ENGELBERT

HUMPERDINCK (1854- )  , German musical composer, was born at Siegburg, in the Rhine Province, and studied under F . Hiller at Cologne, and F . Lachner and J . Rheinberger at Munich . In 1879, by means of a scholarship, he went to Italy, where he met Wagner at Naples; and on the latter's invitation he went to Bayreuth and helped to produce Parsifal there next year . He travelled for the next few years in Italy and Spain but in 1890 became a professor at Frankfort, where he remained till 1896 . In 'goo he became the head of a school in Berlin . His fame as a composer was made by his I Mississippi, and, with Lieut . H . L . Abbott, produced in 1861 charming children's opera Hansel and Gretel in 1893, founded a valuable Report on the Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi very largely (like his later operas) on folk-tunes; but his works River . In connexion with this work he visited Europe in 185r .

892 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) .