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 p30  Francis A. Shoup
No. 1691. Class of 1855.
Died, September 4, 1896, at Columbia, Tenn., aged 63.

Dr. Shoup was born in Franklin county, Ind., on March 22, 1834, and was, therefore, in the 63d year of his age. He was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1855, was assigned to the artillery and served with the army in Florida for five years. In 1860 he resigned from the army, studied law and was admitted to the bar in Indianapolis.

In 1861 he returned to Florida to practice law, and when the war broke out obeyed his strong convictions and volunteered in the Confederate army. He was with General A. S. Johnston at Shiloh as senior officer of artillery, and was responsible for the massing of artillery against General Prentiss' position in that  p31 battle. He became Inspector of Artillery under Beauregard, and later on, being transferred to Hindman's army in the Trans-Mississippi Department, he commanded a division with great gallantry and success at the battle of Prairie Grove. He was made Brigadier General September 12, 1862, and after service at Mobile and Vicksburg, became Chief of Artillery to General Joseph E. Johnston. Some of General Shoup's defensive works, constructed on Johnston's retreat, General W. T. Sherman in his memoirs, pronounces to be among the finest feats of engineering skill that he had ever encountered. General Shoup was made Chief of Staff when General John B. Hood took command of the army, but he was relieved at his own request.

In 1868 General Shoup was elected professor of applied mathematics in the University of Mississippi. He then studied for the ministry and took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He accepted the professor­ship of mathematics in the University of the South August, 1869, and resigned to go into parish work in 1875. He was rector successively of churches in Waterford, N. Y., Nashville and Jackson, Tenn., and New Orleans. He was conspicuous in the councils of the church, and several times was elected deputy to the general convention. He was recalled to Sewanee in 1883 to accept the chair of metaphysics, a position which he held at the time of his death. He was also President of the Columbia Institute, spending his winters at this place.

Dr. Shoup was a man of fine presence and exquisite demeanor. His mind was clear, penetrating and wonderfully alert in its analysis. He was a graceful and steady writer, his style at times rising to great dignity and beauty. In his chosen department of mathematics and metaphysics he was both original and profound, but always perspicuous and forceful. His last book on the "Consideration of Modern Problems in the Light of Recent Research" was pronounced by some of the foremost scholars in the country as the finest work of its kind that had appeared  p32 in recent years. Dr. Shoup was a teacher of great enthusiasm, of passionate devotion to ideals, and for twenty-five years and more his heart and his love have been with the work and objects of the University of the South at Sewanee. To that institution he gave his best years, his most devoted labor, and it delights and shall ever delight to do honor to his name.

Dr. Shoup was the author of several books, viz.: "Infantry Tactics" (Little Rock, Ark., 1862); "Artillery Division Drill" (Atlanta, 1864); "Elements of Algebra" (New York, 1874); "Mechanism and Personality" (Boston, 1888).

From the Maury (Columbia, Tenn.) Democrat.

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