Ormsby McKnight Mitchell, USMA 1829.

July 20, 1805 ---  October 30, 1862

• Assistant Professor of Mathematics, USMA, August 30, 1829 to August 28, 1831.
• Professor of Mathematics, Philosophy, and Astronomy, Cincinnati College, 1834-1844.

Commanded troops in Ohio and led raids in Alabama. Died of Yellow Fever.

Buried: Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, USA. Specific Interment Location: Section 149, Plot 13045.  http://www.findagrave.com/pictures/4767.html

Genealogy:

His son also Ormsby McKinight Mitchell (#2067) is also a graduate.

Publications:

The astronomy of the Bible, . . . With a biographical sketch, New York: Oakley & Mason, 1870. USMA library: BS655 .M5 1870. The text of this biographical sketch is available on the web. There was an 1863 edition also. 

A course of six lectures on astronomy: delivered in the city of New-York; specially reported for the New-York tribune, New-York : Greeley & McElrath, 1848. USMA library special collections: QB51 .M665.

Found out that one of my ancestors, Hugh Moore, was good friends with a Mitchell, who established the observatory on Mt Adams in Cincinnati. Hugh lived there from about 1850 to 1873. Mitchell apparently was well known astronomer. Killed in Civil War. Will have to look him up. Hugh also owned a steamboat before the Civil War. That family goes back to Scotland, Ayrshire, in 1600s.                           Note from Hern, 29 Nov 1998.

Cullum #555. 

References:

Arney, Chris, West Point's Scientific 200: Celebration of the Bicentennial. Biographies of 200 of West Point's Most Successful and Influential Mathematicians, Scientists, Engineers, and Technologists, 2002.

Paper files started.  Web file created January 2001.