Monuments to Individuals at Gettysburg
The monument to Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys is south of Gettysburg on Emmitsburg Road. (Emmitsburg Road & N. Sickles Avenue tour map) The statue of Humphreys was created by J. Otto Schweitzer, one of seven statues by the Swiss-born sculptor that are on the Gettysburg battlefield.*
*The other six statues by Schweitzer at Gettysburg are President Lincoln, David McM. Gregg and Alfred Pleasonton from the State of Pennsylvania Monument; William Wells on South Confederate Avenue, John Geary on Culp’s Hill and Alexander Hays on Hancock Avenue.
An equestrian statue of General Humphreys is on the Fredericksburg battlefield.
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Commander of the 2nd Division, 3rd Corps, Army of the Potomac
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Monument to Union Brigadier General Andrew Atkinson Humphreys at Gettysburg
From the tablet on the front of the monument
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys
Cadet U.S. Military Academy July 1 1827.
Brevet Second Lieutenant 2nd U.S. Artillery July 1 1831. Second Lieutenant July 1 1831.
First Lieutenant August 16 1836.
Resigned September 30 1836.
First Lieutenant Topographical Engineers U.S. Army July 7, 1838. Captain May 31 1848. Major August 6, 1861. Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers March 3 1863. Brig. General and Chief of Engineers U.S. Army August 8 1866. Retired June 30, 1879.”
Colonel and Addition Aide-de-camp U.S. Volunteers March 5, 1862. Brig. General April 28, 1862. Major General July 8 1863. Honorably mustered out of Volunteer Service Sept. 1 1866. Brevetted Colonel U.S. Army December 13 1862 “For gallant and meritorious service at the Battle of Fredericksburg Va.” Brig. General March 13 1865 “For gallant and meritorious service at the Battle of Gettysburg Pa.” Major General March 18 1865 “For gallant and meritorious service at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek Va.”
Born November 2 1810 at Philadelphia Pa.
Died December 27 1883 at Washington D.C.
About Andrew A. Hunphreys
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys was the son and grandson of naval architects. His grandfather designed the U.S.S. Constitution and her five sisters.
Andrew graduated from West Point in 1831. He served in civil and topographical engineering duties until the Civil War. When the war broke out he became an aide to George McClellan and served in the Peninsula Campaign as the Army of the Potomac’s chief topographical engineer. Humphreys took command of a 5th Corps division in September of 1862. He led them through the Antietam campaign, through the Battle of Fredericksburg where he survived leading his men on horseback in the deadly charge against Marye’s Heights, and at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
He was transferred to the 1st Division of the 3rd Corps just before Gettysburg. His division was shattered in Longstreet’s assault on Sickles’ exposed position on July 2nd. Humphreys was tenacious in his defense, and even after the collapse of the corps put together a fighting line of men who would not run away, advancing them back into the fight.
After the battle he was rewarded with a promotion to major general of volunteers and the rank of brevet brigadier general in the regular army, and became Meade’s chief of staff.
In November of 1864 he took over the 2nd Corps from Hancock, who had to step down due to continuing complications from his Gettysburg wound. Humphreys commanded the 2nd Corps with distinction until the end of the war.
After the war Humphreys served as the army’s chief of engineers until his retirement in 1879. He died in Washington D.C. in 1883.
Location of the monument to Andrew A. Humphreys at Gettysburg
The monument to Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys is south of Gettysburg on the east side of Emmitsburg Road just north of Sickles Avenue. (39°48’29.6″N 77°14’38.0″W)