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State, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)State, United States Department of, executive department of the federal government responsible, under the President's direction, for the making and execution of American foreign policy. Before and ...

Stoneman, George

(Encyclopedia)Stoneman, George, 1822–94, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Busti, N.Y. As commander of Fort Brown, Tex., in Feb., 1861, he refused to obey the order of General Twiggs to surrender to Tex...

lake, body of water

(Encyclopedia)lake, inland body of standing water occupying a hollow in the earth's surface. The study of lakes and other freshwater basins is known as limnology. Lakes are of particular importance since they act a...

Gaines, Edmund Pendleton

(Encyclopedia)Gaines, Edmund Pendleton, 1777–1849, U.S. army officer, b. Culpeper co., Va.; brother of George Strother Gaines. He spent his boyhood in Tennessee and at the age of 22 joined the U.S. army. He surve...

Nicholls, Francis Redding Tillou

(Encyclopedia)Nicholls, Francis Redding Tillou, 1834–1912, American politician, b. Donaldsonville, La. At the outbreak of the Civil War he helped organize a company of Confederate volunteers and through active se...

Tracy, Benjamin Franklin

(Encyclopedia)Tracy, Benjamin Franklin, 1830–1915, American lawyer, cabinet member, and soldier, b. Owego, N.Y. He was admitted to the bar in 1851 and later served (1853–59) as district attorney of Tioga co., N...

Porter, Fitz-John

(Encyclopedia)Porter, Fitz-John, 1822–1901, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Portsmouth, N.H.; nephew of David Porter. He saw service in the Mexican War and was an instructor at West Point (1849–55)....

Rough Riders

(Encyclopedia)Rough Riders, popular name for the 1st Regiment of U.S. Cavalry Volunteers, organized largely by Theodore Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War (1898). Its members were mostly ranchers and cowboys fro...

Clay, Cassius Marcellus

(Encyclopedia)Clay, Cassius Marcellus, 1810–1903, American politician and diplomat, b. Madison co., Ky. Although he came from a slaveholding family, Clay early came to abhor the institution of slavery. In 1845 he...

Rajk, Laszlo

(Encyclopedia)Rajk, Laszlo läsˈlō roik [key], 1909–49, Hungarian Communist leader. After fighting in the Spanish civil war of 1936–39 he was interned (1939) in a French camp for Spanish Loyalists. Rajk retur...