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G.L. Andrews
(1828 - 1920)
Home State: Missouri
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 17th United States Infantry, First Battalion
see his Battle Report
Before Antietam
He entered the Rhode Island Militia in 1844, was promoted to Major in 1848 and to Colonel in 1853, and resigned in 1856. In 1860 he was 35 year old clerk and lived with his son George in the Bailey boarding house in St. Louis, MO.
He was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the First Missouri Infantry on 24 April 1861, transferred to the First Missouri Light Artillery on 1 September, and mustered out of Volunteer service on 5 September 1861. He was commissioned Major of the 17th United States Infantry to date from 14 May 1861.
On the Campaign
He led the regiment on the Maryland Campaign.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 13th US Infantry on 14 October 1864.
After the War
He was assigned to the 25th United States Infantry - "Buffalo Soldiers" - on 15 December 1870 and promoted to Colonel on 1 January 1871.
It may also be interesting to note that Colonel Andrews, who has been colonel of the regiment for over twenty years, is the only colonel who ever commanded it; that during its 22 years of existence, the whole regiment has been together but fourteen days, and that but one captain (Van Valzah) has attained his majority by regular promotion.He retired after more than 30 years of US Army service on 22 April 1892.
References & notes
His service basics from Heitman.1 The quote above from his son George's Twenty-Fifth Regiment of Infantry in Historical Sketches Of Staff And Line ... (1896). Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860, 1900-1920. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his picture, from a c. 1871 photograph of unknown provenance contributed by Barbara Campbell.
He married Alice Beverly Potter (1826-1873) in MArch 1850 and they had 2 children. He married again, Emily Kemble Brown Oliver (1835-1920).
His son George (1850-1928, USMA 1876), later Brigadier General, USA, was also with the 25th US Infantry, from his commissioning in 1876 to 1898.
More on the Web
His 1870 diary and other papers are housed at the University of Arizona [finding aid].
Birth
04/22/1828; Providence, RI
Death
07/19/1920; Washington, DC; burial in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, p. 166 [AotW citation 31846]