(July 28, 1809–October 30, 1862), was an American astronomer and a Major-General in the Civil War. He was famous for having led the raid which captured Huntsville, Alabama, in April of 1862.
As director of the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York, Ormsby Mitchell wrote: Planetary and Stellar Worlds, 1848; Popular Astronomy, 1860; and a book entitled, The Astronomy of the Bible, in which he stated:
Let us turn to the language of the Bible; it furnishes the only vehicle to express the thoughts which overwhelm us, and we break out involuntarily in the language of God’s own inspiration:
“Have ye not known, hath it not been told to you from the beginning, have ye not understood from the foundation of the earth? It is He who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, that stretcheth out the heavens like a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.
“Lift up your eyes on high, and behold. Who hath created all these things, that bringeth out their host by number? It is He who meted out the heavens with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in balances.
“It is He who stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He telleth the number of the stars. He calleth them all by their names.”2394