USA > Washington DC > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 28
USA > Maryland > The Biographical cyclopedia of representative men of Maryland and District of Columbia Pt. 1 > Part 28
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the two years, the first branch of the City Council, depart- ing from ordinary usage, presented Mr. Pagels a very handsome resolution signed in behalf of the Council by Henry Duvall, President, and James Hyde, Chief Clerk, in which they acknow ledge his " kindness of heart, cordi- ality and demeanor, cool head, clear mind, perfect impar- tiality, strict integrity, his intimate knowledge of and his close application to the duties of his position." This unan- imous resolution, unsought and unlooked for, needs no comment. It is about as high an appreciation of character and life as could well be given. Ile was for two years President of the Board of Trustees of Bayview ; has been director of the Howard Land Company ever since its or- ganization ; a director of the Real Estate and Savings Bank ; a director of the Home Fire Insurance Company ; treasurer and director of the lloward Building Association ; President of the Howard Hill No. 1, and the Howard Hill No. 2 Building Associations, all three of which have wound up their business successfully. He was one of the original subscribers to the Howard Fire Insurance Com- pany, the Consolidated Land and Fire Insurance Company, and the People's Gas Company. Ile has been a member of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, commonly called Otterbein Church, for about forty years. In the Man- damus trial of that church he took an active part. He has been for a number of years one of the managers of the Maryland Bible Society; of the Henry Watson's Aid Society, and the Maryland Institute. On the 31st of Oc- tober, 1841, he married Rosina, daughter of Michael Zimmer, of Baltimore, who died in 1862. In August, 1865, he married Barbara, daughter of Christian F. Ilailer, of Baden, Germany. Ile has eight children living, one of whom, Edward, is general ticket ageut at the Union depot, Columbus, Ohio, Another, George HI. Z., is ticket agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, at Washington, D. C.
GNUS, GENERAL. FELIX, Treasurer and General Manager of the Baltimore American, was born in Lyons, France, July 4, 1839. During his infancy his family removed with him to Paris, in which city the junior years of the subject of this sketch were spent. He received his education at College Jolie Clair, near Montrouge, a suburb of Paris, made famous during the German siege and the Communist uprising. Being of an adventurous disposition, he left home, in 1852, and commenced a series of travels that carried him into . various and widely distant parts of the world. Ile voyaged to the South Seas, visiting en route, the celebrated Island of St. Helena, where Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled, the west coast of Africa, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and, sailing up the east coast, made a brief sojourn at Madagascar. Thence he crossed the Indian Ocean, and,
by a long detour, arrived upon the Pacific coast of South America, making excursions inland in Chili aud Peru, He then sailed around Cape Horn, and crossed the Atlantic to France, thus completing the circummnavigation of the globe. These voyages occupied four years, it being the year 1856 when he stood once more upon his native soil. After three years of quiet life events transpired that brought Felix Agnus into active military life. In 1859, Napoleon III waged war with Austria for the redemption of Italy. Mr. Agnus at once volunteered in the Third Regiment of Zouaves, and in that command went through the battle of Montebello, May 20, 1859, the allies being victorious in this, the first fight of the war, Ile was after- wards detailed to a post in the celebrated Flying Corps, under Garibaldi, which did good service near the Italian lakes. After the conclusion of the war and the redemption - of Italy, the above corps was disbanded. In 1860, Mr. Agnus came to the United States to take a position in the jewelry house of Tiffany & Company, New York. When the United States flag was fired upon at Fort Sumter, and the nation rose in arms, his old soldierly ardor was re- kindled and he enlisted as a private in Duryea's Fifth New York Zonaves. His military experience made him invalu- able to the command, and his rapidity of promotion was only equalled by the facility with which he acquired a knowledge of the English language. At the battle of Big Bethel, June 10, 1861, he saved the life of General Kilpat- rick, and was promoted to Second Lientenant for gallantry. Subsequently the Fifth was quartered in Baltimore, for some months, on Fort Federal Hill. When Mcclellan started on the expedition up the Peninsula, in 1862, the regiment was placed in the Fifth Corps, Lieutenant Agnus volun- teered to lead a charge at Ashland Bridge, and received complimentary mention from General Gouverneur K. War- ren. He was in the dash at Hanover Court-house, and the storming of the hills at Mechaniestown, near Rich- mond. On June 27, 1862, the battle of Gaines's Mills was fought, and Lieutenant Agnus was shot through the right shoulder, at the close of the day. This wound disabled him, causing the loss of the shoulder-joint. Whilst recov- ering, in Baltimore, from his injuries, he received his com- mission as Captain, for gallant service in the field. In New York he joined in with officers in a successful effort to raise another Zouave regiment, The ranks rapidly filled up with a fine class of recruits, and the command was known as the One Hundred and Sixty-fifth New York, or Second Duryea Zouaves. Captain Aguns selected the color company as his own, and the regiment was ordered to Louisiana, in the fall of 1862, when it garrisoned New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In the spring of 1863, the siege of l'ort Hudson was commenced by land and water, and the One Hundred and Sixty- fifth was repleted and assigned to take part. May 27, an unsuccessful assault was made on the Confederate works, Captain Agnus was again wounded, , in this engagement, and was promoted to Major. In the
