Alexander Boyd Andrews (July 23, 1841 – April 17, 1915) was a North Carolinian engineer and railroad executive. He was also a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War.
Family origins Through many generations, the ancestors of Alexander Boyd Andrews were North Carolinians.Ashe 1905, p. 45. The first of the Andrews family to come into North Carolina was Thomas Andrews, who in 1726 patented 200 acres (81 ha) of land in the lower end of Bertie, and twelve years later purchased a tract on the north side of the Roanoke, then called the Morratuck River, adjoining the lands of George Williams, in the upper part of Bertie, near the Northampton line, and there made his home. He was joined in 1749 by William Andrews and Samuel, who came from Southampton County, Virginia, where many of that family were living as early as the year 1700.
One of the sons of William Andrews, Abner, married Mary Williams, a daughter of his neighbor, George Williams, about the year 1750, and had three children, one of whom, John, was born in 1754. He married first a Miss Reaves, but she dying, he subsequently located in Pitt County, where he married Elizabeth Bell, a widow, a daughter of Major Jonas Johnston, a veteran of the Revolution, who fell at Stono; and by her he had two sons, William J. and Abner J., and two daughters.Ashe 1905, pp. 45–46. Young William J. Andrews, after the death of his father, passed his youth at Woodbourne, and received his education there and at Palmyra, in Martin County, and located at Old Sparta, in Edgecombe, where he engaged in business as a merchant.Ashe 1905, p. 46. At Shocco Springs, the fashionable resort of Eastern and Middle Carolina, he met Virginia Hawkins, a daughter of Colonel John D. Hawkins, and on May 9, 1833, they were married. Andrews continued to reside in Edgecombe until about 1840, when he removed to Franklin, and two miles west of Franklinton Alexander Boyd was born; but shortly afterward Andrews moved to Henderson, where he soon died, and the children were raised by their maternal grandparents, Colonel and Mrs. John D. Hawkins.
Through his mother, Colonel Andrews was a descendant of the Hawkins family, prominent in English history as well as in the annals of the Southern States. Sir John Hawkins, the admiral, was one of Queen Elizabeth's captains in the destruction of the Spanish Armada. One of his descendants, Philemon, came to Virginia in 1715, dying in Gloucester County ten years later. His second son, of the same name, removed to Bute County, in North Carolina, and soon became a man of prominence, his home being a seat of elegant hospitality, and he being a notable patriot during the Revolutionary War. His son Benjamin, because of his proficiency in modern languages, served at Washington's headquarters as an interpreter for the French officers on his staff. He was also a member of the Continental Congress, and he and Sam Johnston were the first senators chosen to represent the State in the United States Senate; and he held many other important positions. Another son was Colonel John Hawkins, who married a sister of the Hon. Nathaniel Macon; and their eldest son, Philemon, married Lucy Davis, one of whose sons was Governor William Hawkins, the war governor during the period of the second war with Great Britain. Of their daughters, Eleanor married Sherwood Haywood; Delia married the Hon. George E. Badger; Ann, William P. Little; Lucy, Louis D. Henry; and Sarah, Colonel William Polk, one of her sons being Bishop Polk, who was also a general during the Civil War.Ashe 1905, pp. 46–47.
The eldest son of Philemon and Lucy Hawkins was Colonel John D. Hawkins, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and for 50 years a trustee of that institution.Ashe 1905, p. 47. He was a lawyer and planter and prominent as a political leader. Не married Miss Jane A. Boyd, and among their sons were General P. B. Hawkins, Dr. Alexander B. Hawkins, and Dr. William J. Hawkins, for many years the president of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad Company and the president of the Citizens' National Bank; and among their daughters was Virginia, who married William J. Andrews of Edgecombe County, and became the mother of Alexander Boyd.
Early life Alexander Boyd Andrews was born near Franklinton, in Franklin County, North Carolina, on July 23, 1841. In childhood, he enjoyed the freedoms of country life. He was educated at the Henderson Male Academy, and being well advanced, in January 1859, at the age of 17, he was employed as a clerk by his uncle, General P. B. Hawkins, who had a large contract for building a part of the Old Blue Ridge Railroad, and whose business centered in Pendleton, South Carolina. The Blue Ridge Railroad Company had been formed with a view of constructing a trunk line through what is known as Rabun Gap, which marks the lines between the States of Georgia and North Carolina, and the course of the Little Tennessee River was a more practicable route for a railroad to the West than that adopted earlier by the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company. The contemplated route was from Anderson Court House via Walhalla, South Carolina; Franklin, North Carolina; and Knoxville, Tennessee, on to Cincinnati. But after US$2,500,000 had been spent in the construction of the line, the enterprise was abandoned; however, in 1861 the road was built to Walhalla.
