Charles Chaillé-Long

Charles Chaillé-Long

Charles Chaillé-Long (1842–1917) was an American soldier, lawyer, explorer, diplomat, and author from Princess Anne, Maryland. He was commissioned by the United States Army and the Egyptian Army. He explored Central Africa and Korea (Corea). He was the second westerner to visit Lake Victoria and given credit for discoverer Lake Kyoga (aka Lake Ibrahim). Charles died March 29, 1917 in Maryland. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.[1]

United States military service

He fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War, taking part in the Battle of Gettysburg. He enlisted as a private, and finished the war with the rank of Captain.[2]

Service in Africa

Central Africa by Charles Challié-Long

After the Civil War, about 50 veterans from both sides of the war were asked to serve in Egypt.[2] He took a commission as lieutenant-colonel in the Egyptian Army in 1869, arriving in Egypt in 1870. Serving under Charles Gordon in the southern Sudan, he travelled south to present-day Uganda, signing a treaty with Muteesa I of Buganda. In 1874 he was the second western explorer of Lake Victoria,[3] and the first to discover Lake Kyoga.[4] While on his return journey, he was attacked by the forces of Bunyoro.[5] Further missions of exploration were to the Azande in 1875, and the Jubba River in Somalia in 1876. He wrote a book on his adventures called Central Africa: Naked Truths of Naked People.[6][2] In 1875, he commanded Egyptian forces in the McKillop expedition, to the Indian Ocean coast.[4]

Post-military service

He resigned his commission in 1877, returned to the United States, and attended Columbia Law School. He graduated Columbia in 1880.[2] Subsequently he was a diplomat in Korea, and writer.[7] He became a lawyer and worked in Alexandria, Egypt.[2]

His 1884 book, The Three Prophets, took a very negative line on Charles Gordon.[8] His comments were later taken up by revisionist writers, notably Lytton Strachey in Eminent Victorians. Critics have attacked Chaillé-Long for a lack of accuracy as an author.[9] He also wrote, among other works, My Life in Four Continents.

Recognition

Charles Chaillé Long's Medals

He was awarded the Charles P. Daly Medal by the American Geographical Society in 1909 [10] with the inscription "Awarded in MCMIX to Charles Chaillé-Long in recognition of valuable additions to geographical knowledge made by him in Africa. In 1874 he explored the unknown Nile north of Urondogan, discovered Lake Ibrahim and supplied the final evidence needed to prove that the river issuing from Victoria Nyanza is the Nile."

He was also awarded a Cross Medjidieh and a Cross Osmanieh from his service in Egypt, the Cross of Chevalier of The Légion d'honneur (France), a Gold Medal from the General Assembly of Maryland, and two yet to be identified medals from Egypt and Korea.

Works

Notes

  1. ↑ Patterson, Michael Robert. "Charles Chaille-Long". Arlington National Cemetery Website. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Central Africa: Naked Truths of Naked People". World Digital Library. 1877. Retrieved 2013-06-02.
  3. ↑ Saudi Aramco World : The Expeditions of Chaille-Long
  4. 1 2 Peter Duignan, Lewis H. Gann, The United States and Africa: A History (1984), p. 147.
  5. ↑ Andrew James McGregor, A Military History of Modern Egypt: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Ramadan War (2006), p. 142.
  6. ↑ Saudi Aramco World : The Khedive's Cartographers
  7. ↑ Columbia Law : Columbians in the Military
  8. ↑ Lysle E. Meyer, The Farther Frontier: Six Case Studies of Americans and Africa, 1848-1936 (1992), p. 98 and p. 100.
  9. ↑ George Kitson Clark, The Critical Historian (1964), p. 123.
  10. ↑ "American Geographical Society Honorary Fellowships" (PDF). amergeog.org. Retrieved 2009-03-02.

External links

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