of the govern

ment.

In 1779, Mr. Bryan was elected a member of the legislature, of which he was one of the most intelligent, active and efficient. Here. amidst the tumult of war and invasion; surrounded with the tory and disaffected, when every one was trembling for himself, his mind was occupied by the claims of humanity and charity. He. at this time, planned and completed an act for the gradual abolition of slavery, which will remain an imperishable monument to his memory. These were the days that tried men's souls;" and it was in those days that the patriotism, wisdom and firmness, of Mr. Bryan, were conspicuously efficient and useful. He furnished evidence, that in opposing the exactions of foreign power, he was oppos ing tyranny, and was really attached to the cause of liberty. After this period, Mr. Bryan was a judge of the Supreme Court, in which station he continued until his death. In 1784, he was elected one of the council of censors, and was one of its most active members.

Besides the offices mentioned, judge Bryan filled a number of public, titulary, and charitable employments. Formed for a close application to study, animated with an ardent thirst for knowledge, and blessed with a memory of wonderful tenacity, and a clear, penetrating, and decisive judgment, he availed himself of the labours and acquisitions of others, and brought honour to the stations which he occupied. To his other attainments, he added the virtues of the christian. He was distinguished by benevolence and sympathy with the distressed; by an unaffected humility and modesty; by his readiness to forgive injuries, and by his inflexible integrity. He was superior to the powers and blandishments of the world. Thus eminently qualified for the various public offices in which he was placed, he was humble and faithful in discharging their duties, and he filled them with dignity and reputation in the worst of times, and in the midst of a torrent of unmerited obloquy, abuse and opposition. When, on a certain occasion, some of his intimate friends desired him to permit them to answer a particular charge made against him, he replied, "no, my friends, such things rankle not in my breast; my character must stand on my general conduct." Such was his disinterestedness and his zeal for the public cause, and for the good of others, that his own interest seemed to have been wholly overlooked. In the administration of justice he was impartial and incorruptible. He was an ornament to the profession of christianity, which he made the delight of his connexions, and a public blessing to the state. By his death, religion lost an amiable example, and science a steady friend.

BURD, BENJAMIN, joined the standard of his country at an early age. In July, 1775, (in his twenty-first year,) he joined colonel Thompson's regiment of riflemen, as a volunteer, and arrived at Boston about the 1st of August following. In the month of October, he was appointed a lieutenant, in which command he was in various skirmishes with the British near Boston. From thence he was ordered to New York, and was immediately afterwards in the battle of Long Island. In 1777, he was appointed a captain in the 4th Pennsylvania Regiment, in which he was in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Afterwards he commanded the left platoon of General Wayne's division at the battle of Brandywine. He was also at the Paoli, and in the battle of Germantown, he acted as Major. After the battle of Monmouth, in which he was also conspicuously engaged, he was ordered to join the detachment which marched against the Indians, and burnt their towns up the North River, in 1779. In all these various services and engagements, he was distinguished for his activity, bravery, and enterprise. At the close of the war he settled down upon his paternal farm

at Fort Littleton, where he was long known and esteemed for his hospitality, urbanity, and gentlemanly deportment. He removed, some years ago, to Bedford, before and after which removal he discharged with credit the duties of several civil offices.

General Burd died at Bedford, Pennsylvania, on the fifth day of October, 1825, in the seventieth year of his age. Besides the many private virtues which endeared him to a very large circle of acquaintances, his public character, the eviZences of his patriotism, but especially his revolutionary services, rendered him highly respectable.

BUTLER, RICHARD, a brave officer during the war of the American revolution, sustained the office of colonel at the close of the struggle with Great Britain. He was a lieutenant colonel of Morgan's rifle corps, and distinguished himself in a remarkable manner on many occasions. He was a bold and intrepid soldier, and possessed, in a high degree, the confidence of the commander in chief.

Lee, in his memoirs of the war in the southern department, gives an account of an affair between the British and American troops, while a detachment of the American army under general La Fayette, lay near Williamsburg, Virginia, the head quarters of Lord Cornwallis, in 1781.

"While in his camp before Williamsburg, the British general learnt that we had some boats and stores on the Chickahominy river. Hither he detached lieutenant colonel Simcoe with his corps and the yagers to destroy them. This service was promptly performed; but the American general, having discovered from his exploring parties, the march of Simcoe, detached on the 26th, lieutenant colonel Butler, of the Pennsylvania line, the renowned second and rival of Morgan at Saratoga. The rifle corps under the majors Call and Willis, and the cavalry, which did not in the whole exceed one hundred and twenty effectives, composed Butler's van. Major M'Pherson, of Pennsylvania, led this corps; and having mounted some infantry behind the remnant of Armand's dragoons, overtook Simcoe on his return near Spencer's plantation, six or seven miles above Williamsburg. The suddenness of M'Pherson's attack threw the yagers into confusion; but the Queen's rangers quickly deployed, and advanced to the support of the yagers.

