Andrew Atkinson Humphreys

Humphreys, Andrew Atkinson (1810-83) Union army officer and military engineer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Humphreys served as chief topographic engineer for the Army of the Potomac, supervising all map-making for the Peninsula Campaign (1862). He later served as aide-de-camp to Gen. George B. McClellan, seeing action in several battles of the Wilderness to Petersburg campaign (1864). Late in 1864 he was given command of a corps which he led through to the final surrender at Appomattox (1865). Humphreys was chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1866 until 1879, when he retired.

Humphreys' report on the hydraulics of the Mississippi River (1861), resulting from a long-range survey of the delta, was the most significant contribution made by U.S. Army engineers to hydraulic engineering in the 19th century. Humphreys was the grandson of Joshua Humphreys.

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