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MACPHERSON, SIR DAVID LEWIS (1818–1896)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 268 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MACPHERSON, See also:SIR See also:DAVID See also:LEWIS (1818–1896) , See also:Canadian financier and politician, was See also:born at See also:Castle Leathers, near See also:Inverness, See also:Scotland, on the r2th of See also:September 1818. In 1835 he the so-called Ossianic poems were altogether See also:modern in origin, and that Macpherson's authorities were practically non-existent. For a discussion of this question see See also:CELT: Scottish Gaelic Literature. Much of Macpherson's See also:matter is clearly his own, and he confounds the stories belonging to different cycles. But apart from the doubtful morality of his transactions he must still be regarded as one of the See also:great Scottish writers. The varied See also:sources of his See also:work and its worthlessness as a transcript of actual See also:Celtic poems do not alter the fact that he produced a work of See also:art which by its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the See also:melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the See also:ancient See also:legend did more than any single work to bring about the romantic See also:movement in See also:European, and especially in See also:German, literature. It was speedily translated into many European See also:languages, and See also:Herder and See also:Goethe (in his earlier See also:period) were among its profound admirers. Cesarotti's See also:Italian See also:translation was one of See also:Napoleon's favourite books. AL'T110RITIES.—For Macpherson's See also:life, see The Life and Letters of See also:James Macpherson . . . (1894, new ed., 1906), by T. See also:Bailey Saunders, who has laboured to redeem his See also:character from the suspicions generally current with See also:English readers.

The antiquity of the Ossianic poems was defended in the introduction by See also:

Archibald Clerk to his edition of the Poems of See also:Ossian (187o). Materials for arriving at a decision by comparison with undoubtedly genuine fragments of the Ossianic legend are available in The See also:Book of the See also:Dean of See also:Lismore, Gaelic verses, collected by J. McGregor, dean of Lismore, in the See also:early 16th See also:century (ed. T. McLauchlan, 1862) ; the Leabhar na Feinne (1871) of F. J. See also:Campbell, who also discusses the subject in Popular Tales of the Western See also:Highlands, iv. (1893). See also L. C. Stern, "See also:Die ossianische Heldenlieder "in Zeilschrift See also:fur vergleichende Litteratur-geschichte (1895; Eng. trans. by J. L.

See also:

Robertson in Trans. Gael. See also:Soc. of Inverness, xxii., 1897–1898) ; Sir J. See also:Sinclair, A Dissertation on the Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian (18o6) ; Transactions of the Ossianic Society (See also:Dublin, 1854–1861); Cours de litterature celtique, by See also:Arbois de Jubainville, editor of the Revue celtique (1883, &c.); A. Nutt, Ossian and the Ossianic Literature (1899), with a valuable See also:bibliographical appendix; J. S. See also:Smart, James Macpherson: an See also:Episode in Literature (1905). McPHERSON, JAMES BIRDSEYE (1828-1864), See also:American soldier, was born at See also:Sandusky, See also:Ohio, on the 14th of See also:November 1828. He entered See also:West Point at the See also:age of twenty-one, and graduated (1853) at the See also:head of his class, which included See also:Sheridan, See also:Schofield and See also:Hood. He was employed at the military See also:academy as instructor of See also:practical military See also:engineering (1853). A See also:year later he was sent to engineer See also:duty at New See also:York, and in 1857, after constructing Fort See also:Delaware, he was sent as superintending engineer to See also:San Francisco, becoming 1st See also:lieutenant in 1858. He was promoted See also:captain during the first year of the See also:Civil See also:War, and towards the See also:close of 1861 became lieutenant-See also:colonel and aide-de-See also:camp to See also:General See also:Halleck, who in the See also:spring of 1862 sent him to General See also:Grant as See also:chief engineer.

He remained with Grant during the See also:

Shiloh See also:campaign, and acted as engineer adviser to Halleck during the See also:siege operations against See also:Corinth in the summer of 1862. In See also:October he distinguished himself in command of an See also:infantry See also:brigade at the See also:battle of Corinth, and on the 8th of this See also:month was made See also:major-general of See also:volunteers and See also:commander of a See also:division. In the second advance onVicksburg(1863)McPherson commanded the XVII. See also:corps, fought at See also:Port See also:Gibson, See also:Raymond and See also:Jackson, and after the fall of See also:Vicksburg was strongly recommended by Grant for the See also:rank of brigadier-general in the See also:regular See also:army, to which he was promoted on the 1st of See also:August 1863. He commanded at Vicksburg until the following spring. He was about to go on leave of See also:absence in See also:order to be married in See also:Baltimore when he received his nomination to the command of the Army of the See also:Tennessee, Grant's and See also:Sherman's old army, which was to take See also:part under Sherman's supreme command in the campaign against See also:Atlanta (1864). This nomination was made by Sherman and entirely approved by Grant, who had the highest See also:opinion of McPherson's military and See also:personal qualities. He was in command of his army at the actions of Resaca, See also:Dallas,Kenesaw See also:Mountain and the battles about Atlanta. On the 22nd of See also:July, when the Confederates under his old classmate Hood made a sudden and violent attack on the lines held by the Army of the Tennessee, McPherson rode up, in the See also:woods, to the enemy's firing See also:line and was killed.

End of Article: MACPHERSON, SIR DAVID LEWIS (1818–1896)

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