Bates, Samuel P.

SAMUEL P. BATES, LL.D., the subject of this sketch, has been chiefly noted as an author, though his life has been singularly devoted to active pursuits. His writings have been principally upon educational and military themes. His histories of the battles of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, two of the most sanguinary and important, in a military view, of any during the long years of fratricidal warfare, have made his name more widely known than any of his published works, having received elaborate notice in the English press, and been highly commended by the leading Generals in both the Union and Confederate Armies, as well as by eminent English and French military critics. The first, however, of his literary ventures was a volume of Lectures on Education, which has passed through several editions and has attained a wide circulation.

Mr. Bates was born on the 29th of January, 1827, in Mendon, Mass., where his ancestors for several generations had resided. His father, Laban Bates, and his mother, Mary (Thayer) Bates, lived to celebrate their golden wedding, and died at the verge of eighty years. He was educated in the Worcester Academy, and at Brown University under the Presidency of Dr. Francis Wayland, graduating in the class of 1851. He was noted in his college days for his proficiency in the mathematics and in philosophy, several premiums haying been awarded him in competitive examinations. The first year after leaving college was devoted to the study of English literature, chiefly the writings of Milton and Shakespeare. For five years subsequent he was employed in teaching the ancient languages at Meadville, Penn. —which he has made his home—and in the meantime gained a local reputation as a lecturer on educational topics and instructor at teachers’ institutes. During the four years in which he was at the head of the Meadville Academy, he organized teachers’ classes, before which he delivered, annually, courses of lectures on the science and practice of teaching, which gave the first impulse toward establishing normal schools in this section of the State. In 1857 Mr. Bates was elected Superintendent of the schools of Crawford County for a term of three years. This was one of the largest and most influential counties in the State, having an area nearly equal to the entire arable surface of Rhode Island, Here was presented a wide field for the exercise of his well-defined views of education, and he soon acquired a State reputation for ability and efficiency in educational work. It was at this period that he collected together the lectures which he had delivered before educational bodies, which were published by Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co., of New York, as one of the volumes of their popular Teacher’s Library, under the title of Lectures on Mental and Moral Culture. This was soon followed by a little work entitled Methods of Conducting Teachers’ Institutes, which was also made one of the numbers of the Teachers’ Library, and which has had a large sale, having become the hand-book for conducting these useful and popular institutions. At the end of his first term, in 1860, he was re-elected Superintendent and commissioned for a second term, but soon afterward resigned to accept the office of Deputy State Superintendent of Schools, tendered him by Dr. Thomas H. Burrowes, under the administration of William F. Packer. This position he held for a period of six years, and devoted a large portion of his time to the holding of County Institutes, on one occasion being in the four corner counties of the Commonwealth on four successive weeks. During this period he became widely known by his labors in the National Teachers’ Association, before which body he delivered his address on Liberal Education, at its meeting at Ogdensburg, N. Y., in 1864, which was published in Barnard’s American Journal of Education, and also in pamphlet form, in which it had a wide circulation. It was in this address that the diverse pronunciation of the ancient languages was pointedly referred to, and the necessity of professional training for instructors in the higher institutions strongly urged. His views produced a deep impression in educational circles, and was the origin of the agitation which soon followed upon the subject of founding a great national university, where persons destined to become professors in colleges and universities might obtain a thorough training in the science of education.

