The Biographical Dictionary of America/Armstrong, Samuel Chapman

ARMSTRONG, Samuel Chapman, educator, was born at Wailuku, Island of Maui, Hawaii, Jan. 26, 1839, son of Richard and Clarissa (Dhapman) Armstrong, who were among the first missionaries to that group of islands. Shortly after Samuel's birth his father was appointed minister of public instruction under the government, in which position he had charge of the entire school system, and controlled the educational facilities of a population of 65,000 people. Samuel was trained in this atmosphere till his father's death in 1860, when he removed to the United States, entered William's college, Williamstown, Mass., and was graduated in 1862. He then volunteered in the Union army, raised a company of infantry in Troy, N. Y., and went to the field as captain of the 125th N. Y. volunteers. He was captured at Harper's Ferry, exchanged in three months, attached to the army of the Potomac, and received the famous charge of Pickett's cordons on the third day at Gettysburg. He was promoted major in July, 1863, and appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 9th U. S. colored infantry, subsequently being promoted colonel and transferred to the 8th U. S. colored troops composed of northern negroes. With a division of the 24th army corps he followed the Confederates under Lee to the surrender at Appomattox, after which, at the request of General Birney, he was promoted brevet brigadier-general, and ordered to garrison duty on the Rio Grande frontier, Texas. Four months later he was mustered out of the service, but was almost immediately employed by General Howard of the Freedman's bureau, to settle the race troubles that had sprung up at Hampton, Va., between refugee negroes and returned Confederate families. He was put in charge of the work of the bureau at that point, with the supervision of ten counties in eastern Virginia. While so engaged he planned the establishment of a thorough educational system in that locality, which was adopted by the American missionary association, and in 1868 the Hampton normal and agricultural institute for negroes was opened, with General Armstrong as principal. Afterwards his life was wholly identified with that of this humane enterprise, of which he was really the founder. His successful management was complimented by the government in 1878, when he was urged to admit a number of Indian children, although such a feature had not been contemplated in the original plan of the school, which at the time of his death numbered nearly eight hundred pupils, — about two hundred Indians and six hundred negroes. He died May 11, 1893.