Andrews, George Leonard (31 August 1828–04 April 1899), soldier, engineer, and educator, was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the son of Manasseh Andrews and Harriet Leonard. After attending the state normal school at Bridgewater, he was accepted as a candidate at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated at the head of the class of 1851 and was appointed second lieutenant of engineers. His first duty after graduation was in his home state, participating in the construction of Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. He then returned to the academy as an assistant professor....
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Andrews, George Leonard (1828-1899), soldier, engineer, and educator
Rod Paschall
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Barber, Francis (1750-1783), revolutionary war officer and schoolmaster
Harry M. Ward
Barber, Francis (26 November 1750–11 February 1783), revolutionary war officer and schoolmaster, was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the son of Patrick Barber, a farmer and county judge, and Jane Frasher (also spelled Fraser or Frazer). His parents had immigrated from County Longford, Ireland, in 1735. In 1764, while Barber was attending the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), the family moved to a 200-acre farm in Ulster County, New York. Upon receiving his A.B. in 1767, Barber and Stephen Van Voornees established a school at Newbridge, near Hackensack, New Jersey. Considered an able scholar in the ancient languages, especially Greek, Barber was named the master of the Elizabethtown Academy (a Latin grammar school) in 1771. ...
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Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence (1828-1914), soldier, politician, and educator
Brooks D. Simpson
Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence (08 September 1828–24 February 1914), soldier, politician, and educator, was born in Brewer, Maine, the son of Joshua Chamberlain, a farmer and shipbuilder, and Sarah Dupee Brastow. After attending a military academy in Ellsworth, Chamberlain entered Bowdoin College in 1848, graduating in 1852. Three years later, after graduating from the Bangor Theological Seminary, he joined Bowdoin’s faculty and taught a broad range of subjects, including logic, natural theology, rhetoric, oratory, and modern languages. In 1855 he married Frances Caroline Adams; of the couple’s five children, three survived to adulthood....
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Chamberlain, Joshua Lawrence (1828-1914)
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Joshua L. Chamberlain. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1859).
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Duffy, Francis Patrick (1871-1932), Catholic military chaplain, editor, and teacher
Scott Appleby
Duffy, Francis Patrick (02 May 1871–26 June 1932), Catholic military chaplain, editor, and teacher, was born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, the son of Irish immigrants Patrick Duffy and Mary Ready. The third of six children who lived to maturity, Duffy received his early Catholic education from the Sisters of St. Joseph but had to leave school at the age of thirteen to work in a mill. At fourteen, however, he was thought to be too frail to work, so he returned to school. Duffy earned a teacher’s certificate from the Cobourg Collegiate Institute in 1888. Feeling a call to the priesthood, he attended St. Michael’s College in Toronto, studying with the Basilian Fathers and graduating with a baccalaureate degree in 1893. In 1894 he accepted a position at St. Francis Xavier College in New York City, where he earned a master’s degree and applied for formal entry into the seminary. Archbishop ...
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Fithian, Philip Vickers (1747-1776), tutor and chaplain
Robert M. Calhoon
Fithian, Philip Vickers (29 December 1747–08 October 1776), tutor and chaplain, was born in Greenwich, New Jersey, the son of Joseph Fithian and Hannah Vickers, farmers. He was educated at Enoch Green’s school in Deerfield, New Jersey, and received an A.B. in 1772 and an A.M. in 1775 from the College of New Jersey (Princeton), where he studied theology and Greek with the Reverend Andrew Hunter....
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Johnson, Bushrod Rust (1817-1880), soldier and educator
Arthur W. Bergeron
Johnson, Bushrod Rust (07 October 1817–12 September 1880), soldier and educator, was born on a farm near Morristown, Ohio, the son of Noah Johnson, a blacksmith and farmer, and Rachel Spencer. Apparently Johnson received little formal education except for a brief attendance at Marietta Academy in Marietta, Ohio. Although raised in an antislavery Quaker family, he decided to pursue a military education as a means of rising above his social status. His affiliation with the Quaker religion seems not to have been as strong as that of his parents and other relatives. In 1836 Johnson entered the U.S. Military Academy. He graduated twenty-third in a class of forty-two in 1840 and received a commission as a second lieutenant of infantry. He joined the Third U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Brooke, Florida, late in 1840 and served at various posts in that state during the next year. On 1 February 1844 he was promoted to first lieutenant. The Third Infantry joined General ...
