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Andrew A. Humphreys
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Andrew A. Humphreys
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys (November 2, 1810 – December 27, 1883), was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, and a Union General in the American Civil War. He served in senior positions in the Army of the Potomac, including division command, chief of staff, and corps command, and was Chief Engineer of the U.S. Army.
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a family with Quaker ancestry. His grandfather, Joshua, was the "Father of the American Navy", who had served as chief naval constructor from 1794 to 1801 and designed the first U.S. warships, six frigates, the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") and her sister ships. Andrew's father, Samuel designed and built the USS Pennsylvania, the largest and most heavily armed ship at the time. Samuel, like his father, was a chief naval constructor from 1826 to 1846. Andrew graduated from Nazareth Hall (predecessor to the present-day Moravian College and Theological Seminary). Thereafter, he entered the United States Military Academy, more commonly known as West Point, at the age of seventeen. He graduated from the Academy on July 1, 1831. Upon graduation Humphreys joined the second artillery regiment at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina. Near the beginning of the Seminole Wars he followed his regiment in the summer of 1836 to Florida where he received his first combat experience, while also falling ill, having to leave by September. J. Watts De Peyster, who rose to brevet major general for the New York Volunteer Army during the Civil War and later Civil War historian says:
The only fighting that he saw previous to the "Great American Conflict" was in the miserably mismanaged Seminole War in 1836. Of suffering he underwent sufficiency. Disgusted, he resigned 30 September 1836. For about two years he was a Civil Engineer in the U.S. service. On 7 July 1838, he was re-appointed in the U.S. Army as 1st Lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers. Of the next twenty-three years each one was illustrated by some distinguished engineering achievement which won for him a reputation at home only exceeded by that what he acquired abroad.
— de Peyster
After being reinstated in the engineer corps in 1844 Humphreys was put in charge of the Central Office of the Coast Survey at Washington and appointed to captain in 1848. During 1850 he was directed to commence surveys and investigate the Mississippi River Delta in order to figure out what could prevent inundation and increase the depth of water on the bars. This work took up ten years of Humphreys' life, during which he visited Europe. From 1853 to 1857 he also worked on the Pacific Railroad Surveys with Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. Humphreys, along with 100-plus men, including soldiers, scientists and technicians, went west to find the most practical route for the first transcontinental railroad. As a result, just before the Civil War, Humphreys was ranked among the upper echelon of American people of learning and gained membership to the American Philosophical Society.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, Humphreys was promoted on August 6, 1861, to major and became chief topographical engineer in Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Humphreys was put in this position because of his achievements in life but also because "those in power at Washington distrusted him because of his intimacy with Jefferson Davis before the war." Initially involved in planning the defenses of Washington, D.C., by March 1862, he shipped out with McClellan for the Peninsula Campaign. Humphreys was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on April 28 and on September 12 assumed command of the new 3rd Division in the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac, two brigades of nine month regiments mustered in in August. The division did not arrive on the field until September 18 and so missed the battle of Antietam, instead getting its first taste of action at the Battle of Shepherdstown two days later when part of it was attacked and routed by A.P. Hill's Confederate division. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, his division achieved the farthest advance against fierce Confederate fire from Marye's Heights, with Humphreys personally commanding from the very front of the line on horseback, while five of his seven staff were shot down. During the battle Humphreys himself had two of horses shot from under him and finding a third he continued to ride, having his clothes pierced by bullets but himself unharmed. His corps commander, Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, wrote: "I hardly know how to express my appreciation of the soldierly qualities, the gallantry, and energy displayed by my division commanders, Generals George Sykes, Humphreys, and Charles Griffin." General Butterfield goes on to talk personally about Humphreys' actions: "General Humphreys personally led his division in the most gallant manner. His attack was spirited, and worthy of veterans. Made as it was by raw troops, the value of the example set by the division commander can hardly be estimated." For an officer with little combat experience, he inspired his troops with his personal bravery. Historian Larry Tagg wrote:
... for certain good reasons connected with the effect of what I did upon the spirit of the men and from an invincible repugnance to ride anywhere else, I always rode at the head of my troops." Lt. Cavada of the general's staff recalled that just before he took his troops up to the Stone Wall at Fredericksburg, Humphreys had bowed to his staff in his courtly way, "and in the blandest manner remarked, 'Young gentlemen, I intend to lead this assault; I presume, of course, you will wish to ride with me?'" Since it was put like that, the staff had done so, and five of the seven officers were knocked off their horses. After his men had taken as much as they could stand in front of the Stone Wall on Marye's Heights, the next brigade coming up the hill saw Humphreys sitting his horse all alone, looking out across the plain, bullets cutting the air all around him. Something about the way the general was taking it pleased them, and they sent up a cheer. Humphreys looked over, surprised, waved his cap to them with a grim smile, and then went riding off into the twilight. In this way Humphreys had turned his first division's dislike of him into admiration for his heroic leadership ...
