Samuel C. Armstrong

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Samuel C. Armstrong bigraphy, stories - Union Army general

Samuel C. Armstrong : biography

January 30, 1839 – May 11, 1893

Samuel Chapman Armstrong (January 30, 1839 – May 11, 1893) was an American educator and a commissioned officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He is best remembered for his work after the war as the founder and first principal of the normal school which is now Hampton University.

Civil War

At the time Armstrong completed college, the United States was engaged in the American Civil War. After graduating, Armstrong volunteered to serve in the Union Army, and recruited a company near Troy, New York. He was appointed a captain in the 125th New York Infantry, a three-years regiment in George L. Willard’s brigade. Armstrong was among the 12,000 men captured in September 1862 with the surrender of the garrison at Harpers Ferry. After being paroled,he returned to the front lines in Virginia in December. As part of the 3rd Division of the II Corps under Alexander Hays Armstrong fought at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, defending Cemetery Ridge against Pickett’s Charge.

Armstrong subsequently rose through the ranks to lieutenant colonel, being assigned to the 9th Regiment, United States Colored Troops (USCT) in late 1863. He was assigned command of the 8th U.S. Colored Troops when its previous commander was disabled from wounds. Armstrong’s experiences with these regiments aroused his interest in the welfare of black Americans. He led the regiment during the Siege of Petersburg, and the 8th was one of the first Union regiments to enter the city after the Confederates withdrew from their trenches. In November 1864, Armstrong was promoted to colonel "for gallant and meritorious services at Deep Bottom and Fussell’s Mill"Official Records, Series 1, Volume XLII/3 [S# 89] during the Siege of Petersburg.

The 8th USCT pursued the Army of Northern Virginia during the subsequent Appomattox Campaign. After Robert E. Lee surrendered that army, Armstrong and his men returned to Petersburg briefly before being sent by sea to Ringgold Barracks near Rio Grande City on the Mexican border in Texas. Armstrong was awarded . On October 10, 1865, the 8th USCT began marching from Texas to Philadelphia, where Armstrong and his men were discharged out of the military November 10, 1865 shortly after their belated arrival. On January 13, 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Armstrong for the award of the brevet grade of brigadier general of volunteers to rank from March 13, 1865 and the U.S. Senate confirmed the award on March 12, 1866.

Early life

The son of missionary Richard Armstrong (1805–1860), Armstrong was born in Maui, Hawaii, the sixth of ten children. He attended Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 1860 his father suddenly died, and Armstrong, at age 21, left Hawaii for the United States and attended Williams College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1862.

Educator

When Armstrong was assigned to command the USCT, training was conducted at Camp Stanton near Benedict, Maryland. While stationed at Stanton, he established a school to educate the black soldiers, most of whom had no education as slaves.

At the end of the war, Armstrong joined the Freedmen’s Bureau. With the help of the American Missionary Association, he established the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute—now known as Hampton University—in Hampton, Virginia in 1868. The Institute was meant to be a place where black students could receive post-secondary education to become teachers, as well as training in useful job skills while paying for their education through manual labor.

During Armstrong’s career, and during Reconstruction, the prevailing concept of racial adjustment promoted by whites and African Americans equated technical and industrial training with the advancement of the black race. This idea was not a new solution and traced its history to before the American Civil War. But especially after the war, blacks and whites alike realized the paradox that freedom posed for the African American population in the racist south. Freedom meant liberation from the brutality and degradation of slavery, but as W. E. B. Du Bois described it, a black person "felt his poverty; without a cent, without a home, without land, tools, or savings, he had entered into competition with rich, landed, skilled neighbors. To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships." Although the end of slavery was the inevitable result of the Union victory, less obvious was the fate of millions of penniless blacks in the South. Former abolitionists and white philanthropists quickly focused their energies on stabilizing the black community, assisting the newly freed blacks to become independent, positive contributors to their community, helping them improve their race and encouraging them to strive toward a standard put forth by American whites.