Andrew A. Humphreys

Andrew A. Humphreys
Andrew A. Humphreys
Born	(1810-11-02)November 2, 1810
Died	December 27, 1883(1883-12-27) (aged 73)
Place of birth	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Place of death	Washington, D.C.
Place of burial	Congressional Cemetery
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	U.S. Army Union Army
Years of service	1831-1879
Rank	Major General
Commands held	II Corps US Army Corps of Engineers
Battles/wars	Seminole Wars American Civil War
Relations	Joshua Humphreys (grandfather) Samuel Humphreys (father)
Other work	author

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.

Early life

Humphreys was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a family prominent in naval architecture; his grandfather, Joshua, designed "Old Ironsides", the USS Constitution. Andrew graduated from Nazareth Hall (predecessor to the present day Moravian College & Theological Seminary), and, thereafter, from the United States Military Academy in 1831 and spent much of the next thirty years as a civil engineer in the Army. He saw combat in the artillery in the Seminole Wars. Much of his service involved topographical and hydrological surveys of the Mississippi River Delta.

Civil War

Humphreys, second from the right, and President Abraham Lincoln after the Battle of Antietam.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Humphreys was promoted (August 6, 1861) to major and became chief topographical engineer in Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac. Initially involved in planning the defenses of Washington, D.C., by March 1862, he shipped out with McClellan for the Peninsula Campaign. He 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. He led the division in a reserve role in the Battle of Antietam. 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, and five of his seven staff were shot down; 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." 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

Although respected by his men for his bravery under fire, Humphreys was not well liked by them. In his mid-fifties, they considered him an old man, despite his relatively youthful appearance. His nickname was "Old Goggle Eyes" for his eyeglasses. He was a taskmaster and strict disciplinarian. Charles A. Dana, the Assistant Secretary of War, called him a man of "distinguished and brilliant profanity."

Generals Andrew A. Humphreys, George G. Meade and staff in Culpeper, Virginia outside Meade's headquarters, 1863.

Commanders of the Army of the Potomac, Gouverneur K. Warren, William H. French, George G. Meade, Henry J. Hunt, Andrew A. Humphreys and George Sykes in September 1863.

At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Humphreys' division was attacked by Colquitt's brigade on the 3rd day of the battle. On May 23, 1863, Humphreys was transferred to the command of the 2nd Division in the III Corps, under Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles. When Meade assumed command of the Army of the Potomac just before the Battle of Gettysburg, he asked Humphreys to be his chief of staff, replacing Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, who was considered to be too close politically to the previous commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker. Humphreys declined the opportunity to give up his division command. His new division immediately saw action at Gettysburg where, on July 2, 1863, Sickles insubordinately moved his corps from its assigned defensive position on Cemetery Ridge. Humphreys' new position was on the Emmitsburg Road, part of a salient directly in the path of the Confederate assault, and it was too long a front for a single division to defend. Assaulted by the division of Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws, Humphreys' three brigades were demolished; Sickles had pulled back Humphrey's reserve brigade to shore up the neighboring division (Maj. Gen. David B. Birney), which was the first to be attacked. Humphreys put up the best fight that could have been expected and was eventually able to reform his survivors on Cemetery Ridge, but his division and the entire corps were finished as a fighting force.

Humphreys was promoted to major general of volunteers on July 8, 1863, and finally acceded to Meade's request to serve as his chief of staff; he did not have much of a division left to command. He served in that position through the Bristoe and Mine Run campaigns that fall, and the Overland Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg in 1864. In November 1864, he assumed command of the II Corps, which he led for the rest of the siege and during the pursuit of Gen. Robert E. Lee to Appomattox Court House and surrender. On March 13, 1865, he was breveted brigadier general in the regular army for "gallant and meritorious service at the battle of Gettysburg", and then to major general for the Battle of Sayler's Creek during Lee's retreat.

Postbellum

After the war, Humphreys commanded the District of Pennsylvania. He became a permanent brigadier general and Chief of Engineers in 1866, a position he held until June 30, 1879, when he retired, serving during this period on lighthouse and other engineering boards. In retirement, Humphreys studied philosophy. He was one of the incorporators of the National Academy of Sciences. Humphreys's published works were highlighted by his 1867 Report on the Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River, which gave him considerable prominence in the scientific community. He also wrote personal accounts of the war, published in 1883: From Gettysburg to the Rapidan and The Virginia Campaign of '64 and '65. He died in Washington, D.C., and is buried there in the Congressional Cemetery.

A military base was founded during World War I as Camp A. A. Humphreys, named for Andrew A. Humphreys. The post was renamed Fort Belvoir in the 1930s in recognition of the Belvoir plantation that once occupied the site, but the adjacent United States Army Corps of Engineers Humphreys Engineer Center retains part of the original namesake

See also

• List of American Civil War generals

References

• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
• U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.

Further reading

• Barry, John M. (1997). Rising Tide. New York City: Touchstone. 
• de Peyster, J. Watts (1886). Andrew Atkinson Humphreys. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Lancaster Intelligencer. http://books.google.com/books?id=wi5DAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:andrew++intitle:humphreys&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES#PPA1,M1. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
• Humphreys, Andrew A. (1885). The Virginia Campaign of '64 and '65. New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-1-58218-538-5. http://books.google.com/books?id=p63vWPULDY4C&printsec=frontcover#PPR1,M1. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
• Humphreys, Henry H. (1896). Major General Andrew Atkinson Humphreys, United States Volunteers. Chicago, Illinois: R. R. McCabe & Co.. http://books.google.com/books?id=RShCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PPA1,M1. Retrieved 2008-12-09. 
• Humphreys, Henry H. (1924). Andrew Atkinson Humphreys, A Biography. The John C. Winston Co. 
• Pearcy, Matthew T. (Summer 2010). ""No Heroism Can Avail": Andrew A. Humphreys and His Pennsylvania Division at Antietam and Fredirecksburg". United States Army Center of Military History. pp. 7–26. 

External links

• The Andrew Atkinson Humphreys papers, including materials spanning the course of his career, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
• National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir