afterwards distinguished themselves as officers in the volunteer army of
the Union.

General Arthur was married in 1859 to Ellen Lewis Herndon, of
Fredericksburg, Virginia, a daughter of Captain William Lewis Herndon,
of the United States Navy, who had gained honorable distinction when in
command of the naval expedition sent to explore the river Amazon. His
heroic death, in 1857, is recorded in history among those "names which
will never be forgotten as long as there is remembrance in the world for
fidelity unto death." In command of the steamer Central America, which
went down, with a loss of three hundred and sixty lives, he stood at his
post on the wheelhouse, and succeeded in having the women and children
safely transferred to the boats, remaining himself to perish with his
vessel. General Sherman has characterized this grand deed of unselfish
devotion as the most heroic incident in our naval history. Mrs. Arthur
was a lady of the highest culture, and in the varied relations of
life--wife, mother, friend--she illustrated all that gives to womanhood
its highest charm, and commands for it the purest homage. She died in
1880, after an illness of but three days, leaving a son and a daughter,
with a large number of mourning friends, not only in society, of which
she was an ornament, but among the poor and the distressed, whose wants
and whose sufferings she had tenderly cared for.

When the Honorable Edward D. Morgan was elected Governor of the State of
New York, he appointed Mr. Arthur engineer-in-chief on his staff, and
when Fort Sumter was fired upon, the governor telegraphed to him to go
to Albany, where he received orders to act as state
quartermaster-general in the city of New York. General Arthur at once
began to organize regiments,--uniform, arm, and equip them,--and send
them to the defence of the capital. His capacity for leadership and