After six months' service as clerk, Andrews, aged seventeen, was promoted and made superintendent and purchasing agent by General Hawkins, and held that position until the latter part of 1860, when the contract being finished, he returned to North Carolina.Ashe 1905, pp. 47–48. While engaged on this work, offers were made to him of other positions, which were declined, as he preferred to continue and finish the construction he had undertaken.Ashe 1905, p. 48.
Civil War Being at home when the Civil War broke out in the spring of 1861, he responded to the call of the State and enlisted as a Confederate soldier. On May 10, 1861, he was appointed Second Lieutenant of Company E, 1st North Carolina Cavalry (9th North Carolina State troops), Colonel Robert Ransom commanding; and on September 23 he was promoted to First Lieutenant and transferred to Company В. Не accompanied his regiment to Virginia, and did duty at Manassas; one of their early engagements being near the village of Vienna, fifteen miles from Alexandria. When in December the first cavalry brigade was formed, General J. E. B. Stuart being the brigadier, the regiment was placed in that brigade; but in the spring of 1862, Eastern North Carolina being invaded by the Federal troops of Burnside's expedition, it was ordered to the protection of the eastern counties, and took position near Kinston, remaining in that vicinity until about the middle of June, when it was directed to return to Richmond, then threatened by McClellan.
On the way to Weldon, Captain Whitaker of Company B being temporarily absent, and Lieutenant Andrews having the command, information was received that three Federal gunboats had passed Jamesville on their way to destroy the railroad bridge at Weldon. Lieutenant Andrews hastily led his company to Poplar Point, about ten miles from Williamston, where he stationed a detachment, while he conducted the remainder to Rainbow Banks, afterward known as Fort Branch, two miles east of Hamilton, and there he awaited the approach of the gunboats. The leading gunboat, under the command of Lieutenant Flusser, notwithstanding the rapid fire of the cavalry, successfully passed and landed 125 marines and two pieces of artillery at Hamilton, but proceeded no further; and on its return it was again so vigorously attacked that the Federal expedition was abandoned without accomplishing any result.Ashe 1905, pp. 48–49. This is the only instance recalled of a cavalry company successfully resisting and driving back a force of gunboats.Ashe 1905, p. 49. On July 12 following this engagement, Lieutenant Andrews was promoted to the captaincy of his company, and with the regiment he participated in all the cavalry movements around Richmond and in the Maryland campaign, culminating in the capture of Harper's Ferry and ending at the battle of Sharpsburg.
He accompanied Stuart in his raid around McClellan's army on October 9, the command penetrating as far as Chambersburg, and bringing out more than a thousand led horses, and on that expedition the regiment performed conspicuous service. During that autumn and winter the regiment was in many engagements, and it fought single-handed, under Colonel Baker, the hot action at Kelly's Ford; and it was in the thickest of the fight and the longest on the field at the battle of Brandy Station, Major McClellan, in his Life of Stuart, making special mention of the work done by it on that occasion.
Captain Andrews passed through the war without injury, though he had his horse killed under him at Upperville. He was with Stuart in his detour around Meade's army in the Gettysburg campaign, the regiment occupying Carlyle, Pennsylvania, and participating in more than a dozen actions. After the return to Virginia, it was in the hard fight at Jack's Shop, on September 22, 1863, Company B being in the advance. Неге, while cheering on his men, Captain Andrews fell, shot through the lung, the ball striking the spinal column and removing a piece of the bone. The wound at first was thought mortal, and a correspondent writing at the time to the Fayetteville Observer said: "No braver or better man has fallen during the war. He was universally beloved by all."Ashe 1905, pp. 49–50. But Captain Andrews did not die, although long confined to the hospital.Ashe 1905, p. 50. Anxious to be with his command, while still very weak and having hemorrhages, he sought the camp, but was compelled by his physical condition to return to the hospital. On two other occasions he attempted to resume service with his company, but his wound incapacitated him for active duty, and it becoming obvious that he could not perform his duty as captain, he abided by the advice of the surgeons, and in justice to his subordinate officers, was retired іп the fall of 1864.
In December 1861, Colonel Robert Ransom desired to execute a very dangerous raid, and ordered a detail of 200 picked men and selected officers. Lieutenant Andrews learning of this detail, asked the adjutant to select him as one of the lieutenants. Colonel Ransom overhearing the conversation, lectured him on volunteering to place himself in danger, saying: "Having confidence in your ability and soldierly qualifications, you are one of the first I ordered put upon the detail, but if I had not selected you, I would not now yield to your request. Should you be wounded or killed in the line of duty, having been detailed, it would be the fortune of war, but no one should voluntarily seek to imperil his life."
During his connection with the army of Northern Virginia his service was mostly along the line of the old Orange and Alexandria Railroad, running from Alexandria to Lynchburg, and in the years to come Andrews would be the president of that very line, as well as the first vice-president of the system stretching from Washington City to the Mississippi River with its branches and controlled roads comprising nearly 9000 mi (14484 km).
Later life