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Johnson, Richard W. (1827-1897), soldier, educator, and author
Albert Castel
Johnson, Richard W. (27 February 1827–21 April 1897), soldier, educator, and author, was born near Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky, the son of James L. Johnson, a physician, and Jane Leeper, both natives of Virginia. In 1844 an older brother, John Milton Johnson, who later became a Confederate surgeon, procured him an appointment to West Point, from which he graduated in 1849. He thereupon served until 1861 with both infantry and cavalry units at frontier outposts in Minnesota Territory, Texas, and the Indian Territory, participating in two skirmishes with the Comanches while in Texas and rising to the rank of captain. In 1855, while stationed at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, he married Rachael Elizabeth Steele. They had three children. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, he remained, despite his southern antecedents, loyal to the Union. In accordance with ...
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Lane, James Henry (1833-1907), army officer and educator
Steven E. Woodworth
Lane, James Henry (28 July 1833–21 September 1907), army officer and educator, was born in Mathews Court House, Virginia, the son of Walter Gardner Lane and Mary Ann Henry Barkwell, planters. Educated at private schools and by tutors, Lane entered the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in 1851 and was graduated three years later, second in a class of fourteen. In 1857 he was graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in science. He returned to VMI, which accorded him the title of lieutenant and the duties of assistant professor of mathematics and assistant instructor in tactics. Thereafter he taught in several different private schools....
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Lee, George Washington Custis (1832-1913), army officer and educator
Steven E. Woodworth
Lee, George Washington Custis (16 September 1832–18 February 1913), army officer and educator, was born at Fort Monroe, Virginia, the son of Robert Edward Lee, an army officer, and Mary Ann Randolph Custis. After an early education in local private schools, Custis Lee (as he was commonly called) entered West Point in 1850 and graduated first in the class of 1854. His academic performance entitled him to an assignment in the elite Corps of Engineers, in which he was commissioned second lieutenant. During the remaining years before the Civil War, he worked on river and harbor improvement projects in various parts of the country. When the attack on Fort Sumter brought Virginia’s secession, Lee was serving as a first lieutenant and assistant to the chief engineer of the army in his bureau in Washington. Lee resigned his U.S. Army commission on 2 May 1861 and offered his services to Virginia. On 1 July 1861 he was commissioned captain of engineers in the Confederate army, and that month and the next he worked at designing and directing the construction of the fortifications at Richmond. Other duty beckoned, however, when on 31 August he was selected by President ...
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Lee, Stephen Dill (1833-1908), soldier, educator, and author
Albert Castel
Lee, Stephen Dill (22 September 1833–28 May 1908), soldier, educator, and author, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the son of Thomas Lee, a physician, and Caroline Allison. He was also the grandson of the prominent South Carolina judge Thomas Lee (1769–1839). At the age of seventeen, after attending a boarding school in North Carolina, he entered West Point from which he graduated in 1854, ranking seventeenth in a class of forty-six that included ...
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Lee, Ulysses Grant (1913-1969), educator, army officer, and author
Robert L. Gale
Lee, Ulysses Grant (04 December 1913–07 January 1969), educator, army officer, and author, was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Ulysses Lee, a businessman and grocery store owner, and Mattie Spriggs. He graduated from Dunbar High School in Washington in 1931, attended Howard University in Washington, joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, earned his B.A. in 1935, and was also a commissioned graduate and a U.S. Army reservist. Remaining at Howard, he taught as a graduate assistant in English in 1935 and 1936 and earned his M.A. in 1936. Lee also studied briefly at the University of Pennsylvania and became a member of the faculty as an instructor and then an assistant professor of English at Lincoln University in Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, from 1936 to 1948. During these years he was twice on leave....
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Partridge, Alden (1785-1854), soldier and educator
John C. Fredriksen
Partridge, Alden (12 February 1785–17 January 1854), soldier and educator, was born in Norwich, Vermont, the son of Samuel Alden and Elizabeth Wright, farmers. He attended Dartmouth College between 1802 and 1805 but, instead of graduating, enrolled in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Partridge was commissioned first lieutenant, Corps of Engineers, on 30 October 1806 and spent the next twelve years as part of the faculty. He became captain on 23 July 1810, professor of mathematics in April 1813, and five months later was appointed the first professor of engineering. In January 1815 Partridge functioned as acting superintendent. His tenure proved unpopular, however, and marred by acrimonious feuding with staff members. Partridge vigorously contested his ouster as superintendent and refused to obey his replacement, Major ...