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midst of the principal charge the Colonel and Lieutenant- Colonel were wounded, and Major Agnus took command of the regiment. He shared in all the attacks on Port Hudson. 'Two divisions, of three hundred men each, had been detailed to lead the follow hope, and Major Agnus, with forty two picked men of his command, was placed at the head of the first division. The assault was rendered unnecessary by the surrender on the day for which it had been fixed. After the fall of Vicksburg and Port Iludson, the regiment was sent to Western Louisiana, where it was engaged in constant skirmishes with the Texas Rangers. At Fayetteville, while checking a charge, Major Agnus had a hand-to-hand fight with a Texan horseman, and received a severe sabre-cut on the wrist. He took part in that un- fortunate expedition to Sabine Pass, Texas, and was placed in charge of the transport Pocahontas, an old Baltimore steamer. The vessel was dispatched to the blockading fleet off Galveston, to carry information of the disaster, and, in navigating an unlighted coast, ran ashore. When morning dawned she was found to be under the fire of the enemy's guns. There were two batteries of regular artil- lery on board. Major Agnus ordered the horses, one hun- dred and twenty in number, to be thrown overboard, and, thus lightened, the transport was safely floated off. By this time the One Hundred and Sixty-fifth had been sadly cut to pieces, and the War Department was ordering regiments with decimated ranks to be consolidated. Major Agnus, zealous that the distinctive title and number of his com- mand should not be lost, determined to preserve it, and that could only be done by tilling up its ranks. Obtaining leave of absence from General Banks, he went to New York and indneed Governor Seymour to assign to the One Hundred and Sixty-fifth, four full companies of recruits. This completed the regiment. In the meantime the Nine- teenth Corps had been ordered to report to General Grant, on the James River. Major Agnus rejoined his command with his fresh men, and was made Lieutenant-Colonel. When Early was raiding up the Valley, in 1864, and threatening Washington, the Nineteenth Corps was as- signed to Sheridan, who was then forming an army at Washington, for service in the Valley. They moved up to Monocacy, Harper's Ferry and Winchester, and the One Hundred and Sixty-fifth took a prominent part in all the fighting of the campaign, which broke the back of the Confederate strength in the Valley. Lieutenant. Colonel Agnus shared the perils and triumphs of this epoch, and was with his regiment at the battles of the Opequan, Fisher's Hill, Winchester, and Cedar Creek. HIe was a personal witness to " Sheridan's ride," on the eventful 19th of October, 1864, when Early drove in the Eighth Corps, pierced the Nineteenth, and would have driven the whole army before him in confusion had it not been for the arrival of Sheridan, and his rallying of the troops. This ended the fighting in the Valley, and when Sheridan started with his cavalry to join Grant in
front of Richmond he was instructed to send his best infan- try regiment to guard the Confederate prisoners at Fort Delaware, He paid the One Hundred and Sixty- fifth the compliment of choosing it out of all the army, and it was accordingly detailed to that duty. Here Lieutenant- Colonel Agnus was made Colonel of the regiment. It re- mained at Fort Delaware about three months, and was then ordered to Savannah, Georgia, where Colonel Agnus re- ceived his brevet as Brigadier-General, he being, at the time, but twenty-six years of age. Ile was, probably, the youngest of his rank in the army. Ile was detailed as Inspector-General, Department of the South, and was com- missioned to dismantle the old Confederate forts in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and turn all the property over to the government. On August 22, 1865, General Agnus resigned his commission and resumed civil life. After the war he was appointed an Assistant Assessor in the Internal Revenue Office at Baltimore, but soon thereafter assumed charge of the business department of the Baltimore American. In that responsible position he has displayed an energy, tact, and good judgment that have been invaluable to the proprietary of that journal. The erection of its splendid new building was mainly due to his efforts, and the paper has thriven under his manage- ment. December 13, 1864, General Agnus was married to Miss Annie E., daughter of Mr. Charles C. Fulton, se- nior proprietor of the Baltimore American. Few men of his age can furnish such a record as General Agnus, as a traveller, embracing in his journeys, the entire circuit of the world ; as a brave soldier and officer, engaged in many conflicts and receiving honorable wounds in the service of his adopted country, or as the business manager of the leading commercial newspaper south of New York.
