Christopher Columbus Andrews

American politician

Christopher Columbus Andrews (October 27, 1829 – September 21, 1922) was an American soldier, diplomat, newspaperman, author, and forester.

Andrews was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, the son of a rural farmer. He attended school during the winter months until 1843 when he traveled to Boston. He attended the Francestown Academy, completed his education, and studied law in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1848. He passed his bar examination two years later and established a law practice in Newton, Massachusetts, where he served as a member of the city school board in 1851–1852. He briefly relocated to Boston in 1853, but left the following year for the West, settling in Kansas. He went to Washington, D. C., to help promote Kansas's interest to the United States Congress, and spent two years working as a law clerk in the United States Treasury Department. He then moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota, in 1856, and three years later, was elected to the Minnesota State Senate. During the presidential election of 1860, he actively supported the Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas and was nominated as a presidential elector. Despite his support for Douglas, in 1861, he was instrumental in establishing a newspaper, the Minnesota Union, supporting the policies of President Abraham Lincoln, and served as an editor before enlisting in the Union Army.

During the Civil War, Andrews rose to the rank of brigadier general and at its close was brevetted as a major general. He originally enlisted as a private, but was commissioned captain in the 3rd Minnesota Infantry.

Andrews was dispatched to Houston, Texas, to supervise the early stages of Reconstruction in the region and to keep the order while a new provisional civil government was put in place under Governor Andrew J. Hamilton. He mustered out of the service on January 15, 1866. He was a companion of the Minnesota Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States a military society of officers who had served in the Union armed forces during the American Civil War. Andrews was appointed by President Grant as United States Minister to Denmark on April 16, 1869, and was sworn into office but never proceeded to his post. He was then appointed as United States Minister to Sweden and Norway and served from 1869 to 1877. A prolific writer, his publications include a History of the Campaign of Mobile (1867) and Brazil, Its Conditions and Prospects (1887; third edition, 1895).

Andrews married Mary Baxter in December 1868.