At this period, in recognition of his labors in the educational field, the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him, a compliment fairly earned, and judiciously bestowed. In the last year of his first term as Deputy State Superintendent, he was designated by Gov. Curtin to visit the colleges of the Commonwealth and report upon their condition. This was a delicate duty; as the authorities generally consider themselves independent of all outside supervision, and regard any intrusion with a jealous eye. But so judiciously was the work performed, that the reports brought out a vast fund of information respecting the history and condition of these institutions, and led, in several instances, to radical improvements in their organizations and methods of instruction. These reports were published, and widely circulated in the journals of the day, but never have been collected in book form, which their great value richly merited. During the first year of his service in the office of Superintendent he was employed by Edward F. James, of Westchester, to prepare a digest and brief exposition of the school law of the State, for insertion in his volume of Township and Local Laws. This proved an arduous undertaking, as heretofore no systematic guide for the administration of the school system had ever been given, and his work formed the basis of the full exposition which was soon after issued from the School Department, and which he himself revised and re-wrote in the subsequent administration. The forms of report books now used by teachers throughout the State were devised and prepared by him, monthly reports having previously been made on loose sheets, liable to be lost or destroyed, and often never distributed nor used. His thorough acquaintance with the practice of teaching enabled him to systematize the operations in the central office, and many of the forms and methods for the administration of the school system, even to its minutest details, are due to his guiding hand. After pursuing a thorough course in the Boston School of Physical Culture, he prepared a series of articles upon this subject profusely illustrated, which were published in the School Journal of Pennsylvania. Each article was accompanied by copious notes on the preservation of health, together forming a complete treatise, though never issued in book form. Deeming him eminently fitted, both by capacity and culture for the difficult and delicate work, Andrew G. Curtin, who was then in the Executive Chair, appointed him, in 1866, State Historian, an office created by act of the Legislature for the purpose of gathering the material and setting in an enduring form a complete account of the organizations which went forth from the State to do battle for the Union when threatened by a rebellion unparalleled in the world’s annals. To write of events that transpired ages ago, where the material is ample, is comparatively easy; but to gather up the fragmentary annals of campaigns scarcely finished, and weave from them veritable narratives which shall stand the criticism of the men who were a part of the great transactions, is a far more difficult and embarrassing task, and requires for its accomplishment a degree of patience and painstaking, of careful discrimination and wise judgment rarely possessed. For seven weary years he was unceasingly employed, and the result was published by the State, at an expense of nearly a quarter of a million of dollars, in five super royal octavo volumes of over 1,400 pages each, entitled History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, and forms an enduring monument of the patriotism of the State, and of the research and taste of its author.

Upon the completion of this labor, Mr. Bates was immediately engaged to write the Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania, a work of over 500 octavo pages, and is one of the pleasantest, and most absorbingly interesting of his many works. Closely following this was a work entitled the Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, published in royal octavo form of some 1,100 pages, illustrated with maps and charts and over eighty portraits of distinguished officers and civilians made famous during the war. It was also published in quarto form in red line edition at an expense of $50 per copy. The matter is divided into three parts: Part I, general history; Part II, biographical sketches of officers; and Part III, lives of civilians eminent in State and national service, and other miscellaneous matter. This work has formed the topic of more favorable criticism and eulogistic comment than any ever issued upon the history of the Commonwealth. The History of the Battle of Gettysburg, which followed hard upon, a book in royal octavo, embellished with portraits and maps, is the one which has won for ifs author a more than national reputation, “and stamped him as a war critic and arbiter of military operations of the very first order.” A History of the Battle of Chancellorsville, similar in scope and form to that upon Gettysburg, was issued from the press in 1882, and has proved scarcely less popular. A condensed History of the State of Pennsylvania, which forms a part of this volume, completes the list of his book publications, though numerous fugitive writings have been scattered along his whole career, among which we may mention his contributions to the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, now in process of publication.

In the summer of 1877 Mr. Bates made a tour of Europe, extending through England, Scotland, France, Italy, Switzerland. Germany and Belgium, and upon his return prepared a series of twelve lectures upon themes suggested by his journeyings, which he generously delivered for the benefit of the Meadville Public Library. Mr. Bates was married in 1856 to Sarah Josephine Bates, and has a family of seven children: Edward T., in the music business, Arthur L., a practicing attorney, both of Meadville, Alfred J., Walter I., Gertrude L., Josephine, and Florence.

History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1885, page 710-713