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Porter, Andrew (1743-1813), teacher and revolutionary war soldier
Paul David Nelson
Porter, Andrew (24 September 1743–16 November 1813), teacher and revolutionary war soldier, was born in Worcester, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the son of Robert Porter, a farmer. His mother’s name is unknown. At an early age he showed a taste for reading and mathematics, and although he was apprenticed to his elder brother to learn carpentry at the age of eighteen or nineteen, he failed after a few months. Under the guidance of a teacher, Patrick Mennon, who lived about twelve miles from his home, he learned about sundials. Carving one from soapstone, he destroyed his brother’s carpentry tools. His father then tried to teach him farming, but Porter’s aversion to labor and his love for books caused him to spurn that profession as well. Thereupon, his father determined that he should become a schoolmaster and enrolled him in Mennon’s school. After quickly mastering the curriculum, Porter established a small school of his own and began to teach. He struck up an acquaintance with ...
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Scammell, Alexander (1747-1781), schoolmaster, military officer, and surveyor
Sheldon S. Cohen
Scammell, Alexander (27 March 1747–06 October 1781), schoolmaster, military officer, and surveyor, was born in Mendon (now Milford), Massachusetts, the son of Samuel Leslie Scammell, a physician, and Jane Libbey. His parents had emigrated from Portsmouth, England. His father, who died in 1753, had asked the town’s Congregational minister, Amariah Frost, to prepare Alexander for Harvard. Scammell successfully matriculated at Harvard in 1765, where he held the Hollis and Browne scholarships, waited on dining hall tables, and taught school during intersessions but nevertheless found it difficult to finance his education. He briefly left the college during a student protest his junior year but soon thereafter was readmitted. At his graduation in 1769, he delivered a commencement oration in Greek and received an award for scholarly merit. Harvard also awarded him an M.A. three years later....
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Sigel, Franz (1824-1902), soldier, educator, and politician
Earl J. Hess
Sigel, Franz (18 November 1824–21 August 1902), soldier, educator, and politician, was born in Sinsheim, Grand Duchy of Baden, the son of Franz Moritz Sigel, a chief magistrate, and Maria Anna Lichtenauer. Sigel graduated from the military academy at Karlsruhe in 1843 and entered the service of the Grand Duke of Baden as a lieutenant. He played a conspicuous role in the revolutionary ferment that swept Baden five years later. During the 1848 revolt for unification of the German states along liberal constitutional lines, he held a command in the revolutionary army in Baden. Defeated by the Prussian army, he fled to Switzerland. In 1849, after a revolutionary government came to power, Sigel returned to Baden and became secretary of war. Prussian troops entered Baden soon after to restore the deposed government. Sigel took the field as adjutant to the commander of the army, which was defeated at the battle of Waghäusel. With the revolution over, Sigel took command of the beaten army and conducted a difficult retreat to Switzerland. He would be fondly remembered by his fellow exiles as a magnificent failure in a memorable cause....
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Sigel, Franz (1824-1902)
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Franz Sigel. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-B8172-1512).
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Smith, Francis Henney (1812-1890), military officer and educator
Jennings L. Wagoner
Smith, Francis Henney (18 October 1812–21 March 1890), military officer and educator, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, the son of Francis Smith, a merchant, and Ann Marsden. Smith graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1833 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the artillery. After a year of garrison duty at various posts, he became an assistant professor of geography, history, and ethics at the academy. In 1834 he married Sarah Henderson, with whom he had seven children. In 1836 Smith resigned his commission and accepted the professorship of mathematics at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Hampden-Sydney awarded him an M.A. degree in 1838....
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Stewart, Alexander Peter (1821-1908), soldier, educator, and park commissioner
E. C. Bearss
Stewart, Alexander Peter (02 October 1821–30 August 1908), soldier, educator, and park commissioner, was born at Rogersville, Tennessee, the son of William Stewart and Elizabeth Decherd. He entered the U.S. Military Academy on 1 July 1838 and in 1842 graduated twelfth in a class of fifty-six. While at West Point, he roomed for two years with future Union general ...
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Thayer, Sylvanus (1785-1872), soldier and educator
Herman Hattaway and Michael D. Smith
Thayer, Sylvanus (09 June 1785–07 September 1872), soldier and educator, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, the son of Nathaniel Thayer, a farmer and carpenter, and Dorcas Faxon. An exceptional student with a keen interest in the military campaigns of his day, Thayer received an LL. with honors from Dartmouth College upon his graduation in 1807. He immediately sought appointment as a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy. Thayer mastered the curriculum in one year and graduated in 1808. Commissioned as a second lieutenant of engineers, he was inspector of coastal fortifications in New England. In 1810 he reported for duty at West Point as an assistant professor of mathematics. Promoted to first lieutenant on 1 July 1812, Thayer saw active field service in the War of 1812. He was chief engineer during campaigns in upper New York and during the defense of Norfolk, Virginia. He was made captain on 13 October 1813 and brevet major on 20 February 1815....
