Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/248

BATTLE, Archibald J., educator, was born at Powelton, Hancock county, Ga., Sept. 10, 1826, son of Dr. Cullen Battle, a prominent Baptist layman in Georgia, one of the founders of Mercer university, and widely known for his wealth and benefactions. The son was graduated from the University of Alabama in 1846, and first engaged in educational work as principal of the Eufaula academy. He was tutor of ancient languages at the University of Alabama, 1847-'52, and held a chair in the East Alabama female college in 1852-'55. He entered the Baptist ministry in 1853 as minister of the Tuskegee Baptist church, and in 1855 assumed the pastorate of the Tuscaloosa Baptist church. In 1856 educational work again claimed him. and he returned to the University of Alabama to become professor of Greek. He funded the Alabama Central female college, of which he was president in 1860. At the close of the civil war he re-established and became president of the Judson female institute, Marion, Ala., 1865-'71, after which he was president of Mercer university from 1871-'89. In 1872 the doctorate of divinity was conferred upon him by Howard college, Ala., and Columbian college, Washington. D.C., and by the University of Georgia in 1873. In 1883 Mississippi college conferred on him the degree of LL.D. He published "The Human Will," "Lectures on Memory," "Imagination," "Man the Image of God," "The Sun," and "The Sabbath of Creation." In 1890 he left Macon to accept the presidency of Shorter college, Rome, Ga.

BATTLE, Kemp Plummer, educator, was born near Louisburg, Franklin county, N.C., Dec. 19, 1831, son of William Horn and Lucy (Plummer) Battle. He was graduated at the university of North Carolina in 1849, with first honors in a class of distinguished graduates. Immediately thereafter he was elected tutor in the university, but, on being admitted to the bar in 1854, he resigned, and soon acquired an extensive legal practice. In politics he was an old-line Whig, and a decided friend of the union, and in consequence of his powerful presentation of the dangers and disasters which would attend secession, he came, in 1860, within only three votes of an election to the legislature in a strong Democratic county. A campaign document prepared by him was so highly approved by the Whig executive committee, that fifty thousand copies of it were printed and circulated; but when President Lincoln, in April, 1861, called upon North Carolina for her quota of the seventy-five thousand men to assist in coercing the seceding states, Dr. Battle, in common with nearly all the Whig leaders, cast his lot with the southern Confederacy. He was elected to the secession convention of North Carolina, and signed the ordinance just below the name of George E. Badger. In 1866 he was elected treasurer of the state, and again in 1867; and in 1876 he was chosen president of the University of North Carolina, filling the office with great ability until June, 1891, when he resigned it to take the more congenial position of professor of history. In 1870 he was appointed state superintendent of public instruction. He also filled the office of director of the insane asylum and president of the state agricultural society. As a delegate to the general convention of the Episcopal church in 1865, he aided in reuniting that denomination throughout the United States. He was for many years treasurer and trustee of the St. Augustine normal school for the colored race. The degree of LL.D. was awarded him by Davidson college. N.C. Dr. Battle is the author of various historical monographs, among which are: "History of the Supreme Court of North Carolina" (1883); "History of the City of Raleigh" (1893); "History of the University of North Carolina," "Trials and Judicial Proceedings in the New Testament," "The Colonial Laymen of the Church of England in North Carolina," and "Fifty Years' History of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina."

BATTLE, William Horn, jurist, was born in Edgecombe county, N.C., Oct. 17, 1802, son of Joel and Mary (Johnston) Battle. He was graduated at the University of North Carolina at the age of eighteen; then began the study of law under Chief Justice Henderson, and at the age of twenty-one was admitted to the bar. He represented Franklin county in the legislature in 1833 and 1834, and, associated with Mr. Devereux, reported the decisions of the supreme court of N.C., from 1834 to 1840. In 1835 he was appointed one of the commissioners to revise the statutes of the state. He was appointed a judge of the superior court in 1840; in 1843 was elected professor of law in the University of N.C., and in 1848 was appointed associate justice of the supreme court, but failing an election by the legislature at the next session, was by it elected a judge of the superior court. In 1852 he was again elevated to the supreme bench, which distinguished position he held with great credit until a new court was established in 1868. In 1873 Judge Battle, by selection of the legislature, again collated the statute law under the title of "Battle's Revisal." He ranked very high as a jurist, and is said to have had a most retentive memory, being able to recall in a moment the names of all the leading cases in England and the United States. He was married June 4, 1825, to Lucy Martin, daughter of Kemp Plummer, who was descended from Col. Nicholas Long, commissary-general of N.C. in the revolutionary war. He died at Chapel Hill, N.C., March 14. 1879.