ANDREW ATKINSON HUMPHREYS. 527 



the needs of science, and liis care to aid its votaries whenever his 

 position afforded the opportunity. 



Personal friends who were associated with him intimately in 

 private life, and knew his sterling independence of character, his 

 contempt of all shams, his bi'eadth of intellect, his appreciation 

 of good in others, his generosity in according full credit when- 

 ever it was due, his inbred courtesy, which extended beyond 

 forms and was an integral part of himself, — in a word, who knew 

 the man, — will place these qualities above all others, because they 

 constituted the basis upon which his unobtrusive greatness was 

 founded. 



Andrew Atkinson Humphreys was born in Philadelphia on 

 November 2, 1810. His grandfather and father had both been 

 distinguished in the public service as Naval Constructors, and 

 each finally became chief of that Corps. . Tlie boy was admitted 

 to the Military Academy, under Colonel Thayer as Superintend- 

 ent, in 1827, and was graduated in 1831. His mind was one of 

 those which mature slowly ; and his standing, thirteenth in a class 

 of tliirty-three members, was no gauge of his real ability. He 

 was assigned to the Second Artillery , but after serving mostly 

 at Southern stations, and taking part in the Florida war, his health 

 suffered severely, and he resigned his commission in 1836, 



He adopted civil engineering as his profession ; but when the 

 Corps of Tojiographical Engineers was created, in 1838, he was 

 appointed one of the First Lieutenants of the new organization. 

 After various duties on the Great Lakes, and serving again in the 

 Florida war, he was ordered to Washington in 18-42 ; where he 

 remained for two years as assistant in the Bureau of his own 

 Corps, and for five years in charge of the Coast Survey Office 

 under Professor Bache as Superintendent. 



In 1850, he was selected to direct the topographical and hy- 

 drographical survey of the delta of the Mississippi, and the 

 investigations to determine the most practicable plan for secur- 

 ing it against inundation, and for deepening the channels at the 

 mouths. While prosecuting this work in 1851, Captain Hum- 

 pheys was prostrated by a sun-stroke, which unfitted him for 

 active duty for about two years. During the latter part of this 

 time he travelled in Europe, and carefully studied the experience 

 of many centuries on similar works for improving the Po, the 

 Rhine, the Vistula, and other rivers. 



Immediately after his return, in the summer of 1854, in addi- 