2.CHIARE, COLONEL JOHN THOMAS, Author and Journalist, was born in Baltimore, May 1, 1843. lle received an elementary education from the Christian Brothers, of St. Peter's ( Roman Catholic) Parish School at Baltimore, and later in life, attended a private school in Harford County. When about sixteen years of age, he was employed in the counting- room of his father, Mr. - Thomas G. Scharf, a Baltimore merchant. Young Scharf, however, was passionately fond of reading, and devoted much of his leisure time to ac- quiring information. But he was also of an active and adventurous temperament, and, like most young men in the State, shared in the excitement just preceding the out- break of the civil war. He was well versed in the politi- cal history of the time, and his convictions, as well as his sympathies, induced him to espouse the cause of the Southern States. Though but eighteen, he, with a number of other young men in Baltimore, formed a volunteer com-
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pany called the " Scott Guards," of which he was elected orderly sergeant. This company was, however, soon after disbanded. When the affray of the igth of April, 1861, took place, young Schart joined the roth Ward Volunteers, Captain William B. Redgraves, a company organized for the defence of the city, which also was disbanded after doing some service in preserving order. As he had not been at all reticent in his expressions of sympathy with the Southern cause, he became a marked man at the time of the Federal occupation of the State. For awhile he re- mained, expecting that an entrance of the Confederate forces into Maryland, or the result of some of the military operations would unite that State with the Confederacy; but this hope failing, and the opportunities for escape into Virginia being daily diminished, he determined-much against his father's wish-to cross the Potomac while he could, and offer his services to the South. ' In his first attempt, he was stopped at Camden station; but an intima- tion that he was to be arrested strengthened his resolve, and on July 29, 1861, he left his home without the knowledge of his father or family, and, in company with a friend, took passage on the steamer Mary Washington for the Patuxent. When the steamer was off Fort Mc- Henry, his friend was taken off to the fort by detectives, but young Scharf, being unknown to them, escaped. He reached and crossed the Potomac without further adven- ture, and made his way to Richmond, where he at once enlisted for " three years or the war," in the First Mary- land Artillery Company, then commanded by Captain R. Snowden Andrews. As soon as organized, this battery was ordered into active service, first at Evansport, Va., where it was employed in blockading the Potomac during the winter. From Evansport the battery was sent to Yorktown, for the relief of General Magruder, and took part in the various actions following on the Peninsula, and in the great series of battles around Richmond, being under the command of General A. P. Ilill. The siege of Richmond raised, the battery was detached and sent to General " Stonewall " Jackson, on the line of the Rappa- hannock, under whose command it remained until his death. In the fight at Cedar Mountain, Mr. Scharf re- ceived a severe wound in the left side from a fragment of shell, but refused to leave the field. For his conduct on this occasion, he was favorably reported to the department for " gallant conduct on the field of battle." After re- covering from his wound, he rejoined his battery, and was with it in the memorable march in General Pope's rear, at the second battle of Manassas, where he was slightly wounded in the ankle. ' lle was with his battery during the campaign of 1862; was at the capture of Harper's Ferry, the battle of Sharpsburg, and in the Valley cam- paign. At the first battle of Fredericksburg, he narrowly escaped being made a prisoner. Having ventured too far into the Federal lines, he was surrounded by the enemy, but partly by good luck and partly by presence of mind,
not only escaped himself, but brought off a Federal pris- oner, somewhat to the surprise of General Early, who re- marked that it was something rather new for artillerymen to take prisoners. At the battle of Chancellorsville, he was wounded for the third time, this time in the right knee, and so severely that he remained for seven weeks in the hospital at Richmond. During all his term of service he was never sick a day, except from wounds; was never absent from his command for twenty-four hours, and never received a furlough. At one time he was offered a position on the staff of General Elzey, and the recommendation was indorsed favorably by all the commanders up to General Lee, who disapproved it on the ground that he could not spare soldiers from his army. While confined at the Rob- inson Ilospital in Richmond, through the influence of Colonel John Taylor Wood, on the staff of President Davis, 2 and afterwards commander of the C. S. Privateer Talla- hassee, Mr. Scharf was appointed, on June 20, 1863, a Midshipman in the Confederate States Navy, and ordered on board the school ship Patrick Henry, then lying at Drury's Bluff, James River, to stand an examina- tion. Letters of recommendation from his previous com- manders being required, were obtained from Lieutenant- Colonel R. Snowden Andrews and Captain William F. Dement, who spoke in the highest terms of praise of his gallant and meritorious conduct on the battle-field, his uniform