In the earlier part of the Civil War Humphreys was employed as a topographical engineer with the Army of the Potomac, and rendered conspicuous services in the Seven Days’ Battles. It is stated that he selected the famous position of Malvern Hill, before which Lee’s army was defeated. Soon after this he was assigned to command a division of the V. corps, and at the battle of Fredericksburg he distinguished himself greatly in the last attack of Marye’s heights. General Burnside recommended him for promotion to the rank of major-general U.S.V., which was not however awarded to Humphreys until after Gettysburg. He took part in the battle of Chancellorsville, and at Gettysburg commanded a division of the III. corps under Sickles. Upon Humphreys’ division fell the brunt of Lee’s attack on the second day, by which in the end the III. corps was dislodged from its advanced position. His handling of his division in this struggle excited great attention, and was compared to Sheridan’s work at Stone river. A few days later he became chief of staff to General Meade, and this position he held throughout the Wilderness campaign. Towards the end of the war General Humphreys succeeded General Hancock in command of the famous II. corps. The short campaign of 1865, which terminated in Lee’s surrender, afforded him a greater opportunity of showing his capacity for leadership. His corps played a conspicuous part in the final operations around Petersburg, and the credit of the vigorous and relentless pursuit of Lee’s army may be claimed hardly less for Humphreys than for Sheridan. After the war, now brevet major-general, he returned to regular engineer duty as chief engineer of the U.S. army, and retired in 1879. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society (1857) and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1863), and received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard University in 1868. He died at Washington on the 27th of December 1883. Amongst his works may be mentioned From Gettysburg to the Rapidan (1882) and The Virginia Campaigns of 1864–1865 (1882).
See Wilson, Critical Sketches of some Commanders (Boston, 1895).
HUMPHRY, OZIAS (1742–1810), English miniature painter,
was born at Honiton and educated at the Grammar School of
that town. Attracted by the gallery of casts opened by the
duke of Richmond, Humphry came to London and studied at
Shipley’s school; and later he left for Bath, where he lodged
with Linley and became a great friend of his beautiful daughter,
afterwards Mrs Sheridan. In 1766 he was in London warmly
encouraged by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was always interested
in Devonshire painters. He was a great friend of Romney,
with whom in 1773 he went to Italy, staying, on his way to Dover,
at Knole, where the duke of Dorset gave him many commissions.
In 1785 he went to India, visiting the native courts, painting
a large number of miniatures, and making many beautiful
sketches. His sight failed him in 1797, and he died in Hampstead
in 1810. The bulk of his possessions came into the hands of
his natural son, William Upcott, the book collector. From
him the British Museum acquired a large number of papers
relating to Humphry. He was Opie’s first master, and is alluded
to in some lines by Hayley. His miniatures are exquisite in
detail and delightful in colouring. Many of the finest are in
the collection of Mr J. Pierpont Morgan.
See The History of Portrait Miniatures, by G. C. Williamson, vol. ii. (London, 1904). (G. C. W.)
HUMUS (a Latin word meaning the ground), a product of
decomposing organic matter. It is especially present in peat
bogs, and also occurs in surface soils, to which it imparts a brown
or black colour. It is one of the most important soil-constituents
from the agricultural point of view; it is the chief source of
nitrogenous food for plants, and modifies the properties of the
soil by increasing its water-holding capacity and diminishing
its tenacity. Little is known with regard to its chemical composition.
By treating with a dilute acid to remove the bases
present, and then acting on the residue with ammonia, a solution
is obtained from which a mineral acid precipitates humic acid;
the residue from the ammonia extraction is termed humin.
Both the humic acid and humin are mixtures, and several
constituents have been separated; ulmic acid and ulmin,
in addition to humic acid and humin, are perhaps the best
characterized.
HUNALD, Duke of Aquitaine, succeeded his father Odo, or
Eudes, in 735. He refused to recognize the high authority of
the Frankish mayor of the palace, Charles Martel, whereupon
Charles marched south of the Loire, seized Bordeaux and Blaye,
but eventually allowed Hunald to retain Aquitaine on condition
that he should promise fidelity. From 736 to 741 the relations
between Charles and Hunald seem to have remained amicable.
