Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel (1805-1862),US astronomer,in the uniform of a Union general. After studying to be a lawyer,Mitchel changed career to become a mathematics teacher,and then,in 1845,the director of an astronomical observatory in Ohio. In 1859,he became director of the Dudley Observatory,Albany,New York. He started the US Civil War as a Brigadier-General,but was promoted to Major-General following a successful conquest of Huntsville in April 1862. He died of yellow fever in September of that year |