Augustus E. (Augustus Ely) Silliman

Born in 1807, Augustus E. Silliman — Augustus Ely Silliman — is best known today as the author of A Gallop Among American Scenery; or, Sketches of American Scenes and Military Adventure. The book reflects an eye for movement, place, and storytelling, mixing travel writing with scenes of the American countryside and military life.

Reliable sources found during this search also connect him to the wider Silliman family and to Yale. A later Yale lecture series, the Silliman Memorial Lectures, was established from a bequest he left in 1883 in memory of his mother, Hepsa Ely Silliman, showing that his legacy extended beyond his published writing.

Although easily available biographical details are limited, the outline that emerges is of a writer from the early republic era whose name survives through both his adventurous prose and his support of education. He died in 1884.