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Richard Snowden Andrews

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Richard Snowden Andrews Famous memorial Veteran

Birth
Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, USA
Death
5 Jan 1903 (aged 72)
Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, USA
Burial
Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, USA GPS-Latitude: 39.3082891, Longitude: -76.6082255
Plot
Section A, Lot 26
Memorial ID
View Source
Architect, Confederate Military Officer and Diplomat. His father was Timothy Patrick Andrews, a career US Army officer who became a Union Brevet Brigadier General during the American Civil War. He received his education at private schools in the Washington DC area and at the age of 18, he apprenticed to the carpentry trade in preparation for a career as an architect. The following year he moved to Baltimore, Maryland with his family where he worked for the architectural firm Niernsee and Nielson but left in 1852 to begin his own practice. A prolific antebellum architect, he designed the Weston State Mental Hospital in Weston, West Virginia, the largest hand-cut stone building in America, in Gothic Revival and Tudor Revival styles. His other notable commissions, after the end of the Civil War, include the Maryland Governor's residence in Annapolis and the south wing of the US Treasury Building in Washington DC. A Confederate sympathizer, when the American Civil War broke out in April 1861, he organized the 1st Maryland Light Artillery. He was later promoted to the rank of major in charge of a battalion of artillery batteries and was first wounded during the Seven Days Battles near Richmond, Virginia in July 1862. The following month he was in charge of Confederate General Charles S. Winder's divisional artillery and on August 9, at the Battle of Cedar Mountain in Culpepper County, Virginia, a federal shell exploded near him, and he was almost disemboweled when fragments struck his right side. Holding in his intestines with one hand and sliding from his horse, he fell to the ground and landed on his back, laying there for hours before being sent to hospital. After the surgeons examined him, they all insisted that the wound was fatal. In one account, the hospital surgeon insisted that there would be but one chance in a hundred of his survival and he reportedly answered, "Well, I am going to hold on to my one chance." He was stitched up and survived the surgery and within eight months, and after being fitted with a silver plate over his wound, he returned to his unit. In June 1863 he was commissioned a colonel and wounded again at the 2nd Battle of Winchester, near Winchester, Virginia. After his recovery, he was assigned as an envoy to Germany to negotiate with the German government for arms but General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia in April 1865 negated the deal. Vowing never to return to the US, he went to Mexico where he accepted a position in Emperor Maximillian's Army with the rank of general and worked on the construction of the Imperial Railroad between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, Mexico. After Maximillian was overthrown and executed in 1867, he returned to Maryland and resumed his architectural business. He died at the age of 72.
Architect, Confederate Military Officer and Diplomat. His father was Timothy Patrick Andrews, a career US Army officer who became a Union Brevet Brigadier General during the American Civil War. He received his education at private schools in the Washington DC area and at the age of 18, he apprenticed to the carpentry trade in preparation for a career as an architect. The following year he moved to Baltimore, Maryland with his family where he worked for the architectural firm Niernsee and Nielson but left in 1852 to begin his own practice. A prolific antebellum architect, he designed the Weston State Mental Hospital in Weston, West Virginia, the largest hand-cut stone building in America, in Gothic Revival and Tudor Revival styles. His other notable commissions, after the end of the Civil War, include the Maryland Governor's residence in Annapolis and the south wing of the US Treasury Building in Washington DC. A Confederate sympathizer, when the American Civil War broke out in April 1861, he organized the 1st Maryland Light Artillery. He was later promoted to the rank of major in charge of a battalion of artillery batteries and was first wounded during the Seven Days Battles near Richmond, Virginia in July 1862. The following month he was in charge of Confederate General Charles S. Winder's divisional artillery and on August 9, at the Battle of Cedar Mountain in Culpepper County, Virginia, a federal shell exploded near him, and he was almost disemboweled when fragments struck his right side. Holding in his intestines with one hand and sliding from his horse, he fell to the ground and landed on his back, laying there for hours before being sent to hospital. After the surgeons examined him, they all insisted that the wound was fatal. In one account, the hospital surgeon insisted that there would be but one chance in a hundred of his survival and he reportedly answered, "Well, I am going to hold on to my one chance." He was stitched up and survived the surgery and within eight months, and after being fitted with a silver plate over his wound, he returned to his unit. In June 1863 he was commissioned a colonel and wounded again at the 2nd Battle of Winchester, near Winchester, Virginia. After his recovery, he was assigned as an envoy to Germany to negotiate with the German government for arms but General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia in April 1865 negated the deal. Vowing never to return to the US, he went to Mexico where he accepted a position in Emperor Maximillian's Army with the rank of general and worked on the construction of the Imperial Railroad between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, Mexico. After Maximillian was overthrown and executed in 1867, he returned to Maryland and resumed his architectural business. He died at the age of 72.

Bio by: William Bjornstad



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  • Maintained by: Find a Grave
  • Added: Jan 2, 1999
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4280/richard_snowden-andrews: accessed ), memorial page for Richard Snowden Andrews (29 Oct 1830–5 Jan 1903), Find a Grave Memorial ID 4280, citing Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.