The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-07-02
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.
Sketches Of the Orator, Poet and
Secretary.

sketches OF the Orator, Poet and
Secretary.
Francis Amasa Walker, the orator of the
Army of the Potomac this year, was born in
Boston, July 2, 1910. He graduated at Am
herst College in 1860 and began the study of
the law, but engaged in military service in
the spring of 1861 as sergeant-major of Gen.
Devens's Massachusetts regiment. In Sep
TENDER he was assistant adjutant general of
COUGHS brigade and adjutaht general of his
division in 1862. In December he became
colonel on the staff of the Second Army
Corps, serving in the Army of the Potomac.
He was wounded at Charlottesville; was
made prisoner at Roome's Station, Va, and
confined in Libby Prison, and was compelled
to resign in 1865 as his health was shattered
lie was In charge If the Bureau of Statistics
at the tai, and was made superintendent
OF us in 1870, the most complete and
exa census ever made and also complied as
superintendent, the census of 1880. He has
been our consulgeneral at Paris, and is now
president of the Institute of Technology at
Boston.
Horatio King, the poet, was bern in Paris.
Me-, June q, 1911. His grandfather was a
Revolutionary soldier. In 1888 Mr.. King
moved mis- paper, the "Jeffersonian," from
Paris to Portland and published it here nm
til 1888. In 1889 he went to Washington as
clerk in the Post Office Department.. In 1854
he was made first assistant postmaster gen.
eral. In 1861 while acting as postmaster
general, in reply to member of Congress
on E question with regard to = from
We ege, Mr. King was ~, 3"
$|t the power ofs>
ion. .sFrs/ -.
.oryIng from February 18th
until March 7, 1861 On retiring from office
he remained in Washington during the war.
serving on the board of commissioners to
carry into execution the emancipation law
in the District of Columbia. he was active
In procuring the passage of three acts in
1874, 1879 and 1885 respectively. requiring the
use of the official "penalty envelope" which
has secured large saving to the govern
ment. He was secretary Of the Washington
Monument Association from 1881. Mr.. King
has been frequent contributor to the press,
aud has several publications of repute.
Gen. Horatio G. King. the son of the poet
of the day, is the secretary of the Army of
the Potomac. Gen. King was born in this
city in 1887. After four years course at
Dickinson College at Carlisle, Pa, he gradu-
ated in 1858. Studying law for two years
with the Hon. E. M. Stanton, afterward sec
rotary Of war, he went to New York, and
was admitted to the Metropolitan bar in
May, 1861. Practising for about a year, he
entered the volunteer service, and was with
the Army of the Potomac and the Army of
the Shenandoah for three years, participat-
ing in some of the most active campaigns of
those armies. At the close of the war he re
signed his position. and was formally dis.
charged in October, 1866. For his services
in the war he was first promoted to a major
ity, and was breveted lieut-colonel and COL
onel. For conspicuous gallantry at the bat
tie of Five Forks he was recommended to
the secretary of war for the highest breyet
rank. (Which he received, by Gen. Thomas
c. Diven, his division commander, in these
terms: During the battles of Five Forks.
and those subsequent, Major King volun-
teered on my staff as my personal aide, and
rendered gallant and distinguished service. ("
Returning to New York he resumed the
practice of law, and continued in the same
until 1870, when he accepted the position of
associate editor of the New York Star, of
which Joseph Howard, Jr., was then the
proprietor. There he remained for about
two years, resigning to take position with
the ,pu ]ishers of the Christian Union.
(Henry Ward Beecher, editor, at the time
the actual circulation of that paper increased
from 10000 to 100000. Then he became the
publisher of the Christian at Work of which
the Rev. DR.. Talmage was editor, and re-
manned for two years. At the earnest solic-
itati0n of Mr.. Beecher, he returned to the
Christian Union, where he remained until
1873, when he resigned in order to resume the
practice Of law, from which be had already
absented himself much longer than was his
intention. Upon his retirement, Mr.. Beech
er paid very handsome tribute to him for
his success in conducting the paper though a
period when it required the most skillful pi-
lot at the helm. Throughout this newspap-
er work Gen. King was one of the most ac-
i've members of the New York Press Club,
with which ne still retains connection. He
IS now the president of the American Music
ian Publishing Co.