— Larry Tagg, Generals of Gettysburg
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Andrew A. Humphreys
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys (November 2, 1810 – December 27, 1883), was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, and a Union General in the American Civil War. He served in senior positions in the Army of the Potomac, including division command, chief of staff, and corps command, and was Chief Engineer of the U.S. Army.
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a family with Quaker ancestry. His grandfather, Joshua, was the "Father of the American Navy", who had served as chief naval constructor from 1794 to 1801 and designed the first U.S. warships, six frigates, the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides") and her sister ships. Andrew's father, Samuel designed and built the USS Pennsylvania, the largest and most heavily armed ship at the time. Samuel, like his father, was a chief naval constructor from 1826 to 1846. Andrew graduated from Nazareth Hall (predecessor to the present-day Moravian College and Theological Seminary). Thereafter, he entered the United States Military Academy, more commonly known as West Point, at the age of seventeen. He graduated from the Academy on July 1, 1831. Upon graduation Humphreys joined the second artillery regiment at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina. Near the beginning of the Seminole Wars he followed his regiment in the summer of 1836 to Florida where he received his first combat experience, while also falling ill, having to leave by September. J. Watts De Peyster, who rose to brevet major general for the New York Volunteer Army during the Civil War and later Civil War historian says:
The only fighting that he saw previous to the "Great American Conflict" was in the miserably mismanaged Seminole War in 1836. Of suffering he underwent sufficiency. Disgusted, he resigned 30 September 1836. For about two years he was a Civil Engineer in the U.S. service. On 7 July 1838, he was re-appointed in the U.S. Army as 1st Lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers. Of the next twenty-three years each one was illustrated by some distinguished engineering achievement which won for him a reputation at home only exceeded by that what he acquired abroad.
— de Peyster
After being reinstated in the engineer corps in 1844 Humphreys was put in charge of the Central Office of the Coast Survey at Washington and appointed to captain in 1848. During 1850 he was directed to commence surveys and investigate the Mississippi River Delta in order to figure out what could prevent inundation and increase the depth of water on the bars. This work took up ten years of Humphreys' life, during which he visited Europe. From 1853 to 1857 he also worked on the Pacific Railroad Surveys with Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. Humphreys, along with 100-plus men, including soldiers, scientists and technicians, went west to find the most practical route for the first transcontinental railroad. As a result, just before the Civil War, Humphreys was ranked among the upper echelon of American people of learning and gained membership to the American Philosophical Society.
After the outbreak of the Civil War, Humphreys was promoted on August 6, 1861, to major and became chief topographical engineer in Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Humphreys was put in this position because of his achievements in life but also because "those in power at Washington distrusted him because of his intimacy with Jefferson Davis before the war." Initially involved in planning the defenses of Washington, D.C., by March 1862, he shipped out with McClellan for the Peninsula Campaign. Humphreys was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on April 28 and on September 12 assumed command of the new 3rd Division in the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac, two brigades of nine month regiments mustered in in August. The division did not arrive on the field until September 18 and so missed the battle of Antietam, instead getting its first taste of action at the Battle of Shepherdstown two days later when part of it was attacked and routed by A.P. Hill's Confederate division. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, his division achieved the farthest advance against fierce Confederate fire from Marye's Heights, with Humphreys personally commanding from the very front of the line on horseback, while five of his seven staff were shot down. During the battle Humphreys himself had two of horses shot from under him and finding a third he continued to ride, having his clothes pierced by bullets but himself unharmed. His corps commander, Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, wrote: "I hardly know how to express my appreciation of the soldierly qualities, the gallantry, and energy displayed by my division commanders, Generals George Sykes, Humphreys, and Charles Griffin." General Butterfield goes on to talk personally about Humphreys' actions: "General Humphreys personally led his division in the most gallant manner. His attack was spirited, and worthy of veterans. Made as it was by raw troops, the value of the example set by the division commander can hardly be estimated." For an officer with little combat experience, he inspired his troops with his personal bravery. Historian Larry Tagg wrote:
... for certain good reasons connected with the effect of what I did upon the spirit of the men and from an invincible repugnance to ride anywhere else, I always rode at the head of my troops." Lt. Cavada of the general's staff recalled that just before he took his troops up to the Stone Wall at Fredericksburg, Humphreys had bowed to his staff in his courtly way, "and in the blandest manner remarked, 'Young gentlemen, I intend to lead this assault; I presume, of course, you will wish to ride with me?'" Since it was put like that, the staff had done so, and five of the seven officers were knocked off their horses. After his men had taken as much as they could stand in front of the Stone Wall on Marye's Heights, the next brigade coming up the hill saw Humphreys sitting his horse all alone, looking out across the plain, bullets cutting the air all around him. Something about the way the general was taking it pleased them, and they sent up a cheer. Humphreys looked over, surprised, waved his cap to them with a grim smile, and then went riding off into the twilight. In this way Humphreys had turned his first division's dislike of him into admiration for his heroic leadership ...
— Larry Tagg, Generals of Gettysburg
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