Francis Laurens Vinton

      GEN. FRANCIS L. VINTON.
 Gen. Francis L. Vinton, United States Army,
died in Leadville, Col., yesterday, aged about 47
years. Gen. Vinton came of military stock. His
father, Major John R. Vinton, was graduated from
West Point in 1817, passed many years in garrison,
served in the Florida wars against the Seminoles, and
entered the Mexican war as Captain. For gal-
lant conduct at Monterey he was made Brevet-
Major, and the next year, 1847, was killed in the
siege of Vera Cruz. Gen. Vinton's uncle, the Rev.
Dr. Francis Vinton, remembered as a clergyman of
Trinity Protestant Episcopal Parish in this City,
was also a West Point graduate, and served
his campaigns before entering orders in the
church which conferred upon him high honors.
The deceased soldier entered West Point as
cadet by appointment at large in 1851, and was
graduated in the Class of '56, being promoted to
Second Lieutenant of the First Cavalry. Study had
developed his taste for engineering, and, obtaining
leave of absence, Lieut. Vinton at once went to Paris
and entered the Imperial School there in the Sum-
mer of 1856. Resigning his commission in the United
States Army, he remained in France until 1860,
when he was graduated from the Imperial School
with the degree of "Ingenieur des Mines." Return-
ing to this country at the outbreak of the war of the
rebellion, he was reappointed in the Army with the
rank of Captain, Sixteenth Infantry, in August,
1861, and immediately entered active service.
In October of the same year he was pro-
moted to Colonel of the Forty-third New-
York Volunteers, serving in the defenses
of Washington during the Fall and Winter of 1861.
Col. Vinton was in the Army of the Potomac during
the Virginia Peninsular campaign, and in the Spring
and Summer of 1861 was engaged in the seige of
Yorktown, in the battles of Williamsburg, Gaine's
Mill, Savage Station, Glendale, and in the skirmish
at Harrison's Landing. In the Maryland campaign,
from the latter part of September until November,
he was in command of a brigade of the Sixth Corps,
Army of the Potomac, and shared in the march to
Falmouth, Va. In the Rappahannock campaign,
during the battle of Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862,
Col. Vinton was severely wounded while lead-
ing his regiment in a gallant charge. Disa-
bled by his wound for many months, and
incapacitated for further service, he resigned
from the Army in May, 1863. Two months
before that time he had been made a Brigadier-
General of volunteers for gallant service. Gen. Vin-
ton devoted himself to his chosen profession as min-
ing engineer. He was active as one of the organizers
of the Columbia College School of Mines, and oc-
cupied the Chair of Mining Engineer at that insti-
tution from 1864 until 1877. In the latter year
Gen. Vinton removed to the West, becoming Con-
sulting Engineer of Mines at Denver, Col., and
rapidly earning the name of a thorough engineer.
He was a man of considerable literary and artistic
culture.