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ALEXANDER, EDWAKD PORTER, engineer, brigadier- general of
artillery, chief of artillery for Longstreet's corps, professor in the
University of South Carolina, railroad manager and president, and engineer
arbitrator of boundary survey between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, was born
at Washington, Georgia, May 26, 1835. His father, Adam Leopold Alexander,
a graduate of Yale, was a planter and banker. Dr. Adam Alexander, an early
ancestor of the family in America, came from near Inverness, Scotland, and
settled in Liberty county, Georgia, shortly before the Revolution.
His early life, that of a strong and healthy boy, was passed in a
village, where his father's circumstances were such as to free him from
any demands upon his time for manual labor, while an interest in shooting,
fishing, etc., accompanied his studies in preparation for West Point. He
was graduated from the United States Military academy at West Point in
1857; was appointed second lieutenant in the United States engineer corps;
resigned in 1861, and entered the Confederate army, as a captain of
engineers, serving in the Army of Northern Virginia until its surrender at
Appomattox in 1865; at first as chief of ordnance, and later as
brigadier-general of artillery and chief of artillery in Longstreet's
corps.
After the war he was appointed professor of mathematics and
engineering in the University of South Carolina, serving from 1866 to
1870. With the development of railroads in the South, General Alexander
became the general manager and the president of several roads (the
Louisville and Nashville, the Central of Georgia, the Georgia Railroad and
Bank Company), from 1871 until 1892. He was capitol commissioner of the
state of Georgia from 1883 to 1888. He was appointed a member of the board
on the navigation of the Columbia river in Oregon, and on the ship canal
between Chesapeake and Delaware bays, 1892 to 1894; and he served as
government director of the Union Pacific Railroad company from 1885 to
1887. From 1897 to 1900 he was engineer arbitrator of the boundary survey
between Nicaragua and Costa Bica. And he writes himself now "a rice
planter in South Carolina."
General Alexander has written a book
upon "Railway Practice" which is regarded as an authority in its line; and
he is the author of numerous magazine articles upon engineering and
railways. He has also written "Military Memoirs of a Confederate,"
published by C. Scribner's Sons (1907).
He has been twice married:
to Bettie Mason in 1860, and to Mary L. Mason in 1901. In later life, as
in his boyhood, he has found exercise and amusement in fishing and
shooting.
His address is Georgetown, South
Carolina. |
