George Leonard Andrews

Biography

George Leonard Andrews graduated from West Point in 1850 and spent his early career as an engineer with the U.S. Army, overseeing fortifications and training soldiers. When the Civil War erupted he rose to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers, commanding troops in the Carolinas and Virginia while helping to organize the defenses of the national capital.

After the conflict he returned to Massachusetts, where he applied his military discipline to the cause of education, helping to mentor young men and to shape civic institutions with the same steady judgment that had carried him through the storm of war.