BOYNTON, Charles Brandon, clergyman, born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 12 June, 1806; died in Cincinnati, Ohio, 2'7 April, 1883. He entered Williams in the class of 1827, but, owing to illness, was obliged to leave College during his senior year. He took up the study of law, and, after filling one or two local offices, was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. While studying law he became interested in religion, qualified himself for the ministry, and was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Housatonic, Connecticut, in 1840. Thence, after a stay of three years, he removed successively to Lansingburg, Pittsfield, and in 1846 to Cincinnati, and remained there until 1877, with the exception of his terms of service as chaplain of the House of Representatives in the 39th and 40th congresses. For a time he was pastor of the Congregational church at Washington, District of Columbia He bore an important part in the anti-slavery controversy, which was fiercely waged in Cincinnati during the early years of his pastorate. His published books are "Journey through Kansas, with Sketch of Nebraska" (Cincinnati, 1855); "The Russian Empire" (1856), "The Four Great Powers--England, France, Russia, and America; their Policy, Resources, and Probable Future" (1866); "History of the Navy during the Rebellion" (New York, 1868). He received the degree of D.D. from Marietta College in recognition of his acquirements as a biblical scholar.--His son, Henry Van Ness, soldier, born in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 22 July, 1835, removed to Ohio when a young man, and was graduated at the Woodward high school, Cincinnati, in June, 1855. Thence he went to the Kentucky military institute, where he passed. through a semi-military course of training that prepared him for subsequent service in the field, and became a civil engineer. At the beginning of the civil war he was commissioned major of the 35th Ohio volunteer infantry (27 July, 1861). He was promoted lieutenant colonel, 19 July, 1863, commanded the regiment during the Tennessee campaigns, and was brevetted brigadier for good conduct at the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. He is the author of the most notable of the criticisms called out by General William T. Sherman's "Memoirs," namely, "Sherman's Historical Raid; the Memoirs in the Light of the Record; a Review based upon Compilations from the Files of the War Office" (Cincinnati, 1875).