good behavior, and the promptness and faithful- ness with which he discharged all the duties required of him in camp and elsewhere. In a short time Mr. Scharf was sent to the iron clad steamer " Chicora," at Charleston, S. C., where he performed hard service during the winter in picket-boat duty, between Fort Sumter and Morris Island, watching the enemy in case of another assault on Fort Sumter. While engaged in this service, in January, 1864, he was selected by his commanding officer, Captain Thomas T. Hunter, to command a picked crew of fifteen men, to be sent with similar crews from vessels in the harbors of Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, and Rich- mond, on an expedition to Newbern, North Carolina, to act on the Neuse and Albemarle Rivers, in conjunction with General Pickett, who was to attack the town on the land side. The boats all rendezvoused at Wilmington, and from thence proceeded to Kingston and down the Neuse to the scene of operations. Upon nearing Newbern, it was discovered that the United States Steamer " Under- writer," which fired the first shot at Roanoke Island, and was the largest gunboat in Albemarle Sound, was moored head and stern to the wharf at Newbern, and directly under the guns of several Federal land batteries. After a short and sharp action of a few minutes, the Confederates, under Colonel J. Taylor Wood, boarded, and in a hand-to- hand fight with cutlasses and pistols, captured the steamer. She was burnt at the wharf, and the boarding party re- turned to the various stations. This was considered one of the most daring exploits of the war, as the Confederates.
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lost in killed and wounded over one-third of their boarding . party. In the spring, Mr. Scharf was ordered to the gun- lost " Chattahoochee," at Columbus, Georgia, and south was engaged in another boating expedition in Appalachi cola Bay. Here the party was nearly lost in a storm, having been cast away on the St. George Islands. In a short time he was sent to the captured steamer " Water Witch," at White Bluffs, near Savannah, and from thence to the steamer "Samson," at Savannah. Here he re- mained until General Sherman began his march from Atlanta to the sea, when his vessel, with all the light gun- boats, were sent up the Savannah River to destroy the Savannah and Charleston Railroad bridge, to prevent Sherman from crossing into South Carolina, and from thence to proceed to Augusta. After destroying the bridge, he was ordered to Angusta, Ga., and from thence to Rich- mond, where he found he could be of no service to the Confederacy in the navy, as nearly all the ports and land- ings were blockaded or in the hands of the enemy. Ile, therefore, determined to resign and again join the army. As soon as he resigned, the Confederate War Department sent for him and requested that he should go on a secret mission to Canada, as the bearer of important dispatches. His arrangements were made, and the Secret Service Corps were ordered to put him across the Potomac. After some delay from the floating ice in the river, he set out on his mission, and reached Maryland safely, only to be captured at Port Tobacco by the Federals, who had received notice of his coming. He was now sent to Washington and confined in the "Old Carroll Prison," until March 25, 1865, when he was released on parole, giving his bond for five thousand dollars to appear for trial when sum- moned. On September 25, however, he was pardoned by President Johnson and finally discharged. Returning home, he engaged in active business with his father; but his military tastes had not deserted him, and on the or- ganization of the State militia in 1867, he was elected captain of Company C, which he had himself organized. On the organization of the 2d Regiment, he was tendered the Coloneley, but owing to the prejudices that existed against the returned Confederates, he declined the honor, but accepted the position of Lientenant-Colonel, to which he was elected. In a short time, however, he resigned to accept the position of ordnance officer with the rank of Captain, on the staff of Brigadier-General Robert HI. Carr, of the Second Brigade. On May 5, 1869, he resigned to accept the position of aide-de-camp, with the rank of Colonel, on the staff of Governor Oden Bowie. Having chosen the law as his profession, he studied in the office of Samuel Snowden, Esq., and was admitted to practice in Baltimore County on December 15, 1874, and argued his first case at the Court of Appeals in the case of " William H. Oler v. Baltimore and Randallstown Rail- road, use of George N. Moale and James Hagerty, Trus- tees;" Maryland Reports, vol. xli, page 583. Colonel