Call and Willis had now got up to M'Pherson with their riffemen, and the action became fierce. Lieutenant Lollar at the head of a squadron of Simcoe's hussars, fell on Armand's remnant, and drove it out of line, making lieutenant Breso and some privates prisoners. Following his blow, Lollar turned upon our riflemen, then pressing upon the

Queen's rangers, and at the same moment captain Ogilvie, of the legion cavalry, who had been sent that morning from camp with one troop for the collection of forage, accidentally appeared on our left flank. The rifle corps fell back in confusion upon Butler, drawn up in the rear with his continentals. Satisfied with the repulse of the assailing troops, lieutenant colonel Simcoe began to retire; nor was he further pressed by Butler, as Cornwallis had moved with the main body on hearing the first fire, to shield Simcoe. La Fayette claimed the advantage in this rencontre, and states his enemy's loss to be sixty killed, and one hundred wounded; whereas lord Cornwallis acknowledges the loss of only three officers and thirty privates, killed and wounded. Among the former was lieutenant Jones, a much admired young officer.

"What was our loss in killed and wounded does not appear in the report of La Fayette; but three officers and twentyeight privates were taken.”

When General St. Clair was appointed to the command of the army against the western Indians, colonel Butler was selected as second in command. In the battle of November 4, 1791, which terminated in the defeat of St. Clair, he commanded the right wing of the army, with the rank of general. "It was on this occasion, that the intrepid Butler closed his military career in death: his coolness preserved, and courage remaining unshaken, till the last moment of existence. While enabled to keep the field, his exertions were truly heroic. He repeatedly led his men to the charge, and with slaughter drove the enemy before him; but being at length compelled to retire to his tent, from the number and severity of his woands, he was receiving surgical aid, when a ferocious warrior rushing into his presence, gave him a mortal blow with his tomahawk. But even then the gallant soldier died not unrevenged. He had anticipated this catastrophe, and discharging a pistol which he held in his hand, lodged its contents into the breast of his enemy, who uttering a hideous yell, fell by his side and expired!"

BUTLER, THOMAS, a brave officer during the revolutionary war with Great Britain, was a brother of the preceding. Three other brothers fought in the service of their country. In the year 1776, he was a student at law with the eminent judge Wilson of Philadelphia; but early in that year he quitted his studies, and joined the army as a subaltern. He soon obtained the command of a company, in which grade he continued till the close of the revolutionary contest. He was in almost every action that was fought in the middle states during the war. At the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, he received the thanks of general Washington on the

field of battle, through his aid de camp, general Hamilton, for his intrepid conduct in rallying a detachment of retreating troops, and giving the enemy a severe fire. At the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778. he received the thanks of general Wayne for defending a defile in the face of a heavy fire from the enemy, while colonel Richard Butler's regiment made good their retreat.

At the close of the war he retired into private life as a farmer, and continued in the enjoyment of rural and domestic happiness, till the year 1791, when he again took the field to meet a savage foe, that menaced our western frontier. He commanded a battalion in the disastrous battle of November 4, in which his brother fell. Orders were given by general St. Clair to charge with the bayonet, and major Butler. though his leg had been broken by a ball, yet on horseback led his battalion to the charge. It was with difficulty that his surviving brother, captain Edward Butler, removed him from the field. In 1792, he was continued on the establishment as a major, and in 1794, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel commandant of the fourth sub-legion. He commanded, in this year, Fort Fayette at Pittsburg, and prevented the deluded insurgents from taking it more by his name, than by his forces, for he had but few troops. In 1797, he was named by president Washington as the officer best calculated to command in the state of Tennessee, when it was necessary to dispossess some citizens, who had imprudently settled on the Indian lands, Accordingly, in May he marched with his regiment from the Miami on the Ohio, and by that prudence and good sense, which marked his character through life, he in a short time removed all difficulties. While in Tennessee, he made several treaties with the Indians. In 1802, at the reduction of the army, he was continued as colonel of a regiment on the peace establishment.

The close of his life was embittered by trouble. In 180s, he was arrested by the commanding general at Fort Adams, on the Mississippi, and sent to Maryland, where he was tried by a court martial, and acquitted of all the charges, except that of wearing his hair. He was then ordered to New Orleans, where he arrived to take the command of the troops, October 20. He was again arrested the next month, but the court did not meet till July of next year, and their decision is not known. Colonel Butler died September 7, 1805, aged fifty-one years.

BUTLER, ZEBULON, was born at Lyme, in the state of Connecticut, in the year 1731. He entered early in life inte the service of his country in the provincial troops of his native state. In this service he remained, actively employed,

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