Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, the celebrated American astronomer and author,
was born near Morganfield, Kentucky, August 28, 1809. He graduated from
West Point in the famous class of 1829 which included Robert E. Lee and
Joseph E. Johnston, Mitchel was professor of mathematics at West Point
for two years; but he later studied law and practiced at Cincinnati for
a year. In 1834 he was elected professor of mathematics and astronomy in
Cincinnati College. By his own efforts he raised sufficient funds with
which to establish an astronomical observatory in Cincinnati, in
1845--now the Mitchel Observatory--the first of the larger observatories
in this country. In 1860 Professor Mitchel was chosen as director of the
Dudley observatory at Albany, New York, and there he remained for two
years. The Civil War coming on, he entered the Union army, and rose to
the rank of general. General Mitchel was placed in command of the
"Department of the South," but before the war was well under way,
almost, he contracted yellow fever and died at Beaufort, South Carolina,
October 30, 1862. General Mitchel was the most distinguished astronomer
ever born on Kentucky soil; and in the army the men knew him as "Old
Stars." He was a popular lecturer, but it is as an author that his great
reputation rests. His books are: _The Planetary and Stellar Worlds_ (New
York, 1848); _The Orbs of Heaven_ (1851); _A Concise Elementary Treatise
of the Sun, Planets, Satellites, and Comets_ (1860); and _The Astronomy
of the Bible_ (New York, 1863). From 1846 to 1848 General Mitchel
published an astronomical journal, called _The Sidereal Messenger_.
Harvard and Hamilton Colleges conferred honorary degrees upon him; and
he was a member of many scientific societies in the United States and
Europe.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, Astronomer and General_,
by his son, F. A. Mitchel; biographical sketch in _The Astronomy
of the Bible_ (New York, 1863); _Old Stars_, by P. C. Headley
(Boston, 1864).