But at Charles’s death in 741 Hunald declared war against the
Franks, crossed the Loire and burned Chartres. Menaced by
Pippin and Carloman, Hunald begged for peace in 745 and
retired to a monastery, probably on the Isle of Ré. We find
him later in Italy, where he allied himself with the Lombards
and was stoned to death. He had left the duchy of Aquitaine
to Waifer, who was probably his son, and who struggled for
eight years in defending his independence against King Pippin.
At the death of Pippin and at the beginning of the reign of
Charlemagne, there was a last rising of the Aquitanians. This
revolt was directed by a certain Hunald, and was repressed in
768 by Charlemagne and his brother Carloman. Hunald sought
refuge with the duke of the Gascons, Lupus, who handed him
over to his enemies. In spite of the opinion of certain historians,
this Hunald seems to have been a different person from the old
duke of Aquitaine.
See J. Vaissette, Histoire générale de Languedoc, vol. i. (ed. of 1872 seq.); Th. Breysig, H. Hahn, L. Oelsner, S. Abel and B. Simson, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs. (C. Pf.)
HU-NAN, a central province of China, bounded N. by Hu-peh,
E. by Kiang-si, S. by Kwang-si and Kwang-tung, and W. by
Kwei-chow and Szech’uen. It occupies an area of 84,000 sq. m.,
and its population is estimated at 22,000,000. The provincial
capital is Chang-sha Fu, in addition to which it has eight prefectural
cities. It is essentially a province of hills, the only
considerable plain being that around the Tung-t’ing lake, but
this extends little beyond the area which in summer forms part
of the lake. To the north of Heng-chow Fu detached groups
of higher mountains than are found in the southern portion of
the province are met with. Among these is the Heng-shan,
one of the Wu-yo or five sacred mountains of China, upon which
the celebrated tablet of Yu was placed. The principal rivers of
the province are: (1) The Siang-kiang, which takes its rise in
the Nan-shan, and empties into the Tung-t’ing lake; it is
navigable for a great distance from its mouth, and the area of
its basin is 39,000 sq. m.; (2) the Tsze-kiang, the basin of which
covers an area of 10,000 sq. m., and which is full of rapids and
navigable only for the smallest boats; (3) the Yuen-kiang, a
large river, which has some of its head-waters in the province
of Kwei-chow, and empties into the Tung-t’ing lake in the
neighbourhood of Chang-tê Fu; its basin has an area of 35,000
sq. m., 22,500 of which are in the province of Hu-nan and 12,500
in that of Kwei-chow; its navigation is dangerous, and only
small boats are able to pass beyond Hang-kia, a mart about
180 m. above Chang-tê Fu; and (4) the Ling-kiang, which
flows from the tea district of Ho-fêng Chow to the Tung-t’ing
lake. Its basin covers an area of about 8000 sq. m., and it
is navigable only in its lowest portion. The principal places
of commerce are: (1) Siang-t’an, on the Siang-kiang, said to
contain 1,000,000 inhabitants, and to extend 3 m. long by nearly
2 m. deep; (2) Chang-sha Fu, the provincial capital which stands
on the same river 60 m. above the treaty port of Yo-chow, and
between which mart and Han-kow steamers of 500 tons burden
run; and (3) Chang-tê Fu, on the Yuen-kiang. The products
of the province are tea (the best quality of which is grown at
Gan-hwa and the greatest quantity at Ping-kiang), hemp,
cotton, rice, paper, tobacco, tea-oil and coal. The whole of
the south-eastern portion of the province is one vast coal-field,
extending over an area of 21,700 sq. m. This area is divided
into nearly two equal parts—one, the Lei river coal-fields, yielding
anthracite, and the other the Siang river coal-fields, yielding
bituminous coal. The people have been, as a rule, more anti-foreign
in their ideas, and more generally prosperous than the