Scharf has been from his youth a close student of Mary- land history. Notwithstanding his extensive legal practice, he still tound time to pursue his historical studies, and to write nomepor papets on the subject to the pres and for Instotical societies, Among las best contribution, we may mention his " Memoirs of the Historic Dead," a series of articles published in the Baltimore Sunday News. Memoirs of General Otho 11. Williams, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and John McDonogh, published in the Balti- morean ; "Sketch of the Cincinnati Society," " Toleration and Puritanism, or New England 7. Maryland," and the " Capture of the Underwriter," in the Baltimore Saturday Bulletin ; "The Boston Tea Party," "Our Maryland Germans," " Baltimore Past and Present," " History of the Baltimore Gasette," and " Battle of North Point," in the Baltimore Gazette ; the " Maryland Declaration of Inde- pendence," "Tea-Burning in Maryland," " The Old Mary- land Line " (two articles), the " Historical Names of the Streets of Baltimore," " Memoir of the First Governor of Maryland," " Early Maryland Theatricals," and many others published in the Baltimore Sun. Colonel Scharf has also contributed to the press of the country many his- torical and political articles of much interest. In 1875, at the urgent request of the Professors of Georgetown Col- lege, he prepared an answer to Mr. William E. Gladstone's attack upon Maryland Toleration in his controversy with Cardinal Manning on " Vaticanism," which appeared in the Christmas number of the Brooklyn Catholic Review for 1875, and was extensively published and favorably com- mented upon. He also prepared and published in the New York Graphic an illustrated article upon the his- tory, trade and resources of Baltimore; and another very elaborate and interesting article in the Philadelphia Times, in answer to Mr. B. Z. Loping's paper upon the alleged assassination conspiracy of 1861, in which he exonerated the citizens of Baltiimore from any attempt or intention to assassinate President Lincoln. Colonel Scharf is an active member of the Maryland Historical Society, before which he has read several interesting and valuable papers; among others, one upon the capture of the United States Steamer "Underwriter," and the battle of the " Merrimac" in Hampton roads, and a sketch of the C. S. Steamer " Patrick Ilenry," Privateer " Nashville," the battle of Lexington, etc. Besides these Colonel Scharf was the author of many other able addresses and discourses on various publie occasions. At the O'Connell Centennial celebration in Baltimore, on August 6, 1875, at Druid Hill Park, he was selected as one of the orators of the day. At the Centen- nial anniversary of the burning of the " Peggy Stewart," at Annapolis, on October 19, 1874, he was chosen by the municipal authorities of Annapolis to be the histori- ographer of the occasion, and delivered his first address in public, which was very favorably received. By invita- tion he also delivered an eloquent and instructive address, in March, 1875, for the benefit of the German Orphan
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Asylum, choosing as his subject the " Development of the German Element in Baltimore." This address attracted much attention at the time, and was published in the news. papers, and in tierman, in pamphlet form, and largely distributed in Germany. On July 5, 1875, he was se- lected by the St. Vincent De Paul's Beneficial Society to deliver an address upon the services of the Irish people in the American Revolution at a grand Irish-American dem- onstration at Walker's Pavilion, on the Patapsco River. On June 24, 1875, he was selected by the Professors of Rock Hill College, near Ellicott City, to pronounce the graduating address, which was afterwards published nearly entire in the February (1876) number of The Catholic Record. The President of the United States having, by his official proclamation, invited the commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Inde- pendence by the reading, on July 4, 1876, of historical sketches relating to the particular localities in which such public celebrations might be held, and the City Coun- cil of Baltimore having provided for an appropriate ob- servance of that day, at Druid Hill Park, Mayor Latrobe invited Colonel Scharf to be the historiographer of the day, on which occasion he delivered an address embodying the points of his extensive study and research. About the same time Colonel Scharf was appointed by the United States Centennial Commissioners, one of a committee of five of the " Centennial State Board of Maryland;" and at the request of the " Committee on the Restoration of Independence Hall," Philadelphia, he prepared a sketch of Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, one of the authors of the Constitution of the United States, and attended the Con- gress of Authors held at Independence Hall, on July 1, 1876. Upon the organization of a military force to suppress the great railroad labor riot in Baltimore, Col- onel Scharf, together with Messrs. Wyatt, Blanchard, James H. Barnly, and John Donnell Smith, on July 21, IS77, was appointed, by the Police Commissioners of Baltimore, to select and organize five hundred special po- licemen. They were used for the protection of private property, while the regular force were operating at the scene of disturbance, t'amden Station, and other places. Having, in the course of many years of study, accumu- lated a mass of details relative to the city of Baltimore, during all periods of her history, he determined to embody these in book form, and in 1874, published his Chronicles of Baltimore, a large Svo. volume, containing a complete history, in the form of annals, of that eity, from the earliest period. In 1878, he and Dr. William Iland Browne of Baltimore, published a School History of Maryland. Colonel Scharf has now (1879). in press a complete and full illustrated history of Maryland, in three large Svo. volumes, of which he alone is the author, and which contains much important material never before published, and throwing new light on the history of the State. Ile is an active con- tributor to many historical societies of the country, and be-
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